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:
    (7) What does John see?

    Derivation:
    (7) What does John see?

    Stream:[[what!D],[q!case!N!scope],[see],[v*!phi],[[john!D],[d!case!N]],[T!phi!v],[cQ!wh!T]]
    Stack (⥥):
    SO:[]

    Step 1.

    Head of stream [what!D] is the initial SO
    Stream:[[q!case!N!scope],[see],[v*!phi],[[john!D],[d!case!N]],[T!phi!v],[cQ!wh!T]]
    Stack (⥥):
    SO:[what!D]

    Step 2.

    Merge [q!case!N!scope] and [what!D]
    Label from [q!case!N!scope] (syntactic head with an unvalued uF)
    Inherit interpretable feature(s) [f(phi,[3,sg,n])] from [what!D]
    [q!case!N!scope] values D on [what!D]
    [what] values N on [q!case!N!scope]
    Stream:[[see],[v*!phi],[[john!D],[d!case!N]],[T!phi!v],[cQ!wh!T]]
    Stack (⥥):
    SO:[q!case!scope[q!scope][what]]

    Step 3.

    Merge [see] and [q!case!scope[q!scope][what]]
    Label from [see] (syntactic head merging with a non-head)
    Theta-mark [q!case!scope[q!scope][what]]
    Push [q!case!scope[q!scope][what]] (unvalued uF) onto stack
    Stream:[[v*!phi],[[john!D],[d!case!N]],[T!phi!v],[cQ!wh!T]]
    Stack (⥥):[q!case!scope[q!scope][what]]
    SO:[see[see][q!case!scope[q!scope][what]]]

    Step 4.

    Merge [v*!phi] and [see[see][q!case!scope[q..][what..]]]
    Label from [v*!phi] (syntactic head merging with a non-head)
    [q!case!scope[q!scope][what]] values uPhi on [v*!phi]
    [v*] values acc case on [q!case!scope[q!scope][what]]
    Stream:[[[john!D],[d!case!N]],[T!phi!v],[cQ!wh!T]]
    Stack (⥥):[q!scope[q!scope][what]]
    SO:[v*[v*][see[see][q!scope[q!scope][what]]]]

    Step 5.

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

    Step 6.

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

    Step 7.

    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 8.

    Stream:[[d!case[d][john]],[T!phi!v],[cQ!wh!T]]
    Stack (⥥):[q!scope[q!scope][what]]
    SO:[v*[v*][see[see][q!scope[q!scope][what]]]]

    Step 9.

    Merge [v*[v*][see[see..][q..]]] and [d!case[d][john]]
    Label from [v*[v*][see[see..][q..]]] (edge feature)
    Theta-mark [d!case[d][john]]
    Push [d!case[d][john]] (unvalued uF) onto stack
    Stream:[[T!phi!v],[cQ!wh!T]]
    Stack (⥥):[d!case[d][john]]
    [q!scope[q!scope][what]]
    SO:[v*[d!case[d][john]][v*[v*][see[see][q!scope[q!scope][what]]]]]

    Step 10.

    Merge [T!phi!v] and [v*[d!case[d..][john..]][v*[v*..][see..]]]
    Label from [T!phi!v] (syntactic head merging with a non-head)
    [d!case[d][john]] values uPhi on [T!phi!v]
    [T!v] values nom case on [d!case[d][john]]
    Relativized TOS search for iF(v) skipping [d[d][john]]
    Relativized TOS search for iF(v) skipping [q!scope[q!scope][what]]
    [T!v] attracts [v*[d[d..][john..]][v*[v*..][see..]]]
    Merge [T[T][v*[d..][v*..]]] and [v*]
    Label from [T[T][v*[d..][v*..]]] (edge feature)
    Stream:[[cQ!wh!T]]
    Stack (⥥):[d[d][john]]
    [q!scope[q!scope][what]]
    SO:[T[v*][T[T][v*[d[d][john]][v*[v*][see[see][q!scope[q!scope][what]]]]]]]

    Step 11.

    Internal merge selected
    Merge [T[v*][T[T..][v*..]]] and [d[d][john]]
    Label from [T[v*][T[T..][v*..]]] (edge feature)
    Stream:[[cQ!wh!T]]
    Stack (⥥):[d[d][john]]
    [q!scope[q!scope][what]]
    SO:[T[d[d][john]][T[v*][T[T][v*[d[d][john]][v*[v*][see[see][q!scope[q!scope][what]]]]]]]]

    Step 12.

    Merge [cQ!wh!T] and [T[d[d..][john..]][T[v*..][T..]]]
    Label from [cQ!wh!T] (syntactic head merging with a non-head)
    Relativized TOS search for iF(wh) skipping [d[d][john]]
    [q!scope[q!scope][what]] values wh on [cQ!wh!T]
    [d[d][john]] values T on [cQ!T]
    Internal merge selected
    Merge [cQ[cQ][T[d..][T..]]] and [d[d][john]]
    Label from [cQ[cQ][T[d..][T..]]] (edge feature)
    [cQ] values uscope on [q!scope[q!scope][what]]
    Merge [cQ[d[d..][john..]][cQ[cQ..][T..]]] and [q[q][what]]
    Label from [cQ[d[d..][john..]][cQ[cQ..][T..]]] (edge feature)
    Stream:[]
    Stack (⥥):[d[d][john]]
    [q[q][what]]
    SO:[cQ[q[q][what]][cQ[d[d][john]][cQ[cQ][T[d[d][john]][T[v*][T[T][v*[d[d][john]][v*[v*][see[see][q[q][what]]]]]]]]]]]

    Step 13.

    Local Extent boundary at [cQ[q[q..][what..]][cQ[d..][cQ..]]]
    New boundary (b) marker stacked
    Stream:[]
    Stack (⥥):b
    [d[d][john]]
    [q[q][what]]
    SO:[cQ[q[q][what]][cQ[d[d][john]][cQ[cQ][T[d[d][john]][T[v*][T[T][v*[d[d][john]][v*[v*][see[see][q[q][what]]]]]]]]]]]
    Conceptual-Intensional (CI) Interface: [cQ] + edge [[q[q][what]],[d[d][john]]] constitutes an ill-formed interrogative!

    Backtrack

    Stream:[[cQ!wh!T]]
    Stack (⥥):[d[d][john]]
    [q!scope[q!scope][what]]
    SO:[T[d[d][john]][T[v*][T[T][v*[d[d][john]][v*[v*][see[see][q!scope[q!scope][what]]]]]]]]
    re-doing step 12

    Step 14.

    [cQ!T] attracts [T[d[d..][john..]][T[v*..][T..]]]
    Internal merge selected
    Merge [cQ[cQ][T[d..][T..]]] and [v*]
    Label from [cQ[cQ][T[d..][T..]]] (edge feature)
    Merge [cQ[v*][cQ[cQ..][T..]]] and [T]
    Label from [cQ[v*][cQ[cQ..][T..]]] (edge feature)
    [cQ] values uscope on [q!scope[q!scope][what]]
    Merge [cQ[T][cQ[v*..][cQ..]]] and [q[q][what]]
    Label from [cQ[T][cQ[v*..][cQ..]]] (edge feature)
    Stream:[]
    Stack (⥥):[d[d][john]]
    [q[q][what]]
    SO:[cQ[q[q][what]][cQ[T][cQ[v*][cQ[cQ][T[d[d][john]][T[v*][T[T][v*[d[d][john]][v*[v*][see[see][q[q][what]]]]]]]]]]]]

    Step 15.

    Local Extent boundary at [cQ[q[q..][what..]][cQ[T..][cQ..]]]
    New boundary (b) marker stacked
    Stream:[]
    Stack (⥥):b
    [d[d][john]]
    [q[q][what]]
    SO:[cQ[q[q][what]][cQ[T][cQ[v*][cQ[cQ][T[d[d][john]][T[v*][T[T][v*[d[d][john]][v*[v*][see[see][q[q][what]]]]]]]]]]]]
    CI: wh-question

    Parse:
    Spell-out:
    what -s do John see (after morpheme realization)
    what do -s John see (after affix-hop)
    what do -s John see (after morpheme realization, stage 2)
    what does John see  

    One derivation found.
    Computational Cost:
    Merge: 14, Agree: 12, Unify: 0, Push: 2, Boundaries: 2, Inject: 0
    Non-TOS access: 3, Pop: 0, Depth cost: 9
    Step:0123456789101112131415
    Stack depth:0001100012222323

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