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Linguistics 401, section 2HaleSyntax: basic constituent order and argument structureOctober 15, 20031 Word order phenomenaThere are an astronomical1number of ways words can be sequenced. Only some of them arerecognizable as English. What’s the difference between the acceptable and the unacceptablesequences?(1) review:∗ (“star”) means that native speakers say the sentence is Not part of their languagegrammatical category name of substitution class e.g. {V, A, Adv, N, Name, D, P, Prn, Aux}(2) Can you pick members of a grammatical category to make an acceptable sentenceout of any of these randomly-generated templates?1. Name — Adv — A — Aux — Aux2. P — P — D — Aux — Prn3. Name — Prn — A — N — P4. A — Aux — Adv — Prn — N5. P — Name — P — A — V6. Aux — Adv — Prn — A — Aux7. P — Name — P — Adv — Name8. D — Name — A — P — Adv9. Adv — N — Aux — A — Aux10. P — Aux — Aux — Prn — VWhich of these should have stars in front of them?(3) word substitutability: Name – Aux – V – D – NCNN will conduct three debates.Bush has embarrassed some supporters.Dennis might lose the electionCarol should cast a vote...(4) phrase substitutability:Carol should cast a vote NameShe should cast a vote PrnThe woman should cast a vote determiner phrase (DP)The African-American womanshould cast a voteDPThe one person who has aprayer of changing things inthis country should cast a voteDP...1Using the nine categories from Fromkin, there are 59or about 1.9 million possible ‘templates’ for five-word English sentences.1(5) DP is just the tip of the icebergVP cast a vote, rise to the occasionAP despondent about her boyfriend, eager for victoryNP candidate, candidate for presidentPP about her boyfriend, for victoryCP that she’s going to St. Tropez, if W. will winPhrases XP headed by word of category X. e.g. NPs don’t have determiners at the beginning,but rather nouns.2 Theta theoryIt would be nice for grammars to not only distinguish the acceptable and unacceptablesentences, but also give some insight about how their structure contributes to their meaning.To a first approximation, DPs refer to real or imagined entities in the world, and verbspredicate properties of these entities.(6)Bush beats Clark AGENT=incumbent president George W. Bush,PATIENT=former General Wesley ClarkClark beats Bush AGENT=former General Wesley Clark,PATIENT=incumbent president George W. BushThe same entities can participate in the same event in different ways. We can describethis in terms of different thematic (θ) roles (AGENT, PATIENT,...) being “assigned” todifferent participants in the situation the sentence is about. Shorthand: θ-role T is assignedto argument phrase XP. The specific as signment depends on particular assigners and theparticular environment.(7) The recall thrills Schwarzenegger.thrills assigns THEME to the DP “The recall” and EXPERIENCER to the Name“Schwarzenegger”(8) Schwarzenegger loves the recall.loves assigns THEME to the DP “the recall” and EXPERIENCER to the Name“Schwarzenegger”(9) Judy passed the mic to Joe Lieberman.passed assigns GOAL to the PP “to Joe Lieberman” and PATIENT to the DP “themic”(10) Judy passed Joe Lieberman the mic.passed assigns GOAL to the Name “Joe Lieberman” and PATIENT to the DP “themic”English grammatical roles like subject, direct object, indirect object, dative are distinguish-able by position. In Latin, Japanese, Russian etc. they are indicated by case-markingmorphemes in a wide range of positions. We have a budget version of this with the posses-sive morpheme ’s.(11) Schwarzenegger’s handlers should have warned him about the media.’s assigns POSSESSOR to the Name “Schwarzenegger”Verbs are not the only θ-assigners, predicative adjectives also do:2(12) The spinmeisters were crafty.crafty assigns THEME to the DP “The spinmeisters”so do prepositions(13) Jenna’s sister is in St. Tropez.in assigns LOCATION to the DP “Jenna’s sister”(14) transitivity: number of arguments a verb takes obligatorilyintransitive 1transitive 2ditransitive 3non-argument complements called adjuncts are not required for acceptability(15)∗ Judy handed the micJudy handed the mic to JoeJudy handed the mic to Joe at the debate[P Pto Joe ] is an argument of handedbut [P Pat the debate ]


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MSU LIN 401 - Syntax Lecture

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