The organization of grammar LEXICON  [MERGE] BASE STRUCTURE  [MOVE] SPELL OUT STRUCTURE

The logic of movement [ … XP …. Gap… ] the properties of XP are the properties typically associated with the gap position I wonder [who Mary likes]CP who IP Mary VP Mary VP VV NP likes likes who

Argument 3: Case I saw himhe left *I saw he* him left who(m) did you meet?who met you? * whom met you? who do you think [_ should meet M in Rome]? whom do you think [M should meet _ in Rome]? * whom do you think[ _ should meet M in Rome]?

Argument 4: Syntactic selection I relied on Bill for advice I turned to Bill for advice * I relied to Bill for advice * I turned on Bill for advice On whom do you think that Bill relies_ for advice? * To whom do you think that Bill relies _ for advice?

The mechanics of movement ‘Pure’ physical displacement [ you like who]  [who [you like]] Copying [ you like who][who [ you like who]] According to the copy theory, there are silent traces of dislocated constituents.

Partitive clitic pronouns in Italian Gianni ha incontrato una americana Gianni (has) met a-fem American-fem Gianni ha incontrato una americana Delete the last vowel of the article if the following word starts with the same vowel (OBLIGATORY at a normal speech rate)

Partitive clitic pronouns in Italian Gianni ha incontrato una ragazza francese Gianni (has) met a-fem girl-fem French-fem Gianni met a friendly committee Paolo ha incontrato una ne americana Paolo has met a-fem one American-fem Paolo met an American one

Obligatory movement of partitive pronouns Paolo ha incontrato una ne americana Paolo has met a-fem one American-fem Paolo met a friendly one ne must move onto the first inflected verb Paolo ne ha incontrata una _ americana Gianni one has met an __ American Paolo met an American one

Blocking of contraction Paolo ha incontrato una americana Paolo ne ha incontrata una americana Contraction is impossible here * Paolo ne ha incontrata un americana The copy theory arguably explains why Paolo ne ha incontrata una ne amica The two a’s are not adjacent, after all

A similar phenomenon in English I want to go home  I wanna go home want to  wanna in fast, informal speech you want [ CP to meet Sue at the party] who do you want [ CP to meet __ at the party]? who do you wanna meet __ at the party? you want [ Bill to meet Sue at the party] who do you want [__ to meet Sue at the party]? Can want to contract to wanna in this environment?

Traces (can) block contraction Who do you wanna meet at the party? Who do want to meet Sue at the paty? * Who do you wanna meet Sue? Who do you want [to meet who at the party]? Who do you want [who to meet Sue]? If movement is not copying and doesn’t leave silent traces behind why would contraction be blocked in the observed manner?

Summary Two major syntactic processes Merge: builds base structures out of lexical items Copy: dislocates items from base structure position -copy introduces invisible elements that, however, the mind’s eye sees.

Crosslinguistic variation

The Head Parameter X’  X YP V’  V NP A’  A PP N’  N PP C’  C IP T’  T VP X’  YP X’ V’  NP V A’  PP A N’  PP X C’  IP C T’  VP T

Cross linguistic variation If a language has the order [O V], we should expect the order [NP P] Languages with the order [O V] and [P NP] should be rare and tendentially unstable Latin: puellam videome cum girl-acc see-1st me with

An exercise in translation Taro-ga Hiro-ga Hanako-ni syasin-o Taro-SU Hiro-SU Hanako-DAT picture-ACC zibun-no miseta to omette iru self-POS showed that thinking be

An exercise in translation Taro-ga Hiro-ga Hanako-ni zibun-no Taro-SU Hiro-SU Hanako-DAT self-POS syasin-o miseta to omette iru picture-ACC showed that thinking be Taro is thinking (thinks) that Hiro showed a picture of himself to Hanako

Word order: After (>) or Before (<) Taro-SU [[Hiro-SU Hanako-to self-POS picture-ACC showed] IP that] CP thinking be Element AElement BJE VDO>< VPP>< VCP>< Pcomplement NP>< N >< Compcomplement IP>< AuxV><

The head-complement parameter No invariant universal basic order No ‘any basic word order goes’(2 7 = 128) Conditionals statements of the form: If the language is O V it has postpositions If the language is V O it has prepositions [Greenberg’s universal # 3] [X YP]English, Edo, Thai,..42% [YP X]Japanese, Lakhota, Latin,..45%

English vs. Japanese clause structure IP NP I’ Chris is VP V PP talking P NP with Pat IP NPI’ VP iru ‘is’ John-ga PP V NP P renaisite to ‘in love’ Mary ‘with’

Another parameter John wonders [Lea ate what]? John wonders what Lea ate __ * What does John wonder Lea ate __ * What does John wonder whether Lea ate __ wh-words move to mark the scope of a Q (= what is being asked) wonder takes Qs; wh-words must move next to it to satisfy this requirement

Verbs of believing John believes [Mary ate what]? * John believes what Mary ate__ what (does) John believe [Mary ate __] believe takes a proposition (‘a thought’); it cannot take a Q. Hence, a wh-word cannot move next to it. It must move passed it. Otherwise, it would wrongly signal that you are ‘believing a Q’

To reiterate the point (from a different position) John wonders [who stole the cookies] * who does John wonder [__ stole the cookies] * John believes [who stole the cookie] Who does John believe[ __ stole the cookies]

Versatile verbs: know John knows [Lea ate what]? John knows what [Lea ate __] What does John know that [Lea ate __]? know takes both Qs and propositions Therefore, a wh-word can move either next to it, or passed it. In either case, the semantic needs of know will be met.

Mandarin: A language without wh-movement a. [Zhangsan wen wo [shei mai-le shu]] Zhangsan ask me who buy-ASP book b. [Zhangsan xiangxin [ shei mai-le shu]] Zhangsan believe who buy-ASP book c. [Zhangsan zhidao [shei mai-le shu]] Zhangsan know who buy-ASP book

What do these sentences mean? ‘ask’ vs. ‘believe’ a. [Zhangsan wen wo [shei mai-le shu]] Zhangsan ask me who buy-ASP book Zhangsan asked me who bought the book b. [Zhangsan xiangxin [ shei mai-le shu]] Zhangsan believe who buy-ASP book Who does Zhangsan believe bought the book

What do these sentences mean? c. [Zhangsan zhidao [shei mai-le shu]] Zhangsan know who buy-ASP book Interpretation 1 (Indirect Q): Zhangsan knows who bought the book Interpretation 2 (Direct Q): Who does Zhangsan know bought the book?

A simple explanation wh-words move to mark the scope of a Q In English, they move before spell out John knows [Lea ate what] John knows what [ Lea ate __] What (does) John know (that) [Lea ate__] In Mandarin, they move after spell out J. Huang “Wh-movement in a language without wh-movement” (1982)

Examples of ‘parametric variation’ The Head-parameter: put heads of phrases first/last The wh-parameter: Move wh’s before/after spell out

Language A universal, specific structure (X’-schemata, move X to Y) Dimension of variation/parameters (the head-parameter/the wh-movement parameter) The universal part constitutes the initial state of the language learner What needs to be learned: - Which categories are in use - How parameters are set - The lexicon

Syntactic competence - Data: native speakers intuitions, language internal regularities, universals, language contrasts -Model: A formal system for language generation (head, merge, …), with parameters -Universals as theorems - Insight on language variation and language acquisition

Nature of the account Formal model of a cognitive capacity Language specific Realized in the brain