Linguistics 550
Assignment 1

Due:

Exercise 1

In Notes 1, the structural condition in (1) (= (10) in Notes 1) was proposed for personal pronouns.

(1) Personal pronouns must be free.

The condition in (1) is satisfied by both sentences in (2) (= (4) in Notes 1), yet the personal pronoun and the full noun phrase cannot be coindexed in (2b).

(2) a.   [ Her ]1 brother helped [ Zelda ]1,2.
b. [ She ]1 helped [ Zelda ]2,*1.

This suggests that syntactic structure plays a role not only in the interpretation of personal pronouns, but in that of full (= nonpronominal) noun phrases as well.

A. Using the grammar tool in English binding 1, build trees for the sentences in (2). (You won't be able to include the subscripts in your trees; don't worry about this.)

B. Using the terminology introduced in Notes 1, formulate a structural constraint on full noun phrases that accounts for the available interpretations in (2). (You need not consider facts beyond (2), though of course you are welcome to do so.)

Exercise 2

A. Using the grammar tool in English binding 1, build trees for the sentences in (3) and (4).

(3) a. [ Zelda ]1 helped [ herself ]1.
b. * [ Herself ]1 helped [ Zelda ]1.
(4) a. i. * [ Zelda's ]1 sister helped [ herself ]1.
ii. [ Zelda's sister ]1 helped [ herself ]1.
b. * [ Herself's ]1 sister helped [ Zelda ]1.

B. Using the terminology introduced in Notes 1, formulate a structural condition governing reflexive pronouns that accounts for the data in (3) and (4).

C. Why is (3b) ungrammatical? Your answer should be brief, but exhaustive.

Exercise 3

The languages of the world differ in their basic constituent order. Most languages (about 60%) are SOV (that is, subjects precedes objects, and both precede the verb). There are also many languages (about 40%) that are SVO, like English. Very rarely, languages are VOS. Despite their rarity, VOS languages are very important for linguistic theory. Because their linear order is so different from that of the more common languages, they provide an excellent opportunity to test putative universals concerning the role of hierarchical structure.

The sentences in (5) are Malagasy, a VOS language spoken in Madagascar. (Source: Reinhart 1983:47)

(5) a. namono azy ny anadahin d Rakoto
killed him the sister of Rakoto
'[ Rakoto's ]1 sister killed [ him ]1.'
b. * namono ny anadahin d Rakoto izy
killed the sister of Rakoto he
Intended interpretation: '[ Rakoto ]1 killed [ his ]1 sister.'

A. Using the grammar tool in Malagasy binding, build trees for the sentences in (5).

B. Explain the contrast in (5).

Note: Here and throughout the exercise, be sure to analyze the facts of Malagasy, not the English translations.

C. Predict whether the sentences in (6) are grammatical under the intended interpretation. If you predict they are not, do you hold the personal pronoun or the full noun phrase to be responsible for the ungrammaticality? If necessary, use the Malagasy grammar tool to build trees.

(6) a. namono azy Rakoto
killed him Rakoto
Intended interpretation: '[ Rakoto ]1 killed [ himself ]1.'
b. namono Rakoto izy
killed Rakoto he
Intended interpretation: '[ Rakoto ]1 killed [ himself ]1.'

Exercise 4 (optional)

Given the definition of c-command in (7) (= (8) in Notes 1), a node c-commands itself.

(7)     c-command: A c-commands B iff (= if and only if) the first branching node that dominates A also dominates B.

Given the data discussed so far, is this fact problematic? If so, how, and how might the problem be eliminated?