Transcript Syntax1
Syntax Word order, constituency LING 200 Spring 2003 Reading: Files 6.1, 6.3, 6.5, 6.7 Overview • • • • • • • What is syntactic competence? Morphology and syntax: inflectional morphology Word order Representing the structure of sentences Arguments for constituent structure Transformations Cross-linguistic variation Syntactic competence What native speakers know about: • Possible vs. impossible sentences • Restricted distributions of words/ morphemes • What sentences mean Sources of evidence in syntax • Observation of native speaker productions • Elicitation of native speaker grammaticality judgements – from self – from others Morphology overlaps with syntax Syntactically relevant morphemes: inflection Derivation 1. Category changing? Inflection often no -able: likeable -s pl.: apples -ness: -s 3sS: sees happiness Inflection vs. derivation 2. Productive? (very general conditions on affixation?) Derivation Inflection often restricted: -hood: brotherhood, neighborhood, *daughterhood yes, but subject to blocking by irregular forms: -s pl.: child, *childs, children Russianize vs. Russify Inflection vs. derivation Derivation 3. Morpheme inner: usu. added order before inflectional: -]Nal]Adj -]N,Adjize]V -]Vation]N industrializationalize Inflection outer: usu. added after derivational: 3sS -s industrializationalizes Inflection vs. derivation 4. Syntactic relevance Derivation Inflection no usually sensitive to syntactic information; -s 3sS: Rose sees (vs. I see_) Some verbal inflectional affixes -ing present visiting I am ___ Virginia now. participle -ed past visited Last weekend I ___ Virginia. -ed past participle visited I have just ___ Virginia. Syntactic relevance: agreement • Spanish: adjectives agree with nouns in gender, number • gender: (arbitrary) noun classes entrada ‘ticket (to a show)’ vs. boleto ‘ticket’ ‘the’ ‘this’ ‘expensive’ la entrada esta entrada entrada cara pl. entradas las entradas estas entradas entradas caras sg. boleto el boleto este boleto boleto caro pl. boletos los boletos estos boletos boletos caros sg. entrada Agreement Vendiste las entradas? you sold the tickets ‘Did you sell the tickets?’ No, las (*los) tengo todavía. ‘No, I still have them.’ them I have still Word order • English vs. Witsuwit’en 1. Prepositions precede nouns in English. count for me Postpositions follow nouns in Witsuwit'en: spe c’otw ‘count for me’ me for you (sg.) count Word order 2. In English, adjectives precede nouns. narrow rope In Witsuwit'en, an adjective follows a noun: t'o tet rope narrow ‘fine babiche’ Word order 3. In English, the possessor noun normally precedes the possessed noun. my friend's house but can follow the possessed noun: the house of my friend In Witsuwit'en, the possessor noun always precedes the possessed noun: sq'aqhE my friend pyX ‘my friend’s house’ his/her house Word order 4. Subject of sentence: instigates action (transitive verbs), undergoes action or state (intransitive verbs) In both Witsuwit'en and English, subjects precede verbs: Driftwood is floating around. tz driftwood ntE it is floating around Word order 5. (Direct) (undergoes action of verb) object only in sentences with transitive verbs. In English, the direct object follows the verb. We bought food. In Witsuwit'en, the direct object precedes the verb: t'a nets'ottqhEt food we bought Attested word order patterns (S = Subject, O = Object, V = Verb): SOV Witsuwit'en SVO English VSO Irish OSV Apurinã (Arawakan, Brazil) OVS Parecís (Arawakan, Brazil) (also SOV) VOS Oro Win (Chapacura-Wanham, Brazil) (5 speakers) Frequency of each type < Sample of 402 languages. Word order # languages SOV 180 45% SVO 168 42% VSO 37 9% VOS 12 3% OVS 5 1% OSV 0 0% Recursion and phrase structure (Potentially) infinitely long sentences: This is the house that Jack built. This is the malt that lay in the house that Jack built. This is the rat that ate the malt that lay in the house that Jack built. ... This is the priest all shaven and shorn that married the man all tattered and torn that kissed the maiden all forlorn that milked the cow with the crumpled horn that tossed the dog that worried the cat that killed the rat that ate the malt that lay in the house that Jack built. ... How to characterize (potential) infinity? Phrase structure rules. Properties: specify word order are recursive (output of one rule can be rewritten via another rule) Phrase structure rules General schema: X Y Z (“X consists of/is Y Z”) examples: English: Witsuwit'en: PP = Pre/postpositional phrase P = Pre/postposition NP = Noun phrase PP P NP PP NP P Equivalent representational devices phrase structure rule: PP P NP labeled bracketing: PP[P tree structure: NP] PP P NP Some terminology constituent syntactic unit consisting of one or more words = node (in tree) root node branching nodes PP P terminal nodes NP with Det N the money More phrase structure rules S NP VP S= NP = VP = sentence noun phrase verb phrase More phrase structure rules NP (Det) (Adj+) N (PP) Det = determiner Adj = adjective N = noun ( ) = optional Determiners vs. adjectives NP (Det) (Adj+) N (PP) Det a/an, some, the, your (etc.) Adj big, green, juicy (etc.) One determiner per NP: your pickle, the pickle, *your the pickle, *the your pickle More than one Adj is possible (+ notation): your big pickle, your big green pickle, your big green juicy pickle More phrase structure rules VP Vtrans (NP) (PP) (Adv) VP = verb phrase Vtrans = transitive verb Adv = adverb Some simple tree structures S NP VP NP (Det) (Adj+) N (PP) VP V (NP) (PP) (Adv) S NP VP N V cats sleep Some simple tree structures NP (Det) (Adj+) N (PP) PP P NP NP N PP fog P NP in Det N the morning NP Det N PP the piano P on NP Det N PP the stage P NP in Det N PP the music building P NP on N campus Some simple tree structures VP V (NP) (PP) (Adv) VP V NP PP put Det N P NP the car in Det N the garage Summary of syntax (so far) • • • • • Syntactic competence Morphology and syntax: inflectional morphology Word order Recursion Representing the structure of sentences – phrase structure rules – tree diagrams – labeled bracketing