Transcript Phrase-structure tree - USC Upstate: Faculty

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