Domains
1 SOV revised analysis
we saw how SOV is problematic because it is harmonically bound by OSV
similarly with VOS which is harmonically bound by VSO
the problem is that we cannot reduce the effect of sAp or sAp by ranking them low
when both arguments have to be on the same side of the predicate
SOV and OSV do equally well on the argAh and so sAp will always settle the
matter, regardless of where it is ranked
2 But what appears to be going on here is not that the subject needs to precede its
predicate, but that it needs to be first amongst all relevant elements
3 First and last phenomena are quite common
a wh-element doesn’t weakly want to precede a predicate, but strongly wants to precede
every element in its scope
nothing can come in front of a wh-element
(contrastive) topics are another element that strongly want to be first
only other topics can precede a topic
on Wednesday, Mary, John will have to sack
this contrasts what will happen on a number of days and to a number of people
that John will have to sack
final position tends to be reserved for focus promotion
what surprised me was that a man with a suitcase arrived
what surprised me was that a man arrived with a suitcase
4 Gaspar – First/Last constraints
Gaspar suggested that we can capture something coming first or last out of a number
of elements by introducing the notion ‘Domain’
a domain is a set of input elements which act as the host for an alignment
constraint
xPDy
x precedes every element in domain y
a domain can be defined in terms of the shared properties of input elements
e.g. all input elements related to the same predicate (=predicate domain)
e.g. all input elements related to the same interrogative predicate (=interrogative
domain)
whFirstD<int> wh-element is first in the interrogative domain
5 SOV analysis
sFD<pred> > argPp > argFp > argAp > sAp
sFD<pred> argPp argFp argAp sAp
SVO
*!
=> SOV
**
*
**
*
VSO
*!
**
*
VOS
**!
**
*
OSV
*!
OVS
**!
**
*
*
*
*
*
6 Are domains phrases?
the syntax does not define domains as a syntactic unit
there is nothing to say that the elements of a domain have to be together
only that certain things must be in front or behind them
the syntax does not manipulate domains
there are no positions defined where a domain has to go
not all domains are easily defined in terms of a phrase
the set of all topics, the set of all arguments
not all things that are phrases are easily defined as domains
VP, IP as opposed to CP
7 Finish data
predicate domain
contrast precedes predicate domain
subject precedes predicate
prominent things last in predicate domain
hence SVAO
focus first or last
adjacent to a domain = at its edges
subject focus is first
object focus is last
adverbial focus is last
if there is a contrastive element, subject is last
German word order
argument domain
arg1 arg2 arg3Root
weil
Peter dem Studenten das Buch gab
because Peter the students the book gave
arg1PDarg > arg2PDarg > arg3PDarg
rootFDarg
inflection domain
Root pass perf tense
weil
der Brief geschrieben worden
ist
because the letter write-[pass] become-[perf] be-[tense]
“because the letter has been written”
tnsFDinfl > perfFDinfl > passFDinfl
rootPDinfl
combined
root acts as pivot – arg domain precedes inflection domain, not because there is a
specific constraint, but by interaction with root
arg1 arg2 agr3 root pass perf tns
8 Domains and Cyclicity
once the notion of a domain is introduced, we might question the validity of evaluation
cycles
eg whPDint
this will put the wh-element at the beginning of the interrogative domain, which may
be bigger than the predicate domain
hence a wh-subject can be dragged away from its own predicate
treatment of German word order shows how it might be possible to derive the notion of
subject rather than define this as basic
in this case we don’t need constraints like sPp
this analysis positions the predicate (root) with respect to the arguments, not the
arguments with respect to the predicate.