Morfosintaxis

Referentiality → Reference → indication of a concept identity or idea

co-referentiality

The men expected PRO to see them

1 2/3

PRO: Empty category in a sentence, in this example the PRO blocks the referentiality

The men talked to each other

The students talked to the teacher that would examine them

1 2 1/3
that → makes function of subject to block “them” of being 2

Cross-linguistic variation
Because we can not find common things on all the languages we try to find common elements in
two languages, comparing them.

PRO-DROP (Referring to subject that can be dropped) parameters

Poor (English) vs Rich (Spanish) verbal inflection

We have different features and consequences of this pro-drop phenomenon focusing on English vs
Spanish:

1. Some languages can omit the subject

-In English the subject has to be explicit because it does not have a rich verbal inflection

2. This feature refers to → Word order in the sentence (In a neutral context, without topicalisation
etc.) In some languages the subject can be in other position

-In Spanish it is possible to change the subject position

-In English it is not possible because of the SVO structure and also because it has no rich verbal
inflection

3. Whenever we have a conjunction or a complementizer it is followed by a gap

-In English it is not possible to have a conjunction followed by a gap

Quien crees que llamó?

Who do you think has called?

4. Weather verbs, in English they need an expletive subject because of different reasons
-Poor verbal inflection
-In English it has to be an explicit subject

-In Spanish it is not necessary to have a subject → está lloviendo

5. End-weigh principle → Long constituents tend to go at the end because it sounds more natural
“Que Luisa no se marchará está claro” → It is clear that Louisa won't leave → needs an expletive
subject to fill the subject gap
With these principles Generative grammar makes distinctions between two languages.

Core grammar (core = nucleo)

From simplest to complex language

Lexicon
------------- theta-criteria
Deep structure
-------------- alpha-movements (All the movements)
Surface structure

The core of grammar is lexicon (The total inventory of morphemes in a language), from lexicon we
obtain the deep structure with neutral structures (SVO), between lexicon and deep structure it is
the theta-theory in which every argument must be assigned a semantic role, and then we have the
surface structure in which we have the different movements (Alpha-movements including all the
possible movements).

DIFFERENT PHENOMENA IN SENTENCE FORMATION

-Constituency
-Movements
-Binding

1. Constituency
A constituent is an element in a sentence. According to Generative Grammar, a sentence can be split
up in a number of constituents but the elements in a constituent can not be broken nor separated.

For John to have said that is outrageous

Constituents: -Subject
-Attribute
-Verb
-Inflection

1. Up] his mother, John [rang * → It is ungrammatical because it is violating the constituent
principle and Rang up it is separated although it is a single constituent.

2. Up the hill, the dog ran → It is grammatical because “up” it's not part of a phrasal verb in this
case

3. Meet his date at the restaurant, John did → it is grammatical although it is a little bit weird but
“meet” (VP) and “did” (IP) can be separated due to the fact that they are different constituents

Exceptions→ the VP-Paradox

“John rang her up” → In this sentence there is a splitted constituent because with some phrasal
verbs we can insert between both parts a short constituent. And sometime it is even ungrammatical
if you do not insert the object between both parts of the phrasal verb.

2. Movements
Wh-m, I → C etc
3. Binding
Linking of two elements that refer to the same thing (Co-referentiality)

There is a principle (Post posing) that states that long constituents goes at the end of the sentence,
that is why the D.O (D.C) goes after the I.O in this sentence and similar.

He explained to her all the terrible problems he had encountered

1 2 ⅓

-Where did he go? Up the hill ✔ Because “Up” has locative meaning (It is a preposition)
-Who were you ringing up? Up his mother * → It is wrong because we are breaking a constituent
(ring up) and they cannot be separated
-Where are you going to? “To the cinema” or “the cinema” ✔ (Both are correct)

WHERE DO WE PLACE ADVERBS IN A SENTENCE?

→ they can move freely

-Lexical information → they are adjuncts (Not obligatory and placed in different positions)
-Sub-categories: The scope of adverbs is different

→ IP-adverbs or sentence adverbs: Affects the whole sentence or the whole idea (certainly,
indeed)
→ VP-adverbs: Affects only the verb (Always, often, completely, probably etc.) so they tend to be
more close to the verb. FREQUENCY ADVERBS

1. Certainly, the team can rely on my support

Here “certainly” is an epistemic expression which means that it gives an opinion or a judgement (In
some way the speaker is trying to convince)

2. Completely, the team can rely on my support (Completely will be more natural before the verb
because it affects the verb since it is a VP-adverb

VP-adverbs vs sentence adverbs: their scopes are different

Constituents in a sentence: Coordination

Coordinators → and, or, (but)

And and or link two constituents with the same morphological category, the same syntactic
function and the same semantic role

1. I met your mother and father ✔

DP/DO/theme/noun same
2. Is she in the kitchen or in the bathroom? ✔
PP/locative PP/locative
3. John rang up his mother and up his sister * -The constituent is broken (rang up)
-It is not repeated the same morphological category
4. John wrote a letter and to Fred The rules are not fulfilled → different role, syntactic
function
 D.O/DP PP/IO and morphological category
Constituents in the sentence: Pronominalisation (pronouns)

Pronominalisation is a linguistic phenomenon by which you substitute one constituent with another
one, without breaking it.

1.What do you think of the man who wrote that unbelievably boring story on generativism?✔

2. I can’t stand him ✔

3. What do you think of the him who wrote…? * The constituent is broken, “him” substitutes
“man” but not the whole constituent (the man who wrote that unbelievably boring story) ← it is a
single constituent

4. What do you think of him? ✔

Pro-forms (same as pro-nouns)

-Pro-adjectives: these are elements substituting an adjective

She finds John extremely rude but I don't find him so

so: would be a pro-adjective

-Pro-VP: Elements that substitute a verb

“You played football yesterday and so did I” “so” substitutes “play” (the verb) but not the
inflection, that is why we have to put “did” in this example

-Pro-PP: Elements that substitute a prepositional phrase

I was looking for my friend in the garden but I didn't found her there/here

More constituents: Ellipsis: Omitting an element and not replacing it

1. John won't put the whiskey into the drink but his brother will ✔

2. … but his brother will put * Ungrammatical because if we place the verb “put” it needs to have
two complements (D.O) because it is ditransitive (Put something somewhere)

3. … but his brother will put the whiskey * Ungrammatical → Still a complement is missing

4. … but his brother will put the whiskey into * Ungrammatical → missing complement

5. He may come home early but again he may not ✔ The VP is omitted

6. Mary wants to close the shop but I don't want to ✔ The VP and the Direct Object are omitted but
we need to put the infinitival inflection “to”

7. Fetch me an apple if you can ✔ Omission of a VP “Fetch me an apple if you can fetch it”

8. Could you have a look at the car? Ok, I will ✔

Minimal structure for Ellipsis: Verb + Direct object

1. James enjoys the theatre more than Susan enjoys * Ungrammatical because “enjoy” is transitive
so we can not omit the direct object

2. James knows more about theatre than Susan does ✔

“does” is the IP so it does not require a D.O, we can “separate” the verb and the IP because the
relation between the verb and its complement is stronger than the relation with the IP.

3. James know more about theatre than Susan knows ✔ With the verb “know” in this case it is
optional to put the D.O

CLEFTING → Polarity emphasis (one pole being emphasized)

Cleft: Sentences under the process of clefting or separation of the sentence in parts, being one of the
parts emphasized

They have always the same structure: Expletive IT + BE + EMPHASIZED PART + Relative
clause

It was John who sent the letter

be + emph + relative clause

It was last night that John did that

It is dancing what I like

An inflected VP can not be emphasized, in this case dancing is a noun.

Pseudo-cleft: To emphasize the verb we use pseudo-cleft because we can not highlight the verb in
full cleft

What John did was send/sending the letter

Sentence predicates

Predicates can be defined as a constituent in a sentence that describes another constituent within the
same sentence. And any predicate requires a special constituent depending on the lexical nature of
the predicate.

-They combine syntax and semantics

-Express relations between participants
-Help in distinguish complements from adjuncts

Types of predicates

1. Verbs as predicates

Verb typology:
Transitive, ditransitive, intransitive (smile), optionally transitive, weather verbs, auxiliaries, raising
verbs (that require special movements), lexical verbs …….

2. Adjectives as predicates

-1 Andrew is nervous ✔
2- Andrew is nervous of Daniel *
3- Andrew envies Daniel ✔
4- Andrew is envious Daniel * “envious” is a transitive adjective needing a prepositional
complement

5- Andrew envies * It needs a complement

6- Andrew is conscious ✔ (AWAKE)
7- Andrew is conscious of the problem ✔ AWARE

Conscious and expect can be both transitive and intransitive

3. Nouns as predicates

We can compare verbs and nouns in terms of the arguments they need [ARGUMENT: constituent
required by an element]

1 John feared his sister ✔

2 John's fear of his sister was in-comprehensive ✔
3 Andrew will analyse the data ✔ transitive verb and it has a complements
4 Andrew's analysis of the data was bad ✔ → transitive nominal predicate so it needs a preposition

1. A student of physics ✔
2. A boy of physics * It is not semantically compatible
3.A teenager with long hair ✔
4. A student with long hair of physics * The complement must be besides the noun
ADJUNCT
5. He is nervous about the exam

4. Prepositions as predicates

a) In
b) between

a) IN

1. I am [in the classroom] thinking about two examples ✔

-Semantically: locative meaning

-Requires a complement (kind of transitive)→ DP (the classroom) [which is introduced by in]
-Function: PP Adjunct

2. In the early years of war… ✔ same

3. The ball is in between the two of us ✔ same
4. I found the book in the library✔ same
5. Come in ✔ INTRANSITIVE in
6. Are you in yet? ✔ intransitive “yet” is the adjunct

b) Between → what follows between is always a plural constituent (Explicit coordinated (between
you and me) or implicit (between the two of us) it is not grammatically plural but semantically.

1. The ball is exactly in between the two of you

-Transitive (optionally) because we can remove “the two of you” and it have sense
2. I have to choose between two languages
-Transitive → requires a DP
3. There is nothing between you and me

-Requires a complement (DP) (in this case two)

-In this case it is a coordinated constituent linking two DP's

Unit 2: Verbal inflections

In syntax the sentence is a projection of IP.

The principle of Endocentricity: The head and phrase belongs to the same category

The components of IP

a) Overt features (explicit) → you can see them

→ past -ed
→ 3rd person singular -s
→ Verb in -ing from

b) Covert features (implicit) → you can not see them

Verbs conjugated but no visible inflection → ∅

I walk every morning → present

I put the flowers on the table → past (put put put)

+AGR
+TENSE

-AGR
-TENSE

→ They allow to smoke in the room

- -AGR → it does not have subject and it does not agree with THEY
- -TENSE → It is not inflected

I want her to come with me

-AGR → because subjects of verbs have a syntactic case that it is always the same
(NOMINATIVE) but “HER” is accusative (It would be the subject of “to come”) but they are not in
the same case so it does not agree. But semantically “HER” is the subject.

-TENSE → it is tenseless
We can have also [+AGR,-TENSE] and [-AGR,+TENSE]

[+AGR, -TENSE] (It exists in Portuguese)

É ncessário [en] ir ao supermercado hoje
NOM + INF

There are also some authors that agree on the idea of English having -AGR +TENSE, but it is not
clear, it is rare and only supported by an author

STRUCTURAL RELATIONS IN THE SENTENCE

Relations between different constituents in a sentence:

Two types of agreement patterns

Verbal agreement: Related to person and number

Noun agreement: Gender and number [Although in English there is natural gender so this
agreement is more explicit in terms of number]

C-command and Government

definition → the relation between two elements in a sentence (Usually head and complement)

C-command and c-domain → The power that a head exert (ejerce) over its complements

LEXICAL VS AUXILIARY VERBS

Lexical verbs have semantic meaning. Both can have inflections.

There is 4 types of auxiliaries (that we are going to see)

• 1. Modal verbs: features:

-They go with other verbs, specifically, lexical verbs in their bare infinitive (without “to”)
-They are not normally conjugated
-They can be separated into two different types:

1. TRUE MODALS: Can/could, must, shall/should, will/would, may/might. They must be

followed by a bare infinitive

2. MIXED MODALS: They have certain features of modal verbs but also some features of lexical
verbs. They are NOT followed by bare infinitives: dare, need, ought, use to… etc.

• 2. Perfective have - Past perfect and present perfect

- HAVE + (followed by) PAST PARTICIPLE

differences between TO HAVE (Lexical) and Perfective have

We can notice the difference in the negative form:

-LEXICAL: I don't have to eat

-AUXILIARY: I haven't eaten

• 3. Progressive BE -It is followed by an -ING form

I am going ….
You are eating while….

• 4. Passive BE: Followed by a verb in past participle: BE + P. Participle

–Analysis

AuxP → -ModP
-ProgP
-PerfP
-PassP

Random: PP is adjunct but it goes on the right BUT it has recurssion

Explanation: You have to say the type of auxiliary and what has to follow it

IMPORTANT: The first auxiliary appearing in the sentence can be placed in IP because it is
inflected, and it is the only one that is inflected.

MUST → always [+present]

-When there is an auxiliary in the sentence it moves to the inflection

THE BOY HAS REJECTED THE PROPOSAL

IP
/
I' ----------------- PerfP
/ t2
I
[+pres]
have (2)

When there is no auxiliary, the inflection moves to the verb position

THE BOY REJECTED THE GIRL

IP
/
I' ----------------- VP
/ V'
I V
T2 reject
[+past](2)
-ed
MODAL VERBS

1. true modals are followed by bare infinitives

2. No 3rd p. -s
3. No ing form
4. No past participle
5- They are never preceded by the preposition “to”

TO CAN → wrong

TYPES OF MODALS:

1) Deontic modals: When we use it, the speaker gets involved in the action by giving permission,
making suggestions, giving advises or making prohibitions

You can't do this

You should do that

2) Epistemic modals: They refer to the speaker, coming to a conclusion, making inference,
deductions
→ It must be late

3) Dynamic modals: Neither deontic nor epistemic, they have sense of permission or ability but
that doesn't come from the speaker

He can dance → deontic, he have the permission to dance

He can dance → dynamic, he has the ability to dance

AUXILIAR “DO” (Dummy do) [Expletive or pleonastic DO]

Examples → I do like your dress, Yes I do

Dummy do → meaning: from a semantic point of view it is something false because it has no
meaning by itself

Features → It is always followed by a bare infinitive, it does not co-occur (happen together) with
other auxiliaries, it does not have lexical meaning at all.

From the point of view of syntax “dummy do” is a place-holder, it means that it is placed in the
sentence so we have to include it in the tree diagram.

Declarative sentences (statements) → When do we use “dummy do” in these sentences?

→ ONLY for emphatic purposes, so we write it in CAPITAL letters because it is stressed (for
emphasis) → We DO like your dress

Origin: For an emphasis in the action we always stress the auxiliary but when we have no auxiliary
we have to use the dummy do

He hás eaten shellfish

He DID eat shellfish

In tree diagram: Two options

-AuxP or EmpP (Emphatic phrase) IP ….do(2)--- EmpP t2 –-VP or

-Below the inflection [In this case we don't have movements] IP--- I'-- I does – VP
We have to distinguish between lexical phrases that are heavier in meaning (NP, VP, DP, AdvP) and
functional phrases (IP, CP, EmpP, NegP)

NegP → it is a functional category and when we have a negation it affects the inflection and
modifies (IP) it and that is why it has to be closer to the IP: Ip…. --- NegP (Even before an
auxiliary).

MOVEMENTS

There are three principles supporting the idea of movements

1. Movements, whenever the are possible they are leftwards (or upwards) [When it is a lexical
movement ((inflection to VP)) this principle is violated but it is an exception

2. Every movement leave a trace

3. Head movement constrait if there is something blocking, the movement can not occur

Movements between Inflection and verb → - Lexical (from IP → VP)

-Auxiliary (from Aux → IP)

Test for declarative sentence (to justify the movements)

It has to do with the role of frequency adverbs (Always, often, hardly ever, usually) (Frequency
adverbs are placed where the negation was supposed to be)

1. John has always cooked the dinner

2. John always cooked the dinner

Be as a “lexical verb”

When “be” is the only verb in the sentence it is a hybrid verb, a mixture of auxiliary and lexical

The tall boy is orderly

IP
I'------------ VP
I V'---------------- SC
[+p] V SpecDP AP
be(2) t2 t1 A'
A
orderly

SC: Small clause, it is in the complement place. It occurs when be is the main verb and SC equalize
two things (A=B, the tall boy=orderly). And the verb moves to the inflection (as it is was an
auxiliary verb)

Small clause only takes place when the verb ‘be’ is the main verb and is accompanied by an
adjective phrase. It moves to the inflection.

AUXILIARY AND MAIN VERB: HAVE

As a main verb: It has two different semantic meanings

1. I have a brother → Possessive have

2. I have breakfast → Dynamic have (For actions in general)

Syntactic behaviour
Possessive → Can behave as main and auxiliary verb and we have two proofs, in interrogatives and
with frequency adverbs

Dynamic → Can only behave as main verb

PROOF 1: Interrogative

Possessive:

1. Do you have a brother? → Main verb

2. Have you got a brother? → Auxiliary

Dynamic:

1. Do you have breakfast? → Main

2. NOT POSSIBLE → X

PROOF 2: With frequency adverbs

Possessive
-I have money → I always have money [less frequent → I have always money (But in this case,
'have' is an auxiliary but 'got' is omitted)]

Dynamic

-I have breakfast → I always have breakfast

HAVE GOT (always possessive)

It is disappearing in global terms because of a linguistic clash between syntax and semantics:

There is a clash in terms of Tense(syntax) and time (semantics), the tense is present perfective and
according to this tense, the action should be finished BUT in semantics 'have got''s time is not
finished.

-So 'have got' and 'have' are equal, because 'have got' is NOT for emphasis, it is only more British
and

-The past of 'have got' is HAD, 'had got' is INCORRECT

Another clash → You could go with him tomorrow

Syntactic → past tense
Semantic → future time

Example of Analysis:
John has sent their daughter to Leeds

Explanation:
-Perf have bc have+ participle
-Traces: IP, SUBJ, explain movements
-tense/time clash
-recursion of V' because PP is adjunct

Declarative Negative sentences

There are two types of negation, one of them negates the inflection (IP) and goes closer to the IP (I
am not eating this) and negates the whole sentence. The second type negates a constituent (Not a
sandwich I am eating) We will see it later. Differences in scope.

1. Sentence negation, negates the whole sentence (IP) there are two possibilities of sentence
negation:

-Weak form: The negation contracted with the inflenction/auxiliary and

You mustn’t leave

IP
I’-------------------------NegP --------- ModP
I
[+pres] t2
must (1)
n’t (2)

-Strong form: with no contractions and it is a separate constituent on its own

IP
I’---------------- NegP
I “
[+pres] not
have (2)

This position only happens in sentential negation, because it affects inflection and the whole
sentence so it has to be close to the IP. It is a functional phrase and not a lexical phrase.

Modals and negation

Modals are heavier in semantic meaning so their relation with negation is special because modals
are full of semantic meaning and when we combine them sometimes it is ambiguous.

1. You cannot leave → prohibition → Scope: IP → Sentential negation

2. You can not leave (Puedes no irte) → posibility, suggestion → Scope: VP → constituent negation

There is also a different intonation for emphasis.

Necessity (or lack of it) modals VS Possibility/Ability modals

You mustn’t leave You can not leave
You needn’t leave

In possibility modals, in negation we have ambiguity whereas in the necessity modals there is no
ambiguity in negation because necessity modals refer to the VP (lexical verb).
There is a theoretical principle which is very semantic that states that if we combine necessity
modals and negation, the negation is going to affect the lexical verb and not the modal.

If we think about the meaning of necessity modals, what the subject does not need to do is ‘leave’,
‘not’ affects the meaning of the lexical verb because the scope of negation is stronger in the lexical
verb.

Inference/Deduction/Conclusion (not ambiguous)

He could be that age / He couldn’t be that age

He may be that age / He may not be that age

There is no ambiguity because the scope of negation is simpler, and it is again affecting the lexical
verb.

TRUE MODALS VS MIXED MODALS

Mixed modals → Features of modals and lexical verbs

1. Ought to
2. Dare
3.Need
4. Used to

1. Ought to → It is not followed by a bare infinitive, it is not normally conjugated, it behaves

different regardin the inflection → neg → oughtn’t to

2. Dare
-As modal → I dare not to take English lessons / Dare you say that again.
-As lexical verb → Don’t you dare to park here again

-’to’ can be omitted

3. Need

-As modal→ You needn’t go to class

-Not followed by ‘to’
-Don’t uses ‘don’t’ in negative form
-It is not normally inflected → not -s in 3rd person

-Lexical → I need to go to the hospital

-Inflected (normally conjugated)

4. Used to → I am used to reading

-followed by to
- It is always +past → because it is about a habit in the past
Negation of used to → two possible negations
-I didn’t use to (or)
-I used not to or I usen’t

NEGATIVE: CONSTITUENT NEGATION

It is the negation of one of the elements in a sentence except the IP (which only appears in sentential
negation), but it can negate the VP, not meaning it is the IP. We are going to focus on different
types.

A) Constituent negation with polarity emphasis

-He bought not a book but a magazine

→ Negation of a complement: In this example we have polarity emphasis → negating a constituent

to introduce a new one (But a magazine). We can actually have polarity emphasis with any
constituent. The order can be changed. (It was me not you but …., He travelled not by car but by
bus).

B) Mixed negation / Mixture of negation

He wanted not to leave / He obliged her not to leave

It is similar to sentential negation but it is not exactly the same because it is not negating the main
verb but a non-finite verb. They have sometimes equivalents in sentential negation. For example:

-He wanted not to leave = He didn’t want to leave

He obliged her not to leave //// (not exactly the same) He didn’t obliged her to leave

C) Negation of adjective phrases

Is the constituent negation of an Adjective Phrase. “A not attractive man” “A not so expensive
meal”. We usually have quantifiers (so,very…) after the negation.

D) Short answers

“Not me”, “Not by train”, “Not really”

E) Negated Constituent preposing, It consists on the negation at the beginning, so it provokes

inversion. Although there is no inversion if the subject is negated because it is still SVO (Not Mary
bought the car) NO INVERSION.

-Not a book has John edited → Partial inversion

-Not a book did he buy in the shop → Partial inversion
-Not often was she like that → Full inversion

Two types of inversion:

-Partial → With an auxiliary, if we have inversion, the subject is placed between the auxiliary and
the verb “has John edited” “Did he buy”

-Full → With no auxiliary, so the inversion is VS followed by object “Was she like that”

NEGATED CONSTITUENT PREPOSING WITHOUT INVERSION → Negating subjects

Not only Mary came to my party
Not me but you passed the examples

SYNTACTIC ANALYSIS

-It has I to C movement → whatever is in I moves to CP

-Better separate surface structure from deep structures

TREES PAG 44 (y sueltas)

Differences between NEGATIVE CONSTITUENT PREPOSING vs TOPICALISATION

NCP → has a negative particle always, it is obligatory, inversion

TOP → negation is optional, no inversion

Two ‘nots’ (NegP) in the same sentences

The first thing we have to notice is the scope of negation if it is constituent negation or sentential
negation.

→ You can’t not leave (can’t → Sentential) (not leave → constituent)

→ He hasn’t willingly not complained (Constituent both)
→ He hasn’t complained willingly (constituent)
→ Willingly, He hasn’t complained (Sentential)
→ I am not eating quickly

There is a rule in English wherever we have an adverb of manner (Which reflect an attitude of the
verb) to the RIGHT of a ‘not’ the adverb is under its scope (Under the scope of not).