Are You in The Right Place?

Are you in the right place?

Welcome to syntax for LG514
Welcome to syntax for LG510
Welcome to syntax for LG510/514
I am not Bob Borsley
I am Andrew Radford
I am Andrew Radford
Mission Impossible:
Impossible
I am Andrew Radford
Mission Impossible:
Impossible
• to teach you syntax in a few weeks
I am Andrew Radford
Mission Impossible:
Impossible
Typical student reaction:
reaction
I am Andrew Radford
Mission Impossible:
Impossible
Typical student reaction:
reaction
• ‘This is the hard thing I do in my life’
Course website …/lg510
http://courses.essex.ac.uk/lg/lg514
The course website contains the following

materials for you to download
• course description
• coursebook (LG510 students do chapters
1-6; LG514 students do chapters 1-9)
• lecture materials (i.e. I will put copies of
my Powerpoint transparencies on the site
after I finish my lecture each week)
What I will do this week 5
• Tell you about the course materials

• Summarise keys points of chapter
1 of the coursebook
• Analyse some of the exercise
material in chapter 1
Preparing for classes 6
Each week (from next week)

week you should
• Read the text of the appropriate chapter of your
coursebook in advance of the lecture (chapter 2
before week 3, chapter 3 before week 4 etc.)
• Prepare analyses of the exercise examples
designated as part of your work programme:
these are marked with (w)
• Bring your analyses to the lecture so you can
compare your solutions with mine
A typical exercise 7
Exercise 2.1 Discuss the structure of the

following sentences:
1 He has become very fond of Mary
2 She must be quite pleased to see you

3 He will need to ask for help (w)
4 They are expecting to hear from you (w)

5 … (etc.)
Why is the course exercise-based? 8
• Because most students have more

problems with the exercises than with the
main text in each chapter
• And because students say in
questionnaires that they don’t get enough
practice in problem-solving
Other Points 9
• Details of the assignment are given in the

course description
• What I’ll do for the rest of this lecture is
summarise the text of chapter 1, and (after the
break) go on to analyse specific exercise
examples from chapter 1
• LG510 students attend weeks 2-7
• LG514 students attend weeks 2-10
• If you have any queries,
queries or are lost or want help
with your assignment, e-mail Georgios Ioannou,
gioann@essex.ac.uk
Chomsky’s approach to grammar 10
• … involves studying what native speakers

know about the grammar of their
language which makes them fluent in it
• In other words, it involves studying their
grammatical competence or I-language
(i.e. internalised knowledge of the
grammar of the language)
language
Goal of Linguistics 13
• develop theory of UG/Universal Grammar

which identifies defining properties of all
natural languages and satisfies criteria of:
• Universality
• Explanatoriness
• Learnability
• Simplicity
Goal of Linguistics 13
• develop theory of UG/Universal Grammar

which identifies defining properties of all
natural languages and satisfies criteria of:
• Universality
• Explanatoriness
• Learnability
• Simplicity (Minimalism)
Chomsky’s model of grammar 16
Lexicon
Lexicon + Syntax
Lexicon + Syntax
syntactic structure
Lexicon + Syntax
syntactic structure
Lexicon + Syntax
syntactic structure
semantic component
Lexicon + Syntax
syntactic structure
semantic component PF component

Lexicon + Syntax
syntactic structure
semantic representation
Lexicon + Syntax
syntactic structure
semantic representation PF representation

Lexicon + Syntax
syntactic structure

≈
≈
thought systems
Lexicon + Syntax
syntactic structure

≈ ≈
≈ ≈
thought systems speech systems
Language Acquisition 19
Experience of Language L
Innate Language Faculty

Innate Language Faculty
Grammar of L
Why innate language faculty? 23
• species-specificity of language
• involuntariness of acquisition
• critical period (puberty)
• rapidity and uniformity of acquisition - e.g.
1;0 Apple
1;6 Eating apple
2;0 Me eating apple
2;6 I’m eating an apple
Explaining rapidity of acquisition 25
• Q: Why is acquisition so rapid?

• A: Many aspects of language are
universal (determined by innate principles
of UG), so don’t have to be learned
• Q: How can we discover UG principles?
• A: By detailed analysis of any construction
in any language - eg. questions in English
English wh-questions 28
He had said someone would do something

1. He had1 said who1 would2 do what2?
2. *Who1 would2 he had said do what?
3. *What2 would2 he had said who do?
4. Who1 had1 he said would do what?
Move closest AUX and closest WH
< LOCALITY PRINCIPLE
Grammatical operations are local
Language variation 31
• Not all aspects of language are universal

• Languages vary in respect of their syntax
along a number of parameters – e.g.
• WH-PARAMETER
English: What do you think he will say?
Chinese: Ni xiangxin ta hui shuo shenme?
shenme
• English is a wh-movement language
• Chinese is a wh-in-situ language
HEAD POSITION PARAMETER 33
• English: Close the door!

• Korean: Muneuldoor dadaraclose!
• English is a head-first language
• Korean is a head-last language
NULL SUBJECT PARAMETER
(aka PRO-DROP PARAMETER)

PARAMETER 36
• A: Where’s Maria?
B: John says she’s
she gone to Rome
*John says pro has gone to Rome
• A: Dov’è Maria?
B: Gianni dice che pro è3.S andataF.S a Roma
Italian is a null-subject/pro-drop language
English is non-null-subject/non-pro-drop
What children acquiring a language L
do and don’t have to learn 39
• Children don’t have to learn universal

aspects of syntax (e.g. Locality Principle)
Principle
• Children do have to learn parametrized
aspects of syntax, e.g.
Is L a wh-movement language or not?
Is L is a head-first language or not?
Is L is a null subject language or not?
• Children’s syntactic learning task is that of
parameter-setting
Very Early Parameter Setting 42
• Since setting parameters requires little

evidence, children to set them correctly at
a very early stage (Wexler 1998)
• HEAD POSITION PARAMETER:
PARAMETER Jem 1;8
Touch heads. Cuddle book. Want crayon
On Mummy. To lady. With potty. In school
• WH PARAMETER (Bellugi & Klima 1966)
What doing? Where going?
Principles-and-Parameters Theory
Summary 45
• Many aspects of grammar are based on UG

principles innately wired into the brain
These don’t have to be learned by children
• Others vary along parameters (wh-parameter,
null subject parameter, head position parameter)
• Children have to learn to set each parameter at
the right value.
• Parameter-setting requires little evidence, so is a
rapid process. Children correctly set parameters
at the correct value by two years of age.
How to amuse yourself in the break 47
Please fill in the attendance sheet which I

am about to circulate
We start again in 10 minutes
Exercise 1.1 5
This exercise involves analysing a set of

sentences from (Will the Quill) Shakespeare
Elizabethan English (like present-day English) had
a head-first setting for the Head Position
Parameter,
Parameter and so normally positioned all heads
immediately before their complements
But a series of different movement operations
could mask this canonical/basic/underlying
word order by fronting/preposing a variety of
words or phrases (i.e. moving them to the front
of the phrase/clause/sentence containing them)
4) True is it that we have seen better days
6
6
Testing the head-first setting of Head Position

Parameter/HPP in Elizabethan English
6

What is the complement of that?
that
6

that
• The expression we have seen better days
6

that
Does that immediately precede its complement
seen better days?
6

that
Does that immediately precede its complement
seen better days?
• Yes
7

7

What is the complement of have?
have
7

have
• The expression seen better days
7

have
Does have immediately precede its
complement seen better days?
7

have
Does have immediately precede its
complement seen better days?
• Yes
8

8

What is the complement of seen?
seen
8

seen
• The expression better days
8

seen
Does seen immediately precede its
complement better days?
8

seen
Does seen immediately precede its
complement better days?
• Yes
8
Evidence for the head-first setting of the Head

Position Parameter/HPP in Elizabethan English
comes from the fact that
• Complementiser that immediately precedes its
complement we have seen better days
• Auxiliary have immediately precedes its
complement seen better days
• Verb seen immediately precedes its
complement better days
9
But if all heads immediately preceded their

complements in the sentence in accordance with
head-first setting of HPP,
HPP we would expect
9

HPP we would expect
It is true that we have seen better days
9

HPP we would expect
in which
10

HPP we would expect
in which
• Adjective true immediately precedes its
complement that we have seen better days
10

HPP we would expect
and
• Copula is immediately precedes its complement
true that we have seen better days
Why don’t we get the following?
It is true that we have seen better days 11
Because head-first setting of HPP is masked by


• Inverting the copula verb is with its subject it

it is true that we have seen better days

is it true that we have seen better days

• Fronting the adjective true


True is it that we have seen better days

Conclusion:

Conclusion: Movement masks parameter settings
Comparing underlying and superficial
word order 13
word order 13
Underlying word order

word order 13

word order 13

Is immediately precedes its complement
word order 13

True immediately precedes its complement
word order 14

Superficial word order
word order 14

word order 14

True doesn’t immediately precede complement
word order 14

True doesn’t immediately precede complement
Is doesn’t immediately precede its complement
8) What think you he hath confessed?
15
15
If no movement operations applied and all heads

immediately preceded their complements, the
word order would be
15

word order would be
You think he hath confessed what?
15

word order would be
what
The verb think would immediately precede its
complement he hath confessed what
15

word order would be
what
The auxiliary hath would immediately precede its
complement confessed what
15

word order would be
what
And the verb confessed would immediately
precede its complement what
16

word order would be
what
16

word order would be
what
Instead, head-first setting of HPP is masked by
16

word order would be
what
• inverting the verb think with its subject you
16

word order would be
what
you think he hath confessed what
16

word order would be
what
think you he hath confessed what
17

word order would be
what
• fronting what
17

word order would be
what
• fronting what
17

word order would be
what
• fronting what
What think you he hath confessed
word order 19
word order 19

word order 19

You think he hath confessed what
word order 19

Confessed immediately precedes its complement
word order 19

word order 19

Think immediately precedes its complement
word order 19

word order 20

word order 20

What think you he hath confessed?
confessed
word order 20

confessed
Confessed no longer immediately precedes its
complement
word order 20

confessed
Confessed no longer immediately precedes its
complement what
word order 20

Think no longer immediately precedes its
complement
word order 20

confessed
word order 20

confessed
Conclusion:
Conclusion
word order 20

confessed
Conclusion:
Conclusion Movement masks parameter settings
Exercise 1.2 21
Analyse a set of utterances produced by

Lucy at age 1;11, and see whether they
suggest that she has correctly set
• the Head Position Parameter
• the Wh-Parameter
• the Null Subject Parameter
The idea is to use the data in the exercise to
test Very Early Parameter Setting model
3) Daddy play with me 23
• If Lucy has correctly set the Head Position

Parameter, we expect her to position all heads
before their complements

• The complement of the preposition with is

• The complement of the preposition with is me

• She positions the preposition with before its
complement me

complement me
• The complement of the verb play is

complement me
• The complement of the verb play is the
expression with me

complement me
• She positions the verb play before its
complement with me

complement me
• She positions the verb play before its
complement with me
Conclusion:
Conclusion Lucy has already set the Head
Position Parameter correctly and knows that
English is a head-first language in which heads
precede their complements
5) Where Daddy gone? 28
• The wh-word where is the complement of the

verb gone
• Complements are normally positioned after
heads in English (cf. Daddy has gone home)
home
• The fact that Lucy positions the wh-word where
at the beginning of the sentence and not in the
normal complement position after the verb gone
suggests that she has correctly set the
Wh-Parameter and that she knows English is a
wh-movement language which positions
wh-words at beginning of interrogative clauses
8) Daddy doing? 32
• The wh-word what has been truncated/omitted

• Truncation affects only affects words at the
beginning of a sentence
• So, what must move to the front of the sentence
before being truncated
• Daddy doing what
> What Daddy doing (via wh-movement)
> What Daddy doing (via truncation)

• To prepose (and then truncate) the wh-word, Lucy
must have set the Wh-Parameter correctly and
know English is a wh-movement language
9) Cry 33
9) Cry 331
• The verb cry has a (‘silent’) null subject – but

what kind of null subject?
9) Cry 33

• Nina Hyams (1986) argues that children initially
assume that English is a Null Subject Language,
and so start out ‘talking Italian’
Italian (Hyams, 1986)
9) Cry 33

• She claims that English children start out with
the wrong setting (Italian one) ‘allows null finite
subjects’ for Null Subject Parameter
9) Cry 33

subjects’ for Null Subject Parameter and have to
learn to reset the parameter to ‘doesn’t allow
null finite subjects’
9) Cry 33

subjects’ for Null Subject Parameter and have to
learn to reset the parameter to ‘doesn’t allow
null finite subjects’
• But an alternative is that English children simply
use types of null subject found in English
Types of null subject in adult English 34
• Truncated null subjects

• Truncated null subjects (sentence-initial)


Can’t find my mobile.

Can’t find my mobile. Must have lost it

• Imperative null subjects

Put your hands up!

Put your hands up! Don’t move!

• Nonfinite null subjects (= PRO)

• Nonfinite null subjects (= PRO)
PRO
Why worry about it?
Question that arises 40
• Do English children ever use Italian-style null

pro subjects?
Or do they use English-style null subjects like
those found in adult English?
• Important complication
Two-year-old children go through an Optional
Infinitives stage when they sometimes use
non-finite verb-forms in contexts where adults
use finite verbs: e.g. I went/Me go Macdonalds
9) Cry 40
Could the silent subject of cry be an

English-style null subject?
subject
9) Cry 40

English-style imperative null subject?
subject
9) Cry 41

subject
Is the sentence imperative?
imperative
9) Cry 41

subject
imperative No
9) Cry 41

subject
imperative No
Hence the silent subject could not be an
English imperative null subject
9) Cry 41

English-style truncated null subject?
subject
9) Cry 41

subject
Is the silent subject the first word in the
sentence?
9) Cry 42

subject
sentence? Yes (presumably)
9) Cry 42

subject
Hence the silent subject could be an
English truncated null subject
9) Cry 42

subject
I cry
9) Cry 42

subject
I cry > truncation >
9) Cry 43

subject
I cry > truncation >
I cry
9) Cry 43
Since children go through an Optional

Infinitives/OI stage could the subject of cry
be English-style nonfinite null subject?
subject
9) Cry 43

subject
Could cry be an optional infinitive? Yes
9) Cry 43

subject
Hence the silent subject of cry could be an
English nonfinite null PRO subject
9) Cry 44

subject
PRO cry
9) Cry 44

subject
PRO cry
cf. adult English Why PRO cry?
9) Cry 44
Overall conclusion
• The silent subject of cry could be an
English-style truncated or nonfinite null
subject
• There is no evidence that English children
like Lucy ever mis-set the Null Subject
Parameter and wrongly assume English
allows Italian-style null finite pro subjects
10) I play 47
Sentence 10 has an overt subject I. What does this tell us?

• A true Italian-style Null Subject Language uses null
rather than overt subjects in such a context
Adult: CosaWhat faido nelin+the parcopark?
‘What do you do in the park?
Child: Giocoplay ‘I play’
So it is unlikely that Lucy has mis-set the Null Subject
Parameter and misanalysed English as an Italian-style
Null Subject Language, since true NSLs don’t use overt
subject pronouns unless they are strong/contrastive
Rather, the types of null subject she uses are precisely
those found in adult English
What I will do next week 48
• Assume you have read chapter 2 of your

coursebook
• Assume you have prepared analyses of
the example sentences marked by (w) in
the exercises in chapter 2 of your
coursebook
• Show you how to analyse the (w)
sentences

Are You in The Right Place?

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Are You in The Right Place?

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Are you in the right place?

Are you in the right place?

The course website contains the following

• Tell you about the course materials

Each week (from next week)

Exercise 2.1 Discuss the structure of the

1 He has become very fond of Mary

2 She must be quite pleased to see you

4 They are expecting to hear from you (w)

• Because most students have more

• Details of the assignment are given in the

• … involves studying what native speakers

• develop theory of UG/Universal Grammar

• develop theory of UG/Universal Grammar

semantic component PF component

semantic component PF component

semantic component PF component

semantic representation PF representation

semantic component PF component

semantic representation PF representation

semantic component PF component

semantic representation PF representation

Innate Language Faculty

Innate Language Faculty

• Q: Why is acquisition so rapid?

He had said someone would do something

• Not all aspects of language are universal

• English: Close the door!

(aka PRO-DROP PARAMETER)

• Children don’t have to learn universal

• Since setting parameters requires little

• Many aspects of grammar are based on UG

Please fill in the attendance sheet which I

This exercise involves analysing a set of

Testing the head-first setting of Head Position

Testing the head-first setting of Head Position

Testing the head-first setting of Head Position

Testing the head-first setting of Head Position

Testing the head-first setting of Head Position

Testing the head-first setting of Head Position

Testing the head-first setting of Head Position

Testing the head-first setting of Head Position

Testing the head-first setting of Head Position

Testing the head-first setting of Head Position

Testing the head-first setting of Head Position

Testing the head-first setting of Head Position

Testing the head-first setting of Head Position

Testing the head-first setting of Head Position

Testing the head-first setting of Head Position

Evidence for the head-first setting of the Head

But if all heads immediately preceded their

But if all heads immediately preceded their

But if all heads immediately preceded their

But if all heads immediately preceded their

But if all heads immediately preceded their

Because head-first setting of HPP is masked by

Because head-first setting of HPP is masked by

Because head-first setting of HPP is masked by

Because head-first setting of HPP is masked by

Because head-first setting of HPP is masked by

Because head-first setting of HPP is masked by

Because head-first setting of HPP is masked by

Because head-first setting of HPP is masked by