Minimalist Machine Derivations

Files: grammar.pl / m12.pl / Back to homepage

Examples:

  • Basic sentence patterns: collapse
    Example Stream of heads (click + ⇇Send) Notes
    (1) John saw Mary [mary, d, see, 'v*', [john, d], 'Tpast', c] One derivation.
    Transitive sentence: v* values acc Case, has edge θ-position.
    (2) John runs [run, 'v_unerg', [john, d], 'T', c] One derivation.
    Unergative sentence: vunerg has an edge θ-position.
    (3) A man arrives [man, a, arrive, 'v~unacc', 'T' ,c] One derivation.
    Unaccusative sentence: v~unacc values θ and has an edge feature. (See Sobin examples.)
    (4) There arrived a man [man, a, arrive,'v~unacc', there, 'Tpast', c] One derivation.
    Expletive unaccusative construction: v~unacc values θ and edge feature satisfied by Merge of there.
    (5) John was arrested [john, d, arrest, prt, 'v~', 'Tpast' ,c] One derivation.
    Passive sentence: v* replaced by v~ and prt. v~ values θ. (See Sobin examples.) Passive participle prt has unvalued Case and ɸ. (See Derivation by Phase examples.)
    (6) Who saw John? [john, d, see, 'v*', [who, q], 'Tpast', c_Q] One derivation.
    Subject wh-question: CQ has unvalued Wh and T (simultaneously) valued by corresponding features on who. (See Pesetsky & Torrego examples.)
    (7) What does John see? [what:n, q, see, 'v*', [john, d], 'T', c_Q] One derivation.
    Object wh-question: CQ has unvalued Wh and T valued from what and (head of) T, respectively. (See Pesetsky & Torrego examples.)
    (8) Who arrived? [who, q, arrive,'v~unacc', 'Tpast', c_Q] One derivation.
    Unaccusative wh-question: CQ Wh and T simultaneously valued by who. (See Pesetsky & Torrego examples.)
    • Machine Parameters: expand

    Animation:
    (2) John runs

    Derivation:
    (2) John runs

    Stream:[[run],[vunerg],[[john!D],[d!case!N]],[T!phi],[c]]
    Stack (⥥):
    SO:[]

    Step 1.

    Head of stream [run] is the initial SO
    Stream:[[vunerg],[[john!D],[d!case!N]],[T!phi],[c]]
    Stack (⥥):
    SO:[run]

    Step 2.

    Merge [vunerg] and [run]
    Label from [vunerg] (leftmost by default)
    Stream:[[[john!D],[d!case!N]],[T!phi],[c]]
    Stack (⥥):
    SO:[vunerg[vunerg][run]]

    Step 3.

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

    Step 4.

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

    Step 5.

    Merge [d!case!N] and [john!D]
    Label from [d!case!N] (syntactic head with an unvalued uF)
    Inherit interpretable feature(s) [f(phi,[3,sg,n])] from [john!D]
    [d!case!N] values D on [john!D]
    [john] values N on [d!case!N]
    Stream:[]
    Stack (⥥):
    SO:[d!case[d][john]]
    End substream, SO [d!case[d][john]] re-inserted into main stream

    Step 6.

    Stream:[[d!case[d][john]],[T!phi],[c]]
    Stack (⥥):
    SO:[vunerg[vunerg][run]]

    Step 7.

    Merge [vunerg[vunerg][run]] and [d!case[d][john]]
    Label from [vunerg[vunerg][run]] (edge feature)
    Theta-mark [d!case[d][john]]
    Push [d!case[d][john]] (unvalued uF) onto stack
    Stream:[[T!phi],[c]]
    Stack (⥥):[d!case[d][john]]
    SO:[vunerg[d!case[d][john]][vunerg[vunerg][run]]]

    Step 8.

    Merge [T!phi] and [vunerg[d!case[d..][john..]][vunerg[vunerg..][run..]]]
    Label from [T!phi] (syntactic head merging with a non-head)
    [d!case[d][john]] values uPhi on [T!phi]
    [T] values nom case on [d!case[d][john]]
    Stream:[[c]]
    Stack (⥥):[d[d][john]]
    SO:[T[T][vunerg[d[d][john]][vunerg[vunerg][run]]]]

    Step 9.

    Internal merge selected
    Merge [T[T][vunerg[d..][vunerg..]]] and [d[d][john]]
    Label from [T[T][vunerg[d..][vunerg..]]] (edge feature)
    Stream:[[c]]
    Stack (⥥):[d[d][john]]
    SO:[T[d[d][john]][T[T][vunerg[d[d][john]][vunerg[vunerg][run]]]]]

    Step 10.

    Merge [c] and [T[d[d..][john..]][T[T..][vunerg..]]]
    Label from [c] (syntactic head merging with a non-head)
    Stream:[]
    Stack (⥥):[d[d][john]]
    SO:[c[c][T[d[d][john]][T[T][vunerg[d[d][john]][vunerg[vunerg][run]]]]]]

    Step 11.

    Local Extent boundary at [c[c][T[d..][T..]]]
    New boundary (b) marker stacked
    Stream:[]
    Stack (⥥):b
    [d[d][john]]
    SO:[c[c][T[d[d][john]][T[T][vunerg[d[d][john]][vunerg[vunerg][run]]]]]]

    Parse:
    Spell-out:
    John -s run (after morpheme realization)
    John run -s (after affix-hop)
    John run -s (after morpheme realization, stage 2)
    John runs  

    One derivation found.
    Computational Cost:
    Merge: 6, Agree: 4, Unify: 0, Push: 1, Boundaries: 1, Inject: 0
    Non-TOS access: 0, Pop: 0, Depth cost: 1
    Step:01234567891011
    Stack depth:000000011112

    Back to top