Chapter 3 - Testing structure Flashcards
Coordination Test
A coordinate structure is a structure containing two or more expressions joined together by a coordinating conjunction (and/but/or/nor,etc.) A pronoun is said to have a coordinate antecedent if its antecedent is a coordinate structure (as in `John and Mary agreed that they would compromise’). But not just every random set of strings can be coordinated. The Coordination Condition establishes that only constituents of the same type can be coordinated.
Modification Test
Only a string of words which form a constituent can be modified by an appropriate type of modifier. These examples show that a modifier cannot be placed in the middle of a constituency. Modal adverbs in English cannot generally occur internally within VP (62 a), or internally within PP (62b), or internally within DP (62c). Consequently, we need to interpret the results carefully: if a string can be modified by a given type of modifier, it is a constituent; if not, it may or may not be a constituent.
Substitution Test
Testing whether the relevant string can be substituted by a single word.
(a) The chairman has resigned from the board, and he is now living in Utopia
(b) The press say that the chairman has resigned from the board, and so he has
(c) %If the Managing Director says the chairman has resigned from the board, he must have done
(d) If the chairman has resigned from the board (which you say he has), how come his car is still in the company car park?
In each of the above sentences, the italicised string can be replaced (or referred back to) by a particular kind of proform.
Fragment Test
There are restrictions on the types of expression which can and cannot be used as sentence fragments (i.e. expressions which are not complete sentences but represent fragments of sentences. Fragment: An utterance which does not constitute a clause). (64) A: Who were you talking to? B: To the electricity company (65) A: Who were you ringing up? B: *Up the electricity company Traditionally speaking, only constituents can serve as sentence fragments. Count(able) nouns need to be assigned a number feature via Concord with a determiner or quantifier used to modify it, with the result that a count noun used without a preceding determiner/quantifier is ungrammatical.
Fragment Condition
It claims that only a maximal projection can serve as a sentence fragment.
Ellipsis Test
Deletion of redundant information in a sentence at a PF level. There are two rather different kinds of ellipsis operation – one involving the omission of heads(a), the other of maximal projections(b).
(a) He can speak French better than she can speak German (gapping)
(b) He can speak French better than she can speak French (VP Ellipsis)
The ellipsis test has to be used with considerable caution: if a string of words can undergo ellipsis, it is a constituent (and more precisely, a maximal projection); if not, we cannot be sure whether it is a constituent or not.
Constituency Condition
Heads and maximal projections are the only types of constituent which can take part in linguistic operations like movement, agreement or ellipsis.
Focus Test
Focusing is used as a way of highlighting new/unfamiliar information and is subject to the focus condition.
78(a) It is the board that the chairman has resigned from. (cleft sentence).
79(a) What the chairman has resigned from is the board. (pseudo-cleft sentence).
Focus Condition
Only a maximal projection can be focused in a cleft or pseudo-cleft sentence.
Movement Test
The possibility of preposing a constituent in order to highlight it in some way.
(81) The press said that the chairman would resign from the board, and resigned from the board he has.
The fact that the italicised string of words resigned from the board can be preposed indicates that it must be a maximal projection.
However, due to the constraints on some movements, particular expressions can sometimes be difficult (or even impossible) to prepose, even though they are maximal projections.
Preposing Condition
This condition states that the preposed material shall be the smallest possible maximal projection containing the highlighted material. Thus, we prepose the VP surrender to the enemy rather than the TP to surrender to the enemy because the VP is smaller than the TP containing it.
