Introduction to English Linguistics - Homepage Server · PDF file4 Introduction to English...

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Introduction to English Linguistics

Part II: Structure of English

Winkler

WS07/08VLS02

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Orientierungsprüfung:

Donnerstag, 24.01.08 18 Uhr, R. 206

1. Orientierungsprüfungsformulare vor R. 464 (bitte 2-fach ausfüllen)

2. Studienbuch, Scheine plus Stammdatenblätter mitbringen!

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COURSE NOTES ANDWEB-BASED ASSESSMENT:

1. Go To:http://www.es-courseportal.uni-tuebingen.de/

2. Course Notes:http://homepages.uni-tuebingen.de/susanne.winkler

Select: Course Notes

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WEB-BASED ASSESSMENT:The final web-based assessement follows thestructure of our lecture. It is divided into threethematic parts (or "quizzes"). For each quiz themaximum score is 100. To pass the assessment, you need a minimum of 70 scores in each quiz.

1. Language and Discourse2. Phonetics and Phonology3. Structural Aspects of Meaning

The assessment will be open from Feb 15th to Feb 29th 2008.

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Assignments

1. Read Radford (2004), Chapter 2 and 3.

2. Register for the web-based assessment test:

http://www.es-courseportal.uni-tuebingen.de/

3. Reread „Course Notes“


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Last Time: Different Approaches to Grammar

A Grammar should account for

• illformed sentences

• ambiguous sentences

• wellformed sentences

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Words:

Morphology, Grammatical Categories, Features

and the Minimalist Program

Topic Today:

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Model of Grammar in The Minimalist Program[Chomsky 1998, 1999, 2001, 2002]

LexiconSyntax

syntactic structure

PF component

PF representation˜

SPEECH SYSTEMS

semantic component

semantic representation˜

THOUGHT SYSTEMS

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Main Characteristics of The Minimalist Program:

1. Economy of the derivational processesChief goal: reduction of the complexity of computation

2. Derivational Model replaces the former Representational Model- Elimination of D-Structure and S-Structure

3. Motivation

- Everything which is dispensable/not motivatedmust go! e.g. D-Structure and S-Structure

- Every movement needs a trigger !

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The Minimalist Program:

1. Model of the knowledge of language of an “ideal native speaker”

2. Model of the I-language of a native speaker

3. Not a performance model!

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Questions:

1. Do words matter?

2. Do their inflectional properties matter?

3. Does word order matter?

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Misrendering of a metaphoric expression

The question is: Does agreement matter?

Does word order matter?Families is where our nation finds hope, wherewings take dream.(Zen Bushism: G. W. Bush, August 12, 2005)

Does it matter, and if yes, why?

or whether we say:The family is where our nation finds hope, wheredreams take wing.

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Model of Grammar in The Minimalist Program

LexiconSyntax

syntactic structure

PF component

PF representation˜

SPEECH SYSTEMS

semantic component

semantic representation˜

THOUGHT SYSTEMS

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Structure of the Lecture

2. Syntactic Evidence

Word Classes: Do word classes exist?

1. Morphological Evidence

- inflectional processes- word-formation processes- the structure of words

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Grammatical categories

• semantic properties

• morphological properties

• syntactic properties

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Semantic criteriaused to categorize words in traditional grammar:

(i) Verbs denote actions (go, destroy, buy, eat, etc.)

(ii) Nouns denote entities (car, cat, hill, John, etc.)

(iii) Adjectives denote states (ill, happy, rich, etc.)

(iv) Adverbs denote manner (badly, slowly, painfully, cynically etc.)

(v) Prepositions denote location (under, over, outside, in, on etc.)

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Problems of Semantic Classification Criteria:i. assassination

denotes an action but is a noun, not a verb;ii. illness

denotes a state but is a noun, not an adjective;

iii. fast foodthe word fast in fast food denotes the manner in which the food is prepared but is an adjective, not an adverb; and

iv. Cambridgedenotes a location but is a noun, not a preposition.

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Problems of Semantic Classification Criteria:Bush: “War is a dangerous place.”

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Building Words: morphological processes

Morphological Processes

Inflection Word-Formation

Derivation Compounding

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Morphological criteria for the classification of Nouns/Verbs:

i. inflectional properties- relate to different forms of the same wordcat - cats (by adding the plural inflection –s)

ii. derivational properties- relate to the processes by which a different kind of word can be build by e.g. affixation:sad - sadness (by adding the suffix –ness)

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Claim 1:

Q: How many inflectional affixes are there in English?

A systematic account of English inflectional morphology is only possible on the basis of the assumption that words belong to grammatical categories, and that a specific type of inflection attaches only to a specific category of word.

English has 8 inflectional affixes

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English inflectional affixesNounsplural -s the books

possessive -s John's book

Verbsthird person singular present -s John reads well.

progressive -ing He is sleeping.

past tense -ed He arrived yesterday.

perfect participle -ed/-n He hasn't discussed /seenany book by Chomsky.

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English inflectional affixes

Adjectives and adverbs

Synthetic (inflectional) comparison:

comparative -er This one is smaller.He arrived earlier.

superlative -est This one is the smallest.He arrived earliest.

Analytic (periphrastic) comparison:

hopeful, more hopeful, most hopeful;

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Which morphological process is violated?

-see video clip

We‘ll make America what we want it to be –

a literate country and a hopefuller country.

(George W. Bush, Des Moines, Iowa, 8-21-2000; 11:35-12:14)

Instead of using the analytic (or periphrastic) comparison, the synthetic (inflectional) comparisonwas used.

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Quirk & Greenbaum Grammar: „The choice between theinflectional and periphrastic comparison is largelydetermined by the length of the adjective.“ (1985: 461).

monosyllabic Adj normally form their comparison by inflection

low lower lowest

Many disyllabic adjecties can also take inflections, thoughthey have the alternative of the periphrastic form:

polite politer/more polite politest/most polite

Trysyllabic or longer Adj can only take periphrastic forms

beautiful *beautifuller *beautifullesthopeful *hopefuller *hopefullest

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The best of the best

*the most baddest

*the bestest

*the fabulouser of the betterer

*the bestable *the most bestable

Brian Unger „Bushisms“ 2004

Video clip: Bush-Worst

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What went wrong here?

A: Limits to the freedom of innovation.

A new word cannot be derived if the derived word already exists and means something else.

processed food — okay

processed word/sentence — okay

processed world — ???

"Oftentimes, we live in a processed world—you know, people focus on the process and not results.“ G.W. Bush, Washington, D.C., May 29, 2003.

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The minimal meaning-bearing unit of language.

Definition of Morphology:

The study of the internal structure of words.

Definition of MORPHEME:

Q: How many morphemes make up the word workers?

work er s

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Problem: how to determine the category of the base to which an affix is added, e.g work-er

Conclusion: the base with which -er can combine must be a verb rather than a noun.

• One searches for similar cases whose category can be unequivocally determined like teach-er (teach: V), writ-er (write: V), sell-er (sell: V)

• The base work is sometimes used as V (they work hard) and sometimes as N (this work is time consuming)

note: sale (N) > *saler;

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The suffix -er added to a verb means "one who does X"

Verb base Resulting noun

teach

write

sing

car

house

teach-er

write-er

sing-er

*car-er

*house-er

General Conclusion: Inflectional and derivational affixes have categorial properties.

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Rootultimate starting point for deriving a word. The root is the most basic morpheme in a word. The root of a word cannot be further decomposed;- teach

Stem/Basethe actual form to which an affix is added; - teach for teach-er; teacher for teacher-s

Affixeach of the bound morphemes is an affix;

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Ex: John should not leave the country.John will not leave the country.

Free vs. Bound MorphemesFree Morpheme: can constitute a word by itself, e.g. not

Bound morpheme:must be attached to another element, e.g. n’t

Ex: John shouldn’t leave the country.John won’t leave the country.

Q: Question formation

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Claim 2:

A systematic account of English derivational morphology is only possible on the basis of the assumption that words belong to grammatical categories, and that particular derivational affixes can only be attached to words belonging to particular categories.

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Q: What went wrong in the following derivational processes?

sad — sadly

computer — *computerly

accept — *acceptly

with — *withly

Observation: the adverbialising suffix ‘-ly’ can only be attached to adjectives not to nouns, not to verbs and not to prepositions.

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Q: What went wrong in the following derivational processes?sad — sadness

boy — *boyness

resemble — *resembleness

down — *downness

Observation: the nominalising (i.e. noun-forming) suffix -ness can be attached only to adjective stems (so giving rise to adjective/noun pairs such as coarse/coarseness), not to nouns, verbs or prepositions.

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Types of Affixes: defined in terms of their position relative to the stem:Prefix:attached to the front of its stem, e.g. disappear, replay, illegal, inaccurate,

Suffix:attached to the end of its stem, e.g. vividly, government, hunter, distribution,

Infix:occurs between two other mor-phemes, e.g. -um-, -in- in Tagalog(Philippines)

takbuh (run), tumakbuh (ran)lakad (walk), lumakad (walked)

Engl.: absobloodylutely;Massa****chusetts

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Derivational AffixesAffix Example Change Semantic effect

Suffix attached to V-er work ? worker V ? N one who X-ion protect ? protection V ? N the act of X´ing

attached to N-ial ? presidential N ? A pertaining to X

attached to A-ly ? quietly A ? Adv in a X manner

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Derivational Affixes

Prefixin- ? incompetent A ? A not X

re- ? rethink V ? V X again

Affix Example Change Semantic effect

un- ? unhappy A ? A not X

un- ? untie V ? V reverse X

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The Structure of Words

[ estimated]V

[ V under ] [Vmis ]

Q: What word formation process(es) can you detect?

“They under – they misunder – estimated what our campaign is about.” George W. Bush

They misunderestimated me. Bentonville, Ark., Nov. 6, 2000

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What is a possible explanation?

Negative prefix: "mis-"The prefix "mis-" can be added to a number of verbs to show a "bad" or "wrong" action.

Examples:behave - misbehavecalculate - miscalculatecount - miscounthandle - mishandle

underestimate - misunderestimate

understand - misunderstand

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The Structure of Words

Labelled bracketing:

[ teach ]V[ N er ] [N s ]

Q: How can we represent the structure of teach er s?

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V

teach

Af

er

N Af

s

Tree Structure

N

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V

teach

Af

er

N Af

s

N

Binary Branching Hypothesis:The basic morphological operations are binary.

Definition: In any morphological tree structure, a mother node only has two daughters at most.

Q: Why shouldn´t we assume the followingstructure?

V

teach

Af

s

N

Af

er

*

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Q: And what is wrong with the following structure?

No-Crossing Branches Restriction: Branches cannot cross.

V

teach er

N

s

N*

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Q: How can we represent the structure of nationalization?

Labelled bracketing:

[ nation ]N[ A al ] [V ize ][N ation ]

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N

nation

Af

al

A Af

ize

V Af

ation

N

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COMPOUNDING:involves the combination of two words (with or without accompanying affixes)

N - N: mail-box, doghouse, steamboat ; Walkman;N - A: seaworthy, winedarkN - V: stagemanageA - A: blue-green

In English, compounds can be found in all the major lexical categories - N, A, V, but nouns are by far the most common type of compounds. Verb compounds are quite infrequent.

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N

steam

N

N

boat

A

strong

N

N

man

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N

blood

A

A

thirsty

A

red

A

A

hot

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N

N

food

N

dog

N

box

N

N

N

age

N

stone

N

N

dweller

N

cave

N

Complex N Compounds

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Ambiguities: Compounds vs. Noncompounds

Compound word Phrasal Expression(non-compound word)

gréenhouse

bláckboard

primary stress on the first component

grèen hoúse

blàck boárd

wèt súitwét sùit

secondary stress on the first component

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Ambiguities in Compounds: California history teacher

N

N

history

N

California

N

teacher

N

N

California

N

history

N

teacher

N

N

[NCalifornia ][N [N history]] [N teacher][N ]Q:

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COMPOUNDING:

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Structural Representation of : ticket-counter flight technology

N

N

counter

N

Ticket

N

N

N

flight

N

technology

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Conclusion: morphological processes




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2. Syntactic evidence for assigning words to categories:

Q: What element can occur in the position of the dash?

They have no ---[NOUNS]

car / conscience / ideas

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They have no *went [verb]*for [preposition]*older [adjective]*readily [adverb]

Def. Noun: the class of nouns is defined as the set of words which can terminate a sentence in the position marked --- in They have no --.

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Claim: Different categories of words have different distributions.

They occupy a different range of positions within phrases or sentences.

Q: What element can occur in the position of the dash?

They can --- stay / leave / hide / die / cry[VERB]

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Def. Verb: only a verb (in its infinitive/ base form) can occur in the position marked --- in the above sentence to form a complete (non-elliptical) sentence

Other categories are ungrammatical:

They can --- *gorgeous [adjective]*happily [adverb]*down [preposition]*door [noun]

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Def. Adjective: the only category of word which can occur in the position marked --- in the following sentence:

They are very --- tall /pretty /kind /nice[ADJECTIVE]

*slowly [adverb]

*child [noun]

*astonish [verb]

*outside [preposition]

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Def. Preposition: they alone can be in-tensified by right in the sense of ‘completely’, or by straight in the sense of ‘directly’:

Go rightHe went right He walked straight He fell straight

up the ladder.inside.into a wall.down.

[PREPOSITION]

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How would you classify better ?

He is better at French than you.

He speaks French better than you.

He is more fluent/*more fluently at French…

He speaks French more fluently/*more fluent …

Substitution Test!

ADJ

ADV

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Def.:The substitution test is a technique to determine the category which a givenexpression belongs to. An expression belongsto a given type of category if it can besubstituted (i.e. replaced) in the phrase orsentence in which it occurs by anotherexpression which clearly belongs to thecategory in question.

The Substitution Test:

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In determining the syntactic category of a given lexical item, morphological clues must be used in conjunction with syntactic tests, like the substitution test.

We determined five major categories of English: N, V, P, A, Adv.

Summary:

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They have an idea.

What else do we need?

They have this idea.

They have two ideas.They have no idea.

They have many ideas.

They have one.

Determiners (D)

Quantifiers (Q)

Proform

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"Our enemies are innovative and re-sourceful, and so are we.

What else do we need?

Pronouns (PRN): establish referencerelations in discourse; Proforms: e.g. so; ellipsis;

They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we." G. W. Bush —Washington, D.C., Aug. 5, 2004

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cf. Leave them / those kids alone!Hey! Teachers! Leave them kids alone!What can pronouns

Minimalism: Personal pronouns are classi-fied as functors, like determiners. They do not have descriptive content. They simply encode sets of person, number, gender and case properties.

Pronouns (PRN): traditionally,classified as N;

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Lexical categories (open class): have idiosyncratic descriptive content: N, V, P(?), A, Adv;

Lexical vs. functional categories:

Functional categories (closed class): serve primarily to carry information about the gramma-tical properties of expressions; e.g. information about number, gender, person, case.

Determiners (D), Quantifiers (Q), Pronouns (PRN);

Auxiliaries (AUX), Infinitival to (T), Complementizers (C);

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Def. AUXILIARIES have the function of marking grammatical properties associated with the relevant verb like tense, aspect, voice, mood or modality

(i) perfective auxiliary: have

(ii) imperfective/ progressive auxiliary: be

(iii) tense (periphrastic) auxiliary: do

(iv) modal auxiliaries: can, could, may, might, will, would, shall, should, must

What are Auxiliaries in English?

What is the difference between auxiliaries vs. verbs?

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Auxiliaries have so-called NICE propertiesN egation: Aux are directly negated.

Max didn‘t/couldn‘t see the car. vs. *saw not the car

I nversion: Aux are directly inverted.Did/could Max see the car? vs. *saw Max the car?

C ode: Aux can delete everything to its right;Bill saw the car but Max didn‘t vs. *but Max saw not.

E mphasis: Aux can be used for emphasis:Max DID see the car. vs. Max SAW the car.

Plus TAGS

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Infinitive Particle to:Def. To: so called because the only comple-ment it will allow is one containing a V in the infinitive form.

Similarities between inf-To and Aux:It‘s vital that John should show an interest.It‘s vital for John to show an interest.

Jane wants to [go home].

Inf-To and Aux seem to occur in the sameposition in the sentence and require a V in itsinfinitive form.

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Ellipsis Test:Claim: Only inflectional or tensed elements

(T) license VP-ellipsis.

"And question is:Are we going to be facile enough to change with it—will webe nimble enough; Will we be able to deal with thecircumstances on the ground?"

"And the answer is:Yes, we will."

— G.W. Bush; Washington, D.C., July 25, 2006

Yes, we will be .....

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Ellipsis Test:Claim: Only inflectional or tensed elements

(T) license VP-ellipsis.

John doesn‘t want to do his linguisticshomework, but he should [-------------].

John knows he should do his linguisticshomework, but he doesn‘t want to [----------].

Auxiliaries and infinitival to are Ts.

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Republicans believe in an America run by theright people, their people, in a world in whichwe act unilaterally when we can [-----------], and cooperate when we have to [-----------].

(W. Clinton 26-07-04).

Attested Example:

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Complementizers (C):Def.: a C is a word which is used to introduce complement clauses;

I think [that you may be right] ? finite clauseI wonder [if you can help me] ? finite clause

- finite C: that (declarative), if (interrogative);

e.g. that, if, for;

I want [for you to receive the best training].

- infinite C: for (hypothetical, or irrealis)

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List of abbreviations:

Labelled Bracketing:

Lexical categories: N, V, A, P, Adv

Functional categories: D, T, C, PRN, Q

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[PRN ][T ] [V ] [T ] [V ] [Adv ]

[A ]

You don't seem to be too

many of the shareholders may

now vote against your revised

takeover bid .

worried about the possibility that[P ] [D ] [N ] [C ]

[Q ] [P ] [D ] [N ] [T ]

[Adv ] [V ] [P ] [PRN ] [A ]

[N ] [N ]

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Feature Matrix of lexical elements

+V -V+N A N

-N V P

V: undo, untie, unfold

A: unafraid, unfriendly

N: *unfear, *unfriend

P. *uninside, *unby

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Feature matrix of lexical and functional elements

-F +V -V

A N

+N

V P-N

+F

D PRN

AUX C/T

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Feature Matrix of lexical elementsGeneralization: Each functional category seems to be closely related to a corresponding lexical category: auxiliaries to verbs, pronouns to nouns, determiners to adjectives, and the complementizer for and the infinitive particle to to the corresponding prepositions.

Definition: grammatical category: a set of elements which have the same value(s) for a given set of grammatical features.

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Conclusion:

2. Syntactic Evidence

Claim: word classes exist.

1. Morphological Evidence

- inflectional processes- word-formation processes- the structure of words

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