Minimalist Machine Derivations

Files: grammar.pl / m12.pl / Back to homepage

Examples:

  • Explaining TH/EX (Sobin, ms.) and TH/EX, Agreement, and Case in Expletive Sentences (Sobin, 2014).
    Example Instruction stream (clickable) Notes
    (1c) There was a book taken from the shelf
    *There was taken a book from the shelf
    [shelf, the, from, [book, a], take, prt, 'v~', there, 'Tpast', c] TH/EX: a book raises to edge of PRT.
    (1d) There was a book being taken from the shelf
    *There was being a book taken from the shelf
    ?There was being taken a book from the shelf
    [shelf, the, from, [book, a], take, prt, 'v~', prog, 'v~', there, 'Tpast', c] TH/EX: a book raises to edge of progressive be.
    (4a) There was a book about the war taken from the shelf
    *There was taken a book about the war from the shelf
    [shelf, the, from, [book, a, [war, the, about]], take, prt, 'v~', there, 'Tpast', c] Assume adjunct about the war pair-merges.
    TH/EX: a book about the war raises to edge of PRT.
    (4b) *What was there a book about taken from the shelf
    *What was there taken a book about from the shelf
    [shelf, the, from, [book, a, [what:n, q, about]], take, prt, 'v~', there, 'Tpast', c_Q] Assume adjunct about what pair-merges.
    what cannot be extracted from the adjunct.

    Implementation: substream stack merge does not apply to pair-merge.
    (4c) *What was there taken from the shelf [shelf, the, from, [what:n, q], take, prt, 'v~', there, 'Tpast', c_Q] Derivation converges (incorrectly).
    [c_Q] is not blocked from targeting what.
    (13a) There is someone laughing
    (10a) *There laughed someone
    [laugh, v_unerg, [someone, d], prog, 'v~', there, 'T', c] Unergative laugh.
    Leftwards TH/EX not visible.
    (10b) *There watched someone a flying saucer
    (13b) There is someone watching a flying saucer
    [saucer, flying, a, watch, 'v*', [someone, d], prog, 'v~', there, 'T', c] TH/EX: someone raises to edge of progressive be
    (10c) *There fell a book on the floor
    (13c) There is a book falling on the floor
    [book, a, fall, caus, prog, 'v~', there, 'T', c] No visible TH/EX: assume caus selects for inchoative verbal root fall.
    (10d) There arrived a train
    *There a train arrived
    [train, a, arrive, 'v~unacc', there, 'Tpast', c] No TH/EX.
    (1b) There is a train arriving
    *There is arriving a train
    [train, a, arrive, 'v~unacc', prog, 'v~', there, 'T', c] TH/EX: a train raises to edge of progressive be
    (12) A train arrived [train, a, arrive, 'v~unacc', 'Tpast', c]
    (22) There was someone arrested
    *There was arrested someone
    [someone, d, arrest, prt, 'v~', there, 'Tpast', c] TH/EX: passive expletive.
    (23) There was someone being arrested
    *There was being someone arrested
    *There was being arrested someone
    [someone, d, arrest, prt, 'v~', prog, 'v~', there, 'Tpast', c] TH/EX: someone raises to edge of progressive be.
    (26a) There has arrived a train
    (24a) *There has a train arrived
    [train, a, arrive, 'v~unacc', there, perf, v, 'T', c] TH/EX: perfective expletive unaccusative.
    (26b) a train has arrived [train, a, arrive, 'v~unacc', perf, v, 'T', c] Perfective unaccusative.
    (17a) *There has someone laughed [laugh, v_unerg, [someone, d], perf, v, there, 'T', c] Derivation crashes.
    No place to merge there.
    (17b) Someone has laughed [laugh, v_unerg, [someone, d], perf, v, 'T', c]
    (17c) There has been someone laughing
    *There has someone been laughing
    [laugh, v_unerg, [someone, d], prog, 'v~', there, perf, v, 'T', c] TH/EX: someone raises to edge of progressive be
    (22a) There is a book available [book, a, available, a_, 'v~', there, 'T', c] v~ selects for stage-level predicate available.
    (22b) A book is available [book, a, available, a_, 'v~', 'T', c]
    (21a) One book was tiny [[book, one], tiny, v_be, 'Tpast', c] vbe directly selects for the individual-level predicate tiny.
    (21b) *?There was one book tiny [[book, one], tiny, v_be, there, 'Tpast', c] Does not converge.
    vbe has an edge that is filled preferentially from the stack.
    vbe merges TOS one book (not stream there).
    [Note: default policy is to prefer the stream over the stack, i.e. merge over move. The policy can be overridden from the lexicon.]
    (24a) There is a problem [problem, a, be, v_ex, there, 'T', c] [v_ex]: obligatory there-insertion.
    (24b) *A problem is [problem, a, be, v_ex, 'T', c] Derivation crashes.
    Obligatory there-insertion.
    (27a) *There was taken [take, prt, 'v~', there, 'Tpast', c] Derivation crashes.
    PRT is a probe but the stack is empty
    (27b) *There was taken a book [book, a, take, prt, there, 'v~', 'Tpast', c] Derivation crashes.
    In a passive expletive construction: TH/EX is obligatory.
    v~ finds non-theta there.
    (27c) There was a book taken [book, a, take, prt, 'v~', there, 'Tpast', c] TH/EX: passive expletive construction.
    a book raises to edge of PRT.
    (27d) A book was taken [book, a, take, prt, 'v~', 'Tpast', c]
    (51a) We believe there to be a book available [book, a, available, a_, 'v~', there, 'Tinf', believe, 'v*', [we, d], 'T', c]
    (51b) There seems to be a book available [book, a, available, a_, 'v~', there, 'Tinf', seem, v_nop, 'T', c]
    (51c) A book seems to be available [book, a, available, a_, 'v~', 'Tinf', seem, v_nop, 'T', c]