syntax

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syntax
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• The part of grammar that represents a speakers
  knowledge of sentences and their structures is
  called syntax.
• The aim of this chapter is to show what syntactic
  structures look like and to familiarize you with
  some of the rules that determine them.

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What the syntax rules do

• The rules of syntax combine words into phrases
  and phrases into sentences.
• the rules specify the correct word order for a
  language.
• 1. The President nominated a new Supreme Court
  justice.
• 2. President the new Supreme justice Court a
  nominated.

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What the syntax rules do

• b) describe the relationship between the meaning
  of a particular group of words and the
  arrangement of those words.
• 3. I mean what I say.
• 4. I say what I mean.

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What the syntax rules do

• The rules of the syntax also specify the
  grammatical relations of a sentence, such as
  subject and direct object.
• 5. Your dog chased my cat.
• 6. My cat chased your dog.

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What the syntax rules do

• specify the constraints that sentences must
  adhere to.
• 7. (a) The boy found.
• (b) The boy found quickly.
• (c) The boy found in the house.
• (d) The boy found the ball.
• 8. (a) Disa slept the baby.
• (b) Disa slept soundly.

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What the syntax rules do

• specify the constraints that sentences must
  adhere to.
• 9. (a) Zack believes Robert to be a gentleman.
• (b) Zack believes to be a gentleman.
• (c) Zack tries Robert to be a gentleman.
• (d) Zack tries to be a gentleman.
• (e) Zack wants to be a gentleman.
• (f) Zack wants Robert to be a gentleman.

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What the syntax rules do

• Our syntactic knowledge crucially includes rules
  that tell us how words form groups in a sentence,
  or how they are hierarchically arranged with
  respect to one
• another.
• The captain ordered all old men and women off the
  sinking ship.
• old men and women
• old men and women

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What the syntax rules do
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Sentence Structure

• Constituency and Constituency tests

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Syntactic Categories

• A family of expressions that can substitute for
  one another without loss of grammaticality is
  called a syntactic category.
• The child, a police officer, John, and so on
  belong to the syntactic category noun phrase
  (NP), one of several syntactic categories in
  English and every other language in the world.
• John found the puppy.
• He found the puppy.
• Boys love puppies.
• The puppy loved him.
• The puppy loved John.

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Syntactic Categories

• Syntactic categories are part of a speakers
  knowledge of syntax. That is, speakers of English
  know that only items (a), (b), (e), (f), and (g)
  in the following list are NPs even if they have
  never heard the term noun phrase before.
• 1. (a) a bird
• (b) the red banjo
• (c) have a nice day
• (d) with a balloon
• (e) the woman who was laughing
• (f) it
• (g) John
• (h) went

You can test this claim by inserting each
expression into three contexts Who found
_________, _________ was seen by everyone,
What/who I heard was _________.
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Syntactic Categories

• There are other syntactic categories. The
  expression found a puppy is a verb phrase (VP). A
  verb phrase always contains a verb (V), and it
  may contain other categories, such as a noun
  phrase or prepositional phrase (PP), which is a
  preposition followed by an NP, such as in the
  park, on the roof, with a balloon. In (2) the VPs
  are those phrases that can complete the sentence
  The child __________ .

2. (a) saw a clown (b) a bird (c) slept (d)
smart (e) ate the cake (f) found the cake in
the cupboard (g) realized that the earth was
round
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Phrase Structure Trees and Rules
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The Infinity of Language

• The number of sentences in any language is, as we
  have said before, infinite.
• This is because you can always make any sentence
  longer and longer by adding extra CPs, VPs, APs,
  NPs etc.
• Once we acknowledge the unboundedness of
  sentences, we need a formal device to capture
  that crucial aspect of speakers syntactic
  knowledge.
• To see how this works, let us first look at the
  case of multiple
• prepositional phrases such as The girl walked
  down the street
• over the hill through the woods ...
• According to our PS-rules we have devised so far,
  VP substructures
• currently allow only one PP per sentence (VP ?V
  PPrule 5).
• We can rectify this problem by revising rule 5

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The Infinity of Language

• The number of sentences in any language is, as we
  have said before, infinite.
• This is because you can always make any sentence
  longer and longer by adding extra CPs, VPs, APs,
  NPs etc.
• Once we acknowledge the unboundedness of
  sentences, we need a formal device to capture
  that crucial aspect of speakers syntactic
  knowledge.
• To see how this works, let us first look at the
  case of multiple
• prepositional phrases such as The girl walked
  down the street
• over the hill through the woods . . ..
• According to our PS-rules we have devised so far,
  VP substructures
• currently allow only one PP per sentence (VP ?V
  PPrule 5).
• We can rectify this problem by revising rule 5

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The Infinity of Language

• The number of sentences in any language is, as we
  have said before, infinite.
• This is because you can always make any sentence
  longer and longer by adding extra CPs, VPs, APs,
  NPs etc.
• Once we acknowledge the unboundedness of
  sentences, we need a formal device to capture
  that crucial aspect of speakers syntactic
  knowledge.
• To see how this works, let us first look at the
  case of multiple
• prepositional phrases such as The girl walked
  down the street
• over the hill through the woods . . ..
• According to our PS-rules we have devised so far,
  VP substructures
• currently allow only one PP per sentence (VP ?V
  PPrule 5).
• We can rectify this problem by revising rule 5
• 5. VP ? VP PP

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The Infinity of Language

• Rule 5 is different from the previous rules
  because it repeats its own category (VP) inside
  itself. This is an instance of a recursive rule.
  Recursive rules are of critical importance
  because they allow the grammar to generate an
  infinite set of sentences.

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The Infinity of Language

• Rule 5 is different from the previous rules
  because it repeats its own category (VP) inside
  itself. This is an instance of a recursive rule.
  Recursive rules are of critical importance
  because they allow the grammar to generate an
  infinite set of sentences.

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The Infinity of Language

• NPs can also contain PPs recursively. An example
  of this is shown by the phrase the man with the
  telescope in a box.

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The Infinity of Language

• NPs can also contain PPs recursively. An example
  of this is shown by the phrase the man with the
  telescope in a box.

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The Infinity of Language

• NPs can also contain PPs recursively. An example
  of this is shown by the phrase the man with the
  telescope in a box.

To show that speakers permit recursive NP
structures of this sort, we need to include the
following PS rule, which is like the recursive
VP rule 5. 9. NP ? NP PP
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The Infinity of Language

• The defined PS rules handle the recursive nature
  of the language.
• For example, rule 7 (VP ? V CP) in combination
  with rules 8 (CP ? C S) and 1 (S ? NP VP) form a
  recursive set.
• These rules, formulated for different purposes,
  correctly predict the limitlessness of language
  in which sentences are embedded inside larger
  sentences, such as The children hope that the
  teacher knows that the principal said that the
  school closes for the day as illustrated on the
  following page.

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The Infinity of Language

• The children hope that the teacher knows that
• the principal said that the school closes for
• the day.

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The Infinity of Language
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The Infinity of Language

• The problem is that although determiners and
  adjectives are both modifiersof the noun, they
  have a different status.
• First, an NP will never have more than one
  determiner in it, while it may contain many
  adjectives.
• Second, an adjective directly modifies the noun,
  while a determiner modifies the whole
  adjective(s) noun complex.
• In general, modification occurs between sisters.
  If the adjective modifies the noun, then it is
  sister to the noun. If the determiner modifies
  the adjective noun complex, then the determiner
  is sister to this complex.

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The Infinity of Language

• The problem is that although determiners and
  adjectives are both modifiersof the noun, they
  have a different status.
• First, an NP will never have more than one
  determiner in it, while it may contain many
  adjectives.
• Second, an adjective directly modifies the noun,
  while a determiner modifies the whole
  adjective(s) noun complex.
• In general, modification occurs between sisters.
  If the adjective modifies the noun, then it is
  sister to the noun. If the determiner modifies
  the adjective noun complex, then the determiner
  is sister to this complex.

We can represent these two sisterhood relations
by Introducing an additional level of structure
between NP and N. We refer to this level as N-bar
(written as N').
This structure provides the desired sisterhood
relations
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The Infinity of Language

• We must revise our NP rules to reflect this new
  structure, and add two rules for N'. Not all NPs
  have adjectives, of course. This is reflected in
  the second N' rule in which N' dominates only N.

Let us now see how these revised rules generate
NPs with multiple (potentially infinitely many)
adjectives.
Thus far all the NPs we have looked at are common
nouns with a simple definite or indefinite
determiner (e.g., the cat, a boy), but NPs can
consist of a simple pronoun (e.g., he, she, we,
they) or a proper name (e.g., Robert, California,
Prozac). To reflect determiner-less NP
structures, we will need the rule
NP ? N'
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The Infinity of Language

• But thats not all, what about the possesive NPs
  like Johns cat, the girls book etc.

In these structures the possessor NP (e.g.,
Johns, the girls, etc.) functions as a
determiner in that it further specifies its
sister noun.
The s is the abstract element poss.
To accommodate the possessive structure we need
an additional rule Det ? NP poss
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The Infinity of Language

• But thats not all, what about the possesive NPs
  like Johns cat, the girls book etc.

In these structures the possessor NP (e.g.,
Johns, the girls, etc.) functions as a
determiner in that it further specifies its
sister noun.
The s is the abstract element poss.
To accommodate the possessive structure we need
an additional rule Det ? NP poss
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The rules so far
S NP VP VP V NP VP V VP VP PP VP VP
AdvP NP (D) N N (AdjP) N or N (PP) N N
(PP) PP P NP Adjp (AdvP) Adj AdvP (AdvP)
Adv CP C S Det NP poss
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Heads and Complements
Phrase structure trees also show relationships
among elements in a sentence. Grammatical
relations, i.e. subject and direct object of the
sentence is structurally defined.
Another kind of relationship is that between the
head of a phrase and its sisters. The head of a
phrase is the word whose lexical category defines
the type of phrase
Sister categories are complements they complete
the meaning of the phrase. E.g. find a puppy I
thought that the child found a puppy.
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Selection

• Subcategorization (C-selection)
• Whether a verb takes a complement or not, or the
  number of complements that it should take is
  determined by the particular properties of the
  verb.
• (1) The philosopher loves caramel apples
• The philosopher smiled
• (2) The philosopher loves
• The philosopher smiled the breadbox.

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Selection

• Subcategorization
• (3) Traci gave the whale the jawbreaker.
• Traci gave the whale.
• Traci gave the jawbreaker.
• (4) I think that Sam won the race.
• (5) I told Sam that Michael was on his bicycle.
• (6) Paul felt strong as an ox.
• He feels that he can win.

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Selection

• Subcategorization
• The information about the complement types
  selected by particular verbs and other lexical
  items is called C-selection or subcategorization.
  

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Selection

• Subcategorization
• Verbs are not the only categories that can
  select complements.
• Some adjectives such as tired and proud
  select a PP complement
• tired of eating sandwiches
• proud of her children

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Selection

• Subcategorization
• Nouns can also selects complements. For example,
  the noun belief selectes a PP or a CP
  complement while the noun symphaty selects a PP
  complement
• the belief in freedom of speech
• the belief that freedom of speech is a basic
  right
• their sympathy for the victims
• their sympathy that the victims are so poor

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Selection

• S-selection
• S-selection limit the semantic properties of the
  complements.
• My toothbrush loves me.
• The bolt of lightening killed the rock.
• The rock murdered the man.
• The tree liked the boy.
• Verbs include in their lexical entry a
  specification of intrinsic
• semantic properties of their subjects and
  complements, just as they select for syntactic
  categories.

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What heads the sentence?
The category T is a natural category to head S.
Just as the VP is about the situation described
by the verbeat ice cream is about eatingso a
sentence is about a situation or state of affairs
that occurs at some point in time.
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What heads the sentence?
VP here is the complement to T. Therefore, there
is a selectional relationship between T and VP.
Particular Ts go with particular kinds of VPs.
For example, the auxiliary be takes a progressive
(-ing) form of the verb The boy is dancing.
The auxiliary have selects a past participle
(-en) form of the verb The girl has eaten.
Modals select the infinitival form of the verb
(no affixes) The child must sleep The boy may
eat.
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What heads the sentence?
To have a uniform notation, we use the symbols T
( tense) and TP ( tense phrase) instead of Aux
and S. Furthermore, just as the NP required the
intermediate N-bar (N') category, the TP also has
the intermediate T-bar (T') category.
We need to include other rules into our
system TP NP T T T VP
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What heads the sentence?
Your book does not use the TP and T categories,
therefore they use a different rule instead of
what we have
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What heads the sentence?
They do it because English allows sentences with
multiple auxiliaries such as The child may be
sleeping. (modal, be) The dog has been barking
all night. (have, be) The bird must have been
flying home. (modal, have, be)
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What heads the sentence?
Instead of this, I want you use the TP rule, but
take all the auxiliaries under the same T when
there are more than one auxiliary
TP NP T
D N the T VP N
child may be V sleeping
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Structural Ambiguities

• The boy saw the man with the telescope.

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Structural Ambiguities

• The boy saw the man with the telescope.

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Structural Ambiguities

• The boy saw the man with the telescope.

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Structural Ambiguities

• The boy saw the man with the telescope.

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The rules so far (updated1)
TP NP T T T VP VP V NP VP V VP VP
PP VP VP AdvP NP (D) N N (AdjP) N or N
(PP) N N (PP) PP P NP Adjp (AdvP)
Adj AdvP (AdvP) Adv CP C TP Det NP poss
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More structures
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More structures

• Adverbial phrases are sisters to phrasal
  categories.
• Thus,
• they can also be sisters to TP.
• Probably the dog has fleas

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More structures

• Adverbial phrases are sisters to phrasa
  categories.
• The dog completely destroyed the house.
• Thus, they can also be sisters to TP.
• Probably the dog has fleas
• TP AdvP TP

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More structures

• Coordinate structures
• The cat and the dog were friends.

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More structures

• Does CoordNP2 really form a constituent. Lets
  try some constituency tests.

Casey bought a book and a CD yesterday Casey
bought a book yesterday and a CD. Casey bought a
book and yesterday a CD.
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More structures

• Does CoordNP2 really form a constituent. Lets
  try some constituency tests.

Casey bought a book and a CD yesterday Casey
bought a book yesterday and a CD. Casey bought a
book and yesterday a CD.
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More structures

• Does CoordNP2 really form a constituent. Lets
  try some constituency tests.

Casey bought a book and a CD yesterday Casey
bought a book yesterday and a CD. Casey bought a
book and yesterday a CD.
Other coordinations are also possible Micheal
writes poetry and surfs. Sam drove to the school
and to the pool.
What is the coordination rule?
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More structures

• The cat is coy.
• The cat is in the tree.
• The cat is a feline. TP
• NP T
• T VP

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More structures

• The cat is coy.
• The cat is in the tree.
• The cat is a feline. TP
• NP T
• T XP
• 
  (can be any
  phrase)

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The rules so far (updated2)
TP AdvP TP TP NP T T T XP (where XP can
be PP, AdjP, VP, NP) VP V NP VP V VP VP
PP VP VP AdvP NP (D) N N (AdjP) N or N
(PP) N N (PP) PP P NP Adjp (AdvP)
Adj AdvP (AdvP) Adv CP C TP Det NP
poss NP NP coordP coordP coord NP
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Sentence Relatedness

• Transformational rules and movement
• The boy is sleeping. Is the boy sleeping.
• The boy has slept. Has the boy slept?
• The boy can sleep. Can the boy sleep?
• The boy will sleep. Will the boy sleep?
• Apperantly, the T head is moved here, but where
  does it go?

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Transformational rules and movement

• TP
• NP T
• T VP
• V NP

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Transformational rules and movement

• CP
• c TP
• NP T
• T VP
• V NP

One possibility is that they move to C, but what
kind of evidence we have for this claim? Lets
think about Cs
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Transformational rules and movement
In embedded clauses, the function of the C is to
determine whether the clause is a question or a
declarative clause I didnt know that Mary
was a student of linguistics.
? John asked whether Mary was a student of
linguistics. if That
and ? indicate that the clause has a declarative
form, whether and if indicate that it has a
question form.
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Transformational rules and movement
We know that all sentences are actually CPs, so
what indicates whether they have a question or
declarative form? If the C-head is null morpheme
?, the sentence has declarative form. If it has
a question form, T moves to C to indicate that
the sentence is a question.
Further evidence for T-to-C movement
Complementary distribution Ts and Cs are in
complementary distribution in embedded
clauses. I asked has he found his wallet. I
asked whether he has found his wallet. I asked
whether has he found his wallet
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Structure Dependant Rules

• Transformations act on structures without regard
  to te particular words that they contain they
  are structure dependant.
• The transformational rule of PP preposing moves
  PPs only if they are immediately dominated by
  VPs.
• Brutus stabbed Ceasar with a knife.
• With a knife, Brutus stabbed Ceasar.
• Now consider
• John saw the boy with the telescope. (ambigious,
  PP can be dominated by VP or NP)
• With the telescope, John saw the boy. (Not
  ambigious, corresponds to the meaning where
  PP is dominated by VP)

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Structure Dependant Rules

• Further evidence for structure dependancy of
  transformations
• The boy who is sleeping was dreaming.
• Was the boy who is sleeping dreaming?
• Is the boy who sleeping was dreaming?
• You cannot move any T in T-to-C movement.

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Further Syntactic Dependancies
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Further Syntactic Dependancies
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Further Syntactic Dependancies
The grammaticality of a sentence with a gap
depends on there being a wh phrase at the
beginning of the sentence. The sentences in (1)
are grammatical because the wh phrase is acting
like the object in (a), the prepositional
phrase object in (b), and the embedded subject in
(c).
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Further syntactic dependancies
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Further syntactic dependancies
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Further syntactic dependancies
Do-support Which dog doesMicheal feed?
CP Spec C C TP
NP T Micheal T VP
- s V NP feed which dog
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Further syntactic dependancies
Do-support Which dog does she think love balls?
CP C C C TP
NP T Micheal T VP
do s V NP feed which dog
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Further syntactic dependancies
Do-support Which dog does she think love balls?
CP Spec C C TP
does NP T Micheal T
VP t V NP feed which dog
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Further syntactic dependancies
Do-support Which dog does she think love balls?
CP Spec C C TP
does NP T Micheal T
VP t V NP feed which dog
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Further syntactic dependancies
Do-support Which dog does she think love balls?
CP Spec C Which dog C TP
does NP T Micheal T
VP t V NP t which dog
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The rules so far (updated3)
TP AdvP TP TP NP T T T XP (where XP can
be PP, AdjP, VP, NP) VP V NP VP V VP VP
PP VP VP AdvP VP V CP NP (D) N N (AdjP)
N or N (PP) N N (PP) PP P NP Adjp
(AdvP) Adj AdvP (AdvP) Adv CP (Spec) C C
C TP Det NP poss NP NP coordP coordP coord
NP