Role of a director of a movie

Question 1
(1) Roger will happily return the books to Jenny the next day.
TP
DP
D’
D
∅
NP
N’
N
Roger
T’
T
will
VP
V’
AdvP
Adv’
Adv
happily
V’
V’
V’
V
return
DP
D’
D
the
NP
N’
N
books
PP
P’
P
to
DP
D’
D
∅
NP
N’
N
Jenny
DP
D’
D
the
NP
N’
AdjP
Adj’
Adj
next
N’
N
day
It’s important that happily attaches higher than the next day, because the do so test given shows
that return the book to Kenny the next day is a V’ constituent. Also note that the next day is a DP
adjunct.
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Question 2
(2) the director of the movie with clear vision
DP
D’
D
the
NP
N’
N’
N
director
PP
P’
P
of
DP
D’
D
the
NP
N’
N
movie
PP
P’
P
with
DP
D’
D
a
NP
N’
AdjP
Adj’
Adj
clear
N’
N
vision
Questions 3–7
Question 3
She will find the answer before you will do so.
• both X-bar and the old PSRs will generate this – becuase whether do so replaces VP or
V’, there’s no problem.
Question 4
Dana played baseball on the weekend and Bob did so during the week.
• X-bar will generate this sentence but the old PSRs will not.
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• The assumpion here is (a) that did so = played basketball and (b) during the week is a PP
modifying the VP.
• Old PSRs do not represent played basketball as a constituent exclusive of the PP during the
week.
Question 5
I found a funny new hat and you found an ugly one. (where ”one” = ”new hat”)
• X-bar will generate this sentence but the old PSRs will not
• in the old PSRS, new hat doesn’t form a constituent to the exclusion of ugly (or an for
that matter). In X-bar it does. (Assumption: one replaces a constituent – I’ve also said
that one replaces only N’ so in a way that alone could be a justification that the old PSRs
don’t account for the sentence, but that’s a justification by fiat not evidence.)
Question 6
You can win the race and must win the race.
• X-bar will generate this sentence but the old PSRs will not
• in the old PSRS, the modal aux in T does not form a constituent with the VP but it does
in X-bar. Coordination diagnoses constituency. The idea is that this sentence involves T’
coordination
TP
DP
You
T’
T’
T
can
VP
win the race
Conj
and
T’
T
must
VP
win the race
Question 7
pretty red flowers and green plants
(on the meaning where both the green plants and red flowers are pretty)
• the conjunction of red flowers and green plants suggests these form each constituents to
the exclusion of the adj pretty. Only X-bar, via N’, allows for adjectives to form a phrase
with N (N’) to the exclusion of outer adjectives.
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Question 8
(3) The dog near the kid’s toy is loud.
Meaning #1 (I just arbitrarily label what is #1 and #2): The toy is loud and the toy belongs to
the dog near the kid. (E.g. Fido’s toy is loud; Whose toy is loud? The dog near the kid’s).
TP
DP
DP
D
D
the
NP
N’
N’
N
dog
PP
P’
P
near
DP
D’
D
the
NP
N’
N
kid
D
D
’s
NP
N’
N
toy
T’
T
[pres]
VP
V’
V
is
AP
A’
A
loud
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Meaning #2: The dog is loud and the dog is near the kid’s toy.
TP
DP
D’
D
the
NP
N’
N’
N
dog
PP
P’
P
near
DP
DP
D’
D
the
NP
N’
N
kid
D’
D
’s
NP
N’
N
toy
T’
T
[pres]
VP
V’
V
is
AP
A’
A
loud
Question 9–14
Question 9
In CL1, does gatti juo form a constituent?
• Yes. It’s the subject and it can coordinate with other DPs (see (7)). The example in (6) is
a red-herring (an example of the failure of a test being uninformative). I put it there as a
distraction. It seems that in this language you cannot cleft DPs, but only NPs (stranding
the D low - see (5)). We talked about how clefting in English is picky and doesn’t allow
VPs to cleft, so you should be aware of possibilities like this.
Question 10
In CL1, are modal auxiliaries likely to be of the category T?
5
• No. Becuase they are not in complementary distribution (I like to call it “competitive
distribution”) with tense markers (e.g. (4) has both future and modal must). We used
competitive distribution of modals and tense morphology in English to motivate that
they belong to the same category (*I must ate). This language works otherwise.
Question 11
How is the X-bar parameter for Specifiers set in CL1?
• XP → X’ (YP)
• this is shown by the fact that the subjects (spec of TP) appear on the right
Question 12
How is the X-bar parameter for Head-Complement set in CL1?
• X’ → (WP) X
• head final: the position of Tense wrt the VP shows this, as does the position of V wrt its
complements and D wrt the NP.
Question 13
How is the X-bar parameter for adjuncts set in CL1?
• X’ → X’ (ZP)
• The only candidate for adjunct in the data is ki ‘large’ in (8). It sits to the right of the N’
(and N)
Question 14
Is the phrase headed by veei ´ in (7) a complement or adjunct?
• The best answer is Complement, since it is obligatory (see (10)). Recall that adjuncts are
always optional, but complements may or may not be optional or obligatory. Since this
element is obligatory it must be a complement.
• The red-herring here is that in English wise would be ad adverb adjunct. So this is a
lesson in variation in how different languages express the same concepts.
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The data
Examine the following data from the constructed language Constructed Language 1 (let’s call
it CL1) and answer the questions online in Quercus in Homework Assignment 3. Note that
English translations do not always convey the meaning of the source language in the same
way; in those cases, the translation is prefixed by ≈. Also note that clefting in CL1 moves a
constituent to the front of the sentence, but what can be clefted in CL1 is limited.
(4) bepli ´
shirt
juo
each
trela fix ro past gatti man het the ‘The man fixed each shirt.’ (5) haati truth het the flai speak fe must re future gatti man juo each ≈ ‘Each man will have to speak the truth.’ (6) gatti man haati truth het the flai speak fe must re future juo each ≈ ‘It was each man who will have to speak the truth.’ (7) *gatti man juo each haati truth het the flai speak fe must re future intended: ≈ ‘It was each man who will have to speak the truth.’ (8) tuy¨ child juo each op and gatti man juo each trela
fix
ro
past
fo
doctor
het
the
‘The doctor fixed each man and each child.’
(9) bepli ´
shirt
ki
large
juo
each
trela`
fix
ro
past
gatti
man
het
the
‘The man fixed each large shirt.’
(10) veei ´
wise
flai
spoke
ro
past
tuy¨
child
het
the
≈ ‘The child spoke wisely.’
(11) *flai
spoke
ro
past
tuy¨
child
het
the
‘The child spoke.’
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