3.3 Null Auxiliaries
Elliptical, gapping, null spellout, silent AUX
3.3-10
(15) He could have helped her, or [she have helped him]
(19) Have-cliticisation
Have can encliticise onto a word W ending
in a vowel or diphthong provided that
(i)W c-commands have and
(ii) W is immediately adjacent to have
3.4 Null T
(21) All finite clauses are TPs headed by an (overt or null) T constituent
(23) TP (25) TP
PRN T´ PRN T´
He T VP He T VP
? V N Do+Af3SgPr V N
enjoys syntax does enjoy syntax
enjoyed Af3SgPr enjoys syntax
Affix Hopping
(Af: Tense Affix)
Chomsky (1995): All heads in a syntactic structure are required to play a role in
determining the meaning of the overall structure.
Cf. perfect have (AUX) vs. causative/experienced have (V)
(31) a. They’ve seen a ghost (perfect have)
b.*They’ve their car serviced regularly (causative have)
c.*They’ve students walk out on them sometimes (experienced have)
Null T in infinitive clauses
(33) a. I have never known [Tom criticise anyone]
him
=> Tom has never been known [to criticise anyone]
b. A reporter saw [Senator Sleaze leave Benny’s Bunny Bar]
=> He was seen [to leave B’s B B]
(35) ECM verbs TP
a. I expect [him to win] N T´
b. I judged [him to be lying] Tom T VP
c. They reported [him to be missing] to V PRN
d. I believe [him to be innocent] criticise anyone
3.6 Null C in finite clauses
(44) We didn’t know [he had resigned] or [that he had been accused of corruption](49) A: What were you going to ask me? B: a. If you feel like a Coke b. Do you feel like a Coke? c.*If do you feel like a Coke?(50) [I am feeling thirsty], but [should I save my last Coke till later]?
(52) Case Condition A pronoun or noun expression is assigned case by the closest case- assigning head which c-commands it
A finite C constituent (whether overt or null) assigns nominative case to the subject of its clause under c-command
3.7 Null C in infinite clauses
(55) I want [Mary to come to Japan] and [for her to see my parents]
(57) obl. for-deletion when immediately follows want
a. *More than anything, she wanted for him to apologise
b. More than anything, she wanted him to apologise
c. She wanted more than anything for him to apologise
d. *She wanted more than anything him to apologise
(58) a. What she wanted was for him to apologise
b.*What she wanted was him to apologise
3.8 Defective clauses
ECM verbs
(67) *We didn’t intend [you to hurt him] or [for him to hurt you](70) a. He is believed to hurt you b. You weren’t intended to hurt him
(72) Impenetrability Condition A constituent in the domain of (i.e. c-commanded by) a complementiser
is impenetrable to (and so cannot be attracted by) a higher head c-commanding the complementiser
(73)*[CP [C Ø] [TP You [Tweren’t] intended [CP [Cfor] [TP you [Tto] hurt anyone]]]] x (PIC)
3.9 Null determiners and quantifiers
(81) a. DP b. DP c. DP
D N D N D N
we linguists you linguists Ø linguists
(82) a. Eggs and many dairy products cause cholesterol
b. I’d like toast and some coffee please QP
Q N
Ø eggs
toast
Longobardi (2005) ‘Toward a Unified Grammar of Reference’
• Italian bare arguments are in fact DPswith a null D
• DP
D NP
∂ potatoes
∂ : phonologically null
N-to-D raising: obligatory for PNs (proper nouns),
impossible for BNs (bare nouns)
Determinerless arguments
(1) PNs(proper names): (2) BNs(bare nouns):
to denote a definite, specific entity mass or plural head nouns
(Kripke 1980)
Ho incontrato Maria/te a. Bevo sempre vino
'I met Maria/you.' 'I always drink wine.‘
b. Ho mangiato patate
'I ate potatoes.'
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