LIN5317 A, Fall 2015
Dennis Ott
Week 2
Constituents and Basic Relations
I. Basic properties of syntactic trees
Trees are collections of nodes and branches.
• Branches connect nodes; nodes are thus the ends of branches.
• Convention: nodes are labeled (named).
• Nodes that branch further are non-terminal nodes.
• Nodes that do not branch further are terminal node.
• The topmost node of a tree is the root node.
(A) Axioms of tree construction
1. Every syntactic object has a single root note.
2. Every node has a unique mother.
3. Branches don’t cross (as in Carnie’s (35), p. 126).
4. Every branch has a label.
(BB) Conjecture (to become an axiom)
Trees are binary-branching (a non-terminal has exactly two daughters).
II. Dominance and precedence
(Dp) Proper Dominance
Node A dominates node B iff A is higher up in the tree than B and it is possible to trace a
line from A to B going only downwards.
• Node A exhaustively dominates a set Τ of terminals iff all members of Τ are dominated
by A and there is no terminal G dominated by A that is not a member of Τ.
• Node A immediately dominates node B iff there is no intervening node G that is
dominated by A and dominates B.
• Dominance = containment: the elements dominated by A are contained in A.
(Cf) Constituent (formal definition)
A set of terminal nodes exhaustively dominated by a particular node.
(K) Kinship relations
• A is the mother of B if A immediately dominates B.
• B is the daughter of A if B is immediately dominated by A.
• B is an immediate constituent of A iff A immediately dominates B.
• Two nodes are sisters if they share the same mother.
• The root node dominates everything and is dominated by nothing.
• A terminal node dominates nothing.
• A non-terminal node dominates something.
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(P) Precedence (“what comes first”)
• Node A sister-precedes node B iff both are immediately dominated by the same node,
and A appears to the left of B.
• Node A precedes node B iff neither A dominates B nor B dominates A and A or some
node dominating A sister-precedes B or some node dominating B.
• Node A immediately precedes B iff there is no node G that follows A but precedes B.
(NC) No crossing branches (= A3)
If a node A precedes node B, then A and all nodes dominated by A must precede B and all
nodes dominated by B.
(M)
Merge
Merge(X,Y) = {X,Y} (where X,Y are syntactic objects, i.e. heads or phrases)
III. C-command and government
(Cc) C-command
Node A c-commands node B iff every node dominating A also dominates B, and neither A
nor B dominates the other.
•
•
•
The c-command domain of a node A includes its sister and all daughters the sister.
If A c-commands B and B c-commands A, A and B symmetrically c-command each other.
If A c-commands B but B does not c-command A, A asymmetrically c-commands B.
(G) Government
Node A governs node B iff A c-commands B and there is no node G s.t. G is c-commanded
by A and G asymmetrically c-commands B, where either both A and G are heads (headgovernment) or both are phrases (phrase-government).
•
•
•
This looks complicated at first, but actually you can think of this as just “immediate ccommand,” where no other c-commander intervenes.
[Proper government: the governor of B is either coindexed with B or a lexical head.]
Recent work has largely replaced Government relations with the operation AGREE.
Test yourself: solve Carnie’s problem sets 2-10 (p. 138ff.). This is essential stuff!
IV. Binding Theory
Types of noun phrases
• R(referential)-expressions:
Mary, the president, that woman, …
• Pronominals:
he, she, we, I, pro, …
• Anaphors:
himself, themselves, each other, …
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R-expressions can be used to refer to (abstract) entities. Pronominals can be, and anaphors must
be, interpreted as corefering with an antecedent that matches in φ-features.
(1) a. Mary likes him/*himself.
b. Johni said that Mary likes himi/k. (coindexed NPs are coreferent)
c. Maryi likes herselfi/*themselvesi.
(B) Binding
For any two NPs A, B: A binds B iff A c-commands B and A and B are coindexed.
(GA) Generalization A
Anaphors must be locally bound.
(2) a. Maryi hurt herselfi/*k.
(3) a. [Maryi’s sister]k hurt herself*i/k.
b. Malii haile ta zijii/*k. [Mandarin]
Mary hurt 3 self
“Mary hurt herself.”
b. [The sister of Maryi]k hurt herself*i/k.
c. [Malii de jiejie]k haile ta ziji*i/k.
Mary’s sister
hurt 3 self
“Mary’s sister hurt herself.”
(4) a. Johni thinks Samk knows Tedm likes himself*i/*k/m.
b. Zhangsani renwei Lisik zhidao Wangwum xihuan ta ziji*i/*k/m.
Zhangsan think Lisi know Wangwu like 3 self
“Zhangsan thinks Lisi knows Wangwu likes himself.”
Principle A
An anaphor α must be bound within the minimal clause containing α.
Open issues (which we’ll return to, time permitting):
(5) a.
b.
(6) a.
b.
Which picture of himselfi does Johni like best?
This is the picture of himselfi that Johni likes best.
Susani heard stories about herselfi.
*Susani heard my stories about herselfi.
(GB) Generalization B
Pronominals must not be locally bound.
(6) a. Maryi hurt her*i/k.
b. Malii haile ta*i/k.
Mary hurt 3
“Mary hurt her.”
(7) a. [Maryi’s sister]k hurt heri/*k.
b. [The sister of Maryi]k hurt heri/*k.
c. [Malii de jiejie]k haile tai/*k.
[Mary’s sister
hurt 3
“Mary’s sister hurt her.”
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Principle B
A pronominal α must be free (not bound) within the minimal clause containing α.
Principle A and B jointly enforce complementary distribution of anaphors and pronominals.
(8) a. Johni likes himselfi/*himi.
b. Nixoni wanted the American people to like *himselfi/himi.
Important: Principle B constrains coreference relations between pronominals and their
antecedents. Pronominals can also be bound as variables, which is not subject to Principle B:
(9) a. Everyonei/[No one]i was convinced that theyi would be welcome.
b. Everyonei/[No one]i has a gun. *Will theyi shoot?
(GC) Generalization C
R-expressions must not be bound at all.
(10) a.
b.
c.
d.
*Hei likes Johni.
*Hei said that Mary likes Johni.
*Hei said that Mary thought that Sue had kissed Johni.
*I met himi in Johni’s office.
Principle C
An R-expression must be free everywhere.
Since binding is parasitic on c-command, (im-)possible binding relations allow us to diagnose
hierarchical structure independently of linear surface order.
(11) a.
b.
(12) a.
b.
*Briana showed Justini himselfi in the mirror.
*Briana showed himselfi Justini in the mirror.
*When hei came into the room, Johni sat down right away.
*Hei came into the room that Johni had just painted.
(13) Jean a
fait
[VP sei
lever
[les enfants]i très tôt
ce matin].
Jean has made [VP themselves wake.up [the children very early this morning
“Jean made the children wake up very early this morning.”
[French]
(14) a. namono azyi ny anadahin d Rakotoi. [Malagasy, VOS]
killed him the sister
of Rakoto
“Rakotoi’s sister killed himi.”
b. namono ny anadahin d Rakotoi izyi.
killed the sister
of Rakoto he
“*Hei killed Rakotoi’s sister.” (cannot mean: “Rakotoi killed hisi sister.”)
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