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

Stabler - Lx 185/209 2003
10.2.1 Subject-auxiliary inversion in English
Introductions to transformational syntax like Koopman, Sportiche, and Stabler (2002) and (Fromkin, 2000, §5)
often present a simplified account of English auxiliaries and question formation that can now be be presented
with a lexicon like the following (writing sh::Fs for each (ss,sh,sc::Fs)∈ Lex, sincess and sc are always
empty in the lexicon): 45
ɛ:: =T C 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
With this grammar we have derivations like the following
CP
C’
C TP
DP(0)
D
the
D’
NumP Have
Num’
Num NP
N’
N
king
have
T
T
-s
T’
Have
t
HaveP
Have’
DP
t(0)
venP
V
eat
ven
ven’
ven
-en
VP
V’
V
t
([],[],the king have -s eat -en):C
[]::=T C (the king,have -s,eat -en):T
([],have -s,eat -en):+k T,([],the,king):-k
-s::=>Have +k T ([],have,eat -en):Have,([],the,king):-k
have::=ven Have ([],eat -en,[]):ven,([],the,king):-k
([],eat -en,[]):=D ven
-en::=>V =D ven eat::V
([],the,king):D -k
the::=Num D -k ([],[],king):Num
[]::=N Num king::N
CP
C’
C TP
DP(0)
T’
D’
T BeP
([],[],the king be -s eat -ing):C
D NumP Be T Be’
[]::=T C (the king,be -s,eat -ing):T
the Num’ be -s Be vingP
([],be -s,eat -ing):+k T,([],the,king):-k
Num NP
t DP ving’
-s::=>Be +k T ([],be,eat -ing):Be,([],the,king):-k
N’
t(0) ving VP
be::=ving Be ([],eat -ing,[]):ving,([],the,king):-k
N
V ving V’
([],eat -ing,[]):=D ving
([],the,king):D -k
king
eat -ing V
-ing::=>V =D ving eat::V the::=Num D -k ([],[],king):Num
t
[]::=N Num king::N
45 I follow the linguistic convention of punctuating a string like -s to indicate that it is an affix. This dash that occurs next to a string
should not be confused with the dash that occurs next to syntactic features like -wh.
203