The syntax of natural language: An online introduction using the Trees program Beatrice Santorini Anthony Kroch Citation: Santorini, Beatrice, and Anthony Kroch. 2000. The syntax of natural language: An online introduction using the Trees program. http://www.ling.upenn.edu/~beatrice/syntax-textbook. © 2000 Beatrice Santorini and Anthony Kroch Last modified: 4 February 2004. Table of contents, detailed (short version) Titlepage 1 Foundational issues Prescriptive versus descriptive grammar Rule formation in language acquisition Rule-based word formation Question formation Structure dependence Intuitions about words belonging together Structural ambiguity Universal Grammar Formal universals Recursion Parameters Generative grammar Elementary trees and substitution Grammaticality Grammar versus language Notes Exercises and problems Supplementary material Expletive elements in English Modals and auxiliary verbs in English 2 Constituent structure Tests for constituenthood Substitution Movement Questions and sentence fragments It cleft focus Some caveats Mismatches between syntax and prosody Phrasal versus lexical constituents Verb phrases Representing constituenthood Notes Exercises and problems Supplementary material Node relations Verbs 3 Some basic linguistic relations Argumenthood Semantic valency Transitivity Modification Predication Expletive it Aristotelian versus Fregean predicates Expletive there Some special cases Notes Exercises and problems Supplementary material Grammatical relations Reference and related notions Thematic roles Verbs 4 Introducing the X' schema of phrase structure The X' schema for elementary trees Transitive elementary trees The X' schema in general Intransitive elementary trees Deriving simple sentences Deriving complex sentences The adjunct relation Modification is different The need for an adjunction operation A typology of syntactic dependents More on the distinction between complements and adjuncts Notes Exercises and problems Supplementary material Modals and auxiliary verbs in English Reference and related notions Thematic roles 5 Extending the X' schema Noun phrases Parallels and differences between noun phrases and sentences Noun phrases as DPs More on determiners Modification and related issues Adjective phrases Prepositional phrases Crosslinguistic variation in headedness Notes Exercises and problems Supplementary material Nouns 6 The verb movement parameter Verb raising: V movement to I The French future tense The order of adverbs and verbs in French Tense lowering: I movement to V The order of adverbs and verbs in English Do support in English Cues for the acquisition of verb raising Verb raising and related issues in the history of English The loss of verb raising A change in the status of not The emergence of do support The emergence of modals Remnants of verb raising in modern English Notes Exercises and problems Supplementary material Modals and auxiliary verbs in English Node relations 7 VP shells Double-object sentences The structure of ordinary causative sentences Parallels between causative sentences and double-object sentences Abstract verb movement Double-complement sentences Give and send Put Persuade The causative alternation Manner of motion verbs Get Further issues Locality constraints on idioms Small clauses revisited Notes Exercises and problems Supplementary material Thematic roles 8 Case theory A first look at case The basic purpose of case Case government Synthetic versus analytic case marking Case features Case licensing Spec-head licensing Head-spec licensing Head-comp licensing Nonstructural conditions on case licensing The dative-accusative distinction Case agreement (coming eventually...) Notes Exercises and problems Supplementary material Grammatical relations 9 Nonfinite clausal complements Selectional restrictions Subject control Evidence for two clauses Deriving subject control sentences Raising A detour Nonthematic subject positions Deriving raising sentences Tend and occur Promise Object control More nonthematic subjects Subject idiom chunks Weather it Summary Notes Exercises and problems 10 Passive Characteristics of the passive A movement analysis Object idiom chunks Analysis The passive and nonfinite complementation Structural versus inherent case Exercises and problems 11 Wh- movement: Ross's island constraints Evidence for a movement analysis of questions Complementation Why a silent complementizer? Case checking Direct wh- questions The island constraints The apparent unboundedness of wh- movement A typology of islands Other instances of wh- movement Wh- relative clauses That relative clauses Doubly marked relative clauses Zero relative clauses Topicalization Notes Exercises and problems 12 Wh- movement: Subjacency and the ECP Subjacency Two possible derivations for long-distance wh- movement IP as a barrier to wh- movement DP as a barrier to wh- movement The coordinate structure constraint revisited The Empty Category Principle (ECP) Antecedent government Lexical government Further issues and refinements Is subjacency an independent principle? Movement out of ECM complements Movement out of DP Exercises and problems Supplementary material Node relations 13 The verb-second (V2) phenomenon V2 in German The linear position of the finite verb The structural position of the finite verb Movement to C as adjunction Verb movement to C in declaratives V2 in the history of English V2 in Middle English A remnant of V2 in modern English Notes Exercises and problems 14 Binding theory: Syntactic constraints on the interpretation of noun phrases Coreference and coindexing Hellan 1988 The co-argument condition The predication condition The tensed IP condition Strict vs. non-strict co-arguments Extending Hellan's binding theory to English The co-argument condition The predication condition The tensed IP condition Chomsky 1981 Principle A Principle B Principle C Notes Exercises and problems (to be added) Glossary List of supplementary material Expletive elements in English Grammatical relations Modals and auxiliary verbs in English Node relations Questions Reference and related notions Thematic roles Verbs References General literature and reference works Technical literature and sources Other textbooks 1 Foundational issues Prescriptive versus descriptive grammar Rule formation in language acquisition A thought experiment Rule-based word formation Question formation More evidence for syntactic structure Intuitions about words belonging together Structural ambiguity Universal Grammar Formal universals Recursion Parameters Generative grammar Elementary trees and substitution Grammaticality Grammar versus language Notes Exercises and problems Supplementary material Expletive elements in English Modals and auxiliary verbs in English This book is an introduction to generative grammar from a Chomskyan perspective. By the time you finish this chapter, you will have a clearer understanding of what we mean by this sentence, and by the time you finish the entire book, your understanding of it should be clearer and deeper still. But for now, you have probably gained the impression that this book is about grammar of some sort. And right there, we have a problem. The problem is that there is an everyday sense of the term 'grammar' and a quite different sense in which the term is used in linguistics. Prescriptive versus descriptive grammar In the everyday sense, 'grammar' refers to a collection of rules concerning what counts as socially acceptable and unacceptable language use. Some of these rules, like the ones in (1), make reference to particular words and apply to both spoken and written language. (1) a. Don't use ain't. b. Don't use seen as the past tense of see (as in I seen him at the party last night). But mainly, the rules in question concern the proper composition of sentences in written language, and you probably recall being taught rules like those in (2) at school. (2) a. Don't start a sentence with a conjunction. b. Don't use contractions. c. Don't use sentence fragments. d. Don't end a sentence with a linking verb. e. Don't use dangling participles. f. Don't end a sentence with a preposition. g. Don't use an object pronoun for a subject pronoun in a conjoined noun phrase. h. Don't use a plural pronoun to refer back to a singular noun like everyone, no-one, someone, and the like. i. Don't split infinitives. j. Use whom, not who, as the object of a verb or preposition. Someone who composes sentences in accordance with rules like those in (2) is said to have good grammar, whereas someone said to have bad grammar doesn't apply the rules when they ought to be applied,1 producing sentences like (3). (3) a. Over there is the guy who I went to the party with. violates (2f), (2j) b. Bill and me went to the store. violates (2g) Now if rules like those in (2) were the only ones that were used to form English sentences, then people who didn't follow them should produce rampantly variable and confusing sentences, leading in extreme cases to a complete breakdown of communication. However, even people who routinely produce sentences like those in (3) do not produce the likes of (4). (4) a. Over there is guy the who I went to party the with. b. Over there is the who I went to the party with guy. c. Bill and me the store to went. The sentences in (3) may be instances of bad grammar in the everyday sense, but they are still English sentences. By contrast, we don't need to rely on school rules to tell us that the examples in (4) are not English sentences - even though they contain