Transcript Chapter 4 Syntax Part V

Chapter 4: Syntax
Part V
Sentence relatedness (p. 150-)
Certain sentence types are systematically
related to each other.
 In language, there are structural differences
which correspond in a systematic way to
meaning differences.
Example: A yes-no question is related to a
declarative sentence.
1. Declarative sentence: The boy is sleeping.
2. Yes-no question: Is the boy sleeping?

PSG accounts for only one sentence type:
affirmative, active, declarative sentences
(肯定, 主動, 陳述句)
PSG does not account for how certain sentence
types are systematically related to other sentence
types.
1. Yes-no questions:
The boy is sleeping. → Is the boy sleeping?
2. Wh questions:
The boy is sleeping. → Who is sleeping?
3. Negative sentences:
The boy is sleeping. → The boy is not sleeping.
4. Relative clauses:
The boy is sick. The boy is sleeping.
→ The boy who is sleeping is sick.
5. Emphatic sentences:
The astronomer saw the quasar with the
telescope.
→ With the telescope, the astronomer saw the
quasar.
6.
There sentences:
There was a man on the roof.
→ A man was on the roof.
7. Passive sentences:
The cat chased the mouse.
→ The mouse was chased by the cat.
8. Imperative sentences:
You get out of here. → Get out of here.
Transformational Grammar (TG)變換律語法
TG is to capture the relationship (systematic
relatedness) between the different structures
below:
affirmative, active, declarative sentences in
relation to negative, passive, imperative
sentences and questions
Transformational rules 變換律
A yes-no question is derived in two steps:
1. Step 1: The PS rules generate a basic
structure (a structure of the declarative
sentence).
2. Step 2: Aux movement (a transformational
rule) moves the Aux before the subject and
produces the derived structure.
The boy is sleeping.
→ Is the boy ____ sleeping?
S
S
Aux
NP
S
VP
Is
Det N’
The
N
boy
Aux
is
VP
NP
VP
move Aux
Det
N’
the
N
---
VP
V
sleeping
boy
V
sleeping
Deep structure vs. surface structure
1. Deep structures (D-structure; 深層結構) of
sentences are the basic structures which
conform to the PS rules.
2. Surface structures (S-structure; 表面結構)
are the derived structures via the application of
transformational rules.
3. Phonological rules, rules that determine
pronunciation, apply to S-structures.
4. If no transformations apply, D-structures and
S-structures are the same.
5. Transformations can alter PS trees by moving,
adding, or deleting elements.
Structure-dependency
(p. 152--)
Transformations act on structures without regard to
the particular words that they contain. (T rules 只運作在結構上)
Examples:
1. The transformational rule PP preposing (介系詞詞組
移前) moves any PP as long as it is immediately
under the VP.
The puppy found the ball in the house.
→ In the house, the puppy found the ball.
Note: The same rule does not apply to PP immediately
under an NP.
All the puppies in the house rushed out.
→ * In the house, all the puppies rushed out.
2. The agreement rule:
The verb must agree with the subject; there is no
limit to how many words may intervene in
between. The subject is the NP immediately
dominated by S. The agreement is mediated by
Aux, which contains the tense and agreement
features that match up the subject and the verb.
“= = = “ represents the intervening structure ,
which may be indefinitely long and complex.
Example (p. 153)
S
NP
Det
The
VP
N’
N
guy
Aux
VP
present
3rd person
singular
===
seems kind of cute
3. Yes-no questions:
The boy who can sleep will dream.
Will the boy who can sleep dream?
*Can the boy who sleep will dream?
S
NP
Aux
The boy who
is sleeping was
S
VP
Aux
VP
V
dreaming
S
NP
VP
Was
--the boy who
is sleeping
V
dreaming
Syntactic dependencies (p. 155)
(1) Sentences are organized according to two basic
principles:
constituent structure and syntactic dependencies
(2) constituent structure: hierarchical organization of
the subparts of a sentence
(3) syntactic dependencies:
The presence of a particular word or morpheme can
depend upon the presence of some other word or
morpheme in a sentence. Selection, the headcomplement relation, agreement, and the aux-subject
relation are kinds of syntactic dependencies.
Wh questions
(p. 155 --)
(a) What will Max chase?
(The verb “chase” lacks a direct object following it.)
(b) Where has Pete put his bone?
(There is no PP phrase following the verb “put”.)
(c) Which dog do you think loves balls?
(There is no 3rd-person subject triggering an agreement
with the verb “love-s”.)
Wh removed:
(a) * will Max chase ___?
(b) * has Pete put his bone ___?
(c) * do you think ___ loves balls?
** The grammaticality of the above sentences
depends on there being a wh phrase at the
beginning of the sentence.
Explanation of the dependency:
In each case the wh phrase originated in the
position of the gap in a sentence with the
corresponding declarative structure:
(a) Max will chase who?
(b) Pete has put his bone where?
(c) You think which dog loves balls?
Wh questions are generated in three steps:
Step 1: CP as d-structure with the wh phrase
occupying an NP or PP position
Step 2: Move Aux adjoins the auxiliary to S.
Step 3: Move wh moves the wh phrase to C
(complementizer).
D-structure of What will Max chase?
CP
C
S
NP
VP
N’
Aux
VP
N
will
Max
V
chase
NP
what
s-structure of What will Max chase?
CP
C
What
S
Aux
will
S
NP
N’
N
Max
VP
---
VP
chase
---
“do support” in wh questions
 In a wh question, “do” is not part of the dstructure.
 Move Aux is structure dependent; it moves
Aux even when it contains only a tense feature.
In this case, another T rule Do Support
inserts do into the structure to carry the tense
and agreement features.
 In past tense, do and tense combine to yield
did.
d-structure of Which dog did Michael feed?
CP
C
S
NP
VP
N’
Aux
N
past
Michael
VP
V
feed
NP
which dog
s-structure of Which dog did Michael feed?
CP
C
S
which dog
Aux
past
do
S
NP
N’
N
Michael
VP
---
VP
V
feed
---
Long-distance dependencies in wh
questions (pp. 157-158)
Move Aux can move the wh phrase outside its own clause.
There is no limit to the distance that a wh can move.
Examples (p. 158):
1. Who did Helen say the senator wanted to hire ____?
2. Who did Helen say the senator wanted the congressional
representative to try to hire ___?
3. Who did Helen say the senator wanted the congressional
representative to try to convince the Speaker of the
House to get the Vice President to hire ____?
UG Principles and Parameters
(pp. 158-159)
Universal Grammar (UG) provides the basic design for all
human languages, and individual languages are simply
variations on this basic design.
Basic design (UG principles):
All languages have
(1) PS rules that specify the allowable d-structures.,
(2) phrases that consist of heads and complements,
(3) sentences that are headed by Aux, specified for tense,
agreement, and modality.
In all languages with wh movement, the moved element
goes to Comp (p. 159); Wh movement adhere to certain
constraints. (p. 159)
Parameters (p. 554):
The small set of alternatives for a particular
phenomenon made available by UG. For example, UG
specifies that a phrase must have a head and possibly
complements; a parameter states whether the
complement(s) precedes or follows the head.
(1) English: head initial; Japanese: head final
(2) Dutch: Aux Movement, Main Verb Movement
English: Aux Movement, Main Verb be Movement,
Do Support
Japanese, Chinese: the ph phrase does not move
(3) Among wh movement languages, there is some
variation. (pp. 159-160)