Syntax 1 Wiki: Week 8

Step 2 Licensing the extra expression at the beginning of the sentence

The Head-filler schema

Exercise

• Go to the Online Grammar 2 with the gap above.
• Parse the following strings:
  • him Lilly likes (choose solution 1)
  • him Lilly spoke to (choose solution 3)
  • to him Lilly spoke (choose solution 4)

• Parse the following strings:
  • he Lilly likes (choose solution 1)
  • he Lilly spoke to (choose solution 1)

• • Lilly gave the apple to him
  • to him Lilly gave the apple (choose solution 4)

• • Lilly gave the apple at him
  • at him Lilly gave the apple (choose solution 4)

Exercise:

• Parse all the sentences below and see whether you find a pattern in the data:

(1)
a. Lilly likes Fido.
b. Fido, Lilly likes __.

(2)
a. Lilly depends on Fido.
b. Fido, Lilly depends on __.

(3)
a. Lilly depends on Fido.
b. On Fido, Lilly depends __.

(4)
a. Lilly is fond of Fido.
b. Fido, Lilly is fond of __.

(5)
a. Lilly showed me a picture of Fido.
b. Fido, Lilly showed me a picture of __.

(6)
a. Lilly said I like Fido.
b. Fido, Lilly said I like __.

(7)
a. Lilly said I claimed she likes Fido.
b. Fido, Lilly said I claimed she likes __.

Because preposing can in principle span arbitrarily many clauses, it is one example of a long distance dependency!

(8) * Fido, Lilly smokes __.
(9) * To Fido, Lilly likes __.
(10) * She, Lilly likes __.
(11) * To Fido, Lilly depends __.
(12) * Fido, Lilly claims __ am sad.

(1) What pattern do (1)-(12) show?

Check your answer

An expression can be preposed from a position P if and only if it can occur in position P.

We distinguish between two kinds of phrases:

1. Stand(ard) phrases: hd-comp-ph, hd-spr-ph, hd-c-ph, sai-ph
2. Head-Filler phrases: top-ph, question

Remarks:

1. ⊕ is the list merger operator. (to merge = verschmelzen)
2. L1 ⊕ L2 is the new list L3 which contains all the elements of list L1 followed by all the elements of list L2.

Examples:

1. <> ⊕ < a > = < a >
2. < a > ⊕ <> = < a >
3. < a, a > ⊕ < a, b, c > = < a, a, a, b, c >