Transcript Class 18 Notes - Université d`Ottawa

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CLASS 18, March 13, 2007
LIN 1310B
Introduction to Linguistics
Prof: Nikolay Slavkov
TA: Qinghua Tang
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Today
• Announcements and Reminders:
-Finish chapter 5. The section on verb raising in English on p. 157159 is optional (the section on verb raising in French is not
optional).
-Test 2 will take place next Tuesday (March 20).
-Don’t forget to bring a pencil and an eraser for the test!
-Office hours: everyone is welcome to office hours without prior
arrangements. Regular office hours are Tuesday after class (room
410). Extra office hours for this week: Friday after class (room
410).
-Meeting by appointment: talk to me or Qinghua.
• Today’s Lecture:
- Finish Syntax
- Go over the answers for assignment 2
- Practice exercise for test (time permitting)
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Verb Raising: last time we discovered that in French main
verbs raise. They move from their original position under V
to the head of inflection I.
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Verb Raising: After the verb has raised, it can undergo
inversion (I-to-C movement) to form a yes-no question.
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In English main verbs do not seem to raise and
subsequently cannot undergo inversion: *See you the
book?
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Remember!!!
• Remember that our key piece of evidence is as follows:
*See you the book?
ungrammatical; therefore, the verb stays in its basic position
under V (cannot raise to I and then move to C)
Vois-tu le livre?
grammatical; therefore the verb in French raises (moves) out
of its basic position under V, and can subsequently undergo
inversion (movement) to the front of the sentence.
If sentences like See you the book? were possible in English,
this would mean that verb raising is possible with main
verbs in English.
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Review: Coordination
• Coordination means combining two or more
categories together with the use of a
conjunction such as and or or
• Properties of coordination:
Coordination occurs with identical categories
You can coordinate a head, a specifier, a
complement, or a whole phrase.
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Examples of coordination
coordination involving P:
• [up] and [down] the street
coordination involving NPs:
• [the boy] and [the girl]
coordination involving VPs:
• [go to school] and [get an A+]
coordination involving Vs:
• [drink] and [eat] at the restaurant
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Trees for coordination
• Remember that we use mostly binary
branching.
• For verbs like put, place, etc. we use tertiary
branching.
• We will also use tertiary branching for
coordination
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Relative Clauses
• Consider the following sentence:
John, who went skiing last weekend, did not finish his
homework.
They speak Finnish, which is a very rare language.
The car, which John bought, was a Mercedes.
 Relative clauses are modifiers in the sense that they modify
the N preceding them.
 As modifiers, they are optional, i.e. the sentence can be
grammatical without them.
 We will not worry about their tree structure in this course.
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Some differences between
complement (embedded) clauses and
relative clauses
1. I know that John is an architect
2. John, who is an architect, likes to talk a lot.
3. I asked if John is an architect.
-(1) and (3) are complement (embedded) clauses.
-(2) is a relative clause.
-the relative clause modifies the meaning of an element
(adds to it).
-a complement (embedded) clause is a complement to the
verb.
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Passives
Consider the following:
John hit Mary.
Mary was hit by John.
Mary was hit.
John is the agent (actor)
Mary is the patient (receiver of the action)
In a passive, usually the patient (receiver) is the
subject of the sentence.
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Properties of passives
-The agent is optional in passives. It can be
expressed in a by- phrase
e.g. Mary was kissed (by John).
-The patient is the subject in the passive.
i.e. Mary is the patient and the subject.
-Some verbs cannot be passivized (usually verbs that
cannot take a complement).
*The train was arrived.
*The dog was died.
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Some discursive properties of
passives: language and power
You will be asked for your diplomas, school certificates
or transcripts listing the courses you have taken. You could
be disqualified from the program if you are not honest
about your education, training and experience. You must
provide information about your marital status and the
number of children you have. This information will not
affect the outcome of your application. You may be asked
to attend an interview with a visa officer. If your
application form is incomplete, or you have not submitted
all the required documents, your application will be
refused.
(Excerpt from a Citizenship and Immigration brochure)
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Practice exercise for the test
Peter, who loves skating, bought [a pair of skates].
A. prepositional phrase B. noun phrase C. specifier D. embedded clause
correct answer: B
Peter, who loves skating, bought [a pair of skates].
A. prepositional phrase B. head C. specifier D. complement
correct answer: D
Peter, who loves skating, [bought a pair of skates].
A. verb phrase B. head C. specifier D. complementizer
correct answer: A
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Practice exercise for the test
Peter, [who loves skating], bought a pair of skates.
A. specifier B. relative clause C. wh- word D. modal
correct answer: B
Peter [bought a pair of skates].
A. prepositional phrase B. head C. specifier D. complement
correct answer: D
Peter bought [a] pair of skates.
A. determiner B. head C. specifier D. degree word E. both A and C
correct answer: E
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Practice exercise for the test
I know [that Peter bought a pair of skates].
A. complementizer phrase B. relative clause C. specifier D. modal
correct answer: A
[I know that Peter bought a pair of skates]
A. embedded clause B. head C. matrix clause D. complement
correct answer: C
What did Peter buy [_t_]
A. subject B. object C. specifier D. adjective E. both B and C
correct answer: B