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

2. 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

3. 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]?

4. 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?

5. 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.

6. 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)

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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?

11. 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?

12. 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.

13. Crosslinguistic variation

14. 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

15. 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

16. 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

17. 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

18. 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><

19. 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%

20. 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’

21. 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

22. 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’

23. 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]

24. 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.

25. 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

26. 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

27. 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?

28. 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)

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

30. 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

31. 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

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