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GRS LX 865Topics in Linguistics: 

Week 1. Development of Functional Categories GRS LX 865 Topics in Linguistics

Syntax: 

Syntax Recall the basic structure of adult sentences. IP (a.k.a. TP, INFLP, …) is the position of modals and auxiliaries, also assumed to be home of tense and agreement. CP is where wh-words move and where I moves in subject-aux-inversion

Splitting the INFL: 

Splitting the INFL Syntax since 1986 has been more or less driven by the principle “every separable functional element belongs in its own phrase.” Various syntactic tests support these moves as well (cf. CAS LX 523).

Splitting the INFL: 

Splitting the INFL Distinct syntactic functions assigned to distinct functional heads. T: tense/modality AgrO: object agreement, accusative case AgrS: subject agreement, nominative case Neg: negation Origins: Pollock (1989) (split INFL into Agr and T), Chomsky (1993) (split INFL into AgrS, T, AgrO).

Functional heads: 

Functional heads The DP, CP, and VP all suffered a similar fate. DP was split into DP and NumP Origin: Ritter 1991 and related work

Functional heads: 

Functional heads VP was split into two parts, vP where agents start, and VP where the patient starts. V and v combine by head movement. Origins: Larson (1988) proposed a similar structure for double-object verbs, Hale & Keyser (1993) proposed something like this structure, which was adopted by Chomsky (1993).

Functional heads: 

Functional heads CP was split into several “discourse-related” functional heads as well (topic, focus, force, and “finiteness”). Origins: Rizzi (1997)

Functional structure: 

Functional structure Often, the “fine structure” of the functional heads does not matter, so people will still refer to “IP” (with the understanding that under a microscope it is probably AgrSP, TP, AgrOP, or even more complex), “CP”, “DP”, etc. The heart of “syntax” is really in the functional heads, on this view. Verbs and nouns give us the lexical content, but functional heads (TP, AgrSP, etc.) give us the syntactic structure.

How do kids get there?: 

How do kids get there? Given the structure of adult sentences, the question we’re concerned about here will be in large part: how do kids (consistently) arrive at this structure (when they become adults)? Kids learn it (patterns of input). Chickens and eggs, and creoles, and so forth. Kids start out assuming the entire adult structure, learning just the details (Does the verb move? How is tense pronounced?) Kids start out assuming some subpart of the adult structure, complexity increasing with development.

Testing for functional structure: 

Testing for functional structure Trying to answer this question involves trying to determine what evidence we have for these functional structures in child syntax. It’s not very easy. It’s hard to ask judgments of kids, and they often do unhelpful things like repeat (or garble) things they just heard (probably telling us nothing about what their grammar actually is).

Testing for functional structure: 

Testing for functional structure We do know what various functional projections are supposed to be responsible for, and so we can look for evidence of their effects in child language. This isn’t foolproof. If a child fails to pronouns the past tense suffix on a verb that was clearly intended to be in the past, does this mean there’s no TP? Does it mean they simply made a speech error (as adults sometimes do)? Does it mean they haven’t figured out how to pronounce the past tense affix yet?

Helpful clues kids give us: 

Helpful clues kids give us Null subjects Kids seem to drop the subject off of their sentences a lot. More than adults would. There’s a certain crosslinguistic systematicity to it as well, from which we might take hints about kids’ functional structure. Root infinitives Kids seem to use nonfinite forms of main (root) clause verbs where adults wouldn’t. Again, there’s a certain crosslinguistic systematicity to it that can provide clues as to what’s going on.

Null subjects: 

Null subjects Lots of languages allow you to drop the subject. Italian, Spanish: the verb generally carries enough inflection to identify the person, number of the subject. Chinese: where the subject is obvious from context it can be left out. Not in English though: Let’s talk about Bill. *Left. *Bought groceries. *Dropped eggs. On the view that kids know language, but are just trying to figure out the specific details (principles and parameters), one possibility is that they always start out speaking Italian (or Chinese) until they get evidence to the contrary. (Hyams 1986 made a very influential proposal to this effect)

Null subjects: 

Null subjects Kids do tend to speak in short sentences. There seem to in fact be identifiable stages in terms of the length of the kids’ sentences (one-word stage, two-word stage, multi-word stage…), often measured in terms of MLU (mean length of utterance) which roughly corresponds to linguistic development. Perhaps the kid’s just trying to say a three-word sentence in a two-word window, so something has to go. That is, some kind of processing limitation.

Subject vs. object drop: 

Subject vs. object drop

Null subjects: 

Null subjects Subjects (in a non-null subject language like English) are way more likely to be dropped than objects. There’s something special about subjects. Makes a processing account more difficult to justify. Bloom (1990) made some well-known proposals about how the null subject phenomenon could be seen as a processing issue, and tried to explain why subjects are the most susceptible to being dropped. See also Hyams & Wexler (1993) for a reply.

Null subjects vs. time: 

Null subjects vs. time Null subjects seem to be pretty robustly confined to a certain portion of linguistic development. There’s a pretty sharp dropoff at around 2 ½ or 3. Hamann’s Danish kids illustrate this well.

Why can’t English kids really be speaking Italian?: 

Why can’t English kids really be speaking Italian? In Italian, subjects can be dropped (but need not be), in English, they can’t be dropped at all. So since having subjects is consistent with Italian, what’s going to signal to the kid that they’ve got the wrong kind of language? A “subset” problem. Possible solution? Expletive it and there. In Italian, null subjects are allowed wherever a subject pronoun would be, including embedded finite clauses (“I know that [he] has left”) and finite root questions (“What has [he] bought?”). In Kid English, null subjects never show up in these environments. It doesn’t seem so much like Italian.

Optional/root infinitives: 

Optional/root infinitives Kids around the age of 2 also sometimes use infinitives instead of finite verbs in their main clauses. It’s “optional” in that sometimes they get it right (finite) and sometimes they get it wrong (nonfinite), at the same developmental stage. French: Pas manger la poupée not eat[inf] the doll Michel dormir Michel sleep[inf] German: Zahne putzen teeth brush[inf] Thorstn das haben Thorsten that have[inf]. Dutch: Ik ook lezen I also read[inf.]

Root infinitives: 

Root infinitives English kids do this too, it turns out, but this wasn’t noticed for a long time. It only write on the pad (Eve 2;0) He bite me (Sarah 2;9) Horse go (Adam 2;3) It looks like what’s happening is kids are leaving off the -s. Taking the crosslinguistic facts into account, we now think those are nonfinite forms (i.e. to write, to bite, to go).

Root infinitives seem nonfinite: 

Root infinitives seem nonfinite Poeppel & Wexler (1993) looked at V2 in German (where finite verbs should be in second position, nonfinite verbs should be at the end) They concluded: the finiteness distinction is made correctly at the earliest observable stage.

NS/OI: 

NS/OI Some languages appear not to undergo the “optional infinitive” stage. Seems to correlate (nearly? perfectly?) with the target language’s allowance of null subjects. In principle, it would be nice to get this too, if it’s true. See, e.g., Wexler (1998). OI languages: Germanic languages studied to date (Danish, Dutch, English, Faroese, Icelandic, Norwegian, Swedish), Irish, Russian, Brazilian Portuguese, Czech Non-OI languages: Italian, Spanish, Catalan, Tamil, Polish

Root infinitives vs. time: 

Root infinitives vs. time The timing on root infinitives is likewise pretty robust, quitting around 3 years old. Cf. null subjects.

So what allows null subjects?: 

So what allows null subjects? Subjects of infinitives can be null. Kids at the age where subjects are often missing often use infinitive verb forms. Perhaps that’s the key: Since kids can use infinitives where adults can’t (main clause main verb), this allows them to use null subjects in those sentences as a side effect.

Proportion of null subjects in finite and non-finite clauses: 

Proportion of null subjects in finite and non-finite clauses

Null subjects and infinitives: 

Null subjects and infinitives Perhaps we’re on to something here. So null subjects are (for the most part—not completely) allowed by virtue of having infinitives. What allows the infinitives in child language? Generally taken as some kind of “disturbance of IP” (e.g., TP is missing), home of both tense and the EPP.

Null subjects and C: 

Null subjects and C Crisma (1992): French kids typically (1/114 =1% vs. 407/1002=41%) do not produce null subjects with a wh-phrase. Valian (1991): English kids typically (9/552=2%) do not produce null subjects with a wh-phrase. Poeppel & Wexler (1993): German kids typically exclude null subjects from post-V2 position.

Null subjects and C: 

Null subjects and C It looks like: If the kid shows evidence of CP (wh-words, V2), then the kid also does not drop the subject. Rizzi’s idea (“truncation”): A discourse-licensed null subject is available only in the highest specifier in the tree (topic-drop). Axiom: CP=root Kids don’t “get” the axiom until between 2-3 years old.

Truncated trees: 

Truncated trees The result (of not having CP=root) is that kids are allowed to have truncated structures—trees that look like adult trees with the tops chopped off. Importantly: The kids don’t just leave stuff out—they just stop the tree “early.” So, if the kid leaves out a functional projection, s/he leaves out all higher XPs as well.

Truncation: 

Truncation If kid selects anything lower than TP as the root, the result is a root infinitive—which can be as big as any kind of XP below TP in the structure. Note in particular, though, it can’t be a CP. So: we expect that evidence of CP will correlate with finite verbs.

Truncation and null subjects: 

Truncation and null subjects So, null subjects (are predicted to) occur… If the tree is just a VP (the subject can be omitted in its base position…it’s still in the specifier of the root). If the tree is just a TP (the subject can be omitted from the normal subject position—note that this would be a finite verb with a null subject). But not if the tree is a CP and SpecCP is filled (like in a wh-question) we expect no null subjects.

“Optional tense”: 

“Optional tense” Another view of child infinitives is based on the idea that just one functional projection is left off (rather than chopping off the whole top of the tree). Wexler (1994) proposed that kids can leave off T. When they do, their clauses behave in all respects like a non-finite clause (V2 and other V-movement, for example).

Subject case errors: 

Subject case errors Various people have observed that kids learning English sometimes will use accusative subjects. It turns out that there’s a sort of a correlation with the finiteness of the verb as well. Finite verbs go with nominative case, while nonfinite verbs seem to go with either nominative or accusative case.

Finiteness vs. case errors: 

Finiteness vs. case errors

What to make of the case errors?: 

What to make of the case errors? Case is assumed to be the jurisdiction of AgrSP and AgrOP. So, nominative case can serve as an unambiguous signal that there is an AgrSP. Accusative case, conversely, may signal a missing AgrSP. Why are non-AgrSP subjects accusatives? Probably a default case in English: Who’s driving? Me. Me too. It’s me. Other languages seem not to show this “accusative subject” error but also seem to have a nominative default (making an error undetectable).

“ATOM”: 

“ATOM” Schütze & Wexler propose a model of this in which the case errors are a result of being able to either omit AgrSP or Tense. For a subject to be in nominative case, AgrSP must be there (TP’s presence is irrelevant). For a finite verb, both TP and AgrSP must be there. English inflection (3sg present –s) relies on both. If one or the other is missing, we’ll see an infinitive (i.e. bare stem). Thus, predicted: finite (AgrSP+TP) verbs show Nom (AgrSP), but only half of the nonfinite verbs (not both AgrSP and TP) show Nom (AgrSP). We should not see finite+Acc.

Pronunciation of English: 

Pronunciation of English T+AgrS(+V) is pronounced like: /s/ if we have features [3, sg, present] /ed/ if we have the feature [past] Ø otherwise Layers of “default”, most specific first, followed by next most specific (“Distributed Morphology”, Halle & Marantz 1993). Notice: 3sg present –s requires both TP and AgrSP, but past –ed requires only TP (AgrSP might be missing, so we might expect some accusative subjects of past tense verbs).

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