CAS LX 522 Syntax I Sample sentences as of week 10It is now late enough in the semester that our system is essentially completely in place. Here are a couple of sample derivationsworked all the way through in order to help clarify how they work.The sentences we will examine here are the following:Carmela said AJ’s advisor was told that AJ might want to study event-planning. (we will treat “event-planning” as noun)The continuous drawing of complicated trees builds strong character.If you wish you can try your hand at them first, before running through the derivations here. If you do, let me add a note about the firstsentence: We haven’t looked at tell yet, which is a ditransitive verb here. There is really only one possible structure, one whichaccording to the UTAH makes the tell-ee a Theme. One can argue about whether that is the right result, but we will accept that fornow.Carmela said AJ’s advisor was told that AJ might want to study event-planning.To begin, we want to get a general idea of what’s going on here. There are several embedded clauses here, which we can identifypartly by the main verbs of each clause.The main verb of the lowest clause is study. It is a transitive verb, and is interpreted as if AJ is the Agent and event-planning is theTheme. This clause is also nonfinite (to study).The main verb of the next higher clause is want. It is interpreted with AJ as the Experiencer, and the lowest clause as the Proposition(that is, the Experiencer wants the Proposition). We can see at this point that the Agent of the lowest clause must be PRO, sinceotherwise AJ would be getting two roles (Experiencer of want and Agent of study). That also means the lowest clause is a CP (not justa TP).The main verb of the next higher clause is tell. Moreover, it is passive (was told), where AJ’s advisor is the Theme (see note above,Theme being the one who was told), and the clause embedded under tell is the Proposition (the thing told). There is no Agent becauseit is passive.The main verb of the highest clause is say. The Agent of say is Carmela, the Proposition is the entire lower clause.So, let’s work our way up. We start by building the lowest clause [CP ØNULL PRO to study event-planning], according to what wedetermined above.event-planning: This is essentially a mass noun (it certainly isn’t a count noun), so this goes with ØMASS, the indefinite determiner formass nouns. We also need a little n, because we always need a little n. So, to build the DP event-planning, we do this:Merge event-planning and n.This happens due to the Hierarchy of Projections (D > (PossP) > n > N), since the N didn’t need anything. So n projects.nP3n NP[uN*] event-planningMove N to n.This checks the [uN*] feature of n.nP3n <NP>3N nevent- [uN*]planningMerge nP and ØMASS.This happens due to the Hierarchy of Projections (D > (PossP) > n > N), since the n didn’t need anything. So D projects.Note: We had said previously that D had a [uN*] feature that drives this step. However, that would not work if wehave a PossP (though we don’t in this case). We’ll revisit this when we do AJ’s advisor.Like all D’s, ØMASS has a [case] feature.DP3D nPØMASS3[case] n <NP>3N nevent- [uN*]planningNow, we can build up [vP PRO to study event-planning]:Merge study and DP.Study is a transitive verb, so it needs an object (it has a [uD*] feature) which will receive the Theme θ-role.Merging study with a DP will check the [uD*] feature of study.Since study motivated the Merge (by having a feature checked), V projects.VPquV DPstudy 3[uD*] D nPØMASS3[case] n <NP>3N nevent- [uN*]planningMerge v and VP.This happens due to the Hierarchy of Projections (C > T > (NegP) > (PerfP) > (ProgP) > (PassP) > v > V), since VP is done.Study is a transitive verb, so the v has a [uD*] feature—it needs a DP that will receive the Agent θ-role.When v has a [uD*] feature, it also has an [acc] feature.Like all v’s, this v also has a [uInfl:] feature, and [uV*] feature.The [acc] feature of v matches and values the [case] feature of D, checking both.v′qpv VP[uD*, acc, quuV*, uInfl:] V DPstudy 3[uD*] D nPØMASS3[acc] n <NP>3N nevent- [uN*]planningMove V to vv has a [uV*] feature, which can only be checked locally (in what amounts to a sisterhood relation).So V must move up and adjoin to v. This checks the [uV*] feature of v.v′qpv VP3 3V v <V> DPstudy [uD*, acc, 3[uD*] uV*, uInfl:] D nPØMASS3[acc] n <NP>3N nevent- [uN*]planningMerge v′ and PRO.The Agent of study is PRO. PRO is essentially a pronoun, it is of category D.Like all D’s, PRO has a [case] feature.This Merge checks the [uD*] feature of v, which is the last of v’s strong features. The v projects, for the last time, to vP.vPqpDP v′PRO qp[case] v VP3 3V v <V> DPstudy [uD*, acc, 3[uD*] uV*, uInfl:] D nPØMASS3[acc] n <NP>3N nevent- [uN*]planningAnd now we can finish the CP…Merge vP and to.This clause is nonfinite, so T is to. It has no case features and no φ-features.Like all T’s, this T has a [uD*] feature (a.k.a. the “EPP feature”).The infinitive T has an [inf] feature, which works like a [modal] feature: it matches, values, and checks the [uInfl:] featureof v (as [uInfl:none]).Since T still has a strong uninterpretatable feature (the EPP feature), the label of this step is T′.T′qpT vPto qp[inf] DP v′PRO qp[case] v VP3 3V v <V> DPstudy [uD*, acc, 3[uD*] uV*, uInfl:none] D nPØMASS3[acc] n <NP>3N nevent- [uN*]planningMove PRO to SpecTPTo satisfy the last strong uninterpretable feature of T, we move the nearest D (the nearest feature to match [uD*]) intothe specifier of TP. This checks the [uD*] feature of T.TPqpDP T′PRO qp[case] T vPto qp[inf] <DP> v′qpv VP3 3V v <V> DPstudy [uD*, acc, 3[uD*] uV*, uInfl:none] D nPØMASS3[acc] n <NP>3N nevent- [uN*]planningMerge CNULL with TPWhen the subject is PRO, it needs to have null case. The only way to check null case is with the special C (CNULL).So, we Merge CNULL with the TP, and the [null] feature of CNULL matches, values, and checks the [case] feature of PRO.CPqpCNULLTPØ qp[null] DP T′PRO qp[null] T vPto qp[inf] <DP> v′qpv VP3 3V v <V> DPstudy [uD*, acc, 3[uD*] uV*, uInfl:none] D nPØMASS3[acc] n <NP>3N nevent- [uN*]planningOk, now let’s move on to build the [CP that AJ might want [CP …] ]. I will from here on draw the CP we just built ([CP CNULLPRO to study event-planning]) as just CPstudy, to save space.Merge want with CPstudyWant is a transitive verb that can take a CP as its
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