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ENGLISH SYNTAX

UNIT 2
Morphosyntactic features
Adger, D. 2003. Core Syntax. A Minimalist Approach. Oxford:
Oxford University Press.

Chapter 2, sections 2.1-2.4.1, and 2.4.2-2.5

 The atoms of the system
• Syntax tells us which arrangements of words make good sentences.

• But yet at a certain level the words themselves do not seem to

matter.

• Words are not the basic elements of the system.

• Rather, it is the set of properties each word has that seem to be

basic.
• Verb or not a verb, plural or not plural…
 Properties… features…
• Words have properties.
• There is an abstract concept of plural, which is morphologically realized
in several different ways.
• A deer ate my bagel. Deer are funny.
• A dog ate my bagel. Dogs are funny.
• A goose ate my bagel. Geese are funny.

• Same “ agreement” requirement, regardless of the actual

morphological shape.

• The abstract property of “ plural” (or “ singular” ) seems to be

what the grammar is sensitive to.

• (Morphosyntactic) features.
Agreement
• In English, subject and verb need to agree in number
and (for be) person.

• The dog wants food. The dogs want food.

• The dog is hungry. The dogs are hungry.
• I am hungry. We are hungry.

• If the subject is plural (has a plural feature), the verb

must take on a “ plural” form.

• Intuitively, the plural feature is interpretable on the

subject, as it contributes to the meaning.
• On the verb, the (agreeing) plural feature is just a
“reflection”, uninterpretable—more on that later.
 What are the features?
• Features are just properties. Some (e.g. plural) seem to
matter for syntax.

• The features are the relevant properties in our approach to

syntax.

• We are looking for the minimal set of features that

suffices to explain the grammar.
 [plural]
• In English, things can be singular or plural.
• So, nouns have either a [singular] or a [plural] feature.
• Hypothesis:
[sg] and [pl] are features a word can have.
• Prediction:
Four classes of words: [sg], [pl], [sg.pl], [].
• But we really only have two classes in English.
• This hypothesis overgenerates—it predicts the existence
of the actual distinctions, but also of other that do not
exist.
[plural]
• Scientific method: revise the hypothesis.

• There is a simpler story which predicts exactly two

classes.

• [plural] for plurals, [] for singulars.

• Notice that an analysis that says “ All words are

singular” undergenerates.

• All predicted combinations are attested.

• Some attested combinations are not predicted.
What kind of thing is a feature?
• Two views:
• Privative: a feature (e.g. [plural]) is there or not.
• Plurals have [plural], singulars do not.
• Binary valued: a feature (e.g. [plural]) has one of two
values.
• Plurals have [+plural], singulars have [plural].

• We do not know which view is the best for describing syntax.

• We want to choose the one that best captures the generalizations
we see.
• The two views do make different predictions about what syntax can
“see”.
 Duals
• For English, either a privative [plural] feature or a binary-valued
[±plural] feature would work, as in English there are two classes for
number, singular and plural.

• Analysis 1: dog [] vs. dogs [plural]

• Analysis 2: dog [-plural] vs. dogs [+plural]

• Some languages also have a dual, a number reserved for pairs (e.g.
Classical Arabic, Hopi).
Hopi morphology
• Pam taaqa wari • In Hopi, the dual is
that man ran[sg] expressed by combining
‘ That man ran.’ singular and plural.
• Puma ta’ taq-t yu’ ti
those man[pl] ran[pl]
‘ Those men ran.’
• Puma ta’ taq-t wari
those man[pl] ran[sg]
‘ Those two men ran.’
 The fourth number?
• Three numbers are attested in the world’ s languages: singular, plural, and dual.

• The fourth possibility should be neither. But there does not seem to be a fourth
number.

• Solution: languages have a default feature when no number is specified.

• English: dogs [plural], dog [ ]. So add [singular] to dog as default.

• Advantage: only the three attested numbers emerge:

• Singular: [sg]
• Plural: [pl]
• Dual: [sg, pl]
 Other alternatives…
• Features have binary values.

• [singular]  [+singular] for dog and [-singular] for dogs OR

• [plural]  [-plural] for dog and [+plural] for dogs.
• Dual: [+singular, +plural].

• Problems:
1.[-singular, -plural] is predicted (the fourth number).
 Other alternatives…
• Features may have other values than just [+] or [-].

• Plural and singular as values of a feature [Number].

• [number: singular] for dog

• [number: plural] for dogs

• Problems:
• [number: dual], but the composition of dual as both singular and plural is
not captured.

• The simplest system should be preferred (so privative features whenever

possible), but some complexity may be required to explain some data (so
some features have values).
 Interfaces
• We can view a “ word” as a bundle of features, as defined by its
properties.

• The grammar assembles words into sentences.

• The sentence is interpreted and pronounced.

Interfaces
•The assembly process is the grammar proper.

•The system that interprets sentences is another cognitive

module concerned with meaning, reasoning, etc. (conceptual-
intentional system).

•The system that determines the pronunciation of sentences is

yet another cognitive module (articulatory-perceptual system).

•The C-I system and the A-P system interface with grammar.
Interfaces
Lexicon

Grammar

A-P C-I
system system
Motivating features
• Features mediate sound and meaning.

• A particular feature gives rise to a particular morphological

form, which is pronounced, and a particular interpretation.

• The syntax regulates how words with certain features relate to

words with other features.
 Category
• Syntax is concerned with distribution.

• Words seem to come in distributional classes.

• For example, one class of words can appear after the
possessive pronoun my (my book, *my at, *my quickly, *my
explode, *my purple). The nouns.
• One class of words is compatible with past tense. The verbs.
• One class of words is compatible with comparative
(happier). The adjectives.

• Words can be separated into classes: noun, verb, adjective,

preposition, etc.
Distribution examples
• They have no noun.
• They can verb.
• They are adjective.
• Very adverb, very adjective.
• so long as it makes sense (e.g., with gradable adjectives; #they are
very absent)
• Right preposition
• right over the house
Nouns and verbs
• Nouns have a category feature [N].
• Books [N, pl].
• Verbs have a category feature [V].
• Complained [V]

• Two independent features, four predicted categories:

• [N, V] (adjectives)
•[] (prepositions)
Nouns and verbs
• [N, V] (adjectives)
•[] (prepositions)

• A prediction: in certain syntactic processes, adjectives

and nouns class together, in some others, adjectives
and verbs do. Correct.

• Consider what un- can attach to:

untie, unfold, unwrap, unpack
unhappy, unfriendly, undead
*uncity, *uncola, *unconvention
*unupon, *unalongside, *unat
Nouns and verbs
• A problem: prepositions do not have category features.
Not correct. Against our intuitions.

• Alternative: binary features

[+N, -V]  noun [+N, +V]  adjective
[-N, +V]  verb [-N, -V]  preposition
 Lexical and functional
• Nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs: lexical categories.
• They carry significant and arbitrary meaning
• they are open-class (new ones can be invented).

• But sentences are held together by little “ function words” as

well.

• These are the functional categories.

• Mary expects that the CEO will want to retire.

Lexical and functional
• Functional categories:
• the syntactic “ glue” of a sentence
• concerned more with grammatical properties.

• Determiners: the, a(n)

• Quantifiers (determiners): some, every
• Demonstratives: that, this, those
• Possessive pronouns: my, your
• Personal pronouns: you, him, they
• Infinitival to
• Auxiliaries/Modals: have, be, do, can, should
• Complementizers: that, for, if
Pronouns: phi-features
• Person feature: [first], [second], [third] (or 1, 2, 3)

I [1, singular] We [1, plural]

You [2, singular] You [2, plural]

He/she/it [3, singular] They [3, plural]

• Overgeneration: [1], [2], [3], [1,2], [1,3], [2,3], [1,2,3], [ ]

Pronouns: phi-features
• Second attempt:

• Person feature: [first], [second] (or 1, 2)

I [1, singular] We [1, plural]

You [2]

He/she/it [singular] They [plural]

• Predicted: [1], [2], [1,2], [ ]

Pronouns: phi-features
• Does [1, 2] exist in the world’s languages? Yes.

• Inclusive pronoun (speaker [1], people in speaker’s group and

addressee [2], like we) vs. exclusive pronoun (speaker [1],
people in speaker’s group, not addressee, like we but not you)

• [1, plural] (exclusive) vs. [1,2, plural] (inclusive)

• Gender in she, he, it is a semantic feature, as no syntactic rules

refer to gender explicitly.
Pronouns: case features
• Pronouns also change depending on syntactic relationships
other than agreement.

• We all thought him to be unhappy.

• *We all thought he to be unhappy.
• We all thought he was unhappy.
• *We all thought him was unhappy.

• Variation in case.
• The function of case is purely syntactic.
• Three cases in English: nominative (she), accusative (them),
genitive (our)
Verbal features: [past]
• Tense feature [past]

• Morphologically:
• addition of an –ed affix (play – played)
• Vowel change (run – ran)
• Suppletion (am – was)
• Suppletion + affixation (go – went)

• Interpretatively:
•It signals that the event took place before the time of speaking
Verbal features: [past]
• No special morphology for the future.

• I will go to the cinema tomorrow.

• Peter is going to buy the tickets for the concert.
• She is leaving tomorrow.

• Then, binary opposition in the English tense system:

[past] vs. [non-past]

Verbal features: [part]
• Participles:
• -ing (present participle)
• -ed, -en, vowel change (past participle)

• Participles appear when the tense feature is not marked directly on

the verb.
•There is no tense specification in the sentence.
•The tense marking is carried by the auxiliary.

• The semantic distinction between present and past participle is one

of aspect (ongoing vs. completed).

•[part] feature: [V, part] (present participle) vs. [V, past, part] (past
participle).
Verbal features: [inf]
• Infinitive:
• They do not mark for agreement, tense or aspect.

• [inf]

•I want to eat pizza.

•She wants to eat pizza.
•I wanted to eat pizza.
•She has wanted to eat pizza for years.
•She is wanting to eat pizza since this morning.
English morphosyntactic features

Kind of feature Features Comments

tense [past] [past] vs. [non-past]
number [singular], [plural] or
[Number: (value)]
person [1], [2]
gender semantic in English, not
syntactic
case [nom], [acc], [gen]
category [N], [V], [A], [P] may be reducible to
binary [N], [V] and their
combinations
others [part], [inf] appear on verbs
HOMEWORK

•Read Adger (2003), chapter 3, sections 3.1-3.4.