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Syntax LING 200 Spring 2002 Overview • • • • • • • What is syntactic competence? Morphology and syntax: inflectional morphology Word order Representing the structure of sentences Arguments for structure Transformations Cross-linguistic variation Syntactic competence Characterizing 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 Establishment of syntactic paradigms • declarative The Mariners will beat the Yankees. • subordinate (embedded) clause I bet (that) the Mariners will beat the Yankees. • negative: The Mariners won’t beat the Yankees. • yes/no question: Will the Mariners beat the Yankees? Syntactically relevant morphemes 1. Category changing? 2. Productive? Derivation Inflection often -able: likeable -ness: happiness often restricted: -hood: brotherhood, *daughterhood no -s pl.: apples -s 3sS: sees yes, but subject to blocking: -s pl.: child, children Syntactically relevant morphemes Derivation Inflection 3. Morpheme inner: usu. added outer: usu. added after order before inflectional; derivational: industrializationalize industrializationalizes 4. Syntactic relevance not sensitive to syntactic information often sensitive to syntactic information Rose sees (vs. I see_) Some verbal inflectional affixes visit I ___ Virginia on the weekends. -ing present participle visiting I am ___ Virginia now. -ed past visited I ___ Virginia yesterday. -ed past participle visited I have already ___ Virginia. Agreement • Spanish: adjectives agree with nouns in gender, number entrada ‘ticket (to a show)’ vs. boleto ‘ticket’ ‘the’ ‘this’ ‘expensive’ entrada la entrada esta entrada entrada cara entradas las entradas estas entradas entradas caras boleto el boleto este boleto boleto caro boletos los boletos estos boletos boletos caros Agreement entrada ‘ticket (to a show)’ vs. boleto ‘ticket’ Vendiste las entradas? ‘Did you sell the tickets?’ No, las (*los) tengo todavía. ‘No, I still have them.’ Word order • English vs. Witsuwit’en 1. Prepositions precede nouns in English. count for me Postpositions follow nouns in Witsuwit'en: spe c’otw 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 tanning stretcher but can follow the possessed noun: the tanning stretcher of my friend In Witsuwit'en, the possessor noun always precedes the possessed noun: sq'aqhE my friend pmsti his/her tanning stretcher Word order 4. In both Witsuwit'en and English, subjects precede verbs: Driftwood is floating around. tz driftwood ntE is floating around Word order 5. 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 SOV Number of languages 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 of phrase structure rules: specify word order are recursive (output of one rule can be rewritten via another rule) 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: PP v P NP NP] Some terminology constituent syntactic unit consisting of one or more words = node (in tree) root node branching node terminal node PP v P NP g g with N g Fritz More phrase structure rules S --> NP (Aux) VP = S --> NP VP S --> NP Aux VP S= NP = VP = sentence noun phrase verb phrase More phrase structure rules NP --> (Det) (Adj) N (PP) Det = determiner Adj = adjective N = noun 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 More than one Adj is possible: your big pickle, your big green pickle, your big green juicy pickle More phrase structure rules VP --> V (NP) (PP) (Adv) VP = verb phrase V = verb Adv = adverb Some simple tree structures S --> NP VP NP --> (Det) (Adj) N (PP) VP --> V (NP) (PP) (Adv) S v NP VP g g N V g g cats sleep Some simple tree structures NP --> (Det) (Adj) N (PP) PP --> P NP NP v N PP g v fog P NP g v in Det N g g the morning NP fgh Det N PP g g fi the piano P g on NP fgi Det N PP g g gi the stage P NP g rg i in Det N PP g g gi the music building P g on NP g N g campus Some simple tree structures VP --> V (NP) (PP) (Adv) VP f g h V NP g v put Det N g g the car PP v P NP g v in Det N g g the garage Constituent structure Some tests: •Structural ambiguity •Coordination •Substitution •Movement Structural ambiguity • Synonymy – words • pail = bucket • couch = sofa – phrases • It's hard to find a good latte. • = A good latte is hard to find. Ambiguity • Ambiguous words – homophones [dIr] (dear), [dIr] deer (2 different morphemes) Structurally ambiguous words Adj tg un Adj g y V able g fold Adj g y V able t g un fold 2 readings: ‘not capable of being folded’ ‘capable of being unfolded’ un- negative: Adj[___Adj[ un-‘reverse’: V[___V[ Structurally ambiguous phrases Fritz spilled the beans. figurative/idiomatic reading: Fritz inappropriately released the information. literal reading: There were some beans and Fritz spilled them. Structurally ambiguous headlines • “Enraged cow attacks man with axe.” • "The nomination of Dr. Henry Foster to the Surgeon General's office appears to be in trouble after he admitted that he had performed at least 39 abortions on TV last night." Structural ambiguity reveals constituent structure “Enraged cow attacks man with axe.” the real world reading: tu NP fh Adj N g g enraged cow S VP v V NP g gi attacks N PP g v man P NP g g with N g axe “Enraged cow attacks man with axe.” the humorous reading: S ru NP VP f h fhi A N V g g g enraged cow attacks NP g PP v N P NP g g g man with N g axe Structural ambiguity and constituency "he admitted that he lied yesterday" VP V S’ S’ --> S ‘he liedthat yesterday’ reading: S f h NP VP g fh N V S’ g g fh he admitted that S fi NP VP g fh N V Adv g g g he lied yesterday