MATCHING THEORY

FEATURES RELEVANT TO SYNTAX:

1) CATEGORIAL FEATURES: The set of HEAD FEATURES

carried by each lexical item. These are VALUED when
the item enters a syntactic derivation.
2) CONTEXTUAL (SELECTIONAL) FEATURES: Determine
the type of constituent an item may merge with.
These are UNVALUED when the item enters a
derivation.
VALUED AND UNVALUED FEATURES
NOMINALS (D/DP):
• Have VALUED PERSON, NUMBER (and
GENDER) . These are called phi features (head
features on nominals).
• Have UNVALUED CASE FEATURES
(CONTEXTUAL FEATURES). These must be
valued by the valued head features on T.
VALUED AND UNVALUED FEATURES
AUXILIARIES AND NULL T

• Have VALUED TENSE, ASPECT AND

MOOD.
• Have UNVALUED phi (person,
number) features.
FEATURE MATRICES
TP

Spec T’
We
T° VP
HAVE
[Pres Tns] Spec V’
[u-person]
[u-number]
[EPP] V’ PP
in Puerto Rico
V° D
arrived We
[1-Pers]
[Pl-Num]
[u-Tense/ Case]
 1) FEATURE COPYING AND FEATURE
VALUATION
• The T-probe will search its c-command domain
for a nominal goal to value its contextual
(selectional) features.
• Once it has found a suitable goal, the T-probe
will value its contextual features: the HEAD
features of the nominal will be COPIED onto the
probe and thus VALUED.
• NOMINATIVE CASE is assigned by the T-probe
to the nominal.
FEATURE COPYING AND FEATURE
VALUATION
TP

Spec T’
We
T° VP
HAVE
[Pres Tns] Spec V’
[1-person]
[Pl-number]
[EPP] V’ PP
in Puerto Rico
V° D
arrived We
[1-Pers]
[Pl-Num]
[Nominative Case]
 2) FEATURE DELETION AND SUBJECT
ATTRACTION
• Once the DP-goal has valued the unvalued phi
features of the T-probe, and T has valued the
unvalued T feature of the DP, the probe’s and
the goal’s selectional features are deleted.
• As the auxiliary also carries an EPP feature, the
DP will move to Spec-TP in order to satisfy the
uninterpretable EPP feature of T (alternatively,
EPP may be satisfied by movement of a PRO
SUBJECT or merger of an EXPLETIVE) .
FEATURE DELETION AND SUBJECT
ATTRACTION
TP

Spec T’
We
T° VP
HAVE
[Pres Tns] Spec V’
[1-person]
[Pl-number]
[EPP requirement] V’ PP
in Puerto Rico
V° D
arrived We (t)
[1-Pers]
[Pl-Num]
[Present-Tense/ Nominative Case]
 FEATURE VALUE CORRELATION
• INTERPRETABLE FEATURES: TENSE features on T,
phi features on nominals.
• UNINTERPRETABLE FEATURES: CASE features on
nominals and phi features on T.

Interpretable features (at LF) enter the derivation

already valued. Uninterpretable features (at LF)
must be valued (and deleted) via matching.
 FEATURE DELETION vs TRACE COPY
DELETION
• FEATURE DELETION: RENDERS THE AFFECTED
FEATURES INVISIBLE TO THE SEMANTIC
COMPONENT (LF) WHILE LEAVING THEM VISIBLE TO
THE SYNTACTIC AND PHONOLOGICAL
COMPONENTS.
• TRACE COPY DELETION: RENDERS TRACES (COPIES)
OF MOVED CONSTITUENTS INVISIBLE TO THE
PHONOLOGICAL COMPONENT (PF) WHILE LEAVING
THEM VISIBLE IN THE SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC
COMPONENTS.
 PHASES

Chomsky: ‘the PROBE-GOAL

relation must be local’ in order ‘to
minimise search’ (i.e. to ensure
that a minimal amount of
searching will enable a probe to
find an appropriate goal).
 PHASES
Chomsky: ‘the derivation of expressions proceeds
by phase, so that syntactic structures are built up
one phase at a time. Phases should be as small as
possible to minimise memory.’
Phases are propositional in nature, involving a
FORCE P and a VP.
FORCE P represents a complete clausal complex
(including a specification of force), and VP
represents a complete argument structure
complex.
 PHASES
Once all the operations which apply within a given
phase have been completed, the domain of the
phase (i.e. the complement of its head) becomes
impenetrable to further syntactic operations.

PHASE IMPENETRABILITY CONDITION/PIC

The c-command domain of a phase head is
impenetrable to an external probe (i.e. a goal which
is c-commanded by the head of a phase is
impenetrable to any probe c-commanding the
phase).
 TRANSFER
At the end of each phase, part of the
syntactic structure already formed
undergoes transfer to the phonological
and semantic components (to be assigned
appropriate phonetic and semantic
representations), with the result that the
relevant part of the structure is
inaccessible to further syntactic operations
from that point on.
 TRANSFER
Eg: Once a complete FORCE P phase has been formed,
the TP which is the domain (i.e. complement) of the
phase head FORCE will be sent to the phonological
and semantic components for processing. As a result,
TP is no longer visible in the syntax, and hence neither
TP itself nor any constituent of TP can subsequently
serve as a goal for a higher probe: i.e. no probe c-
commanding FORCE P can enter into a relation with
TP or any constituent of TP.
 PHASES and A-BAR movement
A-bar position: a position which can be occupied
by arguments or adjuncts alike. For example, the
specifier of FOC P is said to be A-bar position
because it can contain not only an argument like
wh-phrase in ‘Which car did he fix?’ but also an
adjunct like the adverb in ‘How did he fix the
car? A-bar movement is a movement operation
(like wh-movement) which moves an argument
or adjunct expression to an A-bar position.
It is thought that he will go to prison.
(FORCE P 2)It is thought (FORCE P 1) that he
will go to prison.
Since FORCE P (1) is a phase, its domain
(i.e. its TP complement) will undergo
transfer at this point. This means that
neither TP nor any of the constituents of
TP will be accessible to further syntactic
operations. TP and its constituents are
frozen in place once TP undergoes
transfer.
 Where is it thought that he will go?
Problem: Since all constituents of TP are
frozen in place at this point, the wh-word
where will be unable to move from the
(sentence-final) V-complement position it
occupies in to the (sentence initial) main
clause FOC-specifier position which it occupies
in
(PHASE 2)Where is it thought (PHASE 1)that
he will go?
 SOLUTION:
Wh-movement applies in a successive-cyclic fashion (one
clause at a time), and complementiser that in such
structures has an Edge Feature which triggers movement
of the closest wh-expression (where) to become the
specifier of the complement-clause FORCE P headed by
that.
Then, where moves on to become the specifier of the
main clause FOC constituent containing the inverted
auxiliary is.
Thus, where will move from the clause-final position as
the complement of go into the clause-initial position as
the specifier of that.
Where is it thought that he will go?
• Once all the operations which apply on
(PHASE 1) have applied, the domain of
Force P 1 (i.e. its TP complement) will
undergo transfer.

• One consequence of this is that the

lower copies of moved constituents will
receive a null spellout in the
phonological component.
 PHASES AND PROBE-GOAL
In structures involving A-bar
movement, the phase head FORCE will
serve as a probe which will attract the
closest wh-goal to move into its
specifier position.