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Syntax: Advanced Forays – Extensions & Reflexions Marcel den Dikken Department of English Linguistics ELTE
Syntax: Advanced Forays SAFE® 1 Syntax: Advanced Forays • this series of short slide shows with voice-overs follows in the wake of Syntax: A First Encounter (SAFE), and serves as supporting material for the Advanced Syntax lecture course taught in ELTE’s Department of English Linguistics • the slide shows are loosely based on the following text- book, familiarity with which is presupposed throughout Mark Newson, Marianna Hordós, Dániel Pap, Krisztina Szécsényi, Gabriella Tóth, Veronika Vincze, Basic English Syntax with Exercises (2007) available on-line, free of charge, at: http://mek.oszk.hu/05400/05476/
Syntax: Advanced Forays SAFE® 1 Syntax: Advanced Forays • while SAFE laid the foundations for an understanding of Noam Chomsky’s theory of generative syntax, the present series of short programmes goes into greater detail and extends this basic understanding of syntax with an eye towards engendering a conscious command of the theory that will facilitate direct access to the primary research literature and critical reflexions on syntactic theorising • each segment is identified in the top left- hand corner of the slides as SAFE® (the acronym for Syntax: Advanced Forays – Extensions & Reflexions) followed by the serial number of the segment • for best results, the full series of slide shows should be viewed in sequential order • further readings and references to the literature can be found in the accompanying textbook
Syntax: Advanced Forays SAFE® 1 Syntax: Advanced Forays • this first segment is mostly a brief summary of what was covered in SAFE; subsequent segments start with a quick review of previous installments of SAFE® • as in SAFE, we will keep track of what was discussed with the help of the SAFE® Deposit Box • and as in SAFE, things that will be useful to store in memory (such as definitions, or important generalisations or hypotheses) will be marked with this symbol:
SAFE Savings → from SAFE we inherited the following picture: • a generative syntax is a formal system that is capable of deriving (or ‘generating’) all and only those sentences of human natural language that are grammatical • sentences are formed by combining heads and phrases into X-bar projections in accordance with (a) the Projection Principle (all lexical information, for category, subcategorisation, and thematic (or θ-) roles, must be syntactically represented) (b) the θ-Criterion (θ-role↔argument biuniqueness) (c) the UTAH (correspondence between thematic and structural relationships)
SAFE Savings → from SAFE we inherited the following picture: • verbs project their internal arguments within VP but need a ‘little v’ to get their external θ-role and accusative Case assigned (cf. Burzio’s Generalisation) • finite I, which projects outside the v–VP core, entertains Spec-Head agreement with its specifier under which (a) person/number agreement between the finite verb and the structural subject is checked (b) nominative Case is assigned to the subject • on top of IP a projection of the functional head C can be included in the structure of the sentence (a) C serves as the locus for lexical complementisers and as the landing-site for Subject–Aux Inversion (b) SpecCP serves as the host for wh-operators (incl. whether) and the null operator
SAFE Savings → from SAFE we inherited the following picture: • heads and phrases can undergo movement; all occur- rences of movement leave a trace behind • the nominal phrase has a structure broadly similar to that of the clause, featuring the functional categories Q (for quantifiers) and D (for determiners) • the D-head of possessive nominal phrases is occupied in English by the genitival marker ’s, which, like person/ number marking in finite I, entertains a Spec-Head agree- ment relation with its specifier • the structural parallelism between clauses and nominal phrases is further enhanced by the binding asymmetries (involving reflexives, pronouns, and names) found between subjects/possessors, on the one hand, and hierarchically lower constituents, on the other
SAFE® Preview → SAFE® will take us in the following directions: • we will delve into the distinction between unaccusative/ ergative and intransitive/unergative verbs and provide an explanation for the major diagnostics for (un)ergativity • we will develop the inflectional structure of the clause by recognising separate X-bar projections for Asp(ect), T(ense), and sentential negation (NegP) • we will put the subject of non-finite clauses in a special spotlight, examining how it gets Case when it is overt, and what its nature is when it is silent • we will develop a typology of nominal elements defined by the binary features [+anaphoric] and [+pronominal], and discuss the licensing of silent nominal elements
SAFE® Preview → SAFE® will take us in the following directions: • we will discuss a wide range of constructions involving movement to the left edge of the clause, going beyond wh-movement to present focus fronting, topicalisation, and null operator movement constructions of various kinds • we will subject the syntax of relative clauses to a closer inspection, juxtaposing the two major approaches that are on the market: the ‘head-raising’ and ‘head-external’ analyses • and we will see that syntax continues beyond the point at which the output of the derivation is pronounced: some material spelled out in a clause-internal position undergoes covert movement, in post-Spell-Out syntax
Syntax: Advanced Forays – Extensions & Reflexions Marcel den Dikken Department of English Linguistics ELTE
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