Keywords - L322.4 S02

Intermediate Syntax

Week 4: Voice, Aspect, R elevance, and Tense

Nouns marked as [-Case_Inh]

• Case Filter:
  • *NP if NP is no Case and has phonetic content. (Chomsky 1981)
  • This is predictable from the principles at hand.
    • NPs marked as [-Case_Inh] which means that they need a value.
    • If a feature has no value, the sentence will crash.

Splitting

• Default for all verbal operators given on this page.
• Exceptions are marked in the lexical entry for each verb.

Voice

• Operator
• host, bound
• V is host
• Feature copying downward -- targeting
• links and chains
• V marked as [+Case_Inh, +Nom]

Aspect

• Operator
• host, bound
• V as host
• links and chains
• Feature copying downward -- targeting

Relevance

• Operator
• host, bound
• V is host
• Feature copying downward - targeting

Tense

• Operator
• host; bound
• V is host
• Feature copying downward - targeting
• V assigns [-Nom] Case.

Combinine the above.

• T subcategorizes R
• R subcategorizes Asp
• Asp subcategorizes Vc
• Vc subcategorizes V
• T - R - Asp - Vc - V

Strategies

• Copy feature (filling in blank)
• Copy feature bundle to targeted host
• Insert a dummy.

Lexical Entries

• lexical entries contain information about a word (or phrase) that is not predictable.
  • feature system (which we usually write out in CAPs rather than features)
  • part of speech
  • phonemic form of word
  • orthographic form of word (if a written language)
  • theta roles assigned
  • subcategorizaion (most likely related to above, see Keywords 5)
  • semantic form (ignored here)
  • Any irregular forms (usually morphological and phonological)

Course outline 322