Notes on computational linguistics.pdf - UCLA Department of ...

Stabler - Lx 185/209 2003
We can enforce these requirements with selection features. For example, we can augment the previous
grammar as follows:
ɛ:: =T C ɛ:: =T +wh C
-s:: =Modal +k T -s::=Have +k T -s::=Be +k T -s::=v +k T
will:: =Have Modal will:: =Be Modal will:: =v Modal
have:: =Been Have have:: =ven Have
be:: =ving Be been:: =ving Been
ɛ:: =V =D v -en:: =V =D ven -ing:: =V =D ving
eat:: =D +k V laugh:: V
the:: =N D-k which::=N D -k -wh
king:: N pie:: N
Notice that if we could move any of these auxiliary verbs from their position in T to C, we would form
yes-no questions:
He has been eating He is eating He has eaten He will be eating
Hashebeeneating? Isheeating? Hasheeaten? Willhebeeating?
And notice that when there is more than one auxiliary verb, only the first one can move:
He will have been eating
Will he have been eating?
* Have he will been eating?
* Been he will have eating?
This observation and many other similar cases in other languages support the idea that head movement, if it
exists, is very tightly constrained. One simple version of the idea is this one:
Head movement constraint (HMC): A head can only move to the head that selects it
This motivates the following simple extension of the minimalist grammar framework.
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