Syntax PDF

# Chapter Ten: Syntax ## Three Aspects of Syntax - Grouping/Constituency - Sentences are constructed of smaller units known as constituents. - For example, the sentence "Animals breathe" comprises the constituents "animals" and "breathe." - Usually, sentences are more complex, and can...

# Chapter Ten: Syntax ## Three Aspects of Syntax - Grouping/Constituency - Sentences are constructed of smaller units known as constituents. - For example, the sentence "Animals breathe" comprises the constituents "animals" and "breathe." - Usually, sentences are more complex, and can be analyzed as consisting of constituents that are phrases rather than words. - Consider the following sentence: - "The doctor prescribed some aspirins for the patient" - This can be divided into constituents: - "the doctor" - "prescribed some aspirins for him" - Constituent "the doctor" is further made up of the constituents "the" and "doctor." - Constituent "prescribed some aspirins for him" is made up of the following constituents: - "prescribed" - "some aspirins" - "for him" - Constituent "some aspirins" is made up of two more constituents; "some" and "aspirins." - Constituent "for him" is made up of two constituents; "for" and "him." - Function - It concerns the relationship of the noun phrases to the verb and to other words and word groups in the sentence. - Syntactic functions/Grammatical relations: - Subject: noun phrase immediately under S - Predicate: verb phrase immediately under S - Direct Object: noun phrase immediately under VP - Object of Preposition: Noun phrase immediately under PP - Parts of Speech: - Lexical Categories: Verb (V), Noun (N), Adjective (Adj), Adverb (Adv), Preposition (Prep). - Functional Categories: Determiners (Det), Auxiliaries (Aux), Demonstratives, Modals, Complementizers (Comp). - Word Order - It refers to the correct word order for a language. - For example, in English, the correct word order is SVO. ## Category Selection - All phrases have a head which defines the type of phrase: noun in a noun phrase, verb in a verb phrase, etc. - The head is followed by a complement which completes the meaning of the phrase. - Verb Complements: - Some verbs select an NP as a complement (e.g., "eat"). - Some verbs select an Adj as a complement (e.g., "look"). - Some verbs select no NP as a complement (e.g., "sleep"). - Some verbs select two NPs as a complement (e.g., "put"). - Other Categories: - Besides verbs, other categories select their components. For example, "belief" selects either a PP or CP. - The adjective "tired" selects PP. - The information about complement types selected by particular verbs and other lexical items is called "c-selection" or subcategorization. - Sentence Head: - The head of the sentence is Aux. - It is a natural category to head S because a sentence is about a situation or a state of affairs that occurs at some point in time. ## Tests of Constituency - All words are constituents. - In order for a string to be confirmed as a constituent, it needs only pass one of the constituency tests. - Constituency tests are performed to determine whether a string of words forms a constituent. - Tests include: - Stand Alone (or Sentence Fragment) - Coordination - Pro-Form Substitution (or replacement) - Movement - Pseudo-Clefting - Clefting ## Phrase Structure Rules (PSR) - The phrase structure rules specify the kinds of constituent structures permitted in English. - They are generalizations about the surface structures of many English sentences. - They can be expressed in the form of constituent structure rules/phrase structure rules. - Some rules include: - NP → (Det)(AdjP)N(PP)(S) - VP → V( {AdjP, NP, S}(PP) - PP → P NP - AdjP → (Deg)Adj(PP) - CP → CS - S → NP(Aux)VP ## Recursion - The length of a sentence is unbounded; no matter how long a sentence gets, it is always possible to add more words to it. - The reason for this unboundedness is recursion. - Recursion occurs through either expansion of phrases within themselves or coordination or embedding. ## Expansion of Phrases - Expansion of phrases means that they can embed themselves into the same type, for example, a VP into a VP. ## Coordination/Conjoining - Conjunctions such as "or," "and," or "but" can be used to link constituents of the same type. ## Embedding - Embedding is the process whereby one sentence is included within another. - Example: "I know that Joe arrives by midnight." ## Syntactic Relationships - Consider how tag questions are formed: - "Read the book, won't you?" - The sentence is derived from: - "You will read the book!" - This approach is called transformational grammar. ## Transformational Rules - They convert one structure into another. - They take an input and change it in a restricted way to result in a Surface Structure. - You don't need to concern yourself with where these deep structures come from or why a specific TR is the right TR applied to a deep structure. - Some rules include: - Particle Movement/Prepositional Adverb Inversion TR - Imperative TR - Equi NP Deletion TR - Nominalization TR - 'For to' Insertion TR - Equi NP Deletion TR - 'For' Deletion TR - Pro-form Deletion TR - Reflexivization TR - Passive TR - Topicalization TR - Dative Movement TR - 'for' Deletion TR These rules are used to explain complex sentences and how they are derived from simpler structures.