LING 200 Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: Modern Standard Arabic, Null-Subject Language, Noam Chomsky
23 Jun 2018
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Auxiliary movement:
The student talking to the man that is wearing a tie
The student IS talking to the man that IS wearing a tie
Which ‘is’ moves to the beginning of the sentence here?
Is the student that __ talking to the man that is wearing a tie?
*Is the student that is talking to the man that __ wearing a tie?
Here the first one!
What is the rule?
Remember: we want to capture the intuition that the words are boxed below are grouped
together, and that the auxiliary after this groups is the one that undergoes fronting:
[The man that is talking to the student] [is] wearing a tie?
What is the “group?
—> a DP
—> the subject DP!
Here the words grouped together are [the student], and it is the auxiliary after this phrase (again
- the subject DP) that undergoes fronting:
[The student] [is] talking to the man that is wearing a tie?
Trees with an Aux-phrase:
Kay writes novels
Kay is writing a novel
Kay had written a novel
Kay will write a novel
Kay must write a novel
Kay must write a novel
Sentences with an auxiliary and VP-elipsis
Kay is writing a novel
… and John is too
Kay has written a novel
… and John has too
Kay will writ a novel
.. and John will too
Aux-phrase:
A new constituency test: if a string of words can be elided, then they from a constituent
We learn:
Aux is not part of the VP
We conclude:
Aux is the head of an AuxP
Aux sélects a VP
Modal auxiliaries (will, can, must, might…) select a VP headed by a bare V (a verb with no
suffix)
Have selects a VP headed by a past particle (e.g. written)
Be selects a VP headed by a present particle (e.h. writing)
Operation move:
1) Aux movement
Make a copy of aux
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Document Summary
The student talking to the man that is wearing a tie. The student is talking to the man that is wearing a tie. Remember: we want to capture the intuition that the words are boxed below are grouped together, and that the auxiliary after this groups is the one that undergoes fronting: Here the words grouped together are [the student], and it is the auxiliary after this phrase (again. A new constituency test: if a string of words can be elided, then they from a constituent. Modal auxiliaries (will, can, must, might ) select a vp headed by a bare v (a verb with no suffix) Have selects a vp headed by a past particle (e. g. written) Be selects a vp headed by a present particle (e. h. writing) Remerge it with s; form node s" (s-bar) Delete (i. e. do not pronounce) the original copy. You cannot move an aux out of two s-nodes.
