CAS LX 522 Syntax I. Binding Theory. Pronouns. R-expressions and anaphors. Indices and antecedents

Transcription

1 CAS LX 522 Syntax I Episode 4a. Theory, Is, c- command, ditransitives, and little v Theory Theory consists of three Principles that govern the allowed distribution of s. Pronouns: he, her, it, she, Anaphors:, herself, itself, R-expressions:, the student, R-expressions and anaphors R-expressions are s like Pat, or the professor, or an unlucky farmer, which get their meaning by referring to something in the world. Most s are like this. An anaphor does not get its meaning from something in the world it depends on something else in the sentence. in the mirror. Mary bought herself a sandwich. Pronouns A pronoun is similar to an anaphor in that it doesn t refer to something in the world but gets its reference from somewhere else. told Mary that he likes pizza. Mary wondered if she agreed. but it doesn t need to be something in the sentence. Mary concluded that he was crazy. The problem There are very specific configurations in which pronouns, anaphors, and R-expressions can/must be used. Even though both he and could refer to below, you can t just choose freely between them.. him. thinks that Mary likes him. thinks that Mary likes. thinks that he is a genius. thinks that is a genius. The question Theory strives to answer is: When do you use anaphors, pronouns, and R-expressions? Indices and antecedents Anaphors and pronouns are referentially dependent; they can (or must) be coreferential with another n the sentence. The way we indicate that two s are coreferential is by means of an index, usually a subscripted letter. Two s that share the same index (that are coindexed) also share the same referent. i i in the mirror. 1

2 Indices and antecedents i i in the mirror. An index functions as a pointer into our mental model of the world. here is a name that points to our mental representation of some guy,, which we notate by giving the pointing relation a label ( i ). here shares the same pointing relation, it points to the same guy that does. So, any two s that share an index (pointing relation) necessarily refer to the same thing. Indices and antecedents i i in the mirror. The from which an anaphor or pronoun draws its reference is called the antecedent. is the antecedent for. and are co-referential. Constraints on co-reference i i. Himself i i. i s i. It is impossible to assign the same referent to and in the second and third sentences. What is different between the good and bad sentences? is an. [ ] i herself i. She. But it s an that is made up of smaller pieces ( and ). So what is the internal structure of the? [ ] Remember that pronouns come in three distinguishable forms (in English): I, he, she nominative Me, him, her accusative My, his, her genitive The genitive case forms m to have pretty much the same kind of possessive meaning that does. So, let s suppose that is the genitive case form of. [ ] Another point about is that it ms that the head should be. sort of modifies. Sort of like an adjective does sort of like an adverb does for a verb Let s suppose (for now! In chapter 7 we ll revise this) that is just adjoined to the. (Hard to draw clearly) 2

3 What is the difference between the relationship between and in the first case and in the second case? We think of the position that is in in the first tree as being a position from which it commands the rest of the tree. It is hierarchically superior in a particular way. Really, non-inferior Tree relations B A D C E A node X c-commands its sisters and the nodes dominated by its sisters. So, again what is the difference between the relationship between and in the first case and in the second case? So, again what is the difference between the relationship between and in the first case and in the second case? In the first case, the c- commands the. But not in the second case. 3

4 When one c-commands and is coindexed with another, the first is said to bind the other. Definition: A binds B iff A c-commands B A is coindexed with B if and only if Principle A of the Theory (preliminary): An anaphor must be bound. A is for anaphor? That s good enough for me Principle A This also explains why the following sentences are ungrammatical: Himself i i in the mirror. Herself i likes Mary i s father. Himself i likes Mary s father i. There is nothing that c-commands and is coindexed with and herself. The anaphors are not bound, which violates Principle A. domains But this is not the end of the story; consider i said that i likes pizza. i said that Mary called i. In these sentences the c-commands and is coindexed with (=binds), satisfying our preliminary version of Principle A but the sentences are ungrammatical. didn t say that anyone likes pizza. didn t say that Mary called anyone. domains i i in the mirror. i gave a book to i. i said that i is a genius. i said that Mary dislikes i. What is wrong? binds in every case. What is different? In the ungrammatical cases, is in an embedded clause. 4

5 domains It ms 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. Domain (preliminary): The binding domain of an anaphor is the smallest clause containing it. Pronouns i him i in the mirror. i said that he i is a genius. i said that Mary dislikes him i. i him j in the mirror. How does the distribution of pronouns differ from the distribution of anaphors? It looks like it is just the opposite. Principle B Principle C Principle B A pronoun must be free in its binding domain. Free Not bound i him i. i s him i. B is for bpronoun, that s good enough for me. We now know where pronouns and anaphors are allowed. Consider the following. Stuart i him i in the mirror. Stuart i s him in the mirror. He i Stuart i in the mirror. His i Stuart i in the mirror. Principle C What s going wrong with these sentences? The pronouns are unbound as needed for Principle B. What are the binding relations here? He i likes i. She i said that Mary i fears clowns. His i likes i. His i said that i fears clowns. Principle C 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. C is for r-ecspression oh, never mind. Give me a cookie. 5

6 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. The binding domain for an anaphor is the smallest clause that contains it. Bound: coindexed with a c-commanding antecedent (Free: not bound). Constraints on interpretation Theory is about interpretation. Only a structure that satisfies Theory is interpretable. Lexicon Workbench Merge pronounce interpret Constraints on interpretation If we put together a tree that isn t interpretable, the process (derivation) is sometimes said to crash. Lexicon Merge pronounce Constraints on interpretation If we succeed in putting together a tree that is interpretable (satisfying the constraints), we say the process (derivation) converges. Lexicon Merge pronounce Workbench interpret Workbench interpret Certain words in English m 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 n Forrest Gump yet. Pat invited anyone to the party. Pat knows anything about syntax. Pat has ever been to London. Pat has n Forrest Gump yet. 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. 6

7 Licensing Is are only allowed to appear if there s a negative in the sentence. didn t invite Mary to the party, did he? didn t invite anyone to the party. invited Mary to the party, didn t he? invited anyone to the party. Nobody invited Mary to the party, did they? Nobody invited anyone to the party. 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 I any meaning, and we are concentrating only on the I any meaning for now, we will just consider any to be ambiguous, like bank. read anything the professor gave him. Anyone who can understand syntax is a genius. Negation gives an I license to appear : Is are licensed by negation in a sentence. Just like you need a driver s license to drive a car (legally), you need negation to use a I (grammatically). In fact, there are a couple of things other than negation that license Is; we ll ignore them for now. Pick any card. Did anyone bring cake? But it isn t quite as simple as that. Consider: I didn t anyone. I anyone. Anyone didn t me. Anyone me. It ms that simply having negation in the sentence isn t by itself enough to license the use of an I. As a first pass, we might say that negation has to precede the I. I didn t anyone. Nobody anyone. Anyone didn t me. Anyone nobody. But that s not quite it either. [The picture of nobody] pleased anyone. [The picture of nobody] surprised anyone Nothing surprised anyone i nothing suprised anyone The picture of nobody surprised anyone Exercise to ponder Young kids (5-6 years) m to accept sentences like (1) as meaning what (2) means for adults. (1) Mama Bear is pointing to her. (2) Mama Bear is pointing to herself. Suppose that, contrary to appearances, kids do know and obey Principle B. Look carefully at the definitions of Theory. If Principle B isn t the problem, what do you think kids are getting wrong to allow (1) to have the meaning of (2)? Think in particular about how you decide which index to assign to her. What is the implication of having the same index? What is the implication of having different indices? 7

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