Generative Syntax

Part 2. The sentence

dr Javier Fernández-Sánchez

Contents
1 Subject and predicate 1
1.1 The subject . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.1.1 What the subject is not . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.1.2 Agreement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.1.3 ’Invisible’ subjects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.2 The predicate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.2.1 Verbs with one complement: transitives, prepositional and linking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.2.2 Verbs with two complements: ditransitives and complex transitives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

2 Modals, auxiliaries and the TP 8

2.1 Properties of auxiliaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2.1.1 Property 1: Assistance function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2.1.2 Property 2: Inversion in questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.1.3 Property 3: Compatibility with not/n’t . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.1.4 Property 4: Tag questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.1.5 Property 5: Emphasis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2.1.6 Property 6: The position of adverbs of frequency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2.2 Introducing the TP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2.3 T in the absence of auxiliaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

3 Matrix vs embedded sentences 12

3.1 Content clauses (I): complements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
3.2 Content clauses (II): Subjects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
3.3 Finite vs non-finite clauses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
3.4 Other clauses: adverbial clauses and relative clauses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

4 The CP 19
4.1 That . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
4.2 If . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
4.3 For . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
4.4 Whether . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
4.5 Matrix sentences: CPs or TPs? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

5 Exercises to be handed in 26

1 Subject and predicate

• So far we have analyzed basic constituents like PPs, VPs or DPs, but we have not said anything about the word sentence,
which is considered to be a cornerstone concept in syntax.

• Traditionally, a sentence is a bipartite composite made up of a subject and a predicate.

• This is why very often, many descriptive grammars offer a syntactic representation of a sentence like this:

(1) S

NP VP

Subject Predicate

• But there are many theoretical problems with this tree.

1
 – Problem of projection: where is S coming from?
– Problem of structure: if S is a category, why doesn’t it project an X-bar scheme?

(2) SP

NP S’

Subject S VP

Predicate

• This tree seems slightly more interesting, but what sort of category is S? What is the lexical representation of S? We
know that cloud, justice, book. . . are Ns; empty, constitutional, digital. . . are As; so what words would belong in category
S?

1.1 The subject

1.1.1 What the subject is not
• We all have an intuitive idea of what a subject is.
• Intuitions are great, but they need to be clearly stated in a scientific way.
• The intuition is that a subject is an entity or element that does something. More technically, we can say that there is a
tendency to relate the subject of the sentence to the agent of some action. This appears to be the case in the following
sentences:

(3) a. Joe killed a fly.

b. Katy stood up.
c. Liliane gave her sister a present.

• But such a correlation between subject and agent runs into trouble if we consider the following sentences:

(4) a. Hard times was written by Shakespeare.

b. The vase broke.
c. Mike owned a large estate by Lake Michigan.
d. We feared spiders.

• The problem is common: in all of the sentences in (4) the subject (in bold) is not the agent.
• Someone could hypothesize that the subject is the first element that appears in a sentence. This criterion would unify
the cases in (3) and (4).
• Obviously this hypothesis can be easily falsified, as all of these sentences could be easily preceded by the adverb yesterday.
• Could the subject be the element that precedes the verb? This is also not correct, because we can insert an adverb
between the subject and the verb: We usually take the tram, and usually is not the subject. Also, in languages like Polish
the subject can easily appear after the verb, and we want a universal definition.
• So to conclude: notional and linear definitions are incorrect.

1.1.2 Agreement
• The definition of subject is based on the notion of agreement.
• Agreement is a grammatical relation between two elements, whereby the feature composition of one of the elements is
transferred/imposed on the other one.
• Agreement is manifested in many places in natural languages, for an excellent overview see Corbett (2006); see also
Koeneman and Zeijlstra (2017, pp.111-137).

(5) OnaFEM,SING jest ładnaFEM,SING / *ładnyMASC,SING / *ładneFEM,PL

(6) TreePL carsPL / *carSING

• In (5), the pronoun ona has a set of features associated with it, namely feminine and singular. This pronoun imposes
the same feature composition to the adjective ładn-. The problem with the string *Ona jest ładny stems from a feature
mismatch.

2
 • Similarly, in (6) the numeral three is associated with the plural feature, so the string *Three car again is ungrammatical
due to a feature mismatch, in this case the relevant feature is number, not gender.

• English is a very poor language morphologically speaking. Consequently, agreement relations are barely manifested
using inflectional morphology.

• Despite this, we can still see how agreement is associated with the notion of subject.

(7) Definition of subject

The verb must agree with the subject of the sentence in number and person.

• Number is associated with two features in English and Polish: singular and plural.

• Person is associated with three features universally: 1st person (speaker), 2nd person (hearer) and 3rd person (neither
speaker nor hearer).

• If we intersect these two inflectional properties, we get the following paradigm:

SINGULAR PLURAL
1st person
(8)
2nd person
3rd person

• Think about the paradigm for Polish verbs:1

SINGULAR PLURAL
1st person biegam biegamy
(9)
2nd person biegasz biegacie
3rd person biega biegają

• Compare this table to the equivalent in English:

SINGULAR PLURAL
1st person run run
(10)
2nd person run run
3rd person runs run

• The situation is even more dramatic if we look at the past paradigm:

SINGULAR PLURAL
1st person ran ran
(11)
2nd person ran ran
3rd person ran ran

• With the exception of the verb be, agreement between subject and verb is only realized morphologically in the third
person singular of the present tense.

• Important: this does not mean that in the other forms there is no agreement. There is, but it is morphologically silent,
let’s say.
• How does this definition of subject in terms of agreement work? For English, we need to rely on the third person singular
in the present tense, because it is only there that agreement is manifested overtly. Take a sentence like Joe killed a fly.
There are two possible candidates for subject: Joe or a fly:

• First, we transform the sentence into the present:

(12) Joe3p,SING kills3p,SING a fly3p,SING .

• Both Joe and a fly are 3rd person singular, like the verb.

• If a fly was the subject, then if we change it into a plural, then the -s of the verb should disappear. This prediction is not
borne out:

(13) *Joe3p,SING kill3p,PL flies3p,PL .

1 In Polish, subject-verb agreement has another ingredient in some tenses, namely gender (biegałem vs biegałam).

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 • So we know that a fly is not the subject, because in (13) there is agreement but the sentence is ungrammatical.

• Let’s check whether Joe is a subject. If this NP is the subject, then if we use a plural instead (like the boys), then the verb
should appear without the -s. The prediction is borne out:

(14) The boys3p,PL kill3p,PL a fly3p,SING

• This test should help us determine what the subject of a sentence is.

• In other languages, there are other cues that help us determine the subject: morphological case. In Polish, for instance,
the subject is typically in nominative (mianownik).

(15) a. Janek/*Janka uwielbia pizzę/*pizza.

b. Pizza/*Pizzę uwielbia Janka/*Janek.2

• English in this case is problematic because it generally does not display case in nouns. But English exhibits case in
personal pronouns (zaimki osobowe). Subject pronouns display nominative (caveat: this is not entirely true, as we will
see later in this block).

(16) a. I like him.

b. *Me like him.
c. *I like he.
d. *He likes I.
e. *Him likes I.
f. He likes me.

1.1.3 ’Invisible’ subjects

• The morphological richness of the Polish inflectional paradigm allows subjects to be invisible.

(17) a. (Janek) biega codziennie.

b. *(John) runs daily.

• Even though we may not see the subject in Polish, it is still there (and this is a very important aspect of natural languages:
there are elements which are syntactically present but which have no phonology).

• The invisible subject we see in the Polish example above is called small pro, and we simply mark it as pro:

(18) a. pro biega codziennie.

b. *pro runs daily.

• As we can see, English has no pro.

• So, tu wrap up:

– Nominal subjects are nominative. We see this with Polish nouns and pronouns, and only in English pronouns, given
that English nouns do not inflect for case).
– Subjects agree with the verb in person and number. In English, this agreement relation is only morphologically
manifested in the third person singular, present tense.
– Subjects cannot be invisible in English. In more technical words: there is no pro (small pro) in this language.

1.2 The predicate

• The rest of the sentence (that is, everything except the subject) is the predicate. Typically, the predicate is a verb phrase.

• This means that the predicate consists of a verb, its complements and possible adjuncts.

• Obviously, for intransitive verbs, the predicate may only consist of adjuncts.

• What about other verb types?

• To read more about this, a must read: Gelderen (2010, pp.65-84)

2 Friendly reminder that syntax does not care about the meaning of a sentence.

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1.2.1 Verbs with one complement: transitives, prepositional and linking
• In the first block, we talked about transitive verbs. These are verbs that require a nominal complement (i.e. a NP/DP).

• The complement of transitive verbs is called direct object (dopełnienie bliższe)

(19) a. We ate an amazing Neapolitan pizza when we visited Capri last summer.
b. Jane did not steal John’s bike.
c. Frankly speaking, I hate her.
d. My sister is taking Polish classes in Warsaw.

• It is very difficult to define direct object, but fortunately it is a very intuitive notion.

• One important feature of direct objects in English is that generally they need to be adjacent to the verb:

(20) a. *We ate when we visited Capri last summer an amazing Neapolitan pizza.
b. *My sister is taking in Warsaw Polish classes.

• One exception to this is a grammatical construction called Heavy NP shift (HNPS), which refers to cases where a heavy
(or grammatically complex) object can be separated from the verb by a short adjunct.

(21) a. I watched yesterday this TV program that you recommended me.

b. *I watched yesterday this TV program.

• There are some verbs which require one complement but which nevertheless this complement must be a PP. Some
examples would be: stare at, go to, rely on, believe in, apply for, approve of, result in. . .

• Prepositional verbs take a prepositional complement. This complement, contrary to the direct object, can be separated
from the verb by an adverb, for instance:

(22) a. She stared intently at the customer.

b. *She treated rudely the customer. (cf. She treated the customer rudely)

• You should not confuse prepositional verbs with phrasal verbs. One property of phrasal verbs is that the preposition
can precede the noun:

(23) a. *She stared the customer at.

b. She told off the customer./ She told the customer off.

• A last type of verb type which requires one complement is the so-called linking verb or copula (łącznik).

• The classic linking verb is be, but there are more: become or sensory verbs (look, taste, smell, feel) among others.

• The complement of a linking verb is a Subject-predicative complement. The reason is that this complement predi-
cates (or in other words: it says something) about the subject:

(24) a. I was a doctor. (In this case, I = a doctor) - Linking

b. I saw a doctor. (In this case, I 6= a doctor) - Transitive

• Careful because some verbs are not inherently linking or transitive. Some are lexically ambiguous, and therefore can be
both transitive or linking:

(25) a. I felt stupid.

b. I felt the wind.
(26) a. I went to Starbucks.
b. I went crazy.
(27) a. We got the money.
b. We got really angry.

1.2.2 Verbs with two complements: ditransitives and complex transitives

• Most verbs that require two complements fall under the category of ditransitive verbs. These verbs require a direct
object and an indirect object (dopełnienie dalsze).

• As we saw in the first block, ditransitive verbs usually occur in two different syntactic configurations:

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 (28) a. The Double Object Construction: V + DP (Indirect object) + DP (Direct object)
In 1816 Jane Austen gave [DP her niece Caroline] [DP some feedback on her writing].
b. The Dative Construction: V + DP (Direct object) + PP (Indirect object)
In 1816 Jane Austen gave [DP some feedback on her writing] [PP to her niece Caroline].

• The direct object is always a DP/NP. The indirect object can be a DP/NP in the double object construction or a PP in the
dative construction. The order of these elements is also strict:

(29) a. *I gave to Sally the flowers. (Dative construction, *IO > DO)
b. *I gave the flowers Sally. (Double object construction, *DO > IO)

• But apart from ditransitives, there are other verbs that require two complements.

(30) Examples from Gelderen (2010):

a. She painted the house purple.
b. Jane considers Pride and Prejudice a classic.
c. She put the cup on the table.

• Let us focus on (30-a). Clearly, the following analysis is incorrect:

(31) VP

V’

V DP

painted D’

D NP

the N’

N’ AP

N purple

house

• The adjective purple cannot be attached to the noun house, as this would be problematic for the general rule that states
that adjectives in English precede the noun they modify.

• Could we say instead that the adjective modifies the verb?

(32) VP

V’

V’ AP

V DP purple

painted the house

• Again, not really: adjectives do not typically modify verbs, adverbs or PPs do.

• Further, semantically speaking, purple appears to be somehow related to the house. If we had to paraphrase this sentence,
we could say that:

(33) She painted the house, and the house became purple.

• If we were to analyze the string in bold, we would say that purple is a subject-predicative complement (it says something
about the house, and the house is grammatically a subject). In (30-a), the adjective is predicating (remember: saying
something) about the house, but this time the DP the house is an object (She painted the house). We will refer to this
complement as an object predicative complement.

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• This particular example is typically referred to as a resultative construction. Typically, a resultative consists of a
purely transitive verb (like paint in this case) and a phrase (AP or PP) which expresses a resulting state, as we saw in the
paraphrase in (33). More examples (see Huddleston and Pullum 2002, p.251ff.):

(34) a. Laura pushed the door open/shut.

b. The carpenter planed the wood smooth.
c. We wiped the table dry/clean.

• The million dollar question is how to represent them in the tree. We will opt for a three-branching structure like with
ditransitives (but there are problems with this analysis):

(35) VP

V’

V DP AP

painted the house purple

• What about (30-b)? This is not a resultative construction, but we also have a similar structure, in that Jane considers Pride
and Prejudice a classic can be paraphrased as follows:

(36) Jane considers [Pride and Prejudice to be a classic].

• Again, in this paraphrase, a classic would be a subject-predicative complement of Pride and Prejudice. But in our original
sentence, Pride and Prejudice is the object of the clause, therefore the DP a classic should be analyzed as an object-
predicative complement:

(37) VP

V’

V NP DP

considers a classic
Pride and Prejudice

• For some of these verbs, the object-predicative complement is obligatory:

(38) a. John found his keys; John found his jokes funny; *John found his jokes.
b. David called someone; David called his neighbour an old crow; *David called his neighbour.

• In the case of (30-c), clearly the PP on the table is an obligatory complement:

(39) VP

V’

V DP PP

put the cup on the table

Exercise 1. Revision: draw trees for the following phrases:

(40) a. Two very old ladies with extremely sunglasses.
b. The massive destruction of Hiroshima by the atomic bomb.
c. Read a text about the murder of JFK in 1963.
d. Draw an analysis of a sentence with tree diagrams.

7
 Exercise 2. For each of the following sentences, separate the subject from the predicate. In the case of the predicate,
indicate the verb type (transitive, prepositional, linking, ditransitive, complex-transitive, intransitive), the complements
and or the adjuncts. For the complements, indicate their grammatical category (NP/DP/PP. . . ) as well as their name (direct
object, indirect object, prepositional complement. . . ).
(41) a. Hot air rises.
b. My neighbour dyed her hair pink.
c. Richard promised us his pierogi machine.
d. Someone stole my iPhone yesterday in the city center.
e. The Academy nominated Julia Roberts Actress of the Year unanimously.
f. Sebastian feeds his cat smoked salmon.
g. I like Thai food very spicy.
h. The main witness misteriously vanished.
i. Nick felt euphoric after the concert.
j. The local charity lent them some clothes.
k. The Germans re-elected Merkel president.
l. The Venetians submitted to Napoleon’s demands.
m. A bucket of cold water revived the patient instantly.
n. My sister surprisingly believes in ghosts.
o. It rains a lot in this city.
p. Acrobats often sleep ten hours.
q. Loud music drove him mad very quickly.
r. They have been in their office for twelve hours every single day since 2019.
s. Margaret and Michael celebrated their success with a bottle of champagne.
t. Marcin cut himself with a carving knife.
u. Martha fied the table in the livingroom (ambiguous)
Exercise 3. Circle and label (transitive, etc.) all lexical verbs in the text below (from Gelderen 2010, p.98)

My friends next door are some of the few Athenians who have not moved into a concrete block or sold local building contractors
their family home for a handsome profit. The sprawling morass of concrete that spills into the Attica Plain surrounding the
suburbs of Athens makes Europe’s southernmost capital one of the world’s most polluted cities.

2 Modals, auxiliaries and the TP

• It is time now to start building the tree for a sentence. To do that, we must look at a set of words that are referred to as
auxiliaries.
• Auxiliaries are typically referred to as auxiliary verbs (czasowniki posiłkowe) but they are not verbs.
• Which elements belong in this category?
– Modal verbs (will, would, can, could, may, might, should, shall, must).3
– Perfect have: this is the auxiliary used in so-called perfect tenses.
– Progressive be: this is the auxiliary used in so-called continuous tenses.
– Passive be: this is the auxiliary used in passive constructions.
– Dummy do: this is the auxiliary used in so-called simple tenses (under certain conditions).

2.1 Properties of auxiliaries

2.1.1 Property 1: Assistance function
• Auxiliaries do not have a lexical meaning. In other words: what does the word is mean in John is crying?
• For this reason, they need to introduce always a lexical verb. In fact this is what they always select:

(42) ...

Aux VP

is crying
(43) a. *John didn’t potatoes.
3 In
English, modals and auxiliaries are very similar, but there are still some differences between the two. In other languages modals and auxiliaries are
more not so similar.

8
 b. *He will happy.

• Sometimes they can appear without a verb in contexts where the verb is contextually understood. This is usually referred
to as VP-Ellipsis:

(44) a. Is she going to apply for the job in Thailand? I mean, she theoretically could apply for the job in Thailand,
but I do not think she will apply for the job in Thailand.
b. Peter started writing his MA paper two weeks ago, but Mary still hasn’t started writing her MA paper.
c. I do not really understand this topic. . . do you understand this topic?

• If we look at the verb that these auxiliaries introduce, we will see an important property: they do not display tense. In
other words: the lexical verb must be a non-finite form. As opposed to finite forms, non-finite forms do not display
tense and number+person agreement.

• We will go back to this later on, but there are three non-finite forms:

– Infinitive: we use it after modals and dummy do.

– Gerund/Present participle/-ing: we use it after progressive be.
– Past participle/-ed/3rd column: we use it after perfect have and passive be.

(45) a. *She will studies linguistics next year.

b. *She has went to the supermarket.

2.1.2 Property 2: Inversion in questions

• To form questions, auxiliaries simply invert with the subject. This is what is known in grammar as Subject-Auxiliary
Inversion (SAI), a syntactic operation that we will examine in the third block.

(46) a. Can/Will/Should my cat use a laptop? (Modal verb)

b. Is/Was my cat using a laptop? (Progressive be)
c. Has my cat used a laptop before? (Perfect have)
d. Is/Was the laptop used by the cat? (Passive be)
e. Does/Did my cat use a laptop? (Dummy do)

• We can’t do that with regular verbs:

(47) a. *Uses my cat a computer?

b. *Ate you a sandwich in the morning?

2.1.3 Property 3: Compatibility with not/n’t

• To form a negative sentence, not is simply attached to the auxiliary:

(48) a. My cat can/will/should not use a laptop (Modal verb)

b. My cat is/was not using a laptop. (Progressive be)
c. My cat has/had not used a laptop before. (Perfect have)
d. The laptop is/was not used by my cat. (Passive be)
e. My cat does/did not use my laptop. (Dummy do)

• We can’t do that with regular verbs:

(49) a. *My cat uses not my laptop.

b. *I ate not a sandwich in the morning.

2.1.4 Property 4: Tag questions

• To make tag questions, we use the same auxiliary as in the main sentence, but we reverse polarity: if the sentence is
positive, the tag will contain not. If the sentence is negative, the tag will simply consist of the auxiliary and the subject:

(50) a. Your cat won’t eat my laptop, will it?

b. She has had a baby, hasn’t she?

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2.1.5 Property 5: Emphasis
• In contexts where we need to emphasize (often because we need to correct some previous assumption/presupposition),
we place stress on the auxiliary.

• So if someone accuses us of not doing our homework, we can angrily reply: but we have done our homework, and you
would not say: but we have done our homework.

2.1.6 Property 6: The position of adverbs of frequency

• Adverbs of frequency (never, often, sometimes, seldom, always. . . ) precede the verb in English:

(51) a. My cat sometimes eats my laptop.

b. *My cat eats often my laptop.

• Adverbs of frequency must follow the auxiliary:

(52) a. My cat has never eaten my laptop.

b. *My cat never has eaten my laptop.

2.2 Introducing the TP

• Suppose we want to draw a tree for the sentence My cat is eating my laptop. Leaving aside the subject, you could propose
the following structure:

(53) VP

V’

V DP

is eating my laptop

• This analysis is not very good. If we propose that two words are placed under the same head (in this case, V), we make
the prediction that these words will be inseparable. But this is not true, clearly. An alternative:

(54) VP

V’

V VP

is V’

V DP

is eating my laptop

• Structurally speaking, this analysis is much better, but it has a main problem: it states that is (i.e. progressive be) is a V.
Nevertheless, in the previous section we saw that verbs and auxiliaries are different animals.

• Recall that one property of auxiliaries is that they force the next verb to be non-finite. In other words, in a sentence with
auxiliaries, it is the auxiliary that manifests the tense.

• Capitalizing on this property, we can assume that the role of an auxiliary is to grammaticalize or encode tense. We will
therefore propose that auxiliaries project a Tense Phrase. Consequently, auxiliaries belong in a new category that is
called Tense (you may find Inflection in the literature as well).

10
 (55) TP

T’

T VP

is V’

V DP

is eating my laptop

• This analysis is a nice step forward in the definition of sentence. We are saying that a sentence is a bunch of words that
contain tense.
• But still: a sentence consists of a subject and a predicate. Where is the subject in the tree above?

• Remember that the subject has a very close connection with tense. We can clearly see this in Polish: if I asked you ’what
is the past tense of biegać?’ you would need to ask: ’what person and number?’. In other words, the precise form of the
tense ending depends on the subject. This is what we call agreement.

• To capture this connection, the subject is placed inside the TP. Where in particular? In the specifier:

(56) TP

DP T’

my cat
T VP

is V’

V DP

is eating my laptop

• So the structure for any sentence will be (for now):

(57) TP

DP/NP T’

subject T VP

predicate

2.3 T in the absence of auxiliaries

• When we introduced the category T, you may have thought: why don’t we call it AuxP instead of TP?

• Fair question, but not all sentences contain an auxiliary. Declarative sentences in simple tenses (simple present and
simple past) do not have any.

(58) a. My cat eats laptops.

b. My cats scratched my laptop.

• The question is: do we still need T? The answer is clear: of course we do, because even though these sentences do not
have auxiliaries, they do display tense.

• In the absence of an over T element, T contains tense and agreement features:

(59) a. My cat eats laptops.

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 b. TP

DP T’

My cat
T VP

[pres, 3sg] eat laptops

• Note that in the VP, it would not be correct to use the form eats. The -s morpheme indicates T, and it is independent of
the V. The following tree would be correct as well:

(60) TP

DP T’

My cat T VP

-s eat laptops

• The question is how the morpheme reaches the root of the verb, but we will not address this issue.

Exercise 4. Identify the auxiliary/ies in the following sentences and indicate what type they are. Also, list lexical verbs
and state what non-finite form they are in.
(61) a. Rigobertha has been meeting Carlos.
b. Belo and Horta were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
c. They may be bringing about a peaceful solution in East Timor.
Exercise 5. Identify the auxiliary/ies in the following text and indicate what type they are. Also, list lexical verbs and
state what non-finite form they are in.
Granny was waiting at the door of the apartment. She looked small, lonely, and patient, and at the sight of her the children
and their mother felt instantly guilty. Instead of driving straight home from the airport, they had stopped outside Nice for ice
cream. They might have known how much those extra twenty minutes would mean to Granny.
Exercise 6. Answer the following short questions:
• Think up a sentence with a perfect and a passive auxiliary.

• Add a progressive auxiliary to: He might go. Now add a perfect as well.

• Take out the perfect auxiliary in He could have been going.

Exercise 7. Draw trees for the following sentences:

(62) a. Your best friend should take these pills on a daily basis.
b. Experts on economy are discussing new taxes for the citizens.
c. The students have already read the articles.
d. We will die at some point.
e. My mother’s neighbour saw me yesterday at the bus stop.

3 Matrix vs embedded sentences

• So far we have been examining simple sentences. A simple sentence can be defined as one sentence which is formed
by one and only one finite verb (remember: a verb which displays tense and agreement with a subject).

• There are three main ways to create a complex sentence (one that contains more than one finite verb).

– Subordination: this process involves embedding/stacking one sentence inside another one: [Main clause . . . [Embedded
clause . . . ] ]. The subordinate clause is introduced by a special word (that, if, because, so. . . )
– Coordination: this process involves uniting two independent clauses by means of a coordinating conjunction
(and, or, but): [Main clause] and [Main clause].
– Juxtaposition: this process involves merging two independent clauses without resorting to any lexical item: [Main
clause], [Main clause].

• We are going to focus on subordination in this course.

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 • There are three types of subordinate clauses, which depend on the functions these clauses fulfill with respect to the main
clause (I am not following the classification in Huddleston and Pullum 2005, chapter 10):

– Content clauses
– Adverbial clauses
– Relative clauses

3.1 Content clauses (I): complements

• Recall that when we looked at transitive verbs, we proposed the following structure:

(63) VP

V’

V NP

eat laptops

• The transitive verb requires a complement, in this case the direct object NP laptops.

• But sentences can also serve as direct objects, for example:

(64) a. The director said [he would increase our salary].

b. The patient wanted [to smoke].

• In these cases, the sister of the V would be another sentence. Because sentences are TPs, as we have argued, the tree for
(64-a) would be as follows:

(65) TP

DP T’

the director
T VP

past,3sg V’

V TP
say
DP T’

he
T VP

would V’

V DP

increase our salary

• In this example, the subordinate clause is he would increase our salary, and the matrix clause is everything: the director
said he would increase our salary.

• This is important. If we claimed the matrix clause to be the director said we would be admitting that the matrix sentence
is an ungrammatical string (say is a transitive verb which requires an object).

• Also, in (64-a) both the matrix clause and the subordinate clause are finite, because they both contain a finite verb:

– Matrix clause: said is a past tense. Watch out! Said is also a past participle, but past participles typically occur
with perfect auxiliary have (cf. The director has said).
– Embedded clause: it contains an modal verb; modals are always finite.

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• In (64-b) we have a slighly different situation. In this case the matrix clause is the whole sentence the patient wanted to
smoke, but the embedded clause is to smoke. This clause contains an infinitive, which is a non-finite form - therefore the
embedded clause is non-finite-

(66) TP

DP T’

the patient
T VP

past,3sg V’

V TP
want T’

T VP

to smoke

• But there is a tiny problem with the squared structure in this tree. We have argued that sentences consist of subjects and
predicates, but this TP has no subject - there is nothing in the specifier of the TP:

(67) V’

V TP

want ??? T’

T VP

smoke

• Recall that in some languages like Polish or Spanish the subject can be invisible. We referred to this as small pro (pro),
and we hypothesized that this pro is possible in languages with rich morphology only.

• We cannot use pro in this tree:

– If pro existed in English, we would not be able to explain why is it that we cannot use it in matrix clauses (uczę się
polskiego vs *learn English.
– pro is possible with finite clauses only, because only in finite clauses do we have rich verbal morphology (in the
languages that have it, of course).

• Some of you may be thinking that the subject should be the patient (if the patient wants to smoke, it is the patient that
will or will not eventually smoke). However, if we wrote the patient under the specifier of the embedded TP, we would
end up with the sentence The patient wanted the patient to smoke, which means something slightly different.

• To solve this problem, we will posit the existence of another type of invisible subject, namely: PRO (read: big pro).

• As opposed to pro, PRO must occur in non-finite clauses - and therefore it is universally available:

(68) a. The patient wanted [PRO to smoke].

b. Pacjent chciał [PRO palić].

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 c. TP

DP T’

the patient
T VP

past,3sg V’

V TP
want
DP T’

PRO T VP

to smoke

3.2 Content clauses (II): Subjects

• Just like subordinate clauses can be objects, they can be subjects as well.

(69) a. [NP Electronic cigarettes] are dangerous. (Subject NP/DP)

b. [TP Smoking electronic cigarettes] is dangerous. (Sentential subject, subject TP)

• In this case, the matrix clause is smoking electronic cigarettes is dangerous (remember: the whole thing!), and the subor-
dinate clause is smoking electronic cigarettes, which contains a non-finite form of the verb (smoking, which is a gerund)
and therefore the embedded clause is non-finite.

• You may be thinking: ’why is smoking a verb and not a noun?’. That is a fair question.

– The word smoking comes from the verb smoke. This is a transitive verb, because you can say: Judith smoked
marijuana, for example, where marijuana is the direct object (the complement of transitive verbs). Similar verbs:
sell (I sold my flat), read (You read Julia’s diary). . .
– Remember that Nouns can also have complements, provided they are deverbal nouns. But contrary to what happens
to the complement of a transitive verb, which must be a NP/DP, the complement of a N must be a PP, typically headed
by of.

(70) a. The Romans destroyed Carthago, The destruction of Carthago.

b. Someone murdered Roger Ackroyd, The murder of Roger Ackroyd.
c. Marie Skłodowska-Curie discovered radium and polonium, The discovery of radium and polonium.

– So if smoking in (69-b) was a N, we would expect electronic cigarettes to be preceded by of, contrary to fact.
– Also, we know that N can be preceded by determiners (e.g. cat, the cat). But we cannot say *The smoking electronic
cigarettes. But as some of you may be thinking, what you can say indeed is:

(71) The smoking of electronic cigarettes.

– In this example, smoking is clearly a N: its complement is introduced by a preposition, and it is preceded by a
determiner. Further support for the nominal status of smoking comes from the fact that nouns, but not verbs, can
be modified by adjectives, so we can say:

(72) a. The frequent smoking of electronic cigarettes.

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 b. DP

D’

D NP

the N’

AP N’

frequent
N PP

smoking
of electronic cigarettes

– We cannot merge the adjective frequent in (69-b). Instead, we must use the corresponding adverb:

(73) a. *Frequent smoking electronic cigarettes.

b. Frequently smoking electronic cigarettes.

– We can safely conclude that smoking is a verb in (69-b).

Exercise 8. What is the syntactic category of the words ending in -ing in the following sentences?
(74) a. Do you recognize the writing on this envelope?
b. Writing a BA paper isn’t an easy task at all.
c. This is an interesting piece of art.
d. A course on creative writing? I’m in!

• Back to (69-b). If subjects are in the specifier of the TP, and the clause smoking electronic cigarettes is a clause and a
subject:

(75) a. TP

subject T’

T VP

[pres,3sg] V’

V AP

be dangerous
b. TP

TP T’

T VP
smoking electronic cigarettes
[pres,3sg] V’

V AP

be dangerous

• Now, if we replace the triangle and use a fully fledged structure, we obtain:

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 (76) TP

TP T’

DP T’ T VP

PRO [pres,3sg] V’
T VP
V AP
-ing V’
be dangerous
V NP

smok-
electronic cigarettes

3.3 Finite vs non-finite clauses

• It is important that we know how to distinguish finite from non-finite clauses.
• Matrix clauses, by definition, are finite clauses, so determining whether a clause is finite or non-finite is an issue only in
embedded contexts. Here are some hints for English (these won’t work for all languages):
• If the clause does not have an overt subject, it must be non-finite. This is because English does not have pro, which is the
invisible subject which is compatible with finite clauses.
• If the clause has an overt subject, we need to check which case this subject exhibits. Check this contrast:

(77) a. I said [John was a liar].

b. I wanted [John to lie].

• English nouns do not display morphological case, but if we use pronouns instead, we’ll see that the subjects are different:

(78) a. I said [he/*him was a liar].

b. I wanted [him/*he to lie].

• We see that in non-finite clauses, the overt subject cannot display nominative case.

Non-finite, complement clause
Finite, complement clause
(79)
Non-finite, subject clause
Finite, subject clause
Trevor’s mother expected [him to pass his final exams].
We heard [they were playing in their room]
[Him marrying Louise] was a shock to everybody.
[That they arrived late] did not surprise me at all.

Exercise 9. For each of the following sentences, (i) identify the matrix and subordinate clause(s), (ii) state if they are
finite or non-finite, and (iii) indicate whether the embedded clauses are subjects or complements.
(80) a. We hear Jenny complain very often about her situation.
b. I noticed that she mentioned that he was saying something very stupid.
c. She forgot to google this.
d. Using your own car is very expensive nowadays.
e. They forced us to sell our flat.
f. I wonder if James will come soon.
g. Tell me if you can do that.
h. The Polish government is wondering whether to tax the consumption of drugs.
i. I love making people laugh.
j. That he’s lying shouldn’t surprise you.
Exercise 10. Draw syntactic trees for the sentences (80-a), (80-c), (80-d), (80-e) and (80-i).

3.4 Other clauses: adverbial clauses and relative clauses

• We have looked at subject and complement clauses so far.

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• Complement clauses are located in a complement position (complement of V), while subject clauses sit in the specifier
of the TP:

(81) TP

TP T’

subject clause T VP

V’

V TP

complement clause

• Embedded clauses can also be adjuncts of a verb. Structurally, therefore, they will be in an adjunct position:

(82) TP

TP T’

subject clause
T VP

V’

V’ TP

V TP adjunct clause

complement clause

• Adjunct clauses are usually referred to as adverbial clauses.

Condition We would be silly if we didn’t accept these conditions.

Time We went to the hotel after visiting the museum.
Space You may now go wherever you please.
(83) Manner He passed the exam by cheating.
Reason Is the free speach debate raging because intellectuals feel stripped of power?
Concession He looked fresh as a daisy despite having drunk a lot.
Consecution You need to study a lot so that you can pass this course.

Exercise 11. State if the adverbial clauses in (83) are finite or non-finite.
Exercise 12. Draw the tree for sentences:
(84) a. We went to the hotel after visiting the museum.
b. He looked fresh as a daisy despite having drunk a lot.
Exercise 13. Revision: draw the tree for the sentence: John wants you to stop smoking.

• One last type of subordinate clause is the relative clause.

• Relative clauses are noun modifiers, that is, they are not attached to the verbal spine:

(85) We bought the car that Peter recommended.

• We will not discuss relative clauses in this course - their syntax is slightly complicated. But if you are interested, there is
a beautiful discussion of the syntactic properties of relative clauses in Freidin (2020, pp.55-69).

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4 The CP
• In the previous section we concluded that a sentence is a Tense Phrase.

• Tense is the head responsible for hosting auxiliaries and modals, as well as person, number and tense features in simple
tenses.

• Let us go back to one of the examples we discussed when we introduced the notion of embedded clause: (64-a), repeated
below for convenience:

(86) The director said [he would increase our salary].

• We provided the tree in (65), where the V selects a TP as a complement.

• Suppose, instead, that we have to analyze the following sentence:

(87) The director said [that he would increase our salary].

• The question arises as to what we should do with the word that.

Exercise 14. The word that can be used both to introduce clauses (I know that he cheated on his wife) and to precede
nouns (I just love that book about syntax). Show, with whatever mechanisms you have, that the two thats are different
words.

• We know that all words must belong in a category (remember: there are no acategorial words, because syntactic rules
apply to categories: a word with no category would be impossible to use).

• The word that is traditionally referred to as a subordinating conjunction (spójnik podrzędny). In more modern terms
it is referred to as a complementizer, or simple C.

• Also, recall that all categories project into a phrase, after projecting an intermediate level (the bar-level).

• Taking into consideration that complementizers introduce (or select) sentences, we can propose the following structure:

(88) CP

C’

C TP

that ...

• Or, if we represented the embedded structure in (64-a):

(89) V’

V CP

said C’

C TP

that
DP T’

he
T VP

would V’

V DP

increase our salary

• There are four complementizers that can introduce embedded, content clauses in English: that, if, for and whether. These
English complementizers serve various functions:

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 – They indicate that the sentence they introduce is embedded. In other words, in English there are no overt, main
clause complementizers.
– They tell us whether the embedded clause is declarative or interrogative. Technically, we say that they tell us
the illocutionary force of the sentence.
– They specify finiteness, i.e. they determine whether the embedded clause they introduce is finite or non-finite.

4.1 That
(90) a. I think that he will pass the test. (Complement clause)
b. That he will pass the test is obvious. (Subject clause)
(91) The properties of that:
C Force Finiteness Matrix/embedded Null?
that declarative finite embedded yes (only as a complement)
(92) a. *I wonder that Peter will arrive on time. (that introducing an interrogative clause)
b. *I tried that to leave earlier. (that introducing a non-finite clause)
c. *That I am tired. (that heading a matrix clause)
d. *He will not pass the test is obvious (cf. (90-b)). (Null that in a subject clause)
(93) TP

DP T’

I
T VP

[pres,1sg] V’

V CP

think C’

C TP

that DP T’

he T VP

will V’

V DP

pass the test

(94) TP

CP T’

C’
T VP

C TP [pres,3sg] V’

that DP T’ V AP

he be obvious
T VP

will V’

V DP

pass the test

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Exercise 15. Think about the similarities and differences between that and że. Fill in the following chart and provide
grammatical and ungrammatical examples that illustrate your claims:
C Force Finiteness Matrix/embedded Null?
that declarative finite embedded yes (only as a complement)
że

4.2 If
• We are not talking about conditional if, which introduces adverbial clauses (adjuncts).

• We will not discuss the internal syntax of conditional structures. It could be that conditional if is also a C (in fact, in
many languages like English or Spanish they are the same word).

(95) a. The students wonder if they will enjoy their holidays. (Complement clause)
b. If he will steal the show is still a mystery. (Subject clause)
(96) The properties of if :
C Force Finiteness Matrix/embedded Null?
if interrogative finite embedded No
(97) a. *I claimed if the store closed on Sunday. (if introducing a declarative clause)
b. *I still don’t know if to go. (if introducing a non-finite clause)
c. *If are you happy? (if heading a matrix clause)
d. *I wonder we should stop by. (Null if )
(98) TP

DP T’

The students
T VP

[pres,3pl] V’

V CP

wonder C’

C TP

if
DP T’

they
T VP

will V’

V DP

enjoy their holidays

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(99) TP

CP T’

C’
T VP
C TP [pres,3sg] V’
if DP T’ V DP

he be a mystery
T VP

will V’

V DP

steal the show

Exercise 16. Think about the similarities and differences between if and czy. Fill in the following chart and provide
grammatical and ungrammatical examples that illustrate your claims:
C Force Finiteness Matrix/embedded Null?
if interrogative finite embedded no
czy

4.3 For
• Complementizer for isn’t used very often - it is used in formal language - but you should not confuse it with preposition
for (a letter for you; we walked for hours. . . )

(100) a. We would prefer for you to use Skype with us.

b. For us to be here should be unacceptable.
(101) The properties of for:
C Force Finiteness Matrix/embedded Null?
for declarative non-finite embedded yes

• One additional requirement is that for is not compatible with PRO. In other words, the embedded clause introduced by
for needs to have an overt, non-nominative subject (102-c).

(102) a. *I wonder for him to tell me the time. (for introducing an interrogative clause)
b. *I said for she really ought to visit us. (for introducing a finite clause)
c. * I wanted for PRO to go. (for coappearing with PRO)

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 (103) TP

DP T’

We
T VP

would V’

V CP

prefer C’

C TP

for
DP T’

you
T VP

to V’

V’ PP

V NP with us

use Skype

(104) TP

CP T’

C’ T VP

C TP should V’

for DP T’ V AP
us T VP be unacceptable
to V’

V AdvP

be here

4.4 Whether
(105) a. I asked whether we would get a full refund. (Complement, finite clause)
b. I wonder whether to go (or not) (Complement, non-finite clause)
c. Whether (or not) we should be here is a mystery. (Subject, finite clause)
d. Whether (or not) to stay is a personal matter. (Subject, non-finite clause)
(106) The properties of whether:
C Force Finiteness Matrix/embedded Null?
whether interrogative non-finite, finite embedded no

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(107) TP

DP T’

I
T VP

[past,1sg] V’

V CP

ask C’

C TP

whether
DP T’

we
T VP

would V’

V’

V DP

get a full refund

(108) TP

CP T’

C’
T VP

C TP [pres,3sg] V’

whether V DP
DP T’
be a mistery
we T VP

should V’

V AdvP

be here

4.5 Matrix sentences: CPs or TPs?

• Here is a list of the four complementizers we have looked at and their properties:

C Force Finiteness Matrix/embedded Null?

that declarative finite embedded yes (only as a complement)
(109) if interrogative finite embedded No
for declarative non-finite embedded yes
whether interrogative non-finite, finite embedded no

• There are two generalizations we can make:

(110) a. Generalization 1
There are no matrix complementizers in English.

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 b. Generalization 2
Only declarative complementizers can be null (consequently, interrogative complementizers cannot be
null).

• With respect to (110-b), we will come back to it in the third block. Right now, we simply take it as a descriptive statement,
but it will have theoretical implications.

• The generalization in (110-a), however, raises an important question: if there are no matrix complementizerts, should
matrix sentences project a CP?
• The answer is: yes, they should. The reason is simple. Look at the following minimal pair:

(111) a. Agatha Christie created Hercule Poirot.

b. Did Agatha Christie create Hercule Poirot?

• If the sentence was only a TP selecting a VP, we would not be able to distinguish the syntax of these two sentences:
– In terms of the VP, both sentences are the same: they consist of the transitive verb create, which selects a direct
object NP Hercule Poirot.
– In terms of the TP, both sentences are the same: they exhibit a past tense, and agreement with a third person
singular subject (in this case the NP Agatha Christie.

• What is the difference? One sentence is declarative, and the other one is interrogative. Recall that this is referred to as
the illocutionary force of a sentence, and this is part of what complementizers indicate.
• So we need this information, even if it will be silent:

(112) CP

C’

C TP

[decl]
NP T’

Agatha Christie
T VP

[past,3sg] V’

V NP

create Hercule Poirot

• For the tree representation of the interrogative sentence, we’ll have to wait a bit more.
Exercise 17. Draw trees for the following sentences:
(113) a. I highly recommend renting an electric car in Gdynia this summer.
b. Susan promised her fiancé that she would always want to spend time with him.
c. The logistics department is still wondering if travelling by plane may be the most suitable option.
d. For Trump to remain silent on Twitter is really complicated.

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5 Exercises to be handed in
Exercise 1. For each of the following sentences, separate the subject from the predicate. In the case of the predicate,
indicate the verb type (transitive, prepositional, linking, ditransitive, complex-transitive, intransitive), the complements
and or the adjuncts. For the complements, indicate their grammatical category (NP/DP/PP. . . ) as well as their name (direct
object, indirect object, prepositional complement. . . ).
(114) a. My neighbour’s dog barks a lot until midnight.
b. Harry strongly resembles his father.
c. The priest declared Jack and Christine husband and wife.
d. Two tourists have been shot dead in Ohio this morning.
e. Trigonometry bores me immensely.
f. I already sent you the details about my trip to the US.
g. We left after 2.
h. Those flowers smell heavenly!
i. I barely understand your words.
j. She made such a fuss over a tiny mistake.
Exercise 2. Identify the main and subordinate clauses in each of the following sentences. For each of the subordinate
clauses, (i) state the grammatical function (subject, object, adjunct) and (ii) whether it is finite or non-finite. Then draw
their syntactic representation using tree diagrams.
(115) a. Some linguistic historians prefer to believe that languages die by social evolution.
b. They saw him cross the street without looking.
c. Poirot thought that he had sufficient evidence to solve the mystery.
d. For us to accompany penguins on that trip is a wonderful opportunity.
Exercise 3. Draw the tree for the following Korean sentence (from Fromkin 2001, p.317):
(116) romio- ka culiet- kwa kian- e ka- ss- ni.
Romeo subj Juliet with theater to go past int
‘Did Romeo go to the theater with Juliet?’

References
Corbett, Greville G. (2006). Agreement. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Freidin, Robert (2020). Adventures in English Syntax. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Fromkin, Victoria A., ed. (2001). Linguistics: an Introduction to Linguistic Theory. London: Blackwell.
Gelderen, Elly van (2010). An Introduction to the Grammar of English. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Huddleston, Rodney and Geoffrey Pullum (2002). The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
— (2005). A Student’s Introduction to English Grammar. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Koeneman, Olaf and Hedde Zeijlstra (2017). Introducing syntax. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

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