Constituent Order
Clausal structure Practice: Clausal structure Principles & Parameters
Constituent Order
LIN102H1F – Lecture 5
July 20th, 2021
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Clausal structure Practice: Clausal structure Principles & Parameters
Clausal structure
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Clausal structure Practice: Clausal structure Principles & Parameters
I Phrase structure
I A phrase must have a head
I A phrase may consist solely of a head or multiple words
I Two phrases may be combined via one of the two phrase structure rules
DP
D
the
NP
N
box
VP
V
run
AP
A
big
AdvP
Adv
calmly
PP
P
through
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Clausal structure Practice: Clausal structure Principles & Parameters
Complementation
XP → X (YP)
XP
X (YP)
Adjunction
XP → XP YP
XP
XP YP
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Clausal structure Practice: Clausal structure Principles & Parameters
I already know that Reading Week is in February.
(1) Topicalization
a. That Reading Week is in February, I already know.
(2) Substitution
a. I already know it
(3) Pseudocleft
a. What I already know is that Reading Week is in February
(4) Coordination
a. I already know that Reading Week is in February and that the weather will
be bad.
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Clausal structure Practice: Clausal structure Principles & Parameters
I Constituency tests tell us that there exists a single node that exhaustively
dominates a clause
I What is this category X?
VP
V
know
XP
that Reading Week is in February
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Clausal structure Practice: Clausal structure Principles & Parameters
I We sometimes see a set of words that introduce embedded clauses (i.e., if, that,
for)
+complementizers
(5) I already know that Reading Week is in February
(6) a. I know that Reading Week is in February.
b. I wonder if Reading Week is in February.
c. I planned for Reading Week to be in February.
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Clausal structure Practice: Clausal structure Principles & Parameters
XP for a clause is
A clause = a complementizer clause (CP)
VP
V
know
CP
that Reading Week is in February
What would be the head of a CP?
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Clausal structure Practice: Clausal structure Principles & Parameters
CP
The head of a complementizer is a complementizer (C)
VP
V
know
CP
C
that
XP
that Reading Week is in February
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Clausal structure Practice: Clausal structure Principles & Parameters
I Subordinated clauses can be c-selected by verbs in the main clauses
I verbs are selective about which complementizer they choose
I CPs also pattern as constituents with Vs that introduce them (10)
(7) a. Franny must know that she will leave.
b. Franny must know if she will leave.
c. Franny must know whether she will leave.
(8) a. Franny may think that she left.
b. *Franny may think if she left.
c. *Franny may think whether she left.
(9) a. *Franny will wonder that she left.
b. Franny will wonder if she left.
c. Franny will wonder whether she left.
(10) Franny will [say that she left] and Hassan will [say that she left], too
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Clausal structure Practice: Clausal structure Principles & Parameters
I You may have two questions…
I What happens if the complementizer is not there?
I What is the XP? Does C c-select something else?
VP
V
know
CP
C
that
XP
Reading Week is in February
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Clausal structure Practice: Clausal structure Principles & Parameters
I The presence of a complementizer may be optional or obligatory in English
(11) a. I know Reading Week is in February.
b. *I wondered Reading Week is in February.
VP
V
know
CP
C
∅
XP
Reading Week is in February
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Clausal structure Practice: Clausal structure Principles & Parameters
Question
What does C select?
VP
V
know
CP
C
∅
XP
Franny devoured the cookie
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Clausal structure Practice: Clausal structure Principles & Parameters
Observation
XP has the importance in introducing the subject of the sentence
VP
V
know
CP
C
∅
XP
DP
Franny
VP
devoured the cookie
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Clausal structure Practice: Clausal structure Principles & Parameters
XP
XP is a tense phrase (TP)
VP
V
know
CP
C
∅[-q]
TP
DP
Franny
VP
devoured the cookie
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Clausal structure Practice: Clausal structure Principles & Parameters
I Tense is a property of clauses dealing with their temporal characteristics
I when the situation / event took place relative to the moment of speech
I English distinguishes past vs. non-past with bound tense morphology
I English uses a special free grammatical morpheme to mark the future
(12) a. Franny devoured the cookie. (past tense)
b. Franny devours the cookie. (non-past tense)
c. Franny will devour the cookie. (future)
I Note that not all clauses indicate the tense
I The distinction between tensed and tenseless clauses
(13) a. Hassan persuaded/expected Franny to call the senator
b. Hassan persuades/expects Franny to call the senator
c. Hassan will persuade/expect Franny to call the senator
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Clausal structure Practice: Clausal structure Principles & Parameters
I Complementizers (C) are sensitive to this tensed vs. tenseless distinction
I C selects TP
(14) a. I heard that Franny called the senator
b. *I heard that Franny to call the senator
(15) a. *I prefer for Franny called the senator
b. I prefer for Franny to call the senator
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Clausal structure Practice: Clausal structure Principles & Parameters
TP
DP
D
Franny
T
+tense
VP
called the senator
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Clausal structure Practice: Clausal structure Principles & Parameters
(16) Franny will call the senator and Mary will call the senator, too. (Ellipsis test)
(17) a. Franny will/should/can call the senator.
b. *Franny will/should/can called the senator.
c. will, would, shall, should, can, could, may, might (modals)
TP
DP
Franny
?
T
+tense
VP
called the senator
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Clausal structure Practice: Clausal structure Principles & Parameters
TP
DP
Franny
T’
T
will
VP
called the senator
Specifier
DP in this position is known as a specifier
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Clausal structure Practice: Clausal structure Principles & Parameters
We learnt that there are two ways to combine phrases in syntax
Complementation
XP → X (ZP)
XP
X (ZP)
Adjunction
XP → XP YP
XP
XP YP
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Clausal structure Practice: Clausal structure Principles & Parameters
We also learnt that a clause contains two projections CP and TP
Clausal structure
CP – TP – VP
CP
C
complementizer
TP
DP
subject
T’
T
modals
VP
predicate
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Clausal structure Practice: Clausal structure Principles & Parameters
Practice: Clausal structure
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Clausal structure Practice: Clausal structure Principles & Parameters
John ate a big meal.
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Clausal structure Practice: Clausal structure Principles & Parameters
CP
C
∅
TP
DP
D
John
T’
T
+past
VP
V
ate
DP
D
a
NP
AP
A
big
NP
N
meal
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Clausal structure Practice: Clausal structure Principles & Parameters
Mary cooked a traditional dish for her birthday.
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Clausal structure Practice: Clausal structure Principles & Parameters
CP
C
∅
TP
DP
D
Mary
T’
T
+past
VP
VP
V
cooked
DP
D
a
NP
AP
A
traditional
NP
N
dish
PP
P
for
DP
D
her
NP
N
birthday
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Clausal structure Practice: Clausal structure Principles & Parameters
John thinks that Mary passed the exam.
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Clausal structure Practice: Clausal structure Principles & Parameters
CP
C
∅
TP
DP
D
John
T’
T
-past
VP
V
thinks
CP
C
that
TP
DP
D
Mary
T’
T
+past
VP
V
passed
DP
D
the
NP
N
exam
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Clausal structure Practice: Clausal structure Principles & Parameters
Principles & Parameters
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Clausal structure Practice: Clausal structure Principles & Parameters
I In Lecture 1, we discussed the problematization of human capacity for language
I Up until the 20the century, a dominant view of language was that it is learnt, like a
habit (cf., behaviourism)
I imitation
I reinforcement
I analogy
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Clausal structure Practice: Clausal structure Principles & Parameters
Imitation
Children imitate what they hear
I Children nonetheless make utterances that do not reflect what they hear
I e.g., a my pencil, two foot, what the boy hit?
I Children are unable to produce sentences that they would not spontaneously
produce
I e.g., He go out (He’s going out), old-time train (It’s an old-time train)
I Children with speech impairment learn the language spoken to them and
understand what is said
I Children only imitate 5 to 40% of the time in conversations (O’Grady 2008)
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Clausal structure Practice: Clausal structure Principles & Parameters
Reinforcement
Children learn as their grammatical utterances are positively reinforced and
ungrammatical utterances are negatively reinforced
I reinforcement is rarely observed
I explicit reinforcement by parents is found more for the truth value and not
syntactic well-formedness
I children fail to understand and correct errors
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Clausal structure Practice: Clausal structure Principles & Parameters
Reinforcement
Children learn as their grammatical utterances are positively reinforced and
ungrammatical utterances are negatively reinforced
I reinforcement is rarely observed
I explicit reinforcement by parents is found more for the truth value and not
syntactic well-formedness
I children fail to understand and correct errors
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Clausal structure Practice: Clausal structure Principles & Parameters
Analogy
Children use a sample sentence they have heard to form other sentences.
I But it doesn’t work…
I The boy was sleeping ⇒ Was the boy sleeping?
I The boy who is sleeping is dreaming about a new car ⇒ *Is the boy who sleeping is
dreaming about a new car?
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Clausal structure Practice: Clausal structure Principles & Parameters
The innateness hypothesis
The hypothesis that children’s brains are ‘programmed’ to learn language
(definition from Samúelsdóttir 2015)
I the experience of a language learner was not sufficiently complete to explain the
kind of knowledge of language that speakers end up developing
I Chomsky proposed a better metaphor was a developmental one: languages develop
through a process of maturation, more like an organ in the body.
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Clausal structure Practice: Clausal structure Principles & Parameters
I The puzzle of how children acquire language seemingly effortlessly in just few
years
I Evidence of unformity across languages (e.g., hierarchical structure, inventory of
categories), which is by hypothesis a biological endowment (aka. we are
‘hard-wired’ for this)
I The diversity that is observed across languages (e.g. word order differences,
morphological differences) – which stands in contrast to the uniformity
I What does this tell us about the design of language of a cognitive system?
I the tension between explaining uniformity and accounting for diversity
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Clausal structure Practice: Clausal structure Principles & Parameters
Principles
The aspects of language that
are invariant across languages
Parameters
The aspects of language that
can vary across languages (cf.,
choices on a menu)
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Clausal structure Practice: Clausal structure Principles & Parameters
I A variation among languages as to constituent ordering
I basic word order (SVO vs. SOV)
I V-to-T (V in T)
I Null subject … etc.
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Clausal structure Practice: Clausal structure Principles & Parameters
SVO vs. SOV
(18) a. Kaz purchased a board game.
b. Hong-yan is studying syntax.
c. Ana Tona has a Master’s degree.
(19) a. Kaz-wa
Kaz-subj
board
board
game-o
game-obj
katta.
purchased
‘Kaz purchased a board game.’
b. Hong-yan-wa
Hong-yan-subj
toogoron-o
syntax-obj
benkyoo-shiteiru
study-doing
‘Hong-yan is studying syntax.’
c. Ana
Ana
Tona-wa
Tona-subj
shuushigoo-o
Master’s.degree-obj
motteiru.
holding
‘Ana Tona has a Master’s degree.’
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Clausal structure Practice: Clausal structure Principles & Parameters
ate a cookie
VP
V
ate
DP
a cookie
VP
DP
a cookie
V
ate
Is the rule we apply to derive the left-hand tree different from the one we apply to the one on
the right?
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Clausal structure Practice: Clausal structure Principles & Parameters
Complementation
XP → X (YP)
XP
X YP
XP
YP X
Head first parameter (headedness)
A complement can be on the left or right of the head
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Clausal structure Practice: Clausal structure Principles & Parameters
Overt subject vs. Null subject
(20) a. Julius Caesar was betrayed (cf. *Was betrayed)
b. Fui
was.1st
tradito
betrayed
‘I was betrayed.’
Null subject parameter
The subject must be phonologically realized or not realized
in a sentence
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Clausal structure Practice: Clausal structure Principles & Parameters
Verb placement (relative to other elements)
(21) a. Romeo carefully words his letters.
b. *Romép soigneusement formule ses lettres.
(22) a. *Romeo words carefully his letters.
b. Roméo formule soigneusement ses lettres.
(23) a. Romeo did not visit his neighbours.
b. *Roméo ne pas visite ses voisins.
(24) a. *Romeo did visit not his neighbours.
b. Roméo ne visite pas ses voisins.
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Clausal structure Practice: Clausal structure Principles & Parameters
CP
C
∅
TP
DP
D
Romeo
T’
T
-past
VP
AdvP
Adv
carefully
VP
V
words
DP
D
his
NP
N
letters
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Clausal structure Practice: Clausal structure Principles & Parameters
CP
C
∅
TP
DP
D
Romeo
T’
T
did
NegP
Neg
not
VP
V
visit
DP
D
his
NP
N
neighbour
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Clausal structure Practice: Clausal structure Principles & Parameters
CP
C
∅
TP
DP
D
Roméo
T’
T
-past
VP
AdvP
Adv
soigneusement
VP
V
formule
DP
D
ses
NP
N
voisins
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Clausal structure Practice: Clausal structure Principles & Parameters
CP
C
∅
TP
DP
D
Roméo
T’
T
-past
formule
VP
AdvP
Adv
soigneusement
VP
V DP
D
ses
NP
N
voisins
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Clausal structure Practice: Clausal structure Principles & Parameters
CP
C
∅
TP
DP
D
Roméo
T’
T
visite
NegP
Neg
pas
VP
V DP
D
ses
NP
N
voisins
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Clausal structure Practice: Clausal structure Principles & Parameters
V-to-T (V in T) parameter
The verb (V) is found in the T node or not
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Clausal structure Practice: Clausal structure Principles & Parameters
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Clausal structure
Practice: Clausal structure
Principles & Parameters