Chapter One Phrase Structure in Principles and Parameters Syntax
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Circumstantial Evidence for Syntactic Head Movement
Circumstantial Evidence for Syntactic Head Move ment Bartosz Wiland University of Pozna 1. Introduction Recently, a number of analyses have advanced a thesis that syntactic heads are immobile and that head movement does not exist in grammar (cf. Mahajan 2001, 2003; Müller 2004, a.o.) or is severely restricted (e.g. Koopman and Szabolcsi 2000, Nilsen 2003). Such approaches take dislocation of the head X0 to be an instance of a remnant movement of the XP-constituent, preceded by vacating movements of other members of the XP. Detrimental to the claim that head movement does not exist is a scenario in which a dislocation of X0 is followed by a remnant movement of the XP-constituent. Such a derivational scenario is outlined in (1). 0 0 0 (1) a. [YP Y [P [XP X ZP]]] 0 0 0 b. [YP Y [P X + [XP tX0 ZP]]] 0 0 0 c. [YP [XP tX0 ZP][Y Y [P X + tXP ]]] The only possibility of dislocating the head X0 before remnant XP-fronting (in (1c)) is by X0-movement (in (1b)). In this paper, I argue that the derivational scenario in (1) is attested in Polish and it allows us to explain the interpretive contrast between (2a–d) and (2e). (2) a. Jan znowu pos a Marii ksi k . (repetitive) Ja n-NOM again sent Mary-DAT book-ACC b. Jan znowu Marii pos a ksi k . (repetitive) Ja n-NOM again Mary-DAT sent book-ACC c. Jan znowu ksi k pos a Marii. (repetitive) Jan-NOM again book-ACC sent Mary-DAT d. -
Wh-Concord in Okinawan = Syntactic Movement + Morphological Merger
University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics Volume 22 Issue 1 Proceedings of the 39th Annual Penn Article 20 Linguistics Conference 2016 Wh-Concord in Okinawan = Syntactic Movement + Morphological Merger Kunio Kinjo Yohei Oseki Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/pwpl Recommended Citation Kinjo, Kunio and Oseki, Yohei (2016) "Wh-Concord in Okinawan = Syntactic Movement + Morphological Merger," University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics: Vol. 22 : Iss. 1 , Article 20. Available at: https://repository.upenn.edu/pwpl/vol22/iss1/20 This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/pwpl/vol22/iss1/20 For more information, please contact [email protected]. Wh-Concord in Okinawan = Syntactic Movement + Morphological Merger Abstract The main purpose of this paper is to provide a novel account for Wh-Concord in Okinawan based on the Copy Theory of Movement and Distributed Morphology. We propose that Wh-Concord interrogatives and Japanese-type wh-interrogatives have exactly the same derivation in the syntactic component: the Q- particle -ga, base-generated as adjoined to a wh-phrase, undergoes movement to the clause-final position. The two types of interrogatives are distinguished in the post-syntactic component: only in Wh-Concord, the -r morpheme on C0 triggers Morphological Merger, which makes it possible to Spell-Out lower copy of -ga. It is shown that the proposed analysis correctly predicts three descriptive generalizations on the distribution of -ga in -
Derivational Economy in Syntax and Semantics
Derivational Economy in Syntax and Semantics Željko Bošković and Troy Messick Summary Economy considerations have always played an important role in the generative theory of grammar. They are particularly prominent in the most recent instantiation of this approach, the Minimalist Program, which explores the possibility that Universal Grammar is an optimal way of satisfying requirements that are imposed on the language faculty by the external systems that interface with the language faculty which is also characterized by optimal, computationally efficient design. In this respect, the operations of the computational system that produce linguistic expressions must be optimal in that they must satisfy general considerations of simplicity and efficient design. Simply put, the guiding principles here are do something only if you need to; and if you do need to, do it in the most economical/efficient way. These considerations ban superfluous steps in derivations and superfluous symbols in representations. Under economy guidelines, movement takes place only when there is a need for it (with both syntactic and semantic considerations playing a role here), and when it does take place, it takes place in the most economical way: it is as short as possible and carries as little material as possible. Furthermore, economy is evaluated locally, on the basis of immediately available structure. The locality of syntactic dependencies is also enforced by minimal search and by limiting the number of syntactic objects and the amount of structure that are accessible in the derivation. This is achieved by transferring parts of syntactic structure to the interfaces during the derivation, the transferred parts not being accessible for further syntactic operations. -
Syntactic Movement 24.900/R02
October 19, 2018 Syntactic movement 24.900/R02 Syntactic movement Introduction to Linguistics, Instructor: Prof. Adam Albright Section R02, Suzana Fong ([email protected]) Recitation #6, October 19, 2018 1 Overview and recap Recall: this is the structure that we have for sentences: (1) CP 0 C C IP 0 NP I I VP 0 (modifier(s)) V V (XP) Where XP is the complement of the verb; it can be an NP, a PP, or a CP. This gives us a neat structure to capture the linear order of English interrogative sentences: (2) Yes/No question (closed-ended question) (3) Constituent question (open-ended question) a. The dog will eat the watermelon. a. Rosa has criticized Ana. b. Will the dog eat the watermelon? b. Who has Rosa cricitized ? Hypothesis: auxiliaries and interrogatives phrases (what, which picture, etc) are born in the position that their non- interrogative counterparts occupy and then they are moved to C and Spec-CP, respectively. ² Movement: an operation that takes a constituent (phrase or head) and places it elsewhere in the sentence. ² Consequence of movement: constituents can be interpreted in one position (e.g. complement of VP), but pro- nounced in another (e.g. Spec-CP). This property of languages is called displacement. 1/10 October 19, 2018 Syntactic movement 24.900/R02 Formalizing movement (4) a. Take an element α (word or phrase) and move it to an eligible higher position P. i. P must be empty (no overt morpheme). ii. P must be a suitable host for the type of element (heads to heads/argument positions, phrases to modifier positions) b. -
Language Structure: Phrases “Productivity” a Property of Language • Definition – Language Is an Open System
Language Structure: Phrases “Productivity” a property of Language • Definition – Language is an open system. We can produce potentially an infinite number of different messages by combining elements differently. • Example – Words into phrases. An Example of Productivity • Human language is a communication system that bears some similarities to other animal communication systems, but is also characterized by certain unique features. (24 words) • I think that human language is a communication system that bears some similarities to other animal communication systems, but is also characterized by certain unique features, which are fascinating in and of themselves. (33 words) • I have always thought, and I have spent many years verifying, that human language is a communication system that bears some similarities to other animal communication systems, but is also characterized by certain unique features, which are fascinating in and of themselves. (42 words) • Although mainstream some people might not agree with me, I have always thought… Creating Infinite Messages • Discrete elements – Words, Phrases • Selection – Ease, Meaning, Identity • Combination – Rules of organization Models of Word reCombination 1. Word chains (Markov model) Phrase-level meaning is derived from understanding each word as it is presented in the context of immediately adjacent words. 2. Hierarchical model There are long-distant dependencies between words in a phrase, and these inform the meaning of the entire phrase. Markov Model Rule: Select and concatenate (according to meaning and what types of words should occur next to each other). bites bites bites Man over over over jumps jumps jumps house house house Markov Model • Assumption −Only adjacent words are meaningfully (and lawfully) related. -
SYNTACTIC VS. POST-SYNTACTIC MOVEMENT* Susi Wurmbrand
SYNTACTIC VS. POST-SYNTACTIC MOVEMENT* Susi Wurmbrand University of Connecticut 1. Introduction This paper addresses the question of where word order variation that has no semantic effect is represented. The case I will concentrate on is multiple verb constructions in West Germanic, which involve complex patterns of re-ordering of the verbal elements involved. As an illustration consider (1): while Dutch allows either order between a modal and the selected infinitive (in this construction), the infinitive has to precede the modal in German, whereas the modal has to precede the infinitive in Afrikaans. Importantly, all sentences in (1) have the same meaning and re-ordering has no semantic effect. (1) John can work tomorrow. a. dat Jan morgen werken kan / kan werken Dutch that Jan tomorrow work can / can work b. dass Hans morgen arbeiten kann / *kann arbeiten German that John tomorrow work can / can work c. dat Jan môre *werk kan / kan werk Afrikaans that Jan tomorrow work can / can work In this paper I will pursue the idea that semantically vacuous word order changes are not part of syntax proper, but rather occur in a post-syntactic (PF) component. The mechanism suggested for this re-ordering will be language and construction specific inversion of sister nodes. I will present two preliminary arguments for this view: i) morphological operations feed verb cluster re-ordering; ii) only the word orders that cannot be derived by simple inversion of sister nodes show semantic/pragmatic effects. 2. Re-ordering tools Before discussing various options that have been suggested to derive the word order differences in verb clusters, it is important to note that some re-ordering mechanism is necessary and that the different word orders cannot be just the result of different base structures. -
Malagasy Extraposition: Evidence for PF Movement
Nat Lang Linguist Theory https://doi.org/10.1007/s11049-021-09505-2 Malagasy extraposition Evidence for PF movement Eric Potsdam1 Received: 28 August 2018 / Accepted: 23 January 2021 © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V. part of Springer Nature 2021 Abstract Extraposition is the non-canonical placement of dependents in a right- peripheral position in a clause. The Austronesian language Malagasy has basic VOXS word order, however, extraposition leads to VOSX. Extraposed constituents behave syntactically as though they were in their undisplaced position inside the predicate at both LF and Spell Out. This paper argues that extraposition is achieved via movement at Phonological Form (PF). I argue against alternatives that would derive extraposi- tion with syntactic A’ movement or stranding analyses. Within a Minimalist model of grammar, movement operations take place on the branch from Spell Out to PF and have only phonological consequences. Keywords Malagasy · Extraposition · Movement · Phonological Form · Word order 1 Introduction Extraposition—the non-canonical placement of certain constituents in a right- peripheral position—has been investigated in detail in only a small number of lan- guages. There is a considerable literature for English, SOV Germanic languages Ger- man and Dutch, and the SOV language Hindi-Urdu. The construction has not been widely explored in other, typologically distinct languages. This lacuna means that we have probably not seen the full range of options and have also not tested pro- posed analyses in the widest possible way. The goal of this paper is to investigate in some detail extraposition in Malagasy, an Austronesian language with basic VOXS word order spoken by approximately 17 million people on the island of Madagascar. -
I PREPOSITION STRANDING and PIED-PIPING in YORUBA FOCUS CONSTRUCTIONS by © Joseph Ajayi a Thesis Submitted to the School Of
PREPOSITION STRANDING AND PIED-PIPING IN YORUBA FOCUS CONSTRUCTIONS by © Joseph Ajayi A thesis submitted to the School of Graduate Studies in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Arts Department of Linguistics Memorial University of Newfoundland July 2019 St John’s Newfoundland i ABSTRACT The thesis examines P-stranding and pied-piping in focus constructions in Yoruba language, one of the Benue-Congo languages spoken in Western part of Nigeria. This research is unique given the fact that while existing literature and theories on P-stranding and pied-piping have solely hammered cross- linguistic differences, the thesis discovers intra-linguistic features of P-stranding and pied-piping in Yoruba. According to literature, a language is either a P-stranding or pied-piping one. On the contrary, Yoruba exhibits both P-stranding and pied-piping features in similar environments in focus constructions. It is discovered that a number of prepositions can only strand while some others can solely pied-pipe. The thesis further examines another behavioral patterns of prepositions in Yoruba focus constructions. Interestingly and quite strangely, it is discovered that some prepositions drop, or pied-pipe with the occurrence of resumptive pronouns in Yoruba focus. These multifarious behavioral patterns of prepositions in Yoruba focus pose a great challenge as to how to account for these patterns within the existing literature and theories which rather deal with P-stranding as cross-linguistic affairs. The thesis, however, tackles this challenge by extracting two different theories to account for these preposition features in Yoruba focus as each of the theories (Abels 2003 Phase Theory and Law 1998 Incorporation Thoery) cannot, in isolation, capture the features. -
A Theory of Generalized Pied-Piping Sayaka Funakoshi, Doctor Of
ABSTRACT Title of dissertation: A Theory of Generalized Pied-Piping Sayaka Funakoshi, Doctor of Philosophy, 2015 Dissertation directed by: Professor Howard Lasnik Department of Linguistics The purpose of this thesis is to construct a theory to derive how pied-piping of formal features of a moved element takes place, by which some syntactic phenomena related to φ-features can be accounted for. Ura (2001) proposes that pied-piping of formal-features of a moved element is constrained by an economy condition like relativized minimality. On the basis of Ura’s (2001) proposal, I propose that how far an element that undergoes movement can carry its formal features, especially focusing on φ-features in this thesis, is determined by two conditions, a locality condition on the generalized pied-piping and an anti-locality condition onmovement. Given the proposed analysis, some patterns of so-called wh-agreement found in Bantu languages can be explained and with the assumption that φ-features play an role for binding, presence or absence of WCO effects in various languages can be derived without recourse to A/A-distinctions.¯ ATHEORYOFGENERALIZEDPIED-PIPING by Sayaka Funakoshi Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Maryland, College Park in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2015 Advisory Committee: Professor Howard Lasnik, Chair/Advisor Professor Norbert Hornstein Professor Omer Preminger Professor Steven Ross Professor Juan Uriagereka c Copyright by ! Sayaka Funakoshi 2015 Acknowledgments First and foremost, I would like to thank my advisor Howard Lasnik for his patience, support and encouragement. -
Syntax of Elliptical and Discontinuous Nominals
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles Syntax of Elliptical and Discontinuous Nominals A thesis submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Linguistics by Dimitrios Ntelitheos 2004 1 The thesis of Dimitrios Ntelitheos is approved. _________________________________ Anoop Mahajan _________________________________ Timothy A. Stowell _________________________________ Hilda Koopman, Committee Chair University of California, Los Angeles 2004 2 στον Αλέξανδρο … για κείνον που ήρθε ανάµεσά µας να σφίξει τα δαχτυλά µας στην παλάµη … Μ. Αναγνωστάκης 3 CONTENTS 1 Introduction 1 2 Nominal Ellipsis and Discontinuity as Sister Operations 6 2.1 Nominal Ellipsis as NP-Topicalization 6 2.1.1 Ellipsis and Movement 6 2.1.2 On a Nominal Left Periphery 10 2.1.3 On the Existence of a Nominal FocusP 12 2.1.4 On the existence of a Nominal TopicP 18 2.2 Focus as a Licensing Mechanism for Nominal Ellipsis 25 2.2.1 Against a pro Analysis of Nominal Ellipsis 25 2.2.2 Focus Condition on Ellipsis 30 2.3 Topicalization and Focalization in Discontinuous DPs 33 2.4 Ellipsis and rich morphology 38 2.5 Fanselow & Ćavar (2002) 51 3 Common Properties Between Nominal Ellipsis and Discontinuous DPs 54 3.1 Same Type of Modifiers 54 3.2 Morphological Evidence 58 4 Some Problems 60 4.1 Restrictions on Discontinuity 60 4.2 Discontinuity without Nominal Ellipsis 64 5 Conclusion 69 References 70 4 ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS Syntax of Elliptical and Discontinuous Nominals by Dimitrios Ntelitheos Master of Arts in Linguistics University of California, Los Angeles, 2003 Professor Hilda Koopman, Chair This thesis proposes a new analysis of two superficially different phenomena – nominal ellipsis and discontinuous DPs. -
Processing English with a Generalized Phrase Structure Grammar
PROCESSING ENGLISH WITH A GENERALIZED PHRASE STRUCTURE GRAMMAR Jean Mark Gawron, Jonathan King, John Lamping, Egon Loebner, Eo Anne Paulson, Geoffrey K. Pullum, Ivan A. Sag, and Thomas Wasow Computer Research Center Hewlett Packard Company 1501 Page Mill Road Palo Alto, CA 94304 ABSTRACT can be achieved without detailed syntactic analysis. There is, of course, a massive This paper describes a natural language pragmatic component to human linguistic processing system implemented at Hewlett-Packard's interaction. But we hold that pragmatic inference Computer Research Center. The system's main makes use of a logically prior grammatical and components are: a Generalized Phrase Structure semantic analysis. This can be fruitfully modeled Grammar (GPSG); a top-down parser; a logic and exploited even in the complete absence of any transducer that outputs a first-order logical modeling of pragmatic inferencing capability. representation; and a "disambiguator" that uses However, this does not entail an incompatibility sortal information to convert "normal-form" between our work and research on modeling first-order logical expressions into the query discourse organization and conversational language for HIRE, a relational database hosted in interaction directly= Ultimately, a successful the SPHERE system. We argue that theoretical language understanding system wilt require both developments in GPSG syntax and in Montague kinds of research, combining the advantages of semantics have specific advantages to bring to this precise, grammar-driven analysis of utterance domain of computational linguistics. The syntax structure and pragmatic inferencing based on and semantics of the system are totally discourse structures and knowledge of the world. domain-independent, and thus, in principle, We stress, however, that our concerns at this highly portable. -
Against the Scrambling Anti-Movement Movement *
Against the Scrambling anti-Movement Movement* John Frederick Bailyn Stony Brook University 1. Introduction: Free Word Order and Scrambling This article argues against two recent non-movement accounts of free word order in Russian – van Gelderen (2003) (hereafter VG) and Bo!kovi" (2004) (hereafter B) and in favor of Scrambling-as- Movement. Both VG and B claim (a) that the (re)ordering of major constituents in Russian results from a process that is not movement, and (b) that (most) Russian (re)orderings result from a process distinct from that of Japanese. In sections 2 and 3 of this article I present the VG and B approaches and argue against them. In the final section, I argue that Japanese and Russian do not differ in the manner described by either author, and that a unified discourse- driven account of Scrambling as Last Resort movement is both theoretically more desirable and empirically more successful. The issue at hand is the proper account of alternative word orders for identical major constituents in so-called “free” word order languages. Typical cases are given in (1) (local) and (2) (long- distance) for Japanese and (3) for Russian (the bold element is the constituent separated from canonical (thematic) position): (1) a. Mary-ga sono hon-o yonda (Japanese) MaryNOM that bookACC read ‘Mary read that book.’ b. sono hon-o Mary-ga ___ yonda that bookACC MaryNOM read ‘That book Mary read ___ .’ (2) sono hon-o John-ga [ Mary-ga ___ katta to] itta] that book JohnNOM MaryNOM bought that thinks ‘That book John thinks that Mary bought ___ .’ *Ideas in this article have been presented at Utrecht, Tilburg and Yale Universities, and in seminars in St.