690 Chapter 5: Syntax
Making it stick together…
Quite a Complexion
I am supposed to have been being…
Why Syntax?
Universal Grammar All languages have
Words Rules
Merge Move
Syntactic Category: NP _________ was given a flag.
The son of Isabel and Sam Isabel’s son The boy Joe
Key Vocabulary Constituent
Groups and subgroups of words that “go together”
Syntactic category Constituents that can be substituted for
one another with loss of grammaticality NP, PP, Art, Conj, S, VP, Adj, Pro…
Syntactic Category: VP
Joe __________________.
Finish the sentence
Key Vocabulary Constituent structure tree
AKA: Phrase-structure tree
Diagram of a phrase or sentence that reduces repetition by the use of syntactic category labels in the branches of a tree
Constituency Tests Substitution
Pronoun Question Word
Relocation Conjunction …. but
Ambiguity≠ All for 1 & 1 for all
Phrase Structure Rules: English NP N Joe NP Art + N the boy NP Art + Adj+ N the big boy NP Pro he
N NP Art (Adj)* + N
Pro{ }
Phrase Structure Rules: Cont’d NP Art (Adj)* + N
*the house red
Spanish: la casa roja *la roja casa
You tell me… a NP rule for Spanish
You tell me: *John found. John found a ball. John found a ball in the grass. *John found in the grass.
A VP phrase-structure rule would be: VP Vt + NP (PP)*
Key Vocabulary Phrase Structure Rules
Specify grammatical ways of putting sentences together Lexical insertion rules
Match syntactic categories with words or morphemes at the bottom of a tree
Subcategorization Restricts how lexical items can occur
Examples: Transitive Verb: VP Vt + NP (adj)
Find, love, destroy Intransitive Verb: VP Vi (adv)*
Die, sleep
Ambiguity The son of Isabel and Sam
You tell me… Where is the break for each meaning?
Tree Structure (Constituent Structure)
The son of Isabel and Sam
The son of Isabel and Sam
the son of Isabel and Sam
the son of Isabel
Tree Structure (Constituent Structure)
The son of Isabel and Sam
The son of Isabel and Sam
the son of Isabel and Sam
Isabel and Sam
Tree Structure (Constituent Structure)
Tree Structure (Constituent Structure)
Noun Phrase
Noun Phrase Prepositional Phrase
Article Noun Preposition Noun Phrase
the son of Noun Conj. Noun Isabel and Sam
Tree Structure (Constituent Structure)
NP
NP PP
Det N P NP the son of
N Conj. N Isabel and Sam
Joe got a flagS
NP VP
N I NP
+pst V Det N
Joe got a flag
You Tell Me… The man gave Joe a
flag.
S
NP VP
Det N I V NP NP
+pst N Det N
The man gave Joe a flag
Complement Clauses Universal Sentence embedded in a sentence Key words (English)
That Whether If …
This is the house that Jack built….
Transformations (Movement) Questions
Yes / No Wh-
Do Insertion
CP
C IP
NP VP
I V Adj-pstMy students aresmart
Key Vocabulary Transformational rule
an operation that moves, deletes, or inserts a category
a rule that applies to a syntactic tree to yield a new syntactic tree.
Additional Notes (value of trees)
Structure Dependent Rules Surface words ≠ important Transformational rules constituents
Head NP agrees with Main VP Regardless of intervening structures Regardless of transformations
Syntax allows a NS to: produce and understand an infinite set of utterances distinguish between grammatical and ungrammatical
strings interpret certain strings as well-formed grammatically but
ill-formed semantically interpret certain strings as well-formed semantically but ill-
formed grammatically understand the full meaning of a sentence from a string of
words, which may not contain all the words necessary for an accurate interpretation
perceive when two or more strings are synonymous (paraphrase)
perceive structural ambiguity in a grammatical string account for grammatical and logical relations within a
sentence
Q: What’s the best way to help a NNS internalize the same?
Additional Structures Coordination
Pulls two parts together Relatives
Tells more about an NP Passives
Changes the focus De-emphasizes or obscures the ‘actor’
Exercises 5 (you may want to do 3 & 4 as a lead in) 6 & 7 (as practice for later exercises) 9, 10 & 11
At least the first and last of each exercise
13 & 14 At least the first of each exercise
Tomorrow Grammar Safari
Find at least one in outside readings Y/N?, WH-?, DO insertion, Relative,
Passive Copy (print screen) and bring to class
Chapter 6: Semantics Understand trees, but don’t focus on them