Syntactic Processes

Introduction to syntax

Overview

The passive construction The causative construction WH-question

Syntactic processes that might change the grammatical relations between a verb and its arguments Promotion of NPs Demotion of NPs

The passive construction in English

Active John took the old lady to the shop.

Passive The old lady was taken to the shop by John.

The typical process of the passive construction

Subject of the active sentence DEMOTED to a PP (by-phrase) or deleted.

Object of the active sentence PROMOTED to subject of the passive

Auxiliary BE + past participle in passive

How do we know the NP is the subject of the passive sentence?

Subject-verb agreement Pronominal case

Subject-nominative Object-accusative

The cross-linguistic properties of the typical passive construction

The core arguments of the transitive verb change the grammatical relations. The promotion of object NP to S. The demotion of subject NP to oblique NP or be

deleted. The transitive verb changes its form.

V-> past participle

Where do we find passive constructions?

Typically in syntactically and morphologically accusative languages.

The passive construction and intransitive verbs

The use of a ‘dummy’ subject An impersonal passive No NPs are promoted. German Die Kinder schliefen The children sleep:PAST ‘the children slept.’

Es wurde (von den Kindern) geschlafen. It became by the children sleep: PP ‘it was slept by the children’

The applicative construction

John sold his iPod to Mary. John sold Mary his iPod.

John bought a cup of coffee for me. John bought me a cup of coffee.

The cross-linguistic properties of the typical applicative construction

Oblique NP/indirect object Promoted to object

Former object Demoted to oblique NP

The form of the verb may change to indicate the applicative construction

Oblique arguments

Non-core arguments Can be omitted without any grammatical

adjustment

Not all languages have an applicative construction

Marie a donné un cadeau à Pierre.

Marie has give:PP a gift to Pierre

“Mary has given a gift to Pierre.” *Marie a donne Pierre un cadeau.

The causative construction

The students read the book. The professor made the students read the book.

The students leave. The professor let the students leave.

The cross-linguistic properties of the typical causative construction

A new subject is introduced. Former subject is demoted to be

the object The oblique NP deleted

Causation is introduced by A causative verb The causative morphology on the main verb

The fronting construction

Move the constituent to the leftward position to focus on a particular phrase. WH-questions

WH-questions

Move the wh-word to the left of the subject (in English) WH-words: what, where, who The gap leaves a trace of the wh-word.

Example

John bought a cup of coffee at Starbucks. What did John buy ______ at Starbucks? Where did John bought a cup of coffee

____?

in other languages

French Qu’est-ce que + S… ‘what…’

Qu’est-ce que vous faites? ‘What do you do?’

Pied-piping Which book does he like ______? *Which does he like _____ book?

The role of constituents

The promoted, demoted, and fronted phrases have to be a constituent.

Structure dependency