Where Is English? CAS LX 522 • When We Speak of “English,” What Are We Syntax I Referring To? Every Native Speaker Has a Complete Week 1B

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Where is English? CAS LX 522 • When we speak of “English,” what are we Syntax I referring to? Every native speaker has a complete Week 1b. • Morphosyntactic features knowledge system of their language. (2.1-2.4.1) • As far as the grammar is concerned, it’s all part of a native speaker’s cognitive makeup. (Vocabulary is a different thing...)

In search of the I-language, E-language atoms of the system The notion of “English” is really an external notion. • Syntax is—at least in large part—the study It’s kind of an “average” of the properties of the • of the principles of sentence formation. (nearly identical) knowledge systems that the individual speakers in the community have. • There are principles that govern which combinations of words are sentences of What we’re interested in here, in a sense, are the • English. What is the “vocabulary” of these properties of a single speaker’s knowledge of principles? What are they stated in terms language. We might call it “English” if that speaker is of? part of the “English” speech community. But it’s really an individual’s knowledge. It’s just that the • “Words” might be a good starting point. community by and large has the same knowledge.

The atoms of the Properties... features... system • However, it seems that it isn’t exactly the words—it is the properties each word has • Words have properties. Like being a verb, or that seems to be basic. Verb or not a verb, being plural. plural or not plural... • “Plural” is an abstract concept—there is no 1) Three dogs are here. One dog is here. direct map to morphology (deer, geese, mice, feet, dogs, children, data), but they all 2) Three geese are here. One goose is here. make the same demands of the verb. 3) Three deer are here. One deer is here. Properties... features... Agreement

• Same “agreement” requirement, regardless • In English, the subject and the verb of a of the actual morphological shape. sentence need to agree in number and (for be) person. • The abstract property of “plural” (or “singular”) seems to be what the grammar 1) The dog wants food. The dogs want food. is sensitive to. That’s smaller than a word. 2) The dog is hungry. The dogs are hungry. • (Morphosyntactic) features 3) I am hungry. We are hungry.

Agreement & Data from other interpretability languages • If the subject is plural (has a plural feature) then the verb must take on a “plural” form. 1) Il a dit qu’elle était malade he have said that she was ill It is crosslinguistically common to have this kind of [3.sg] [3.sg] • ‘He said that she was ill.’ agreement relation between subject and verb. 2) Ils ont dit qu’elle était malade Intuitively, the plural feature is interpretable on the • they have said that she was ill subject, contributes to the meaning, “belongs there” [3.pl] [3.pl] ‘They said that she was ill.’ in some sense. On the verb, the (agreeing) plural feature is just a “reﬂection”, uninterpretable—much • Why does it matter what other languages do? more on that later.

What are the What are the features? features? • Some features—that is, some properties—seem • No language says that subject and verb must agree in to matter for the purposes of syntax, some the feature [invented in early September], although don’t. So, the identity of the features need to be there are things that have this property. part of our theory—features are just • For the purpose of describing the grammar and “properties”—but, the features that syntax explaining the syntactic principles, we don’t care relies on are the relevant properties. about [invented in early September]. • We’re looking for the minimal (least • We have evidence, though, that [plural] matters to complicated) set of features that suffices to syntax (at least in some way...) explain the grammar. [plural] Science • That thing we just did? It was science. • We know number matters. In English, things can be singular or plural. So, a first guess is • We had some observations, the existence of that nouns have either a [singular] feature singular and plural forms—and they matter for or a [plural] feature. the grammar. • Hypothesis: • We formulated a hypothesis. [sg] and [pl] are features a word can have. • We identified other facts that we expect to hold • Prediction: —the predictions—if the hypothesis is correct. Four classes of words: [sg], [pl], [sg,pl], [] • Now, we’ll go back to the data to see if the predictions are borne out.

Overgeneration [plural]

However—it turns out that the prediction is • So, we have a new set of observations, now not met in the data. • including the fact that there are just two • The prediction is that there are four number classes. classes of nouns, but English has only two. • And there’s a simpler story we can tell, one • This hypothesis overgenerates—it predicts the that predicts exactly two classes. existence of the actual distinctions, but it also [plural] for plurals, [] for singulars. predicts other distinctions that don’t exist. •

Undergeneration Privative features

• There are (at least) two ways we can • An analysis that says “All words are characterize features. singular” undergenerates. • Above, we did it one way—the feature [pl] • All predicted combinations are attested. is there on plurals, and not there on • Some attested combinations are not singulars. This kind of feature—which is predicted. either there or not there—is a privative feature. Which is the right way Binary features to think of features?

• We could also view a feature as having • We don’t know from the outset which view values. is the best for describing syntax, we want to choose the one that best captures the • A binary valued feature could have either of generalizations we see. two values. Usually “+” and “–”. • The two views are not indistinguishable. • On this view, plurals have [+plural], and They do make different predictions. singulars have [–plural]. Speciﬁcally, about what syntax can “see.”

The Hopi dual Hopi morphology 1) Pam taaqa wari In Hopi, the dual is expressed by combining that man ran[sg] • singular and plural. ‘That man ran.’ Unlike what we observed about English— 2) Puma ta!taqt yu!tu • for Hopi, we have kind of an explanation of those man[pl] ran[pl] this if we analyze dual as [+pl, +sg] (or as ‘Those men ran.’ [pl, sg]). 3) Puma taaqat wari So, we seem to need to specify [±sg] for those man[pl] ran[sg] • Hopi, but not for English. ‘Those two men ran.’

Overgeneration? The fourth number?

• The Hopi dual can be nicely described as • There doesn’t, however, seem to be a being [+plural, +singular]. fourth number—across languages. There’s really just the three kinds: singular, plural, • So for Hopi we need both [±plural] and and dual. [±singular] (or the privative analog). • Adger tells a story at this point: There is an • Which should predict the existence of a additional constraint that every noun needs fourth number: singular, plural, dual, and to have some number feature. I want to neither singular nor plural. come back to this in a little while. General structure of The lexicon the account

• Knowing a language is: • To construct a sentence, we start with the i) knowing the “words” “words” and put them together. ii) knowing how to put them together • We can describe the knowledge of the iii)knowing how to pronounce them words of a language as being a list, a mental lexicon. iv)knowing what they mean in combination

Interfaces Interfaces “words” We can view a “word” Lexicon • The assembly process is the grammar proper. as a bundle of features, • The system that interprets sentences is another as deﬁned by its assembly cognitive module (“conceptual-intensional system”) properties. The interfaces concerned with meaning, reasoning, etc. It interprets grammar assembles Grammar the constructed sentence at the interface. words into sentences. The sentences are • The system that determines the pronunciation of interpreted and sentences is yet another cognitive module pronounced. A-P system C-I system (“articulatory-perceptual system”), interpreting the constructed sentence at its interface. sound meaning

Points of tension Tension • We need a hypothesis about what is different in languages with no dual (e.g., English). • For English, it seems that independent [sg] and [pl] features is more complicated than • Adger’s suggestion: All languages have singulars, we need—it seems to overgenerate. but in languages without duals, singular is the default, the “number for nouns not speciﬁed for In the broader picture, Language needs to • number.” The feature [sg] is not recorded in the allow for independent [sg] and [pl] features English lexicon: book [], books [pl]. in order to accommodate duals in, e.g., Hopi. • So languages can differ in whether they record [sg] in the lexicon. What are the Category features? • Syntax is concerned with distribution. • Hard to say. A universal set, some used in • Words seem to come in distributional classes. some languages, but not others? Learned? • One class of words can appear after the possessive • Some features seem not to exist, why? pronoun my (my book, *my at, *my quickly, *my explode, *my purple). The nouns. • Okham’s razor: keep theories as simple as possible. Here, we want to deﬁne the • One class of words is compatible with past tense. simplest set of features we can get away The verbs. with and still explain the data. • One class of words is compatible with comparative (happier). The adjectives.

Category Distribution examples • They have no noun. • Words can be separated into classes: noun, • They can verb. verb, adjective, preposition, etc. • They are adjective. • Classes also vary with respect to the kind of morphological endings they can have, and • Very adverb, very adjective. so forth. (Arrival, replacement, destruction; • So long as it makes sense (e.g., with gradable widen, computerize) adjectives; #they are very absent). • Right preposition. (right over the house)

Nouns and verbs [N], [V], [N,V], []

• Nouns have a category feature [N]. • So, nouns are [N], verbs are [V]. Books [N, pl] • What might [N,V] be? Maybe adjectives are • a bit “nouny” and “verby” at the same time. • Verbs have a category feature [V]. • And the fourth possibility? []? • Complained [V] • The other basic category would • Two independent features. presumably be prepositions. • Four predicted categories. • But, really? []? Privative? Or binary? [±N, ±V]

• There’s something kind of uncomfortable • The [±N, ±V] category system may seem a bit “out about saying the prepositions simply lack of the blue.” But it does yield some descriptive category features. beneﬁt. To wit: • We can soothe ourselves somewhat by • Consider what un- can attach to: adopting binary category features instead of 1) untie, unfold, unwrap, unpack privative features. 2) unhappy, unfriendly, undead • Same predictions, but more in line with our intuition about what “category” should be. 3) *uncity, *uncola, *unconvention 4) *unupon, *unalongside, *unat

[±N, ±V] Russian case

• Case is a morphological form nouns take on depending on where they are in the sentence • Basically, it applies to (reversible) verbs and (subject vs. object). English pronouns show this adjectives, but not to nouns or distinction: I like her, she likes me. Some prepositions. languages (like Russian) show differing case forms on all nouns. • Well, what are those? • When Russian nouns are modiﬁed by an adjective, the adjective is also marked for case.

Russian case Lexical and functional

• What gets marked for Case in Russian? • Nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs: These are lexical categories. They carry signiﬁcant and 1) Krasivaya!! dyevushka!vsunula arbitrary meaning, and they are open-class beautiful!! girl!!! put (new ones can be invented). chornuyu! koshku! v! pustuyu!! korobku • But not all words are of this kind (except black!! ! cat!!in!emtpy!! box maybe those on telegrams).† ‘The beautiful girl put the black cat in the empty box.’

†Telegram (n.): An ancient form of texting. Functional categories/ Lexical and functional syntactic “glue”

Sentences are held together by little • Determiners: the, a(n), some, every, that, ... “function words” as well. These are the • functional categories. We will discuss these • Pronouns: you, him, they, my, your, ... more later. • Inﬁnitival to: to Auxiliaries/modals: have, be, do, can, should, ... 1) I expect that the CEO will want to retire. • • Complementizers: that, for, if, ...

“Pre-noun things” vs. Determiners determiners, adjectives • Determiners generally come before a noun, and come in a few different types. There are differences between • Can we lump determiners together with the types, though for now we’ll lump them together. adjectives? Category: [D]. They both come before nouns. Articles: the, an • • • They both seem to “modify” the noun. • Quantiﬁcational determiners: some, most If we didn’t need both categories (if they don’t • matter for syntax/distribution), we’d have a • Interrogative determiner: which simpler theory putting them together. • Demonstratives: that, this • Tall building, that building, a building, my building. • Possessive pronouns: my, your, their

Determiners vs. Pronouns adjectives 1) The big ﬂuffy pink rabbit To properly • Pronouns differ from nouns in a couple of 2) *The my rabbit describe the ways (example: case marking), and should 3) *The that rabbit distribution of be considered a functional category. these elements, we 4) *Every my rabbit really need to • The pronouns of English express person, • Determiners cannot co- separate them into number, and gender. occur with other two classes. • 1st person: I, me, we, us determiners, must precede Lumping them any adjectives. together will not • 2nd person: you • Adjectives can occur with give us a simpler • 3rd person: he, she, him, her, they, them, it. other adjectives. descriptive systems. Pronouns are Ds. Auxiliaries and modals

• Different from verbs: have, be, do, will, can, might, must, should, could, would, ... • We’ll come back to this again later on, but we will treat pronouns as having category • In questions, auxiliaries “invert” with the [D], like, say, the or which. subject, verbs don’t. 1) We linguists must stick together. • Will you leave? Can you leave? Do you leave often? *Leave you often?

Auxiliaries and modals Infinitival to

1) I like to go to the movies. Auxiliaries occur before not, verbs don’t • • Kind of looks like a preposition, but it’s not. • You will not leave. You did not leave. Prepositions take nouns, to as a P has a kind of *You left not. contentful meaning (endpoint of a path). Inﬁnitival to takes (bare) verbs only, means nothing (apart from Notice the extra do— “do-support” • “untensed”). Auxiliaries are responsible for things like tense, • It might be more like a modal: To and modals (can, mood, modality, aspect, voice. • might, should) seem to appear in the same place • We abbreviate their category as [T] (“tense”). (between the subject and a bare verb form).

Infinitival to Complementizers 1) Pat will leave. 2) I heard that Pat will leave. 1) I like that John can pick up his own dry- 3) I wonder if Pat will leave. cleaning. 4) I am anxious for Pat to leave. 2) I’d like for John to pick up his own dry- cleaning. • It is perfectly possible to embed a sentence inside another one. When we do this, it is indicated with a complementizer (introducing a complement clause). Category: [C]. The D that v. the C The P for v. the C for that For is of course a preposition (I looked for you for • Same kind of thing holds for that. three hours), but not when it is introducing • clauses. 1) I liked that movie. • He headed right for the back row. 2) I heard that movie involved guinea pigs. • *He’d like right for the class to be over. • Sometimes you can replace for clauses with that clauses. • *He expressed interest in the class to be over. 1) It is important that Pat votes. • Who would you vote for in the election? 2) It is important for Pat to vote. • *Who are you axious for to win the election?

Regrouping Regrouping

• Lexical categories: • But there are many more than four categories. • N: noun, V: verb, A: adjective, P: preposition • Aux: auxiliary, C: complementizer, Adv: adverb, D: determiner, PRN: pronoun, T: modals, ... • We started a feature decomposition of these by proposing that they are labels for • So, we would need more features to make all feature bundles like [±N, ±V], which can of the distinctions. We won’t pursue that, characterize certain natural classes across however—we’ll just use the labels like N, V, A, categories. P, D, T, C, etc.)

Feature grouping Feature grouping

Features themselves seem to be grouped. • • We can write this like [Cat: +N–V], and in • And this is the way we’ll think of them for fact we’ll generally just write [N] as a much of the course. shorthand for that. • Consider: category. • We’ll see other groupings. E.g., Number could be [Number:sg,pl] (or dual). Although [±N] is a feature, [±V] is a feature. There • number will in fact be part of a larger must be others to handle D, T, C, etc. But grouping including gender and person. together they constitute the syntactic category.