1036: 4P

SYNTACTIC HEADS

1. Various patterns of word order

SVO (English) (1) The athlete broke the record

S V O

SOV (Turkish) (2) Hasan öküz-ü al-dI.

Hasan ox-Acc bought ‘Hasan bought the ox.’

VSO (Welsh) (3) Lladdodd y ddraig y dyn.

killed the dragon the man ‘The dragon killed the man.’

VOS (Malagasy) (4) Nahita ny mpianatra ny vehivavy.

saw the student the woman ‘The woman saw the student.’

OVS (Hixkaryana (Carib)) (5) kana yanImno bIryekomo

fish caught boy ‘The boy caught a fish.’

OSV (Apurinã (Arawak)) (6) Anana nota apa

pineapple I fetch ‘I fetch a pineapple.’

2. English (SVO) vs. Japanese (SOV)

(8) Preposition - Noun

a. English: P-NP

in the library

P NP

b. Japanese: N-P(ostposition) sono tosyokan de the library in

2. English (SVO) vs. Japanese (SOV)

(9) V - Adverb

a. English: V – Adv

John runs fast

V Adv

b. Japanese: Adv - V John-wa hayaku hashi-ru John-Nom fast run-Pres

2. English (SVO) vs. Japanese (SOV)

(10) Auxiliary - VP

a. English: Aux – VP

John will come here

b. Japanese: VP – Aux John-wa kokoni kuru darou John-Nom here come will

2. English (SVO) vs. Japanese (SOV)

(11) N - Relative Clause

a. English: N - Relative Clause

The girl who John met today

b. Japanese: Relative Clause - N sono John-ga kyo at-ta onnanoko the John-Nom today meet-Past girl

2. English (SVO) vs. Japanese (SOV)

(12) V - Complement Phrase

a. English: V - Complement Phrase

John said that Ling 103 is interesting

b. Japanese: Complement Phrase - V John-wa Ling103-wa omoshiroi to it-ta John-Nom Ling103-Nom interesting C say-Past

2. English (SVO) vs. Japanese (SOV)

(13) Summary

English (SVO) Japanese (SOV)

[PP P N ] [PP N P ]

[VP V PP ] [VP PP V ]

[VP V Adv ] [VP Adv V ]

[S Aux V ] [S V Aux ]

[NP N Rel.Cl ] [NP Rel.Cl N ]

[VP V CP ] [VP CP V ]

Generalization?

2. English (SVO) vs. Japanese (SOV)

(13) Summary

English (SVO) Japanese (SOV)

[PP P N ] [PP N P ]

[VP V PP ] [VP PP V ]

[VP V Adv ] [VP Adv V ]

[S Aux V ] [S V Aux ]

[NP N Rel.Cl ] [NP Rel.Cl N ]

[VP V CP ] [VP CP V ]

Head Initial

2. English (SVO) vs. Japanese (SOV)

(13) Summary

English (SVO) Japanese (SOV)

[PP P N ] [PP N P ]

[VP V PP ] [VP PP V ]

[VP V Adv ] [VP Adv V ]

[S Aux V ] [S V Aux ]

[NP N Rel.Cl ] [NP Rel.Cl N ]

[VP V CP ] [VP CP V ]

Head Initial Head Final

HEAD

Phrases must contain a head

Noun Phrases

the book my book John s book the book that you read

books about dogs books with read covers books

HEAD

Phrases must contain a head

Verb Phrases

read read a book read in the dark read about dogs read a book about dogs

HEAD

Phrases must contain a head

Preposition Phrases

about dogs about the war about going to France about on the moon about

HEAD

Phrases must contain a head

→ What is the head of a sentence?

(15) a. The Roman’s destruction of the city [NP]

b. Romans destructed the city [S]

Tense

(18) Inflection = ‘will’ ‘can’ ‘should’ ‘must’ [pres] [past]

Constituent

(17) a book about dogs

NP

Det N’

a N PP

book about dogs

NP

Det N PP

a book about dogs

(18) a. b.

Constituent

One-substitution

(19) a. She will buy this book about dogs. b. She will buy this one. c. She will buy it.

NP

Det N’

this N PP

book about dogs

NP

Det N PP

this book about dogs

NP

Det N’

this N PP One

book about dogs it

Constituent

One substitution shows that book about dogs is also a constituent, a group of words that can go together.

NP

Det N’

a N PP

book about dogs

NP

Det N PP

a book about dogs

(18) a. b.

Phrase Structure Rules (PSRs)

Phrase structure rules tell how to make tree diagrams.

(21)English and Japanese PSRs

English Japanese IP ® NP I’ IP ® NP I’ I’ ® I VP I’ ® VP I NP ® N’ NP ® N’ NP ® Det N’ NP ® N’ Det N’ ® N N’ ® N N’ ® N CP N’ ® CP N VP ® V’ VP ® V’ V’ ® V V’ ® V V’ ® V NP V’ ® NP V V’ ® V CP V’ ® CP V PP ® P’ PP ® P’ P’ ® P NP P’ ® NP P P’ ® P P’ ® P … …

Generalization?

Phrase Structure Rules (PSRs)

NP

Det N’

the N PP

book about Linguistics

VP

Adv V’

never V NP

see a ghost

PP

Deg P’

almost P NP

in the house

NP VP PP

Generalized PSRs: X -Theory

X -Theory

XP ® (Specifier) X’

X’ ® X (Complement)

XP

(Spec) X’

X (Comp)

Head

[NP] XP

(Spec) X’

X (Comp)

Head

dogs

NP

N

N dogs

the dogs

NP

NDet the

N dogs

dogs in the garden

NP

N

N dogs

PP

in the garden

Word Order? (English SVO vs. Japanese SOV)

X -Theory

Principles & Parameters

Principles Rules which hold in the same way across all languages

a. Phrases must contain a head. b. Phrases may also contain a complement and a specifier.

Parameters Statements of limited variation across languages.

a. Specifiers appear to the {left, right} of X’ b. Complements appear to the {left, right} of X

X -Theory

Parameters

CROSS-LINGUISTIC VARIATION

English (SVO)

XP → (Spec) X’ XP → X (Comp)

Japanese (SOV)

XP → (Spec) X’ XP → (Comp) X

← Head-Initial Parameter

← Head-Final Parameter

X -Theory

XP

English

(Spec) X

X (Comp)

X -Theory

XP

English

(Spec) X

(Comp) X

X -Theory

XP

Japanese

(Spec) X

(Comp) X

[PP] [PP in [NP the library ] ] P Det N

PP

P

English

in P

Det N

N the

library

NP

[PP] (7b) [PP [NP sono tosyokan ] de ] the library in

PP

P

Japanese

in P

Det N

N the

library

NP

[VP] [VP arrived [PP on Sunday ] ] V P NP

VP

V

XP

(Spec) X’

X (Comp)

Head

V arrived

PP

P

P NP on

Sunday

English

[VP] [VP [PP nichiyobi ni ] tsui-ta ] Sunday on arrive-Past

VP

V

XP

(Spec) X’

X (Comp)

Head

PP

P

NP

Sunday

P on

V arrived

Japanese XP

(Spec) X’

(Comp) X

Head

[S] [IP John [Past] [VP Kissed Mary ] ]

NP I V NP

IP

I

XP

(Spec) X’

X (Comp)

Head

NP

John I [Past]

VP

V

V

NP

Mary kiss

English

[S] [IP John-wa [VP Mary-ni Kisu-shi]-ta ]

John-Nom Mary-Gen Kiss-do Past

IP

I

XP

(Spec) X’

X (Comp)

Head

NP

John

Japanese XP

(Spec) X’

(Comp) X

Head

I [Past]

VP

V

V kiss

NP

Mary

[S] [IP John will [VP buy [NP the book [PP about linguistics ] ] ] ]

IP

NP I

I VP

V will

English

V buy

NP

Det N the

N book

PP

P

P about

NP

Linguistics

John

[S] John-wa sono gengogaku nitsuiteno hon-wo kau darou John-Nom the linguistics about book-Acc buy will

IP

NP I

Japanese

I will

VP

V

V buy

NP

Det N the

N book

PP

P

P about

NP

Linguistics

John

Summary of Syntax

Principles Rules which hold in the same way across all languages

a. Phrases must contain a head. b. Phrases may also contain a complement and a specifier.

Parameters Statements of limited variation across languages.

a. Specifiers appear to the {left, right} of X’ b. Complements appear to the {left, right} of X

Constituent

X’-theory Head / (Specifier) / (Complement)

Cross-Language variation comes from Parameters.