Syntax Phrase Structure Rules PDF

SYNTAX PHRASE STRUCTURE AND SYNTACTIC RULES HIERARCHICAL STRUCTURE Property of phrase structure whereby one phrase is contained inside another one phrase dominates another phrase  AMBIGUITY: Lexical ambiguity Word that has more than one meaning. Example: "The bank is clo...

SYNTAX PHRASE STRUCTURE AND SYNTACTIC RULES HIERARCHICAL STRUCTURE Property of phrase structure whereby one phrase is contained inside another one phrase dominates another phrase  AMBIGUITY: Lexical ambiguity Word that has more than one meaning. Example: "The bank is closing." Interpretation 1: Financial institution. Interpretation 2: Riverbank.  EXERCISES: Lexical Ambiguity Directions: Identify the ambiguous word in each sentence and provide two possible meanings. 1. She saw a bat. 2. He is going to the fair. 3. The duck is swimming in the pond. 4. She wore a light jacket. 5. The driver picked up the lead.  EXERCISES: Lexical Ambiguity Directions: Identify the ambiguous word in each sentence and provide two possible meanings. Answer Key: 1.Bat: A flying animal / a piece of sport equipment. 2.Fair: Exhibition / Just or impartial. 3.Duck: A bird / To lower quickly. 4.Light: Not heavy / Brightness. 5.Lead: A type of metal / To guide.  AMBIGUITY : Structural ambiguity Clause or phrase has more than one meaning because it has more than one syntactic structure The cat chase the rat with a knife Exercise: Identifying Structural Ambiguity Directions: Identify the two possible interpretations of each sentence. 1.The boy saw the girl with binoculars. 2.The chicken is ready to eat. 3.The teacher helped the student with a problem. 4.The old man and woman went to the park. Answer Key: 1.The boy used binoculars / The girl had binoculars. 2.The chicken is ready for someone to eat / The chicken is ready to eat food. 3.The teacher helped solve a problem / The student had a problem. 4.The old man and woman went together / The old man went, and the woman may not be old. SILENT SYNTAX  Unpronounced yet understood syntactic material in a sentence Example : The crab is too hot to eat Julio is easy to please Julio is eager to please EVIDENCE FOR PHRASES AND CLAUSES Substitution Proform Pronoun Reference Conjunction and Coordination 1. Substitution – Process by which we replace a phrase with a pronoun (or other proform) That mouse ran under the bed. It ran under the bed = It refers to that mouse *generally NP for pronoun PHRAS EXAMPLES PROFORM ES VP The mouse ran down the hall, and the cat did so too. Mary wanted to go to Hawaii, but she couldn’t did so do so because she didn’t have the money. AP The giraffe is extremely tall, and so is that so elephant. PP I left the book on the table, but now it’s not there there. Clause I though that the movie was terrific, even so (CL) though you didn’t think so! 3. Pronoun Reference – Relates a pronoun to its antecedent, the phrase to which the pronoun refers. 1. A student came in, and she sat down. - antecedent 2. John likes him. (him cannot refer to John) 3. John likes himself. (himself must refer to John) 4. Conjunctions and Coordination Coordination – joining phrases (of same category, usually) with a conjunction (for, and, nor but, or, yet, and so)  Syntactic operation by which phrases can be MOVEMENT rearranged in a sentence under specific conditions or constraints.  DEEP STRUCTURE Application of Rules SURFACE STRUCTURE  DEEP STRUCTURE Clause in its base word order before syntactic rules such as movement or deletion apply  SURFACE STRUCTURE Clause in its derived order after movement and deletion rules have applied.  Charlie broke the window. The window was broken by Charlie. EXAMPL E Different in syntactic form (Different in surface structure) Noun phrase + Verb +Noun phrase ( deep structure)  SUBJECT AUXILIARY INVERSION (SAI) Lorraine has emptied the garbage. Has Lorraine emptied the garbage. ( Derived the second one from the first by movement- SAI ) Can you do SAI for this example? 1. Yaacob can play an excellent game of chess. 2. You are tired 3. Jim is cooking 4. What is Jim cooking? Subject-auxiliary inversion (SAI) 1. Can Yaacob play an excellent game of chess? 2. Has Lorraine emptied the garbage? 3. Are you tired? 4. Is Jim cooking? Main verbs in English cannot undergo SAI. If we try to invert the main verb and the subject, we get a completely ungrammatical sentence in English (although the order is perfectly grammatical in some languages). Mariam sings the national anthem. Sings Mariam the national anthem?  DELETION refers to a process by which constituents are deleted in a sentence under certain syntactic conditions  1.VERB PHRASE DELETION Syntactic operation in which a verb phrase is deleted but understood as referring to an antecedent verb phrase (I don’t jog, but Olivia does) sentence. Examples Even though she shouldn’t stay out late tonight but Violet will stay out late tonight. Even though she shouldn’t , Violet will stay out late tonight. Jerome made the football team, but Daniel did not make it. Jerome made it but Daniel did not. Speaker A : Did Billy buy a llama? Speaker B : She did  2.GAPPING Deletion operation that applies in coordinate clauses (Sam likes spaghetti, and Sally, mee bandung) Gapping: Omits repeated elements in coordinated structures. EXAMPLES 1. John loves Mary, and Bill loves Mary (too). John loves Mary, and Bill (too). 2. John hates Jane, and Bill hates Mary. John hates Jane, and Bill, Mary. EXAMPLES 3. Ziggy bought a Harley, and Alfie bought a Yamaha. Ziggy bought a Harley, and Alfie Ώ a Yamaha. Ώ = bought 4. Sally likes cats, but Steven likes dogs. Sally likes cats, but Steven, dogs. Ώ = likes  Differences between VP deletion and Gapping VP Deletion Gapping Follows its Follow its antecedent antecedent Can also Cannot precede its precede its antecedent antecedent  VP Deletion Deep Structure Sally wanted to buy a llama, and she did buy a llama Application of rule VP Deletion Surface structure Sally wanted to buy a llama, and she did [].  Gapping Deep structure Sally likes llamas, but Sam likes alpacas Application of rule gapping Surface structure Sally likes llama, but Sam [] alpacas. EXERCISES: VP deletion and gapping Directions: Apply movement or deletion to simplify each sentence. 1.I went to the party, and my friend went to the party too. (Verb Phrase Deletion) 2.Susan likes apples, and Peter likes oranges. (Gapping) 1.I went to the party, and my friend too. (Verb Phrase Deletion) 2.Susan likes apples, and Peter oranges. (Gapping) EXERCISES: Rewrite the sentences using VP Deletion. 1.She can bake cookies, and I can bake cookies too. 2.They have been playing soccer, and we have been playing soccer too. 3.The child should apologize, and his sister should apologize too. 4.I didn’t read the book, and she didn’t read the book either. 5.We will take a vacation, and they will take a vacation too. EXERCISES: Rewrite the sentences using Gapping. 1.Tom cleaned the kitchen, and Jerry cleaned the living room. 2.Alice visited London, and Bob visited Paris. 3.He fixed the car, and she fixed the bike. 4.The child watched TV, and the parents watched the news. 5.I ordered coffee, and she ordered tea.