grammatical foundations

Exercise 4

Exercise 4

a)In the sentence John’s message arrived the verb arrive is an unaccusative verb, which takes only one argument, assigning a theme thematic role to it. The argument is in the specifier position of the VP in the D-structure. Since DPs need Case, it has to move to the specifier of the IP, where it gets nominative Case from the finite I head. The higher vP in the structure hosts the tense morpheme -ed, which the lexical verb picks up on its way to I.

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Suggested Answers and Hints - Chapter 6

b) In the sentence David made the ball roll to the wall there are two verbs. Made is a light verb while roll is a thematic verb. The light verb sits in the v head while the thematic verb occupies the V head. The verb roll takes a DP argument, assigning a theme thematic role to it and a PP argument with a goal thematic role. The light verb made hosts an argument DP, assigning an agent thematic role to it. The DP the wall will be assigned Case by the preposition to. The theme argument the ball gets its accusative Case from the v. The DP David cannot be assigned Case in its base position, so it has to move to the specifier of the IP to get Case from the finite I head. The vP on top of the agentive vP contains the tense morpheme. The verb picks up the - ed ending on its way to I.

(2)CP

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Exercise 4

c) The sentence David rolled the ball to the wall is similar in its structure to that in (b), but here we find no overt light verb in the v head position. Actually, the v head is occupied by an abstract light verb represented by e in the structure below. The arguments are the same and Case is assigned to them the same way as described above. The main difference is that the abstract light verb is a bound morpheme, which requires the main verb to move to the v position. The verb roll then moves on to the tense vP and I picking up the tense and agreement morphemes.

(3)CP

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DP2 I©

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Suggested Answers and Hints - Chapter 6

d) In the sentence John sank Jim’s boat the theme argument is in the specifier of the VP, while the agent occupies the specifier of the vP in the D-structure. In the S- structure, the agent DP has to move to a position where Case can be assigned to it. This position is the specifier of IP. The main verb sink has to move as well since the abstract light verb e is a bound morpheme, which requires the main verb to move to v, tense v and then to I.

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Exercise 4

e) The verb sink is an ergative verb. Ergative verbs are similar to unaccusatives insofar as they take a theme argument, which occupies the specifier of the VP. The difference is that in sentences which contain an ergative verb, an agent can also be present. We could see this in sentence (d), where we had the agent DP John. If the agent is not there, the vP will not be projected either. It is actually the abstract light verb in v which requires an agent DP in (4). If there is no v, no agent argument is required. The only argument of the verb cannot receive Case in its base position as it did in (4) since in this structure there is no v head which can assign accusative Case. The I head is not a possible assigner of accusative Case. So the DP Jim’s boat has to move to the specifier of IP, where the I head assigns nominative Case to it. The themtic verb also moves, first to the tense v, then to I to agree with the subject.

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Suggested Answers and Hints - Chapter 6

f) Jim’s boat was sunk is a passive sentence. The main verb is sink, occupying the V head in the D-structure. Now v is not occupied by an abstract light verb as in (4) but by the passive morpheme -en. The main difference between a light verb and the passive morpheme is that the passive morpheme does not take an agent argument and it cannot assign Case to the DP occupying the specifier position of the VP. Since the DP has to receive Case, it has to move to the specifier of IP, where the finite I head assigns nominative Case to it. The passive morpheme in v is a bound morpheme, so the main verb is required to adjoin to it. The other vP in the structure is the tense vP where be is inserted to support the past tense morpheme (remember, in English a thematic verb is not allowed to have more than one inflectional morpheme, so it cannot move to support a second bound morpheme after having moved to the passive vP). Finally, the verb ends up in the I head position.

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Exercise 4

g) In the sentence Bill caught a bird the main verb catch is a transitive verb. The subject is an agent, the object a patient. Since the vP is the extended projection of V, we can say that the DP in the specifier of the vP receives its thematic role indirectly from the main verb. The abstract light verb is a bound morpheme, which requires the main verb to adjoin to it. The DP in the specifier of the VP is assigned Case by the light verb. The other DP in the specifier of the vP also needs Case. Since that position is not a position to which Case is assigned, it has to move to the specifier of IP, where it receives Case from the finite I. The verb catch moves to tense v and then to I.

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Suggested Answers and Hints - Chapter 6

h) The sentence in The bird was caught is passive. The main verb takes a theme argument. The v head is occupied by the passive morpheme -en, which does not assign accusative Case to the DP in the specifier of the VP and it does not assign an agent thematic role to its own specifier position either. That is why there is no agent argument in this sentence. Since the passive morpheme is a bound morpheme, the main verb has to move to v. The theme DP in the specifier of the VP needs to be assigned Case, so it moves to the specifier of IP in order to receive Case from the finite I. A higher tense vP is also projected where the dummy auxiliary be is inserted to support the bound tense morpheme. At the S-structure the auxiliary moves on to the I head.

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Exercise 4

i) The verb cough in the sentence Sam coughed is an intransitive verb. Intransitive verbs take only one argument which is usually an agent. Since the specifier of the VP is the position of the theme argument according to the UTAH, this position is empty in this structure. The agent thematic role is assigned by the light verb to the specifier position of the vP. So the base position of the agent argument is in the specifier of the vP. Since this is no Case position, the DP has to move on to the specifier of the IP in order to receive Case from the finite I head. The thematic verb moves to the tense v and then frther on to I.

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Suggested Answers and Hints - Chapter 6

j) The sentence in the sentence John sent a message to Mary is traditionally called the dative construction. The main verb send is in the V head and assigns a theme thematic role to the DP a message in the specifier of the VP and a goal thematic role to its complement PP. The vP is an extended projection of the VP, so the main verb assigns an agent thematic role indirectly via the v to the DP in the specifier of the vP. The DP Mary receives accusative Case from the preposition to while the DP a message gets its accusative Case from the v head. Since the light verb is a bound morpheme, the main verb adjoins to the v head and then moves on to the tense v and I to agree with the subject. The DP in the specifier of the vP needs to be assigned Case as well, so it has to move to the specifier of the IP.

(10)CP

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C IP

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k) The sentence Mary was sent a message is a passive sentence with the so called double object construction. The main verb is in V in the D-structure. The theme argument a message occupies the specifier of the VP, the agent DP is absent in passive structures, the vP hosting the agentive DP is replaced by the passive vP. The third argument DP is in the complement position of the main verb and it is assigned a goal thematic role by the verb. The DP a message receives accusative Case in its base position, so it does not have to move. The DP Mary, however, needs to move to a Case position. First it moves to the specifier of the lower vP, which is the position for DPs with a goal thematic role in double-object constructions. In an active sentence, the DP Mary can stop in this position, since it can receive Case here as it can be attested in the sentence in (11).

(11)John sent Mary a message.

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