Chomsky 1995: Minimalist derivations of word order

This file verifies that Minimalist Merge derivations of [Cho95b] model English SVO order: the phonological yield of a transitive derivation — the verb merging its complement, then the subject merging as specifier — comes out subject-verb-object. The derivation is built from Fragment verb and noun entries through verbToSelStack, which reads a verb's selectional stack off its complement type.

Main results

• models_svo_word_order — the derivation of John sees Mary linearizes as "John sees Mary"

References

• [Cho95b]

def Chomsky1995.positionCat : ArgumentFrame.Position → Option Minimalist.Cat

The category a complement position c-selects: a nominal is .D (the DP hypothesis), a finite or interrogative clause .C, an infinitive .T, a nominalized or participial clause .V, a small clause .D; an adpositional or implicit position selects nothing.

Equations

• One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.
• Chomsky1995.positionCat ArgumentFrame.Position.nominal = some Minimalist.Cat.D
• Chomsky1995.positionCat (ArgumentFrame.Position.clausal none t embeddedSubject) = some (if t.IsInterrogative then Minimalist.Cat.C else Minimalist.Cat.D)
• Chomsky1995.positionCat x✝ = none

def Chomsky1995.verbToSelStack (v : English.Verbs.Verb) : Minimalist.SelStack

The selectional stack of a verb's basic frame, in which each c-selected argument is one Cat feature consumed by complement Merge. Folded in from the former Syntax/Minimalist/FromFragments.lean (its only consumer).

Equations

• Chomsky1995.verbToSelStack v = (Option.map (fun (fr : ArgumentFrame) => List.filterMap Chomsky1995.positionCat fr.complements) v.valency.frames.head?).getD []

def Chomsky1995.verbToSO (v : English.Verbs.Verb) (id : ℕ) : Minimalist.SyntacticObject

A English.Verbs.Verb as a SyntacticObject leaf (Cat = .V, selStack from the citation frame).

Equations

• Chomsky1995.verbToSO v id = Minimalist.SyntacticObject.mkLeafPhon Minimalist.Cat.V (Chomsky1995.verbToSelStack v) (v.realize English.Verbs.Verb.Cell.thirdSg) id

def Chomsky1995.nameToSO (n : ProperName) (id : ℕ) : Minimalist.SyntacticObject

A proper name as a leaf, projecting as .D.

Equations

• Chomsky1995.nameToSO n id = Minimalist.SyntacticObject.mkLeafPhon Minimalist.Cat.D [] n.form id

def Chomsky1995.john_sees_mary : Minimalist.Derivation

The Minimalist Merge derivation of "John sees Mary", in which see's complement is Mary (em .right) and then John is added as specifier (em .left).

Equations

• One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.

theorem Chomsky1995.models_svo_word_order : " ".intercalate john_sees_mary.surfacePhon = "John sees Mary"

The phonological yield of john_sees_mary is the SVO string "John sees Mary": the Minimalist derivation (built by em .right then em .left over verbToSO/nameToSO) linearizes subject-verb-object via the derivation-grounded computable externalization (Derivation.surfacePhon).