“Everything is syntax”. Thus begins the classic text Non-
1a.As for myself, I prefer the later work with 1200 dense pages of text.1b.*As for herself, she prefers the later work with 1200 dense pages of text.
It is a long-
Consider the following example:
2a.You lookin’ at me?2b.*She lookin’ at him?
When (2a) was shouted at me on the D train, I wanted to lighten the mood and educate my angry interlocutor by demonstrating that the simple pronoun substitution of (2b), which would seem to be acceptable under standard generative rules of syntax, results in a sentence that is judged to be inappropriate. I don’t recall what happened next, but I give many thanks to the excellent team of reconstructive surgeons at St. Gottschalk’s Hospital.3
As another example, consider the following at the start of a conversation:
3a.“I’m leaving you.” “Who is he?”3b.?“She’s leaving him.” “Who are you?”
I’ve personally had conversation (3a) several times, including once when my proper response should have been “Who are they?”4 I’ve been told that (3b) is infelicitous, although I have actually had that exact conversation on a later occasion on the D train.5
It has generally been accepted that a sentence can be modeled as lines rooted in a CP,6 with P’s trickling all the way down.7 But these examples suggest that generative grammar theories may require larger phrasal structures that encode information about the larger world, including who’s speaking to whom and what Felicity has been doing lately. In retrospect, Chomsky’s vision of universal grammar is correct: everything is syntax, up to and including the whole universe.8
1 The text of the 1959 edition contained only those three words and about 250 blank pages headed by the single word “NOTES”. It is widely viewed as Chomsky’s deepest and most readable book.
2 It only works in certain contexts. Protip: Don’t list this as your favorite book on a dating website!
3 On a later commute, one rider explained to me that she indeed be lookin’ at him.
4 I was that-
5 Coincidentally, her name turns out to be Felicity.
6 In Saskatoon they instead refer to the “CN line”.
7 That’s something it has in common with the D train. Protip: Bring a towel!
8 Protip: Don’t make this claim at a physics colloquium! Thanks once again to the professionals at St. Gottschalk’s!
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MinuteDU MysteryPL |
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SpecGram Vol CXCIV, No 4 Contents |