Syntax III November 21, 2012

Just So You Know Phonology homeworks have been graded! Syntax homework will be posted on Friday… And will be due on Wednesday of next week (the 28 th of November) Let’s check out the remaining practice sentences for syntax…

There is no “I” in “verb” In English, the I slot may be explicitly filled with auxiliary verbs: be {am, are, is, was, were} have {has, had} Verbs following auxiliaries bear affixes marking them for tense {am going, has gone} or voice {is gone}. Modals are a special kind of auxiliary verb: will, would, can, could, shall, should, may, might, must, (do/did) Verbs following modals are always in their root (infinitive) form. {I must go; I could go; etc.}

Potential Problems There are some limitations on the extent to which the syntactic rules can ignore the specific words that fit into each phrase. Example (from last week’s Quick Write): Is it possible to “swim a carcass”?

Sub-categorization It turns out that it is necessary to break lexical categories down further, into sub-categories. For instance, some verbs must be followed by a noun phrase: I devoured the sandwich.*I devoured. I invited the teacher.*I invited. Other verbs must not be followed by a noun phrase: I sprinted.*I sprinted the ball. I slept.*I slept the dog. I danced.*I danced the horse.

Verb Sub-Category #1 Intransitive Verbs (V i ): must not be followed by an NP = they do not take an object NP as a complement. VP  V i  *VP  V i NP Examples: sneeze, fall, elapse, snorkel Good: The boy slept. Bad: *The boy slept the dog. Good: The girl fell. Bad: *The girl fell the dog.

Verb Sub-Category #2 Transitive Verbs (V t ): must be followed by an NP = they must take an object NP as a complement. VP  V t NP  *VP  V t Examples: devour, defy, harm, invite Good: The children harmed the dog. Bad: *The children harmed. Good: The zombies devoured the vampires. Bad: *The zombies devoured.

Verb Sub-Category #3 Ditransitive Verbs (V dt ): can be followed by two objects = either two NPs or a combination of {NP, PP}. VP  V dt NP NP  *VP  V dt Examples: give, sell, send, put Good: The boy gave the dog a bone. Bad: *?The boy gave the dog. Alternative: The students sold a chew toy to the professor.

A + N Sub-categories Adjectives and nouns can have complement requirements, too--often for particular PPs: Mary is fond of John. *Mary is fond. *Mary is fond by John. Some nouns require specific prepositional phrases: George talked about our reliance on oil. *George talked about our reliance. *George talked about our reliance for oil. This information has to be included in the lexicon for each word.

Verb Sub-Category #4 Sentential Verbs (V s ): = include a sentence in their complement. Examples: know, believe, wonder, think… Marge thinks that [Homer ate the cake] IP. Don wondered whether [Sidney scored a goal] IP. Phoebe believed that [Chandler married Monika] IP. Gandalf knew if [Frodo had the ring] IP. Notice that the sentence in the VP complement is always preceded by a funny kind of word: that, whether, if…

Complementizer Phrases New lexical category: complementizers (C). Ex: if, that, whether Complementizers function as the heads of complementizer phrases. (CPs) The complement of the CP is another IP (sentence). Ex: Marge thinks [that [Homer ate the cake] IP ] CP. Matrix clause = highest-level sentence “Marge thinks…” Complement, or embedded clause = within the CP “Homer ate the cake.”

IP NPI’ MargeIVP [-past]V’CP VC’ thinksCIP thatNPI’ Homer IVP [+past]V’ VNP atethe cake CP Example matrix clause embedded clause