1 LIN 1310B Introduction to Linguistics Prof: Nikolay Slavkov TA: Qinghua Tang CLASS 18, March 13, 2007

2 Today Announcements and Reminders: -Finish chapter 5. The section on verb raising in English on p is optional (the section on verb raising in French is not optional). -Test 2 will take place next Tuesday (March 20). -Don’t forget to bring a pencil and an eraser for the test! -Office hours: everyone is welcome to office hours without prior arrangements. Regular office hours are Tuesday after class (room 410). Extra office hours for this week: Friday after class (room 410). -Meeting by appointment: talk to me or Qinghua. Today’s Lecture: -Finish Syntax -Go over the answers for assignment 2 -Practice exercise for test (time permitting)

3 Verb Raising: last time we discovered that in French main verbs raise. They move from their original position under V to the head of inflection I.

4 Verb Raising: After the verb has raised, it can undergo inversion (I-to-C movement) to form a yes-no question.

5 In English main verbs do not seem to raise and subsequently cannot undergo inversion: *See you the book?

6 Remember!!! Remember that our key piece of evidence is as follows: *See you the book? ungrammatical; therefore, the verb stays in its basic position under V (cannot raise to I and then move to C) Vois-tu le livre? grammatical; therefore the verb in French raises (moves) out of its basic position under V, and can subsequently undergo inversion (movement) to the front of the sentence. If sentences like See you the book? were possible in English, this would mean that verb raising is possible with main verbs in English.

7 Review: Coordination Coordination means combining two or more categories together with the use of a conjunction such as and or or Properties of coordination: Coordination occurs with identical categories You can coordinate a head, a specifier, a complement, or a whole phrase.

8 Examples of coordination coordination involving P: [up] and [down] the street coordination involving NPs: [the boy] and [the girl] coordination involving VPs: [go to school] and [get an A+] coordination involving Vs: [drink] and [eat] at the restaurant

9 Trees for coordination Remember that we use mostly binary branching. For verbs like put, place, etc. we use tertiary branching. We will also use tertiary branching for coordination

10 Relative Clauses Consider the following sentence: John, who went skiing last weekend, did not finish his homework. They speak Finnish, which is a very rare language. The car, which John bought, was a Mercedes.  Relative clauses are modifiers in the sense that they modify the N preceding them.  As modifiers, they are optional, i.e. the sentence can be grammatical without them.  We will not worry about their tree structure in this course.

11 Some differences between complement (embedded) clauses and relative clauses 1.I know that John is an architect 2.John, who is an architect, likes to talk a lot. 3.I asked if John is an architect. -(1) and (3) are complement (embedded) clauses. -(2) is a relative clause. -the relative clause modifies the meaning of an element (adds to it). -a complement (embedded) clause is a complement to the verb.

12 Passives Consider the following: John hit Mary. Mary was hit by John. Mary was hit. John is the agent (actor) Mary is the patient (receiver of the action) In a passive, usually the patient (receiver) is the subject of the sentence.

13 Properties of passives -The agent is optional in passives. It can be expressed in a by- phrase e.g. Mary was kissed (by John). -The patient is the subject in the passive. i.e. Mary is the patient and the subject. -Some verbs cannot be passivized (usually verbs that cannot take a complement). *The train was arrived. *The dog was died.

14 Some discursive properties of passives: language and power You will be asked for your diplomas, school certificates or transcripts listing the courses you have taken. You could be disqualified from the program if you are not honest about your education, training and experience. You must provide information about your marital status and the number of children you have. This information will not affect the outcome of your application. You may be asked to attend an interview with a visa officer. If your application form is incomplete, or you have not submitted all the required documents, your application will be refused. (Excerpt from a Citizenship and Immigration brochure)

15 Practice exercise for the test Peter, who loves skating, bought [a pair of skates]. A. prepositional phrase B. noun phrase C. specifier D. embedded clause correct answer: B Peter, who loves skating, bought [a pair of skates]. A. prepositional phrase B. head C. specifier D. complement correct answer: D Peter, who loves skating, [bought a pair of skates]. A. verb phrase B. head C. specifier D. complementizer correct answer: A

16 Practice exercise for the test Peter, [who loves skating], bought a pair of skates. A. specifier B. relative clause C. wh- word D. modal correct answer: B Peter [bought a pair of skates]. A. prepositional phrase B. head C. specifier D. complement correct answer: D Peter bought [a] pair of skates. A. determiner B. head C. specifier D. degree word E. both A and C correct answer: E

17 Practice exercise for the test I know [that Peter bought a pair of skates]. A. complementizer phrase B. relative clause C. specifier D. modal correct answer: A [I know that Peter bought a pair of skates] A. embedded clause B. head C. matrix clause D. complement correct answer: C What did Peter buy [_t_] A. subject B. object C. specifier D. adjective E. both B and C correct answer: B