Linear Order and Constituency

1. Linear Order and Constituency Colin Phillips Cognitive Neuroscience of Language Laboratory Department of Linguistics University of Maryland

2. Incremental Structure Building • An investigation of the grammatical consequences of incremental, left-to-right structure building

3. Incremental Structure Building A

4. Incremental Structure Building A B

5. Incremental Structure Building A B C

6. Incremental Structure Building A B C D

7. Incremental Structure Building A B C D E

8. Incremental Structure Building A B

9. Incremental Structure Building A B constituent

10. Incremental Structure Building A B C constituent is destroyed by addition of new material

11. Incremental Structure Building A B C

12. Incremental Structure Building A constituent B C

13. Incremental Structure Building A B C D constituent is destroyed by addition of new material

14. Incremental Structure Building the cat

15. Incremental Structure Building the cat sat

16. Incremental Structure Building the cat sat on

17. Incremental Structure Building the cat sat on the rug

18. Incremental Structure Building the cat sat on

19. Incremental Structure Building the cat sat on the rug

20. Incremental Structure Building the cat sat [sat on] is a temporary constituent, which is destroyed as soon as the NP [the rug] is added. on the rug

21. Incremental Structure Building Conflicting Constituency Tests Verb + Preposition sequences can undergo coordination… (1) The cat sat on and slept under the rug. …but cannot undergo pseudogapping (Baltin & Postal, 1996) (2) *The cat sat on the rug and the dog did the chair.

22. Incremental Structure Building the cat sat on

23. Incremental Structure Building the cat and sat on slept under

24. Incremental Structure Building the cat coordination applies early, before the V+P constituent is destroyed. and sat on slept under

25. Incremental Structure Building the cat sat on

26. Incremental Structure Building the cat sat on the rug

27. Incremental Structure Building the cat and the dog did sat on the rug

28. Incremental Structure Building the cat and the dog did sat pseudogapping applies too late, after the V+P constituent is destroyed. on the rug

29. Incremental Structure Building • Constituency ProblemDifferent diagnostics of constituency frequently yield conflicting results • Incrementality Hypothesis(a) Structures are assembled strictly incrementally(b) Syntactic processes see a ‘snapshot’ of a derivation - they target constituents that are present when the process applies(c) Conflicts reflect the simple fact that different processes have different linear properties • Applied to interactions among binding, movement, ellipsis, prosodic phrasing, clitic placement, islands, etc. (Phillips 1996, in press; Richards 1999, 2000; Guimaraes 1999; etc.)

30. Movement & Binding • John gave books to them on each other’s birthdays.

31. Movement & Binding • John gave books to them on each other’s birthdays. VP gave VP books V VP to them V on each other’s birthdays (Pesetsky 1995)

32. Movement & Binding • John gave books to them on each other’s birthdays. VP gave VP books V VP to them V on each other’s birthdays (Pesetsky 1995)

33. Movement & Binding b. …and [give books to them] he did ___ on each other’s birthdays (Pesetsky 1995)

34. Movement & Binding b. …and [give books to them] he did ___ on each other’s birthdays VP VP on each other’s birthdays to them V’ gave books (Pesetsky 1995)

35. Movement & Binding b. …and [give books to them] he did ___ on each other’s birthdayså VP VP on each other’s birthdays to them V’ gave books (Pesetsky 1995)

36. VP give VP books to them V

37. IP VP IP give VP he did books to them V

38. IP VP IP give VP he did books to them V

39. IP VP IP constituentmovement give VP I’ he did VP books to them V give VP books V to them

40. IP VP IP constituentmovement give VP I’ he did VP books to them V give VP books V VP to them V on each other’s birthdays

41. IP VP IP constituentmovement give VP I’ he did VP books to them V give VP books V VP to them V on each other’s birthdays binding underc-command

42. Linear Order • Movement & Binding:Binding relation does not block movement, because it is established after movement • Ellipsis & Binding:Binding/Scope do block ellipsis, because they are established too early in the left-right derivation

43. Ellipsis blocks Scope/Binding John gave books to the children on each other’s birthdays *…and Mary did on each other’s first day of school Bill read all the books in a week (ambiguous scope) …and Sue did in a month (unambiguous scope)

44. IP I’ John +fin VP gave VP books V VP to the children V on each other’s birthdays

45. IP and IP IP I’ John I’ Bill +fin VP did VP gave VP books V VP to the children V on each other’s birthdays

46. IP and IP IP I’ John I’ Bill +fin VP did VP gave VP books V VP to the children V on each other’s birthdays

47. IP I’ John +fin VP gave VP books V to the children

48. IP I’ John VP +fin on each other’s birthdays VP gave VP books V to the children

49. IP and IP IP I’ John I’ Bill VP +fin did VP on each other’s birthdays VP gave VP books V to the children

50. IP and IP IP I’ John I’ Bill VP +fin did VP on each other’s birthdays VP gave VP books V to the children