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Week 5b. q-Theory (with a little

more binding theory)

CAS LX 522Syntax I

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Binding

Principle Aof the Binding Theory(preliminary):An anaphor must be bound.

see himself

-ed

DP

I

DPiV

VP

John

see himself

-ed

DPi

IP

I

DPiV

VP motherDP

John

DPi

*

I

IP

I

D

Ds

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Principle A

This also explains why the followingsentences are ungrammatical:

*Himselfisaw Johniin the mirror.

*Herselfilikes Maryis father. *Himselfilikes Marys fatheri.

There is nothing which c-commandsand is coindexed with himselfand

herself. The anaphors are not bound,

which violates Principle A.

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Binding domains

But this is not the end of the story; consider *Johnisaid that himselfi likes pizza.

*Johnisaid that Mary called himselfi.

In these sentences the DP Johnc-commands

and is coindexed with (=binds) himself,

satisfying our preliminary version of Principle

Abut the sentences are ungrammatical. John didnt say that anyone likes pizza.

John didnt say that Mary called anyone.

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Binding domains

Johnisaw himselfiin the mirror.

Johnigave a book to himselfi.

*Johnisaid that himselfiis a genius.

*Johnisaid that Mary dislikes himselfi.

What is wrong? John binds himself in

every case. What is different? In the ungrammatical cases, himselfis

in an embedded clause.

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Binding domains

It seems that not only does an anaphor need tobe bound, it needs to be bound nearby (orlocally).

Principle A (revised):An anaphor must be bound in its bindingdomain.

Binding Domain(preliminary):The binding domain of an anaphor is thesmallest clause containing it.

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Principle A

The definition of binding domainis very

complicated (this occupied many

syntacticians in the early 80s).

A clause (IP) delimits a binding domain.

But other things do too

Mary likes [DP

Johns picture of himselfi

].

*Maryilikes [DPJohns picture of herselfi].

Maryiwants [DPa picture of herselfi].

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Binding domain

Lets say this:

The binding domainfor an anaphor is the

smallest of:

An IP that dominates it.

A DP, with a specifier, that dominates it.

Note! This is notperfect, but it is a pretty

close approximation.

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Pronouns

*Johnisaw himiin the mirror.

Johnisaid that heiis a genius.

Johnisaid that Mary dislikes himi.

Johnisaw himjin the mirror.

How does the distribution of pronouns

differ from the distribution of anaphors?

It looks like it is just the opposite.

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Principle B

Principle B

A pronoun must be free in its binding domain.

Free

Not bound

*Johnisaw himi.

Johnis mother saw himi.

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Principle C

We now know where pronouns andanaphors are allowed. So whats wrong

with these sentences? The pronounsare unbound as needed for Principle B.What are the binding relations here?

*Heilikes Johni.

*Sheisaid that Maryifears clowns.

Hisimother likes Johni.

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Principle C

Binding is a means of assigning reference.

R-expressions have intrinsic reference;

they cant be assigned their reference from

somewhere else.

R-expressions cant be bound, at all.

Principle CAn r-expression must be free.

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Binding Theory

Principle A.An anaphor must be bound in itsbinding domain.

Principle B.A pronoun must be free in its

binding domain. Principle C.An r-expression must be free.

The binding domainfor an anaphor is thesmallest of (i) An IP that dominates it, (ii) A DP,

with a specifier, that dominates it. Bound: coindexed with a c-commanding

antecedent (Free: not bound).

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Constraints on interpretation

Binding Theory is about interpretation.

Only a structure that satisfies Binding

Theory is interpretable.

Lexicon

Workbench

Merge

pronounce

interpret

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If we put together a tree that isnt

interpretable, the process (derivation) is

sometimes said to crash.

Lexicon

Workbench

Merge

pronounce

interpret

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If we succeed in putting together a treethat is interpretable (satisfying theconstraints), we say the process

(derivation) converges.

Lexicon

Workbench

Merge

pronounce

interpret

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Exercise to ponder

Young kids (5-6 years) seem to acceptsentences like (1) as meaning what (2) meansfor adults. (1) Mama Bear is pointing to her.

(2) Mama Bear is pointing to herself.

Suppose that contrary to appearances, kids doknow and obey Principle B. Look carefully at thedefinitions of Binding Theory. If Principle B isntthe problem, what do you think kids are gettingwrong 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

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*MBiis pointing to heri.

(1) *Mama Beariis pointing to heri.

(2) Mama Beariis pointing to herselfi. Principle B: A pronoun must be free within its binding

domain. Free= not bound. Bound by= coindexedwith and c-commanded by.

(3) Mama Beariis pointing to herj. Indexes signify a pointing relation. Coindexation

implies coreference.

Raining implies wet streets. Do wet streets implyraining?

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Verbs and arguments

Verbs come in several types

Some have only a subject, they cant have an

objectthe intransitiveverbs.

Sleep: Bill slept; *Bill slept the book.

Some need an objectthe transitiveverbs.

Hit: *Bill hit; Bill hit the pillow.

Some need two objectsditransitiveverbs. Put: *Bill put; *Bill put the book;

Bill put the book on the table.

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Verbs and arguments

The participants in an event denoted by

the verb are the argumentsof that verb.

Some verbs require one argument

(subject), some require two arguments

(subject and object), some require three

arguments (subject, indirect object, direct

object).

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Predicates

We will consider verbs to bepredicates

which define properties of and/or relations

between the arguments.

Bill hit the ball

There was a hitting, Bill did the hitting, the ball

was affected by the hitting.

Different arguments have different rolesinthe event. (e.g., The hitter, the hittee)

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Subcategorization

Not all transitive verbs (that take just oneobject) can take the same kind of object.

Sue knows [DPthe answer ]

Sue knows [CPthat Bill left early ] Sue hit [DPthe ball ]

*Sue hit [CPthat Bill left early]

So knowcan take either a DP or a CP asits object argument; hitcan only take a DPas its object argument.

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Selection

Verbs also exert semantic control of the

kinds of arguments they allow: selection.

For example, many verbs can only have a

volitional (agentive) subject:

Bill likes pizza. Bill kicked the stone.

#Pizza likes anchovies. #The stone kicked

Bill.

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The lexicon

A major component of our knowledge of a language isknowing the words and their properties (the lexicon).

In the lexicon, we have the words (lexical items)stored with their properties, like: Syntactic category (N, V, Adj, P, C, I, )

Number of arguments required

Subcategorization requirements (syntax)

Selectional requirements (semantics)

Pronunciation

These pretty much just have to be learned separatelyfor each verb in the language.

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Thematic relations

It has come to be standard practice to

think of the selectional restrictions in terms

of the thematic relationthat the argument

has to the verbthe role it plays in theevent.

One thematic relation is agentof an

action, like Billin: Bill kicked the ball.

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Common thematic relations

Agent: initiator or doer in the event

Theme: affected by the event, orundergoes the action

Bill kicked the ball.

Experiencer: feel or perceive the event

Bill likes pizza.

Proposition: a statement, can betrue/false.

Bill said that he likes pizza.

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Thematic relations

Goal:

Bill ran to Copley Square.

Bill gave the book to Mary.(Recipient)

Source:

Bill took a pencil from the pile.

Instrument:

Bill ate the burrito with a plastic spork.

Benefactive:

Bill cooked dinner for Mary.

Location:

Bill sits under the tree on Wednesdays.

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Thematic relations

Armed with these terms, we can describe

the semantic connection between the verb

and its arguments.

Ray gave a grape to Bill.

Ray:Agent, Source,

A grape: Theme

Bill: Goal, Recipient,

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-rolesAn argument can participate in several

thematic relations with the verb (e.g.,Agent, Goal).

In the syntax, we assign a specialconnection to the verb called a q-role,which is a collection of thematic relations.

For the purposes of syntax, theq-role (thecollection of relations) is much more

central than the actual relations in thecollection.

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-roles We will often need to make reference to a

particular q-role, and we will often do this

by referring to the most prominent relation

in the collection.

For example, in Bill hit the ball, we say that

Billhas the Agent q-role, meaning it has

a q-role containing the Agent relation,perhaps among others.

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The Theta Criterion

Although an argument can have any

number of thematic relations in the q-

role

Each argument has exactly one q-role.

On the other side, verbs (as weve seen)

are recorded in the lexicon with the

number of participants they require; each

participant must have a q-role as well.

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The Theta Criterion

Verbs have a certain number of q-roles to assign(e.g., sayhas two), and each of those must beassigned to a distinct argument.

Meanwhile, every argument needs to haveexactly one q-role (it needs to have at least one,it cant have more than one).

This requirement that there be a one-to-one

match between theq

-roles a verb has to assignand the arguments receiving q-roles is the ThetaCriterion.

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Theta Grids

We can formalize the information about q-roles inthe lexical entry for a verb by using a theta grid,like so:

The columns each represent a q-role, the indicesin the lower row will serve as our connection to theactual arguments; e.g.

Johnigave [the book]j[to Mary]k.

give Source/Agent Theme Goal

i j k

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Theta Grids

Johnigave [the book]j[to Mary]k.


i j k

The first q-role is

assigned to the subject.

It is the externalq-role.

It is often designated by

underlining it.

The other q-role are

internalq-roles.

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Theta Grids

The q-roles in the theta grid are obligatory.(Optionalthings like on the hillare not in the q-grid).

Adjunctsare related to the verb via thematicrelations (e.g., instrument, location, etc.), but anadjunct does not get a q-role. They are optional.


i j k

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The Theta Criterion in action

An example:push.

Billipushed the shopping cartj. Fine,pushassigns two q-roles, one (the external q-role) is

assigned to Bill, the other (the internal q-role) is assigned

to the shopping cart. There are two arguments here, eachgets a q-role.

*Billipushed. (j?)

*Billipushed the shopping cartjthe corner?.

push Agent Theme

i j

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The Theta Criterion in action

An example: cough.

Billicoughed. Fine, coughassigns one q-role (the external q-role), to Bill.

There are one arguments here, and it gets a q-role.

*Billicoughed the shopping cart?.

cough Agent

i

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Argument?

The -criterion: every -role in the -grid is assigned to exactly

one argument.

every argument is assigned exactly one -role.

The second half protects us against superfluousarguments. But its hard to evaluate this if wedont know what an argument is. Its hard to say, actually. There are some further

concepts that we should have before we can evenstart to state this accurately. For now, lets justsuppose that DPs and CPs are necessarilyarguments, and PPs usually arent.

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The EPP

With the Theta Criterion in our toolbox, lets take alook at a special kind of sentence (which will turnout to tell us something important about syntax).

It rained. It snowed.

How many q-roles does rainassign?

If we think about it, it doesnt really mean anything

at all. It is not a participant in the event; it reallycantbe getting a q-role. (cf. also Spanish).

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The EPP

So, the theta grid for rainreally looks like

this:

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The EPP

Given the q-Criterion and the fact that rain

doesnt have any q-roles to assign, whats

itdoing there? And why doesnt itviolate

the q-Criterion?

As to the first question, the conclusion that

syntacticians have come to is that the itis

there due to a separate constraint, whichgoes by the name EPP.

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The EPP

The EPPAll clauses have subjects.

The idea is that there must be something in the

subject position (SpecIP) of every clause.

Because rainhas no arguments (no q-roles), aspecial, contentless pronoun (it) has to be inserted

to in order to have a grammatical sentence. Thiskind of empty it is called an expletiveor apleonastic pronoun. Itis not an argument (in thisuse).

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