linear order and constituency
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Linear Order and Constituency
Colin Phillips
Cognitive Neuroscience of Language Laboratory
Department of Linguistics
University of Maryland
Incremental Structure Building
• An investigation of the grammatical consequences of incremental, left-to-right structure building
Incremental Structure Building
A
Incremental Structure Building
A B
Incremental Structure Building
A
B C
Incremental Structure Building
A
B
C D
Incremental Structure Building
A
B
C
D E
Incremental Structure Building
A B
Incremental Structure Building
A B constituent
Incremental Structure Building
A
B Cconstituent is destroyed by addition of new material
Incremental Structure Building
A
B C
Incremental Structure Building
A
B Cconstituent
Incremental Structure Building
A
B
C Dconstituent is destroyed by addition of new material
Incremental Structure Building
the cat
Incremental Structure Building
the cat sat
Incremental Structure Building
the cat
sat on
Incremental Structure Building
the cat
sat
on the rug
Incremental Structure Building
the cat
sat on
Incremental Structure Building
the cat
sat
on the rug
Incremental Structure Building
the cat
sat
on the rug
[sat on] is a temporary constituent, which is destroyed as soon as the NP [the rug] is added.
Incremental Structure Building
Conflicting Constituency Tests
Verb + Preposition sequences can undergo coordination…
(1) The cat sat on and slept under the rug.
…but cannot undergo pseudogapping (Baltin & Postal, 1996)
(2) *The cat sat on the rug and the dog did the chair.
Incremental Structure Building
the cat
sat on
Incremental Structure Building
the cat
sat on slept under
and
Incremental Structure Building
the cat
sat on slept under
and
coordination applies early, before the V+P constituent is destroyed.
Incremental Structure Building
the cat
sat on
Incremental Structure Building
the cat
sat
on the rug
Incremental Structure Building
the cat
sat
on the rug
and the dog did
Incremental Structure Building
the cat
sat
on the rug
and the dog did
pseudogapping applies too late, after the V+P constituent is destroyed.
Incremental Structure Building
• Constituency ProblemDifferent diagnostics of constituency frequently yield conflicting results
• Incrementality Hypothesis(a) Structures are assembled strictly incrementally(b) Syntactic processes see a ‘snapshot’ of a derivation - they target constituents that are present when the process applies(c) Conflicts reflect the simple fact that different processes have different linear properties
• Applied to interactions among binding, movement, ellipsis, prosodic phrasing, clitic placement, islands, etc. (Phillips 1996, in press; Richards 1999, 2000; Guimaraes 1999; etc.)
Movement & Binding
a. John gave books to them on each other’s birthdays.
Movement & Binding
a. John gave books to them on each other’s birthdays.
gave
books
to them
on each other’s birthdays
VP
V
VP
V
VP
(Pesetsky 1995)
Movement & Binding
a. John gave books to them on each other’s birthdays.
gave
books
to them
on each other’s birthdays
VP
V
VP
V
VP
(Pesetsky 1995)
Movement & Binding
b. …and [give books to them] he did ___ on each other’s birthdays
(Pesetsky 1995)
Movement & Binding
b. …and [give books to them] he did ___ on each other’s birthdays
gave books
to them
on each other’s birthdays
V’
VP
VP
(Pesetsky 1995)
Movement & Binding
b. …and [give books to them] he did ___ on each other’s birthdayså
gave books
to them
on each other’s birthdays
V’
VP
VP
(Pesetsky 1995)
give
books
VP
V
VP
to them
give
books
VP
V
VP
to them
IP
IP
he did
give
books
VP
V
VP
to them
IP
IP
he did
give
books
to them
VP
V
VP
give
books
VP
V
VP
to them
IP
IP
he
did
I’
constituentmovement
give
books
to them
on each other’s birthdays
VP
V
VP
V
VP
give
books
VP
V
VP
to them
IP
IP
he
did
I’
constituentmovement
give
books
to them
on each other’s birthdays
VP
V
VP
V
VP
give
books
VP
V
VP
to them
IP
IP
he
did
I’
constituentmovement
binding underc-command
Linear Order
• Movement & Binding:Binding relation does not block movement, because it is established after movement
• Ellipsis & Binding:Binding/Scope do block ellipsis, because they are established too early in the left-right derivation
Ellipsis blocks Scope/Binding
John gave books to the children on each other’s birthdays
*…and Mary did on each other’s first day of school
Bill read all the books in a week (ambiguous scope)
…and Sue did in a month (unambiguous scope)
gave
books
to the children
on each other’s birthdays
VP
V
VP
V
VP
IP
John
+fin
I’
gave
books
to the children
on each other’s birthdays
VP
V
VP
V
VP
IP
IP
John
+fin
I’
and
VP
IP
Bill
did
I’
gave
books
to the children
on each other’s birthdays
VP
V
VP
V
VP
IP
IP
John
+fin
I’
and
VP
IP
Bill
did
I’
gave
books
to the children
VP
V
VP
IP
John
+fin
I’
gave
books
to the children
on each other’s birthdaysVP
V
VP
VP
IP
John
+fin
I’
gave
books
to the children
on each other’s birthdaysVP
V
VP
VP
IP
John
+fin
I’
IP
and
VP
IP
Bill
did
I’
gave
books
to the children
on each other’s birthdaysVP
V
VP
VP
IP
John
+fin
I’
IP
and
VP
IP
Bill
did
I’
gave
books
to the children
on each other’s birthdaysVP
V
VP
VP
IP
John
+fin
I’
IP
and
VP
IP
Bill
did
I’
gave
books
to the childrenV
VP
gave
books
to the children
on each other’s birthdaysVP
V
VP
VP
IP
John
+fin
I’
IP
and
VP
IP
Bill
did
I’
gave
books
to the childrenV
VP
on each other’s first day of schoolVP
Linear Order
• There have been other recent accounts which show how to handle these facts in a standard ‘back-to-front’ approach to structure-buildingmovement & ellipsis Lechner, 2001ellipsis & binding Baltin, in press (NLLT)
• None of these alternatives explains the whole range of facts; nor do they explain how comparative ellipsis sometimes behaves like movement, other times like VP-ellipsis…
Comparative Ellipsis
John read as many books as Bill did in a week. (ambiguous)
John read as many books in a week as Bill did in a month. (unambiguous)
Comparative Ellipsis
John read as many books as Bill did in a week. (ambiguous)
John read as many books in a week as Bill did in a month. (unambiguous)
Comparative Ellipsis
John read as many books as Bill did in a week. (ambiguous)
John read as many books in a week as Bill did in a month. (unambiguous)
distributive reading of adverbial PPdestroys constituency of V+NP
Comparative Ellipsis
John read as many books as Bill did in a week. (ambiguous)
John read as many books in a week as Bill did in a month. (unambiguous)
distributive reading of adverbial PPdestroys constituency of V+NP
after ellipsis before ellipsis
Interim Conclusion
• By building syntactic structures from left-to-right we can explain a number of otherwise mysterious constituency phenomena (see Phillips, in press for more examples)
• We knew independently that humans have a left-to-right structure-building system (i.e. parser, producer)
• Possibility arises that the incremental left-to-right system is the only structure-building system that humans have
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