1Week 3b. Merge, featurechecking3.6-4.2CAS LX 522Syntax IRecap: Feature checking! Full Interpretation: The structure towhich the semantic interfacerules apply contains nouninterpretable features.! Checking Requirement:Uninterpretable features must bechecked (and once checked,they are deleted)! Checking (under sisterhood): Anuninterpretable feature F on asyntactic object Y is checkedwhen Y is sister to anothersyntactic object Z which bears amatching feature F.! kick is a verb (has an interpretableV feature) and c-selects a noun (hasan uninterpretable N feature).! me is a noun (a pronoun in fact, hasan interpretable N feature, andothers like accusative case, firstperson, singular)kick[uN, V]me[N, acc, 1, sg]Recap: Feature checking! Merging them will check theuninterpretable feature, andthe structure can beinterpreted.! The head is the “needy” one.The one that had theuninterpretable feature thatwas checked by Merge.! The combination has thefeatures of the verb kick andso its distribution will be like averb’s distribution would be.Vkick[uN, V]me[N, acc, 1, sg]The idea! Sentences are generated derivationally, bymeans of a series of syntactic operations.! A sentence that can be generated by such a procedureis grammatical. One that cannot is not grammatical.! Syntactic operations operate on syntacticobjects.! Lexical items are syntactic objects.! A derivation starts off by selecting a numberof syntactic objects from the lexicon, andproceeds by performing syntacticoperations on them.Syntactic operations! Merge is a syntactic operation. It takes twosyntactic objects and creates a new oneout of them.! The new syntactic object created by Mergeinherits the features of one of thecomponents (the head projects its features).! Merge cannot “look inside” a syntacticobject. Syntactic objects are only combinedat the root.! The Extension Condition: A syntactic derivationcan only be continued by applying operations to theroot projection of a tree.Feature checking! Syntactic objects have features.! Lexical items (syntactic objects) are bundles of features.! Some features are interpretable, others areuninterpretable.! By the time the derivation is finished, there mustbe no uninterpretable features left (FullInterpretation).! Uninterpretable features are eliminated bychecking them against matching features. Thishappens as a result of Merge: Features of sisterscan check against one another.! Merge doesn’t just happen. It has to happen.2Heads and complements! When Merge combines twosyntactic objects, one projectsits features, one does not.! When a lexical item projects itsfeatures to the combinedsyntactic object, it is generallycalled the head, and the thing itcombined with is generallycalled the complement.! A syntactic object that projectsno further is called a maximalprojection.! Where X is the category, this isalternatively called Xmax or XP.! The complement is necessarily amaximal projection.VPkick[uN, V]me[N, acc, 1, sg]maximalprojectionmaximalprojectionhead complementHeads and complements! A syntactic object that hasnot projected at all (that is,a lexical item) is sometimescalled a minimalprojec tion.! Where X is the category, this isalternatively called Xmin or X.! The head is a minimalprojection.! In traditional terminology, thecomplement of a verb isgenerally called the object (or“direct object”).! So, often, is the complement ofa preposition (“object of thepreposition”).VPkick[uN, V]me[N, acc, 1, sg]minimalprojectionminimalprojectionhead complementLinear order! Merge takes two syntactic objects andcombines them into a new syntactic object.! Merge does not specify linear order (whichof the two combined objects comes first inpronunciation).! In the English VP, heads always precedecomplements. But languages differ on this.The head parameter! Languages generally have something like a basicword order, an order in which words come in in“neutral” sentences.! English: SVO! Akira ate an apple.! Japanese: SOV! John wa ringo o tabeta.John top apple acc ate‘John ate an apple.’! In our terms, this amounts to a (generally language-wide choice) as to whether heads are pronouncedbefore complements or vice-versa.! English: head-initial Japanese: head-finalSecond Merge! Merge occurs when there is a selectionalfeature that needs to be satisfied.! If there is more than one such feature, Merge must happenmore than once.! As always, the node that projects is the onewhose selectional feature was satisfied by theMerge.! The sister of the head (that projects) after the first Mergeinvolving that head is called the complement (as above).! The nonprojecting sister of a syntactic object that hasalready projected once from a head is called the specifier.Specifiers, heads, and complements! A transitive verb like calledneeds two arguments (thecaller and the callee).! We encode thisknowledge byhypothesizing twoselectional features for N.! The first selectional feature willbe checked by the callee.! The second selectional featurewill be checked by the caller.! So, called is Merged withme.called[uN, uN, V]me[N, acc,1, sg]they[N, nom,3, pl]3Specifiers, heads, and complements! So, called is Merged withme.! One of the selectionalfeatures is checked off, theremaining features projectto the new object.! A selectional feature stillremains.! Merge applies again,Merging the new objectwith they.VP [uN]called[uN, uN, V]me[N, acc,1, sg]headcomplementthey[N, nom,3, pl]Specifiers, heads, and complements! The second selectionalfeature has beeneliminated.! The sister to this secondMerge is the specifier.! A node that does notproject further is a maxima lprojec tion.! A node that has beenprojected and projectsfurther is neither maximalnor minimal and is usuallycalled an intermediateprojec tion.V! [uN]called[uN, uN, V]me[N, acc,1, sg]maximalprojectionintermediateprojectionheadcomplementthey[N, nom,3, pl]VPspecifierSpecifiers, heads, and complements! In English, specifiers are onthe left of the head! Unlike complements, which areon the right.! As with the head-complement order,languages (arguably) alsodiffer in the linear order oftheir specifiers.! However, Spec-initial order isoverwhelmingly morecommon…! VOS order (Malagasy)Nahita ny mpianatra ny vehivavay.saw the student the woman‘The woman saw the student.’V! [uN]called[uN, uN, V]me[N, acc,1, sg]maximalprojectionintermediateprojectionheadcomplementthey[N, nom,3, pl]VPspecifierHistorical note: X!-theory! In the ’70s and ’80s, these ideas went by
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