1 Ling. 503 Features and Head Movement 3/2/10 AGREE: An

Ling. 503
Features and Head Movement
3/2/10
AGREE: An uninterpretable feature is checked when the object itʼs on is in a ccommand relation with another object that bears a matching feature.
1. a. Languages differ in whether checking of tense, agreement, Case and WH
require linear adjacency, but they do not differ in whether structure-building
requires adjacency. (i.e., qualitative difference between c-selection features
other features.)
b. morphological marking of tense, focus, question, agreement often shows
up on something other than the phrase on which it is interpreted.
T[past]
X[F: val]...Y[uF:
Reason for doing it this way:
2.
V+v[u tense]
] 
X[F: val]...Y[uF: val
]
-to get tense on first aux or V
-to restrict tense to verbal categories
-to associate the tense feature with ONE verbal
head
a. We have not been reading War and Peace.
b. They may not have read War and Peace.
c. *They read not War and Peace.
 What features does ʻhaveʼ bear?
 What features does “been” bear? How about “read”?
3. French:
a. Jean nʼa pas aime Marie.
J
has not loved M
ʻJean didnʼt love Marieʼ
c. Jean a beacoup aime Marie
J has a lot
love M
ʻJean has loved Marie a lotʼ
b. Jean nʼaime pas Marie.
J
love
not M
ʻJean doesnʼt love Marieʼ
d. Jean aime beaucoup Marie
J love a lot
M
ʻJean loves Marie a lot.ʼ
1 4. Swedish:
a. ...om hon inte hark opt boken
whether she not has bought book
ʻwhether she hasnʼt bought the book.ʼ
b.
om hon inte kopte boken
whether she not bought book
ʻwhether she didnʼt buy the bookʼ
5. Noun Incorporation: (Baker 1988: 81-81)
Yao-wir-aʼa ye- muhweʼ-s ne ka nuhs-aʼ
pre-baby-suf 3sgF-like-Asp the pre-house-suf
ʻThe baby likes the houseʼ
a. *ye-wir-nuhweʼ-s ne ka-nuhs-aʼ.
3sgF-baby-like-ASP the house
Trying to say: ʻThe baby likes the house.ʼ
b. no Mohawk equivalent of “I saw-on the chief Tuesday”
c. no Mohawk equivalent of “The girl made-fall John let ___ the waterpot”
(for “The girl made John let the waterpot fall”)
 Mohawk verbal morphemes seem to originate in independent syntactic
positions
2 “The Mirror Principle” (Baker 1988): Morpheme order mirrors syntactic scope
Chamorro example:
Hu-naʼ-fan-sin-aolak i famaguʼun gi as tatan-niha.
1sS-CAUS-PL-PASS-spank children by father-their
ʻI had the children spanked by their father.ʼ
b.
Hu-sin-naʼ-aolak i famaguʼun gi as tatan-niha.
1sS-PASS-CAUS-spank children by father-their
ʻI was caused to spank the children by their father.ʼ
6. German:
a.
Ich sprache Deutsch.
I speak German
c.
d.
b.
Sprechen zie Deutsch?
speak you German?
Die Frau hat das Buch gelesen
the woman has the book read
'The woman has read the book'.
Hat die Frau das Buch gelesen?
has the woman the book read?
'Has the woman read the book?'
e.
Hans wird Maria getroffen haben.
H will M met
have
'Hans will have met Maria'
f.
Wird Hans Maria getroffen haben?
will Hans M met
have
'Will Hans have met Maria?'
g.
Gestern hat die Frau das Buch gelesen.
yesterday has the woman the book read
ʻYesterday the woman has read the bookʼ
h.
Gestern wird Hans Maria getroffen haben.
yesterday will H
M met
have
'Hans will have met Maria'
i.
Das Buch hat die Frau gelesen.
the book has the woman read
ʻThe woman has read the bookʼ
3