May 27, 2008 ... on the textbook “Syntax. A generative introduction”, 2nd edition 2007 from
Andrew Carnie. 2. One group of students will give us a 30min ...
Introduction to Syntax Session 1 Introduction
Cornelia Endriss Cognitive Science Program University of Osnabrück
The Idea … of this course is to learn more about our language faculty, in particular about syntax, i.e. about how sentences are structured. To try and make this a seminar that actually features some discussions about the topics we want to deal with, the sessions will usually fall into two parts: 1. I will introduce the basic syntactic concepts to you – based on the textbook “Syntax. A generative introduction”, 2nd edition 2007 from Andrew Carnie. 2. One group of students will give us a 30min presentation about a topic that is only briefly touched or not mentioned in the textbook, and we will discuss this topic in class. 27.05.2008
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The Plan • The topics that are discussed in the lecture should be studied at home by reading the respective chapters in the textbook and working through the given presentations. • There will be homework exercises from one week to the other so that you can check whether the concepts are actually understood. • Homework exercises and presentations are group work with groups of 2 or 3 people. Please choose a presentation topic and sign up for the group associated with this topic via StudIP (first come first serve). If you sign up for “Group x – Topic x”, you are “Group x” and you have to present “Topic x” on the date it is scheduled. • There will be a final written exam. 27.05.2008
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Requirements Hence, in order to acquire a certificate for this course (4 ECTS points) you have to… 1. attend the seminar sessions regularly and read the corresponding chapters of the course book 2. hand in the homework assigned regularly and on time (group work) 3. hold one seminar presentation (group work) 4. take a short written exam in the end of the course (check also requirements file in StudIP) 27.05.2008
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Homework • Homework exercises are group work. • Solutions must be sent to me by email before 24:00h on the Friday following the seminar session (docs or pdfs). • Each assignment will give you a number of points, depending on the difficulty and amount of work involved. The fewer correct assignment you hand in (and hand in in time – the deadline is strict) the fewer points you will collect. • The points you score for the homework tasks accounts for 1/3 of the final grade. 27.05.2008
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Presentations • Presentations are group work. • Presentations should be 30min long, accompanied by handouts or slides. • They tackle a topic that is only briefly touched in the textbook and deal with further exciting syntactic problems. • The materials have to be discussed with me at least one week before the presentation. The presentations should be more or less ready when we discuss them. My office hours are Wednesdays, 2-3pm. But we can also arrange other appointments via email. I am happy to give you any help you may need. 27.05.2008
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Presentations • The final version of the presentation (including suggestions that have been made during the discussion in class) materials must be uploaded in StudIP not later than one week after the presentation. The mark is based on the presentation plus the quality of the final presentation materials. • The points you score for the presentation accounts for 1/3 of the final grade.
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Final Exam • The final exam will cover all topics of the textbook that have been discussed during the seminar. • The points you score for the exam accounts for 1/3 of the final grade.
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What is Syntax? • •
The scientific study of sentence structure.
•
Underlying thesis: sentences are generated by a subconscious set of rules.
The psychological (or cognitive) organization of sentence structure in the mind.
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Scientific MethodRules throughout this class •
The task of syntax is to find out what these rules look like.
•
A group of rules are called a Grammar.
•
A grammar in the linguistic sense is a cognitive structure. It is the part of the mind that generates and understands language.
•
Goal of syntactic theory: to model what we subconsciously know about the syntax of our language.
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How do we acquire languages? •
We are not instructed.
•
Languages are not taught.
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Language is creative •
Language is creative. The dancing hippo saw the rabbit in the kitchen.
•
Human languages are recursive.
• • • •
Dena likes horses
•
etc.
Clarissa knows that [Dena likes horses] Anne thinks that [Clarissa knows that [Dena likes horses]] Christian said that [Anne thinks that [Clarissa knows that [Dena likes horses]]]
• Language is infinite. 27.05.2008
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Subconscious knowledge • We have subconscious knowledge about our grammar: a) Who(m) did you say Paul hit ___? b) Who(m) did you say
that Paul hit ___ ?
c) Who
did you say
___
d) *Who
did you say
that ___
Example in the hit Bill? original language
hit Bill?Aligned Gloss:
A word by word translation (most useful line)
Wen hat Maria __ angerufen? Who(m) has Maria ring-up? Loose English Translation: ‘Who(m) did Maria call?’ For information purposes only *Wen weißt du, dass Maria __ angerufen hat? Who know you that Maria called has 27.05.2008
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Poverty of stimulus a) Who(m) did you say
Paul hit ___?
b) Who(m) did you say
that Paul hit ___ ?
c) Who
did you say
___ hit Bill?
d) *Who
did you say that
___ hit Bill?
• How does the child know that d) is ungrammatical if it does not get negative evidence? • How can it be sure that it has heard the crucial set of data to build up a rule on grounds of this input? (poverty of stimulus argument)? 27.05.2008
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Language as an instinct
• Noam Chomsky
The ability of humans to use language is innate, an instinct. We are prewired to use language!
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But Languages Differ!
• How can language be an instinct if languages differ? • Proposal: Languages differ primarily in terms of what words are used, and in a set number of “parameters”. • These things are learned but the rest (the basic architecture of the grammar) is innate. • A particular language is not innate, it is acquired, but the basic tools (principles) that any given language uses are built in. 27.05.2008
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Presentation Topic 1 Nature versus Nurture Chomsky has argued that the ability of humans to use language is innate (an instinct). Most linguists nowadays subscribe to that idea. On this view it is predicted that human languages exhibit interesting generalizations. It is these generalizations that linguists investigate. One of the core arguments for the innateness of the human language capacity is the poverty of stimulus argument. There is a very recent debate whether this argument is actually compelling. Read the following papers of the proponents and opponents of the linguistic nativism thesis and give a short and clear representation of their views. Think about your positioning. Which arguments do you find more convincing? 27.05.2008
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Presentation Topic 1 Target article-• Pullum, G. and B. Scholz (2002). Empirical assessment of stimulus poverty arguments. The Linguistic Review 19: 8–50. [StudIP] Reply-• Crain, S. & P. Pietroski (2002): Why language acquisition is a snap. The Linguistic Review 19: 163-183 [StudIP] Additional/Background reading-• Chomsky, N. (1959): A Review of B. F. Skinner’s Verbal Behavior. Language 35, No. 1: 26-58. [StudIP] • Crain, S. & P. Pietroski (2005): Innate Ideas, The Cambridge Companion to Chomsky. Ed. J. McGilvray. CUP. [StudIP] 27.05.2008
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Parts of Speech • We will go through Carnie’s book “Syntax” chapter by chaper. • We start with analyzing the units that sentences are built upon: words. (Chapter 2) • Famous example (Groucho Marx): Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana. (first flies is a verb, second flies is a noun. First like is a comparative conjunction, second like is a verb. ) 27.05.2008
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Constituency and Ambiguity • We carry on with Constitency, Trees, and Rules. (Chapter 3) • Ambiguity plays a major role here. • Sentences can be ambiguous (= have more than one meaning) for numerous reasons. • We are concerned with the syntactic reasons for ambiguity in this class .
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Lexical Ambiguity
• Words can have different meanings and thus cause ambiguities. • These lexical ambiguities won’t concern us much.
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Lexical Ambiguity
Bitte den Polizisten umfahren (Please the policeman UMFAHREN)
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Lexical Ambiguity umfahren has two meanings:
Bitte den Polizisten umfahren
In written form, umfahren is ambigous. umfáhren To drive round 27.05.2008
úmfahren
Pronounciation disambiguates.
To knock over Some slides are adapted from material of A. Carnie
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Lexical Ambiguity
•
Context often disambiguates.
Bitte den Polizisten umfahren
Versuchter Mord wegen Umfahren eines Polizeibeamten tried murder due-to UMFAHREN of-a policeman (From a blog for legal handling of traffic accidents)
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Morpho-syntactic Ambiguity • An Example:
(Chicken Kebap Children Kebap) 27.05.2008
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Morpho-syntactic Ambiguity • Ambiguities can be caused by differing interpretations of word clusters. • (Complex) words are internally structured. Different structuring of these complex words can give rise to ambiguities. • We will mostly ignore these morpho-syntactic ambiguities in this class.
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Syntactic Structure • Ambiguities that are caused by the underlying structure of a sentence are referred to as syntactic ambiguities. Woman to shop assistent: „Dürfte ich das blaue Kleid im Schaufenster probieren?“ May I the blue dress in-the shop window try ‚Can I try the blue dress in the shop window?‘ -- „Ja! Aber wir haben auch Umkleidekabinen!“ Yes but we have also fitting rooms ‚Yes, but we also have fitting rooms.‘ • Such ambiguities tell us a lot about the structure of sentences. Syntax theory deals with these kinds of ambiguities. 27.05.2008
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Parsing Preferences • Extralinguistic knowledge does not always help. Der Professor küsste die Frau mit dem Briefbeschwerer. The professor kissed the woman with the paperweight (sentence from Matthias Schlesewsky)
• Although world knowledge tells us that the act of kissing does not take an instrument, the sentence is funny. • The sentence is interpreted as: Der Professor [[küsste] [die Frau] [mit dem Briefbeschwerer]] rather than: Der Professor [[küsste] [die Frau mit dem Briefbeschwerer]] 27.05.2008
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Parsing Preferences • Unexpectedly, the sentence from the last slide is hard to understand. • It needs to be explained why we cannot interpret the sentence in the intended way right away. (It is the only reading that makes sense!) • There must be general human parsing strategies that initially block this interpretation. • People have made different suggestions on how humans parse and why some sentences are hard to understand, although they do have entirely unproblematic meanings.
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Garden Path Sentences • Some sentences are so hard to understand that the listener actually seems to be led into a garden path when trying to interpret them. She is stuck. Es ist eine Lüge, dass Fritz zugunsten von Maria nie It is a lie that Fritz in aid of Maris never etwas unternommen worden wäre. something done have was Columbus` Feinde glaubten, dass der Entdecker von Amerika erst Columbus enemies believed that the discoverer of America yet im Jahre 1502 erfahren hat. in-the year 1502 learnt has
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Garden Path Sentences Peter sagt, dass er der Maria anvertraute streng geheime Peter says that he the Maria entrusted strongly secret Gerüchte erfahren hat. Rumors learnt has The horse raced past the barn fell. When Fred eats food gets thrown. Fat people eat accumulates. The cotton clothing is usually made of grows in Mississippi. • •
Here, there are local ambiguities involved, and the parser seems to take the wrong route. The listener has difficulties understanding the sentence, as she builds up the wrong structure. 27.05.2008
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Presentation Topic 2 Sentence Processing Many sentences are ambiguous in meaning. However, often only one meaning is predominant. Sometimes this is even the one that should be excluded by world knowledge or other factors. Furthermore, some sentences are virtually uninterpretable, although they actually do have a perfect meaning. We call this effect the garden path effect. People have argued for certain human parsing strategies that can be held responsible for these effects. Read the following papers about human parsing in general and garden path effects in particular and report the results of these papers to the class. 27.05.2008
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Presentation Topic 2 Overview Article-• Altmann, Gerry (1998): Ambiguity in Sentence Processing, Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 2(4), 146-152 [StudIP] Suggestions for human parsing strategies— • Frazier, L. (1987) Sentence processing: a tutorial review. In M. Coltheart (Hg.), Attention & Performance XII. Hilsdale, Erlbaum, 559-586. [Reader, my office] • Crain, Stephen and Mark Steedman (1985): On not being led up the garden-path: the use of context by the psychological parser. In D. Dowty, L. Kartunnen, and A. Zwicky (eds.) Natural Language Parsing. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. [Reader, my office] 27.05.2008
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Binding Theory •
After setting some terminology (Chapter 4), we carry on with a very important topic in syntax: Binding Theory (BT) (Chapter 4). (Yesterday, it was Paula’s birthday.) Heidi said that she played basketball. Heidi said that Heidi played basketball. Heidi said that Paula played basketball. Heidi bopped herself on the head with a zucchini. Heidi bopped Heidi on the head with a zucchini. # Heidi bopped Paula on the head with a zucchini. Heidi bopped her on the head with a zucchini. #Heidi bopped Heidi on the head with a zucchini. Heidi bopped Paula on the head with a zucchini.
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Picture NPs • NPs of the “Xself”-type are usually in complementary distribution with pronouns such as “him”/”his”/”her”. • BT explains the distribution of these types of NPs. • picture-NPs constitute a big challenge to BT, as “Xself”-NPs and pronouns behave abnormally here. (Paula is happy) (Paula is happy) #Heidi found Peter’s picture of herself. Heidi found a picture of herself. #Heidi found Peter’s picture of Heidi. Heidi found a picture of Heidi. #Heidi found Peter’s picture of Paula. #Heidi found a picture of Paula. Heidi found Peter’s picture of her. Heidi found a picture of her. Heidi found Peter’s picture of Heidi. Heidi found a picture of Heidi. Heidi found Peter’s picture of Paula. Heidi found a picture of Paula. 27.05.2008
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Presentation Topic 3 Picture-NPs (You have to have read the textbook up until Chapter 5 to complete this task.)
Read the articles on picture-NPs given on the next slide. 1. Explain why picture- NPs constitute a challenge for Binding Theory as it is presented in Chapter 5 of the textbook. Give a short and concise demonstration of your results. 2. Complete challenge problem sets 1 and 2 of the textbook (pp. ev: 145f/tv: 147f) and present your results in class. 3. Present the solutions that are suggested in the papers and -- if there is still time -- explain the experimental methods used and the results. 27.05.2008
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Presentation Topic 3 Picture-NPs-• Asudeh, Ash and Frank Keller. Experimental evidence for a predication-based Binding Theory. In Mary Andronis, Christopher Ball, Heidi Elston, and Sylvain Neuvel, eds., CLS 37: The main session. Chicago, IL: Chicago Linguistic Society. 1-14. [StudIP] • Runner, J.T., Sussman, R.S. and Tanenhaus, M.K. (2003). Assignment of reference to reflexives and pronouns in picture noun phrases: Evidence from eye movements. Cognition 89.1, B1-B13. [StudIP] Background reading— • Chapter 4 of Haegemann, L., 1991. Introduction to Government and Binding Theory. 2nd ed. Oxford: Blackwell. [Library] 27.05.2008
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X-bar Theory • We now discuss X-bar Theory (Chapters 6, 7 & 8), which gives us a general format for the generative rules we work with. • It constrains the form that our rules may have. XP d AP BP CP excluded. • E.g. XP d YP X’ ok; • It simplifies the system of rules and captures the crosscategorial generalizations. • This sets the stage for the discussion of further empiric phenomena. • But X-bar theory as such can still produce sentences that are NOT well formed. • It over-generates (generates ungrammatical sentences). 27.05.2008
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Unconstrained X-bar Theory overgenerates • E.g. X-bar theory says that complements are optional so that the rules can generate the following sentences: The boy hates sweets. The boy laughed. • BUT: *The boy loves. *The boy laughed the horse. • Certain verbs require objects, others require that they don’t have them. • It depends on the particular verb. 27.05.2008
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The lexicon • The information whether a verb requires an object or not is stored in the lexicon. • This is the mental dictionary, the store of information about particular words. to sleep:
• To love: Lover DP
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Beloved DP
Sleeper DP
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Expletives • There are verbs that take no arguments at all. • E.g. the verb to rain. • There is no “rainer” that makes it rain. • To rain: • In English (and German), sentences cannot appear without a subject though. Expletive/ • Hence, we say Pleonastic It rains. Instead of simply: Rains. 27.05.2008
This is something that needs to be explained!
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Presentation Topic 4 Expletives (You have to have read the textbook up until Chapter 8 to complete this task.)
Expletives or pleonastics are usually explained by the need of sentences to feature subjects. It is hence predicted that they only appear in subject position. However, there are sentences that seem to suggest to the contrary. I regretted it that he was late. Here, the it seems superflous and is certainly not a necessary argument to regret. It feels like an expletive. Read Rothstein‘s paper about pleonastics and list the reasons for and against treating it in object positions as in the example above as expletives. Present Rothstein‘s view and think about your own view. 27.05.2008
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Presentation Topic 4 Paper for presentation-• Rothstein, S. (1995) Pleonastics and the interpretation of pronouns, Linguistic Inquiry 26:499-529. [Reader, my office] Background reading— • Postal. P. and G. Pullum. (1988). Expletive noun phrases in subcategorized positions, Linguistic Inquiry 19:633-670. [Reader, my office]
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Movement • Inspection of new data shows us that we need a new rule type, i.e. Movement Rules (Chapters 9-12). • These movement rules can account for word order variations in different languages. • It is assumed that there is a D-structure that sentences start out with, from which we can derive the surface structure that we actually observe. • When the verb is moved from some place to another, we refer to this as head-movement.
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Word Order • Languages exhibit different word orders. • SVO: e.g. English Peter loves Mary. • SOV: e.g. Turkish Hasan kitab-i oku-du. Hasan-subj book-object read-past ‘Hasan reads the book.’ • VSO: e.g. Irish Phóg Máire an lucharachán Kissed Mary the leprechaun ‘Mary kissed the leprechaun.’ 27.05.2008
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Presentation Topic 5 VSO Languages (You have to have read the textbook up until Chapter 9 to complete this task.)
Different languages have different prevailing word orders. Irish is one of the around 9% of the languages in the world that features a VSO word order. It is particularly interesting whether there is a VP (verb + object) constituent in such languages. Read the articles given on the next slide and present the arguments for and against the existence of a VP constituent in such sentences. Furthermore, give an outline of McCloskey’s view and his arguments. 27.05.2008
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Presentation Topic 5 Paper for presentation-• McCloskey, James (1983): A VP in a VSO language. In Gerald Gazdar, Geoff Pullam and Ivan Sag (eds.), Order Concord and Constituency. Foris, Dordrecht. [Reader, my office] Background reading— • Carnie, Andrew (2004): Flat Structure, Phrasal Variability and Non-Verbal Predication in Irish. Journal of Celtic Linguistics 9. [StudIP]
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Word Order • With regards to word order, German is a particularly intriguing case. • At first, it seems that German is an SVO language like English. Clarissa mag Pferde. Clarissa likes horses
Clarissa likes horses.
• However, when looking at embedded structures, English and German differ. *Dena bedauert, dass Clarissa mag Pferde. Dena regrets that Clarissa likes horses
Dena regrets that Clarissa likes horses.
Dena bedauert, dass Clarissa Pferde mag. Dena regrets that Clarissa horses likes 27.05.2008
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Presentation Topic 6 Word Order in German (You have to have read the textbook up until Chapter 9 to complete this task.)
German shows SVO word order in matrix clauses, but (usually) SOV in embedded clauses. So what is the underlying word order of German, SVO or SOV? How can this strange behavior be explained? Read the articles given on the next slide and present the results to the class.
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Presentation Topic 6 Papers for presentation-• Koster, Jan (1973): Dutch as an SOV Language, Linguistic Analysis 1, 111-136. [http://www.dbnl.org/tekst/kost006dutc01/kost006dutc01_001.htm]
• Bach, E., (1962) The order of elements in a transformational grammar of German. Language 38, 263-269. [Reader, my office]
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Embedded Clauses in German • As pointed out before, embedded sentences in German usually exhibit the SOV word order. •
Dena glaubt, dass Clarissa Pferde mag. Dena believes that Clarissa horses likes
•
However, sometimes we can embed SVO sentences. Dena glaubt, Clarissa mag Pferde. Dena believes Clarissa likes horses
•
Interestingly, embedding SVO sentences is not always possible. *Dena bedauert, Clarissa mag Pferde. Dena regrets Clarissa likes horses 27.05.2008
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Embedded Clauses in German • Predicates that allow for SVO embedding: believe, know, say, announce, hope, … • Predicates that don’t allow for SVO embedding: regret, doubt, want, … • This strange property of German has to be explained. • People have made different suggestions to the problem, but the question is still under debate.
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Presentation Topic 7 Embedded Clauses in German Note that this is a topic concerning the syntax-semantics interface. The task requires some knowledge in formal semantics (Intro to Semantics or equivalent skills)! (You have to have read the textbook up until Chapter 9 to complete this task.)
Only some German verbs allow for the embedding of SVO sentences. It has been suggested that there is a semantic reason for this. Movement from V to C, which is held responsible for SVO word order, can be associated with certain semantic effects. Read Hubert Truckenbrodt’s article given on the next slide and present the results to the class. Please do abstract from the formal details of his approach! 27.05.2008
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Presentation Topic 7 Paper for presentation-• Truckenbrodt, Hubert (2006): On the semantic motivation of syntactic verb movement to C in German. Theoretical Linguistics 32.3, edited by Hans-Martin Gärtner. [StudIP] Background Reading (not obligatory as paper is written in German)-• Reis, Marga (1997): Zum syntaktischen Status unselbständiger Verbzweit-Sätze. In C. Dürscheid and K.-J. Ramers (eds.), Sprache im Fokus. Festschrift für Heinz Vater zum 65. Geburtstag. Tübingen: Niemeyer. 121–144. [Reader, my office] 27.05.2008
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DP- and WH-Movement • Not only verbs can move, but also phrases such as the man or who (cf. Chapters 10-12). Who(m) did you say
Paul hit ___?
Who(m) did you say that Paul hit ___ ? • In English wh-phrases have to move to the front. • In case of embedded questions they move to the front of the embedded clause. I know who(m) Paul hit ___. • Embedded questions are not introduced by complementizers. *I know who(m) that Paul hit ___. I know that Paul hit Bill. 27.05.2008
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WH-Movement in German • The same holds for German. Wen hat Maria __ angerufen? Who(m) has Maria ring-up? ‘Who(m) did Maria call?’ • Embedded question:
who
that
Ich weiß, wen Maria ___ angerufen hat? *Ich weiß, wen dass die Maria ___ angerufen hat. Ich weiß, dass die Maria den Peter angerufen hat. • So far it seems that wh-words and complementizers are in complementary distribution. • (Very naïve) explanatory guess: They target the same position. 27.05.2008
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WH-Movement in Bavarian • But there are languages/dialects that actually allow for complementizers and fronted wh-words at the same time. • Bavarian German is such a language. I woaß ned wos dass –ma toa soin. I know not what that -we do should ‘I don’t know what we should do.’ I woaß ned wann dass da Xaver kummt. I know not when that the Xaver comes ‘I don’t know when Xaver will come.’ • This shows clearly that wh-phrases actually do not move to the same position as complementizers. 27.05.2008
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Presentation Topic 8 COMP in Bavarian Syntax (You have to have read the textbook up until Chapter 11 to complete this task.)
Bavarian German allows for both a wh-phrase and an overt complementizer. This tells us a lot about wh-movement in general and the structure of German sentences in particular. Read Joseph Bayer’s article and present the core ideas. Paper for presentation-•Bayer, Joseph (1984), COMP in Bavarian syntax. The Linguistic Review 3: 209-274. [Reader, my office]
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Empirical Evidence for Traces • In order to give substance to the movement assumption, people have tried to give arguments that support the idea that the surface structure of a sentence is derived via movement operatons. • One very famous (and wildly debated) argument has to to with wanna-contractions in English want + to ⇒ wanna Who do you wanna kiss __? Who do you want to kiss __ ? *Who do you wanna kiss the horse? Who do you want __ to kiss the horse? intervenes, so blocks wanna contraction 27.05.2008
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Presentation Topic 9 Wanna-contraction in English (You have to have read the textbook up until Chapter 11 to complete this task.)
Read the grey box on p. 324 (ev: 322) and explain in detail why wanna-contractions can be taken to constitute an argument for the movement hypothesis and the existence of traces. Take also into account the lecture notes of William Snyder and Susi Wurmbrand. Then read the notes of Grant Goodall and the paper of Geffrey Pullum and present the counterarguments for taking wanna-constructions as evidence for movement approaches.
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Presentation Topic 9 Pullum’s Paper-• Pullum, G. (1997): The morpholexical nature of English tocontraction, Language 73, 79-102. [Reader, my office] Lecture Notes-• Of Grant Goodall on contraction. [StudIP] • Of William Snyder and Susi Wurmbrand on wannacontraction. [StudIP]
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Little vP • There is good reason to believe that what appear to be morphologically simple verbs in English may in fact be morphologically complex. Ryan cleans the window.
v’
VP
v CAUSE
V’ V clean
VP V’
DP the window
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vP
V clean
DP the window
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Crosslinguistic Evidence for Little vP • In Japanese for example, certain verbs are realized as morphologically complex, although their English correspondents are simple verbs. Keiko-wa Keiko-top
pizzapizza-acc
ag- e -ta. rise-v(CAUSE)-past
‚Keiko raised the pizza.‘ (Lit.: Keiko made the pizza rise.)
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Semantic Evidence for Little vP • There is also semantic evidence for the complex VP analysis, brought up by Arnim von Stechow. John closed the window again. 1. Repetitive: Hans closed the window AGAIN. Hans schloss wieder das Fenster. Hans had closed the window before. 2. Restitutive: Hans CLOSED the window again. Hans schloss das Fenster wieder. The window had been close at some stage before. 27.05.2008
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Presentation Topic 10 Little vP and the semantics of again Note that this is a topic concerning the syntax-semantics interface. The task requires some knowledge in formal semantics (Intro to Semantics or equivalent skills)! (You have to have read the textbook up until Chapter 13 to complete this task.)
What appears to be a simple verb in German is often realized as morphologically complex in other languages. This has led to an analysis that splits the VP-domain into vP and VP. There is also semantic evidence for this kind of analysis, brought up by Arnim von Stechow, concerning the possible interpretations of sentences containing again. Read von Stechow’s paper, present the core ideas and explain in what respects it strengthens the complex VP analysis. 27.05.2008
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Presentation Topic 10 Paper for presentation-• von Stechow, Arnim (1996): The Different Readings of Wieder 'Again': A Structural Account, Journal of Semantics 13, 87138. [StudIP] Background Reading-• Kratzer, A. (1996). Severing the external argument from its verb. In J. Rooryk and L. Zaring, (eds.), Phrase structure and the lexicon, Dordrecht: Kluwer, pp. 109–137. [Reader, my office]
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Raising and Control • Raising and control structures look strikingly alike at first sight. Dena is likely to leave.
Raising
Dena is reluctant to leave.
Control
Dena wants Brian to leave.
Raising
Dena persuaded Brian to leave.
Control
• Yet, they have to be kept apart. • There is good reason to ascribe rather different structures to these constructions.
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Raising and Control • One can distinguish these constructions via several tests. • Here is one, the expletive test. • Raising: Dena is likely to leave.
⇒
It is likely that Dena will leave.
Dena wants Brian to leave.
⇒
?Dena
wants it that Brian leaves.
• Control: Dena is reluctant to leave.
⇒ *It is reluctant that Dena will leave.
Dena persuaded Brian to leave. ⇒ *Dena persuaded it that Brian leaves. 27.05.2008
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Control Dena is reluctant to leave. ⇒ that who leaves? Dena! ⇒ subject control Dena persuaded Brian to leave. ⇒ that who leaves? Brian! ⇒ object control • The question of what can be controlled by what in which configurations is an important topic in syntax. Robert knows that it is essential to be well behaved. (1. that one is well behaved in general, 2. that he is well behaved) • We speak of Control Theory (cf. Binding Theory). 27.05.2008
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Presentation Topic 11 Control (You have to have read the textbook up until Chapter 14 to complete this task.)
Control Theory is an important topic in syntax. Read Manzini’s paper on control and give an outline of the author’s theory. Paper for presentation-Manzini, M. R. (1983). On control and control theory. Linguistic Inquiry 14: 421-446. [Reader, my office]
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Syntactic Frameworks • Finally, we will look at two syntactic frameworks that many people currently work with: Minimalism and HPSG. • These frameworks implement the concepts we will encounter throughout this course in a rather different manner. • Minimalism is the latest framework proposal of Chomsky. • There will (most probably) be a presentation about Minimalism in January by Mikko Määttä, University of Helsinki, currently a guest of the University of Osnabrück. • HPSG has been developed in a different tradition, but certainly wants to cover the same range of topics and phenomena. 27.05.2008
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Presentation Topic 12 HPSG (You have to have read the textbook up until Chapter 14 to complete this task.)
Read Chapter 17 of Carnie’s book “Syntax” and present the core concepts of HPSG. Complete General Problem Set 1 on p. 470 (ev: p. 468) and present the results to the class. You should consult the textbook of Sag, Wasow & Bender to flesh out your presentation. Background reading -Sag, Ivan A., Thomas Wasow, and Emily M. Bender (2003): Syntactic Theory - A formal introduction. 2nd Edition. Stanford: CSLI Publications. [Library] 27.05.2008
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Session Planning 01
October 16
Introduction, Genrative Grammar
Chapter 1 of Carnie`s textbook „Syntax“ 02
October 23
Parts of Speech, Consituency, Trees, Rules
Chapters 2 & 3 of Carnie‘s textbook „Syntax“ 03
October 30
No class (due to conference attendance) (There will be an additional session in January instead)
04
November 6 Linguistic Debates in Cognitive Science Presentation Topic 1: Nature vs. nurture Presentation Topic 2: Sentence processing
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Session Planning 05
November 13 Structural Relations, Binding Theory Chapters 4 & 5 of Carnie`s textbook „Syntax“ Presentation Topic 3: Picture-NPs
06
November 20 X-bar Theory Chapter 6 & 7 of Carnie`s textbook „Syntax“
07
November 27 Constraining X-bar Theory: the Lexicon Chapter 8 of Carnie`s textbook „Syntax“ Presentation Topic 4: Expletives in object positions
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Session Planning 08
December 4
Head-to-Head Movement
Chapter 9 of Carnie`s textbook „Syntax“ Presentation Topic 5: VSO-languages 09
December 11 Head-to-Head Movement Phenomena Presentation Topic 6: Word order in German Presentation Topic 7: Embedded V2
10
December 18 DP Movement, Wh-Movement & A Unified Theory of Movement Chapters 10, 11 & 12 of Carnie`s textbook „Syntax“
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Session Planning 11
December 25 no class (Christmas Break)
12
January 1
no class (Christmas Break)
13
January 8
Movement Pheomena & Evidence
Presentation Topic 8: COMP in Bavarian Syntax Presentation Topic 9: wanna-contraction 13b
tba
A Syntactic Framework: Minimalism
An introduction to minimalism by Mikko Määttä
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Session Planning 14
January 15
Expanded VPs
Chapter 13 of Carnie`s textbook „Syntax“ Presentation Topic 10: Little vP and the semantics of again 15
January 22
Raising, Control, and Empty Categories
Chapter 14 of Carnie`s textbook „Syntax“ Presentation Topic 11: Control 16
January 29
A Syntactic Framework: HPSG
Presentation Topic 12: HPSG 17
February 5
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Thank you!
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