CHAPTER OUTLINE
In chapter 2, we saw that the Merge operation, elegant as it is, can still create both grammatical and ungrammatical structures. We therefore concluded that we need constraints that filter out these ungrammatical structures. θ-theory was the first serious constraint we introduced. The nature of this constraint is semantic: we saw the number of arguments present in the syntax must match the semantics of the verb. Sentences like Edith assigns or John loves Mary Paul (where Mary and Paul are two different people) are now correctly filtered out. It is quite easy to see, however, that more work needs to be done. Let us give you a very simple example. The sentence Him calls she is ungrammatical, despite the fact that the verb can assign both its θ-roles to the arguments that are present (i.e. the AGENT role to him and the PATIENT role to she). In terms of the meaning, then, nothing is wrong, but something is not quite right with the form of the sentence. This chapter will explore in detail how to make this explicit, and how syntax will ensure that the structures it creates have the right form. This second filter on the Merge operation is called Case theory. We will see that the Case theory presented in this chapter has far-reaching consequences for the syntax of English sentences.
Insight: Case as a Filter on Syntactic Structures
Although θ-theory is a necessary filter on constructions created by the Merge operation, at least three problems emerge if we say that θ-theory forms the only constraint on Merge.
The first problem concerns θ-mismatches, examples in which the number of arguments does not match up with the number of θ-roles that the verb needs to assign. It turns out that an unassigned θ-role is not as bad as an argument without a θ-role. For instance, transitive verbs that are used intransitively can be quite bad (as expected by θ-theory), but sometimes they can survive. Edith assigns could be said in a situation in which the manager, on asking who assigns tasks to new employees, is told that it is Edith who does the assignments. The same holds for the verb to kill.
Review the options below to login to check your access.
Log in with your Cambridge Aspire website account to check access.
If you believe you should have access to this content, please contact your institutional librarian or consult our FAQ page for further information about accessing our content.