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Syntax

Syntax. LING 200 Spring 2002. Overview. What is syntactic competence? Morphology and syntax: inflectional morphology Word order Representing the structure of sentences Arguments for structure Transformations Cross-linguistic variation. Syntactic competence.

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Syntax

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  1. Syntax LING 200 Spring 2002

  2. Overview • What is syntactic competence? • Morphology and syntax: inflectional morphology • Word order • Representing the structure of sentences • Arguments for structure • Transformations • Cross-linguistic variation

  3. Syntactic competence Characterizing what native speakers know about: • Possible vs. impossible sentences • Restricted distributions of words/ morphemes • What sentences mean

  4. Sources of evidence in syntax • Observation of native speaker productions • Elicitation of native speaker grammaticality judgements • from self • from others

  5. Establishment of syntactic paradigms • declarative The Mariners will beat the Yankees. • subordinate (embedded) clause I bet (that) the Mariners will beat the Yankees. • negative: The Mariners won’t beat the Yankees. • yes/no question: Will the Mariners beat the Yankees?

  6. Syntactically relevant morphemes

  7. Syntactically relevant morphemes

  8. Some verbal inflectional affixes

  9. Agreement entrada ‘ticket (to a show)’ vs. boleto ‘ticket’ • Spanish: adjectives agree with nouns in gender, number

  10. Agreement entrada ‘ticket (to a show)’ vs. boleto ‘ticket’ Vendiste las entradas? ‘Did you sell the tickets?’ No, las (*los) tengo todavía. ‘No, I still have them.’

  11. Word order • English vs. Witsuwit’en 1. Prepositions precede nouns in English. count forme Postpositions follow nouns in Witsuwit'en: spe c’ot«w me for you (sg.) count

  12. Word order 2. In English, adjectives precede nouns. narrowrope In Witsuwit'en, an adjective follows a noun: t'otet‘fine babiche’ rope narrow

  13. Word order 3. In English, the possessor noun normally precedes the possessed noun.  my friend's tanning stretcher but can follow the possessed noun: the tanning stretcher of my friend In Witsuwit'en, the possessor noun always precedes the possessed noun: sq'aqhE pmsti my friend his/her tanning stretcher

  14. Word order 4. In both Witsuwit'en and English, subjects precede verbs: Driftwoodis floating around. tznt driftwood is floating around

  15. Word order 5. In English, the direct object follows the verb. We bought food. In Witsuwit'en, the direct object precedes the verb: t'anets'ottqht food we bought

  16. Attested word order patterns (S = Subject, O = Object, V = Verb):

  17. Frequency of each type < Sample of 402 languages.

  18. Recursion and phrase structure (Potentially) infinitely long sentences: This is the house that Jack built. This is the malt that lay in the house that Jack built. This is the rat that ate the malt that lay in the house that Jack built. ...

  19. This is the priest all shaven and shorn that married the man all tattered and torn that kissed the maiden all forlorn that milked the cow with the crumpled horn that tossed the dog that worried the cat that killed the rat that ate the malt that lay in the house that Jack built. ...

  20. How to characterize (potential) infinity? Phrase structure rules. Properties of phrase structure rules: ·      specify word order ·      are recursive (output of one rule can be rewritten via another rule)

  21. General schema X --> Y Z (“X consists of/is Y Z”) examples: English: PP --> P NP Witsuwit'en: PP --> NP P PP = Pre/postpositional phrase P = Pre/postposition NP = Noun phrase

  22. Equivalent representational devices phrase structure rule: PP --> P NP labeled bracketing: PP[P NP] tree structure: PP v P NP

  23. Some terminology constituent syntactic unit consisting of one or more words = node(in tree) root node branching node terminal node PP v P NP gg with N g Fritz

  24. More phrase structure rules S --> NP (Aux) VP = S --> NP VP S --> NP Aux VP S = sentence NP = noun phrase VP = verb phrase

  25. More phrase structure rules NP --> (Det) (Adj) N (PP) Det = determiner Adj = adjective N = noun

  26. Determiners vs. adjectives NP --> (Det) (Adj) N (PP) Det --> a/an, some, the, your (etc.) Adj --> big, green, juicy (etc.) One determiner per NP: your pickle, the pickle, *your the pickle More than one Adj is possible: your big pickle, your big green pickle, your big green juicy pickle

  27. More phrase structure rules VP --> V (NP) (PP) (Adv) VP = verb phrase V = verb Adv = adverb

  28. Some simple tree structures S --> NP VP NP --> (Det) (Adj) N (PP) VP --> V (NP) (PP) (Adv) S v NP VP gg N V gg cats sleep

  29. Some simple tree structures NP --> (Det) (Adj) N (PP) PP --> P NP NP v N PP gv fog P NP gv in Det N gg the morning

  30. NP fgh Det N PP ggfi the piano P NP gfgi on Det N PP gggi the stage P NP gr g i in Det N PP gggi the music building P NP gg on N g campus

  31. Some simple tree structures VP --> V (NP) (PP) (Adv) VP f g h V NP PP gvv put Det N P NP g gg v the car in Det N g g the garage

  32. Constituent structure • Some tests: • Structural ambiguity • Coordination • Substitution • Movement

  33. Structural ambiguity • Synonymy • words • pail= bucket • couch = sofa • phrases • It's hard to find a good latte. • = A good latte is hard to find.

  34. Ambiguity • Ambiguous words • homophones [dIr] (dear), [dIr] deer (2 different morphemes)

  35. Structurally ambiguous words Adj Adj t ggy un Adj V able gytg V able un fold g fold 2 readings: ‘not capable of being folded’ ‘capable of being unfolded’ un- negative: Adj[___Adj[ un-‘reverse’: V[___V[

  36. Structurally ambiguous phrases Fritz spilled the beans. figurative/idiomatic reading: Fritz inappropriately released the information. literal reading: There were some beans and Fritz spilled them.

  37. Structurally ambiguous headlines • “Enraged cow attacks man with axe.” • "The nomination of Dr. Henry Foster to the Surgeon General's office appears to be in trouble after he admitted that he had performed at least 39 abortions on TV last night."

  38. Structural ambiguity reveals constituent structure “Enraged cow attacks man with axe.” the real world reading: S tu NP VP fhv Adj N V NP ggggi enraged cow attacks N PP gv man P NP gg with N g axe

  39. “Enraged cow attacks man with axe.” the humorous reading: S ru NP VP f hfhi A N V NP PP ggggv enraged cow attacks N P NP gg g man with N g axe

  40. Structural ambiguity and constituency "he admitted that he lied yesterday" VP  V S’ S’ --> that S ‘ he lied yesterday’ reading: S f h NP VP gf h N V S’ ggfh he admitted that S fi NP VP gfh N V Adv ggg he lied yesterday

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