Svetlana Godjevac November 24, HW 5 Answers

Size: px

Start display at page:

Download "Svetlana Godjevac November 24, HW 5 Answers"

Stephany Harrell
5 years ago
Views:

1 Svetlana Godjevac November, 00 Total: 70 points HW 5 Answers 0 points 1. Textbook: Exercise.11 p a) provide a sentence that violates the clause-mate condition but not the c-command condition on reflexives: *John i said that Mary lies to himself i The subject DP, John, c-commands the reflexive, but it is not in the same clause as the reflexive. b) provide a sentence that violates the c-command condition but not the clause-mate condition on reflexives: *John s i picture belons to himself i The possessive, John s, is in the same clause as the reflexive, but it does not c-command the reflexive..1 (i) (a) *Othelloj saw himj saw him j (b) Othello j said he j saw Portia k past V CP said C C ø he j T VP saw Portia k 1 of 8

2 Svetlana Godjevac November, 00 (c) Othello j said Portia k saw him j past V CP said C C ø Portia k T VP saw him j (ii) P1: A non-reflexive pronoun and a DP that has the same reference as the pronoun cannot be in the same clause. (iii) The principle stated in P1 correctly predicts that the sentence Portia k s description of her k displeased Othello j is unrammatical if the DP Portia and her refer to the same person. This is because both of these DPs are in the same clause and so violate P1.. (i) (e) Othello j s wife met him j DP D D NP D NP s N met him N N N Othello wife of 8

3 Svetlana Godjevac November, 00 (f) Portia k s description of Othello j displeased him j DP D D NP D NP s N displeased him N N PP N N P Portia description P DP of Othello (ii) P: A pronoun must not be c-commanded by its antecedent.. P1 and P can be stated toether as: P: A pronoun cannot have a c-commandin antecedent in the same clause R1 and R can be stated toether as: R: A reflexive must have a c-commandin antecedent in the same clause. () Othello j trusts his j wife present V DP trusts D NP his j wife of 8

4 Svetlana Godjevac November, 00 Principle P is obviously not quite riht because () is a perfectly rammatical sentence of Enlish. The problem seems to lie in the fact that the principle P says that a pronoun cannot have a c- commandin antecedent in the same clause. In (), the pronoun his has a c-commandin antecedent in the same clause, i.e., Othello. We must amend principle P in some ways. For now we ll treat structures like () as an exception to P. We can say that possessive pronouns are not accounted for by principle P. This is not the final solution to the problem, but for our course it will do. 0 points. Textbook: Exercise.1 p (i) (a) Othello j said that Portia k saw him j past V CP said C C ø Portia k T VP saw him j (c) *He j said that Othello j saw Portia k he j T VP past V CP said C C that saw Portia k of 8

5 Svetlana Godjevac November, 00 (ii) C1: A proper name cannot refer to the same person as a pronoun that precedes it. (iii) C: A proper name cannot refer to the same person as a pronoun that c-commands it.. (i) (f) His j wife says that Othello j left D NP pres V CP his j N says C wife C that past V V left () The rumor that he j left pleased Othello j s wife. past D NP V DP pleased the N DP D N CP Othello j D NP s rumor C wife C he j T VP past left 5 of 8

6 Svetlana Godjevac November, 00 (ii) C1 predicts incorrectly that (f) and () should be unrammatical because the pronoun precedes the proper name. C correctly predicts that () and () should be rammatical because the pronoun does not c- command the proper name. We can conclude that C is to be preferred as a principle of rammar (iii) (h) After he left j, Othello j fell. PP P After past he j T VP fell past left Because the pronoun does not c-command the proper name, the sentence is correctly predicted to be rammatical. However, here another question arises which the exercise does not ask you to account for, but which seems loical to ask. That is: how does the pronoun et to refer to the same referent as the DP Othello if this DP does not c-command the pronoun. One way to solve this puzzle is to assume that the adjunct phrase after he left oriinates in a different position in the D-structure, from which the pronoun is preceded by its antecedent. 10 points. Textbook: Exercise. p. 15 *John is sleepin any loner. John is not sleepin any loner. *John went anywhere yesterday. John did not o anywhere yesterday. You may have noticed that sometimes it looks difficult to construct unrammatical examples with these NPIs because the sentences somehow still seem ood. This is because Enlish has another interpretation for any -phrases. This interpretation is called free-choice any. Basically, in this use, any ets interpreted as I don t care which one, as in I ll sleep anywhere, He ll eat anythin, etc. This use of any is not dependent on neation. Rather, the situations in which this item is used are situations that talk about possibilities and not concrete events. The possibilities can be either in the past, present of future. Aain, this is not the final explanation it is only for the purpose of this class. 0 points. Textbook: Exercise.5 (i) p. (a) The elves did not tell anyone that the fairies could like witchcraft. 6 of 8

7 Svetlana Godjevac November, 00 D NP did NeP VP 9 the N Ne V DP CP N Ne tell anyone C elves C that D NP could V DP the fairies like witchcraft (b) *The elves told anyone the fairies could not like witchcraft. 9 D NP CP told the N anyone C elves C that D NP could V DP the fairies like witchcraft 7 of 8

8 Svetlana Godjevac November, 00 (c) Nobody told anyone that the fairies could like witchcraft. nobody T VP 9 CP told anyone C C that D NP could V DP the fairies like witchcraft 8 of 8

Extraposition and Scope: evidence for embedded Late Merge

1 2 nd graduate student workshop in memory of Tanya Reinhart Extraposition and Scope: evidence for embedded Late Merge 1. Two Puzzles from Extraposition 1.1. Non-intersective adjectives and extraposition