The Clause Structure of the Olden Days (Say, 1986)

(1) CP 3 IP 3 VP The clause structure of “the olden days” (say, 1986): CP: force (declarative, interrogative) IP: functional morphology (tense, agreement) VP: lexical/thematic elements But this doesn’t seem to be quite good enough to describe/explain the data—progressively, they have been split up into further functional projections. More modern clauses tend to look more like this (at least): (2) ForceP “CP” 3 TopP* 3 FocP 3 TopP* 3 FinP 3 AgrSP “IP” 3 TP 3 NegP 3 AgrOP 3 vP 3 VP “VP” Pollock, Jean-Yves (1989). Verb movement, universal grammar, and the structure of IP. Linguistic Inquiry 20(3):365–424. 1. French: V moves to I; English: have/be move to I (I lowers to other verbs). Assume: (3) French and English share a common basic tructure. Adverbs and not can’t move to the right. IP 3 subject I′ 3 I (NegP) 3 not/pas VP 3 (adverb) VP # ... V ... (4) a. b. * John likes not Mary. Jean (n’) aime pas Marie. (5) a. b. c. d. * John kisses often Mary. Jean embrasse souvent Marie. John often kisses Mary. * Jean souvent embrasse Marie. Conclusion: All (finite) verbs move to I in French; English finite have and be do too. 2. (Some) infinitives (can) move in French. Assume: • Finite and non-finite sentences are the same except for [±finite] on I. • not and ne…pas stand in the same structural position in tensed clauses and infinitives. (6) a. Ne pas être heureux est une condition pour écrire des romans. ‘Ne to not be happy is a prerequisite for writing novels.’ b. N’être pas heureux est une condition pour écrire des romans. ‘Ne to be not happy...’ c. Ne pas avoir eu d’enfance heureuse est une condition pour écrire des romans. ‘Ne not to have had a happy childhood is a prerequisite for writing novels.’ d. N’avoir pas eu d’enfance heureuse est une condition pour écrire des romans. ‘Ne to have not had a happy childhood...’ Conclude: Verb movement to I is optional for infinitives in French. But wait… (7) a. Ne pas sembler heureux est une condition pour écrire des romans. ‘Ne not to seem happy is a prerequisite for writing novels.’ b. * Ne sembler pas heureux est une condition pour écrire des romans. (‘Ne to sem not happy...’) c. d. So: Ne pas regarder la télévision consolide l’esprit critique. ‘Ne not to watch television strengthens one’s independence.’ * Ne regarder pas la télévision consolide l’esprit critique. (‘Ne to watch not television...’) Only infinitives of have (avoir) and be (être) can (optionally) move in French. Lexical infinitives cannot move in French. Quelle coïncidence! Both English and French have restrictions on moving lexical verbs, but not on moving have/avoir and be/être. (8) a. b. ? c. d. (?) Not to be happy is a prerequisite for writing novels. To be not happy is a prerequisite for writing novels. Not to have had a happy childhood is a prerequisite for writing novels. To have not had a happy childhood is a prerequisite for writing novels. (9) a. b. d. e. 3. Verb movement to I isn’t really always verb movement to I. Not to seem happy is a prerequisite for writing novels. * To seem not happy is a prerequisite for writing novels. Not to get arrested under such circumstances is a miracle. * To get not arrested under such circumstances is a miracle. Verb movement for French infinitives is never obligatory. Predicts that we can see adverb verb NP sequences (never allowed with finite verbs). Et voilà. (10) (11) a. Souvent paraître triste pendant son voyage de noce, c’est rare. often to.look sad during one’s honeymoon that’s rare. ‘To often look sad during one’s honeymood is rare.’ b. Preseque oublier son nom, ça n’arrive pas fréquemment. almost to.forget one’s name that ne happens not frequently. ‘To almost forget one’s name doesn’t happy frequently.’ * Pierre presque oublie son nom. Pierre almost forgets his name. Ok, now infinitives can move, but only avoir and être, right? Predicts that lexical infinitives preceding adverbs should be ungrammatical… But… (12) a. Paraître souvent triste pendant son voyage de noce, c’est rare. ‘To look often sad...’ b. Oublier presque son nom, ça n’arrive pas fréquemment. ‘To forget almost one’s name...’ So: But: Any old infinitive verb seems to be able to move past adverbs. Remember from before, only avoir and être can get past negation. (13) a. * Ne paraître pas triste pendant son voyage de noce, c’est normal. ‘Ne to look not sad...’ b. * N’oublier pas son nom, ce n’est pas un explot. ‘Ne to forget not one’s name isn’t worth writing home about.’ Summary of the puzzle. French: V[+fin] pas adverb _ English: V[–fin]* pas adverb _ pas V[–fin] adverb _ pas adverb V[–fin] V[+fin]i* not adverb _ not adverb V[+fin]‡ not V[–fin]* adverb _ not adverb V[–fin] *Only have/avoir and be/être. ‡Lexical verbs (verbs other that have/avoir and be/être). French: All finite verbs raise past pas. All nonfinite verbs can raise past adverbs. Only nonfinite avoir/être can raise past pas. English: Only finite have/be can raise past not. Only nonfinite have/be can raise past adverbs. (see below) 4. The Split-INFL hypothesis: Introducing AgrP. Hypothesis: There is a position between negation and the adverbs at the left edge of VP where French verbs move to. This is “short” verb movement. Not all the way to I. French: Short verb movement is not lexically restricted (to être and avoir)— any old nonfinite verb can undergo short verb movement. (14) a. b. To often look sad during one’s honeymoon is rare. To almost forget one’s name doesn’t happen frequently. (15) a. b. * To look often sad during one’s honeymoon is rare. * To forget almost one’s name doesn’t happen frequently. (16) a. I believe John to often be sarcastic. b. I believe John to often sound sarcastic. c. (?) I believe John to be often sarcastic. d. * I believe John to sound often sarcastic. Conclude: English short verb movement is lexically restricted to have and be. So, we have a correlation: English: Short verb movement of infinitives—only have and be. VI of finite verbs—only have and be. French: Short verb movement of infinitives—any old verb. VI of finite verbs—any old verb. We can say that like this: VI is lexically restricted iff short verb movement is. This would be predicted if VI contained an instance of short verb movement: That is, VI is not a one-step jump, it’s short movement to a middle position, and then a movement from there to I. (17) IP 3 NP I′ 3 I 3 (pas/not) AgrP 3 Agr VP short movement 3 (adv) V *HMC Summary: • There is a head position between negation and the VP (where adverbs are). • Pollock proposes this is Agr (hence, AgrP). • “IP” is more perspicuously renamed “TP” (TenseP) now, since it just has tense features. Belletti, Adriana (1990). Generalized verb movement. Torino: Rosenberg & Sellier (18) V parl parl parl speak T ai ai ai V parl parl parl speak T er er er (19) (20) (21) a. b. c. a. b. c. NP je tu il NP je tu il PAST FUT Agr s s t person+number Agr ai as a person+unmber a. Legg-eva-no ‘they read (read-imperfect-3pl).’ b. Parl-er-ò ‘I will speak (speak-fut-1sg).’ a. ...werk-t-en (they) work-past-3pl b. ...werk-t-e (she) work-past-3sg Conclude: French In general, tense is closer to the verb root than subject agreement. Italian Dutch If the finite verb moves to one and then the other, it would look like this: (22) F1P 3 F1 F2P 3 V+F2 VP 3 t ... (23) F1P 3 [V+F2]+F1 F2P 3 t VP 3 t ... So, in [V+F2]+F1, F2 is closer to the verb and is the head that was moved to first. F2 is the lower head. F2 is closer to the verb. The tense affix is closer to the verb. F2 = T. TP is below AgrP. Mirror Principle. Morphological derivations (suffixation, prefixation, etc.) directly reflect syntactic derivations... (24) (Baker 1985, 1988) Chomsky, Noam (1989). CP 3 AgrP 3 TP 3 VP Some notes on economy of derivation and representation. Reprinted in (1995) The Minimalist Program, MIT Press. You’re both right. Pollock’s AgrP is actually object agreement. Belletti’s AgrP is subject agreement. (25) AgrSP 3 subject AgrS′ 3 AgrS TP 3 T (NegP) 3 Neg AgrOP 3 AgrO VP ru u (adverb) VP Kayne (1989). Facets of past participle agreement in Romance. In P. Benincà (ed.), Dialect variation and the theory of grammar. Dordrecht: Foris. (26) a. b. Combien de tables Paul a repeintes? Combien de tables Paul a repeint? ‘How many tables did Paul repaint?’ Idea: On the way up combien de tables (feminine, plural) can (or not) stop in SpecAgrOP. (27) (28) ... AgrOP 3 (t′i) AgrO′ 3 AgrO VP # repeint- ti a. b. Paul a repeint les tables. * Paul a repeintes les tables.