LIN204H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Proverb, Infinitive, The Sequence
Document Summary
Verbs act as the head of a verb phrase, which can be of any length: I will sing a song slowly to my cousin. I will sing a song slowly to my cousin until she falls asleep. I will sing a song slowly to my cousin to keep her quiet until she falls asleep. Some of these vps demonstrate the principle of recursivity: E. g. , the vp sing a song slowly to my cousin to keep her quiet until she falls asleep contains the vp keep her quiet until she falls asleep, which contains falls asleep. Where noun phrases can be identified through pronoun substitution, Vps can be identified by substituting a short pro-verb phrase like do that. I will sing a song to my cousin. Some verbs can form a vp on their own; others can"t: E. g. , laugh and cry can constitute entire vps: i laugh. However, devour and keep can"t: *i devour and *i keep are ungrammatical.
