Minimalist Machine Derivations

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Examples:

  • Explaining TH/EX (Sobin, ms.) and TH/EX, Agreement, and Case in Expletive Sentences (Sobin, 2014). collapse
    Example Instruction stream (clickable) Notes
    (1c) There was a book taken from the shelf
    *There was taken a book from the shelf     		[shelf, the, from, [book, a], take, prt, 'v~', there, 'Tpast', c] TH/EX: a book raises to edge of PRT.
    (1d) There was a book being taken from the shelf
    *There was being a book taken from the shelf
    ?There was being taken a book from the shelf     		[shelf, the, from, [book, a], take, prt, 'v~', prog, 'v~', there, 'Tpast', c] TH/EX: a book raises to edge of progressive be.
    (4a) There was a book about the war taken from the shelf
    *There was taken a book about the war from the shelf     		[shelf, the, from, [war, the, about, book, a], take, prt, 'v~', there, 'Tpast', c] TH/EX: a book about the war raises to edge of PRT.
    (4b) *What was there a book about taken from the shelf
    *What was there taken a book about from the shelf     		[shelf, the, from, [what:n, q, about, book, a], take, prt, 'v~', there, 'Tpast', c_Q] what cannot be extracted because it is formed in the substream for a book about what and merged with from.
    By substream subsumption: what is deleted.
    (4c) *What was there taken from the shelf [shelf, the, from, [what:n, q], take, prt, 'v~', there, 'Tpast', c_Q] Derivation converges (incorrectly).
    [c_Q] is not blocked from targeting what.
    (13a) There is someone laughing
    (10a) *There laughed someone     		[laugh, v_unerg, [someone, d], prog, 'v~', there, 'T', c] Unergative laugh.
    Leftwards TH/EX not visible.
    (10b) *There watched someone a flying saucer
    (13b) There is someone watching a flying saucer     		[saucer, flying, a, watch, 'v*', [someone, d], prog, 'v~', there, 'T', c] TH/EX: someone raises to edge of progressive be
    (10c) *There fell a book on the floor
    (13c) There is a book falling on the floor     		[book, a, fall, caus, prog, 'v~', there, 'T', c] No visible TH/EX: assume caus selects for inchoative verbal root fall.
    (10d) There arrived a train
    *There a train arrived     		[train, a, arrive, 'v~unacc', there, 'Tpast', c] No TH/EX.
    (1b) There is a train arriving
    *There is arriving a train     		[train, a, arrive, 'v~unacc', prog, 'v~', there, 'T', c] TH/EX: a train raises to edge of progressive be
    (12) A train arrived [train, a, arrive, 'v~unacc', 'Tpast', c]
    (22) There was someone arrested
    *There was arrested someone     		[someone, d, arrest, prt, 'v~', there, 'Tpast', c] TH/EX: passive expletive.
    (23) There was someone being arrested
    *There was being someone arrested
    *There was being arrested someone     		[someone, d, arrest, prt, 'v~', prog, 'v~', there, 'Tpast', c] TH/EX: someone raises to edge of progressive be.
    (26a) There has arrived a train
    (24a) *There has a train arrived     		[train, a, arrive, 'v~unacc', there, perf, v, 'T', c] TH/EX: perfective expletive unaccusative.
    (26b) a train has arrived [train, a, arrive, 'v~unacc', perf, v, 'T', c] Perfective unaccusative.
    (17a) *There has someone laughed [laugh, v_unerg, [someone, d], perf, v, there, 'T', c] Derivation crashes.
    No place to merge there.
    (17b) Someone has laughed [laugh, v_unerg, [someone, d], perf, v, 'T', c]
    (17c) There has been someone laughing
    *There has someone been laughing     		[laugh, v_unerg, [someone, d], prog, 'v~', there, perf, v, 'T', c] TH/EX: someone raises to edge of progressive be
    (22a) There is a book available [book, a, available, a_, 'v~', there, 'T', c] v~ selects for stage-level predicate available.
    (22b) A book is available [book, a, available, a_, 'v~', 'T', c]
    (21a) One book was tiny [[book, one], tiny, v_be, 'Tpast', c] vbe directly selects for the individual-level predicate tiny.
    (21b) *?There was one book tiny [[book, one], tiny, v_be, there, 'Tpast', c] Does not converge.
    vbe has an edge that is filled preferentially from the stack.
    vbe merges TOS one book (not stream there).
    [Note: default policy is to prefer the stream over the stack, i.e. merge over move. The policy can be overridden from the lexicon.]
    (24a) There is a problem [problem, a, be, v_ex, there, 'T', c] [v_ex]: obligatory there-insertion.
    (24b) *A problem is [problem, a, be, v_ex, 'T', c] Derivation crashes.
    Obligatory there-insertion.
    (27a) *There was taken [take, prt, 'v~', there, 'Tpast', c] Derivation crashes.
    PRT is a probe but the stack is empty
    (27b) *There was taken a book [book, a, take, prt, there, 'v~', 'Tpast', c] Derivation crashes.
    In a passive expletive construction: TH/EX is obligatory.
    v~ finds non-theta there.
    (27c) There was a book taken [book, a, take, prt, 'v~', there, 'Tpast', c] TH/EX: passive expletive construction.
    a book raises to edge of PRT.
    (27d) A book was taken [book, a, take, prt, 'v~', 'Tpast', c]
    (51a) We believe there to be a book available [book, a, available, a_, 'v~', there, 'Tinf', believe, 'v*', [we, d], 'T', c]
    (51b) There seems to be a book available [book, a, available, a_, 'v~', there, 'Tinf', seem, v_nop, 'T', c]
    (51c) A book seems to be available [book, a, available, a_, 'v~', 'Tinf', seem, v_nop, 'T', c]
    • Machine Parameters: expand

    Animation:
    (21b) *?There was one book tiny

    Derivation:
    (21b) *?There was one book tiny

    Stream:[[[book!D],[one!case!N]],[tiny],[vbe],[there!phi],[Tpast!phi],[c]]
    Stack (⥥):
    SO:[]

    Step 1.

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

    Step 2.

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

    Step 3.

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

    Step 4.

    Stream:[[one!case[one][book]],[tiny],[vbe],[there!phi],[Tpast!phi],[c]]
    Stack (⥥):
    SO:[]

    Step 5.

    Head of stream [one!case[one][book]] is the initial SO
    Stream:[[tiny],[vbe],[there!phi],[Tpast!phi],[c]]
    Stack (⥥):
    SO:[one!case[one][book]]

    Step 6.

    Merge [tiny] and [one!case[one][book]]
    Label from [tiny] (head merging with a non-head)
    Theta-mark [one!case[one][book]]
    Push [one!case[one][book]] (unvalued uF) onto stack
    Stream:[[vbe],[there!phi],[Tpast!phi],[c]]
    Stack (⥥):[one!case[one][book]]
    SO:[tiny[tiny][one!case[one][book]]]

    Step 7.

    Merge [vbe] and [tiny[tiny][one!case[one..][book..]]]
    Label from [vbe] (head merging with a non-head)
    Stream:[[there!phi],[Tpast!phi],[c]]
    Stack (⥥):[one!case[one][book]]
    SO:[vbe[vbe][tiny[tiny][one!case[one][book]]]]

    Step 8.

    Internal merge selected
    Merge [vbe[vbe][tiny[tiny..][one..]]] and [one!case[one][book]]
    Label from [vbe[vbe][tiny[tiny..][one..]]] (edge feature)
    Preference: [vbe] edge merge from the stack (not stream)
    Stream:[[there!phi],[Tpast!phi],[c]]
    Stack (⥥):[one!case[one][book]]
    SO:[vbe[one!case[one][book]][vbe[vbe][tiny[tiny][one[one][book]]]]]

    Step 9.

    Merge SO head [vbe[one!case[one][book]][vbe[vbe][tiny[tiny][one[one][book]]]]] and stream [there!phi] failed
    No possible action for stream [[there!phi],[Tpast!phi],[c]] and [vbe[one!case[one..][book..]][vbe[vbe..][tiny..]]]
    No derivations found.
    Computational Cost:
    Merge: 4, Agree: 2, Unify: 0, Push: 1, Boundaries: 0, Inject: 0
    Non-TOS access: 0, Pop: 0, Depth cost: 0
    Step:012345678
    Stack depth:000000111

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