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Chapter 4 Syntax

Part IV

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Heads (核心詞 )and complements

p. 140 The head of a phrase is the word whose lexical category defines the type of the phrase. Every phrase has a head that has the same syntactic category as the phrase. The complement of the head is the other

constituents in a phrase that complete its meaning.

(See examples on p. 140.)

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Every VP contains a Verb. found a puppy Every NP contains a Noun. my new house Every PP contains a Preposition. in my new house

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More examples

VP: found the puppy NP: the destruction of Rome a picture of Mary a person worthy of praise a boy who pitched a perfect game PP: in the garden

Selection

pp. 140-141Whether a verb takes a complement or not depends on the properties of the verb. Verbs (transitive or intransitive) select different kinds of complements. Examples (p. 141):1. Put and give take both an NP and a PP complement: She put the milk in the refrigerator.2. Sleep can not take an NP complement: Michael slept.3. Think selects a sentence complement, often preceded by a complementizer that: I think that Sam won the race.See other examples on p. 141.

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C-selection (詞類選擇 )

p. 542C-selection:The classifying of verbs and other lexical items in terms of the syntactic category of the complements that they accept; sometimes called “subcategorization”Example: The verb find c-selects a noun phrase complement.p. 141 The information about the complement types selected by particular verbs and other lexical items is called c-selection or subcategorization and is included in the lexical entry of item in our mental lexicon.** “C” stands for “categorial”.

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More examples

p. 141Verbs select different kinds of complements:(a) Put selects both an NP and a PP. Sam put the milk in the refrigerator.(b) Sleep can not take an NP complement. * Michael slept a fish.(c) Think selects a sentence as complement. I think that Sam won the race.(d) Tell selects an NP and an S as complement. I told Sam that Michael was on his bicycle.

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(e) Feel selects either an AdjP or an S. They felt strong as oxen. They feel that they can win.(f) Belief selects either a PP or an S. There was a belief in freedom of speech. Everybody learns the belief that freedom of speech is a basic right.(g) Tired selects a PP. I am tired of stale sandwiches.(h) Sympathy selects a PP. They showed their sympathy for the victims.

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S-selection (語意選擇 )

p. 561S-selection:The classifying of verbs and other lexical items in terms of the semantic category of the head and the complements that they accept. Example: The verb find s-selects an animate subject and a concrete NP complement.** “S” stands for “semantic”.

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Examples

(a) Murder requires its subject and object to be human.(b) Drink requires its subject to be animate and its object liquid.(c) Like/hate selects animate subjects.

! The rock murdered the man. ! The beer drank the student. ! The tree liked the boy.

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p. 142The well-formedness of a phrase depends on at least two factors:(a) Whether the phrase conforms to the phrase

structure requirements, and(b) Whether the phrase conforms to the

selectional requirements of the head.

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What heads the sentence?

pp. 142-143The category Aux is a natural category to head S. Reasons:(1) A sentence is about a situation or state of

affairs that occurs at some point in time.(2) Aux specifies a time frame for the sentence,

whether the situation described by the sentence will take place, already took place, or is taking place now.

S

NP VP

The boy Aux VP

is eating may eat has eaten

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In the tree above, VP is the complement to Aux. The selectional relationship:1. The Aux be (is) takes a progressive form (V-ing) of the verb.2. The Aux has selects a past participle (-en) form

of the verb.3. The modal Aux (may) selects the infinitival form ( 不定詞 ; the root form; 動詞原形 ) of the verb

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X-bar theory

p. 565Definition: a universal schema specifying that the internal organization of all phrasal categories can bebroken into three levels, e.g., NP, N’, and N

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p. 143The basic X-bar schema is as follows: XP

specifier X’

X (head) complementThis schema says that an XP consists of a specifier and an X’ and that any X’ consists of an X and a complement.

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p. 143specifier: an optional modifierExamples:1. An NP specifier: a determiner2. A VP specifier: an adverb (never, often)3. An AdjP specifier: a degree word (very, quite)

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A new rule

VP → Aux VP (This allows recursion.) VP

Aux VP

Aux VP

Aux VP

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The schema above represents the following sentences:1. The child may be sleeping.2. The dog has been barking.3. The bird must have been flying.

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When a sentence does not have a modal, there is a time reference for it.

S

NP VP

N’ Aux VP

N Past kicked the ball

Sam

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The matchmaker function of syntactic rules

p. 145Aux specifies the agreement features of the subject. Examples:1. If the subject is we, Aux carries the features first-person plural. 2. If the subject is he or she, Aux carries the

features third-person singular.

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Structural ambiguities

An ambiguous sentence has more than one structure tree, each corresponding to a different meaning.See the example on p. 146: The boy saw the man with the telescope.

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A new version of the PS rules in English

p. 147 1. S → NP VP 2. NP → Det N’ 3. NP → N’ 4. NP → NP’s N’ 5. NP → NP PP 6. N’ → Adj N’ 7. N’ → N 8. VP → V

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9. VP → V NP

10. VP → V CP11. VP → Aux VP12. VP → VP PP13. PP → P NP14. CP → C S

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More phrase structure trees (pp. 148-149)The dog completely destroyed the house.

S

NP VP

Det N’ Adv VP

The N completely V NP

dog destroyed Det N’

the N house

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The dog destroyed the house yesterday.

S NP VP

Det N’ VP Adv The N V NP yesterday dog destroyed Det N’ the N

house

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Probably the dog has fleas. (** Probably as sentential modifier)

S

Adv S

Probably NP VP

Det N’ V NP

the N has N’ dog N

fleas

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Coordinate structure (pp. 148-149)

the dog and the cat NP

NP1 CoordP

Det N’ Coord NP2

The N and Det N’

dog the N

cat

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Michael writes poetry and surfs. S

NP VP

N’ VP1 CoordP

N V NP Coord VP2

Michael writes N’ and V N surfs poetry

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Main verb be (The main verb be acts like the modal and the auxiliaries be and have.)

The cat is coy. TP

NP T’

Det N’ T AdjP

the N is Adj

cat coy

Draw PS trees for:1. The cat is a feline.2. The cat is in the tree.

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More new rules (pp. 148-149)

For PPT pp. 25-27:1. S → Adv S 2. VP → Adv VP 3. VP → VP Adv

For PPT pp. 28-29:1. NP → NP CoordP 2. CoordP → Coord NP

For PPT pp. 30:1.TP→ NP T’ 2. T’ → T XP (where XP = AdjP, PP, NP)

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