Minimalist Machine Derivations

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, [book, a, [war, the, about]], take, prt, 'v~', there, 'Tpast', c]	Assume adjunct about the war pair-merges. 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, [book, a, [what:n, q, about]], take, prt, 'v~', there, 'Tpast', c_Q]	Assume adjunct about what pair-merges. what cannot be extracted from the adjunct. Implementation: substream stack merge does not apply to pair-merge.
(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]	v_be 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. v_be has an edge that is filled preferentially from the stack. v_be 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]