Is late insertion necessary? If so, why?
Pavel Caha
Masaryk University (Brno)
Linguistic Flashmob 18 February 2021
□     g     - =
Outline
► Yes...
2/18
Outline
► Yes...
► modularity
2/18
Outline
Yes...
► modularity
► lexical items (words, morphemes) have the wrong size to be the input of syntax
□ s
Modularity
3/18
modularity
► Miller et al. (1997: 68), Marantz (1996), cf. Zwicky (1969); Zwicky & Pullum (1986)
(1)      Principle of Phonology Free Syntax
Rules of syntax make no reference to phonology.
4/18
modularity
► Miller et al. (1997: 68), Marantz (1996), cf. Zwicky (1969); Zwicky & Pullum (1986)
(1) Principle of Phonology Free Syntax
Rules of syntax make no reference to phonology.
(2) Principle of Concept Free Syntax
Rules of syntax make no reference to concepts.
4/18
A late-insertion model
Lexicon (F -> P, C)
Figure 1: A late-insertion model of grammar (Nanosyntax)
early-insertion model
Lexicon (F, P, C)
□        g - =
6/18
Lexical items have the wrong size
7/18
Case and number
(3)      Greenberg's Universal 39 (Greenberg 1963: 75)
Where morphemes of both number and case are present and both follow or both precede the noun base, the expression of number almost always comes between the noun base and the expression of case.
□    ifp     - =
Turkish
(4) a. b.
el -de
hand-LOC el-ler-de
hand-PL-LOC
Tagalog
(5)
sa =bata
dat =child sa=mga=bata
dat=PL=child
□     S1      - =
10/18
Case and number
KP
K
NumP
Num
NP
case        number noun
□    ifp     - =
11/18
Classical Armenian
(6)
azg-aw
nation-iNS azg-aw-k' nation-iNS-PL
□    ifp     - =
12/18
(7)      The updated U39 (Kloudova 2020)
Counterexample are only found after the noun
13/18
(7)      The updated U39 (Kloudova 2020)
Counterexample are only found after the noun.
K
KP
NumP
Num
NP
case number
noun
□    ifp     - =
13/18
The updated U39 (Kloudova 2020) Counterexample are only found after the noun.
□ S1
Colloquial Czech
	SG		PL
NOM	pan		pan-ove
ACC	pan		pan-y
GEN	pan-	-a	pan-u
LOC	pan-	-ovi	pan-ech
DAT	pan-	-ovi	pan-um
INS	pan-	-em	pan-ama
14/18
Colloquial Czech
	SG		PL
NOM	pan		pan-ove
ACC	pan		pan-y
GEN	pan-	-a	pan-u
LOC	pan-	-ovi	pan-ech
DAT	pan-	-ovi	pan-um
INS	pan-	-em	pan-ama
(8)
K+NumP
N
pan
K+Num
-ech
□    ifp     - =
14/18
A late insertion scenario
A late insertion scenario
Conclusions
16/18
Conclusions
► Late insertion explains why syntax is not sensitive to phonology and concepts
17/18
Conclusions
► Late insertion explains why syntax is not sensitive to phonology and concepts
► It can also explain mismatches between the granularity of syntax and of lexical items (via phrasal spellout)
17/18
References
Kloudovä, Veronika. 2020. The interaction of functional morphemes inside the nominal phrase. München: Lincom.
Marantz, Alec. 1996. Cat as a phrasal idiom: consequences of late insertion in Distributed Morphology. Ms., MIT.
Miller, Philip, Geoffrey Pullum & Arnold Zwicky. 1997. The principle of phonology-free syntax: four apparent counterexamples in French. Journal of Linguistics 33. 67-90.
Zwicky, Arnold. 1969. Phonological constraints in syntactic descriptions. Papers in Linguistics 1. 411-453.
Zwicky, Arnold & Geoffrey Pullum. 1986. The principle of
phonology-free syntax: introductory remarks. Working papers in Linguistics 32. 63-91.
18/18