Syntax - Sentences Have Structure, and are Made Up of Constituents.

Previously, … Syntax I Previously, … • We looked at NP, VP, PP, AdvP, and AdjP. – – – – – NP: (D) (AdjP+) N (PP+) PP: P (NP) VP: (AdvP+) V (NP) (PP+) (AdvP+) AdjP: (AdvP) Adj AdvP: (AdvP) Adv • Sentences have structure, and are made up of constituents. • The constituents are phrases. • A phrase consists of a head and modifiers. • The categorial type of the head determines the categorial type of the phrase (e.g., a phrase headed by a noun is a noun phrase). • There are several categories, we looked at some of them and determined phrase structure rules or templates for what each kind of phrase can contain. Trees and constituency • A sentence has a hierarchical structure • Constituents can have constituents of their own. • The simplest way to draw this is with a tree. PP P on Trees • The tree diagram is the most important analytical notation we will work with, and we will use a lot of trees through the semester, so it is important to be able to understand and draw trees. NP D N the table Drawing trees • Suppose the task is to draw the tree structure of a simple sentence. – The student put the book on the table. 1 Step 1: Identify categories Step 2: Locate modification The first step is to identify the category of each of the words in the sentence. The second step is to figure out the modification relations between words. What modifies what? Here, we have several thes and each modifies the noun to its right. D The N student V D N P D put the book on the N table D The N student Step 3: Apply rules D N student V D N P D put the book on the D N P D the book on the N table Step 3: Apply rules The third step is to apply our rules, remembering the Golden Rule of Modifiers: Modifiers are always attached within the phrase they modify. So we look at the things being modified, and consult the rule for things of that category. The V put N table We have several N’s being modified. So we consult our rule about NPs: – NP: (D) (AdjP+) N (PP+) Starting at the right edge, we see that the table can form an NP. D The N student Step 3: Apply rules V D N P D put the book on the N table Step 3: Apply rules So, we draw an NP above the table. Now, consider on. It is a P, and there is only one kind of phrase which can contain a P: Sure, we can draw in a PP for on the table. Next, look at book. It is an N and the only rule we have that contains an N is NP: – PP: P NP – NP: (D) (AdjP+) N (PP+) Can we build a PP with what we have? Can we build an NP? PP NP D The N student V D N P D put the book on the NP N table D The N student V D N P D put the book on the N table 2 Step 3: Apply rules Step 3: Apply rules Here, we have two choices. – NP: (D) (AdjP+) N (PP+) An NP may but need not contain a PP. We have D N PP at our disposal. We could put them all in an NP, or we could leave the PP out of the NP. PP Only one choice is the right choice. How do we know which one it is? Answer: The Golden Rule of Modifiers. NP ? PP NP D The N student V D N P D put the book on the NP N table D The N student Step 3: Apply rules ? D N P D the book on the Compare this sentence to The student saw the book on the table What is the difference them with respect to on the table? NP PP ? PP NP D The N student V D N P D put the book on the N table Step 3: Apply rules In The student put the book on the table, does on the table modify book? If so, it needs to be in the NP headed by book. NP V put NP N table D The N student V D N P D put the book on the N table Step 3: Apply rules Step 3: Apply rules On the table in our sentence modifies put (it specifies the goal location of the putting); it does not modify book, and so it should not be included in the same NP as book (it should be in the same phrase as put). Only one of our phrase structure rules has a V, the VP rule, so we can build a VP. PP NP D The N student – VP: (AdvP+) V (NP) (PP+) (AdvP+) We just determined that on the table modifies the verb, so the VP must contain the NP and the PP following the V. PP NP NP V D N P D put the book on the N table D The N student NP V D N P D put the book on the N table 3 Step 3: Apply rules Step 3: Apply rules The last step we can do with the rules we have so far is to build the NP over the student. Using the idea that the sentence has an NP and a VP (which we will soon add to our rules), we can complete the tree. VP VP NP PP NP D The N student PP NP NP V D N P D put the book on the N table D N The student NP V D N P D put the book on the N table Step 3: Apply rules The S node And that’s our tree for The student put the book on the table. • At the end of our tree, we had to posit a rule which we hadn’t yet formalized: – S: NP VP S • This is a good first approximation, but there are a couple of problems with this formulation VP NP PP NP D The N student NP V D N P D put the book on the N table The S node • The first problem is that it is not complete as it stands. Consider: – The students will eat the sandwiches. • We have an NP the students, which is the subject of the sentence. • We have an NP the sandwiches and a VP eat the sandwiches. • But what is will? The S node • There are a number of things which can go in this position. One group of these are called modals: – – – – – Pat could leave. Pat should leave. Pat might leave. Pat will leave. Pat would leave. • Modals appear between the subject NP (Pat) and the VP (leave). So, we need to allow for this in our S rule. 4 The S node • S: NP (Modal) VP • We also need to allow for the not in negative sentences like: – Pat might not leave. – Pat should not leave. • So, we now have – S: NP (Modal) (Neg) VP Do-support – Pat left. – Pat did not leave. – *Pat not left. • When you negate a sentence like this in English, you need to use do. • Do looks like it is in the same place that modals are. • When you use do like this, do gets marked for tense, not the verb. Do-support • In fact, when you have something in the “Modal” slot, the verb never shows past tense marking. – – – – Pat left. Pat will (not) leave. Pat did not leave. Pat should not leave. • Hypothesis: The “modal” slot is where the tense marking (past, present, future) goes. The tense affix • If you look at verbs, many of them can be distinguished in the present and the past tense by the presence of -ed at the end. – Walk vs. walked (walk+ed) – Wait vs. waited (wait+ed) – Sleep vs. slept (sleep+ed) • The idea is that the past tense of the verb is made of the verb stem plus something else, the past tense suffix. Do-support • For this reason, we will call the “modal” slot “T” (for “tense”). – S: NP (T) (Neg) VP • Now, consider Pat left. The verb is marked with past tense, but we wanted to make T be where the tense information goes. • The common view is that T holds something that is smaller than a word, a tense affix. The tense affix • If we suppose that the past tense affix -ed is of category T, we could write Pat left this way: – Pat -ed leave • Part of being a verbal affix (in this case a verbal suffix) is that it is required to be attached to a verb. • So -ed must “hop” onto leave (because verbal affixes need to be attached to verbs), yielding left. 5 The tense affix Do-support • Now, since every sentence needs tense, we can suppose that the T in our S rule isn’t optional—there is always a T there, but it can be an affix which will hop onto the verb and be pronounced as one word with the verb. • S: NP T (Neg) VP • This also gives us an explanation for why when you negate a sentence you need to use do: Do-support The S node • The idea is that we insert the “dummy verb” do as a “last resort” if the sentence has a “stranded affix” that can’t hop onto an adjacent verb. This is called do-support. – Pat did not leave. • The past tense affix needs to be attached to a verb, but it can’t because not is in the way. • The way out is to insert a “dummy verb”, a verb that has no semantic content, that -ed can attach to. • So given “affix hopping” and do-support, we can write our S rule with three required elements: – S: NP T (Neg) VP • There is something else which is unusual about the S rule in comparison to our other rules. The S node • Compare S: NP T (Neg) VP to – NP: (D) (AdjP+) N (PP+) – PP: P (NP) – VP: (AdvP+) V (NP) (PP+) (AdvP+) • Our other rules make phrases that are the same category as their head. • What is the head of S? The TP node • An obvious choice, now that T is a required part of S, is to assume that T is the head of S. • Given this, we will rename our S node to “TP” to be more in line with our other phrases. • TP: NP T (Neg) VP • That is, the tense morpheme -ed or a modal like might is actually the head of the sentence. 6 Embedded clauses • There is just one more kind of phrase we should add to our set of structure rules. • It is possible to embed one sentence inside another, like this: Embedded clauses – Pat said that the students ate the sandwiches. • We know that the students ate the sandwiches is a TP, so let’s abbreviate this: – Pat said that TP. • The whole thing is a sentence, but it has our familiar sentences as part of it. • When you embed a sentence, you generally need a word like that, called a complementizer. We will assign it to category C. The CP The CP – Pat said that the students ate the sandwiches. – Pat said that TP. • We can write a rule for CP like this, where that (C) is the head, and TP is an obligatory “modifier.” – CP: C TP • In fact, a CP can not only be the object of a verb, but it can also be the subject of a verb: – That Pat left surprised me. – The dog surprised me. • So, we need to allow for this in our TP rule: • And we need to modify our VP rule to allow CP to be the object of a verb (like say): – TP: {NP/CP} T (Neg) VP – VP: (AdvP+) V ({NP/CP}) (PP+) (AdvP+) Our phrase structure rules • We now have a fairly complete set of rules. – – – – – – – NP: (D) (AdjP+) N (PP+) PP: P (NP) VP: (AdvP+) V ({NP/CP}) (PP+) (AdvP+) AdjP: (AdvP) Adj AdvP: (AdvP) Adv TP: {NP/CP} T (Neg) VP CP: C TP Recursion • An important property of the rules we have is that they are recursive. Inside a CP, you can have a CP. Inside an AdvP you can have an AdvP. This means that there in principle an infinite number of possible sentence structures. – – – – – John left. Mary said that John left. Bill thinks that Mary said that John left. I heard that Bill thinks that Mary said that John left. Pat said that I heard that Bill thinks that Mary said that John left. 7 Back to the trees Step 1:Identify categories • We now have the tools to draw trees for a lot of English sentences. Let’s do another one—it will be very important to be comfortable with converting sentences into trees. • Our sentence will be: • First, identify the categories. – John said that the dog barked very loudly. John Step 2: Locate modification said that the dog barked very loudly. Step 2: Locate modification • First, identify the categories. • Then, figure out what modifies what. • The modifies dog. • Very modifies loudly. • Very loudly modifies barked. • Now, we start to apply our rules. N John V said C that D the N dog V barked Adv very Adv loudly. N John Step 3: Apply rules V said C that D the N dog V barked Adv very Adv loudly. Step 3: Apply rules • Very modifies loudly, so very must be inside the phrase headed by loudly, an AdvP. Our rule is: • Now, we can apply our rule to make the AdvP very loudly. – AdvP: (AdvP) Adv. – AdvP: (AdvP) Adv. • Notice: The AdvP headed by loudly can optionally take an AdvP—not an Adv. So, first we need to make very an AdvP. AdvP N John V said C that D the N dog V barked Adv very Adv loudly. N John V said C that D the N dog V barked Adv very Adv loudly. 8 Step 3: Apply rules Step 3: Apply rules • Next, we have the V. Our rule is • Moving on to dog, it is modified by the, together constituting the subject NP of the embedded sentence. Our rule allows us to build an NP here. – VP: (AdvP+) V (NP/CP) (PP+) (AdvP+) • So we can build a VP containing the verb and the AdvP very loudly. – NP: (D) (AdjP+) N (PP+) VP AdvP AdvP AdvP N John V said C that D the N dog V barked Adv very AdvP Adv loudly. N John Step 3: Apply rules V said C that D the N dog V barked Adv very Step 3: Apply rules • Now we want to complete the embedded sentence. Our rule is: – TP: {NP/CP} T (Neg) VP. • We can’t build that with what we have right now. VP • Remember that barked, the past tense of bark, comes from a past tense morpheme (-ed) and the verb stem (bark). • So, the word barked is really structurally -ed barked. We need to add this to the tree. VP • Same for said (say + -ed) AdvP NP N John V said C that D the N dog AdvP NP AdvP V barked Adv loudly. Adv very Adv loudly. N John Step 3: Apply rules V said C that D the AdvP N dog V barked Adv very Adv loudly. Step 3: Apply rules • Now, we can apply our TP rule to do the embedded clause. • And then we can use the CP to build the phrase headed by that. – TP: {NP/CP} T (Neg) VP. – CP: C TP TP VP VP AdvP NP T N John -ed V say C that D the T N dog -ed AdvP NP AdvP V bark Adv very Adv loudly. T N John -ed V say C that D the T N dog -ed AdvP V bark Adv very Adv loudly. 9 Step 3: Apply rules Step 3: Apply rules • Next, the VP rule to combine say and the CP. – VP: (AdvP+) V ({NP/CP}) (PP+) (AdvP+) • And then the TP rule: TP: {NP/CP} T (Neg) VP. • This needs an NP, so we need to build that first. VP CP CP TP TP VP VP AdvP N T John -ed V say C that D the AdvP AdvP NP N T dog -ed V bark Adv very Adv loudly. N T John -ed V say Step 3: Apply rules C that D the N T dog -ed V bark Adv very TP • And we’re done. – TP: {NP/CP} T (Neg) VP. VP CP CP TP TP VP VP AdvP NP AdvP NP N T John -ed V say C that D the N T dog -ed V bark Adv very AdvP NP Adv loudly. NP: (D) (AdjP+) N (PP+) PP: P (NP) VP: (AdvP+) V ({NP/CP}) (PP+) (AdvP+) AdjP: (AdvP) Adj AdvP: (AdvP) Adv TP: {NP/CP} T (Neg) VP CP: C TP AdvP NP N T John -ed One to try… – – – – – – – Adv loudly. Step 3: Apply rules • Now we can use the TP rule: VP AdvP NP V say C that D the N T dog -ed V bark Adv very The young consumers… • Is this what you ended up with? TP VP NP PP NP AdjP • The young consumers walked to the new store. Adv loudly. D The Adj young AdjP N consumers T -ed V walk P to D the Adj new N store 10 Trees • We will be working with trees a lot, and the geometry of trees will be quite important. We need some terminology to talk about the parts of trees. Trees A B C D E F Trees • Nodes with no branches beneath them are called terminal nodes. • B, D, E, F are terminal nodes. A B C D E F • Nodes with branches beneath them are called nonterminal nodes. • A, C are nonterminal nodes. Tree relations A B D C D E C E F F Tree relations A B C D E F • A node X immediately dominates a node Y if X dominates Y and is connected by only one branch. • A immediately dominates B and C. • A is also sometimes called the mother of B and C. • The “joints” of the tree are nodes. The nodes here are labeled (with node labels). • Nodes are connected by branches. • The node at the top of the tree (with no branches above it) is called the root node. A is the root node. • A node X dominates nodes below it on the tree; these are the nodes which would be pulled along if you grabbed the node X and pulled it off of the page. • C dominates D, E, and F. Tree relations A B C D E F • A node which shares the same mother as a node X is sometimes called the sister of X. • B is the sister of C. • C is the sister of B. • D, E are the sisters of F. 11 Tree relations A B C D E F Tree relations • A node X c-commands its sisters and the nodes dominated by its sisters. • B c-commands C, D, E, and F. • D c-commands E and F. • C c-commands B. • What does PP dominate? • P, NP, D, AdjP, Adj, N. TP VP NP PP NP C-command is very important to understand! AdjP D The Adj young Tree relations AdjP N consumers T -ed V walk P to D the • What is/are the sister(s) of the N store? • D, AdjP. TP TP VP VP NP NP PP PP NP AdjP Adj young NP AdjP AdjP N consumers T -ed V walk P to D the Adj new N store D The Adj young Tree relations AdjP N consumers T -ed V walk P to D the N store • What does VP c-command? • NP, D, AdjP, Adj, N, T. TP TP VP VP NP NP PP PP NP AdjP Adj young Adj new Tree relations • What does P c-command? • NP, D, AdjP, Adj, N. D The N store Tree relations • What is/are the sister(s) of V? • PP. D The Adj new NP AdjP AdjP N consumers T -ed V walk P to D the Adj new N store D The Adj young AdjP N consumers T -ed V walk P to D the Adj new N store 12 Grammatical relations Grammatical relations • What is the subject of this sentence? • The NP The young consumers. • Notice that this is the daughter of TP. • In fact, the subject is in general, the NP which is the daughter of TP. • Subject = NP daughter of TP TP TP VP VP NP NP PP PP NP AdjP D The Adj young NP AdjP AdjP N consumers T -ed V walk P to D the Adj new N store D The Adj young AdjP N consumers T -ed V walk P to D the Adj new N store Grammatical relations Grammatical relations • Similarly the (direct) object is generally the NP which is the daughter of VP • Direct object = NP daughter of VP. • And the object of a preposition is the NP which is the daughter of PP. • Object of a preposition = NP daughter of PP. TP TP VP VP NP NP PP PP NP AdjP D The Adj young NP AdjP AdjP N consumers T -ed V walk P to D the Adj new N store Precedence D The Adj young AdjP N consumers T -ed V walk P to D the Adj new N store Precedence • The tree also encodes the linear order of the terminal nodes. • The is pronounced before students. • Saw is pronounced before the and students. • That is, V is pronounced before NP, meaning V is pronounced before all of the terminal nodes dominated by NP. VP V saw VP NP D the N students V saw NP D the N students 13 Precedence No line crossing • Even if the tree is drawn sloppily, nothing changes—(everything dominated by) V is pronounced before (everything dominated by) NP. This is still “saw the students”. VP V saw NP D the N students • One of the implications of this is that you cannot draw a well-formed tree with lines that cross. • Adv can’t be pronounced before V because Adv is AdvP part of NP and V has to be pronounced before all Adv of NP. Back to c-command A B C D E • To reiterate, c-command is a very important concept of tree geometry. It’s not fundamentally complicated, but it turns out to be very useful in characterizing natural language F syntax. • A node X c-commands its sisters and the nodes dominated by its sisters. Negative Polarity Items • These are called negative polarity items. • They include ever, yet, anyone, anything, any N, as well as some idiomatic ones like lift a finger and a red cent. – – – – Pat didn’t lift a finger to help. Pat didn’t have a red cent. *Pat lifted a finger to help. *Pat had a red cent. VP NP AdjP V Adj N Negative Polarity Items • Certain words in English seem to only be available in “negative” contexts. – – – – – – – – Pat didn’t invite anyone to the party. Pat does not know anything about syntax. Pat hasn’t ever been to London. Pat hasn’t seen Forrest Gump yet. *Pat invited anyone to the party. *Pat knows anything about syntax. *Pat has ever been to London. *Pat has seen Forrest Gump yet. Any • Just to introduce a complication right away, there is a positive-polarity version of any that has a different meaning, known as the “free choice any” meaning. This meaning is distinguishable (intuitively) from the NPI any meaning, and we are concentrating only on the NPI any meaning—for now, we will just consider any to be ambiguous, like bank. – John read anything the professor gave him. – Anyone who can understand syntax is a genius. – Pick any card. 14 Negative Polarity Items Negative Polarity Items • We say that NPI’s are licensed by negation in a sentence. They are allowed to appear by virtue of having a “license” to appear, namely negation. • Just like you need a driver’s license to drive a car (legally), you need negation to use a NPI (grammatically). • But it isn’t quite as simple as that. Consider: Negative Polarity Items Negative Polarity Items • As a first pass, we might say that negation has to precede the NPI. – I didn’t see anyone. – *Anyone didn’t see me. – – – – • It seems that simply having negation in the sentence isn’t by itself enough to license the use of an NPI. • In fact, what’s required is that negation ccommand the NPI. – *[That John didn’t stay] surprised anyone. – [That John didn’t stay] didn’t surprise anyone. • But that’s not quite it either. – *[That John didn’t stay] surprised anyone. – [That John didn’t stay] didn’t surprise anyone. Negative Polarity Items – John said that Mary slipped in the living room. • This sentence has two possible meanings; either John said it in the living room, or Mary slipped in the living room (according to John). – John said that Mary will leave yesterday. – John said that Mary will leave tomorrow. I didn’t see anyone. *I saw anyone. *Anyone didn’t see me. *Anyone saw me. TP CP T VP not V NP Negative Polarity Items • Now, consider: – John said that Mary didn’t slip in any room in the house. • Suddenly, it has only one meaning. Why? – John said: In no room did Mary slip. – *John said in any room: Mary didn’t slip. 15 Negative Polarity Items Negative Polarity Items TP TP NP T John -ed NP T John -ed VP V say VP V say CP C that TP NP T Mary -ed VP V slip NP T John -ed PP in the living room CP C that TP * NP T Mary -ed PP in the living room VP NP T Mary did VP – John didn’t say that Mary slipped in any room in the house. • What do we predict? VP Neg V not slip Negative Polarity Items TP TP • How about: TP NP T Mary did Neg V PP not slip in any room Negative Polarity Items PP in any room CP C that TP V slip VP V say CP C that TP NP T John -ed VP V say TP NP T John did NP T John did VP Neg V not say PP in any room Neg V CP not say CP C that VP C that TP NP T Mary -ed VP TP NP T Mary -ed V PP slip in any room Negative Polarity Items • John didn’t say that Mary slipped in any room in the house. – …He said that when he was out in the yard… – …He said that she slipped on the sidewalk… • Both meanings are good, because both possible structural positions for the NPI are c-commanded by the negation. VP V slip Binding Theory • Binding Theory is primarily concerned with explaining the distribution of three kinds of noun phrases: – Anaphors. Expressions like himself, herself, myself, each other. – Pronouns. Expressions like him, her. – R-expressions. Referring expressions like Pat, Chris. 16 R-expressions • R-expressions are NPs like Pat, or the professor, or an unlucky farmer, which get their meaning by referring to something in the world. Most NPs are like this. Anaphors • An anaphor does not get its meaning from something in the world—it depends on something else in the sentence. – John saw himself in the mirror. – Mary bought herself a sandwich. Pronouns Anaphors and pronouns • A pronoun is similar to an anaphor in that it doesn’t refer to something in the world but gets its reference from something else. • …but it doesn’t need to be something in the sentence. • Anaphors and pronouns are referentially dependent, they do not have an intrinsic meaning. • Anaphors: himself, herself, myself, yourself, itself, themselves, yourselves, ourselves. Very similar are reciprocals like each other. • Pronouns: he, him, she, her, I, me, you, them, it, we, us. The problem The problem – John told Mary that he likes pizza. – Mary wondered if she agreed. – Mary concluded that he was crazy. • It turns out that there are very specific configurations in which pronouns, anaphors, and R-expressions can/must be used. • Even though both he and himself could refer to John below, you can’t just choose freely between them. – – – – – – • The question Binding Theory strives to answer is: When do you use anaphors, pronouns, and R-expressions? John saw himself. *John saw him. John thinks that Mary likes him. *John thinks that Mary likes himself. John thinks that he is a genius. *John thinks that himself is a genius. 17 Indices and antecedents Indices and antecedents • Anaphors and pronouns are referentially dependent; they can (or must) be co-referential with another NP in the sentence. • The way we indicate that two NPs are coreferential is by means of an index, usually a subscripted letter. Two NPs that share the same index (that are coindexed) also share the same referent. • Johni saw himselfi in the mirror. • Johni saw himselfi in the mirror. • The NP from which an anaphor or pronoun draws its reference is called the antecedent. • John is the antecedent for himself. John and himself are co-referential. Constraints on co-reference Binding • What is the difference between the relationship between John and himself in the first case and in the second case? – Johni saw himself i. – *Johni’s mother saw himselfi. • It is impossible to assign the same referent to John and himself in the second sentence. What is different between the two sentences? TP NPi T -ed NP NPi V see N John * VP N himself NPi TP T -ed N mother VP NPi V see N John’s N himself Binding Binding • In the first case, the NP John c-commands the NP himself. But not in the second case. • When one NP c-commands and is coindexed with another NP, the first is said to bind the other. TP NPi N John TP T -ed * VP V see NP NPi N himself NPi N John’s * TP NPi T -ed N mother VP V see NPi N himself N John T -ed VP V see NP NPi N himself NPi N John’s TP T -ed N mother VP V see NPi N himself 18 Binding • Definition: A binds B iff – A c-commands B – A is coindexed with B Principle A • Principle A of the Binding Theory (preliminary): An anaphor must be bound. “if and only if” TP TP T -ed NPi V see N John * VP NP NPi N himself NPi NPi T -ed N mother VP NPi V see N John’s N himself Principle A • This also explains why the following sentences are ungrammatical: – *Himselfi saw John i in the mirror. – *Herselfi likes Maryi’s father. – *Himselfi likes Mary’s fatheri. • There is nothing which c-commands and is coindexed with himself and herself. The anaphors are not bound, which violates Principle A. Binding domains – – – – * TP Johni saw himselfi in the mirror. Johni gave a book to himself i. *Johni said that himself i is a genius. *Johni said that Mary dislikes himselfi. • What is wrong? John binds himself in every case. What is different? • In the ungrammatical cases, himself is in an embedded clause. N John T -ed VP V see NP NPi N himself NPi TP T -ed N mother N John’s VP NPi V see N himself Binding domains • But this is not the end of the story; consider – *Johni said that himself i likes pizza. – *Johni said that Mary called himselfi. • In these sentences the NP John c-commands and is coindexed with (=binds) himself, satisfying our preliminary version of Principle A—but the sentences are ungrammatical. Binding domains • It seems that not only does an anaphor need to be bound, it needs to be bound nearby (or locally). • Principle A (revised): An anaphor must be bound in its binding domain. Binding Domain (preliminary): The binding domain of an anaphor is the smallest clause containing it. 19 Pronouns – – – – Principle B • Principle B A pronoun must be free in its binding domain. *Johni saw himi in the mirror. Johni said that hei is a genius. Johni said that Mary dislikes him i. Johni saw himj in the mirror. Free Not bound • How does the distribution of pronouns differ from the distribution of anaphors? • It looks like it is just the opposite. • *Johni saw himi. • Johni’s mother saw himi. Principle C Principle C • We now know where pronouns and anaphors are allowed. So what’s wrong with these sentences? The pronouns are unbound as needed for Principle B. What are the binding relations here? • Binding is a means of assigning reference. • R-expressions have intrinsic reference; they can’t be assigned their reference from somewhere else. • R-expressions can’t be bound, at all. • Principle C An r-expression must be free. • *Hei likes Johni. • *Shei said that Maryi fears clowns. • Hisi mother likes Johni. Binding Theory • Principle A An anaphor must be bound in its binding domain. Principle B A pronoun must be free in its binding domain. Principle C An r-expression must be free. • In several weeks, we will return to the Binding Theory to revise the definition of binding domain (it is more complicated than “smallest clause”). 20