Episode 7b. Subjects, agreement, and case

1
CAS LX 522Syntax I

• Episode 7b. Subjects, agreement,and case
• 6.1-6.3

2
Historical interlude

• Back in the old days, people hypothesized that
  Pat will charm snakes had a structure like this.
• The subject NP Pat was in the specifier of IP
  (what we call TP), and the VP contained only
  the verb charm and the object NP snakes.
• Pat got an Agent q-role by being in SpecIP, even
  though the fact that there is an Agent q-role to
  be had is determined by the verb down in the VP.

IP
NP Pat
I?
I will
VP
V charm
NP snakes
3
Historical interlude

• Nevertheless, this predicts the normal word order
  pretty well, and so it was hypothesized that the
  verb simply assigned one of its q-roles directly
  to SpecIP.
• No big deal, syntax works in strange and
  mysterious ways.
• At a certain point, someone started thinking
  about sentences like these
• All the students will take the exam.
• The students will all take the exam.
• Its fairly clear here that all the students is
  an NP, that it forms a coherent unit, a coherent
  concept. All really belongs with the students.

IP
NP Pat
I?
I will
VP
NP snakes
V charm
4
Historical interlude

• All the students will take the exam.
• The students will all take the exam.
• Back in the even older days, the hypothesis was
  that there was a special rule that turned the
  first sentence into the second.
• The Quantifier Float rule would move all over to
  the right, next to the VP.
• all NP VP ? NP all VP

IP
NP Pat
I?
I will
VP
NP snakes
V charm
5
Historical interlude

• Not all quantifiers are subject to Quantifier
  Float
• Quantifiers every, some, all, most, several,
  many, both, four,
• Every student will take the exam.Student will
  every take the exam.
• Several students will take the exam.Students
  will several take the exam.
• It works for both and allThe students will both
  take the exam.The students will all take the
  exam.
• Whats a difference between every, some, several,
  many and both, all?

IP
NP Pat
I?
I will
VP
NP snakes
V charm
6
Historical interlude

• Upon further reflection, some enterprising
  syntacticians hit upon the idea that rather than
  floating all to its position next to VP, all
  might instead have been left behind by a
  subject that had moved.
• will all the students take the exam.
• all the studentsi will ti take the exam.
• the studentsi will all ti take the exam.
• And why would all the students have been down
  there? Well, that would simplify assignment of
  q-roles.

IP
NP Pat
I?
I will
VP
NP snakes
V charm
7
The VP-Internal Subject Hypothesis

• The verb (head of VP) can assign q-roles to other
  things within the VP, which is a natural
  explanation for how the choice of verb controls
  whether an Agent q-role is assigned or not.
• This idea became known as the VP-Internal Subject
  Hypothesis.

IP
NP Pat
I?
I
VP
will
V?
ti
V charm
NP snakes
8
The VP-Internal Subject Hypothesis

• For us, weve supposed from the beginning that
  assignment of q-roles is necessarily local. This
  may not seem like a very surprising hypothesis.
• But it was at the time a rather unintuitive idea,
  and so various people set out to see if some of
  the predictions this makes are borne out in the
  grammatical data.

IP
NP Pat
I?
I
VP
will
V?
ti
V charm
NP snakes
9
The VP-Internal Subject Hypothesis

• It turns out that as people looked, there were
  reasons to believe this.
• The new analysis of Quantifier Float no longer
  relies on an idiosyncratic rule of English, but
  more general principles.
• The assignment of q-roles can now be more
  directly related to the properties of the verb.
• And we can make sense of there constructions in a
  more straightforward way.

IP
NP Pat
I?
I
VP
will
V?
ti
V charm
NP snakes
10
Back to the present
Quantifier stranding is still often referred to
as quantifier float to this day, even though
the name no longer reflects the analysis.

• The basic components of the quantifier
  stranding phenomenon are
• All the students is a constituent. The students
  is an NP inside all the students.
• all NP the students
• Either all the students or just the students can
  move to SpecTP, to satisfy the uN feature of
  T.
• So all the students and the students are both
  NPs.
• NP all NP the students
• So all is essentially a noun, but one that takes
  an NP complement (all N, uN, ).
• Were assuming here that all is not an adjunct,
  but in fact a head, taking the NP as a
  complement. Why?

NP
all
NP
thestudents
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All the students will take the exam

• We start by building our vP.
• Merge the NP the exam and the V take (checks
  uN on V)
• Merge v and VP (HoP)
• Move V to v (checks uV on v)
• Merge the N all and the NP the students (checks
  uN on all)

vP
v?
NP
VP
v
all
NP
ltVgt
vagentuInfl,
Vtake
NP
thestudents
the exam
12
All the students will take the exam

• We Merge the M will with vP (HoP)
• This values uInfl on v as uInflM.

M?
vP
M willuInfl,
v?
NP
VP
v
all
NP
ltVgt
vagentuInflM,
Vtake
NP
thestudents
the exam
13
All the students will take the exam

• We Merge the T will with MP (HoP)
• This values uInfl on M as uInflpres
  (strong).

T?
T tensepres,uN,
MP
vP
M will uInflpres,
v?
NP
VP
v
all
NP
ltVgt
vagentuInflM,
Vtake
NP
thestudents
the exam
14
All the students will take the exam

• We move M up to T
• This checks the strong uInflpres on M.

T?
MP
T
vP
M will uInflpres,
T tensepres,uN,
ltMgt
v?
NP
VP
v
all
NP
vagentuInflM,
Vtake
ltVgt
NP
thestudents
the exam
15
All the students will take the exam
Is all the students closer to T than the students
is? Not if we define closer as we did, in terms
of c-command. Where X c-commands Y and Z, Y is
closer to X than Z is if Y c-commands Z.

• Now, there are two possibilities
• Move the NP all the students.
• Move the NP the students.

T?
MP
T
vP
M will uInflpres,
T tensepres,uN,
ltMgt
v?
NP
VP
v
all
NP
vagentuInflM,
Vtake
ltVgt
NP
thestudents
the exam
16
All the students will take the exam

• Now, there are two possibilities
• Move the NP all the students.
• Move the NP the students.

TP
NP
T?
all
NP
MP
T
thestudents
vP
M will uInflpres,
T tensepres,uN,
ltMgt
v?
ltNPgt
VP
v
vagentuInflM,
Vtake
ltVgt
NP
the exam
17
The students will all take the exam

• Now, there are two possibilities
• Move the NP all the students.
• Move the NP the students.

TP
NP
T?
thestudents
MP
T
vP
M will uInflpres,
T tensepres, uN,
ltMgt
v?
NP
VP
v
all
ltNPgt
vagentuInflM,
Vtake
ltVgt
NP
the exam
18
Expletive constructions

• An expletive is an element that can be in subject
  position without having received a q-role from
  anywhere.
• It had been raining.
• There were fans rioting on Comm Ave.
• Weve seen it before. But there is also there,
  which well concentrate on now. Neither means
  anything, neither gets a q-role, both appear to
  satisfy the uN feature of T.
• Both can be used in other ways I saw it over
  there.

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Expletive constructions

• There were fans rioting on Comm Ave.
• Fans were rioting on Comm Ave.

TP
TP
fans
there
T?
T?
T
T
ProgP
ProgP
T
be
T
be
ltbegt
ltbegt
vP
vP
ltfansgt
fans
v?
v?
ltVgt
vVriot
ltVgt
vVriot
20
Case

• Recall that pronouns in English show distinctions
  in case
• Subject pronouns are in nominative case
• Object pronouns are in accusative case
• I saw her. She saw me. They saw him.
• How can we ensure the correlation?

21
Nom case

• Nominative subjects generally appear in the
  specifier of a finite T.
• Finite T is pretty much any kind of T except the
  infinitive.
• We can treat case like we treated tense
  inflection
• Suppose T also has a ucasenom feature.
• Suppose nominative NPs have a ucase feature.
• Suppose the ucasenom on T can value ucase
  on the NP, checking both.
• So T needs a nom NP, and a nom NP needs T.

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Acc case

• Subjects check nominative case with T. Objects
  have accusative case, which we can treat in the
  same kind of way.
• Suppose v has ucaseacc.
• Suppose accusative NPs have ucase
• Suppose the ucaseacc on v can value the
  ucase feature on the NP, checking both.
• Nominative case is a relation between (finite) T
  and an NP, accusative case is a relation between
  v and an NP.

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Notes on case

• Nominative case is associated with finite T.
• She will charm snakes.
• I want her to charm snakes.
• I expect her to charm snakes.
• Non-finite T is not associated with nominative
  case. Its not actually associated with
  accusative case either, but well come back to
  that later.
• Because NPs have an unvalued ucase feature, we
  can suppose that pronouns always enter the
  numeration the same way, and are valued based on
  where they are Merged.
• pronoun N, ucase,

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Notes on case

• Although in English we only see the morphological
  effect of case on pronouns, we assume that all
  NPs have an unvalued ucase feature.
• Plenty of languages other than English show case
  on all NPs, not just on pronouns. Case is
  something that goes with being an NP. Its just
  something you often dont hear in English.
• Notational shortcuts
• nom is used for ucasenom (on T, or NP when
  checked)
• acc is used for ucaseacc (on v, or NP when
  checked)
• case is used for ucase (on an NP)

25
Subject-verb agreement

• Recall that in English, the f-features of the
  subject have an effect on the morphology of the
  verb
• Fans were rioting on Comm Ave.
• A fan was rioting on Comm Ave.
• While were here, we might as well account for
  this too. It is also an agreement relation,
  between the subject and, eventually, the verb (or
  auxiliary, if there is one).

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Subject-verb agreement

• The verb gets its tense inflection specified by T
  when, e.g., the tensepres feature of T values
  the uInfl feature of v.
• Since the subject already agrees with T (the
  nom feature of T checks the case feature of
  the subject), well incorporate subject agreement
  into this process.
• Notice that we still want this agreement to be
  mediated by T (sometimes it values, e.g., Perf)
• They have been reading novels.
• She has been reading novels.

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Subject-verb agreement

• Suppose then that T has a uf feature as well.
• The subject has (interpretable) f-features that
  value the uf feature of T.
• Fans were rioting on Comm Ave.
• T T, uN, uf, nom
• fans N, fpl, case
• So, once T is in the structure, c-commanding fans
  in SpecvP, we get
• T T, uN, ufpl, nom
• fans N, fpl, nom

28
Subject-verb agreement

• Finally, we suppose that the (checked) ufpl
  feature of T, also values a uInfl feature on a
  lower v (or Perf, or Prog).
• The rules of pronunciation will tell us that a v
  with the verb riot adjoined to it sounds like
• riots if v has the feature uInflpres,sg
• riot if v has the feature uInflpres,pl.
• Notice that T values a uInfl feature all at
  once, with any relevant feature(s) it has (so,
  tense and f-features both).

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She likes them

• So, lets walk through it.
• We start by merging like and the 3pl pronoun.

VP
NPpronounN, f3pl, case
VlikesV
30
She likes them

• v v, uN, uInfl, uV, acc
• We Merge v with VP (HoP).
• The acc on v matches, values, and checks the
  case on the pronoun, checking itself as well.
• Agree is lazy, we can do this without any further
  Merging or Moving.

v?
VP
v v, uN, uInfl, uV, acc
NPpronounN, f3pl, acc
VlikesV
31
She likes them

• The V moves up to adjoin to v to check the uV
  feature of v.

v?
VP
v
NPpronounN, f3pl, acc
ltVgt
v v, uN, uInfl, uV, acc
VlikesV
32
She likes them

• The V moves up to adjoin to v to check the uV
  feature of v.
• The 3sg feminine pronoun is Merged to check the
  uN feature of v.

vP
v?
NPpronounN, f3fsg, case
VP
v
NPpronounN, f3pl, acc
ltVgt
v v, uN, uInfl, uV, acc
VlikesV
33
She likes them

• The T is Merged with vP (HoP).
• The nom feature of T matches, values, and
  checks the case feature of the pronoun,
  checking itself in the process.

T?
TT, tensepres, uf, uN, nom
vP
v?
NPpronounN, f3fsg, nom
VP
v
VlikesV
NPpronounN, f3pl, acc
ltVgt
v v, uN, uInfl, uV, acc
34
She likes them

• The f3fsg feature of NP values and checks the
  uf feature of T.

T?
TT, tensepres, uf3fsg, uN, nom
vP
v?
NPpronounN, f3fsg, nom
VP
v
VlikesV
NPpronounN, f3pl, acc
ltVgt
v v, uN, uInfl, uV, acc
35
She likes them

• The uf3fsg and tensepres features of T
  value and check the uInfl feature of v.
• From now on (Finite) T can only value a lower
  uInfl feature once T itself has a value for
  ?. Both tense and ? value the lower
  uInfl feature. First step is always to check
  the u? feature on T, after which T will check
  the lower uInfl feature.

T?
TT, tensepres, uf3fsg, uN, nom
vP
v?
NPpronounN, f3fsg, nom
VP
v
VlikesV
NPpronounN, f3pl, acc
ltVgt
v v, uN, uInflpres3fsg, uV, acc
36
She likes them

• Finally, the NP is moved up and Merged with T? in
  order to check the EPP feature (the uN
  feature) of T.

TP
NPpronounN, f3fsg, nom
T?
TT, tensepres, uf3fsg, uN, nom
vP
v?
ltNPgt
VP
v
VlikesV
NPpronounN, f3pl, acc
ltVgt
v v, uN, uInflpres3fsg, uV, acc
37
She likes them

• All uninterpretable features are checked, the
  pronunciation rules give us she likes them.

TP
NPpronounN, f3fsg, nom
T?
TT, tensepres, uf3fsg, uN, nom
vP
v?
ltNPgt
VP
v
VlikesV
NPpronounN, f3pl, acc
ltVgt
v v, uN, uInflpres3fsg, uV, acc
38
?

• ? ?
• ?
• ? ?
• ? ?
• ?
• ?