Advanced Syntax

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Advanced Syntax

• Lecture 7 Tense and Negation

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Introduction clause structure

• The clause is made up of distinct structural
  areas with different semantic purposes
• The VP
• One or more verbal head introducing arguments
• The IP
• An inflectional head introducing finiteness
• The CP
• A complementiser introducing force

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The non-thematic VP

• Between the thematic VP and the IP there can be
  other elements which are verbal but not thematic
• They dont introduce arguments
• These elements are to do with voice and aspect
• ... That John has been being
  followed
• perfect
  progressive passive
• We have argued that these elements are
  represented by the bound morphemes
• The verb moves to support the nearest one of
  these
• Auxiliaries are inserted to support the rest
• -s -en -ing
  -en

ha
show
be
be
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The non-thematic VP

• We will distinguish these non-thematic verbal
  elements by denoting them as v (as opposed to
  V)
• This is commonly called little v
• While little v is clearly verbal and
  non-thematic, we cannot say that it is functional
  either, as that would make it indistinguishable
  from inflection
• Verb -F, V, -N
• Inflection F, V, -N
• We dont want to add another categorial feature
  as that would predict an extra 8 more distinct
  categories
• The solution is to allow categories to be
  undefined on certain features
• Little v V, -N

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The non-thematic VP structure position

• The inflection seems to be able to have a VP or a
  vP complement, depending on whether there are
  aspectual morphemes
• He may VP win the race
• He had vP been winning the race
• I selects for -F, V, -N complements
• This covers thematic VPs which have exactly these
  features
• And vPs, which are not defined for the F feature

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The problem

• Auxiliary verbs are inserted to support verbal
  morphemes which cannot be supported by the verb
• The verb can support at most one overt morpheme
• He -ed VP
• He -ed -en VP the paper
• He -ed -ing VP the paper

smile
see
read
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The problem

• Auxiliary verbs which follow modals and the
  infinitive to, do not appear to support any
  morpheme
• They are always in their base form
• He may be winning
• ... for him to have won
• If there is no morpheme here, there is no
  explanation as to why the auxiliary is present

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A possible solution

• By this reasoning, there must be a morpheme
  present in these cases
• This morpheme is phonologically null
• He may be-? winning
• ... for him to have-? won

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What is this morpheme

• It is apparently absent in the presence of a
  tense inflection
• He beed (was) winning
• He was be-? winning
• This might suggest that the morpheme has
  something to do with tense

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Tense and modals

• Modals and the tense morphemes are in
  complementary distribution
• He smiled
• He will smile
• he will smiled
• But this is not completely true

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Modal forms

• Most modals have two forms
• can could
• may might
• shall should
• will would
• Historically these are tense forms
• In modern English these forms are not usually
  used to express tense distinctions
• He might come ? he may come (in the past)
• But in some cases they are
• When I was young, I could play the piano

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Modal forms

• Modals in subordinate clauses are used to match
  the tense of the main clause
• I think he will come
• I thought he would come
• I thought he will come
• This is called tense sequencing

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Modal forms

• This suggests that tense is not absent with
  modals

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Infinitives and tense

• One might have thought that tense and infinitives
  are mutually exclusive
• However, again the situation is not so
  straightforward
• Infinitives are always subordinate
• Like tense sequencing in finite clauses, the time
  reference of the infinitive is often dependent on
  the main clause
• Different types of infinitive have different time
  interpretations

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Control clauses and Tense

• The temporal interpretation of a control clause
  is co-temporal with the main clause
• He tried PRO to start the car
• He is trying PRO to start the car
• He will try PRO to start the car
• Clearly the trying and the starting are
  happening at the same time (regardless of whether
  it is successful)

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Raising clauses and tense

• Raising clauses are like control clauses in that
  their temporal interpretation is co-temporal with
  the main clause
• The door1 seemed t1 to close by itself
• The door1 seems t1 to be closing by itself
• The door1 seems t1 to close by itself
• Like tensed clauses
• the use of the progressive indicates present time
• the use of the plain verb indicates the habitual

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Exceptional Clauses and tense

• Exceptional clauses often refer to an event which
  takes place at some point after that referred to
  by the exceptional verb
• I expected the door to open
• I expect the door to open
• The door opening (or not) happens at some time
  after the expectation is formed
• I expected the door to open, but when I tried it,
  it was locked

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Tense in infinitives - conclusion

• If time reference is mediated through a tense
  element, it seems that a tense element is present
  in the infinitive
• Though not of the same nature as that in finite
  clauses
• In infinitives the tense element is similar to a
  pronoun in that its reference is linked to its
  antecedent
• i.e. The tense of the main clause
• We might refer to this as anaphoric tense

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Tense and Inflection

• This all suggests that tense and inflection are
  not the same element in a structure
• Therefore we would expect them to have different
  positions
• It could be that tense is the phonologically null
  morpheme that follows modals and the infinitival
  marker
• He may be-?pres singing
• ... for him to be-?ana singing

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The structural position of tense

• Clearly the tense element follows the inflection
• So it must head a phrase that sits in the
  complement position of the inflection

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The category of tense

• We know that inflection subcategorises for a V,
  -N complement
• Therefore tense must be of the category little v

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Tense in tensed clauses

• Tensed clauses are still IPs
• So there must be an inflection when there is a
  morphological tense
• The most obvious suggestion would be that the
  inflection is a null morpheme in this case
• IP He ? vP -ed VP smile
• This is what was assumed in BESE

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Tense in tensed clauses

• But this raises the question of why inflection
  must be null when tense is overt and tense must
  be null when inflection is overt
• There seems to be a conspiracy to make it look
  like tense and inflection are in complementary
  distribution when they are not!

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Tense in tensed clauses

• Another possibility is that the tense morphemes
  ARE inflections
• Therefore they cannot be tense
• They would get their tense interpretations from
  the null tense element that accompanies them
• IP He ed vP -? VP smile
• In this way the tense morpheme is exactly like a
  modal
• Though it carries no modal meaning

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Tense in tensed clauses

• This allows a very uniform analysis
• Tense in English is always null
• Some inflections select present tense
• will, can, shall, may, -s/-?
• Some inflections select past tense
• would, could, should, might, must, -ed
• One inflection select anaphoric tense
• to

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Tense as a bound morpheme

• The fact that an auxiliary must be inserted after
  a modal and an infinitive in cases where the verb
  is supporting an aspectual morpheme shows that
  tense is a bound morpheme
• He will -? -ing VP

be
read
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Tense as a bound morpheme

• The fact that no auxiliary is inserted when there
  is no aspectual morpheme shows that the verb can
  move to support tense
• He will -? VP

read
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Tense as a bound morpheme

• When there is a bound inflection (-ed or s) and
  the verb cannot support it, we can assume that
  the auxiliary is inserted into tense and then
  moves to support the inflection
• A verb can support only one OVERT morpheme, but
  any number of covert ones
• He will -ed -ing VP
  

be
be-?
read
-?
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Tense as a bound morpheme

• When there is a bound inflection (-ed or s) and
  there is no other over morpheme, the verb can
  move to support both tense and the inflection
• He -ed VP

read-?
-?
read
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Tense Summary

• Tense is always null
• It heads a vP which is the complement of the
  inflection
• Different inflections select for different tenses
• Tense is a bound morpheme which needs supporting
• When the verb cannot do this, an auxiliary is
  inserted
• Whatever supports tense will support the bound
  inflection by moving from v to I

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negation

• Negation in English is typically marked by the
  use of not
• This sits behind the inflection and in front of
  the main verb
• You shall not pass
• It can sit anywhere between these two (with
  meaning differences), but not in front of I or
  behind V
• He not will have been being followed
• He will not have been being followed
• He will have not been being followed
• He will have been not being followed
• He will have been being not followed
• He will have been being followed not

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The status of the negative particle

• It has been argued that not must be a head of a
  phrase which sits in the non-thematic verbal part
  of the structure
• This is because it blocks V movement to I
• He d VP smile gt he smile-d VP t

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The status of the negative particle

• Normally the verb can move to I (via tense)
• He smile1-?2-ed vP t2 VP t1

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The status of the negative particle

• But when the negative particle is present, this
  movement is blocked
• he smile1-?2-ed not vP t2 VP t1
• This can be explained by Relativised Minimality
• A head must move to its nearest head position
• But this only works if the negative is a head

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The status of the negative particle

• In this case, the verb can support the tense
• But do has to be inserted to support the
  inflection
• He do-ed not smile1-? t1

do
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The category of negation

• If this analysis is correct, the category of the
  negative particle must be little v
• Because
• I selects for a vP complement
• The phrase headed by the negative can be the
  complement of I

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Evidence for the verbal status of negation

• Although not does not have many verbal qualities
  in English, in other languages the negative
  particle can behave like a verb
• Finnish
• tiedän en tiedäI-know I-not know
• tiedät et tiedäyou-know you-not know

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Problems contracted negation

• The head status of the negative seems to be
  supported by negative contraction
• I havent seen him
• He isnt here
• This might be treated in the same way that bound
  morphemes are
• The auxiliary moves into the negative head before
  moving to I
• He s nt be-? here
• As heads can only move to head positions, this
  seems to show that negation is a head

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Problems contracted negation

• But this predicts the wrong morpheme order as the
  negation should be closer to the verb than the
  inflection
• He be-nt-s here
• It also isnt clear why main verbs cannot do the
  same thing
• He read-nt the book

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Problems contracted negation

• Modal auxiliaries can also bear the contracted
  negation
• I wouldnt know
• But modals cannot move through the negation as
  they are higher in the structure
• The contracted modals sometimes have a different
  base form
• Cant wont shant
• Some modals cannot appear with the contracted
  negation at all
• maynt

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Problems contracted negation

• Such observations argue that the contracted
  negation is better seen as a form of auxiliaries
  rather than as an independent morpheme

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Problems invisibility of negation

• When a bound morpheme cannot be supported by the
  main verb, an auxiliary is inserted
• Which auxiliary is used depends on the following
  verbal morpheme
• Main verb ? do
• -ed you know ? did you know
• Perfect ? have
• He ed en see ? he had seen
• Everything else ? be
• He ed ing run ? he was running
• He ed en beat ? he was beaten

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Problems invisibility of negation

• However, the choice of the auxiliary is never
  dependent on the presence of the negation
• He did not know me
• He had not seen me
• He is not running
• He was not beaten
• In these cases, the negation behaves as though it
  is invisible
• It is the verbal element following the negation
  that determines which auxiliary to use
• But this is unexpected if negation is a verbal
  head

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Another possible analysis

• In general, modifiers do not interfere with
  syntactic processes
• Did he always know the answers?
• He has sometimes watched the news
• He is often running
• This might suggest that the negative particle is
  an adverbial modifier rather than a verbal head
• So why does it block head movement?

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Another possible analysis

• Negative adverbial modifiers have a restricted
  position with respect to the verb
• I never win
• I win never
• This is not so for all adverbial modifiers
• I sometimes win
• I win sometimes

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Another possible analysis

• We know that the negative particle never follows
  the verb
• he smiled not
• When the negative adverb precedes the finite
  verb, it must precede the inflection which the
  verb is supporting
• He never win-s

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Another possible analysis

• Negative adverbs can precede inflections (with
  special emphasis)
• He never will find out
• The negative particle cannot precede the
  inflection even with special emphasis
• he not will find out

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Another possible analysis

• It seems that there are two ordering conditions
• The negative particle must precede the main verb
• The negative particle must follow the inflection
• These two together will prevent the main verb
  from moving to I
• he not smiled
• he smiled not
• The only option left is for the verb to stay
  below the inflection and for the inflection to be
  supported by do
• He did not smile

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Summary negation

• Possibly the best analysis for the negative
  particle is as an adverbial modifier
• There are two conditions on its placement
• It cannot follow the verb
• It cannot precede the inflection
• Otherwise it can go anywhere between the two