LIN5317 A, Fall 2015
Dennis Ott
Week 5
Head Movement
I. V-to-T movement
(1) a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
•
•
I
Je
I
J’
I
-∅
mange
have
ai
can
often
souvent
often
souvent
often
eat
apples
des pommes
eaten apples
mangé des pommes
eat
apples
English: tensed auxiliaries precede the adverb but tensed main verbs follow it
French: both tensed auxiliaries and main verbs precede the adverb
(2) a.
b.
c.
d.
[VP souvent [VP mange [DP des pommes]]]
[T’ T [VP souvent [VP mange [DP des pommes]]]]
[T’ mangei+T [VP souvent [VP ti [DP des pommes]]]]
[TP je [T’ mangei+T [VP souvent [VP ti [DP des pommes]]]]]
(3) a. [VP often [VP have [VP eaten [DP apples]]]]
b. [T’ T [VP often [VP have [VP eaten [DP apples]]]]]
c. [T’ havei+T [VP often [VP ti [VP eaten [DP apples]]]]]
(VMP) Verb-movement Parameter
• Raise all finite verbs to T (French)
• Raise only finite auxiliaries to T (English)
(EP) Fusion (PF-rule)
If no verb movement to T takes place, suffix T onto the immediately subjacent head.
(4) a. *He eat-s not
apples.
b. *He (-s) not(-s) eat apples.
c. *He do-es not eat apples.
(5) a. Les enfants n’ont pas travaillé.
b. Les enfants (ne) travaillent pas.
(SAF) Stray-affix Filter
Bound morphemes must not stand alone.
(HMC) Head-movement Constraint
Head movement of X to Y must not skip an intervening head Z that c-commands X and
is c-commanded by Y.
(6) a. *I have often eaten apples.
b. *I eaten often have apples.
(7) a. *J’ai souvent mangé des pommes.
b. *Je mangé souvent ai des pommes.
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II. T-to-C movement
(8) a. You have seen the dog.
b. Have you seen the dog?
c. *Seen you have the dog?
(9) An bhfaca tú an madra? [Irish]
C[+Q] saw
you the dog
“Did you see the dog?”
(10) a. *You eat the apples.
b. *Eat you the apples?
c. *Did you eat the apples?
(11) a. Why did you did scare me? (Nina, 3;2)
b. Is my old blanket is clean? (Ross, 3;0)
(12) a. *Vous avez mangez des pommes.
b. *Avez-vous mangez des pommes?
c. *Mangez-vous avez des pommes?
(13) a. Vous mangez des pommes.
b. Mangez-vous des pommes?
The HMC imposes strict cyclicity:
(14) a. [CP C[+Q] [TP T [VP V … ]]]
b. *[CP C[+Q] [TP T [VP V … ]]]
*
(NEX) No Excorporation
Once a head Z has incorporated into a head Y, Z cannot
raise to the exclusion of Y (traces don’t support affixes).
Verb-second languages like German, Dutch, Icelandic, Kashmiri, Breton, Estonian, etc.
systematically move finite verbs to C in root clauses, where no complementizer is realized.
(15) a. *dass Peter gestern ein Buch gelesen hat. [German]
*that Peter yesterday a book read
has
b. *dass hat Peter gestern gelesen ein Buch.
*“that Peter read a book yesterday”
(16) a. *Hat Peter gestern ein Buch gelesen?
*has Peter yesterday a book read
b. *Gelesen Peter gestern ein Buch hat?
*“Did Peter read a book yesterday?”
(17) a. [Peter] hat gestern ein Buch gelesen. d. *[Peter] [gestern] hat ein Buch gelesen.
b. [Gestern] hat Peter ein Buch gelesen. e. *[Gestern] [ein Buch] hat Peter gelesen.
c. [Ein Buch] hat Peter gestern gelesen. f. *[Peter] [ein Buch] hat gestern gelesen.
“Peter read a book yesterday.”
(18) a. [C’ dass
[TP Peter [VP gestern [VP ein Buch gelesen]] hat ]]
b. [C’ hati+∅
[TP Peter [VP gestern [VP ein Buch gelesen]] ti ]]
d. [CP gesternj [C’ hati+∅ [TP Peter [VP tj
[VP ein Buch gelesen]] ti ]]]
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III. VP-shells and light verbs
In some languages, unergative/transitive verbs incorporate a morpheme indicating agentivity.
Basque
(19) a. lo
egin
sleep do
“to sleep”
b. barre egin
laugh do
“to laugh”
(21)
Jemez
(20) a. zaae-‘a
song-do
“to sing”
b. hiil-‘a
laugh-do
“to laugh”
c. lan
egin
work do
“to work”
d. negar egin
cry
do
“to cry”
c. se-‘a
speech-do
“to speak”
d. tu-‘a
whistle-do
“to whistle”
Jonek
Aitorri
min egin dio. [Basque]
Jon.ERG Aitor.DAT hurt DO AUX
“Jon hurt Aitor.”
(vH) The Light-verb Hypothesis
Transitive and unergative verbs in active voice are bimorphemic, even where we don’t see
it: V (the verbal root) incorporates into a higher “light verb,” called v (“little-V”).
(22)
[T’ [vP [VP Aitorri ti ] mini+egin ] dio ]
(23) a. John kicked Andrew.
b. [T’ -ed [vP kicki+v [VP ti Andrew]]]
(v = Carnie’s ∅active; vP ≈ Larson’s higher VP)
We can now distinguish unaccusatives and unergatives/transitives in terms of v:
(24) a. The ship sank.
b. [VP sank [DP the ship]]
(27) a. La porte ouvre.
b. [VP ouvre [DP la porte]]
(26) a. They sank the ship.
b. [vP sanki+v [VP ti [DP the ship]]]
(28) a. Jean ouvre la porte.
b. [vP ouvrei+v [VP ti [DP la porte]]]
(29) a. Nik eztul egin dut.
I.ERG cough v
AUX
“I have caughed.”
b. Emakumea erori da.
[Basque]
the woman fallen AUX
“The woman has fallen.”
Assuming the Predicate-internal Subject Hypothesis, we can furthermore assume that v
introduces Agent-subjects, which may (English) or may not (Irish) then raise to Spec-T.
(30) a. Duirt me gur phóg Máire an lucharachán. [Irish]
said I that kissed Mary the leprechaun
“I said that Mary kissed the leprechaun.”
b. [CP gur [TP phógi [vP Máire [VP ti [an lucharachán] ]]]]
We’ll see some good reasons for this move later.
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IV. The model of grammar
(EM) External Merge
Merge(X,Y) = {X,Y} for X ∉ Y and Y ∉ X.
(IM) Internal Merge
Merge(X,Y) = {X,Y} for X ∈ Y.
(ECP) The Empty-category Principle
For any application of IM of X and Y, X ∈ Y, X must c-command its trace (XPmovement), or the newly created head X+Y must c-command X’s trace (head movement).
Lexicon
X-bar Theory, Merge,
EPP, UTAH, ECP, …
Transfer
pronunciation rules
(e.g. Fusion)
Stray-affix Filter, …
PF
LF
Projection Principle, Theta
Criterion, Full Interpretation, …
Appendix. Non-finite verbs and split IP (Pollock 1989)
Pollock observed that French infinitival verbs can precede or follow adverbs, but only infinitival
auxiliaries (not lexical verbs) can precede negation.
(31) a. Souvent paraître triste pendant son voyage de noce, c’est rare.
often to.seem sa
during one’s honeymoon
that’s rare
b. Paraître souvent triste pendant son voyage de noce, c’est rare.
(32) a. N’être
pas
heureux est
not.to.be NEG happy is
b. *Ne sembler pas
heureux
*not to.seem NEG happy
une condition pour écrire des romans.
a
condition for writing novels
est une condition pour écrire des romans.
is a
condition for writing novels
(33) Pollock’s split IP (slightly simplified)
[TP T [NegP Neg [AgrP Agr VP ]]]
English
•
•
•
lexical verbs (finite or nonfinite) don’t move at all (“opaque Agr”)
infinitival auxiliaries optionally undergo short movement to Agr
finite auxiliaries obligatorily raise to T
French
•
•
•
finite lexical verbs and auxiliaries obligatorily raise to T
infinitival lexical verbs optionally undergo short movement to Agr
infinitival auxiliaries optionally move to T
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