Minimalist Machine Derivations

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Examples:

  • A Minimalist account of reconstruction asymmetries (Munn, 1994).
    Example Instruction stream (clickable) Notes
    (15a) The picture of himself1 that Bill1 likes
    The picture of himself1 Bill1 likes    		 [bill, d, he, self, of, picture, d_rel, like, 'v*', 'T', c_rel, the] Two derivations.
    Doubling Constituent (DC) self-he-Bill object of preposition of.
    Object of likes is drel-picture-of-DC.
    drel has iRel but cannot check picture's uD feature.
    Bill restacked at Local Extent (LE) boundary headed by self.
    v* merges TOS Bill to its edge.
    crel has uT and uRel, and heads a LE.
    Two ways to satisfy crel using Pesetsky and Torrego (2001):
    (1) T to edge of crel => that
    (2) Nom Case-marked Bill to edge of crel => empty
    At the LE boundary, picture of self-he-Bill (uD) is restacked.
    Head picture of the TOS picture of self-he-Bill merges with crelP.
    picture labels (head merging with non-head).
    Stream the merges with SO headed by picture.
    [Spellout Note: Bill has been separately moved to the subject of the embedded clause. Thus although drel pictures of self-he-Bill is raised higher (to the edge of crel), Bill is pronounced in the lower position, not at the edge of the clause.]
    (15b) The picture of Bill1 that he1 likes
    The picture of Bill1 he1 likes    		 [he, d, bill, d, of, picture, d_rel, like, 'v*', 'T', c_rel, the] Bill-he is not a regular DC (cf. he-Bill).
    [Note: in a regular DC, e.g. he-John, the pronominal he triggers DC merge in which John will be stacked but not made visible to stack operations such as probe-goal and internal merge until a LE boundary is encountered later on in the derivation.]
    he (uCase) is (visibly) stacked when merged with Bill.
    drel has iRel but cannot check picture's uD feature.
    v* merges he to its edge.
    crel has uT and uRel, and heads a LE.
    crel satisfied by either T or he (locally nom Case-marked) to C.
    At the LE boundary, picture of Bill-he (uD) is restacked.
    Extract head picture (uD) and merge with crelP.
    picture labels (head merging with non-head).
    Stream the merges with SO headed by picture.
    (19a) Pictures of himself1 are hard for John1 to like [john, d, he, self, of, pictures, d, pro, like, 'v*', 'Tinf', for, hard, 'v_be', 'T', c] Doubling Constituent (DC) pro-pictures of self-he-John with another DC self-he-John embedded inside.
    Determiner self heads a Local Extent (LE) phrase.
    Doubling constituent (DC) self-he-John triggers stacking of John.
    Embedded v* merges TOS John to its edge.
    Tinf does not value case for John.
    Assume for is a complementizer that probes and values Case. Then John's uCase feature is valued.
    Assume for heads a LE phase.
    Then at the LE boundary, pictures of self-he-John (with unvalued uCase) is re-stacked.
    Matrix vbe merges TOS pictures of self-he-John to its edge.
    [Spellout Note: John has been separately moved to the subject of the embedded clause. Thus although pictures of self-he-John is raised higher (to the matrix subject), John is pronounced in the lower clause, not the matrix clause.]
    (19b) Pictures of John1 are hard for him1 to like [he, d, john, d, of, pictures, d, pro, like, 'v*', 'Tinf', for, hard, 'v_be', 'T', c] DC pro-pictures of John-he with a (pseudo) DC John-he embedded inside.
    John-he is not a regular DC (cf. he-John).
    In particular, he (with unvalued uCase) is stacked when merged with John.
    [Note: in a regular DC, e.g. he-John, the pronominal he triggers DC merge in which John will be stacked but not made visible to stack operations such as probe-goal and internal merge until a LE boundary is encountered later on in the derivation.]
    Regular DC head pro merges with pictures of John-he.
    pictures of John-he is stacked but will not be available until the boundary of a LE has been built.
    Embedded v* merges non-TOS he to its edge.
    [Note: TOS pictures of John-he is not selected because it already has a theta-role assigned. Edge of v* is a theta-position.]
    Assume for is a complementizer that probes and values Case. Then he's uCase feature is valued.
    Assume for heads a LE phase.
    Then at the LE boundary, pictures of he-John (with unvalued uCase) is re-stacked.
    Matrix vbe merges TOS pictures of he-John to its edge.
    Extra test cases
    (x1) *The picture of him1 that Bill1 likes [bill, d, he, d, of, picture, d_rel, like, 'v*', 'T', c_rel, the] Doubling Constituent (DC) he-Bill.
    Bill is not restacked in time for merge to the edge of v* (no LE boundary).
    (x2) *Pictures of him1 are hard for John1 to like [john, d, he, d, of, pictures, d, pro, like, 'v*', 'Tinf', for, hard, 'v_be', 'T', c] DC he-John and DC pro-pictures of he-John.
    John is not restacked in time for merge to the edge of v* (no LE boundary).