Minimalist Machine Derivations

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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:
    (4) There arrived a man

    Derivation:
    (4) There arrived a man

    Stream:[[man!D],[a!case!N],[arrive],[v~unacc],[there!phi],[Tpast!phi],[c]]
    Stack (⥥):
    SO:[]

    Step 1.

    Head of stream [man!D] is the initial SO
    Stream:[[a!case!N],[arrive],[v~unacc],[there!phi],[Tpast!phi],[c]]
    Stack (⥥):
    SO:[man!D]

    Step 2.

    Merge [a!case!N] and [man!D]
    Label from [a!case!N] (syntactic head with an unvalued uF)
    Inherit interpretable feature(s) [f(phi,[3,sg,n])] from [man!D]
    [a!case!N] values D on [man!D]
    [man] values N on [a!case!N]
    Stream:[[arrive],[v~unacc],[there!phi],[Tpast!phi],[c]]
    Stack (⥥):
    SO:[a!case[a][man]]

    Step 3.

    Merge [arrive] and [a!case[a][man]]
    Label from [arrive] (syntactic head merging with a non-head)
    Theta-mark [a!case[a][man]]
    Push [a!case[a][man]] (unvalued uF) onto stack
    Stream:[[v~unacc],[there!phi],[Tpast!phi],[c]]
    Stack (⥥):[a!case[a][man]]
    SO:[arrive[arrive][a!case[a][man]]]

    Step 4.

    Merge [v~unacc] and [arrive[arrive][a!case[a..][man..]]]
    Label from [v~unacc] (syntactic head merging with a non-head)
    [v~unacc] checks theta on [a!case[a][man]]
    Stream:[[there!phi],[Tpast!phi],[c]]
    Stack (⥥):[a!case[a][man]]
    SO:[v~unacc[v~unacc][arrive[arrive][a!case[a][man]]]]

    Step 5.

    Merge [v~unacc[v~unacc][arrive[arrive..][a..]]] and [there!phi]
    Label from [v~unacc[v~unacc][arrive[arrive..][a..]]] (edge feature)
    Push [there!phi] (unvalued uF) onto stack
    Stream:[[Tpast!phi],[c]]
    Stack (⥥):[there!phi]
    [a!case[a][man]]
    SO:[v~unacc[there!phi][v~unacc[v~unacc][arrive[arrive][a!case[a][man]]]]]

    Step 6.

    Merge [Tpast!phi] and [v~unacc[there!phi][v~unacc[v~unacc..][arrive..]]]
    Label from [Tpast!phi] (syntactic head merging with a non-head)
    Unified phi feature on [Tpast!phi] and [there]
    [a!case[a][man]] values uPhi on [Tpast!phi]
    [Tpast] values nom case on [a!case[a][man]]
    Stream:[[c]]
    Stack (⥥):[there]
    [a[a][man]]
    SO:[Tpast[Tpast][v~unacc[there][v~unacc[v~unacc][arrive[arrive][a[a][man]]]]]]

    Step 7.

    Internal merge selected
    Merge [Tpast[Tpast][v~unacc[there..][v~unacc..]]] and [there]
    Label from [Tpast[Tpast][v~unacc[there..][v~unacc..]]] (edge feature)
    Stream:[[c]]
    Stack (⥥):[there]
    [a[a][man]]
    SO:[Tpast[there][Tpast[Tpast][v~unacc[there][v~unacc[v~unacc][arrive[arrive][a[a][man]]]]]]]

    Step 8.

    Merge [c] and [Tpast[there][Tpast[Tpast..][v~unacc..]]]
    Label from [c] (syntactic head merging with a non-head)
    Stream:[]
    Stack (⥥):[there]
    [a[a][man]]
    SO:[c[c][Tpast[there][Tpast[Tpast][v~unacc[there][v~unacc[v~unacc][arrive[arrive][a[a][man]]]]]]]]

    Step 9.

    Local Extent boundary at [c[c][Tpast[there..][Tpast..]]]
    New boundary (b) marker stacked
    Stream:[]
    Stack (⥥):b
    [there]
    [a[a][man]]
    SO:[c[c][Tpast[there][Tpast[Tpast][v~unacc[there][v~unacc[v~unacc][arrive[arrive][a[a][man]]]]]]]]

    Parse:
    Spell-out:
    there -ed(sg) arrive a man (after morpheme realization)
    there arrive -ed(sg) a man (after affix-hop)
    there arrive -ed(sg) a man (after morpheme realization, stage 2)
    there arrived a man  

    One derivation found.
    Computational Cost:
    Merge: 7, Agree: 5, Unify: 1, Push: 2, Boundaries: 1, Inject: 0
    Non-TOS access: 0, Pop: 0, Depth cost: 6
    Step:0123456789
    Stack depth:0001122223

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