Download Lecture 07 - ELTE / SEAS

Lecture 7: Tense and Negation
ADVANCED SYNTAX
INTRODUCTION: CLAUSE STRUCTURE

The clause is made up of
distinct structural areas
with different semantic
purposes

The VP
 One
or more verbal head
introducing arguments

The IP
 An
inflectional head introducing
finiteness

The CP
A
complementiser introducing
force
THE NON-THEMATIC VP

Between the thematic VP and the IP there can be
other elements which are verbal but not thematic


These elements are to do with voice and aspect


They don’t introduce arguments
... That John has been being
followed
perfect progressive passive
We have argued that these elements are
represented by the bound morphemes
The verb moves to support the nearest one of these
 Auxiliaries are inserted to support the rest


ha -s
be -en
be -ing
-en show
THE NON-THEMATIC VP

We will distinguish these non-thematic verbal elements
by denoting them as “v” (as opposed to V)


While little v is clearly verbal and non-thematic, we
cannot say that it is functional either, as that would
make it indistinguishable from inflection:




This is commonly called ‘little v’
Verb = [-F, +V, -N]
Inflection = [+F, +V, -N]
We don’t want to add another categorial feature as that
would predict an extra 8 more distinct categories
The solution is to allow categories to be undefined on
certain features

Little v = [+V, -N]
THE NON-THEMATIC VP STRUCTURE POSITION

The inflection seems to be able to
have a VP or a vP complement,
depending on whether there are
aspectual morphemes:
He may [VP win the race]
 He had [vP been winning the race]


I selects for [-F, +V, -N] complements
This covers thematic VPs which have
exactly these features
 And vPs, which are not defined for the
[F] feature

THE PROBLEM
Auxiliary verbs are inserted to support verbal
morphemes which cannot be supported by the
verb
 The verb can support at most one overt
morpheme

 He
 He
 He
-ed [VP smile ]
-ed
-en [VP see the paper]
-ed
-ing [VP read the paper]
THE PROBLEM

Auxiliary verbs which follow modals and the
infinitive to, do not appear to support any
morpheme:
 They
are always in their base form
 He
may be winning
 ... for him to have won

If there is no morpheme here, there is no
explanation as to why the auxiliary is present
A POSSIBLE SOLUTION
By this reasoning, there must be a morpheme
present in these cases
 This morpheme is phonologically null

 He
may be- winning
 ... for him to have- won
WHAT IS THIS MORPHEME

It is apparently absent in the presence of a
tense inflection:
 He
be–ed (=was) winning
 * He was be- winning

This might suggest that the morpheme has
something to do with tense
TENSE AND MODALS

Modals and the tense morphemes are in
complementary distribution
 He
smiled
 He will smile
 * he will smiled

But this is not completely true
MODAL FORMS

Most modals have two forms






could
might
should
would
Historically these are tense forms
In modern English these forms are not usually used to
express tense distinctions


can
may
shall
will
He might come 
he may come (in the past)
But in some cases they are:

When I was young, I could play the piano
MODAL FORMS

Modals in subordinate clauses are used to
match the tense of the main clause:
I
think he will come
 I thought he would come
 * I thought he will come

This is called tense sequencing
MODAL FORMS

This suggests that tense is not absent with
modals
INFINITIVES AND TENSE
One might have thought that tense and infinitives
are mutually exclusive
 However, again the situation is not so
straightforward
 Infinitives are always subordinate



Like tense sequencing in finite clauses, the time
reference of the infinitive is often dependent on the
main clause
Different types of infinitive have different time
interpretations
CONTROL CLAUSES AND TENSE

The temporal interpretation of a control clause
is co-temporal with the main clause
 He
tried [PRO to start the car]
 He is trying [PRO to start the car]
 He will try [PRO to start the car]

Clearly the ‘trying’ and the ‘starting’ are
happening at the same time (regardless of
whether it is successful)
RAISING CLAUSES AND TENSE

Raising clauses are like control clauses in that
their temporal interpretation is co-temporal
with the main clause
 The
door1 seemed [ t1 to close by itself]
 The door1 seems [ t1 to be closing by itself]
 The door1 seems [ t1 to close by itself]

Like tensed clauses
 the
use of the progressive indicates present time
 the use of the plain verb indicates the habitual
EXCEPTIONAL CLAUSES AND TENSE

Exceptional clauses often refer to an event
which takes place at some point after that
referred to by the exceptional verb
I
expected [the door to open]
 I expect [the door to open]

The door opening (or not) happens at some
time after the expectation is formed
I
expected the door to open, but when I tried it, it
was locked
TENSE IN INFINITIVES - CONCLUSION

If time reference is mediated through a tense
element, it seems that a tense element is present
in the infinitive


In infinitives the tense element is similar to a
pronoun in that its reference is linked to its
antecedent


Though not of the same nature as that in finite clauses
i.e. The tense of the main clause
We might refer to this as ‘anaphoric’ tense
TENSE AND INFLECTION
This all suggests that tense and inflection are
not the same element in a structure
 Therefore we would expect them to have
different positions
 It could be that tense is the phonologically null
morpheme that follows modals and the
infinitival marker:

 He
may be-pres singing
 ... for him to be-ana singing
THE STRUCTURAL POSITION OF TENSE
Clearly the tense element
follows the inflection
 So it must head a phrase that
sits in the complement
position of the inflection

THE CATEGORY OF TENSE
We know that inflection
subcategorises for a [+V, -N]
complement
 Therefore tense must be of
the category ‘little v’

TENSE IN TENSED CLAUSES
Tensed clauses are still IPs
 So there must be an inflection when there is a
morphological tense
 The most obvious suggestion would be that the
inflection is a null morpheme in this case:

 [IP

He  [vP -ed [VP smile]]]
This is what was assumed in BESE
TENSE IN TENSED CLAUSES
But this raises the question of why inflection
must be null when tense is overt and tense
must be null when inflection is overt
 There seems to be a conspiracy to make it look
like tense and inflection are in complementary
distribution when they are not!

TENSE IN TENSED CLAUSES
Another possibility is that the ‘tense’
morphemes ARE inflections
 Therefore they cannot be ‘tense’
 They would get their tense interpretations from
the null tense element that accompanies them

 [IP

He –ed [vP - [VP smile]]]
In this way the tense morpheme is exactly like a
modal
 Though
it carries no modal meaning
TENSE IN TENSED CLAUSES

This allows a very uniform analysis:
 Tense
in English is always null
 Some inflections select present tense
 will,
 Some
can, shall, may, -s/-
inflections select past tense
 would,
 One
 to
could, should, might, must, -ed
inflection select anaphoric tense
TENSE AS A BOUND MORPHEME

The fact that an auxiliary must be inserted after
a modal and an infinitive in cases where the
verb is supporting an aspectual morpheme
shows that tense is a bound morpheme:
 He
will be -
-ing [VP read ]
TENSE AS A BOUND MORPHEME

The fact that no auxiliary is inserted when there
is no aspectual morpheme shows that the verb
can move to support tense
 He
will
- [VP read ]
TENSE AS A BOUND MORPHEME

When there is a bound inflection (-ed or –s)
and the verb cannot support it, we can assume
that the auxiliary is inserted into tense and
then moves to support the inflection
A
verb can support only one OVERT morpheme, but
any number of covert ones
 He
will
-ed be
be-
-
-ing [VP read ]
TENSE AS A BOUND MORPHEME

When there is a bound inflection (-ed or –s)
and there is no other over morpheme, the verb
can move to support both tense and the
inflection
 He
-ed read-
- [VP read ]
TENSE: SUMMARY






Tense is always null
It heads a vP which is the
complement of the inflection
Different inflections select for
different tenses
Tense is a bound morpheme which
needs supporting
When the verb cannot do this, an
auxiliary is inserted
Whatever supports tense will
support the bound inflection by
moving from v to I
NEGATION


Negation in English is typically marked by the use of not
This sits behind the inflection and in front of the main
verb


You shall not pass
It can sit anywhere between these two (with meaning
differences), but not in front of I or behind V






* He not will have been being followed
He will not have been being followed
He will have not been being followed
He will have been not being followed
He will have been being not followed
* He will have been being followed not
THE STATUS OF THE NEGATIVE PARTICLE
It has been argued that not must
be a head of a phrase which sits
in the non-thematic verbal part of
the structure
 This is because it blocks V
movement to I

 He
–d [VP smile] => he smile-d [VP t]
THE STATUS OF THE NEGATIVE PARTICLE

Normally the verb can move to I
(via tense)
 He
smile1-2-ed [vP t2 [VP t1 ]]
THE STATUS OF THE NEGATIVE PARTICLE

But when the negative particle is
present, this movement is blocked


This can be explained by Relativised
Minimality


* he smile1-2-ed [ not [vP t2 [VP t1 ]]
A head must move to its nearest head
position
But this only works if the negative is
a head
THE STATUS OF THE NEGATIVE PARTICLE
In this case, the verb can support
the tense
 But do has to be inserted to
support the inflection

 He
do-ed [ not [ smile1- [ t1 ]]]
do
THE CATEGORY OF NEGATION
If this analysis is correct, the category of the
negative particle must be ‘little v’
 Because:

I
selects for a vP complement
 The phrase headed by the negative can be the
complement of I
EVIDENCE FOR THE VERBAL STATUS OF
NEGATION

Although not does not have many verbal
qualities in English, in other languages the
negative particle can behave like a verb
 Finnish
 tiedän
I-know
 tiedät
you-know
en tiedä
I-not know
et
tiedä
you-not know
PROBLEMS: CONTRACTED NEGATION

The head status of the negative seems to be
supported by negative contraction:
I haven’t seen him
 He isn’t here


This might be treated in the same way that bound
morphemes are:

The auxiliary moves into the negative head before
moving to I
 He

–s –n’t be- here
As heads can only move to head positions, this
seems to show that negation is a head
PROBLEMS: CONTRACTED NEGATION

But this predicts the wrong morpheme order as
the negation should be closer to the verb than
the inflection:
*

He be-n’t-s here
It also isn’t clear why main verbs cannot do the
same thing:
*
He read-n’t the book
PROBLEMS: CONTRACTED NEGATION

Modal auxiliaries can also bear the contracted
negation:

I wouldn’t know
 But
modals cannot move through the negation as they are
higher in the structure

The contracted modals sometimes have a different
base form


Can’t
won’t
shan’t
Some modals cannot appear with the contracted
negation at all

*mayn’t
PROBLEMS: CONTRACTED NEGATION

Such observations argue that the contracted
negation is better seen as a form of auxiliaries
rather than as an independent morpheme
PROBLEMS: INVISIBILITY OF NEGATION
When a bound morpheme cannot be supported by
the main verb, an auxiliary is inserted
 Which auxiliary is used depends on the following
verbal morpheme


Main verb  do
 -ed

Perfect  have
 He

you know  did you know
–ed –en see  he had seen
Everything else  be
 He
–ed –ing run  he was running
 He –ed –en beat  he was beaten
PROBLEMS: INVISIBILITY OF NEGATION

However, the choice of the auxiliary is never
dependent on the presence of the negation
He did not know me
 He had not seen me
 He is not running
 He was not beaten


In these cases, the negation behaves as though it
is invisible


It is the verbal element following the negation that
determines which auxiliary to use
But this is unexpected if negation is a verbal head
ANOTHER POSSIBLE ANALYSIS

In general, modifiers do not interfere with
syntactic processes:
 Did
he always know the answers?
 He has sometimes watched the news
 He is often running
This might suggest that the negative particle is
an adverbial modifier rather than a verbal head
 So why does it block head movement?

ANOTHER POSSIBLE ANALYSIS

Negative adverbial modifiers have a restricted
position with respect to the verb
I
never win
 * I win never

This is not so for all adverbial modifiers
I
sometimes win
 I win sometimes
ANOTHER POSSIBLE ANALYSIS

We know that the negative particle never
follows the verb
*

he smiled not
When the negative adverb precedes the finite
verb, it must precede the inflection which the
verb is supporting
 He
never win-s
ANOTHER POSSIBLE ANALYSIS

Negative adverbs can precede inflections (with
special emphasis)
 He

never will find out
The negative particle cannot precede the
inflection – even with special emphasis
*
he not will find out
ANOTHER POSSIBLE ANALYSIS

It seems that there are two ordering conditions
The negative particle must precede the main verb
 The negative particle must follow the inflection


These two together will prevent the main verb from
moving to I
* he not smiled
 * he smiled not


The only option left is for the verb to stay below the
inflection and for the inflection to be supported by
do

He did not smile
SUMMARY: NEGATION
Possibly the best analysis for the negative
particle is as an adverbial modifier
 There are two conditions on its placement

 It
cannot follow the verb
 It cannot precede the inflection

Otherwise it can go anywhere between the two