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The structure of UG
- modular; a sum of subsystems of principles (rules); many of the principles contain parameters wh. are fixed by experience. (empirical research). The parameters show that many rules are interdependent and hold crosslinguistically, they are language universals. e.g. of a parameter: the right-hand head/left-hand head rule, i.e. position of the Head of a grammatical constituent. In the NP these big books the right-handmost word is: N books (the Head). as a rule the H is the only obligatory el. in a constituent.; in a compound: farmhouse - the head is house - the pivotal element from a semantic point of view. In Japanese it is just the reverse.
D-structure is a mapping system of representation of the lexical properties of lexical items, i.e. the selectional properties of the verbs, for instance. DStructure is that component of G in which 1-to-1 correlations hold between the subcategorization frames (e.g. V [TAKE] [NP1 - NP2 (NP3)] and the categories which fulfill them [e.g. V], between referential expressions and thematic roles (e.g. his book; John opens the door). Move a maps the D-S representations to S-S representations (in acc. with the Projection Principle). S-Structure the level at which positions are linked. Morphology is the theory of the Lexicon. The Lexicon is one of the subcomponents of Grammar (together with Syntax, phonology, and semantics), or better said, one level of linguistic description, one way of looking at linguistic objects. The Lexicon is the level of linguistic analysis, whether phonological, morphological, syntactic, semantic or even pragmatic.
The word
The word lies at the interface of morphology and syntax, it is like a bottleneck in the passage of information from the morphological to the syntactic level of language description. From the word, syntax goes upward, to form larger structures (phrases and sentences), whereas Morphology goes downward, into inner constituency of words. A gradient of syntactic and morphological categories would run as follows: - X - X word - X0 - X-1/-2 (stem/root) - XAffix Morphology deals with the interpretation of words in terms of form and meaning.
Inflectional variation
Within a linguistic context a word undergoes changes of form, as it is characterized by the presence of inflectional markers or functional categories, such as: case, number, gender, person, tense, aspect, mood, comparison etc. There is a correlation between a certain part of speech (LC) and its characteristic inflectional markers (categories). That is why these inflectional markers are also called relational categories. For instance, Nouns within a sentence undergo case or number alternations, but never do they undergo Tense or Aspect modifications. Comparison stands only for adjectives and adverbs. This is why inflectional variation was seen to be of a restrictive nature, to be delimiting the lexical categories. The term category designates the characteristic inflectional variation of a certain part of speech. Nouns are characterized (cf. Aristotle) by the functional categories of: case, number, gender, determination; Verbs : tense, aspect, mood, agreement. Pronouns: person, gender, number; Adjs. and advs. - Comparison.
Paradigmatic sets
Paradigms induce closure upon words, i.e. they prohibit the further possibility of having a derivational element attached to it; inflected forms alternate they are organized in paradigms, hence they are in complementary distribution; nouns, for instance, occur in parallel sets of two: hat/hats; books/books, etc. Since they are organized in paradigms, inflectional markers are organised in closed sets. The elemetns of a paradigmatic set may show the phenomenon of suppletion i.e. one of the forms is not phonologically related to other forms: go/went, so, the form of went is said to be the suppletive form of go. A paradigm can be defective, it can lack a form (modal verbs, or defective nouns: trousers/*trouser). Inflections are formal markers (semantically they are empty, abstract) that help us delimit the lexical category of the word to which they attach; that is to say, each lexical category (major part of speech) is characterised by specific inflectional markers; inflectional markers are dependent on a certain LC expressing the morpho-syntactic features of the respective lexical category. Although they have no descriptive content, they pass on the descriptive content of the category they depend on.
features (inflectional or functional categories) Definition= a property of words that syntax is sensitive to (relate sound and meaning)
Interpretable features= have an effect on semantic interpretation e.g. plurality, person, gender (but not in all langs); Uninterpretable features= only regulate the syntactic position of words (Nom, Acc cases)
Phrases/syntactic categories
Phrases are larger constituents, projected round a head according to a general format; X-bar theory expresses generalizations about the phrase structure of all human languages. It restricts the combinatorial possibilities of words into larger linguistic units. Phrases are endocentric, they project round a head.
Constituency tests
(a). Substitution: [The bottle of water] might have cracked open; [It] might have cracked open. Ss are organised into Cs and C are further organised into smaller units, up to lexical items. (b) Movement leaving a trace behind: My students cant stand GG/GG my students can stand The children ran up the hill//Up the hill the children ran (Locative inversion); Cleft and pseudo-clefting: It is GG that they dont like - ; What they do not like is GG. (examples of movement and focalization) (c) Coordination: Students who like GG and inflectional morphology are rare (Conjoining of the same type of categories, Cs.
XP _ (specifier) X YP (complement)
What is in an IP ? A bundle of functional categories associated with the VP: Tense, Agr, Asp., and Mood. The split IP Hypothesis: I _ T/Agr. IP CP (What is in a CP?)