Syntactic Transformations

Transcription

1 Syntactic Transformations I. Summary of what we ve done so far A. All full sentences are CP s with IP s as complements of the CP B. All N, V, A, P, I, and C must follow X-bar structure: C. Exceptions to X structure: Exception 1: Modifiers. Modifiers are optional AP s or PP s. These attach at the phrase level, on either side of X. You can have as many s as you want.

2 Exception 2: Ditransitive verbs. We will never have more than one complement, except for some verbs (for this class, put, give, and place ) which require two complements. Example: put requires an NP and a PP She put the papers on the table. *She put the papers. *She put on the table. comp 2 II. Three transformations we can apply So far we have only dealt with diagramming simple statements. However, the part of our mental grammar that deals with sentence structure also allows us to transform existing sentences. This includes inserting words, and moving words or phrases around to other places in the sentence. For example, if we were to make the sentence The beagle should eat the cockroach into a yesor-no question, we would move the word should up to the front of the sentence, giving us Should the beagle eat the cockroach? This movement is called a transformation. The stage before any transformations have occurred is called the deep structure. The stage after transformations have occurred is called the surface structure. (The difference between deep structure and surface structure is very similar to the two levels we saw in phonology: the phonemic level (what people think), and the phonetic level (what people actually say). Likewise, we think in terms of deep structure, but will actually say the surface structure.) It s important for us to be very specific when defining exactly what types of movements we will allow. So far everything (with two exceptions) has followed X-bar structure. We don t want to lose the theoretical elegance of X-bar structure by allowing anything to move anywhere! Therefore, we are only going to have three types of transformations, all of which are welldefined:

3 A. DO-insertion transformation (also called DO-support ): Insert DO at empty I (An empty I is simply a +PST or PST feature, as opposed to I-heads like should or would ) DO-insertion is optional unless you need to move the I-head. B. Inversion transformation: I C movement: Move whatever is on the I-head onto the C-head (If I is empty, first apply DO-insertion rule) C. Wh-movement transformation: wh-phrase spec CP: Move the phrase level associated with a wh-word (who, where, what, when, how, why) up to the specifier of the CP III. Practice with DO-insertion PROBLEM 1: This problem will have you apply DO-insertion, giving you the deep structure and the surface structure of the sentence Lena did eat her dinner. a. Draw the tree structure for the sentence Lena ate her dinner. (Recall that all of our sentences are CPs with IP complements.) So far, there is nothing new here we are still adhering to X-bar structure. This will be the deep structure for the sentence Lena did eat her dinner. b. Now for the surface structure. Make a copy of the structure drawn in (a). c. In a different-colored pen or pencil, apply DO-insertion to this copied structure. That is, cross out the +PST feature, and put in the past-tense version of DO (i.e. did ). This give you the surface structure for the sentence Lena did eat her dinner. IV. How to form questions To practice the other two transformations, Inversion and Wh-movement, we first need to discuss the steps in making yes/no questions and wh-questions. A. Yes/no questions Yes/no questions are questions that ask for a simple yes or no answer. For example, Should the beagle eat the cockroach? asks for a simple yes or no. To form yes/no questions, we will always follow the same two steps: 1. Write +Q on the C-head This shows that this tree structure is a question, and not a statement. 2. Inversion Inversion moves whatever is in the I-head to the C-head If the I-head is empty (if it is only filled with PST or +PST), then you will need to apply do-insertion before applying Inversion

4 PROBLEM 2: This problem will have you draw the deep structure and the surface structure of the yes/no question Should the beagle eat the cockroach? a. First, we need to determine what the word order is for the deep structure of this question. To do this, answer the question with a full sentence. This gives you The beagle should eat the cockroach. b. Draw the tree structure for the sentence The beagle should eat the cockroach. This will be the deep structure for the question Should the beagle eat the cockroach? i. This is the deep structure for a QUESTION, so make sure you write +Q on the C-head. c. For the surface structure, make a copy of the structure drawn in (b). d. In a different-colored pen or pencil, go through the two steps required for making yes/no questions on this copied structure. That is, (1) make sure +Q is written on the C-head, and (2) apply the Inversion transformation. To apply Inversion: i. Cross out whatever is on the I-head (in this case, should ). Put a small script t here. t stands for trace and simply shows that there used to be something occupying this position in the sentence. ii. Draw an arrow from I to C, and write in I and should under C. This shows you that whatever was in I has now been moved to C. This give you the surface structure for the question Should the beagle eat the cockroach?

5 PROBLEM 3: This problem will have you draw the deep structure and the surface structure of the yes/no question Did the calico eat the spider? a. First, we need to determine what the word order is for the deep structure of this question. To do this, answer the question with a full sentence. This gives you The calico ate the spider. b. Draw the tree structure for the sentence The calico ate the spider. This will be the deep structure for the question Did the calico eat the spider? i. This is the deep structure for a QUESTION, so make sure you write +Q on the C-head. c. For the surface structure, make a copy of the structure drawn in (b). d. In a different-colored pen or pencil, go through the two steps required for making yes/no questions on this copied structure. That is, (1) make sure +Q is written on the C-head, and (2) apply the Inversion transformation. In this situation, there is no word that we can move, since the I-head is a +PST feature. Therefore, first we need to apply DO-insertion: i. Cross out the +PST feature in the previous sentence, and put in the pasttense version of DO (ie. did ) NOW apply Inversion: ii. Cross out whatever is on the I-head (in this case, did ). Put a small script t here. iii. Draw an arrow from I to C, and write in I and did under C. This shows you that whatever was in I has now been moved to C. This gives you the surface structure for the question Did the calico eat the spider? B. Wh-questions Wh-questions are questions that use a wh-word, like who, what, when, why, where, or how. For example, What will Jen bake? is a wh-question. To form wh-questions, we will always follow the same three steps: 1. Write +Q on the C-head This shows that this tree structure is a question, and not a statement. 2. Inversion Inversion moves whatever is in the I-head to the C-head If the I-head is empty (if it is only filled with PST or +PST), then you will need to apply do-insertion before applying Inversion 3. Wh-movement Wh-movement moves the phrase containing the wh-word to the specifier of the CP

6 PROBLEM 4: This problem will have you draw the deep structure and the surface structure of the wh-question What will Jen bake? a. First, we need to determine what the word order is for the deep structure of this question. To do this, answer the question with a full sentence. This gives you Jen will bake (cookies), which you can then change to Jen will bake what b. Draw the tree structure for the sentence Jen will bake what. This will be the deep structure for the question What will Jen bake? i. This is the deep structure for a QUESTION, so make sure you write +Q on the C-head. c. For the surface structure, make a copy of the structure drawn in (b). That is, (1) make sure +Q is written on the C-head, (2) apply the Inversion transformation, and (3) apply the Wh-movement transformation. d. To apply Inversion: i. Cross out whatever is on the I-head (in this case, will ). Put a small script t here to indicate the trace. ii. Draw an arrow from I to C, and write in I and will under C. e. To apply Wh-movement: i. Cross out whatever is under the wh-phrase (in this case, what ). Put a small script t here to indicate the trace. ii. Draw an arrow from the wh-phrase (in this case, from the NP over what ) to the specifier of the CP position. Under the specifier of the CP, write NP and what. This shows you that whatever was in the wh-phrase has now been moved to the specifier of the CP. This gives you the surface structure for the question What will Jen bake?

7 V. Example of the deep structure and the surface structure of What did Amy steal?