| (1) | Pronouns must be free. |
The condition in (1) is satisfied in both sentences in (2) (= (4) in Chapter 1), yet the 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 hierarchical structure plays a role not only in the interpretation of 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). (Disregard the indices when building your trees, as the grammar tool doesn't allow you to include them.)
B. Using the terminology introduced in Chapter 1, formulate a
structural condition concerning full noun phrases that accounts for the
facts in (2).
Exercise 2
A. Using the grammar tool in English
binding 1, build trees for the sentences in (3) and (4). (Since the
grammar tool doesn't allow you to include indices, a single tree is
sufficient for the two subcases of (4a).)
| (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 Chapter 1, formulate a structural condition concerning reflexive pronouns that accounts for the data in (3) and (4).
Note: In traditional grammatical terminology, which we adopt for the moment, reflexive pronouns (which end in -self or -selves in English) are distinguished from the ordinary or personal pronouns discussed in Chapter 1 and Exercise 1.
C. Why is (3b) ungrammatical? Your answer should be brief, but
exhaustive.
The sentences in (5) are Malagasy, a VOS language spoken in Madagascar
(Reinhart 1983:47). The
abbreviations used in the word-for-word glosses are explained in Abbreviations, glossary, and symbols.
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.
| (5) | a. | namono | azy | ny | anadahin | d | Rakoto. | |
| killed | 3 sg m O | the | sister | of | Rakoto | |||
| '[ Rakoto's ]1 sister killed [ him ]1.' | ||||||||
| b. | * | namono | ny | anadahin | d | Rakoto | izy. | |
| killed | the | sister | of | Rakoto | 3 sg m S | |||
| Literally: 'He1 killed
Rakoto's1 sister.' 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 grammaticality contrast in (5).
Note: Here and throughout this exercise, be sure to analyze the Malagasy data, not the English word-for-word glosses or free translations.
C. Using the grammar tool in Malagasy binding, build trees for the sentences in (6).
| (6) | a. | namono | azy | Rakoto | |
| killed | 3 sg m O | Rakoto | |||
| b. | namono | Rakoto | izy | ||
| killed | Rakoto | 3 sg m S | |||
D. Can either azy or izy be coindexed with Rakoto
in (6)? That is, can either of the sentences in (6) be interpreted as
'Rakoto killed himself'? If not, why not?
Exercise 4
Show that each of the statements in (7) is false. Feel free to use
nonlinguistic trees, where the terminal (= bottom) nodes of the trees
are alphabetic symbols rather than words.
| (7) | a. | If A c-commands B, then A precedes B. | |
| b. | If A precedes B, then A c-commands B. | ||
| c. | If A c-commands B, then B c-commands A. |
Given the definition of c-command in (8) (= (11) in Chapter 1), a node c-commands itself.
| (8) | 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, explain why this is problematic, and suggest a way of eliminating the problem.