Long%20Distance%20Dependencies%20(Filler-Gap%20Constructions)%20and%20Relative%20Clauses

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Long Distance Dependencies(Filler-Gap
Constructions)and Relative Clauses

• October 10, 2007
• 11-721 Grammars and Lexicons
• Lori Levin
• (Examples from Kroeger and Van Valin)

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Outline

• What is a filler-gap construction?
• What is a long-distance dependency?
• What is a relative clause?
• Relative clauses in various languages
• Long distance dependencies in Malagasy
• Where can the gap be?
• What do you do if you need to put a gap where it
  is not allowed?
• Where cant the gap be in English

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Filler-Gap Constructions

• Ann, I think he likes ___.
• Gap is ungrammatical without filler
• I think he likes___.
• Filler without gap
• Ann, I think he likes the girl in my class.
• Ann, I think he likes her.
• If you write a grammar for a filler-gap
  dependency, an interesting exercise is to make
  the parse fail when there is a gap without a
  filler or a filler without a gap.

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Long Distance Dependencies
S-bar
Distance is measured by the number of nodes the
number of S, NP, CP, and IP nodes in particular
on the path from the parent of the filler, down
the tree to the gap.
NP
Ann, I think he told me
he tried to like ___
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Long Distance Dependencies
S-bar
Distance is not measured by the number of words
between the filler and the gap.
S
NP
VP
NP
the guy I met on the bus yesterday in Oakland
Ann
NP
V
likes
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Filler Gap Constructions English

• Topicalization
• Ann, I think he likes.
• It-Cleft
• Its Ann that I think he likes.
• Wh-question
• Who do you think he likes?
• Embedded Wh-question
• I wonder who you think he likes?
• Relative Clause
• I saw the woman who I think he likes.

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Filler Gap Constructions English

• Tough-movement
• Ann is easy to talk to __ .
• Correlative construction
• The more I think I like Ann ___ the more she
  ignores me.
• The more people I talk to ___ the more I learn.
• Comparative clauses
• Ann has seen more movies than I think I have seen
  ___.

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Historical Note

• Chomsky (1977) On Wh Movement
• Proposed a single rule, Move-wh, to account for
  all long-distance dependencies.
• Old approach
• Write rules for each construction.
• New approach
• Look for what the rules have in common.

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What are relative clauses?
Sometimes people use the term relative clause
to refer to the S-bar. Sometimes they use it
(sloppily) to refer to the whole NP.
NP
Det N-bar
The N-bar
S-bar
student RP
S
Head noun
that/who/which/Ø I saw ___
Lets say that the filler is the relative
pronoun, not the head noun.
S containing a gap
Relative pronoun, etc.
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But there are relative clauses

• Without head nouns
• Without relative pronouns
• Without gaps

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What makes it a relative clause?

• A noun that plays a role in two clauses
• I like the student who won the contest.
• I like the student.
• The student won the contest.
• One clause is part of a noun phrase in the other
  clause.

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Which sentences contain relative clauses?

• I am annoyed by the fact that linguistics is fun.
• You met the the man who I saw.
• I wonder who you saw.
• The book that bothered me is on the shelf.
• I think that linguistics is fun.
• That linguistics is fun bothers me.
• I like who you like.
• Headless relative clause

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Relativized

• The child who __ saw me smiled.
• Subject of see is relativized.
• The child who I saw __ smiled.
• Object of saw is relativized.
• The child who I talked to ___ smiled.
• The child to whom I talked ___ smiled.
• Oblique is reltativized.
• The child who I thought you liked __ smiled.
• What is relativized?

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Relative Clauses in various languages
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Order of relative clause and head noun

• English
• The relative clause is after the head noun
• Turkish
• The relative clause is before the head noun.

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Gap and relativizer Note ambiguity
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Relativizer and pronoun retention(resumptive
pronoun)
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Relative pronouns (vs invariant relativizers)
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Relative pronouns
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Internal Head
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Internal and external head
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Combination of strategies
Gap for subject, gap or pronoun for object,
pronoun for everything else.
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Long Distance Dependencies in Malagasy
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What grammatical function can the gap have?
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Using passivization to get the gap where you need
it
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Gaps with give
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Gap is instrument two ways to make a question
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It-Clefts in Malagasy same restrictions as
questions
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Malagasy Relative Clauses
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Malagasy Relative Clauses
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Where cant the gap be in English?
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Wh-questions English

• Gap in subject position
• Who ___ likes Ann?
• Gap in object position
• Who does Ann like __?
• Gap in oblique position
• Who did you talk to __?
• To whom did you talk __?
• Gap in embedded clause (long distance)
• Who do you think that he saw __?

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Constraints on Long-Distance Dependencies

• Where can the gap be?
• John Robert (Haj) Ross (1967) Ph.D. Thesis, MIT

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Constraints on Long Distance Dependencies

• The gap cannot be inside a coordinate structure.
• I saw the boy and the girl.
• Who did you see the boy and ___.
• Except in across the board extraction
• Who did you talk to___ and hear rumors
  about __

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Constraints on Long Distance Dependencies

• The gap cannot be inside a sentence that is
  inside a noun phrase
• I like the fact that he reads books every day.
• What do you like the fact that he reads ___
  every day?

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Constraints on Long Distance Dependencies

• The gap cannot be inside the subject
• Pictures of Sam were available.
• Who were pictures of ___ available?
• Books about linguistics were on sale.
• What were books about ___ on sale?
• But the gap can be inside the direct object
• You saw pictures of Sam.
• Who did you see pictures of ___ ?
• You read books about linguistics.
• ?What did you read books about?

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Constraints on Long Distance Dependencies

• The gap cannot be inside an embedded question
• They wondered who __ talked to Sam.
• Who did they wonder who __ talked to __?
• But the gap can be inside of a plain embedded
  clause
• They thought (that) we talked to Sam .
• Who did they think (that) we talked to ___ ?

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Constraints on Long Distance Dependencies

• The gap cannot be inside a relative clause or any
  another long distance dependency
• I like the boy that Sam plays with ___.
• Who do you like the boy that __ plays with __.
• Except for this
• Which violins are these sonatas easy to play
  ___ on ___?