Linguistics 110 Zhang/Öztürk/Quinn

Class 20 (12/4/02)

The X’ Theory Continued

(1) Tree structure of a PP

• What could a PP look like?
(a) in, up
(b) on the stage, up the hill, by car
(c) on the stage of the theater, up the hill in LA

PP
Ru
SSppeecc P’
ru
P Compl

• Can you draw the trees for on the stage, on the stage of the theater?

(2) Tree structure of an AP

• What could an AP look like?
(a) afraid, angry, important
(b) afraid of him, afraid of heights, fond of Mary, angry at Dan, important to Bill
(c) afraid of him in some ways, fond of Mary for no particular reason
(d) terribly afraid of him, totally angry at Dan, truly important to Bill

• AP structure:
AP
Ru
SSppeecc A’
ru
A’ Adjunct
ru
Adjunct A’
ru
A Compl

(3) X’-Theory
• All phrasal categories (XP) have the same structure.
• Each XP must contain a head of the same lexical category (X).
• Each XP can contain a specifier, and must contain an intermediate level category (X’).
XP → (Spec) X’
• X’ introduces X, and possibly a complement; i.e., a complement is a sister of the head X.
X’ → X (Compl)
• Adjuncts combine with X’ to form another X’; i.e., an adjunct is a sister of X’.

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 XP
ru
Spec X’
ru
X Compl

• Different languages have the same structure for phrasal categories, but may have different
orders between a head and a complement, or a specifier and a X’.

➥ Korean:
I noin-i hakkyo ey kassta
this man-Nom school to went
‘This man went to school.’

What’s the order between a head and complement in PPs and VPs in Korean?

➥ Selayarese (Austronesian, Indonesia):

La/allei doe/ injo i-Baso.
took money the Baso
‘Baso took the money.’
What’s the order between a specifier and an N’?

(4) The structure of sentences

• How do you combine an NP and a VP do form a sentence? What kind of phrasal category
does a sentence have?

NP = he, VP = laugh
*He laugh.

• The inflection (I), which is missing from the sentence, is the head of the sentence. A
sentence is an IP.

• The NP occupies the specifier position of the IP.

• The VP is a complement of I.

IP IP IP
ru ru ru
NP I’ NP I’ NP I’
| ru | ru | ru
N’ I VP N’ I VP N’ I VP
| | | | | | | {pres} |
N will V’ N -s V’ N V’
David | David | Students |
V V V
run Affix run run
hopping

• What are the arguments for giving a sentence this type of structure?

I will go and Mary will too. (VP ellipsis)

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 Bill is anxious for [IP Mary to [VP leave town and forget about him]]. (Coordination of VP)
Bill is anxious for [IP Mary [I’ to leave town and to forget about him]]. (Coordination of I’)
John expects [IP[NP a poet] and Bill expects [IP[NP a linguist] [I’ to win the race]].
(Shared constituent coordination of I’)

(5) Complementizer phrases

• those rumors that Professor West will leave Harvard
the fact that he has not shown up for work for three days
Bill’s complaint that the service was poor
• thought that Gore would win
hope that the he will call me
wait for Dan to cook dinner
• The phrases in italic are Complementizer Phrases (CP).
The complementizer (such as that, for) is the head of a CP. It introduces a sentence (IP) by
taking it as a complement.
• We’ll see later for the use of the specifier position of CP.
• Note: complementizer and complement are not the same thing.
IP
ru
NP I’
| ru
N’ I VP
| {past} |
N V’
Roy ru
Affix V CP
hopping wait |
C’
ru
C IP
for ru
NP I’
| ru
N’ I VP
| to |
N V’
Dan ru
V NP
cook |
N’
|
N
dinner

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 Subcategorization

(6) What is missing in phrase structure rules?

*Agnes slept Larry. (cf. Agnes hit Larry)
*Agnes put. (cf. Agnes ran.)
*Agnes put the book. (cf. Agnes bought the book.)
*Agnes put in her pocket. (cf. Agnes stared at the TV screen.)
• These are not bad because they violate phrase structure rules. The structures in question are
acceptable. They’re bad because they violate the requirements of the verbs which have been
inserted in the structures.
• I.e., there are constraints on the syntactic contexts in which different words can occur. E.g.,
verbs tend to be picky about how many (and what kind of) dependents they occur before.
• These constraints are idiosyncratic (i.e. not based entirely on semantics):
I looked at the man. *I watched at the man.
*I looked the man. I watched the man.
• This shows that there’s more to sentence structure than phrase structure (what can combine
with what, and in what order).
• Phrase structure rules capture facts about linear and hierarchical structure, but they fail to
capture the distribution of verbs and other elements, which also contributes to the
grammaticality of sentences.

(7) Solution:
• Lexical heads fall into different classes, depending on the kind of dependent(s) (if any)
which they must occur with.
• We say that a head subcategorizes for the dependent(s) which it must occur with.
• Dependents which are subcategorized for are called complements.
Prepositions:
Daniel put the magazine [PP away].
*Daniel put the magazine [PP into].
Daniel put the magazine [PP into the wastebasket].
away: [PP __ ] (these are sometimes called subcategorization frames.)
into: [PP __ NP]
Verbs:
Daniel [VP died ].
*Daniel [VP found ].
Daniel [VP found the body ].
Daniel [VP put the book on the table ].

Adjectives:
Daniel is [AP tall ].
*Daniel is [AP fond ].
Daniel is [AP fond of music ].

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Subcategorization options:
Daniel [VP ate ].
Daniel [VP ate sushi ].
*Daniel [VP handed ].
*Daniel [VP handed a pencil ].
Daniel [VP handed a pencil to John ].
Daniel [VP handed John a pencil ].
Daniel threw the ball [PP over ].
Daniel threw the ball [PP over Jason’s head ].