LANE 334 2018-2019

3. Structure

3.1How do phrases form?

The story so far!

•Tree diagram is a way to represent the merger operations in the sentence.

•In the tree diagram, words of two kinds:

  1. content words: nouns, verbs, adjectives, and (most) prepositions.
  2. functors: pronouns, auxiliaries, complementizers, infinitival to.

Categories in the tree diagram are represented in two types of nodes:

  1. terminal nodes
  2. non-terminal nodes

 In the following sentence, the terminal nodes are green and the non-terminal nodes are red.

•Phrases/sentences are formed by MERGING a pair of constituents together in a bottom-up fashion.

•In every phrase, (specifier)+ heads + complements merge to form a projection.

e.g. straight to bed

The problem

Our constituent structure must obey UG principles + other conditions.

  • Every projection in the tree must the following UG principle:
  • Branching in the tree must obey the following UG principle:

In other words, the tree must be like this 

  • Constituent structure must also obey the following condition:

e.g.: a. Alii regarded himselfi in the mirror.

b. * Himselfi regarded Alii in the mirror.

3.2 Functional Heads and the Structure of Sentences

Forget Sentences! Introducing TPs

Remember that sentences are formed according to phrase structure rules such as the following:

S  DP T VP or S  PRN T VP or S N T V

  • The problem: trinary branching violates Binarity Principle.
  • Branching must be binary!
  • If sentences are projections formed by merging heads to complements, WHAT IS THE HEAD OF THE SENTENCE?
  • [T(ense)] seems to determine the syntax and semantics of the entire sentence, T behaves as though it takes the VP as complement. T has selectional property on the type of VP it take:

He hasreceived the letter.

* He has receiving

He is reading the book.

* He is read.

He will leave the company.

* He will leaving

So… the head of the sentence seems to be T.

  • First a smaller intermediate projection T-bar (T') is formed by merging T and VP.
  • Then by mergingT' and DP (or PRN, etc.) to form TP.

e.g. The child will finish his food

More about TPs:

•Subject DPs are located in the specifier position of TP and agree with T.

•Any clause containing a subject and a verb (finite or non-finite) is a TP.

•T in English is usually realized as AUX, the infinitive to, or as abstract features on V (e.g. [+PAST]). T may also be realised as an affix.

•T has a EPP(Extended Projection Principle) featurewhich requires them to have an extended projection into a TP containing a subject.

•In other words, any English finite clause must have a subject. WHY? Because Ts has an EPP feature and accordingly must have a subject the specifier position.

e.g. A lizard entered the room.

* entered the room.

Why do we still need to add an expletive subject (dummy subjects)?

There appeared [ a magical princess]. APPEAR<1>

?

It seemed [that the president was lying.] SEEM <1>

?

It’s snowing. SNOW <1>

?

•TPs can be inside other TPs…

[TP I love [TP to eat chocolate.]]

[TP For [TP her to love chocolate] is hardly surprising.]]

Intermediate projections X' mayalso occur in other phrases. HOW!

3.3 The c-command condition on binding

Some nouns are special! Anaphors

Anaphorsinclude reflexives+reciprocals

▫ reflexives: are himself/herself/myself/themselves, etc.;

▫ reciprocals:each other

Anaphors must be bound by an antecedent.

e.g.: a. Aliiencourageshimselfi.

b. * HimselfiencouragesAlii.

a. They blamed each other.

b. * Each other blamed they.

In other words, the antecedent must c-command the anaphor in order to bind the anaphor.

 Does Ali c-command himself?

 Does Ali c-commands the reflexive himself in the following example?

  1. * Ali’s sister encourages himself.

Reading for this lecture:

Radford (2008) chapter 2.

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