Morphology and Syntax

1. Morphology and Syntax

2. Tree structures A tree structure reflects the internal structure of complex words, phrases and sentences. V V N en force

3. V re V V N en force

4. N V N re V er V N en force

5. N N s V N re V er V N en force

6. WRONG: N V N re V N s en N N force er

7. OK: NP Det AP PP Adv A N P NP averystrangecollection of stamps

8. This very strange collection of stamps and that one This very strange collection of stamps and that quite ordinary one *This very strange collection of stamps and that one of coins

9. SO ALSO OK: NP Det AP N’ a Adv A N PP very strange collection P NP of stamps

10. WRONG: NP Det N’ PP a AP N P NP Adv A collection of stamps very strange

11. What if there is no specifier and/or complement? OK: NP N’ N ALSO OK: NP N

12. Sentences in English: OK: S NP Infl VP Given that Infl is the head, you may also call S an InflP, or IP, or AuxP (other names for Infl position are I or Aux).

13. ALSO OK (if we want to make sentences fit into the ‘X bar’ schema for phrase structure): S (or InflP) NP Infl’ Infl VP

14. Full sentence structure CP C’ C S (or InflP) NP Infl’ Infl VP V’ V

15. Agglutination versus Fusion Example of agglutination: paruka = eat -bur = 1st person, -bap = 2nd, -pil = 3rd -kal = plural -gop = past tense parukabur = ‘I eat’ parukaburkal = ‘we eat’ parukapil = he/she eats’ parukapilkal = ‘they eat’ parukagoppil = ‘he/she ate’ parukagoppilkal = ‘they ate’

16. el hand‘hand’ el-imhand-1poss ‘my hand’ el-im-iz hand-1poss-plur ‘our hand’ el-im-iz-i hand-1poss-plur-acc ‘our hand’ (in object function)

17. Fusion: paruka = ‘eat’ parukabing = ‘I eat’ parukamoop = ‘you eat’ parukala = ‘I ate’ parukabam = ‘we ate’

18. masculine neuter feminine grad ‘city’ selo ‘village’ ovca ‘sheep’ sg pl sg pl sg pl Nominative grad gradovi selo sela ovca ovce Genitive grada gradova sela sela ovce ovaca Dative gradu gradovima selu selima ovci ovcama Accusative grad gradove selo sela ovcu ovce Instrumental gradom gradovima selom selima ovcom ovcama Locative gradu gradovima selu selima ovci ovcama

19. Ergative Case and Absolutive Case Some languages have nominative case and accusative case. Some other languages have ergative case and absolutive case.

20. Nominative/accusative languages: Nominative case marks subjects. Accusative case marks objects. The woman-NOM laughed. The woman-NOM read the book-ACC.

21. Ergative/absolutive languages: Ergative case marks subjectsof transitive verbs. Absolutive case marks objectsof transitive verbs AND ALSO subjects of intransitive verbs. The woman-ABS laughed. The woman-ERG read the book-ABS.

22. If English were an ergative/absolutive language... She laughed. Him saw she. (meaning ‘he saw her’)

23. Class I and Class II affixes What’s the difference? THE difference is: Class I affixes influence the stress pattern of the word they attach to. Class II affixes do not. Often (but not always) Class I affixes are closer to the stem then Class II affixes (when both occur).

24. Sentences with two or more main verbs Claire wants to go shopping. The verb in the main sentence, wants, takes a non-finite clause as its complement here: a VP headed by the infinitive to go.

25. S NP Infl VP Claire V’ V VP wants V’ V VP to go shopping

26. Why ‘movement’? ‘Movement’ is a metaphor for the phenomenon that something with a particular grammatical function is not in the position in the sentence that elements with that function normally are, but instead goes into a ‘special’ position in the sentence structure. The notation using ‘movement’ and empty positions is one way (among others) of keeping track of the grammatical function of the ‘moved’ element. Why this phenomenon exists is a different matter.

27. Question 5 of this week’s tutorial Differences between ‘multiple wh-movement’ in Bulgarian and Czech.

28. Question 6 of this week’s tutorial Generalized verb movement to C. In English, verb movement to the C position is limited to (i) Interrogative sentences and (ii) Auxiliary verbs *Which string quartet heard George yesterday? Which string quartet did George hear yesterday?

29. In some other languages, verb movement to C can also apply to main verbs... Hvad koster en billet? what costs a ticket ‘What does a ticket cost?’ *Hvad gør en billet koste? what does a ticket cost

30. ... and verb movement to C also occurs in declarative sentences: Denne film har børnene set. this film have children seen ‘The children have seen this film (rather than another one)’. *Denne film børnene har set. this film children have seen *This film have the children seen. This film the children have seen.

31. CP NP C’ denne film C S (= InflP) har NP Infl’ børnene Infl VP e V’ V NP set e

32. Prediction: if subject-verb inversion is the result of the verb going into the C position of the sentence, then such inversion does not take place in embedded sentences in which the C position is already occupied by a complementizer. Contradicted by Icelandic and Yiddish.