NAME THAT LANGUAGE
HYPOTHESIS A, HYPOTHESIS B
JUST MY (CLAUSE) TYPE
360 NO SCOPAL AMBIGUITY
"FIN" DE SIÈCLE
100

Je vais aller à la maison. `I will go home.'

This language is renowned for its inability to permit pied-piping in its standard form.

What is French?

100

This hypothesis posits that nominal projections are headed by a determiner and thereby creates parallelism between the verbal and nominal domains.

What is the DP hypothesis?

100

Are you okay?

Also called binary questions, open questions, or yes-no questions, these clauses invite only two answers under standard cooperative conditions.

What are polar interrogatives?

100

I am looking for a cat.

What is `I am looking for a particular cat' and `I am looking for any cat at all'?

100

This verbal form is written as one word in many Romance languages but two words in English.

What is the infinitive?

200

Lasst sie nach Berlin kommen. `Let them come to Berlin.'

This language is known for its V2 constituent order, in which the tensed verb appears in the second position in main clauses.

What is German?

200

This hypothesis posits that subjects are generated in a lower position before raising to a higher position to satisfy the EPP in languages like English.

What is the V(oice)P-internal subject hypothesis?

200

He was hugged by me.

This type of clause involves the demotion of a subject into an agent and the promotion of base-generated object to a derived subject.

What are passives?

200

Every winter, many skiiers go to Switzerland.

What is `There are some skiiers for whom it is a yearly tradition to go to Switzerland' and `Every winter, many skiiers go to Switzerland, and most may only visit just the one time'.

200
Word order in the PPs of this Uralic language is free--for the most part.

What is Finnish?

300

Jun-ga Mariko-ni bejimaito-o tabesaseraremashita. `Jun was forced to eat vegemite by Mariko.'


This language is immediately recognizable by its mostly strict CV structure and fully strict head-finality.

What is Japanese?

300

This hypothesis posits that knowledge of grammar is inborn and forms a major component of generative grammar.

What is the innateness hypothesis? (What is universal grammar? is also acceptable.)

300

I saw him cry.

The subject in this type of subordinate clause has no TP and therefore is allowed to receive exceptional accusative case from the upstairs clause.

What are small clauses?

300

What portraits of herself did Julia think that Marge commissioned?

What is `What portraits of Julia did Julia think that Marge commissioned' or `What portraits of Marge did Julia think that Marge commissioned'?
300

This constraint states that no language can have the following word order: *I that he is cool think.

What is the Final-over-Final Condition?

400

Mér líst vel á þessa Kamala Harris. `I like this Kamala Harris.'

This language has changed so little over the years that they call a seventy-year-old construction "the new passive."

What is Icelandic?

400

One component of this hypothesis is that there are structures, formations, categories, etc. in the mind/brain that are specialized for language (and do not belong to domain-general cognition).

What is the modularity hypothesis?

400

I smoke cigarettes, and Kyle might, too.

In English, this clause type is associated with an overt subject and auxiliary, as well as deletion of material that is recoverable in an antecedent clause.

What is VP Ellipsis?

400

Daily Double

Every student didn't study for the test.

400

This is the seat of nominative case assignment in nominative-accusative languages.

What is finite T?

500

Sciob an cat an teireaballden luch. `The cat cut the tail off the mouse.'

This language has an entirely transparent orthography, once you get around to learning it.

What is Irish?

500

You needed to advance some version of this hypothesis in order to draw the subordinate V2 phrase markers for Danish and Icelandic for Homework 7.

What is the split-CP hypothesis? (What is the two-CP hypothesis? or What is the hypothesis that Danish and Icelandic have two CPs? is also acceptable.)

500

I think that Bill has to go to the store.

In German, these clauses must either raise to the specifier of CP or extrapose to the right.

What are clausal complements?

500

Lisa saw herself in the mirror, and Marge did, too.

What is `Lisa saw Lisa in the mirror, and Marge saw Marge in the mirror' and `Lisa saw Lisa in the mirror, and Marge saw Lisa in the mirror'?

500

This lexical item associated with nouns is a suffix in Icelandic but a free form in English, French, German, and Irish.

What is the definite article?

M
e
n
u