Suggested answer for Exercise 7
In the sentence Jane has been taken to hospital there are two chains, a DP chain and a head chain. The DP chain is the result of the movement of the theme argument of the passive verb taken to the subject position of the clause, to Spec,IP, the head of the chain is the DP Mary in Spec,IP and the foot of the chain is the trace that follows the verb as in (1). The other movement is the movement of the verb take to the vP containing the aspectual morpheme -en. The aspectual auxiliaries have and be are inserted as dummy forms to the appropriate positions.
| (1) | ?IP Janei has ?vP been ?VP takej +en ti tj to hospital??? |
In the sentence Everybody seems to speak two languages here the DP everybody is the agent argument of the verb speak of the embedded sentence. It moves to Spec,IP of the matrix sentence to get Case as it cannot get Case in the Spec,IP position of the embedded sentence. The Inflection of the embedded sentence is non-finite and non-finite inflection heads cannot assign Case. The head of the chain is the DP in Spec,IP of the matrix sentence and the foot is in the Spec,VP position of the embedded sentence. The V head also moves to vP that assigns the agentive theta role to the subject. The verb seem also moves from its base position to tense v and then to I. The derivation is in (2).
| (2) | ?IP Everybodyi seemsk [vP tk ?VP tk ?IP ti [vP to ?VP ti speakj two languages tj here????] |
In the sentence Have you ever been to Paris? the primary auxiliary have undergoes head movement, as the sentence is a yes–no question. The auxiliary starts out from vP headed by the auxiliary verb where it is inserted to support the tense morpheme as the thematic verb cannot move there, then moves through I to C. The head of the chain is the copy in C while the foot of the chain is in v as in (3). The thematic verb also moves, to adjoin to the passive morpheme, which is the position it ends up in, as it cannot support another bound morpheme.
| (3) | ?CP havej ?IP you tj ?vP ever?vP tj ?vP bek+en [VP tk to Paris?????] |
In the sentence What did you give to John? we have an interrogative sentence. In interrogative sentences there are usually chains, one formed by the movement of the interrogative pronoun, the other one is the movement of the modal auxiliary verb to the position immediately preceding the subject DP. The interrogative pronoun is interpreted as the object DP of the verb, it is in VP in D-structure. The interrogative pronoun has to move to the initial position of the sentence forming a chain whose head is the pronoun in the first position of the sentence and the foot of the chain is its trace in VP. In this sentence there is no modal auxiliary present, did does not move to C but is inserted there as a dummy form, since the verb cannot move to that position. Other movements, however, do happen: the subject DP moves from vP to IP to be assigned Case, and the lexical verb moves to the light verb in vP and then to tense v and I. The derivation is in (4).
| (4) | ?CP Whatj did ?IP youk givel [vP tl ?vP tk tl [VPtj tl to John???]] |
In the sentence In the park, John met Mary the PP adjunct in the park is right-adjoined to VP in D-structure as in declarative sentences the PP follows the verb and its complement(s). In this sentence the PP undergoes movement and gets adjoined to some initial projection of the sentence leaving a trace in the vP-adjoined position as in (5). The head of the chain formed by the movement of the PP is the copy of the PP adjoined to IP. The foot of the chain is the base position of the PP adjoined to vP in D-structure. The lexical verb meet moves to v, tense v and I, the subject DP moves to Spec,IP.
| (5) | ?IP In the parki ?IP Johnk metj [vP tj [vP tk tj Mary tj ti???] |