PowerPointPrsentation

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Introduction to English Linguistics
Kohn, Watts, Winkler SS05 Structure-VLS02
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Introduction to English Linguistics
Syntactic Structure
Words, Phrases, Clauses and Movements
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Model of Grammar in The Minimalist
Program Chomsky 1998, 1999, 2001, 2002
syntactic structure
PF representation
semantic representation


THOUGHT SYSTEMS
SPEECH SYSTEMS
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Environment (cf. Fodor 1983)
Transducers
Input Systemsvertical facultiesor instincts
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Structure of this Lecture
Syntactic evidence for word classes
1. the notion of syntactic structure
2. merger operations
3. tree diagrams
4. movements (continue next time)
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Syntactic evidence for assigning words to
categories
Q What element can occur in the position of the
dash?
They have no ---
car / conscience / ideas
NOUNS
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They have no went verb for
preposition older adjective
readily adverb
Def. Noun the class of nouns is defined as the
set of words which can terminate a sentence in
the position marked --- in They have no ---.
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Claim Different categories of words have
different distributions. They occupy a
different range of positions within
phrases or sentences.
Q What element can occur in the position of the
dash?
stay / leave / hide / die / cry
They can ---
VERB
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Def. Verb only a verb (in its infinitive/ base
form) can occur in the position marked --- in the
above sentence to form a complete
(non-elliptical) sentence
Other categories are ungrammatical
They can ---
gorgeous adjective happily adverb down pr
eposition door noun
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Def. Adjective the only category of word which
can occur in the position marked --- in the
following sentence
They are very ---
tall /pretty /kind /nice
ADJECTIVE
slowly adverb child noun astonish
verb outside preposition
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Def. Preposition they alone can be in-tensified
by right in the sense of completely, or by
straight in the sense of directly
Go right He went right He walked straight He
fell straight
up the ladder. inside. into a wall. down.
PREPOSITION
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How would you classify better ?
ADJ
He is better at French than you.
He is more fluent/more fluently at French
ADV
He speaks French better than you.
He speaks French more fluently/more fluent
Substitution Test!
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The Substitution Test
Def. The substitution test is a technique to
determine the category which a given expression
belongs to. An expression belongs to a given type
of category if it can be substituted (i.e.
replaced) in the phrase or sentence in which it
occurs by another expression which clearly
belongs to the category in question.
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Summary
We determined five major categories of
English N, V, P, A, Adv.
In determining the syntactic category of a given
lexical item, morphological clues must be used in
conjunction with syntactic tests, like the
substitution test.
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What else do we need?
They have an idea.
Determiners (D)
They have this idea.
They have two ideas.
They have no idea.
Quantifiers (Q)
They have many ideas.
Proform
They have one.
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What else do we need?
"Our enemies are innovative and re-sourceful, and
so are we.
They never stop thinking about new ways to harm
our country and our people, and neither do we."
G. W. Bush Washington, D.C., Aug. 5, 2004
Pronouns (PRN) establish reference relations in
discourse
Proforms e.g. so ellipsis
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What can pronouns do?
Hey! Teachers! Leave them kids alone!
cf. Leave them / those kids
alone!
Pronouns (PRN) traditionally,classified as N
Minimalism Personal pronouns are classi-fied as
functors, like determiners. They do not have
descriptive content. They simply encode sets of
person, number, gender and case properties.
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Lexical vs. functional categories
Lexical categories (open class) have
idiosyncratic descriptive content N, V, P, A,
Adv
Functional categories (closed class) serve
primarily to carry information about the
gramma-tical properties of expressions e.g.
information about number, gender, person, case.
Determiners (D), Quantifiers (Q), Pronouns (PRN)
Auxiliaries (AUX),
Infinitival to (T),
Complementizers (C)
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What are Auxiliaries in English?
Def. AUXILIARIES have the function of marking
grammatical properties associated with the
relevant verb like tense, aspect, voice, mood or
modality (i) perfective auxiliary
have (ii) imperfective/ progressive auxiliary
be (iii) tense (periphrastic) auxiliary
do (iv) modal auxiliaries can, could, may,
might, will, would, shall, should, must
What is the difference between auxiliaries vs.
verbs?
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Auxiliaries have so-called NICE properties
N egation Aux are directly negated. Max
didnt/couldnt see the car. vs. saw not the car
I nversion Aux are directly inverted.
Did/could Max see the car? vs. saw Max the car?
C ode Aux can delete everything to its right
Bill saw the car but Max didnt? vs. but Max
saw not?
E mphasis Aux can be used for emphasis 
Max DID see the car. vs. Max SAW the car.
Plus TAGS
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Infinitive Particle to
Def. To so called because the only comple-ment
it will allow is one containing a V in the
infinitive form.
Jane wants to go home.
Similarities between inf-To and Aux
Its vital that John should show an interest.
Its vital for John to show an interest.
Inf-To and Aux seem to occur in the same position
in the sentence and require a V in its infinitive
form.
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Ellipsis Test
Claim Only inflectional or tensed elements
(T) license VP-ellipsis.
John doesnt want to do his linguistics
homework, but he should -------------.
John knows he should do his linguistics homework,
but he doesnt want to ----------.
Auxiliaries and infinitival to are Ts.
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Attested Example
Republicans believe in an America run by the
right people, their people, in a world in which
we act unilaterally when we can -----------,
and cooperate when we have to -----------. (W.
Clinton 26-07-04).
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Complementizers (C)
Def. a C is a word which is used to introduce
complement clauses
e.g. that, if, for
I think that you may be right ? finite clause
I wonder if you can help me ? finite clause
- finite C that (declarative), if
(interrogative)
I want for you to receive the best training.
- infinite C for (hypothetical, or irrealis)
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Labelled Bracketing
List of abbreviations
Lexical categories N, V, A, P, Adv
Functional categories D, T, C, PRN, Q
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PRN
T
V
T
V
Adv
P
C
A
D
N
Q
D
P
N
T
PRN
A
V
P
Adv
N
N
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Feature Matrix of lexical elements
 
V undo, untie, unfold A unafraid,
unfriendly N unfear, unfriend P uninside,
unby
 
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Feature matrix of lexical and functional elements
-F V -V A N N V P -N

F D PRN AUX C/T
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Feature Matrix of lexical elements
 
Generalization Each functional category seems
to be closely related to a corresponding lexical
category auxiliaries to verbs, pronouns to
nouns, determiners to adjectives, and the
complementizer for and the infinitive particle to
to the corresponding prepositions.
Definition grammatical category a set of
elements which have the same value(s) for a given
set of grammatical features.
 
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Midway Conclusion
Claim word classes exist.
1. Syntactic Evidence

• substitution test

• distributional evidence

• feature matrix

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The Notion of Syntactic Structure
1. phrases and constituents
2. merger operations
3. tree diagrams
4. movements (next time)
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Phrases
SPEAKER A What are you trying to do?
SPEAKER B Help you.
Merger (or merging operation)
An operation by which two constituents are
combined together to form a single larger
constituent.
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The notion HeadThe head of a phrase is the key
word which determines the properties of the
phrase. The head of the VP help you is help.
We are trying to help you
We are trying to help
The result of merging help and you in help you
has verb-like rather than noun-like properties.
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Labelled Bracketing
VP
V help
PRN you
Labelled Tree Diagramm
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Technical term Projection
A projection is a constituent containing a head
word.
Technical term Complement
This is a term used to denote a specific
grammatical function. A complement is an
expression which is directly merged with (and
hence is the sister of) a head word, thereby
projecting the head into a larger structure of
essentially the same kind. The PRN you is the
complement of the V help.
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GOAL

• a theory of Universal Grammar
• uncover general structural principles governing
  the formation of phrases and sentences

Merger Hypothesis All phrases are formed in
essentially the same way as the phrase in the
example help you namely by a binary (i.e.
pairwise) merger operation which combines two
constituents together to form a larger
constituent.
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Phrases
SPEAKER A What was your intention?
SPEAKER B To help you.
What kind of phrase is to help you?
They ought to help you
TP
They ought help you
VP
They should help you
VP
They should to help you
TP
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Tree Diagram to help you
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SPEAKER A What are you doing?
SPEAKER B Trying to help you.
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Headedness Principle
Every syntactic structure is a projection of a
head word.
Binarity Principle
Every syntactic structure is binary-branching.
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Clauses
Major Question How are clauses and sentences
formed?
SPEAKER A What are you doing?
SPEAKER B We are trying to help you.
Tree-Structure of a sentence in the
1960s S-Analysis
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S-Analysis violates the
Headedness Principle
Binarity Principle
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Tense Phrase/TP
A What are you doing?
B1 Are trying to help you.
B2 We are trying to help you.
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Extended Projection Principle/EPP
A finite tense constituent T must be extended
into a TP projection containing a subject.
EPP-Feature Requirement Tense auxiliaries like
are carry an EPP-feature which requires them to
have an extended projection TP which has a
subject.
The EPP-Feature Requirement is syntactic and not
semantic in nature.
It was alleged that he lied under oath.
There has been no trouble.
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Generalization
All heads can have more than one kind of
projection.
NP American
N intervention
N PP in Vietnam
caused considerable controversy
She arrived at the solution AP quite A A
independently PP of me
He has gone PP straight P P to N bed
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He has gone straight to bed
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Clauses containing complementisers
SPEAKER A What are you saying?
SPEAKER B That we are trying to help you.
S/S-bar Analysis (Bresnan 1970)
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Complementizer Phrase/ CP-Analysis
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SYNTACTIC RELATIONS
phrase markers
node
terminal nodes
nonterminal nodes
containment relations
C
D
F
mother
daughter
H
I
sister
Definition of c(onstituent)-command
A constituent X c-commands its sister constituent
Y and any constituent Z which is contained within
Y.
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Anaphors
- reflexives
Himself must feel proud of you
He must feel proud of himself
She must feel proud of himself
Structural binding restriction of anaphors by
their antecedents
The president may blame himself
Supporters of the president may blame himself
C-command condition on binding
An anaphor (reflexive and reciprocal) must be
c-commanded by an appropriate antecedent.
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The president may blame himself
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Supporters of the president may blame himself
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Binding Principles
Principle A an anaphor must be bound within its
local domain
Principle B a (non-anaphoric) pronominal
(expression) must be free within its local domain
Principle C an R-expression (i.e. referring
noun expression) must be free within the overall
structure containing it
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Analysis of the following minimal pair
a. The rumors about Fred have upset him
b. The rumors about Fred have upset himself
himself
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Bare Phrase Structure
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Assignments
Introduction to English Linguistics

• Read Radford (2004), Chapter 6.
• Do the following exercises of Chapter 2 in
  Radford (2004).
• Ex. 2.1 Analyze (1a, b, e, f 2a, b, f 3a, g)
• Ex. 2.2 Analyze (2, 3, 8)
• Ex. 3.1 Analyze (1-3)
• Ex. 3.2 Analyze (1-3)
• 3. Reread Course Notes

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He has become fond of Mary
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Evidence for this analysis
- comes from coordination data
- proforms
- preposing
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(a) He has become fond of Mary and of her
sister
(b) He has become fond of Mary and proud of
her achievements
(c) He has become fond of Mary and grown
used to her mother
(d) He has become fond of Mary and is hoping
to marry her
Coordination test Only constituents of the same
type can be coordinated
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Proform Test
Additional evidence in support of this analysis
comes from the use of the proforms so/which in
(a) He is apparently fond of Mary, though nobody
expected him to become so
(b) If he has become fond of Mary (which he has),
why doesnt he ask her out?
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Preposing Test
Mary, he (certainly) has become fond of
??Of Mary, he (certainly) has become fond
Fond of Mary, he (certainly) has become
Become fond of Mary, he (certainly) has
Has become fond of Mary, he certainly
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A An anaphor (like himself) must be bound by
(i.e. must refer to) a c-commanding constituent
within the closest TP containing it
B A pronominal (like him) must not be bound by
(i.e. must not refer to) any c-commanding
constituent within the closest TP containing it
C An R-expression (i.e. a referring noun
expression like John/the president) must not be
coreferential to (i.e. must not refer to the same
entity as) any c-commanding expression within the
overall tree structure containing it
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Analysis of the following minimal pair
a. The rumors about Fred have upset him
b. The rumors about Fred have upset himself
himself
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Analysis of the following minimal pair
a. You mustn't talk to anyone.
b. You mustn't talk to someone.
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Testing structure
Constituent Tests
- coordination test
- substitution test
- preposing test
- sentence fragment test
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Q What is the structure of The chairman has
resigned from the board.
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Coordination Test
fond of cats and afraid of dogs
slowly but surely
to go or to stay
A What does he do to keep fit?
B Run up the hill and up the mountain
A What did he do to clarify matters?
B Ring up Sara and up Jane
Constraint
Only constituents of the same type can be
coordinated.
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Coordination Test
The chairman has resigned from the board
and the company
The chairman has resigned from the board
and from the company
The chairman has resigned from the board
and gone abroad
The chairman has resigned from the board
and is living in Utopia
The chairman has resigned from the board
and company has replaced him
The chairman has resigned from the board
and the company has replaced him
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Substitution Test
Tests whether a given string of words can be
replaced by a single proform.
The chairman has resigned from the board, and he
is now working for a rival company.
The press say that the chairman has resigned from
the board, and so he has.
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Preposing Test tests whether a given expression
is a maximal projection.
The press said that the chairman would resign
from the board, and resigned from the board he
has.
I will certainly try to give up smoking
Give up smoking I will certainly try to
To give up smoking, I will certainly try
Constraint The smallest possible maximal
projection is moved which contains the
highlighted material.
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Further restrictions on Preposing
Nobody had expected that the FBA would
assassinate the king of Ruritania
King of Ruritania, nobody had expected that the
FBA would assassinate the
The king of Ruritania, nobody had expected that
the FBA would assassinate
Functional Head Constraint/FHC
The complement of a certain type of functional
head F (such as a determiner) cannot be moved on
its own (without also moving F).
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Surrender, I never will
Surrender, he resolutely refused to
Q What is surrender?
Definition of Maximal Projection A maximal
projection of a head H is the largest expression
headed by H.