Transcript Syntactic argument

Argument structure and its
realization
2/21/2005
Nianwen Xue
outline
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Syntactic argument vs semantic argument
Selectional restriction
Subject control
Object control
Raising
Semantic valency
• Arguments can be viewed as central participants
in a situation
 Aous laughed.
Aous = the entity that does the laughing
 Chris invited Dave .
Chris = host
Guest = Dave
Semantic valency
• One-place predicates
 Laugh, smile,
• Two-place predicates
 Invite, hit,
• Three-place predicates
 give, send, etc.
• Four-place predicates
 Accompany,
• Five-place predicates
 Rent,
Arguments defined in the frame files
• http://verbs.colorado.edu/framesets
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
Smile
Invite
Accompany
Rent
Syntactic argument (transitivity)
• Arguments that are actually realized
 Intransitive: takes one argument
 Transitive: takes two arguments
 Ditransitive: takes three arguments
Transitive to intransitive
 He / interrupted / the meeting.
He / interrupted.
 Amy / knits / sweaters.
Amy / knits.
 They / are reading / a book.
They / are reading.
Intransitive to transitive
 Dennis / died.
Dennis / died / a peaceful death.
 Lukas / laughed.
Lukas / laughed / an infectious laugh.
 Mona Lisa / was smiling.
Mona Lisa / was smiling / a mysterious smile.
Ditransitive-transitive-intransitive
 We teach college students syntax.
We teach college students.
We teach syntax.
We teach.
 He told me the whole story.
He told me.
He told the whole story.
He better not tell.
Transitive to ditransitive
 I baked a delicious cake.
I baked my friends a delicious cake.
 The lions killed a gazelle.
The lions killed themselves a gazelle.
 She sang a lullaby.
She sang her baby a lullaby.
Alternation
• Transitive to intransitive
• Object to subject
 Aous broke the window .
 The window broke.
• Changes of (syntactic) arguments
• Change of position
Levin (1993)
Syntax/semantics mismatch
• Semantic arguments are not always explicitly
realized
• Realized syntactic arguments are not
necessarily semantic arguments
• Semantic arguments are not always realized in
the same syntactic positions
Modification
• Properties of events, which are less central, are often
realized as modifiers:
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Manner: He read the letter carefully.
Point in time: They discussed the proposal in the afternoon.
Duration: You should keep your tax records for several years.
Frequency: I read the Times quite often.
Location: We met in my office.
Origin: We set out from Bangalore.
Destination: We arrived in Benares.
Cause: He threw it away out of spite.
 Purpose: I sent the message to warn everyone.
Predication and subject requirement
• That they are corrupt is evident.
Their corruption is evident.
• It is evident that they are corrupt.
* Is evident that they are corrupt.
• Does “it’ contribute to the semantics of this
sentence? If not, why is it needed?
Pleonastic ‘there’
• Several vexing questions remain.
There remain several vexing questions.
• There is a clean shirt right here.
There is a clean shirt over there.
• * Remain several vexing questions.
Selectional restrictions
• Amy drank the { lemonade, #sandwich }
Lukas drank a whole { quart, #piece }
• { Two hours, #the shift, #two liters, #Larry } elapsed
without further incident.
• The { paramilitary, #bomb, #avalanche } murdered { her
husband, #the olive tree, #her house }.
• The { paramilitary, bomb, avalanche } killed { her
husband, the olive tree, #her house }.
Agree (1)
The children agreed to dance.
How many clauses does this sentence have?
agree (2)
• The childreni agreed [that theyi would get wet ] .
# The { horses, trees, rocks }i agreed [that theyi would
get wet ] .
• The childreni agreed [that theyi would speak Twi ] .
# The childreni agreed [that theyi would { elapse,
evaporate } ]
agree (3)
• The children agreed [*PRO* to get wet ] .
# The { horses, trees, rocks } agreed [*PRO* to get wet]
.
• The children agreed [*PRO* to speak Twi ] .
# The children agreed [*PRO* to { elapse, evaporate } ] .
• The subject control verb and the lower verb impose
separate selectional restrictions on their subject.
• Therefore two clauses
Representing subject control structure
S
NP-1
VP
S
VV
NP
VP
TO
VP
The children agreed *PRO*-1 to get wet .
Properties of subject control
• *PRO* can’t be replaced with an overt NP
• *PRO* must be coreferential with the subject NP
in the matrix clause
Arbitrary *PRO*
• [*PRO* to err] is human.
• [*PRO* to forgive] is divine.
Small *pro* in Chinese
S
VP
NP
NP
VC
CP
IP
NP
QP
ADJP
NP
DEC
VP
VV
NP
建筑
是 *pro* 开发
浦东
的 一 项 主要 经济
活动
construction be
develop Pudong DE one CL main economic activity
“Construction is a main economic activity in developing Pudong.”
Seem (1)
• The children seemed [ to dance ] .
• * There agreed to be a problem.
ok There seemed to be a problem.
•
The children agreed [ PRO to get wet ] .
# The { horses, trees, rocks } agreed [ PRO to get wet ] .
• ok The children seemed to get wet.
ok The { horses, trees, rocks } seemed to get wet.
Seem (2)
• Subject idiom chunks
 # The cat agreed [ PRO to be out of the bag ] .
 [The cat]i seems [ ti to be out of the bag ] .
• Weather it:
 # It agreed to be raining.
 It seems to to be raining.
Seem does not impose selectional restrictions
Seem (3)
• It seems that he is happy.
• *That he is happy seems.
“Seem” does not take an argument at its
subject position.
Representing raising
S
VP
NP-1
S
VBP
NP-1
TO
VP
VP
VB
The children seems *-1 to
dance .
Representing raising
S
VP
NP
VBP
VP
VP
TO
VB
There seems
to be
NP
a
problem .
Properties of raising verbs
• Do not impose selectional restrictions on its
subject. Selectional restrictions on its subject
imposed by the lower verb
• Are not associated with a thematic role
Persuade vs expect
We persuaded the children to dance.
• We expected there to be a problem.
• # We persuaded there to be a problem.
• We expected it to rain.
• #We persuaded it to rain.
• We expect the cat to be out of the bag.
• #We persuaded the cat to be out of the bag.
Representing object-control
S
VP
NP
VBD
We
persuaded
N
P
the children
S
NP
*PRO*
VP
to
dance .
Exercise
• Is “tend” a control verb or raising verb?
• What about “promise”?
tend
• There tend to be huge traffic jams during rush
hour.
• It tends to rain at night.
• The cat tends to be out of the bag.(?)
promise
• Control
 The { children, #horses } promised [ to eat their oatmeal ] .
 The { children, #horses } promised [ that they would eat their
oatmeal ] .
 The children softly promised [ to eat their oatmeal ] .
 The children obediently promised [ to eat their oatmeal ] .
• Raising
 This filly promises to win the race.
 All available evidence indicated that this filly will win the race.
 There promises to be a new version by spring.
Homework
• Treebank the following sentences
 Criminal charges are not filed in shootings that authorities
determine to be accidental.
 Two Republican governors on Monday questioned a Bush
administration decision allowing an Arab-owned company to
operate six major U. S. ports, saying they may try to cancel lease
arrangements at ports in their states.