Trad Class (2)

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The Syntax of the Root Clause

(2)

The organization of root clauses

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The Verb Phrase (VP)

(1) Everyday our Head of Department devour SS 3

pizzas.

(2) The builders work EDED for many days.

(Aarts, p.34)

The underlined forms are called verbs.

The Morphological Criterion tells us that verbs have particular endings such as ±s and ± ed .

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Q: What do the highlighted endings in (1) and (2) refer

to?

A1: First, the endings in (1)/(2) refer to tense

information, i.e. present and past.

Tense represents the chronological order of events in

time as perceived by the speaker at the moment of

speech.Tense is a formal category associated with finit e verbs.

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A2: The endings in (1) and (2) contain agreement

information, i.e. agreement between the subject and the

predicate.

In (1), the third person singular subject agrees with the

verb.

Agreement is a formal category associated with finit e

verbs. Non-finite verbs do not carry Tense and Agreement

information.

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The verbs in (1) and (2) are l exical verbs, they can

occur on their own in a sentence and they have a

meaning.

Not all verbs are lexical. Consider (3):

(3) Jeremy is laughing.

(4) The ship had completely sunk when the rescuersarrived at the place of the incident.

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The lexical verbs in (3) are: l augh and sink .

They are not on their own, though. I s and had

accompany these verbs.

Moreover, l augh ends in ± ing and sink has assumed its past participle form.

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The verbs be and have in (3) are called au xil iary verbs,

from Latin au xil iar i, µto help¶.

Q: What do auxiliary verbs help with?

A: They give us more information on how the event

denoted by the verb is viewed. This means that l augh in

(3) is understood as being in progress/ongoing at

present. It also means that sink in (4) is understood ashaving happened before the arrival of the rescuers and

that sink happened at some point in the past.

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Auxiliary Verbs

A. Modal auxiliaries: can/coul d, ma y / might , mu st ,

will / woul d, shall / shoul d, ought to

B. Aspectual auxiliaries: be, have

C. Passive auxiliaries: be, g et

D. Dummy auxiliary: d o

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Modal Auxiliaries

(5) We can dance until midnight.

(6) You may take two courses if you wish.

(7) You must comply with the regulations.

(8) They ought to leave.

(9) We shall write to you as soon as possible.

(10) He will survive.

(Aarts, p. 36/37)

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Modal Auxiliaries

Modal auxiliaries bring in an extra shade of meaning:

ability (5), permission (6), obligation (7), necessity (8),

promise (9), prediction (10).

Modal auxiliaries are finite verbs that do not carry a

Tense and Agreement morpheme.

Modal auxiliaries have past forms but those forms are

not marked by the past morpheme ±ed .Modal auxiliaries are followed by the bare infinite

(except ought to).

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Aspectual auxiliaries

(11) Mr. Jourdain is asking for help.

(12) Shelley has broken two wine-glasses.

Aspectual auxiliaries encode Aspect (keep in mind that

these auxiliaries also carry Tense info).

Aspect is a formal category associated with both finit eand non-finit e verbs.

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Aspectual auxiliaries

Aspect describes the internal temporal structure of an

event. The main aspectual categories in English are the

pr og ressive (see 3, 11) and the per f ective (see 4, 12).

Q: Are be and have below auxiliary verbs?

(13) He is friendly. (Aarts, p.36)

(14) Larry has 94 CDs. (Aarts, p.38)

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Aspectual Auxiliaries

A: No, they are not auxiliary verbs.

they occur on their own in the sentences whereas

auxiliaries help with bringing in additional info.

BE and HAVE may be either lexical verbs or auxiliary

verbs, depending on the context.

Modal auxiliaries may never be lexical verbs; theynever occur on their own in a sentence.

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The Passive Auxiliary

(15) Our Head of Department ate the bagel.

(16) This bagel was eaten by our Head of Department.

E at in (15) is in the active voice. E at in (16) is in the

passive voice.

Be is the passive auxiliary. In a passive sentence, it must be followed by the past participle form of the passivized

verb.

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Dummy Do

Dummy d o is employed when we want to form the

negative counterpart of a sentence that does not contain

an auxiliary verb, but a lexical one.

(17) Jon cycles to work every day.

(18) *Jon not cycles to work every day.

(19) Jon does not cycle to work every day.(Aarts, p.40)

do- su ppor t

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Dummy Do

Dummy d o is employed when we want to form the

interrogative counterpart of a sentence that does not

contain an auxiliary verb, but a lexical one.

(20) Jon cycles to work every day.

(21) Does Jon cycle to work every day? (Aarts, p.40)

Subject ± Au xil iary inversion accompanies

interrogative forms

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Dummy Do

CODE

Dummy d o is employed when auxiliaries are µstranded¶.

(22) Does Jon cycle to work every day? He does.

(23) Jon cycles all the way to work every day and so

does Tim. (Aarts, p.40)

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Dummy Do

EMPHASIS

Dummy d o is employed in emphatic contexts.

(24) Jon DOES cycle to work every day. (Aarts, p.41)

Q: Is d o an auxiliary verb in the following sentences?

(25) Kathy did her homework.

(26) Francesco did today¶s dinner. (Aarts, p.41)

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What is it that defines auxiliary verbs?

Auxiliaries «

a. combine with the N egative particle not

b. I nvert with the subject in questions

c. occur in C ode

d. carry E mphatic stress

The NICE properties

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What is it that defines auxiliary verbs?

(27) We cannot dance until midnight.

(28) Can we dance until midnight?

(29) We can dance until midnight and so can they.

(30) We CAN dance until midnight.

(31) Shelley has not broken two-wine glasses.

(32) Has Shelley broken two wine-glasses?

(33) Shelley has broken two wine-glasses and so has J.

(34) Shelley HAS broken two wine-glasses.

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More on Auxiliaries

(35) The company is being taxed 3 times this year.

(36) The company has been taxed 3 times this year.

(37) The company has been being taxed 3 times this

year.

(38) The company will have been being taxed 3 times

this year.

(Aarts, p.42)

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More on Auxiliaries

A. The first/leftmost Aux in a sequence of auxiliaries

carries Tense info; the next two do not carry Tense

info;

B. Each auxiliary determines the form of the verb thatfollows it (e.g. in (36), perfective have determines

the past participle form of passive be; passive be

determines the past participle form of the lexical

verb);

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More on Auxiliaries

C. Auxiliary verbs occur in a strict order that cannot be

altered:

the modal verb comes first

perfective have follows

progressive be follows

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The Verb Phrase

VP = sequence of words built around a verb

(39) *John has printed.

(40) John has printed one copy.

The verb pr int is tightly connected with its direct object,

one co py subcat e gor ization

A transitive verb and its object form a VP.

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How are sentences organized?

Let us take a simple sentences such as (41):

(41) The sly cat stole the steak.

The sentence may be split up in three constituents: the

sl y cat , stol e, the st eak.

It is possible to come up with a finite set of rules that

define the bits and pieces of constituents that make up

a sentence.We could say that an NP like the sl y cat results from the

rule in (42):

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(42) NP Det (A) N

This rule should be interpreted as ³an noun phrase

consists of a determiner, followed by an optional

adjective, followed by a noun´.

The schematic representation of (42) looks like a tree branch:

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the

D

sly fox

N

NP

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As for the predicate in (41), we can define it as the

result of the rule in (44):

(44) VP V NP

Rule (44) should be interpreted as ³a verb phrase

consists of a verb followed by a noun phrase´

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stole

V

the steak

N

NP

VP

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The sentence in (41) can be captured by the rule (46):

(46) S NP VP

This rule is interpreted as ³a sentence consists of a noun

phrase followed by a verb phrase´

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the sly cat

NP

stole the steak

VP

S

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Further on, the rules that generate sentences are

complemented by a mental dictionary, the Lexicon,

which provides a list of parts of speech, as seen in (48):

(48) N cat, silence, Jim, book

V steal, like, read, know

A sly, happy, irretrievable, complicated

D the, a, these, which, some

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The above-mentioned rules are called phr a se st r ucture

r ul es.

Sentences are represented in the brain by tree-like

structures (see (47)).

Q: What is the use of tree-like structures based on the

phrase structure rules?

A: They ³reflect the relatedness of ideas in mentalese´(Pinker 1994: 101)

Let¶s see how this is done. Consider the following:

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(49) Tonight¶s program discusses stress, exercise,

nutrition, and sex with Celtic forward Scot

Wedman, Dr. Ruth Westheimer and Dick Cavett

(Pinker 1994: 102)

(50) discuss sex with Dick Cavett

= discuss [sex with Dick Cavett] (see 51 a)= discuss sex [with Dick Cavett] (see 51 b)

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discuss

V

sex

N

with

P

D.C.

N

NP

PP

NP

VP

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discuss

V

sex

N

NP

VP

with

P

D.C.

N

NP

PP

VP

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Refining phrase structure rules

Let us consider (52):

(52) the owner of the car from the lake

Intuitively, we know that we talk about the owner of the

car and the car is in the lake. ³of the car´ joins up with³the owner´ and ³from the lake´ represents some

additional information about the current location of the

car.

! The head and its obligatory complement are joined up

within the N-bar level

! Additional material is joined up at the N-bar level

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owner

N

of

P

the car

NP

PP

N'

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owner

N

of

P

the car

NP

PP

N'

from the lake

PP

NP

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Refining phrase structure grammar

Now consider (55):

(55) the owner¶s destruction of the car

Also intuitively, we know that the noun ³destruction´

refers to an event whose object is the car and whose

subject is the owner, i.e. the event of an owner

destructing his own car.

³of the car´ is the complement of ³destruction´, theywill be joined up within the N-bar level.

³the owner¶s´ is represented outside the N-bar level

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Refining phrase structure grammar

the owner's

Spec

destruction

N

of

P

the car

NP

PP

N'

NP

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X-bar

(57) X-bar X ZP

The X-bar level consists of the head followed by

its complement

XP (Spec) X-bar

A phrase consists of a subject followed by X-bar

! The subject may be optional

! Subjects are a sort of additional information

Trad Class (2)

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