Minimalist Machine Derivations

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Examples:
Most recent run: Sept 16th 2023.

  • Basic sentence patterns:
    Example Stream of heads (click + ⇇Send) Notes
    (1) John saw Mary [mary, d, see, 'v*', [john, d], 'Tpast', c] One derivation.
    Transitive sentence: v* values acc Case, has edge θ-position.
    (2) John runs [run, 'v_unerg', [john, d], 'T', c] One derivation.
    Unergative sentence: vunerg has an edge θ-position.
    (3) A man arrives [man, a, arrive, 'v~unacc', 'T' ,c] One derivation.
    Unaccusative sentence: v~unacc values θ and has an edge feature. (See Sobin examples.)
    (4) There arrived a man [man, a, arrive,'v~unacc', there, 'Tpast', c] One derivation.
    Expletive unaccusative construction: v~unacc values θ and edge feature satisfied by Merge of there.
    (5) John was arrested [john, d, arrest, prt, 'v~', 'Tpast' ,c] One derivation.
    Passive sentence: v* replaced by v~ and prt. v~ values θ. (See Sobin examples.) Passive participle prt has unvalued Case and ɸ. (See Derivation by Phase examples.)
    (6) Who saw John? [john, d, see, 'v*', [who, q], 'Tpast', c_Q] One derivation.
    Subject wh-question: CQ has unvalued Wh and T (simultaneously) valued by corresponding features on who. (See Pesetsky & Torrego examples.)
    (7) What does John see? [what:n, q, see, 'v*', [john, d], 'T', c_Q] One derivation.
    Object wh-question: CQ has unvalued Wh and T valued from what and (head of) T, respectively. (See Pesetsky & Torrego examples.)
    (8) Who arrived? [who, q, arrive,'v~unacc', 'Tpast', c_Q] One derivation.
    Unaccusative wh-question: CQ Wh and T simultaneously valued by who. (See Pesetsky & Torrego examples.)