Syntax%20The%20analysis%20of%20sentence%20structure

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Syntax The analysis of sentence structure

• Dr. Alok K Das
• http//www.freewebs.com/alokdas/

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Syntax in Linguistic Tree
Linguistics
Sounds of language
Grammar
Meaning
Phonetics
Phonology
Morphology
Syntax
Semantics
Pragmatics
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Why syntax?

• Its part of Linguistics
• Its part of the grammar of every language
• And the grammar of a language is part of a native
  speakers linguistic knowledge

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Reasons for studying syntax

• Infinity of expressions
• There is an infinite number of possible
  utterances in every language
• It is obvious that all these utterances cannot be
  stored in our brains
• Our knowledge of a language consists of
• A finite number of words (the lexicon the
  dictionary in your head), and
• Rules (the grammar of the language)
• It is the job of the syntactician (and the
  morphologist) to find out what these rules are

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Language acquisition

• Everyone who can speak knows how to use the rules
• and it is amazing that children can do it so fast
• But nobody can really state exactly what the
  rules are!
• Understanding syntax (and morphology) can help
  researchers to understand how young children
  learn their native language

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Universal grammar

• Theory of Chomsky
• UG has Principles, true of all languages
• All languages have the same underlying structure
• e.g. all languages have nouns and verbs
• and Parameters, whose setting varies from
  language to language
• English and Chinese SVO Japanese SOV
• Spanish and Chinese pro-drop English not
  pro-drop

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All languages have constituents

• Take a simple sentence
• Johnny danced
• We can call the sentence S, and label the
  syntactic categories N and V

S
N Johnny
V danced
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Phrase structure grammar
S

• N and V arent always very good labels
• Johnny is similar to the handsome student,
  because they are both the same kind of
  constituent
• They are both Noun Phrases
• We can remove Johnny and add the handsome
  student, and the sentence structure is still
  similar

NP The handsome student
VP danced
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Different sentence, same constituents
S

• Now lets add an object
• danced the lambada is the same kind of
  constituent as danced
• a VP
• You can swap danced for danced the lambada and
  the basic structure is the same

NP The handsome student
VP danced the lambada
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What are the NP and VP?

• The frog ate the lizard.
• The frog sat on the lilypad.
• The fat frog ate the long lizard slowly.
• The fat frog with a lizard in its mouth sat on
  the lilypad.
• The fat frog who was sitting on the lilypad with
  a lizard in its mouth danced the lambada.

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Phrase structure rules

• Now, you know this phrase structure rule
• S ? NP VP (a Sentence comprises a Noun Phrase
  followed by a Verb Phrase)
• Draw a tree for the phrase Emma drinks
• Here are two more phrase structure rules
• VP ? V NP
• NP ? N
• Think about that carefully
• Now, draw a tree with more detail
• For the sentence Emma drinks whisky

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Now lets change the NP rule

• First, DET means determiner
• Function words like the, a, this, several
• NP ? (DET) N
• That means a noun phrase can have a determiner,
  and it must have a noun
• Now you can diagram Johnny danced the lambada in
  a bit more detail than I did on the other slide
• Remember
• S ? NP VP
• VP ? V NP)

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Now lets change the NP rule again

• Such that we have
• S ? NP VP
• VP ? V NP
• NP ? (DET) (ADJ) N
• Now you can diagram this sentence
• The unhappy book ate the green lambada
• The sentence is syntactically well-formed, by the
  way

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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)
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Syntactic Categories

• Lexical categories
• Noun (N)
• Verb (V)
• Adjective (A)
• Preposition (P)
• Adverb (Adv)

• Examples
• moisture, policy
• melt, remain
• good, intelligent
• to, near
• slowly, now

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Syntactic Categories

• Non-lexical categories
• Determiner (Det)
• Degree word (Deg)
• Qualifier (Qual)
• Auxiliary (Aux)
• Conjunction (Con)

• Examples
• the, this
• very, more
• always, perhaps
• will, can
• and, or

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Indicate the category of each word in the
following sentences.

• a. The glass suddenly broke.
• b. A jogger ran towards the end of the lane.
• c. The peaches never appear quite ripe.
• d. Gillian will play the trumpet and the drums in
  the orchestra.

Det / N / Adv / V
Det / N / V / P / Det / N / P / Det / N
Det / N / Qual / V / Deg / A
N / Aux / V / Det / N / Conj / Det / N / P
/ Det / N
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Phrases

• NP Noun Phrase
• The car, a clever student
• VP Verb Phrase
• study hard, play the guitar
• PP Prepositional Phrase
• in the class, above the earth
• AP Adjective Phrase
• very tall, quite certain

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Phrase Structure Rules

• NP ? (Det) N (PP)
• PP ? P NP

The bus in the yard NP
The bus (NP)
N
Det
N
Det
PP
The
bus
NP
P
Det
N
The
bus
in
the
yard
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Phrase Structure Rules

• VP ? V (NP) (PP)
• S ? NP (Aux) VP

took the money from the bank VP
took the money (VP)
NP
V
V
NP
PP
Det
N
Det
N
NP
P
took
the
money
Det
N
took
from
the
bank
the
money
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Draw the tree diagram.

• 1. repaired the telephone
• 2. the success of the program
• 3. a film about pollution
• 4. move towards the window
• 5. cast a spell on the broomstick

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The main structure rules

• 1. S ? NP (Aux) VP
• 2. NP ? (Det) (AP) N (PP)
• 3. VP ? V (NP) (PP) (Adv)
• 4. PP ? P NP
• 5. AP ? A (PP)

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Example
The old tree swayed in the wind
S
Aux
NP
VP
V
PP
N
Det
Adj
NP
P
Det
N
old
The
swayed
tree
past
in
the
wind
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Example
The children put the toy in the box
S
NP
VP
Det
V
PP
N
NP
Det
N
NP
P
Det
N
in
the
box
The
put
children
the
toy
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Ambiguity a word, phrase or sentence with
multiple meanings
Synthetic buffalo hides (NP)
Synthetic buffalo hides (NP)
Synthetic buffalo hides
Synthetic buffalo hides
Buffalo hides that are synthetic.
Hides of synthetic buffalo.
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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?

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Structural Ambiguity The boy saw the man with
the telescope
S
NP
VP
Aux
Det
V
PP
N
NP
Det
N
NP
P
Det
N
with
the
telescope
The
saw
boy
the
man
past
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Structural Ambiguity The boy saw the man with
the telescope
S
NP
VP
Aux
Det
NP
V
N
PP
Det
N
NP
P
Det
N
with
the
telescope
The
saw
boy
the
man
past
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• Draw two phrase structure trees representing the
  two meanings of the sentence
• The magician touched the child with the wand.
• Be sure you indicate which meaning goes with
  which tree.

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Declarative Interrogative

• Move the auxiliary to the left of the subject.

The boy will leave. S
Will the boy leave? S
VP
NP
Aux
VP
NP
Aux
Det
N
Det
N
V
V
The
boy
will
leave
the
boy
Will
leave
The surface structure
The deep structure
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The Wh Movement

• Surface structure Which car should the man
  repair?
• Deep structure

S
NP
VP
Aux
Det
NP
V
N
Det
N
car
The
repair
man
which
should
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Draw the deep structure of the following sentences

1. Will the boss hire Hillary?
2. Is that player leaving the team?
3. Who should the director call?
4. What is Joanne eating?