Transcript document

SYNTAX
LI 2013
N AT H A L I E F. M A R T I N
Grammatical vs Ungrammatical
The Linguist’s Point of View on Grammar
 Review:
 Explain
the linguist’s point of view on grammar?
 Written versus spoken
 Formal versus informal (or even slang)
 Right or wrong?
Grammatical or Ungrammatical?
1. The boy found the ball
2. The boy found quickly
3. The boy found in the house
4. The boy found the ball in the house
5. Disa slept the baby
6. Disa slept soundly
Find: Transitive verb (with object)
Sleep: Intransitive verb (no object)
Syntax
DEFINITION
CONSTITUENTS (OF A SENTENCE)
CONSTITUENCY TESTS
Definition: Syntax
 A child’s definition 

“All the money collected at
church from sinners”
(Taken from Laughing
Matters, by Phil Callaway)
 Syntax:
The analysis of _______
_______
Sentence Structure
 Recall from morphology that words are not
simply strings of morphemes. They have a
hierarchical structure that we can represent with
trees.
devaporize
vaporize
de-
vapor
-ize
Sentence Structure
_____
_______. They also have an internal _______
_______.
 Similarly, sentences do not only consist of a
 The structural elements of sentences are called
syntactic ___________.



Def: The parts into which a sentence can be ____________.
A word or a group of words that functions as a _____ _____.
_______ _______ of sentence structure.
http://webdeptos.uma.es/filifa/personal/amoreno/teaching/ling/syntax.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constituent_(linguistics)
Constituents
 The following sentence is not just a string of eleven
words:
Bill and John ate all the cookies yesterday at the
park.
 It is made up of four basic constituents:
Bill and John ate all the cookies yesterday at the
park.
Constituency tests
 I can demonstrate that these are constituents by
___________ and ____________ tests.
 Only constituents can be moved to another part of
the sentence; only constituents can be substituted
for in a sentence.
Test 1: Movement
Bill and John ate all the cookies yesterday at the park.

We can move at the park:
Bill and John ate all the cookies at the park yesterday.

We can’t move at the:
*Bill and John ate all the cookies at the yesterday
park.
What are the other possible sentences?
Test 2: Substitution (1)
 Bill and John ate all the cookies at the park
yesterday.
 Substitute they for Bill and John:
 They ate all the cookies at the park yesterday.
Substitution (2)
 Bill and John ate all the cookies at the park
yesterday.
 Substitute did so for ate all the cookies:
 Bill and John did so at the park yesterday.
Substitution (3)
 Bill and John ate all the cookies at the park
yesterday.
 Substitute there for at the park:
 Bill and John ate all the cookies there yesterday.
Substitution (4)
 Bill and John ate all the cookies at the park
yesterday.
 Substitute then for yesterday:
 Bill and John ate all the cookies at the park then.
Substitution (5)
 Can’t substitute across
_____________ :
 Bill and John ate all the cookies at the park
yesterday.
 Substitute did so for ate all the:
 *Bill and John did so cookies at the park yesterday.
Substitution (6)
 Can’t substitute across
___________ :
 Bill and John ate all the cookies at the park
yesterday.
 Substitute them for cookies at:
 *Bill and John ate all the them the park yesterday.
Constituents are Phrases
 all the cookies is a _______ _______. We can
substitute any noun phrase for it:
 They ate cookies yesterday.
 They ate some cookies yesterday.
 They ate the cookies left over from dinner last
week yesterday.
 They ate the cookies that their mother told them
several times not to eat yesterday.
Phrase Structure
PHRASE TYPES
PHRASE STRUCTURE
Let’s Try it Out
How would you divide this sentence?
a) The children put the brand new toys in the box.
 Definition of “phrases”:
 ___________ linguistic objects with their own
___________ and _______ _______
From Phrase Structure
to Sentence Structure
 We form sentences by combining words into phrasal
constituents, phrases into larger constituents, and
these constituents into sentences.
Phrase types
 Noun Phrase (NP): Functions like a
 Ex.
 Verb Phrase (VP): Functions like a
 Ex:
_______
_______
 Adjective Phrase (AP): Functions like an
 Ex:
 Prepositional Phrase (PP): Starts with
[in, on, with, etc.]

Ex:
_______
_______
Phrase Structure Rules
 NP  (Det) N (PP)
 PP  P NP
The bus in the yard
NP
The bus (NP)
Det
N
The
bus
Det
N
PP
P
The
bus
in
NP
Det
N
the
yard
Phrase Structure Rules
 VP  V (NP) (PP)
 S  NP (Aux) VP
took the money from the bank
VP
took the money (VP)
V
NP
Det
V
NP
N
Det
took
the
PP
N
P
NP
money
took
the
money
from
Det
N
the
bank
Head Types
 In Noun Phrase (NP):
 Functions like a noun, head is _______ (N)
 Ex. The car, a clever student
 In Verb Phrase (VP):
 Functions like a verb, head is _______(V)
 Ex: study hard, play the guitar
 In Adjective Phrase (AP):
 Functions like an adjective, head is _______(Adj)
 Ex: very tall, quite certain
 In Prepositional Phrase (PP):
 Head is ____________ (Prep) [in, on, with, etc.]
 Ex: in the class, above the earth
Phrase Structure
• All phrases have the same basic structure:
Phrase (XP)
{Specifier}
Head (X)
{Complement(s)}
_______ _______ of the head.
The complements _______ _______ about
the head.
 The specifier
Specifier types
 In NPs, specifiers are
_______ like a, the, this,
that, these, those.
 In VPs, specifiers are _______ like always, never,
seldom, often.
 In APs, specifiers are _________ like very, quite,
too, so.
 In PPs, specifiers are _______ like almost, nearly.
Complement types
 In NPs, complements can be
____: cabin by
the lake, book on the table.
 In VPs, complements can be ____ or ____ :
ate the cookies, ate at the park.
 In APs, complements can be ____ : happy
about the new job.
 In PPs, complements are ____ : at the park.
Sentence structure
 The basic English sentence structure is:
S
NP (____ ____)
VP (____ ____)
 For this course, we will use either IP (for “inflection”)
found in your textbook or S (for sentence)
Simple Sentence
 The NP and VP might only contain ____ ____(no
specifiers or complements):
S
NP
N
VP
V
Bill
swam
More complex sentence 1
S
NP
Det
VP
N
The boy
V
swam
More complex sentence 2
S
NP
Det
VP
N
V
PP
Prep
The
boy
swam
in
NP
Det N
the stream
More complex sentence 3
S
NP
Det N
VP
PP
V
Prep NP
PP
Prep
N
The boy
from Ohio swam in
NP
Det N
the stream
Tree Diagrams
Example with brackets
How would you devide this sentence into phrases?
 The children put the toys in the box
The Main Phrase Structure Rules
1. S  NP VP
2. NP  (Det) (AP) N (PP)
3. VP  (Aux) V (NP)
4. PP  (Deg) P (NP)
Up Side Down Trees
Example (1)
The children put the toy in the box
S
NP
Det
VP
N
V
NP
Det
The
children
put
the
PP
N
toy
P
in
NP
Det
N
the
box
O’Grady, p. 181
 How to build trees structures:
Draw the structure trees for the following
sentences
Draw the tree structure of the following
sentences:
a)
b)
c)
d)
e)
f)
Those guests should leave.
Maria never ate a brownie.
That shelf will fall.
The glass broke.
The student lost the debate.
The manager may offer a raise.
Question # 5 (a–f) p. 187 (O’Grady)
« Inflection »
THE TENSE OF THE SENTENCE
« Inflection »
 Abstract category dubbed « I » or « Infl » for
________ that indicates the ______ of the
sentence.
 Links together the NP and the VP
________ ________
with the VP as it’s ________ and the NP (subject)
as it’s ________ .
 « I » is considered the
Example (1)
The old tree will sway in the wind
S
Aux
NP
Det
Adj
N
VP
V
PP
P
NP
Det
N
the
wind
Past (- Pst)
The
old
tree
will
sway
in
Example (2)
The old tree swayed in the wind
S
Aux
NP
Det
Adj
N
VP
V
PP
P
NP
Det
N
the
wind
Past (+ Pst)
The
old
tree
swayed
in
Structural
Ambiguity
Structural Ambiguity
Ambiguity: a word, phrase or sentence
with multiple meanings
Synthetic buffalo hides (NP)
Synthetic
buffalo hides
Buffalo hides that are synthetic.
Synthetic buffalo hides (NP)
Synthetic buffalo
hides
Hides of synthetic buffalo.
Ambiguities often lead to humorous results
 For sale: an antique desk suitable for lady with thick
legs and large drawers.
 what does “thick legs and large drawers” refer to?
The desk or the lady?
Structural Ambiguity (1)
The boy saw the man with the telescope
S
NP
Det
Aux
N
VP
V
NP
Det
boy
N
P
NP
Det
Past (-Pst)
The
PP
saw the
N
man with the telescope
Structural Ambiguity (2)
The boy saw the man with the telescope
S
NP
Det
Aux
N
VP
NP
V
Det
N
PP
P
Past (-Pst)
The
boy
NP
Det
saw
the
N
man with the telescope
Deep Stucture
and Surface Structure
Transformation
Moves
D E C L A R AT I V E – I N T E R R O G AT I V E
YES-NO QUESTIONS
DO INSERTION
WH MOVEMENT
From One to The Other
 Look at these sentences:
1. What do we need to do to transform it from one
sentence structure to the other?
Declarative – Interrogative
 Move the auxiliary to the ______of the ______.
The boy will leave.
S
NP
Det
Aux
VP
N
The boy
Will the boy leave?
S
Aux
V
will
leave
The deep structure
Will
NP
VP
Det
N
V
the
boy leave
The surface structure
The Wh Movement
 Surface structure: Which car should the man repair?
 Deep structure:
NP
Det
The
S
Aux
N
man
VP
NP
V
should repair
Det
N
which
car
Some additional Stuctures
C O O R D I N AT I O N
MODIFIERS
PA S S I V E D
Some Additional Structures
 Coordination
 Modifiers
 Passived
CHALLENGE !!!
Yoda’s Speech Structure
CHALLENGE !!!
What is wrong with this translation
(morphology and syntax)?