A Cross-linguistic Perspective on the DP-Cycle

Elly van GelderenESSE, Aarhus, 23 August 2008

ellyvangelderen@asu.edu

Earlier work on the DP-Cycle

• Greenberg 1978

• Harris 1977

• Vincent 1997

• Diessel 1999

• Lyons 1999

• van Gelderen 2007

Framework

Well-known DP-structure, e.g. Julien 2005

Chomsky’s 3 factors in Language Design:

1. Genetic endowment = UG

2. Experience

3. Principles not specific to language

(Chomsky 2005: 6).

The third factor

The third factor includes principles of efficient computation, which are "of particular significance in determining the nature of attainable languages" (Chomsky 2005: 6)

Some third factorsStrong Minimalist ThesisLanguage is a perfect solution to interface conditions (Chomsky 2007: 5)

Head Preference Principle (HPP):Be a head, rather than a phrase.`analyze something as small as possible'

Late Merge Principle (LMP): Merge as late as possible(van Gelderen 2004)

DP Cycle (old way)

a. DP b. DPdem D' D' (=HPP)

D NP D NPart N

c. DP

D'D NP -n>0 N

renewalthrough LMP

or through Feature Economy:

a. DP > b. DP

that D' D'

[i-ps] D NP D NP

[i-loc][u-#] N … the N

[i-phi] [u-phi] [i-phi]

Hence (1) *I saw the

(2) I saw that/those.

Runic Old Norse

(1) wate hali hino Old Norse

wet stone this

`Wet this stone' (Strøm stone; Antonsen 1975: 54-55)

(2) warait runaz þaiaz Old Norse

wrote runes these,

`wrote these runes' (Istaby stone; Antonsen 1975: 84)

Status of D

(4) Sá er sæll Old Norse

`He is happy' (Edda, Hávamál 9) (5) inn vari-W gestr Old Norse

`the wise/knowing guest' (Edda, Hávamál 7)

(6) þat it helgasæti Old Norse

that the holy seat

`The holy seat' (Gordon 1956: 312)

Doubles in Later Old Norse

(1) þau in storu skipthose the big ships`Those big ships‘.

(2) þitt hitt milda andlityour the mild face`your mild face'

(3) fé þat alltmoney that all`all that money'

More change (Swedish etc)

(1) bok-en book-the(2) han den gamle vaktmäster-en

he the old janitor-DEF(2) den där bok-en

the here bok-DEF`that book'.

(3) denna bok-(en)that book-DEF

Changes

DPPoss D'NP D nPDem þau n’

`that’ n skipin [3NeuP]`the'

DEM is spec or head in is in n head/ hinn in Spec

Add the adjective:

(1) nP

n NP

hinn nP N

n A vetr

-a siðasta

in words

At some point, let's say Proto-Old Norse, a locative adverb hinn/hitt `here' is incorporated as part of the nP, as in hali hino above. Then, it is reanalyzed as a head/nominal marker. The latter is the origin of the Modern Norwegian and Swedish -en/-et (Faarlund (2007ab).

Old Norse then renews its locative marker through a demonstrative, such as sa, þat, or þann, possibly appositive initially. Since these are deictic elements, a DP is triggered and they are incorporated as specifiers of the DP.

Features

The uninterpretable phi-features on D probe the noun's interpretable features. Hence, there has to be a noun.

If a demonstrative with interpretable locative/deictic features is used, the D can be empty, or the n head may move there. As to the features of the n probe, they probe for phi-features (in fact before D does) to ensure the root is a noun.

The History of EnglishDem in Spec/ with Interpretable features:

(1) se wæs Wine haten & se wæs in Gallia rice gehalgod.

he was wine called and was in Gaul consecrated

(2) hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon

how those-NOM.P nobles-NOM.P courage did

'how the nobles performed heroic acts' (Beowulf 3)

loss of iF

(1) gife to … þa munecas of þe mynstre

give to … the monks of the abbey (Peterborough Chron 1150)

(2) *the (Wood 2003: 69)

(3) Morret's brother came out of Scoteland for th'acceptacion of the peax

(The Diary of Edward VI, 1550s)

Renewal

(1) It was just I I was just looking at there them down there (BNC FME 662).

(2) Oh they used to be ever so funny houses you know and in them days … They used to have big windows, but they used to a all be them there little tiny ones like that. (BNC - FYD 72)

The difference/similarity between Old Norse and Old English

ON incorporated a locative (h)inn/(h)itt as n; both used a demonstrative in the Spec of the DP.

In both, the demonstrative was reanalyzed as a D head whose locative character is being renewed.

Dutch-Afrikaans

(1) die man daar

that man there

(2) Daardie teenstrydighede was egter nie

those contradictions were however not

Romance: Latin demonstrative ille = French head le/la

(1) *Je pratique le French

`I play the'

(2) Je pratique le tennis, le badminton, le squash, la natation. French

`I play tennis, badminton, squash, and swimming'. (Kate Beeching's corpus)

ecce ille `see that' = cel/cet

Harris 1977:

#/gender def article proximity markerCl Latin - - hic, iste, illeVulgar Latin - ille ecce iste, ecce illeOld French - le cest, celMod French le ce ce ... ci, ce ... là

= renewal

Comparison

Modern French

MS le 2556 ce 231

FS la 2804 cette 195

MFS l' 1234 cet 31

P les 2790 ces 139

Total 9384 596 = 9980

C 17 no real difference:

Discours L'Avare

MS le 272 ce 31 le 330 ce 46

FS la 407 cette31 la 316 cette48

MFS l' 234 cet 8 l' 274 cet 12

P les 597 ces 57 les 215 ces 28

Total 1510 127 1135 134

Percentages

C17 (Academic)

8% Dem/dem+articles

(Theatre)

11%

C20 (Spoken)

6%

Change in deictic marker:

Only 1 DP has -là in Descartes and 5 have -là in Molière, whereas of the 596 instances of ce(t), cette, and ces in the Modern French spoken corpus, 45 are accompanied by là, as in () above.

The respective percentages are 0.8%, 3.7%, and 7.6%. This may indicate that ce(t), cette, and ces were not reanalyzed as demonstratives but that -là and -ci are.

St'át'imcets: all stages

(1) ca ti=sxwápməx-athis ART-Shuswap-REF`This Shushap' (van Eijk 1997: 169)

(2) DP ca D'

D nP ti n'

n NP-a sxwápməx

(3) l-ča visible, proximal `here'.

Feature Economy

Locative Specifier Head affix

semantic > [iF] > [uF] > --

Head > (higher) Head > 0

[iF] / [uF] [uF]

uF is a Probe

Conclusions

• Change is from the `inside’: the child analyzes something according to UG/third factor Principles

• The mechanisms behind the cycle can be seen in terms of Economy = third factor

• Further work: Dependent Marking Cycle