Suggested Answers and Hints - Chapter 7similarly to sentence (1a). Thematic role assignment can be accounted for in the same
manner we did in sentence (1a). The initial position of the object DP was Spec,VP
where it got the theme theta role from the main verb. Then it moved to the first
position of the sentence. This movement cannot be motivated by the fact that the DP
has a +wh feature, as it is not a question word. But it is obvious that the sentence has
marked contrastive interpretation (Short stories I don’t like, but I like novels.). This
indicates that the complement has a contrastive interpretation; therefore it is marked as
contrastive. DPs marked as contrastive tend to move to the sentence-initial position.
This operation is called topicalisation.
In sentence (1c), as in sentence (1b) the DP short stories is the theme complement
of the verb like, as its lexical entry indicates. Sentence (1c) is a complex sentence, the
topicalised DP moves to the first position of the main sentence. The theme
complement must be in the Spec,VP of the embedded sentence as in (1b) to get
thematic role from the lexical verb like of the subordinate sentence. Then it moves to
the initial position of the main sentence to get the contrastive interpretation.
In the complex sentence (1d) there are two predicates: the verb seem and the verb
hate. The lexical entry of the two verbs is in (4a) and (b).
(4) a seem cat: [–F, –N, +V] b hate cat: [–F, –N, +V]
-grid:
subcat: sentential subcat: nominal
As the lexical entry of the verb seem indicates, it does not have thematic subject, so
the subject of the sentence cannot be the thematic subject of the verb seem. The verb
hate has a thematic subject, but there is no DP in the Spec,IP, (the canonical case
position of the subject) of the embedded sentence. Still the sentence is grammatical.
The DP Mary is interpreted as the subject of the verb hate, she is the “hater”. In the
initial structure the DP Mary must be in the specifier position of the VP of the
subordinate sentence.
(5) IP
DP I'
(Mary) I vP
v'
v vP
to DP v'
(Mary) v VP
hate