Syntax – Week 6, Lecture 1
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X-Bar Theory, Part III
1. Revision – VP’s
Using the phrase “do so” we argued for an intermediate level of structure
between a V and a VP called V’ (V-bar). This V-bar level allows us to capture
the constituency seen within VP’s and furthermore, allows us to represent
the distinction between verbal adjuncts and complements:
For example:
In both trees, we can only replace the V’ level with the phrase “do so”.
This explains the contrast in grammaticality between the following
sentences:
John will wash his socks in the bathroom and Bob will do so too.
John will wash his socks in the bathroom and Bob will do so in the kitchen.
John will put his socks in the bathroom and Bob will do so too.
*John will put his socks in the bathroom and Bob will do so in the kitchen.
The problem in the last sentence is that “do so” is trying to stand-in for a
V and NP, whereas, it is only allowed to stand-in for a V’.
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2. What is the head of S?
The generalization of X-bar theory to account for verbs nouns, adjectives
etc. raises a question – what is the head of S? We argued for a consistent
tree structure for all the parts of speech where:
● a complement is daughter to bar level (N’, V’, Adj’ etc), and sister to
the head of the phrase
● an adjunct is is daughter to bar level (N’, V’, Adj’ etc), and sister to
another bar level of the same type
Complement
Adjunct
The YP is a complement to the head The YP is an adjunct to the head
However, our phrase structure rule S → NP VP doesn’t conform to this
generalization because it doesn’t have an intermediate level of structure.
Before addressing this question, we need to examine verbs in more detail.
What then would the X-bar structure for a sentence like:
The song might have been being played by the DJ.
To answer this question, we need to examine English verbs in more detail.
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3. English Verb Inflections
English verbs have a base form and up to four different inflected forms:
Base -S Past Past Participle Present Participle
take takes took taken taking
show shows showed shown showing
eat eats ate eaten eating
jump jumps jumped jumped jumping
hit hits hit hit hitting
While most verbs in English conjugate (i.e., have the same pattern) as jump
above, there are many which have irregular or different patterns such as
hit and take.
Warning: The names of the verbal inflections above can be a bit misleading.
For example, the past participle form of the verb doesn’t have to express a
time in the past:
She was taken to jail yesterday/*tomorrow.
She will be taken to jail tomorrow/*yesterday.
In both the sentences above, the past participle form of the verb take is
used, but the event to which the verb refers can exist in the future or past.
Think of the names for the verb inflections (-s form, past participle form
etc) as labels only.
English verbal inflections are split into two categories, finite (which means
carrying tense) and non-finite (which means not carrying tense):
Finite
● 3rd person singular present tense form: -s
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she walks he talks
● past tense form: -ed
she walked, he talked, they slept
● non-3rd person singular present form: same as base form
you walk, we talk, they sleep
Non-finite
● non-finite -en form (i.e., past participle form).
she was taken, they were seen
● non-finite -ing form (i.e., present participle form)
she was walking, they were sleeping
● base form (or infinitival form)
I want to leave, I need to sleep
An English clause may contain either a single main verb or a sequence of
verbs consisting of a main verb preceded by one or more auxiliaries.
There are four auxiliaries in English, and they need to go in the following
order:
(Modal) (perfect have) (progressive be) (passive be) main verb
Tense
If there is only a main verb in the sentence, it carries the tense, otherwise,
the first auxiliary carries the tense:
Joe took the money yesterday. past tense
Joe takes the money every day. present tense
In the two sentences below, the auxiliary be has been used. This auxiliary
now carries the tense:
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Joe is taking the money. present progressive
Joe was taking the money. past progressive
Modals
The presence of a modal auxiliary adds modality to the clause – that is
notions associated with possibility, ability or necessity. The verb following
a modal auxiliary must be in the base form:
Basic Sentence: Mary likes fish.
Modal forms: Mary might like fish.
Mary would like fish.
*Mary would *likes/liked fish.
Other modal verbs are: can, could, may, shall, should, will (and a few
others such as have to, ought to)
Perfect Have
The presence of this auxiliary adds perfect aspect to the clause. Perfect
aspect indicates whether the event described should be thought of as
completed. This is not the same as saying the event took place in the past.
We can talk about completed events in the future:
Mary will have left the country by this time tomorrow.
The perfect have must be always be followed by a verb in its -en form (i.e.,
the past participle form). Examples:
Mary has taken the money Perfect Aspect, Present Tense
Mary had taken the money Perfect Aspect, Past Tense
They have taken the money Perfect Aspect, Present Tense
They had taken the money Perfect Aspect, Past Tense
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The dukes have jumped the river Perfect Aspect, Present Tense
Often these descriptions are shortened to present perfect and past
perfect.
Progressive Be
The presence of this auxiliary adds progressive aspect to the clause.
Progressive aspect indicates whether the event described should be
thought of as ongoing or not.
The progressive auxiliary must always be followed by a verb in the -ing
form (present participle):
She is walking Progressive Aspect, Present Tense
They are jumping Progressive Aspect, Present Tense
I am studying Progressive Aspect, Present Tense
They were scheming Progressive Aspect, Past Tense
She was sleeping Progressive Aspect, Past Tense
Passive Be
The presence of this auxiliary changes the voice of the clause to
passive. The presence of the passive be auxiliary requires the following
verb to be in the -en (past participle) form. Consider the transformation
from active voice to passive voice below:
She saw the dog → The dog was seen (by her)
Further examples:
She is taken by him
Rotten shark is eaten in Iceland
They were seen together
I was thought to be dead
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Modals and Tense
We said that the first auxiliary carries the tense for the clause. This is clear
for auxiliaries like be and have:
I am studying French Present Progressive
I was studying French Past Progressive
I have taken the money Present Perfect
I had been taking the money Past Perfect Progressive
But tense for modal auxiliaries is not so clear:
I might swim Tense = ???
I may swim Tense = ???
In the sentences below, note that the tense carrying verbs share the same
tense:
Jo says: “Jill is here”
Eric says of Jo: “Jo said that Jill was here.” said/was – past tense
“Jo is saying that Jill is here.” is saying/is – present
Jo says: “Jill has blue eyes”
Eric says of Jo: “Jo said that Jill had blue eyes” said/had – past tense
“Jo is saying that Jill has blue eyes” is saying/has – pres
Now examine equivalent sentences for modal auxiliaries:
Jo says: “You may be chosen”
Eric says of Jo: “Jo said you might be chosen” said/might – past tense
“Jo is saying you may be chosen” is saying/may – pres
Eric: “I think I can talk to her at the office” think/can – pres tense
“I thought I could talk to her at the office” thought/could – past
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This evidence leads to the following distinctions in tense for the modal
auxiliaries:
Present Tense Form Past Tense Form
can could
shall should
will would
may might
Warning
Grammatical tense is not necessarily the same as semantic time. For
example, in the sentence below, the first verb is in present tense, but the
clause clearly refers to an event occurring in the past:
She has been waiting a long time.
Mixing it Up
Clauses can take more than one auxiliary – and when they do, the feature
that each auxiliary denotes is simply added to a list of tense, aspect and
voice features:
He might have been writing a letter
● Modal might: past tense, requires following verb to be in base form
(i.e., have).
● Perfect have: base form, requires following verb to be in past
participle form (i.e., been).
● Progressive be: past participle form, requires following verb in to be
present participle form (i.e., writing).
● Main verb: writing, present participle form.
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This clause is then past (tense) perfect progressive (aspect)
Example 2:
The song may have been being played by the DJ.
may: modal, present tense
have: perfect aspect
been: as been is followed by a verb in present participle form, this must be progressive
be – progressive aspect
being: as being is followed by a verb in past participle form (e.g., swap play with take to
make this clear), this must be passive be – passive voice
played: lexical verb with past participle inflection
The clause is then: present perfect progressive passive
Exercises:
She was walking
She was kidnapped
She has measles
She has had measles
She could have had measles
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3. Representing verbs and auxiliaries with X-bar theory
To begin, we note that each auxiliary selects a verbal expression as its
complement:
modal + base form of verb
have + -en form of verb
be + -ing form of verb etc
Because the first auxiliary carries the tense of the clause, it will be assigned
to category I (I = INFL = inflection). The head I takes as its complement a VP.
Like every other part of speech, the head I projects to I’ at the intermediate
phrasal level. The 2-bar level is IP – and this corresponds to our previous
category S. For example:
I have seen the movie.
Note that the VP is sister to I, so it is a complement. This reflects the fact
that it can’t be omitted, and that the head of the phrase dictates its form
etc:
I have seen the movie
I was watching the movie
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The daughter of VP is a V’ – and this can be substituted with the phrase
“do so”: I have seen the movie you have done so too.
The subject NP is a specifier to IP, and the head of the sentence is now I.
If there is more than one auxiliary, the first auxiliary goes into I position,
and subsequent auxiliaries are treated as verbs which take a VP
complement. For example:
You have been eating spam The man might have been being taken by aliens.
Single Verb Sentences
When there is just one main finite verb, it occupies the main V position
and I is not filled:
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For our purposes, we will assume that the I
node is not optional, and that it is still there
even if there is no word occupying this node
In Chomsky’s (80s-90s) theory of syntax,
there are two levels of structure, ‘deep
structure’ and ‘surface structure’. In
deep structure the I position is filled by
the tense inflection of the verb. This
tense inflection is then moved to the
end of the verb in surface structure (in a
transformational rule called ‘Affix
Lowering’).
Summary
Our clause is now an IP. When the clause has one or more auxiliaries, the
first fills the I node followed by a VP complement headed by the main
verb or next auxiliary. This process continues until there are no verbs left
in the verbal unit. When the clause contains only a main verb, the I node
is empty, and the V heads a VP which is daughter to I’. These structures
are summarized below:
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John ate spam John has eaten spam John has been eating spam.
(main verb only) (aux + main verb) (more than one aux + main verb). Each
additional auxiliary just adds another
VP level following this same pattern
Interesting Aside: VP Adjunction
The sentences below demonstrate that the PP “on Friday” can adjoin to
the VP as an adjunct in multiple positions. Consider:
I will be reading the book on Friday and John will do so on Saturday.
I will be reading the book on Friday and John will be doing so on Saturday.
In the first sentence, we see that “be reading the book” is a V’ constituent,
with a PP adjunct. In the second sentence, the PP is an adjunct to the V’
representing the phrase “reading the book” (as opposed to “be reading the
book”)
This is represented by the following tree structures:
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