Syntax III

1. Syntax III November 18, 2009

2. Building Trees from Scratch • Basic tips: • First identify the lexical category of each word. • Then build up phrase structure from right to left. • Note: words of type V, N, A or P will always project up to a phrase of the relevant type: • VP, NP, AP, PP, etc. • Other lexical categories (Determiners, Degree words, Adverbs) function only as specifiers.

3. Building Trees from Scratch • In working through the sentence from right to left… • If you encounter words like Determiners, Degree words, etc., • You should include them as specifiers of the current phrase. • If you encounter a word which can form the head of a phrase (V, N, A, P), • The current phrase is likely to be a complement of a larger phrase headed by that word. • (although there can be some exceptions to this rule)

4. Sentences • The basic phrase types include: • NP, VP, AP, PP • A basic sentence is an “inflectional phrase” (IP). • The head of the IP is the tense of the verb. • I = INFL = inflection = [past], [future], [present], etc. • The specifier of the IP is the subject NP. • The complement of the I is a VP. • If the complement of the VP is an NP, then it is called the object of the verb. • Note: verbs have lots of different complement options.

5. IP NP I’ Det N’ I VP the N [+past] V’ NP coach V Det N’ dropped the N ball Sentence Structure Note: the V in the VP must agree in tense with the I tense marker.

6. IP NP I’ Det N’ I VP the N will V’ NP coach V Det N’ drop the N ball Sentence Structure • Note: Auxiliaries show up in the I slot. • (Verbs after auxiliaries don’t display tense)

7. IP NP I’ Det N’ I VP the N will V’ NP coach V Det N’ drop the N ball Sentence Terminology • The subject of a sentence (in English) is: • the NP specifier of the sentence IP.

8. IP NP I’ Det N’ I VP the N will V’ NP coach V Det N’ drop the N ball Sentence Terminology • The object of a sentence (in English) is: • an NP complement of the main VP.