Syntax

LIN200, Lecture 3Thursday, Sept. 14, 2009

Syntax

The study of phrase and sentence structures. Universal rules and principles for the

construction of sentences These rules must account for:

All the sentences we know All the sentences we could know

- infinity & productivity/creativity

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Sentence structure includes:

Word Order More relevant for language like English than Russian:English: Maxim defends Victor. ≠ Victor defends Maxim.Russian (pg. 67): Maxim defends Victor =Makism zasčisčajet Viktora. Makism Viktora zasčisčajet.Viktora Makism zasčisčajet. Viktora zasčisčajet Makism.Zasčisčajet Makism Viktora. Zasčisčajet Viktora Makism. But: He put away the book = He put the book away.

Subcategorization Hierarchical structure

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Sentence structure includes:

Word Order Subcategorization (see also pg. 83)

Ex. I found a pencil. I found a pencil in the drawer last night. *I found in the drawer. *I found last night. ?I found in the drawer a pencil. I slept there.

I slept on the floor. *I slept the floor.

Hierarchical structure4

Sentence structure includes:

Word Order Subcategorization Hierarchical structure

Structural ambiguity:[[synthetic buffalo] hides] vs. [synthetic [buffalo hides]]

[new [shirts and pants]] vs. [[new shirts] and pants]

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In-class exercise (pg. 129, #3):

Paraphrase the different meanings of thesesentences:

Dick finally decided on the boat. The design has big squares and circles. That sheepdog is too hairy to eat. The premier is a dirty street fighter. They said she would go yesterday. No smoking section available.

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Well-formedness vs. ill-formedness

We agree on what sentences are grammatical,so there must be rules, not indiosyncracy.

syntactic grammaticality ≠ semantic grammaticality Sentence does not need to be true for it to be

structurally (syntactically) grammatical. (see also pg. 84)

Ex.: The purple usefulness ate an idea’s shoes. *Usefulness the purple idea’s shoes an ate.

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Syntactic rules account for:

Grammaticality Word order Hierarchical organization Grammatical relations (subject & object) Same vs. different meaning of different structures Creativity

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Tree diagrams/phrase structuretrees (from p. 93):

S

NP VP

Det N V NP PP

the child put Det N P NP

the puppy in Det N

the garden

These diagrams show: Word order Hierarchical organization/constituent structure Grammatical relations (subject, object) Subcategorizations 9

Constituents

Every sentence is a string of words but not everystring of words is a sentence.

Words are ordered in phrases, or constituents,which are then ordered to form a sentence. Constituents = different phrase types

- Every phrase is a constituent, every constituent contains at leastone phrase.

Constituents can be identified using constituency tests.

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Constituency test #1: Substitution Test

A constituent (i.e. a phrase, a syntactic unit) can often bereplaced by something else.Ex. The children stopped at the corner. Noun Phrases can be replaced with a pronoun:

[They] stopped at [it]. Verb Phrases can be replaced with do so

The children [did so]. Prepositional Phrases can be replaced with there.

The children stopped [there]. Doesn’t work for the groupings [children stopped ]or [at the]. Why?

[NP The children] [VP stopped [PP at [NP the corner]]]11

Constituency test #2: Movement Test

A constituent can sometimes be moved as a single unit toa different position within the sentence.

[NP The children] [VP stopped [PP at [NP the corner]]]The children stopped at the corner. The children stopped [at the corner]. [At the corner], the children stopped.

Doesn’t work for all constituents in English (becauseword order is not particularly flexible in English), but itdoes work well for Prepositional Phrases.

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Constituency test #3: Coordination Test

[NP The children] [VP stopped [PP at [NP the corner]]] A constituent can be the answer to a question.

Where did the children stop? At the corner Who stopped at the corner? The children What did the children do? Stopped at the corner.

A constituent can be joined to another groups of wordsby a conjunction such as and, but, or. The children [stopped at the corner] but [did not look both ways]. [The children] and [their teacher] stopped at the corner.The children looked [up the street] and [at the crossing guard].The children looked at [the street] and [the crossing guard].

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Syntactic Categories A family of expressions that can substitute for

one another without a loss of grammaticality (butwith a change of meaning). Phrasal categories include NP, VP, AdjP, AdvP,

IP/S Lexical categories include N, V, P, Adj., Adv. Functional categories include Det., Aux., Conj.

S(entence) is largest unit of syntactic analysis. S = Noun Phrase (NP) and a Verb Phrase (VP)

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Lexical Categories (from Language Files 9)

Defining lexical categories structurally, rather than strictly by meaning,will help in cross-linguistic situations.

Nouns (N): dog, book, idea, honesty, kindness… Refer to real, imaginary, and abstract things and substances. If they refer to things that can be counted, they can be expressed as a

plural, most often in a regular way (i.e. English plural –s).

Can occur with determiners (a, an, the) and demonstratives (this, that, these,those).

Can be modified with descriptive words (adjectives).

Verbs (V): run, swim, think, be… Refer to states of affairs and events

Express time, and take particular (usually regular) forms corresponding toparticular times (i.e. English past tense –ed).

Take other (usually regular) forms to express the manner of an event (i.e.English –ing for ongoing action, –en/–ed for completely action). 15

And more Lexical Categories… Adjectives (Adj.): funny, wet, slippery, tired…

Used to describe things that nouns refer to.

Can be used in sentences with a verb form of to be. Can be modified by very and too (in English). Have comparative and superlative forms (English –er or more; –est or most).

Prepositions (P): with, in, on, into, for, of, before, without, over, under, above… Express a number of different roles including ‘instrument’ (with),

‘possessor’ (of), and various spatial and temporal relations.

Adverbs (Adv.): quickly, fast, certainly, often, unfortunately… Express manner, the attitude or judgment of the speaker, temporal

frequency, among other things. Can (like adjectives) sometimes be modified by very and too. Can modify adjectives.

Determiners (Det.): the, a, every… Express definiteness, indefiniteness and quantity. 16

Back to phrase structure trees:

S

NP VP

Det N V NP PP

the child put Det N P NP

the puppy in Det N

the garden

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Back to phrase structure trees:

S

NP VP

Det N V NP PP

the child put Det N P NP

the puppy in Det N

the garden

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This is a syntactic categorynode which immediatelydominates the three daughter

nodes whichcomprise it.

Sister nodes

S

NP VP

Det N V NP PP

the child put Det N P NP

the puppy in Det N

the garden

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Nodes which are immediatelydominated by the same node

are sisternodes.

Heads and complements

S

NP VP

Det N V NP PP

the child put Det N P NP

the puppy in Det N

the garden- Every phrase has a head.- Other constituents in the phrase which complement the meaning of the head arecomplements.

- Also to be aware of: book assumes an Aux (Auxiliary) node in every VP, whether there is ahelping verb in the sentence to fill it overtly or not. Sometimes referred to as I (for ‘Inflection’).We are not going to worry about Aux (or I, or IP) in this course. 20

Phrase Structure Rules

a finite set of rules that can be used to generate aninfinite number of sentences

describe the possible structures of the language, andother regularities of the language

Here are some which are language-specific to English: S NP AUX VP NP (Det) (AdjP) N (PP) VP V (NP) (PP) (AdvP) PP P (NP) AdjP (AdvP) Adj (PP) AdvP Adv

Not a complete list! We’ll add more to this list as we go. 21

In-class: Draw the phrase structure tree

In-class: Draw the phrase structure tree

PSRs in languages other thanEnglish: Japanese

Phrase structure rules can be different according to language. Even wherelanguages have the same categories, there can be variation across languagesin how the categories are assembled.

(1) Jakku-ga gokkoo-e ikimasu (4) Jakku-ga tegami-o kakimasu Jack school-to go Jack letter write‘Jack goes to school.’ ‘Jack writes a letter.’

(2) Jakku-ga gakkoo-de eigo-o naratte imasu (5) Mary-ga sono hono-o yon-da Jack school-at English learn be Mary the book read-past‘Jack is learning English at school.’ ‘Mary read the book.’

(3) kore-ga Jakku-ga tateta uchi desu (6) John-ga sin-da this Jack built house is John die-past ‘This is the house that Jack built.’ ‘John died.’

Some Japanese PSRs? PP --> NP P; VP --> (PP) (NP) V; NP --> (Det) N 24

Structural Ambiguities

The boy saw the man with the telescope. two different possible meanings

Meaning 1? the man had the telescope Meaning 2? the boy had the telescope

These have two different hierarchichal structures See pg. 107

In-class: Draw the phrase structure tree forthe reading where the magician has the wand

In-class: Draw the phrase structure tree forthe reading where the child has the wand

Structural Ambiguity in the Headlines

William Kelly, 87, was fed secretaryThugs eat then rob proprietor

New housing for elderly not yet deadSquad helps dog bite victim

Lawmen from Mexico barbecue guestsCommuter tax on New Yorkers killed in NJReagan wins on budget, but more lies ahead

Eye drops off the shelfTeacher strikes idle kids

Structural Ambiguity in the Headlines

For discussion

The rules of syntax specify all and only thegrammatical sentences of the language.

Why do we need to say that the rules generate alland only the grammatical sentences?

What would be wrong with a grammar thatspecified as grammatical sentences all of the trulygrammatical ones plus a few that were notgrammatical?

Phrase Structure Rules, cont.

Conjunctions: and, but, or (Cf. the boy and the dog) NP NP conj. NP

Complements and embedded structures: complementizersthat, if, whetherI [VP know [CP [Comp whether [S I know]]]](CP = complement phrase)

CP COMP S VP V (NP) (PP) (CP) (AdvP)

Also, in an embedded S, V may be an infinitive I am teaching [you to draw tree diagrams.]

I want [you to love it.] 31

In-class: Draw the tree

In-class: Draw the tree

Our English Phrase Structure Rules, so far:

S NP AUX VP NP (Det) (AdjP) N (PP) VP V (NP) (PP) (CP) (AdvP) PP P (NP) AdjP (AdvP) Adj (PP) AdvP Adv NP NP conj. NP CP Comp. S

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More exercises at end of chapter: #7, pg. 131, all answers (trees) are in the back of the book

HW for Monday/Tuesday Sept. 28–29 is: Fromkin textbook (Chapter 3), #1, #6a.–g., #11 + 2 other exercises. The entire assignment is posted as a downloadable PDF on Blackboard

under the “Course Documents” tab in the Week 3 folder. The file is alsolinked on the syllabus in “Course Information”