CAS LX 522 Syntax I Pat must not have been sending flowers to Chris Suppose that you were faced with the task of generating a structure for Pat must not have been sending flowers to Chris. First, assemble your numeration. What are the elements in this sentence? T [T, uN*, tense:past] There is always a T in a sentence. T always (in English) has [uN*] (the “EPP feature”). Must is past tense (cf. may), so we know there is [tense:past]. v [v, uInfl:, uN*, uV*] There is always a v in a sentence. v always has [uV*] (causes V to raise to v). give is agentive, so this v assigns the Agent θ-role; hence it has a [uN*] feature. Not [Neg] not is of category Neg. must [M, uInfl:, Aux] We have the modal must, which is M. M always has a [uInfl:] feature, and all modals except the infinitive marker to have the [Aux] feature. Perf [Perf, uInfl:, Aux] We have perfective have, which is Perf. Perf always has [uInfl:] and [Aux] features. Prog [Prog, uInfl:, Aux] We have progressive be, which is Prog. Prog always has a [uInfl:] and [Aux] features. send [V, uN*, uP*] send is a ditransitive (that is, between V and v there are three θ-roles to give out. v is responsible for Agent, and V is responsible for the other two. Hence, we have [uP*] corresponding to the Goal θ-role and [uN*] corresponding to the Theme θ-role). to [P, uN*] We have the preposition to. Prepositions always have [uN*] for their object. Chris [N] Pat [N] flowers [N] Then, start at the bottom (generally the right edge of the sentence in an SVO language like English), and work your way up.Step 1. Merge to and Chris. This puts the [uN*] feature of to in close proximity to the [N] of Chris: [uN*] is checked (it was strong, but the locality condition is satisfied). Since to had its feature checked (it motivated the Merge), the features of to project. Since Chris does not project further and had no strong features to check, it is a maximal projection (NP). Since there are no further uninterpretable strong features on to, the object we just formed is a maximal projection (PP). PP 3 P NP [P, uN*] [N] to Chris Step 2. Merge send and the PP. This puts the [uP*] feature of send in close proximity to the [P] of the PP. [uP*] is checked. Since send had its feature checked, the features of give project. Since there is still a strong uninterpretable feature on send, this is an intermediate projection (V′). The UTAH tells us that to Chris is the Goal (PP daughter of V′). V′ qp V PP [V, uN*, uP*] 3 send P NP [P, uN*] [N] to ChrisStep 3. Merge flowers and the V′. This puts the remaining [uN*] feature of send close to the [N] feature of flowers. [uN*] is checked. Since give had its feature checked, the features of send project. Since there are no more strong uninterpretable features on send, this is a maximal projection (VP). Since flowers does not project further and had no strong features to check, it is a maximal projection (NP). UTAH tells us that flowers is the Theme (NP daughter of VP). VP qp NP V′ [N] qp flowers V PP [V, uN*, uP*] 3 send P NP [P, uN*] [N] to Chris Step 4. Merge v and VP. We are finished with V now, and v is the next step up on the Hierarchy of Projections. No features are checked in this step. Because v is higher than V on the hierarchy of projections, the features of v project. Since v still has a strong uninterpretable feature to check, this is an intermediate projection (v′). v′ qp v VP [v, uN*, qp uV*, uInfl:] NP V′ [N] qp flowers V PP [V, uN*, uP*] 3 send P NP [P, uN*] [N] to ChrisStep 5. Move V to v. v has a strong uninterpretable [uV*] feature. It was not checked in Step 4 because it did not motivate that Merge (the Hierarchy of Projections did). Because the feature [uV*] is strong, it can only be checked if it is local to the [V] feature that checks it. Sisters are local. But send is not local to v. We move V to v by copying V and adjoining it to v. We represent that by putting <V> in the original location of the V, and replacing v with the complex head V+v as shown below (V adjoined to v). v′ qp v VP qu rp V v NP V′ send [v, uN*, [N] 3 [V, uN*, uP*] uV*, uInfl:] flowers <V> PP 3 P NP [P, uN*] [N] to ChrisStep 6. Merge Pat and v′. This puts the remaining [uN*] feature of v close to the [N] feature of Pat. [uN*] is checked. Since v had its feature checked, the features of v project. Since there are no more strong uninterpretable features on v, this is a maximal projection (vP). Since Pat does not project further and had no strong features to check, it is a maximal projection (NP). UTAH tells us that Pat is the Agent (NP daughter of vP). Sometimes NP daughter of vP is actually an Experiencer—if it is, we assume that it is a slightly different v (vEXPERIENCER) for which NP daughter of vP is an Experiencer. But with send here, we have vAGENT, not vEXPERIENCER. vP qp NP v′ [N] qp Pat v VP qu rp V v NP V′ send [v, uN*, [N] 3 [V, uN*, uP*] uV*, uInfl:] flowers <V> PP 3 P NP [P, uN*] [N] to ChrisStep 7. Merge Prog and vP. We are finished with v now, and Prog is the next step up on the Hierarchy of Projections. Because Prog is higher than v on the hierarchy of projections, features of Prog project. Since Prog has no strong uninterpretable features to check, this is a maximal projection (ProgP). The category feature of Prog ([prog]) can value an uninterpretable [uInfl:] feature. Prog now c-commands v, which has a [uInfl:] feature still unvalued. [prog] matches and values [uInfl:] on v resulting in [uInfl:prog] on v. (This will ultimately sound like “-ing”—that is, V+v =