Superiority condition - Revision history

NBlöcher: Edited the format and removed the block {{format}}

2014-08-16T08:16:25Z

Edited the format and removed the block {{format}}

Wohlgemuth at 16:18, 9 June 2009

2009-06-09T16:18:03Z

Wohlgemuth: utrecht

2009-06-09T16:17:24Z

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'''Superiority condition''' is a condition on the application of [[transformation]]s, which states that, if a transformation can in principle be applied to two [[constituent]]s in the structure, it has to be applied to the one that is [[superior]]. The formal definition (from Chomsky (1973)) is as follows:

No rule can involve X,Y in the structure
...X...[...Z...-WYV...]...
where the rule applies ambiguously to Z and Y
and Z is superior to Y

=== Example ===

given that [[wh-movement]] can apply only once in deriving the [[s-structure]] of a sentence, the superiority condition predicts that in structure (i) ''what'' cannot be moved: ''who'' is superior to ''what''. The contrast in (ii) shows this prediction to be correct.

(i) S'
/ \
COMP S
/ \
NP VP
| / \
who V NP
| |
saw what

(ii) a (I wonder) who saw what
b *(I wonder) what who saw

=== Links ===

[http://www2.let.uu.nl/UiL-OTS/Lexicon/zoek.pl?lemma=Superiority+condition&lemmacode=298 Utrecht Lexicon of Linguistics]

=== References ===

* Chomsky, N. 1993. ''A Minimalist Program for Linguistic Theory,'' MIT occasional papers in linguistics, 1-67. Reprinted in: Chomsky (1995).
* Chomsky, N. 1986b. ''Barriers,'' MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass.
* Chomsky, N. 1973. ''Conditions on transformations,'' in: S.R. Anderson & P. Kiparsky, A festschrift for Morris Halle, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York.
* Lasnik, H. and M. Saito 1992. ''Move alpha: conditions on its application and output,'' MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass.

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[[Category:Syntax]]

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← Older revision		Revision as of 16:18, 9 June 2009
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−	'''Superiority condition''' is a condition on the application of [[transformation]]s, which states that, if a transformation can in principle be applied to two [[constituent]]s in the structure, it has to be applied to the one that is [[superior]]. The formal definition (from Chomsky (1973)) is as follows:	+	'''Superiority condition''' is a condition on the application of [[transformation]]s, which states that, if a transformation can in principle be applied to two [[constituent]]s in the structure, it has to be applied to the one that is [[superiority\|superior]]. The formal definition (from Chomsky (1973)) is as follows:

	No rule can involve X,Y in the structure		No rule can involve X,Y in the structure

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 '''Superiority condition''' is a condition on the application of [[transformation]]s, which states that, if a transformation can in principle be applied to two [[constituent]]s in the structure, it has to be applied to the one that is [[superiority|superior]]. The formal definition (from Chomsky (1973)) is as follows:
@@ Line 6: / Line 7: @@
    and Z is superior to Y
-=== Example ===
+== Example ==
+Given that [[wh-movement]] can apply only once in deriving the [[s-structure]] of a sentence, the superiority condition predicts that in structure (i) ''what'' cannot be moved: ''who'' is superior to ''what''. The contrast in (ii) shows this prediction to be correct.
   (i)		S'
@@ Line 23: / Line 23: @@
        b	*(I wonder) what who saw
-=== Links ===
+== Links ==
+*[http://www2.let.uu.nl/UiL-OTS/Lexicon/zoek.pl?lemma=Superiority+condition&lemmacode=298 Utrecht Lexicon of Linguistics]
 * Chomsky, N. 1993. ''A Minimalist Program for Linguistic Theory,'' MIT occasional papers in linguistics, 1-67. Reprinted in: Chomsky (1995).
 * Chomsky, N. 1986b. ''Barriers,'' MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass.
@@ Line 37: / Line 35: @@
 [[Category:Syntax]]
-{{stub}}{{cats}}{{format}}
+{{stub}}{{cats}}