Complement Structures: Equi and Raising

Complement Structures: Equi and Raising HPSG WS 2007/08 Janina Kopp 20.12.2007

Outline • About Equi and Raising Constructions • About Equi and Raising in HPSG • Expletive pronoun constructions • (Raising Expletives)

What are Equi and Raising Constructions? • Consider the following two sentence pairs: • They tend to run • They try to run • John believes Mary to own Fido • John persuades Mary to own Fido • On the first sight, the underlying structure looks just the same, however, there is a crucial difference.

Motivation and Distinction Tests • We will now see what evidence there is for assuming two different underlying structures • These differences can be used to distinguish such constructions

Comparison • They try to run • try: subjectcontrol verb or equi verb • they is agent argument of both try and run • They tend to run • tend: raising verb • they is agent argument only of run, not of tend • John persuaded Mary to own Fido • persuade: objectcontrol verb • Mary is direct object of persuaded, but semantically both patient of persuaded and agent of to own Fido • John believed Mary to own Fido • believe: objectraising verb • Mary is the direct object of believed and subject of to own Fido

Test 1: passivization • Think about how the meaning of these sentences changes: • (1a) John believed Mary to own Fido • (1b) John believed Fido to be owned by Mary • (2a) John persuaded Mary to own Fido • (2b) John persuaded Fido to be owned by Mary  in (1), both sentences have the same meaning  in (2a), Mary is the persuadee, while in (2b) it is Fido

Test 2: insertion of verbal adjuncts • John persuaded Mary firmly to own Fido • *John believed Mary firmly/honestly to own Fido

Test 3: paraphrasing • (1) John persuaded Mary to own Fido • (1’) John persuaded Mary that she should own Fido • (2) John believed Mary to own Fido • (2’) John believed that Mary owned Fido • persuade: three-place-predicate: • Subject John, Primary Object Mary, Secondary Object [that she should own Fido] • believe: two-place-predicate: • Subject John, Object [that Mary owned Fido]

Test 4: complement omission • John persuaded/told/convinced Mary to own Fido, but I don’t think he has persuaded/told/ convinced Sandy yet. • *John believed/expected/reported Mary to own Fido, but I don’t think he has believed/expected/ reported Sandy. • They try/refuse/hope to run, but I don’t think that you try/refuse/hope. • *They tend/continue/happen to run, but I don’t think that you tend/continue/happen.

Test 5: there as a complement • There with subject raising verbs: • There tends to be disorder after a revolution. • There seems to be some misunderstanding. • There kept being problems with the analysis. • There with object raising verbs: • Kim believed there to be some misunderstanding. • Compare with corresponding equi constructions: • *There tries to be disorder after a revolution. • *There hopes to be some misunderstanding. • *Kim persuaded there to be some misunderstanding.

Realization in HPSG • a. They try to run. b. They tend to run.

More on semantic roles • Equi controllers are assigned semantic roles: • (101) • a. The doctor tried to examine Sandy. • TRYER: doctor • b. Sandy tried to be examined by the doctor. • TRYER: Sandy • (102) • a. Kim persuaded the doctor to examine Sandy. • PERSUADEE: the doctor • b. Kim persuaded Sandy to be examined by the doctor. • PERSUADEE: Sandy

More on semantic roles • However: • (103) • a. Kim believed the doctor to have examined Sandy • b. Kim believed Sandy to have been examined by the doctor • The raising controller does not have a semantic role in “believe”. We only have a SOA-ARG which associates the doctor with the EXAMINER role and Sandy with the EXAMINEE role.

Expletive it or there • Only raising constructions allow expletive it or there as a complement: • There tends to be disorder after a revolution. • Kim believed there to be some misunderstanding. • *There tries to be disorder after a revolution. • *Kim persuaded there to be some misunderstanding. • It tends to be warm in September • Lee believes it to bother Kim that Sandy snores. • *It tries to be warm in September • *Lee persuades it to bother Kim that Sandy snores. • An equi controller has to be of sort ref.

SUBCAT list of persuade:

SUBCAT list of believe:

More examples on expletive it • Kim persuades it to run • it is of sort ref • Kim persuades it to rain • it is of sort it • ungrammatical • Kim believes it to run • it is of sort ref • Kim believes it to rain • it is of sort it

Shared information • The unexpressed subject of the VP complement is identified with • equi controller’s index in equi verbs • raising controller’s SYNSEM value in raising verbs • Examples of Icelandic: • raising controllers in Icelandic share CASE values with the unexpressed subjects of unsaturated complements.

Raising Principle • Let E be a lexical entry whose SUBCAT list L contains an element X not specified as expletive. Then X is lexically assigned no semantic role in the content of E if and only if L also contains a (nonsubject) Y[SUBCAT <X>]. • this is only a constraint on lexical entries • follows from the generalization that unassigned arguments must be raising controllers • unassigned arguments can only be on the SUBCAT list if there is a corresponding unsaturated phrase

More on complement omission persuaded • They told Jan to leave, convinced persuaded but I don’t think they have told Sandy yet. convinced seems • *Taylor tends to be obnoxious, seems but I don’t think that Gerry tends.

More on complement omission • p. 141: “Removing the unsaturated complement from a raising verb’s SUBCAT list would leave a semantically unassigned SUBCAT element that was not raised.” •  there is no “TENDER” (subject raising) or “BELIEVEE” (object raising) • NP substitution: • (122) Leslie tried something. • (123) *Whitney tends something. • tends assigns no semantic role to its subject, Whitney, so there must be an unsaturated complement on the SUBCAT list. Something, though, is already saturated.

Auxiliary element to • to is treated as a verb in HPSG, and more explicitly, as a raising verb

Summary Equi/Raising • raising verbs • fail to assign a semantic role to one of their dependents • the entire SYNSEM value of the SUBCAT list element of the VP complement is structure shared with the raising controller • allows it and there as a complement • equi verbs • only the INDEX of the VP complement’s subject is structure shared with the equi controller • controllers are assigned semantic roles

Expletive pronoun constructions • We already saw that the sort there or it is inappropriate for NP dependents that are assigned a semantic role: • *There died. • *We like there very much. • *It died. • *We talked to it. (it not being a ppro) • environments subcategorizing for there: • subject of copula (be, is), with add. postcopula • environments subcategorizing for it (no ref allowed!): • weather verbs (rain, snow) • temporal expressions (late, five o’clock) • extraposed clauses (It bothers me that Sandy snores) • can also occur in the object position (“I take it that you pay”)

Expletive pronoun constructions • be – an example (143) • CONTENT is token identical to the CONTENT of the XP[+PRD] • The unexpressed subject of the XP[+PRD] complement is structure shared with the postcopular NP complement • CONTENT is not determined by subject, but by the postcopular NP and the XP element • CONTENT is complete even before adding Subject NPthere to the structure • NUM value of the NPthere is dependent on the postcopular NP

Extraposition Lexical Rule • verbs/adjectives combining with an extraposed clause: • It bothers Kim that Sandy snores. • That Sandy snores bothers Kim. • The idea is to assume an underlying, basic lexical entry and a rule that transforms its SUBCAT list. • The Extraposition Lexical Rule removes an S[comp] from a SUBCAT list, replacing it by NPitand appends the S[comp] to the end of the SUBCAT list. • SUBCAT<NP, S[comp], PP[to]> (explain, mention) •  SUBCAT<NP, NPit, PP[to], S[comp]> • SUBCAT<NP, S[comp]> (regret, resent) •  SUBCAT<NP, NPit, S[comp]>

Extraposition Lexical Rule • However, there are still exceptions that need to be listed separately: • It seems that Sandy is snoring. • *That Sandy is snoring seems.

Raised Expletives

Complement Structures: Equi and Raising