Minimalist Machine Derivations

Files: grammar.txt / m12.txt /

Examples:

  • Additional relative clause examples, mainly from Sag (1997) and Keenan & Hawkins (1987) (11 examples) collapse
    Example Instruction stream (clickable) Notes
    (28) the town where I grew up
    *the town up where I grew
    (Reviewer example)     		[up,grow,[town,where_rel],'v_unerg',[i,d],'Tpast',c_rel,the] Assume the location adverbial [whererel town] is merged at the VP level. Both pair merge and set merge options are tested. Because extraction must take place for relativization, only the set merge option can succeed. (Pair merged adjuncts are inaccessible to probing.)
    [whererel town] is attracted to the edge of Crel by Rel on Crel. whererel cannot value D on town. Next, town raises and its uninterpretable D feature is valued when merged with the.
    However, whererel can value T (as well as Rel) on Crel. By economy, no T-to-C (that) is possible.
    Finally, up does not head a PP with complement [whererel town] (merged at VP level instead). Therefore no pied-piping is possible.
    (29) the baker to place your trust in
    *the baker in to place your trust     		[baker, d_rel, in, [ trust, '\'s', [you, d]], place, 'v*', ['PRO', d0], 'Tinf', c_rel, the] No overt whorel here. Covert Drel is used instead, i.e. internal argument of in is [Drel baker]. [Drel baker] is attracted to the edge of Crel by Rel on Crel. Pied-piping is not an option since Drel is an empty category.
    Drel cannot value D so baker will raise further and its uninterpretable D feature will be checked by the.
    Assume T on Crel is valued by Tinf.
    (Note: the derivation with dyadic in begins at step 28 and concludes at step 54. Simple preposition in is tried first, but fails to converge at steps 16 and 27 for pair and set merge, respectively.)
    (30) the book which inspired them
    *the book which that inspired them
    (Sag 1997: 448)     		[they,d,inspire,'v*',[book,which_rel],'Tpast',c_rel,the] Subject relative. DP [book, whichrel] is attracted to the edge of Crel by Rel on Crel. By economy, whichrel values both T and Rel on Crel, and the T-to-C option is impossible, i.e. *which that.
    However, whichrel cannot value D so book will raise further and D is valued during the merge with the.
    (31) the person whose mother died
    (Sag 1997: 448)     		[mother, '\'s', [person, who_rel], die, 'v~unacc', 'Tpast', c_rel, the] Assume whose here is whorel + 's and die is unaccusative, i.e. [[whorel person]['s mother]] is theta-merged at the internal argument position.
    Furthermore, permit Rel on Crel to find Rel on whorel at the edge of possessive 's.
    [[whorel person]['s mother]] is attracted to the edge of Crel. However, whorel cannot value D on person. Next, person raises and its uninterpretable D feature is valued when merged with the.
    (32) the person whose mother's dog died
    (Sag 1997: 448)     		[dog, '\'s', [mother, '\'s', [person, who_rel]], die, 'v~unacc', 'Tpast', c_rel, the] Analysis is the same as for (31) above, except we permit Rel on Crel to recursively look for Rel at the edge of possessive 's. Internal argument is [[[whorel person] 's mother]['s dog]].
    (33) the person whose mother's dog we were (all) fond of
    (33') the person whose mother's dog that we were (all) fond of
    (33") *the person of whose mother's dog we were (all) fond
    (33"') *the person of whose mother's dog that we were (all) fond
    (Sag 1997: 448)     		[dog, '\'s', [mother, '\'s', [person, who_rel]],of,fond,[we,d],v_be,'Tpast',c_rel,the] [[[whorel person] 's mother]['s dog]] is attracted to the edge of Crel by Rel on Crel. We assume, following (32), that Rel on Crel can find recursively Rel at the edge of possessive 's.
    whorel cannot value D on person. Next, person raises and its uninterpretable D feature is valued when merged with the.
    (33') is predicted as [[[whorel person] 's mother]['s dog]] is not a nominative subject, so economy does not apply. The option of T-to-C generates the complementizer that.
    (33") and (33"') are blocked by a spellout rule *of who, designed to block *the girl of who friends bought the cake.
    (34) the person to whom they dedicated the building
    the person to whom they dedicated the building
    (Sag 1997: 448)     		[person,who_rel,to,[building,the],dedicate,'v*',[they,d],'Tpast',c_rel,the] We assume dyadic to, i.e. the VP is [dedicate [[the building] [to [whorel person]]]]. [whorel person] is attracted to the edge of Crel by Rel on Crel. whorel cannot value D on person. Next, person raises and its uninterpretable D feature is valued when merged with the.
    Pied-piping is permitted as whorel is overt.
    Note: after the two successful derivations, at step 41, the system tries unsuccessfully to employ monadic to with [dedicate [to [whorel person]]]. The problem is the merge of [the building]. At step 48, the attempted XP-YP pair merge of [the building] fails. At step 59, the corresponding XP-YP set merge fails. After that, there are a further two parallel attempts pushing [to [whorel person]] onto the stack.
    (35) [This is] the senator to whose mother's friend's sister's favorite charity the lobbyist had donated a small fortune
    (35') [This is] the senator to whose mother's friend's sister's favorite charity that the lobbyist had donated a small fortune
    (35") [This is] the senator whose mother's friend's sister's favorite charity the lobbyist had donated a small fortune to
    (35"') [This is] the senator to whose mother's friend's sister's favorite charity that the lobbyist had donated a small fortune     		[charity,favorite,'\'s',[sister,'\'s',[friend,'\'s',[mother,'\'s',[senator,who_rel]]]],to,[small,fortune,a],donate,'v*',[lobbyist,the],'Tpast',c_rel,the] Similar derivation to example (34). We wh-relativize senator from the lobbyist donated a small fortune to the senator's mother's friend's sister's favorite charity.
    [[[[[whorel senator]['s mother]]['s friend]]['s sister]]['s favorite charity]] is attracted to the edge of Crel by Rel on Crel. whorel cannot value D, so senator will raise further to form a new head. Determiner the merges with the NP headed by senator, valuing D on senator.
    There are four parses as the options of inserting the complementizer that and the pied-piping of prepositional to are both freely available.
    (36) someone on whom to rely
    *?someone who to rely on
    (Reviewer example, reviewer judgement)     		[someone, who_rel, on, rely, 'v*', ['PRO', d0], 'Tinf', c_rel, d]
    (37) someone to rely on
    *someone on to rely
    (Reviewer example)     		[someone, d_rel, on, rely, 'v*', ['PRO', d0], 'Tinf', c_rel, d] [Drel someone] is attracted to the edge of Crel by Rel on Crel. Drel cannot value D, so someone will raise further. Tinf checks T on Crel. (Drel cannot value T on Crel, T is valued by Tinf instead.
    Pied-piping is blocked by the empty determiner Drel.
    (Note: this lexicon contains both simple prepositional on and dyadic on, e.g. put the book on the shelf. Step 17 onwards using dyadic on fails to derive.)
    (38) someone for you to rely on
    *someone on for you to rely
    (Reviewer example)     		[someone, d_rel, on, rely, 'v*', [you, d], 'Tinf', for, c_rel, d] Assume complementizer for generally licenses an overt subject, you, by assigning Case, cf. PRO in (37). Crel, containing Rel, piggy-backs onto for, attracting [Drel someone] to its edge.
    Covert Drel in [on [Drel someone]] incompatible with pied-piping of on.
    As described in (37), someone will raise further and merge with covert d.
    • Machine Parameters: expand

    Animation:
    (31) the person whose mother died
    (Sag 1997: 448)

    Derivation:
    (31) the person whose mother died
    (Sag 1997: 448)

    Stream:[[mother!D],['s!case!N],[[person!D],[whorel!case!N]],[die],[v~unacc],[Tpast!phi],[crel!rel!T!phi],[the!case!N]]
    Stack (⥥):
    SO:[]

    Step 1.

    Head of stream [mother!D] is the initial SO
    Stream:[['s!case!N],[[person!D],[whorel!case!N]],[die],[v~unacc],[Tpast!phi],[crel!rel!T!phi],[the!case!N]]
    Stack (⥥):
    SO:[mother!D]

    Step 2.

    Merge ['s!case!N] and [mother!D]
    Label from ['s!case!N] (syntactic head with an unvalued uF)
    Inherit interpretable feature(s) [f(phi,[3,sg,n])] from [mother!D]
    ['s!case!N] values D on [mother!D]
    [mother] values N on ['s!case!N]
    Stream:[[[person!D],[whorel!case!N]],[die],[v~unacc],[Tpast!phi],[crel!rel!T!phi],[the!case!N]]
    Stack (⥥):
    SO:['s!case['s][mother]]

    Step 3.

    Begin substream
    Stream:[[person!D],[whorel!case!N]]
    Stack (⥥):
    SO:[]

    Step 4.

    Head of stream [person!D] is the initial SO
    Stream:[[whorel!case!N]]
    Stack (⥥):
    SO:[person!D]

    Step 5.

    Merge [whorel!case!N] and [person!D]
    Label from [whorel!case!N] (syntactic head with an unvalued uF)
    Inherit interpretable feature(s) [f(phi,[3,sg,n])] from [person!D]
    [person!D] values N on [whorel!case!N]
    Push [person!D] (unvalued uF) onto stack
    Stream:[]
    Stack (⥥):[person!D]
    SO:[whorel!case[whorel][person!D]]
    End substream, SO [whorel!case[whorel][person!D]] re-inserted into main stream
    Substream stack [[person!D]] saved for possible stack merge

    Step 6.

    Stream:[[whorel!case[whorel][person!D]],[die],[v~unacc],[Tpast!phi],[crel!rel!T!phi],[the!case!N]]
    Stack (⥥):
    SO:['s!case['s][mother]]

    Step 7.

    Theta-mark [whorel!case[whorel][person!D]]
    ['s!case['s][mother]] values gen case on [whorel!case[whorel][person!D]]
    Merge ['s!case['s][mother]] and [whorel[whorel][person!D]]
    Label from ['s!case['s][mother]] (edge feature)
    Saved substream stack [[person!D]] merged with stack
    Stream:[[die],[v~unacc],[Tpast!phi],[crel!rel!T!phi],[the!case!N]]
    Stack (⥥):[person!D]
    SO:['s!case[whorel[whorel][person!D]]['s['s][mother]]]

    Step 8.

    Local Extent boundary at ['s!case[whorel[whorel..][person..]]['s['s..][mother..]]]
    Stack element [person!D] with unvalued uF found
    New boundary (b) marker stacked
    Restack [person!D] onto stack
    Stream:[[die],[v~unacc],[Tpast!phi],[crel!rel!T!phi],[the!case!N]]
    Stack (⥥):[person!D]
    b
    SO:['s!case[whorel[whorel][person!D]]['s['s][mother]]]

    Step 9.

    Merge [die] and ['s!case[whorel[whorel..][person..]]['s['s..][mother..]]]
    Label from [die] (syntactic head merging with a non-head)
    Theta-mark ['s!case[whorel[whorel..][person..]]['s['s..][mother..]]]
    Push ['s!case[whorel[whorel..][person..]]['s['s..][mother..]]] (unvalued uF) onto stack
    Stream:[[v~unacc],[Tpast!phi],[crel!rel!T!phi],[the!case!N]]
    Stack (⥥):['s!case[whorel[whorel][person!D]]['s['s][mother]]]
    [person!D]
    b
    SO:[die[die]['s!case[whorel[whorel][person!D]]['s['s][mother]]]]

    Step 10.

    Merge [v~unacc] and [die[die]['s!case[whorel..]['s..]]]
    Label from [v~unacc] (syntactic head merging with a non-head)
    [v~unacc] checks theta on ['s!case[whorel[whorel..][person..]]['s['s..][mother..]]]
    Stream:[[Tpast!phi],[crel!rel!T!phi],[the!case!N]]
    Stack (⥥):['s!case[whorel[whorel][person!D]]['s['s][mother]]]
    [person!D]
    b
    SO:[v~unacc[v~unacc][die[die]['s!case[whorel[whorel][person!D]]['s['s][mother]]]]]

    Step 11.

    Internal merge selected
    Merge [v~unacc[v~unacc][die[die..]['s..]]] and ['s!case[whorel[whorel..][person..]]['s['s..][mother..]]]
    Label from [v~unacc[v~unacc][die[die..]['s..]]] (edge feature)
    Stream:[[Tpast!phi],[crel!rel!T!phi],[the!case!N]]
    Stack (⥥):['s!case[whorel[whorel][person!D]]['s['s][mother]]]
    [person!D]
    b
    SO:[v~unacc['s!case[whorel[whorel][person!D]]['s['s][mother]]][v~unacc[v~unacc][die[die]['s[whorel[whorel][person!D]]['s['s][mother]]]]]]

    Step 12.

    Merge [Tpast!phi] and [v~unacc['s!case[whorel..]['s..]][v~unacc[v~unacc..][die..]]]
    Label from [Tpast!phi] (syntactic head merging with a non-head)
    ['s!case[whorel[whorel..][person..]]['s['s..][mother..]]] values uPhi on [Tpast!phi]
    [Tpast] values nom case on ['s!case[whorel[whorel..][person..]]['s['s..][mother..]]]
    Stream:[[crel!rel!T!phi],[the!case!N]]
    Stack (⥥):['s[whorel[whorel][person!D]]['s['s][mother]]]
    [person!D]
    b
    SO:[Tpast[Tpast][v~unacc['s[whorel[whorel][person!D]]['s['s][mother]]][v~unacc[v~unacc][die[die]['s[whorel[whorel][person!D]]['s['s][mother]]]]]]]

    Step 13.

    Internal merge selected
    Merge [Tpast[Tpast][v~unacc['s..][v~unacc..]]] and ['s[whorel[whorel..][person..]]['s['s..][mother..]]]
    Label from [Tpast[Tpast][v~unacc['s..][v~unacc..]]] (edge feature)
    Stream:[[crel!rel!T!phi],[the!case!N]]
    Stack (⥥):['s[whorel[whorel][person!D]]['s['s][mother]]]
    [person!D]
    b
    SO:[Tpast['s[whorel[whorel][person!D]]['s['s][mother]]][Tpast[Tpast][v~unacc['s[whorel[whorel][person!D]]['s['s][mother]]][v~unacc[v~unacc][die[die]['s[whorel[whorel][person!D]]['s['s][mother]]]]]]]]

    Step 14.

    Merge [crel!rel!T!phi] and [Tpast['s[whorel..]['s..]][Tpast[Tpast..][v~unacc..]]]
    Label from [crel!rel!T!phi] (syntactic head merging with a non-head)
    ['s[whorel[whorel..][person..]]['s['s..][mother..]]] values rel on [crel!rel!T!phi]
    ['s[whorel[whorel..][person..]]['s['s..][mother..]]] values T on [crel!T!phi] (economy)
    ['s[whorel[whorel..][person..]]['s['s..][mother..]]] values phi on [crel!phi] (economy)
    [crel] values obq case on ['s[whorel[whorel..][person..]]['s['s..][mother..]]]
    Internal merge selected
    Merge [crel[crel][Tpast['s..][Tpast..]]] and ['s[whorel[whorel..][person..]]['s['s..][mother..]]]
    Label from [crel[crel][Tpast['s..][Tpast..]]] (edge feature)
    Stream:[[the!case!N]]
    Stack (⥥):['s[whorel[whorel][person!D]]['s['s][mother]]]
    [person!D]
    b
    SO:[crel['s[whorel[whorel][person!D]]['s['s][mother]]][crel[crel][Tpast['s[whorel[whorel][person!D]]['s['s][mother]]][Tpast[Tpast][v~unacc['s[whorel[whorel][person!D]]['s['s][mother]]][v~unacc[v~unacc][die[die]['s[whorel[whorel][person!D]]['s['s][mother]]]]]]]]]]

    Step 15.

    Local Extent boundary at [crel['s[whorel..]['s..]][crel[crel..][Tpast..]]]
    Stack element [person!D] with unvalued uF found
    New boundary (b) marker stacked
    Restack [person!D] onto stack
    Stream:[[the!case!N]]
    Stack (⥥):[person!D]
    b
    ['s[whorel[whorel][person!D]]['s['s][mother]]]
    b
    SO:[crel['s[whorel[whorel][person!D]]['s['s][mother]]][crel[crel][Tpast['s[whorel[whorel][person!D]]['s['s][mother]]][Tpast[Tpast][v~unacc['s[whorel[whorel][person!D]]['s['s][mother]]][v~unacc[v~unacc][die[die]['s[whorel[whorel][person!D]]['s['s][mother]]]]]]]]]]

    Step 16.

    Merge [person!D] and [crel['s[whorel..]['s..]][crel[crel..][Tpast..]]]
    Label from [person!D] (syntactic head merging with a non-head)
    Stream:[[the!case!N]]
    Stack (⥥):[person!D]
    b
    ['s[whorel[whorel][person!D]]['s['s][mother]]]
    b
    SO:[person!D[person!D][crel['s[whorel[whorel][person!D]]['s['s][mother]]][crel[crel][Tpast['s[whorel[whorel][person!D]]['s['s][mother]]][Tpast[Tpast][v~unacc['s[whorel[whorel][person!D]]['s['s][mother]]][v~unacc[v~unacc][die[die]['s[whorel[whorel][person!D]]['s['s][mother]]]]]]]]]]]

    Step 17.

    Merge [the!case!N] and [person!D[person!D][crel['s..][crel..]]]
    Label from [the!case!N] (syntactic head merging with a non-head)
    Inherit interpretable feature(s) [f(phi,[3,sg,n])] from [person!D[person!D][crel['s..][crel..]]]
    [the!case!N] values D on [person!D[person!D][crel['s..][crel..]]]
    [person[person][crel['s..][crel..]]] values N on [the!case!N]
    Stream:[]
    Stack (⥥):[person]
    b
    ['s[whorel[whorel][person]]['s['s][mother]]]
    b
    SO:[the!case[the][person[person][crel['s[whorel[whorel][person]]['s['s][mother]]][crel[crel][Tpast['s[whorel[whorel][person]]['s['s][mother]]][Tpast[Tpast][v~unacc['s[whorel[whorel][person]]['s['s][mother]]][v~unacc[v~unacc][die[die]['s[whorel[whorel][person]]['s['s][mother]]]]]]]]]]]]

    Parse:
    Spell-out:
    the person whose mother -ed(sg) die (after morpheme realization)
    the person whose mother die -ed(sg) (after affix-hop)
    the person whose mother die -ed(sg) (after morpheme realization, stage 2)
    the person whose mother died  

    One derivation found.
    Computational Cost:
    Merge: 12, Agree: 13, Unify: 0, Push: 2, Boundaries: 2, Inject: 2
    Non-TOS access: 0, Pop: 0, Depth cost: 22
    Step:01234567891011121314151617
    Stack depth:000001012333333444

    Back to top