9 ? - 13.01.12

I'm not sure [which sentaors the president has spoken to]

The wh-operator expression which senators originates as the complement of the preposition to.

But where does it move to?

CP

DP C

which senators

C TP

O

DP T

T VP

has

V PP

spoken

P DP

to t

The head C position is filled by a covert complementiser O

a. Who do you think will say what?

b. *What who do you think will say?

CP

D C

Who

C TP

do D T

you

T VP

t

V TP

think

D T

t

T VP

will

V D

say what

Economy Principle

Minimise grammatical structure and movement operations (i.e. posit. As little structure as possible, and move as few constituents as possible the shortest distance possible)

Other types of movement – topicalisation

This kind of behaviour no teacher can tolerate.

CP

DP C

This kind of

behaviour

C TP

O

DP T

no teacher

T VP

can

V DP

tolerate this kind of behaviour

Other type of movement – passivisation

a. The press reported [that the thieves stole the jewels]

b. The press reported [that the jewels were stolen (by the thieves)]

Four properties distinguishin g passive from active clauses:

• passive + the auxiliary be

• passive + the -n participle form

• passive +/- by-phrase

• the complement of the active verb > the subject in the passive constr.

Passiver subjects are moved from complement position within VP into subject/specifier position within TP

CP

C TP

that

DP T

the jewels

T VP

were

V DP

stolen the jewels

arguments of verbs = subjects and complements

Passivisation – because the passivised DP moves from complement position to subject position (from one argument position to another); it is referred to as A-movement (argument movement)

A-bar movement – i.e. movement of a constituent to the specifier in CP (=complementiser phrase) (a non -argument position = a non-subject specifier position at the beginning of the clause), e..g. Operator movement and topicalisation.

Practice do it.

My students I do like

Have you met my father?

When are you going home?

The soldier was shot

THE END OF SYNTAX KURWA!!

SEMANTICS

Types of meaning:

Grammatical meaning:

by attaching extra words you can change the grammatical meaning. But the cognitive meaning is the same (a dog and same action)

A dog barked. A dog barks. Did a dog bark? Etc

Pragmatic meaning – describes meaning as a product of the social context in which language takes place

'We're going to be late' > a polite way to tell sb to 'hurry upbitch'

but if we're stuck in a traffic it's just a statement

'What are you drinking?' > proposal or just question. In a British pub an offer to buy the next lot of drinks

Eng. Thank you, Pol. Dziękuję, Fr. Merci

Would you like another tea? - thank you → you'll get it

Coś jeszcze – dziękuję = nie

Lexical meaning: the meaning of a word in relation to the physical world or to abstract concepts, without reference to any sentence in which the word may occur

Semantics is the study of meanings as stored in language, waiting to be put to use. Pragmatics focuses on how speakers and writers actually use their language knowledge to convey meanings.

Semantic features

table horse boy man girl woman

animate - + + + + +

human - - + + + +

female - - - - + +

adult - + - + - +

Semantic feature – the common element of meaning

Redundancy rule – redundant information can be left unspecified in the grammar

Application:

• We can say that at least part of the meaning of the word girl in English involves the elements [+human, +female, -adult]

• we can predict which nouns make som esentences semantically odd:

  The__________is reading the newspaper. ← what can be put there is a noun in sg form. But semantically the noun has to be also [+human]

Sentence, utterance, discourse

I'm hungry – a beggar who has not eaten all day

- by a child who hopes to put off going to bed

the same sentence but different utterance.

An utterance – act of speech or acting on a particular ocasion

An utterance is often part of a larger discourse – a conversation, a formal lecture, a poem, a short story, a business letter, a love letter, etc.

Semantic roles ('thematic roles') ← important, exam!!

The boy kicked the ball

The boy – 'the entity that performs the action: the agent

the ball – 'the entity that is involved in or affected by the action; the theme (the 'patient')

The boy cut himself.

Boy – agent

himself – patient, theme

One and the same NP can have different semantic role.

The boy cut the rope with an old razor

He drew the picture with a crayon

the boy, he - agent

rope, picture – theme

old razor, crayon – instrument

The boy feels sad.

The boy – NP, it's not an action he doesn't perform an action

the semantic role of experiencer = an entity as the person who has a feeling, perception or state.

Did you hear that noise?

2 NP: you & that noise

you – experiencer

that noise – patient/theme

Location – the entity that shows you where sth is (on the table, in the room)

We drove from Chicago to New Orleans

Chicago & New Orleans – it's not a location

Where the entity moves from is the source (from Chicago) and where it move to is the goal (to New Orleans)

I transferred money from saving to checking.

Saving – source

checking – goal

I – agent

money - patient

Theme – most commonly used semantic role

Causative – a natural force that causes a change

The wind damaged the roof.

Wind – cause

roof – patient

Possessor – one who has sth

The tail of the dog got caught in the door.

Dog – possessor

the door – location

The Theta-Criterion:

A particular thematic role may occur only one in a clause

e.g. 'Tom beat the dog with a stick with a bat' ← does not make sense

Mary saw a fly on the wall

experiencer theme location

She borrowed a magazine from George

agent theme source

She handed that magazine back to George

agent theme goal

EXAM just like this ^

when you say sth you produce a sentence

Symbol ^ → image (what we think it mean) → the actual thing = Referent

Referent – the thing that is actually meant in real world

The dog went out

dog – referent

REFERENCE

Expression---------------------------------------what that expression stands for in a certain utterance

this pen The pen you can see in my hand

DENOTATION

lexeme-----------------------------------the whole class of individuals named by this lexeme

pen the whole class of pens

Denotation – theoretical, abstract

reference – to the actual things

The present king of Poland is blind.

^ this sentence has sense but no reference.

My sister is the only child of my mother – not possible

Janusz is pregnant – not possible

Anomalous sentences – no sense