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Grammatical categorization: Subject-Auxiliary inversion

Grammatical categorization: Subject-Auxiliary inversion. Adele E. Goldberg Constructions at Work. Where we use SAI. 1. Questions - Yes/No and wh- (non-subject) 2. Counterfactual conditionals 3. Initial negative adverbs 4. Wishes/Curses 5. Exclamatives 6. Comparatives 7. Negative conjunct

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Grammatical categorization: Subject-Auxiliary inversion

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  1. Grammatical categorization: Subject-Auxiliary inversion Adele E. Goldberg Constructions at Work

  2. Where we use SAI 1. Questions - Yes/No and wh- (non-subject) 2. Counterfactual conditionals 3. Initial negative adverbs 4. Wishes/Curses 5. Exclamatives 6. Comparatives 7. Negative conjunct 8. Positive rejoinder *** The use of SAI in these constructions provides evidence that SAI does have functional generalization. These constructions do exhibit a unified function.

  3. SAI Characteristics • Prototypical sentence: declarative, positive assertion with predicate-focus information, independent • SAI is different: • Negative or non-positive framing • Non-declarative or non-assertive speech acts • Narrow-focus or sentence-focus • Dependent • *** SAI constructions don’t have all of these characteristics at once, but carry a variety of them; NON-POSITIVE framing dominates

  4. Prototypes • Unmarked is the default • Examples (10) home and (11) baby, p. 169 • SAIs are marked by their characteristics – they are not prototypical because they differ in some way from the prototypical sentence • But they are still related to that prototype by the characteristics they share with the prototype (subset of relevant attributes)

  5. Questions • Yes/No questions • Non-declarative speech acts • Non-positive propositional content (12) Did he go? • Wh-questions • Non-declarative • Presuppositions (13) What did he do? • Non-echo subject wh-questions can’t have SAI because the wh-question construction requires the wh-word to be sentence initial • [Whsubj] [VP] (14) *Did who leave?

  6. Counterfactual Conditionals • Presuppose a negative word-to-world fit • Non-positive, non-asserted • Inverted clause is dependent on the following clause (15a) Had he found a solution, he would take time off and relax. ???Had she known traffic would be so heavy, she would have left earlier. (15b) *He had found a solution, he would take time off and relax.

  7. Initial Negative Adverbs • Must be construed negatively (16a) Not until yesterday did he take a break. ??? Never did she show up on time. (16b) *Not until yesterday he did take a break. • SAI cannot occur with positively-framed adverbs (17a) *Everywhere has he found a solution. ??? Nowhere has she found a solution. (17b) *Yesterday did he take a break. ???Always did she show up late.

  8. Initial Negative Adverbs (continued) • Examples (18a) and (18b) demonstrate the importance of the negative implications (18a) For no money would she leave. (18b) For no money she would leave. • Examples in (19) show that the perception of the negativity is what’s important for this construction. (19a) Not until yesterday did he take a break. (19b) He took a break yesterday and not before. (19c) *Did he take a break yesterday and not before.

  9. Curse/Wish • An appeal to unspecified forces about an uncontrollable event • Not a declarative speech act (“expressive”) and a positive is not asserted or presupposed • “May” is the only auxiliary that works in this construction (21a) May you live a good life! (21b) *Should you live a good life! • No negative polarity (22) *May you ever lift a finger! ??? May you ever be grateful!

  10. Exclamatives • This is the only positive SAI construction • Non-assertive – they presuppose • Relationship to rhetorical questions (23a) Do you want to go? (23b) Do you want to go or what? (24) Boy, are you tired or what?! • 13% of Google search included or what • Rhetorical questions don’t require an answer; nor do exclamatives, which state the obvious or comment on what’s already known

  11. Comparatives • Optional SAI (27a) He has read more articles than have his classmates (27b) He has read more articles than his classmates have. ??? She has more patience than has her sister. ??? She has more patience than her sister has. • Subject argument must have a narrow focus (not topic-comment) • Dependent clauses

  12. Comparatives (continued) • Do we use SAI in comparatives because there’s a tendency to put heaver/longer constituents at the end of a clause? • Yes - VP ellipsis is required in the inverted clause and the lexical subject is clause-final (29b) He has read more articles than have his classmates.

  13. Comparatives and Indefinite Pronouns • What about using indefinite pronouns in comparatives with SAI? • Subject must be a full lexical NP and cannot be it (28b) *Our library has more articles than has it. ??? He has read more articles than has anyone. ??? He has read more articles than anyone has. • Use of indefinite pronouns in other languages?

  14. Negative Conjunct • Begin with neither or nor • Non-positive • Pragmatically dependent upon another contextually given proposition → must reference a second conjunct (30a) Neither is this construction unexpected. (30b) *Neither this construction is unexpected. ??? Nor can he be found guilty.

  15. Positive Rejoinder • Positive • Assertions • Narrow focus on subject argument • Dependent on another evoked proposition • Must involve VP ellipsis (31a) So was I. (31b) *So I was. (32) *So was I worried.

  16. Recap of SAI “Requirements” • P. 179, Figure 8.4

  17. Motivation for the Form • Why do we use non-positives? Newmeyer (2000) suggests there is no motive for the form, but Goldberg disagrees (the question of autonomous syntax) • The auxiliary is in the non-canonical position, which tells us the polarity is not canonical either (which would be positive) • The first auxiliary is the only one that’s inverted (33a) Have you been working late? (33b) *Have been you working late? (33c) *Could have been you working late? ??? Could you have been working late?

  18. Motivation for the Form (continued) • Is SAI restricted to main clauses? No (36a) They know that had she left on time, she’d be here by now. → counterfactual conditional (36b) She reflected to herself that never had she seen such a beautiful sight. → clause-initial negative adverb (36c) Junie B. knew that boy, was she in trouble! → exclamative (36d) I knew that they would spend millions on defense, but I know equally that not one cent would they give for tribute → negative NP preposing

  19. Motivation for the Form (continued) • Cross-linguistically, where do we find SAIs?

  20. Conclusion • What generalizations can we make about SAIs? • Are they a functional category?

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