Syntax 1 Wiki: Week 8
Step 2 Licensing the extra expression at the beginning of the sentence
The second problem we need to solve in order to license expressions like her she likes is the occurrence of her at the beginning of the sentence. None of the 3 schemas we have available will licence this extra sign at the beginning of a sentence. So, we have no choice but to formulate a new schema. Here it is:
The top node and the second daughter of the schema represent complete finite sentences. The first daugher can be any sign.
Introducing the GAPS feature
The Gap Collection Constraint
Illustrating the Gap Collection Constraint
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 >