View source for Weird VPs

{{Hatnote|Split off from [[Some Scope Creep]].}}

[[File:SerialAsConstituent.png|thumb|frame|"{{t|shoe kuq}}" as a constituent. It's clear why things in TP and above make scopes but {{t|shoe}} does not.]]

[[File:MiddleAdjunct.png|thumb|frame|This VP structure, combined with generalized [[Predicate Modification]], allows for adjuncts to appear between subject and object.]]

[[Laqme]] suggests this unusual syntactical structure for VPs. She thinks we should analyze serial verbs as constituents, rather than using movement. In that case, it's natural that {{t|shoe}} would not introduce scope; rather, {{t|shoe kuq}} can somehow be considered a V, reflecting that serials and atomic verbs ''really are'' syntactically the same. This would change the behavior of {{t|ru}}, but perhaps for the better (you can do serial-ru-serial).

The tree structure suggests that {{t|Shoe kuq jí súq}} and {{t|Shoe kuq jí}} are constituents — as is indeed sort-of evidenced by [[Underfilling]], if we allow that?

Supposedly there is some "internal structure" to a serial V. We imagine that {{t|shoe}} can "apply to" {{t|kuq}} to get the meaning of {{t|shoe kuq}}, if you do a truly silly amount of type-shifting. Or maybe there is a covert operator in any serial that knows how to "do" the serialization — {{t|shoe kuq}} is really {{t|shoe x<sub>shoe</sub> kuq}} where {{t|x<sub>shoe</sub>}} is some unpronounced operator that implements [[Serial_verb#Merging_definitions|merge-into]] for {{t|shoe}}'s [[frame]].

Scope is just left-to-right, serial verbs are just verbs, and there is no movement in VPs. Anaphora are no longer resolved via c-command. This is a big step away from Chomsky-style generative grammar, towards something more like Montague grammar / [[effects|effectful]] parsing / continuations and type-checking-based semantics.

See ''Quantificational Binding Does Not Require C-Command'' (Barker, 2012) and ''A modular theory of pronouns (and binding)'' (Charlow, 2017) for more ideas, and the [[ECNLS]] slides. Also [[Continuations and Natural Language]] has a nice chapter about "the irrelevance of c-command".

[[Category:Proposals]]