LING 720
October 13 Notes
By Jamie Wurdinger and Onur Senarslan
Audio file located in: https://www.dropbox.com/s/37ny2arqefnyqop/dubinsky1013.mp3?dl=0
Homework problem 6C in Larson Unit 10: Tree II needs to add a syntactic rule for
Rightward Movement to allow for the sentence Kids jumped out from under and out from
behind the sofa. The following is how to conjoin two PPs to share precedence and ccommand of a NP (e.g., the sofa):
PP
PP
PP
NP
conj
PP


Most languages feature proforms but differ in how they are used.
Constituency tests can be used in every language to determine what is replaceable
by proforms.
o For some types of sentences, only certain constituency tests are applicable;
therefore it is necessary to go through all constituency tests before
deciding that a word phrase is not a constituent. E.g., Do-so tests can only
be applied if there is an agent.

Difference between dominance and precedence: Dominance refers to the
mother of a node and refers to only a downward movement on the syntactic tree.
Precedence occurs when Y is to the left of X but does not dominate it. When Y
is a sister/cousin/aunt of X and is to the left of X, Y precedes X.
Negative Polarity Items: While in indicative sentences, NPIs require triggers
that are usually negative (John did not see anything); however, in interrogative
statements the negative triggers are not required (Have you ever seen it?).


Dubinsky emailed the class 3 papers to read, regarding the issues on p. 148 and
the information that led Larson to create Hypothesis C.

Possessive inflectional suffixes: Constituents are used to display shared
possession of a NP or possession of different NPs when there are 2 possessive
subjects in a sentence.
E.g., Bart’s and Maggie’s sons. (see diagram below)
Poss P
Poss P
Poss P
NP
Bart

NP
Conj
Poss P
and
Poss
NP
's
X
Poss P
NP
Maggie
sons
Poss P
Poss
NP
's
X
Grammatically vs. Acceptability and extending the hypothesis on pg. 148 – To
discuss on Wednesday.