Ling 3 w16 Week 6 Post

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This Week
Finish Chapter 4
Ling 3 Week 6
Solving morphology problems
Begin Chapter 5
Introduction to Syntax
Benjamin A. Mis, Ph.D.
Slides adapted from T. Griffith,

Discovering Linguistics
Morphology
Solving morphology problems in other
languages
The single do
Identify recurring strings of sounds
and match them to recurring
meanings.
There is one do but five do nots

to be observed when solving
morphology problems in languages
other than English ...
Example from Turkish

[mumlar] [adamlar] [toplar] [kitaplar]
candles
men
guns
books
Its not an accident that all these words
are plurals and that all end in -lar. -lar
must be the plural morpheme in
Turkish.
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Do not #1
Do not assume the distinction
between free and bound morphemes
that occurs in English is the same in
some other language.
Example from Arabic

The definite determiner is bound in
Arabic (but free in English):
al-qamr
a-ams
the-moon
the-sun
the moon
the sun
Example from Thai

The past tense morpheme is free in Thai
(but bound in English):
Boon thaan khaaw lw.
Boon eat rice past
Boon ate rice.
Do not #2
Do not assume the order of
morphemes that occurs in English is
the same in some other language.
(the sun < al-ams, /l/ assimilates to //)
Example from Swahili

In Swahili, the past tense morpheme
precedes the verbal root (but follows it
in English):
Haji a-li-ya-taka
ma-embe.
Haji 3sg-Past-6-want 6-mango
Haji wanted the mangoes.
Do not #3
Do not assume that every contrast
that shows up in English shows up
in another language.
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Example from Cambodian

Cambodian lacks plural markers (but
English doesnt):
kme baan ml sphiw.
Do not #4
Do not assume that every contrast
that shows up in another language
also shows up in English.
child Past read book

{A child, some children} read
{a book, some books}.
Three examples weve already

seen:
Swahili has object-verb agreement
Spanish definite determiners agree
in gender class with noun
Hausas subject-verb agreement
may include gender as well as
person and number
Do not #5
Do not be surprised to find
allomorphs of a given morpheme in
a given language.
More examples from Turkish

Weve already seen the (a)
examples of Turkish plurals; those
in[mumlar]
(b) are new:
[adamlar] [toplar] [kitaplar]
a
candles
[ipler]
b
ropes
men
[yzler]
faces
guns
[eller]
hands
books
[kler]
villages
Recall: Turkish is a language with

vowel harmony.
Thus, the vowel in the plural
morpheme shows up as [a] when the
last vowel in the root is back, but as
[e] when the last vowel in the root is
front (e.g., not back).
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Rules for Solving Morphology

Problems
Do: identify recurring strings of sounds and match them
to recurring meanings.
Do NOT: assume the distinction between free and bound
morphemes that occurs in English is the same in some
other language.
Do NOT: assume the order of morphemes that occurs in
English is the same in some other language.
Do NOT: assume that every contrast that shows up in
English shows up in another language.
Do NOT: assume that every contrast that shows up in
another language also shows up in English.
Do NOT: be surprised to find allomorphs of a given
morpheme in a given language.
The Swedish problem

involves four different forms of nouns:
indefinite singular, as in a dog
definite singular, as in the dog

indefinite (or bare) plural, as in dogs
definite plural, as in the dogs
How is the indefinite singular

marked?
en tidning a newspaper
tidningarna the newspapers
tidningen the newspaper
tidningar newspapers
kattarna the cats
katten the cat
bilen the car

bilar cars
en bil a car
bilarna the cars
kattar cats
en katt a cat
Three Practice Problems

Swedish
Isleta
Zoque
The Swedish data

kattarna the cats
katten the cat
bilen the car

bilar cars
en bil a car
bilarna the cars
kattar cats
en katt a cat
indefinite singular: en + sg. N

kattarna the cats
katten the cat
bilen the car

bilar cars
en bil a car
bilarna the cars
kattar cats
en katt a cat
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How is the definite singular

marked?
kattarna the cats
katten the cat
bilen the car

bilar cars
en bil a car
bilarna the cars
kattar cats
en katt a cat
How is the indefinite plural

marked?
kattarna the cats
katten the cat
bilen the car

bilar cars
en bil a car
bilarna the cars
kattar cats
en katt a cat
How is the definite plural marked?

kattarna the cats
katten the cat
bilen the car

bilar cars
en bil a car
bilarna the cars
kattar cats
en katt a cat
definite singular: sg N-en

kattarna the cats
katten the cat
bilen the car

bilar cars
en bil a car
bilarna the cars
kattar cats
en katt a cat
indefinite plural: sg N-ar

kattarna the cats
katten the cat
bilen the car

bilar cars
en bil a car
bilarna the cars
kattar cats
en katt a cat
definite plural: N-ar-na

kattarna the cats
katten the cat
bilen the car

bilar cars
en bil a car
bilarna the cars
kattar cats
en katt a cat
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The Isleta (Tiwa) problem

Isleta is a variety of Southern Tiwa, a
native American language spoken in
New Mexico (mainly in several
pueblos north of Santa Fe).
The Tiwa data

[temiban] I went
[amiban] you went
[mimiai] he was going [tewanban] I came
[temiwe] I am going [tewanhi] I will come
The data are all verb forms which get

translated into full sentences of
English.
First puzzle ...

identify the morphemes in these
words.
Whats the morpheme for I?

[temiban] I went
[amiban] you went
We do so by following our most

basic procedure: match recurring
strings of sound with recurring
strings of meaning.
I: te-
Whats the morpheme for you?
[temiban] I went
[amiban] you went
[temiban] I went
[amiban] you went
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you: a-
Whats the morpheme for he?
[temiban] I went
[amiban] you went
[temiban] I went
[amiban] you went
he: mi-
Whats the morpheme for go?
[temiban] I went
[mimiai] he was going
[temiwe] I am going
[amiban] you went

[tewanban] I came
[tewanhi] I will come
go: -mi[temiban] I went

[mimiai] he was going
[temiwe] I am going
[amiban] you went

[tewanban] I came
[tewanhi] I will come
[temiban] I went
[amiban] you went
Whats the morpheme for come?

[temiban] I went
[amiban] you went
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come: -wan-
Whats the morpheme for past?
[temiban] I went
[amiban] you went
[temiban] I went
[amiban] you went
past: -ban
Morpheme for present

progressive?
[temiban] I went
[amiban] you went
[temiban] I went
[amiban] you went
present progressive: -we
Morpheme for past

progressive?
[temiban] I went
[amiban] you went
[temiban] I went
[amiban] you went
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past progressive: -ai
The morpheme for future?
[temiban] I went
[amiban] you went
[temiban] I went
[amiban] you went
future: -hi
Second puzzle ...
[temiban] I went
[amiban] you went
Whats the morpheme order?

morphemes
words
I: teyou: atemiban
I went
he: mi- come: -wan- amiban
you went
go: -mi- past: -ban
mimiai he was going
future: -hi
tewanban
I came
present prog: -we
temiwe
I am going
past prog: -ai
tewanhi I will come
Now that we know what the individual

morphemes are, we must determine the
order of those morphemes within the
Isleta verb.
One way to do this is to provide glosses
for each word. What follows are lists of
all the morphemes and all the words.
See if you can perform a morphemic
analysis ...
Easy to see that ...

subject agreement morphemes are
prefixes: te- I, a-, you, mi- he
tense/aspect markers are suffixes:
-ban past, -hi future, -we present
progressive, -ai past progressive
the verbal roots come in the middle:
-wan- come, -mi- go
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Complete morphemic analysis

te-mi-ban
I-go-past
I went
te-wan-ban
I-come-past
I came
a-mi-ban
you-go-past
you went
te-wan-hi
I-come-fut
Ill come
mi-mi-ai
he-go-past.prog
he was going
te-mi-we
I-go-pres.prog
I am going
morpheme order:
subject agree. + V + tense/
aspect
te-mi-ban
I-go-past
I went
te-wan-ban
I-come-past
I came
a-mi-ban
you-go-past
you went
te-wan-hi
I-come-fut
Ill come
mi-mi-ai
he-go-past.prog
he was going
te-mi-we
I-go-pres.prog
I am going
Given these morphemes and

order, how do you say He
went in Isleta?
I: tego: -mipres prog: - we
you: a- come: -wan- past prog: -ai
he: mi- past: -ban
future: -hi
subject agreement + V + tense/aspect
Morpheme order now stands

out ...
te-mi-ban
I-go-past
I went
te-wan-ban
I-come-past
I came
a-mi-ban
you-go-past
you went
te-wan-hi
I-come-fut
Ill come
mi-mi-ai
he-go-past.prog
he was going
te-mi-we
I-go-pres.prog
I am going
Third puzzle ...

Now that weve identified the
individual morphemes and
determined morpheme order, we can
translate from English into Isleta.
He went: [mimiban]
he: mi- past: -ban
future: -hi
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order, how do you say I will
go in Isleta?
I will go: [temihi]

he: mi- past: -ban
future: -hi

he: mi- past: -ban
future: -hi

order, how do you say You
were coming?
You were coming: [awanai]

he: mi- past: -ban
future: -hi

he: mi- past: -ban
future: -hi
Goal
Identify morphemes in languages
youre never encountered before and
even when glosses are not provided
as long as you begin by matching
recurring strings of sound with
recurring meanings.
The Zoque problem

Zoque is in the Mixe-Zoquean
language family, and is spoken in
southern Mexico (Chiapas).
The data are all verb forms, in both
past and present tenses, all with
third person singular subjects
(translated as he):
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The Zoque data

all 3 sg he
look
past
Whats the past tense

morpheme?
[kenu]
present
[kenpa]
all 3 sg he
look
[kenu]
present
[kenpa]
laugh
walk
[sihku]
[wihtu]
[sikpa]
[witpa]
die
[kau]
[kapa]
laugh
walk
die
[sihku]
[wihtu]
[kau]
[sikpa]
[witpa]
[kapa]
past tense morpheme: -u

all 3 sg he
past
present
look
[ken-u] [kenpa]
laugh
[sihk-u] [sikpa]
walk
[wiht-u] [witpa]
die
[ka-u] [kapa]
present tense morpheme: -pa

all 3 sg he
past
look
[ken-u]
laugh
[sihk-u]
walk
[wiht-u]
die
[ka-u]
present
[ken-pa]
[sik-pa]
[wit-pa]
[ka-pa]
past
Whats the present tense

morpheme?
all 3 sg he
past
present
look
[ken-u] [kenpa]
laugh
[sihk-u] [sikpa]
walk
[wiht-u] [witpa]
die
[ka-u] [kapa]
List the allomorphs of each V

root:
all 3 sg he
past
look
[ken-u]
laugh
[sihk-u]
walk
[wiht-u]
die
[ka-u]
present
[ken-pa]
[sik-pa]
[wit-pa]
[ka-pa]
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List the allomorphs of each V

root:
3 sg
he
look
laugh
walk
die
past
present allomorphs
[ken-u] [ken-pa] [ken]

[sihk-u] [sik-pa]
[wiht-u] [wit-pa]
[sihk], [sik]
[wiht], [wit]
[ka-u] [ka-pa] [ka]
The alternating data: Question 1

laugh
walk
past
[sihk-u] [wiht-u]
present [sik-pa] [wit-pa]
How do the allomorphs differ from
each other? The answers the same
for both Vs.
The alternating data: Question 2

laugh
walk
past
[sihk-u] [wiht-u]
What phonological process is involved
here?
Two of the verbal roots look [ken]

and die [ka] have only one
allomorph. So theres nothing more
to say about them.
But the other verbal roots have more
than a single allomorph, so we need
to say something about them.
answer to question 1
laugh
walk
past
[sihk-u] [wiht-u]
How do the allomorphs differ from each
other? The answers the same for both
Vs.
The past forms have an [h] which doesnt
occur in the present forms.
Think about Question 2

There are two possibilities:
epenthesis: insert an [h] into some
verbal roots for some reason
deletion: delete an [h] from some
other verbal roots for some reason
Which sounds more reasonable?
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The answer to question 2 is ...
Justification for deletion
Deletion: [h] disappears when [pa] is

suffixed, but not when [u] is suffixed.
On one hand, if we were to posit

that [h] is inserted in some roots
(instead of being deleted in other
roots), then wed have to explain
why that epenthesis occurs just
where it does.
laugh
walk
past
[sihk-u] [wiht-u]
That is, wed have to explain why

we find [sihku] and [wihtu] (with
epenthetic [h]) but we do not find
*[kehnu] and *[kahu].
This would turn out to be a difficult
task.
But if we posit that [h] is deleted in

some roots (but not in others), we
can come up with a reasonable
explanation one thats based on
phonotactics and/or syllable
structure.
Consider the past tense data again,
with syllable structure marked:
Nothing interesting happens in

past
3 sg he
past
look
/ ken + u / [ke . nu]
laugh
/ sihk + u / [sih . ku]
walk
/ wiht + u / [wih . tu]
die
/ ka + u / [ka . u]
morphemes syllables
And now consider the present tense

forms again and note that both
laugh and walk end up with a string of
three Cs in the middle when the
present tense morpheme pa is
added:
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Present tense forms repeated

3 sg he
look
laugh
walk
die
present
/ ken + pa / [kenpa]
/ sihk + pa / [sihkpa]
/ wiht + pa / [wihtpa]
/ ka + pa / [kapa]
Delete the first of 3 Cs in a row

3 sg he
look
laugh
walk
die
/ken + pa/
/sihk + pa/
/wiht + pa/
/ka + pa/
morphemes
present
kenpa [ken . pa]
sihkpa [sik . pa]
wihtpa [wit . pa]
kapa [ka . pa]
deletion syllables
Chapter 5
Introduction to Syntax: Inside
Phrases
and Sentences
Weve seen that many languages

of the world do not tolerate either
complex onsets or complex codas.
Zoque falls into this group.
In order to repair this problem,
Zoque deletes the first of three
consonants in a row ...
Solutions
Quite often, its morphological
affixes which undergo phonological
alternation. But roots are not
necessarily exempt from such.
To solve a given problem, you may
well have to consider alternative
solutions; e.g., deletion vs.
epenthesis.
Linguistic competence in syntax

The mental lexicon
Intro to the computational system
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Linguistic Competence
Some (if not all) of the material covered in

this chapter may strike you as both abstract
and challenging, as we consider English
through a prism not often used by nonlinguists.
As youll discover, the good news is the
theory introduced here turns out to be rather
simple, as it involves a grand total of three
steps!
refers to our abilities to ...

produce and understand phrases and
sentences weve never encountered
before; and
make grammaticality judgments about
those phrases and sentences
For example ...

It should be easy for you to judge the
following (a) examples as grammatical, and
the (b) examples as ungrammatical even
though youve likely never encountered these
specific examples:
Different words, same word order

a
b
a
b
Who do you believe will win?

*You believe who will win.
You wonder who will win.
*Who do you wonder will win?
Same words, different word orders

a
b
a
b
You saw that movie twice in the theater last year.

*You saw twice in the theater that movie last year.
a friendly con man with a big smile
*a friendly with a big smile con man
Negative evidence
is the type of evidence native speakers never
encounter and is represented in the (b)
examples.
Were never taught not to produce such
sentences, and we never hear anyone else
produce such sentences yet we all agree
that these are ungrammatical in English.
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Universal grammar
Linguists argue this: We all agree because
we all possess linguistic competence in our
native language and that competence
comes about due to the way human brains
operate.
In other words, Language is hard-wired into
our brains in some fashion, as part of what
makes us human.
the label linguists give to this hard-wiring.

It refers to those parts of our brain that
provide us with the abilities to produce and
understand Language, not a specific human
language.
Our linguistic competence flows from the

interaction of two systems:
1. the system of elements (i.e., the words)
in our mental lexicons;
2. the computational system (i.e., the
rules) which allows us to string those
elements together to produce phrases and
sentences.
Part of what we know when we know a

language consists of knowing ...
the meanings of words and classes of
words in that language; and
various properties of those words, some
of which are idiosyncratic.
The Mental Lexicon

the giant, dictionary-like
repository in our brains
of all the words of our language
Each word of the language has its own

entry in the lexicon.
Each entry must contain both the sound of
a word and its meaning.
This follows, as in the vast majority of
cases, the relation between a words sound
and its meaning is completely arbitrary.
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Each lexical entry also includes the syntactic

category of the word (V, P, N, A, D, etc.).
Well begin by considering various properties
of verbs ...
Intransitive Verbs
occur with only a subject:
The teacher {appeared, arrived}.
*The teacher {appeared, arrived} you.
Ditransitive verbs
occur with a subject, a direct object, and
an indirect object:
Maddy put a book on the table.
*Maddy put on the table. *Maddy put a book.
Three sub-classes of verbs

intransitive
transitive
ditransitive
Transitive verbs
occur with a subject and a direct object:
Harry bought a wand.
Anteaters reside in Irvine.
*Harry bought.
*Anteaters reside.
Different transitive verbs take objects of

different syntactic categories; e.g.,
bought: DP
reside: PP
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Different transitive verbs take objects of

different syntactic categories; e.g.,
touch: DP
reside: PP
If we switch the objects, the results are
impossible:
*Harry bought in Irvine.
touch: *PP
*Anteaters reside a wand.
reside: *DP
Generalizing labels
We call the DP object of touch and the PP
object of reside complements.
Complements are phrases which are
required to complete the meaning of the
verb.
Verbs and complements

Intransitive verbs occur with zero ()
complements.
Transitive verbs occur with a single
complement, often either DP or PP.
Ditransitive verbs such as put occur with two
complements, a DP and a PP, in that order.
The categorical status of the phrase(s) a

word selects as its complement(s), if any, is
encoded in what is called a
subcategorization frame.
Due to lexical idiosyncracy ...

the lexical entry for a given word must
encode ...
its sound and its meaning;
its syntactic category; and
the categorical status of the phrase(s) it
selects as its complement(s), if any....
arrive
bought
reside
put
sound
/v/
/bat/
/izd/
/pt/
meaning syn cat

ARRIVE
V
BOUGHT
V
RESIDE
V
PUT
V
subcat frame
[ __ ]
[ __ DP]
[ __ PP]
[ __ DP PP]
Some sample lexical entries follow ...
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Note carefully
Subjects are not mentioned in verbs lexical
entries.
This is because subjects are required in
every sentence; so mentioning them would
be redundant, as lexical entries encode only
information that is idiosyncratic.
Prepositions, nouns,
adjectives, determiners
Prepositions
in, on, beside, over, above, below, for, with,
beyond, around ...
Take DP complements or occur alone:
She climbed {over the fence, over}.
He hopped {down the stairs, down}.
Here are abbreviated lexical entries for two

prepositions, used as exemplars of the class.
The parentheses denote optionality:
over
down
syn cat
P
P
subcat frame
[ __ (DP) ]
[ __ (DP) ]
Nouns
Two broad classes of nouns may occur with
PP complements optionally:
1. titles the King (of France)
the Queen (of Sheba)
2. nouns derived from verbs
the discovery (of the loot)
a student (of linguistics)
But most nouns like to occur alone.

The occur-alone set includes ...
most proper names: Jerry, California
common nouns: cat, desk
abstract nouns: leisure, warmth
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Adjectives
type of noun
names, common, abstract
titles, Ns derived from V
subcat frame
[ __ ]
[ __ (PP)]
Many occur alone: tall, purple, old, intelligent,

beautiful and so forth.
But a subset may optionally occur with PP
complements:
full (of licorice)
interested (in linguistics)
hungry (for information)
Four sub-classes of Determiners

adjectives
most: tall, old, intelligent
a few: interested, hungry
subcat frame
[ __ ]
[ __ (PP)]
article
demonstrative
quantifier
pronoun
(indefinite) a, (definite) the

this, that, these, those
some, many, few, all, several
I, me; she, her; they, them
Complements to Ds
Pronouns occur alone, i.e., take zero
complements:
She saw {him, *him of France}.
The other sub-classes occur with NP
complements:
She saw {a, the, every} good book.
She saw *{a, the, every}.
sub-class of D
article
demonstrative
quantifier
pronoun
subcat frame
[ __ NP ]
[ __ NP ]
[ __ NP ]
[ __ ]
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Function
How to determine
syntactic category
(semantic) function
inflectional morphology
syntactic distribution
Consider the (semantic meaning)

function a given word serves: nouns name
people, places and things; verbs denote
events or states; and so forth.
Inflectional morphology
Relying on function alone is of limited use;
what syntactic category is can?
I put the peaches in a can.
I can peaches every year.
I can can peaches while doing the can-can.
Relying on inflectional morphology can be

more helpful.
For example, weve seen ...
Syntactic distribution
only Ns can be plural
ceilings, lions, ovens
*bigs, *overs, *mays
only Vs can be past tense
walked, jogged, ran
*lioned, *bigged, *mayed
only As & Advs can be comparative/superlative
bigger, silliest, later, earliest
*lioner, *runnest
Relying on the syntactic distribution of a

given word is also helpful, where the term
syntactic distribution refers to the other
elements a given word can occur with ...
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Vs and Ps can sometimes occur with DP

complements; Ns and As never do so:
wants the money
forP the money
*the envyN the money
*enviousA the money
Ns can be preceded by Ds, but P, V, A

cannot when they occur alone:
{the, some}
*{the, some}
*{the, some}
*{the, some}
moneyN
overP
arrivesV
yellowA
Recap
Vs can immediately follow modal auxiliaries
in a declarative sentence, but N, P, A dont
have this privilege:
{will, must, should}
arriveV
*friendsN
*underP
*yellowA
Categories and complements

discussed so far:
category
V
N
A
P
D
subcats for
, DP, PP
, (PP)
, (PP)
(DP)
, NP
Every word in the language has its own entry

in the mental lexicon.
Each entry includes the words sound, its
meaning, its syntactic category, and its
subcategorization frame.
To a large extent, the mental lexicon
represents the static or memorized part of our
knowledge.
Introduction to the Computational

System
compositionality
parsing
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Brief overview
The computational system governs the
manner in which elements from the mental
lexicon can be combined to form phrases and
sentences.
The primary constraint of this system is that it
can combine only two pieces of structure
at any one time.
Consider the sentence ...
Compositionality
The grammar of every human language is
compositional, a notion which comprises
three major properties:
1. sentences consist of phrases;
2. a given phrase may contain smaller
phrases;
3. the smallest phrase is a single word.
Now consider ...
A clown praised the acrobat.
The acrobat praised a clown.
the subject phrase (a clown)

the object phrase (the acrobat)
the subject phrase (the acrobat)

the object phrase (a clown)
Our sentences dont differ based on words,

as the words are the same:
They differ based on which phrase a
clown or the acrobat serves as subject
and which serves as object.
Since subject and object are switched in

these sentences, the sentences have
different compositionality.
As a result, we impute different meanings
to them.
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Now consider the subject phrase in ...
Finally, consider the object phrase in ...
A clown with a big nose praised him.

The phrase a clown with a big nose contains
another phrase, with a big nose. And the
phrase with a big nose contains another
phrase, a big nose.
A clown with a big nose praised him.

Here, the object of praise him is a phrase
which consists of a single word.
Parsing
To parse a sentence is to determine its

compositionality in some detail.
One way to do this is to start from the bottom
up that is, first identify the syntactic
category of each word in the string and then
work up to larger, phrasal units.

Now work up to phrasal units, starting from
the beginning of the sentence ...
D
a
N
clown
V
praised
D
the
N
acrobat
Intuitively, the string a clown seems like a

phrasal unit. Three tests show our intuition is
correct ...
First, identify the syntactic category of each

word in the string ...
D
a
N
clown
V
praised
D
the
N
acrobat

three tests show a clown is a phrase:
1. Neither word can appear alone:
*A praised the acrobat.
*Clown praised the acrobat.
2. It can be replaced by a pronoun:
He / She ...
3. It serves as the subject of the
sentence, and denotes the praiser.
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The string a clown is a DP (Determiner
Phrase)
This DP contains two elements:
the D a, the head of DP; and
the N clown, the complement to D

Pulling our discussion together yields this
boxy analysis:
DP
NP
D
N
a
clown
subject
V
praised
D
the
N
acrobat

3 phrasal tests for praised the acrobat:
1. No component can occur alone: *A
clown praised. / *A clown the. / *A
clown acrobat.
2. It can be replaced by do so: A clown
praised the acrobat, and then a liontamer did so.
3. It serves as the predicate of the
sentence.

Inside the DP a clown ...
clown is an N but also an NP (Noun
Phrase) as the smallest phrase is one which
contains a single word.
Clown is of course the head of this NP.

The string praised the acrobat is a VP (Verb
Phrase).
This VP contains two elements:
the V praised, the head of VP; and
the DP the acrobat, the complement to V

The predicate VP praised the acrobat
contains the DP the acrobat.
This DP contains:
the D the, the head of DP; and
the N acrobat the NP complement
the D
to
26
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3 phrasal tests for string the acrobat:
1. Neither word can appear alone:
*A clown praised the.
*A clown praised acrobat.
2. It can be replaced by a pronoun:
... him / her
3. It serves as the direct object, and
denotes the praisee.
The complete boxy analysis

VP
DP
NP
D
N
a clown
subject
DP
NP
V
D
N
praised the acrobat
object
predicate
A partial syntactic analysis

We can turn the boxy analysis into a sort of
syntactic tree, in the process losing the
semantic labels (subject, predicate, object) ...
VP
DP
NP
D
N
a clown
V
praised
D
the
DP
NP
N
acrobat
overall structures
And we can eschew the boxes altogether and
draw real syntactic trees ...
DP
D
NP
N
clown
VP
V
DP
praised D
the
NP
N
acrobat
27
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all phrasal levels circled
all heads circled
VP
DP
D
NP
DP
praised D
the
clown
NP
N
acrobat
all complements circled

VP
DP
D
NP
N
clown
VP
DP
DP
praised D
the
NP
N
acrobat
And keep in mind ...

A head may select a phrase of a certain
syntactic category as its complement; the
complement is the phrase that head
subcategorizes for, as listed in its lexical
entry.
Vs such as praise subcategorize for DP; Ds
like a and the subcategorize for NP.
NP
N
clown
DP
praised D
the
NP
N
acrobat
Terms you must understand

head: a word of a given syntactic category,
an element thats listed in the mental lexicon
phrase: one word or a string of words that
forms a unit, subject to the 3 tests weve
developed
complement: a phrase which a given head
requires to complete its meaning
In English, heads routinely precede

their complements
heads
phrases
syn. cat. head complement syn. cat.
D
a
clown
DP
V
praised the acrobat
VP
D
the
acrobat
DP
A phrase can consist of a single word.
28
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One last crucial concept:
All phrases in all sentences of all of the

worlds languages are endocentric that is,
all phrases are headed by an element of the
same syntactic category as the phrase.
Endocentricity
All phrases in all sentences of all of the

worlds languages are endocentric that is,
all phrases are headed by an element of the
same syntactic category as the phrase.
Theres always a 1-to-1 correspondence
between a head X and a phrase XP; e.g.,
given a V, there is VP and given a VP,
there is a V.
The glue that holds the subject and

predicate phrases together is called
Inflection, an element which denotes
(present or past) tense.
There are both morphological and semantic
reasons for this choice ...
Merging Subject and Predicate
From a morphological standpoint, the

elements that denote tense are inflectional
affixes in many languages.
From a semantic standpoint, sentences are
considered to be propositions, statements
which have a truth value and which are
generally rooted in time.
29
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For example ...

is a true sentence only if at some point in the
past, there was a clown, and this clown
engaged in an act of acrobat-praising. But if a
clown had not in fact engaged in acrobatpraising at some point in the past, this
sentence would not be true.

The sentence is past tense; present tense
would have praises instead.
Like many languages, English allows only
past and present tenses.
Both tenses show up as verbal affixes (not
words), entailing the Inflectional element is
an abstract feature.
The feature Inflection

The abstract Inflectional (tense) feature is
semantically-rich but phonologically-null; I
show it in small caps: PAST (or its counterpart
PRESENT).
Inflection mediates between subject

and predicate
[subj. a clown] PAST [pred. praised the acrobat]
The Inflection feature holds the subject and

predicate together and mediates between
them:

is represented in the abbreviated tree on the
next slide, where triangles are used to
suppress the internal structures of the subject
and the predicate (as we already know what
these structures are).
IP
DP
a clown
I
I
PAST
VP
praised the acrobat
In greater detail ...
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About the head: I(inflection)

IP
DP
a clown
VP
praised the acrobat
PAST
The head of a
sentence is I, an
inflectional element
that denotes tense
(PAST or
PRESENT).
About the phrase: IP

IP
DP
a clown
IP
I
VP
praised the acrobat
PAST
The VP predicate
forms the phrasal
complement to I.
DP
a clown
IP
To make room for

the DP subject, we
add a special node
VP
I which gives
praised the acrobatan inter-mediate
layer of structure
in the tree.
a clown
PAST
VP
praised the acrobat
PAST
About I (read I-bar)

DP
praised the acrobat
A sentence is an
IP, a phrase with
subject, predicate
and tense.
About DP: the specifier of IP
IP
a clown
VP
PAST
About VP: the complement to I

DP
By endocentricity, I
projects to IP.
The position in
which the DP
subject projects
is called the
Specifier of IP.
Why this, not this?

IP
DP
clown I
PAST
IP
I
DP
VP
praised acrobat
VP
clown PAST praised

acrobat
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Building trees requires ...

The complex X-bar tree is preferred for a
host of reasons, some of which well touch on
later, but many of which are explored in Ling
20 and beyond.
For now, we rely on the computational
systems primary constraint: It can combine
only two pieces of structure at any one time.
Two: merge the subject DP with I and project

to IP:
IP
DP
I
I
VP
One more point about IP: I can be filled with

a modal auxiliary (can, will, could, must ...)
instead of an abstract feature:
The acrobat might praise a clown.
One: merge I with its VP complement and

project to I:
I
I
VP
We have just built the skeleton structure of a

sentence (an IP), from the bottom up.
You can also build structure from the top
down
Either method works but top down may be
difficult if youre not a proficient tree-builder.
But I cannot be filled with both tense and a

modal as the same time, as the two do not
co-occur:
*The acrobat might praised a clown.
*The acrobat mights praise a clown.
32
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IP
The sentence ...

DP
the acrobat
has the same overall structure as our

previous sentence but with might as I, the
acrobat as subject, and a clown as object:
VP
might
praise a clown
Generically, for English ...

IP
Specifier
Specifier of IP is
routinely a DP (its
the subject)
Complement to I is
routinely a VP (its
the predicate)
I is filled with a tense
feature or a modal
auxiliary
I Complement
{PAST, PRES, modal}
NP, PP, and AP can all be intransitive:

Kings rule.
...
NP
N
kings
He fell down.
I am afraid.
PP
AP
down
afraid
Structures of NP, PP, AP
NP, PP, and AP can all be transitive:

Kings of France
up the hill
... NP
N
afraid of spiders
PP
PP
kings of France up
AP
DP
PP
the hill
afraid
of spiders
33
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Recap of projections so far

phrase
VP
NP
PP
AP
IP
head
V
N
P
A
I
complement
DP; PP;
; (PP)
(DP)
; (PP)
VP
specifier
none
none
none
none
DP
34

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2/22/16

Solving morphology problems

Benjamin A. Mis, Ph.D.

Slides adapted from T. Griffith,

There is one do but five do nots

Example from Turkish

Example from Arabic

Example from Thai

(the sun < al-ams, /l/ assimilates to //)

Example from Swahili

Example from Cambodian

kme baan ml sphiw.

child Past read book

Three examples weve already

More examples from Turkish

Recall: Turkish is a language with

Rules for Solving Morphology

The Swedish problem

definite singular, as in the dog

How is the indefinite singular

bilen the car

Three Practice Problems

The Swedish data

bilen the car

indefinite singular: en + sg. N

bilen the car

How is the definite singular

bilen the car

How is the indefinite plural

bilen the car

How is the definite plural marked?

bilen the car

definite singular: sg N-en

bilen the car

indefinite plural: sg N-ar

bilen the car

definite plural: N-ar-na

bilen the car

The Isleta (Tiwa) problem

The Tiwa data

The data are all verb forms which get

First puzzle ...

Whats the morpheme for I?

We do so by following our most

Whats the morpheme for you?

Whats the morpheme for he?

Whats the morpheme for go?

[amiban] you went

go: -mi[temiban] I went

[amiban] you went

Whats the morpheme for come?

Whats the morpheme for past?

Morpheme for present

present progressive: -we

Morpheme for past

past progressive: -ai

The morpheme for future?

Second puzzle ...

Whats the morpheme order?

Now that we know what the individual

Easy to see that ...

Complete morphemic analysis

Given these morphemes and

Morpheme order now stands