Professional Documents
Culture Documents
1
Today’s Class
• Terminology – clause vs sentence
• Complementizers and CPs
• Tense and TPs
A blueprint for phrases
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Homework
• Reading: Chapter 4
• Assignment 1 due 4pm on Friday, Oct. 2nd
• Quiz 3 due at 4pm on Monday, Oct. 5th
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Today’s Class
• Terminology – clause vs sentence
• Complementizer (C) and CP
• Tense (T) and TP
• A blueprint for phrases
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Terminology
CLAUSE:
A syntactic constituent consisting of a
subject and a predicate.
1. Sam left.
2. The kid in the back row might have left
their coat here.
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Terminology
SENTENCE:
a syntactic constituent consisting of a ROOT clause, and possibly
one or more EMBEDDED clauses – each with its own subject and
a predicate.
1. Sam left.
2. The kid in the back row might have left their coat
here.
3. a. Mikka said that Sam left.
b. [Mikka said that Sam left].
c. Mikka said [that Sam left].
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Today’s Class
• Terminology – clause vs sentence
• Complementizer (C) and CP
• Tense (T) and TP
• A blueprint for phrases
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Clauses are constituents
Mikka said [that Sam left]
• Stand alone
Q: What did Mikka say?
A: [that Sam left]
• Substitution
Mikka said [that Sam left] but Yoshi didn’t believe it.
• Coordination
Mikka said [that Sam left] and [that Yoshi stayed]
• Pseudocleft
What Mika said was [that Sam left].
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What is the head of the clause?
• Every syntactic constituent has a HEAD
• the HEAD is the element that
o determines the category & its properties
o may be selected by a higher head
o selects (the head of) its complement1
?P
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The Complementizer is the head of the clause
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The Complementizer is the head of the clause
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The Complementizer is the head of the clause
V CP
know
C
that
Mohammad sang
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C that vs. D that
1. Kim said that you were sick.
2. Lee likes that dog.
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Complementizers vs. Complements
• Complementizer CP
– is a syntactic category
– Is abbreviated as C (or COMP) C …
– Is always the head of CP
• Complement
– Is any phrase that is SELECTED by a head XP
– Is represented as the sister of the head
X YP
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Summary
• C is the head of CP
– Different Vs select CP complements...by selecting the head C
Vs CP complement C
type
think/believe/know/ assertion that
…
wonder/ask/know/… question if, whether,
…
ask/want/… request for
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Today’s Class
• Terminology – clause vs sentence
• Complementizer (C) and CP
• Tense (T) and TP
• A blueprint for phrases
16
The complement of C
• The complement (sister) of C is also a constituent:
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The complement of C
• The head selects (the head of its) complement
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The complement of C is TP
V CP
know
C TP
that
Mohammad sang
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The distribution of TP
• A Root declarative clause is a TP:
1. [TP Mohammad sang].
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The head of TP
T: [+tense] [+past], [-past], modals
[-tense] to
:
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The head of TP
T: [+tense] [+past], [-past], modals
[-tense] to
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Modals are [+Tense]
Evidence #2: English has sequence of tense (SOT):
à embedded T is optionally [+tense, +past] if matrix T is [+tense, +past]
... even if refers to present time
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Modals are T
• Modals are Merged in T
TP
DP T’
I T VP
could
sleep all day
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infinitival to is T
• Infinitival to is Merged in T,
e.g. I want very much for [TP Mohamad to sing]
TP
DP T’
Mohamad T VP
to
sing
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[+ past] & [-past] are Ts
• Inflected verbs (e.g. slept) are bundles of V+T
• If no modal, abstract tense feature [+past] or [-past] is Merged in T
TP
DP T’
I T VP
[+past]
sleep all day
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Evidence that T is outside VP
• S fragment
Q What did you do?
A1 I slept all day. full sentence answer, includes T
A2 sleep all day sentence fragment answer, no T (untensed V)
• Pseudocleft
I slept all day.
à What I did was sleep all day no T in pseudoclefted VP (untensed V)
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Evidence that T is outside VP
• VP Ellipsis
[That Bill would [sleep all day]] was to be expected but I can’t
believe [that you would [sleep all day]]
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Summary
• C is the head of CP
– C encodes clause type & this is expressed by choice of C
– C selects its complement TP...by selecting its head
C CP type TP complement
that assertion [+ tense]
if question [+ tense]
for request [- tense]
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Summary
• T is the head of TP
– T encodes whether clause is tensed or untensed
– T selects its complement VP... by selecting its head
T TP type TP complement
[+past]/[-past] tensed tensed V, e.g. walked/walks
modals tensed bare V, e.g. walk
to untensed bare V, e.g. walk
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Today’s Class
• Terminology – clause vs sentence
• Complementizer (C) and CP
• Tense (T) and TP
• A blueprint for phrases
32
A blueprint for phrases
• All syntactic constituents are endocentric, i.e. they have a head
•
maximal projection
XP intermediate projection
… X’
X …
head
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A blueprint for phrases
• All syntactic constituents have the same basic structure…because they are
built in the same way
XP
(YP) X’
specifier
X (ZP)
head complement
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Subjects & Predicates
• The subject of a clause is the specifier of TP
• The predicate of a clause is the rest, i.e. T’
TP
DP T’
specifier predicate
T VP
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