Syntactic Theory: A Formal IntroductionIvan A. SagThomas WasowJanuary 20, 1999CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF LANGUAGE AND INFORMATIONIn memory of our fathersWilliam E. Sag (19081977) Wolfgang R. Wasow (19091993)ContentsPrefacevii1Introduction12Some Simple Theories of Grammar233Analyzing Features of Grammatical Categories474Complex Feature Values775Semantics1036How the Grammar Works1297Binding Theory1498The Structure of the Lexicon1739Realistic Grammar20310 The Passive Construction23511 Nominal Types: Dummies and Idioms25312 Infinitival Complements27313 Auxiliary Verbs29714 Variation in the English Auxiliary System32115 Long-Distance Dependencies34116 From Rule to Sign363Appendix A: Summary of the Grammar395Appendix B: Generative Grammar423Glossary441References461viiPrefaceThis textbook grew out of our efforts to develop teaching material for the undergraduate-level Introduction to Syntax course that has been taught at Stanford University for over twenty years. We used earlier versionsof this text for three years; the final version was revised and expanded many times to satisfy the needs of our students, whose feedback has been of immense value in shaping the present volume. We consider ourselves fortunate to have extremely talented and demanding students, whoseinfluence shines through our prose on every page. In addition, more than one colleague has used our text successfullyin first-year graduate classes. We feel it is particularly well suited to general readers or those who work in disciplines related to linguistics, such as psychology, philosophy, mathematics, or computer science. All that is required is an interest in rigorous approaches to the analysis of the grammatical structure of natural languages. We have tried to strike a balance between linguistic analysis (cen- tered on the development of increasingly broader grammar fragments) and data-oriented problem solving. In addition, we have tried to place the proposals presented here into historical perspective (Chapter 1 and Appendix B). A Glossary is included both to aid the reader unfamiliar with traditional grammatical terminology and to provide easy access to more technical jargon that we have employed. Chapters 1 through 8 develop most of the technical machinery used in the rest of the book. This section of the text is self-contained and can be used as the basis of an abbreviated introductory course. Chapter 9 contains a summary of the grammar develped in Chapters 1 through 8, along with some general discussion of language processing by humans and computers. Chapters 10 through 13 apply the tools developed in the earlier chapters to some well-studied grammatical phenomena. Chapter 14 in-viiviii / Syntactic Theory: A Formal Introductiontroduces a topic not normally included in theoretical syntax courses, namely language variation. Chapter 15 deals with the basics of the com- plex topic of long-distance dependencies, and in the process introduces some new analytic devices. Chapter 16 has a special status, introducing a streamlined reformulation of the overall theory in terms of an architec- ture based on signs, not rules. Appendix A summarizes the grammar of English developed in Chapters 113 and 15 (but includes neither the material on the dialects discussed in Chapter 14, nor the innovations proposed in Chapter 16). We have many people to thank for their part in helping us bring this book to completion. First and foremost, we would like to thank three people: Emily Bender (who, as a course assistant and close col- league, commented on many drafts and made contributions through- out the text), Georgia Green (whose painstakingly detailed and help- ful comments emerged from her experiences using our text at the Uni- versity of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), and Bob Carpenter (whosedetailed comments on a near-final draft led us to overhaul the squig- gly bits, as one of our British colleagues likes to put it). Others who gave us detailed comments on earlier drafts are: Gertraud Benke, Frankvan Eynde, Daffyd Gibbon, Adam Przepiorkowski, and Gregory Stump.Frank, Daffyd, and Greg also gave us the benefit of their experiences using our text in their own classes. Special thanks are also due to Dick Hudson and Paul Kay for their help with Appendix B. Others who helped us one way or the other are: Farrell Ackerman, Louise Auer- hahn, John Baugh, Renee Blake, Bob Borsley, Amy Brynolfson, Chris Callison-Burch, Myong-hi Chai, Brady Clark, Ann Copestake, Erica Denham, Colin Drake, Penny Eckert, Dan Flickinger, Ryan Ginstrom,Mark Goldenson, Lisa Green, Scott Guffey, Matt Kodoma, Jean-Pierre Koenig, Zakiyyah Langford, Chungmin Lee, Hanjung Lee, Rob Malouf, Michael McDaid, Brian Milch, Toshiaki Nishihara, Susanne Riehemann, Dave McKercher, John Rickford, Rachel Nordlinger, Paul Postal, Geof- frey Pullum, Scott Schwenter, Peter Sells, Stuart Tannock, Shiao Wei Tham, Ida Toivonen, Judith Tonhauser, Louise Vigeant, Rick Warren, and Gert Webelhuth. We would also like t