Transcript slide - Tulane University

Null complementizers
Sept. 21, 2012 – Day 11
Introduction to Syntax
ANTH 3590/7590
Harry Howard
Tulane University
COURSE MANAGEMENT
9/21/12
http://www.tulane.edu/~howard/ANTH3590/
 Check your quiz grades on Blackboard

ANTH3590/7590, Harry Howard, Tulane
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SPAN x 592 - Fall 2012
AnwarZubaer
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CulkinMatt
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GrubbTeresa
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KingSavanna
LagendykKatherine
LopezHannah
LynchCasie
MillerLucas
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ANTH3590/7590, Harry Howard, Tulane
AndersonPatricia
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AdebusolaAdebesin
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ANTH3590/7590, Harry Howard, Tulane
REVIEW
DIAGRAM THESE TWO SENTENCES
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She wants to take a picture of herself.
 Nobody said that they would have any fun.

ANTH3590/7590, Harry Howard, Tulane
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ANTH3590/7590, Harry Howard, Tulane
§3.6 NULL C IN FINITE
CLAUSES
OVERVIEW
The pattern, #42
a)
c)

We didn’t know [if/whether he had resigned]
We didn’t know [that he had resigned]
We didn’t know [he had resigned]
ANTH3590/7590, Harry Howard, Tulane
b)
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
Hypothesis: all embedded clauses have a
complementizer.

See tree on next slide.
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We would know
[{if/whether/that/Ø} he had resigned]
TP
PR
N
we
T’
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VP
V
know
ANTH3590/7590, Harry Howard, Tulane
T
would
CP
C
if/whether
that
that
TP
PRN
he
T’
T
had
VP
V
resigned
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NULL C IN FINITE CLAUSES
More evidence

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
ANTH3590/7590, Harry Howard, Tulane
We didn’t know [he had resigned] or [that he had
been accused of corruption]
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THE CONTRIBUTION OF
COMPLEMENTIZERS
What does a complementizer do?

It marks the (illocutionary) force of a clause
ANTH3590/7590, Harry Howard, Tulane
declarative
 interrogative

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
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CASE
What is (linguistic) case?
a.
c.

Case condition (#52)


A pronoun or noun expression is assigned case by the
closest case-assigning head which c-commands it.
Hypothesis

A finite C assigns nominative case to the subject.
ANTH3590/7590, Harry Howard, Tulane
b.
I am tired. (nominative)
Mary kissed him ~ Mary looked at him. (accusative)
Mary kissed his cheek. (genitive)
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
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ANTH3590/7590, Harry Howard, Tulane
§3.7 INFINITIVAL CLAUSES
TP
T’
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PR
N
I
What structure do we postulate for:
I will arrange [for him to see a specialist]
VP
V
arrange
ANTH3590/7590, Harry Howard, Tulane
T
will
CP
C
for
TP
PRN
him
T’
T
to
VP
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V
see
QP
a specialist
A NULL C FOR FOR
c.
d.
ANTH3590/7590, Harry Howard, Tulane
b.
She wanted [him to apologize]
She wanted [him to apologize] and [for her to
receive the award]
She wanted more than anything [for him to
apologize]
What she wanted was [for him to apologize]
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a.
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CONTROL
CLAUSES
TP
T’
VP
T
will
V
try
CP

C
Ø
TP
PRN
PRO
I will try [to see a
specialist]
T’
T
to
ANTH3590/7590, Harry Howard, Tulane
Hypothesis: control
clauses have a null C.
 What structure do we
postulate for:

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PR
N
I
VP
15
V
see
QP
a specialist
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ANTH3590/7590, Harry Howard, Tulane
§3.8 DEFECTIVE CLAUSES
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follow material from Ex 3.2
ANTH3590/7590, Harry Howard, Tulane
ALTERNATIVE
AN ORDINARY INFINITIVAL?
* I believe Mary to be innocent and for John to be
guilty.
b) I want Mary to be innocent and for John to be
guilty. (cf. 55)
c) * What I believe is (for) Mary to be innocent. (cf. 69a)
d) What I want is for Mary to be innocent. (cf. 58a)
e) She is believed to be innocent. (70a)
f) * She is wanted to be innocent.
ANTH3590/7590, Harry Howard, Tulane
a)
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So what about They believe [her to be innocent]?
 It looks like any other infinitival clause, but …

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CONJECTURE
The complement to believe and similar verbs is a
TP, not a CP.
ANTH3590/7590, Harry Howard, Tulane
Without a CP, there is no null C (ø) to assign case to
the embedded subject.
 So the matrix verb (believe) must be able to assign
case across the TP boundary to the embedded subject.
 This is an exception, which is why these are often
called exceptional case-marking (ECM) verbs and
clauses.
 Lacking a CP, they can also be called defective
clauses.

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
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CP
ECM CLAUSE
TP
C
ø
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PRN
I
T’
ANTH3590/7590, Harry Howard, Tulane
VP
T
Af1stSgPres
V
believe
TP
PRN
her
T’
T
to
VP
V
be
Adj
innocent
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PASSIVIZATION
FROM AN ECM
CLAUSE
CP
TP
C
ø
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PRN
she
T’
ANTH3590/7590, Harry Howard, Tulane
VP
T
is
V
believed
TP
PRN
she
T’
T
to
VP
V
be
Adj
innocent
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IMPENETRABILITY
ANTH3590/7590, Harry Howard, Tulane
The domain of a complementizer is impenetrable to
a higher head c-commanding the complementizer.
(almost #72)
 “in the domain of” means ‘c-commanded by’
 A constituent in an impenetrable domain cannot
enter into a syntactic relation outside of its domain.
(HH)
 Now we look at the following slide for an illustration.

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There is still one datum left unaccounted for,
which is why the subject of CP cannot passivize.
 A complete answer presupposes an analysis of
passivization, which we won’t see until §9.
 But let us first assume that the embedded CP is
impenetrable from the matrix clause:

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PASSIVIZATION
FROM A CP
CP
TP
C
ø
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PRN
he
T’
ANTH3590/7590, Harry Howard, Tulane
VP
T
is
V
wanted
CP
C
ø
TP
PRN
he
T’
T
to
VP
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V
apologize
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Q3
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Null determiners
ANTH3590/7590, Harry Howard, Tulane
NEXT TIME