15.3262, Disc: Re: Linguist 15.3231: Deep Structure/Initial PP

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LINGUIST List: Vol-15-3262. Sat Nov 20 2004. ISSN: 1068 - 4875.

Subject: 15.3262, Disc: Re: Linguist 15.3231: Deep Structure/Initial PP

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1)
Date: 20-Nov-2004
From: Thomas Hoffmann < thomas.hoffmann at sprachlit.uni-regensburg.de >
Subject: Re: Linguist 15.3231: Deep Structure/Initial PP

2)
Date: 20-Nov-2004
From: Daniel Romero < dromero at filo.uba.ar >
Subject: Re: Linguist 15.3231: Deep Structure/Initial PP

3)
Date: 20-Nov-2004
From: Viatcheslav Iatsko < slavay at khsu.ru >
Subject: Re: Linguist 15.3231: Deep Structure/Initial PP



-------------------------Message 1 ----------------------------------
Date: Sat, 20 Nov 2004 11:26:49
From: Thomas Hoffmann < thomas.hoffmann at sprachlit.uni-regensburg.de >
Subject: Re: Linguist 15.3231: Deep Structure/Initial PP


Re: Linguist 15.3231 (http://linguistlist.org/issues/15/15-3231.html)


Just a few quick comments on John Harris's post:

"The usual starting deep structure production for generativists is S--> NP
VP. On this view, to produce a surface sentence starting with an initial
PP, such as At night I wear pajamas, a speaker must first generate a
deep-structure sentence with the PP internal to VP, and then perform a
fronting movement of the PP from its deep structure position within the VP."

1. "Generativists" include Minimalists (cf. e.g. Chomsky 199= 5), people
working within Head-driven Phrase Structure Grammar (cf. e.g. Pollard and
Sag 1994), or Lexical-Functional Grammar (cf. e.g. Bresnan 2001) as well as
tons of other theories. Note that actually most of these do not have a
movement operation (things are inserted where they appear on the "surface").

2. If "generativists" is to refer to Minimalists, then note that

2.1 the Minimalist Program (MP) has an explicit bottom-up nature: elements
combine ("merge") and then either of the two projects its categorical
label, e.g. V + NP --> VP (actually V' or Vmax). Thus, there is no top-down
rewriting process as implied in S --> NP VP;

2.2 the concept of ?deep-structure? has been dispensed with in the MP.
Thematic dependencies (i.e. semantic roles, e.g. the fact that WEAR implies
someone who wears something) are still considered to be merged first,
according e.g. to principles like Bakers Universal Theta Assignment
hypothesis (1997). But that's how the semantics-syntax mapping is assumed
to proceed within the MP and a lot more could be said about that (and as
far as I know, will be said in Cullicover and Jackendoff's fc. "Syntax Made
Simple".


However, within the MP there is nothing which forces you to merge temporal
adjunct PPs such as at night in the VP. If you want to get a good idea as
to how adjuncts are handled in the MP, then you should take a look at Ernst
(2002) where it is said that such temporal sentence PPs can merge into the
pre-subject positon.

Best,
Thomas Hoffmann
University of Regensburg/Germany


References:

Baker, Mark C. 1997. "Thematic roles and syntactic structure". In: Liliane
Haegeman, ed. Elements of Grammar: Handbook in Generative Grammar.
Dordrecht et al.: Kluwer Academic, 73-173.

Bresnan, Joan. 2001. Lexical-Functional Syntax. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.

Chomsky, Noam. 1995. The Minimalist Program. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.

Ernst, Thomas. 2002. The Syntax of Adjuncts. (Cambridge Studies in
Linguistics 96.) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Pollard, Carland Ivan Sag. 1994. Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press.




-------------------------Message 2 ----------------------------------
Date: Sat, 20 Nov 2004 11:26:52
From: Daniel Romero < dromero at filo.uba.ar >
Subject: Re: Linguist 15.3231: Deep Structure/Initial PP



I have always been surprised at attempts to generate surface structures
from deep ones. Perhaps more important for linguistic analysis is a
reverse procedure - a methodology for reducing an infinite number of
surface structures to a limited number of deep structures. Such a
methodology, involving sophisticated procedures of syntactic
decomposition is described at (www.khsu.ru/ida).

V.Iatsko


Linguistic Field(s): Linguistic Theories; Syntax





-------------------------Message 3 ----------------------------------
Date: Sat, 20 Nov 2004 11:26:55
From: Viatcheslav Iatsko < slavay at khsu.ru >
Subject: Re: Linguist 15.3231: Deep Structure/Initial PP



I have always been surprised at attempts to generate surface structures
from deep ones. Perhaps more important for linguistic analysis is a
reverse procedure - a methodology for reducing an infinite number of
surface structures to a limited number of deep structures. Such a
methodology, involving sophisticated procedures of syntactic
decomposition is described at (www.khsu.ru/ida).

V.Iatsko


Linguistic Field(s): Linguistic Theories; Syntax






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