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BU CAS LX 522 - Episode 7a. Do-support (really), then subjects, agreement, and case 5.5;6.1-6.3

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1Episode 7a. Do-support (really), thensubjects, agreement, and case5.5;6.1-6.3CAS LX 522Syntax ITypology of verb/aux raising! Interestingly, there don’tseem to be languagesthat raise main verbs butnot auxiliaries.! This double-binarydistinction predicts therewould be.! It overgenerates a bit.! This is a pattern that wewould like to explainsomeday, another mysteryabout Aux to file away.! Sorry, we won’t have anysatisfying explanation forthis gap this semester.StrongWeakUnattestedWeakWeakSwedishStrongStrongFrenchWeakStrongEnglishT values[uInfl:] onvT values[uInfl:] onAuxIrish! In Irish, the basic word order is VSO (other languageshave this property too, e.g., Arabic)! Phóg Máire an lucharachán.kissed Mary the leprechaun‘Mary kissed the leprechaun.’! We distinguish SVO from SOV by supposing that thehead-complement order can vary from language tolanguage (heads precede complements in English,heads follow complements in Japanese).! We may also be able to distinguish other languages(OVS, VOS) by a parameter of specifier order.! But no combination of these two parameters can giveus VSO.Irish! But look at auxiliary verbs in Irish:! Tá Máire ag-pógáil an lucharachán.Is Mary ing-kiss the leprechaun‘Mary is kissing the leprechaun.’! We find that if an auxiliary occupies the verb slotat the beginning of the sentence, the main verbappears between the subject and verb:Aux S V O.! What does this suggest about! The head-parameter setting in Irish?! How VSO order arises?SVO to VSO! Irish appears to be essentially an SVOlanguage, like French.! Verbs and auxiliaries raise past the subject toyield VSO.! We can analyze the Irish pattern as beingminimally different from our existing analysis ofFrench— just one difference, which wehypothesize is another parametric differencebetween languages.! V and Aux both raise to T (when tense valuesthe [uInfl:] feature of either one, [uInfl:] isstrong) in Irish, just as in French.v!French vs. Irish! Remember this step in the French derivation before?! I’ve omitted negation to make it simpler.! What if we stopped here?! In French it would crash (why?).! But what if it didn’t crash in Irish?! What would have to be different?NPMarco<V>VP<v>vPNPZinédinev[uInfl:pres*]vVdétesteTTT! [tense:pres, T, u N*, …]2Parametric differences! We could analyze Irish as being just like French exceptwithout the strong [uN*] feature on T.! Without that feature, the subject doesn’t need to move to SpecTP. Theorder would be VSO, or AuxSVO.! So, languages can vary in, at least:! Head-complement order! (Head-specifier order)! Whether [uInfl:] on Aux is strong or weak when valued by T! Whether [uInfl:] on v is strong or weak when valued by T! Whether T has a [uN*] feature or not! Later, when we look at German, we’ll suggest a different analysis of Irish,but this will work for now.do-support! In French, verbs move to T.In English, they don’t move to T.! That’s because in French, when [tense:past] values [uInfl:]on v, it is strong, and in English, it is weak.! What this doesn’t explain is why do appearssometimes in English, seemingly doing nothing butcarrying the tense (and subject agreement).! The environments are complicated:! Tom did not commit the crime.! Tom did not commit the crime, but someone did.! Zoe and Danny vowed to prove Tom innocent,and prove Tom innocent they did.! Tom (has) never committed that crime.do-support! The environments are complicated:! Tom did not commit the crime.! Tom did not commit the crime, but someone did.! Zoe and Danny vowed to prove Tom innocent,and prove Tom innocent they did.! Tom (has) never committed that crime.! When not separates T and v, do appears in T to carry thetense morphology.! When T is stranded due to VP ellipsis or VP fronting, doappears in T to carry the tense morphology.! When never (or any adverb) separates T and v, tensemorphology appears on the verb (v).! So, do appears when T is separated from the verb, butadverbs like never aren’t “visible”, they aren’t in the way.Technical difficulties! How do we generally know to pronounceV+v as a past tense verb?! T values the [uInfl:] feature of v. The presumption isthat eat+v[uInfl:past] sounds like “ate.” And T doesn’tsound like anything.! But this happens whether or not v is right next to T. vstill has a [uInfl:] feature that has to be checked.! So, the questions are, how do we:! Keep from pronouncing the verb based on v’s [uInfl:]feature if T isn’t right next to it?! Keep from pronouncing do at T if v is right next to it?! We need to connect T and v somehow.Technical difficulties! The connection between T and v is that(when there are no auxiliaries), T values the[uInfl:] feature of v.! This sets up a relationship between the twoheads.! Adger calls this relationship a chain.! We want to ensure that tense features arepronounced in exactly one place in thischain.! If the ends of the chain are not close enough together,tense is pronounced on T (as do). If they are closeenough together, tense is pronounced on v+V.Technical difficulties! Let’s be creative: Suppose that the tensefeatures on v (the value of the [uInfl:] feature)“refer back” to the tense features on T.! Agree can see relatively far (so T can value the [uInfl:]feature of v, even if it has to look past negation).! But “referring back” is more limited, basically onlyavailable to features that are sisters. Negation will get inthe way for this.! So if you try to pronounce tense on v but T is too far away,the back-reference fails, and v is pronounced as a bareverb. But the tense features have to be pronouncedsomewhere, so they’re pronounced on T (as do).3PTR! Adger’s proposal:! Pronouncing Tense Rule (PTR)In a chain (T[tense], v[uInfl:tense]), pronounce the tensefeatures on v only if v is the head of T’s sister! NegP, if there, will be the sister of T (HoP), butNeg has no [uInfl:] feature. do will be inserted.! Adverbs adjoin to vP, resulting in a vP. v has an[uInfl:] valued by T and adverbs don’t get inthe way of vP being the sister of T. Tense ispronounced on the verb (v).! If vP is gone altogether, do is inserted.v!Pat did not call Chris! So, here, T and v form a chain because [tense:past]valued [uInfl:past]. But v is not the head of T’s sister.T[tense:past, …]NPChris<V>vagent[uInfl:past,…]VPvVcallvP<Pat>NegnotNegPT!NPPatTPv!Pat did not call Chris! Do-support comes to the rescue. What this means is just that T ispronounced as do with the tense


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BU CAS LX 522 - Episode 7a. Do-support (really), then subjects, agreement, and case 5.5;6.1-6.3

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