Download LING 201 Introduction to Linguistics Syntax 1

LING 201 Introduction to Linguistics
Alex Drummond
University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Class 23, Monday Oct 26 2014
Syntax
which is associated with a different structure.
Syntax is the study of sentence structure.
(4)
Sentences, like words, have a hierarchical structure that we can represent using tree diagrams.
Syntactic structures tend to be more complex than word structures (at least in
English).
They also have the interesting property of recursion. That is, we can embed
one sentence inside another without limit:
(1)
a.
b.
c.
d.
(3)
1.
S
VP
NP
N
a.
b.
c.
counter-revolutionary.
counter-counter-revolutionary.
counter-counter-counter-revolutionary.
...
a.
b.
c.
d.
missile
anti-missile missile.
anti anti-missle missile missile.
anti anti-missle missile missile missile.
...
Evidence for hierarchical structure
What evidence do we have that sentences have a hierarchical structure?
One piece of evidence is the existence of sentences which are
structurally ambiguous. That is, they have two different meanings each of
NP
V
John saw Det
John arrived.
I said that John arrived.
Bill knows that I said that John arrived.
Mary denies that Bill knows that I said that John arrived.
...
There are some limited examples of recursion at the word-level, but they are
much less productive:
(2)
John saw the man with the telescope.
PP
N
the man
NP
P
N
with Det
the telescope
S
NP
N
VP
V
PP
NP
John saw Det
N
NP
P
the man with Det
N
the telescope
Class 23, Monday Oct 26 2014
2.
Alex Drummond
University of Massachusetts, Amherst
LING 201
Noun Phrases
NP
d.
Noun Phrases (NPs) are phrases that are built around a noun. Some examples:
(5)
a.
b.
c.
d.
cookies
the boy
a red book
this small green apple
The general structure of a Noun Phrase is as follows: a determiner followed
by zero or more adjectives followed by a noun.
The determiner is optional (as we see in (5a)).
We can describe the structure of a noun phrase using the following
phrase structure rule:
(6)
Det
NP → (Det) Adj* N
a.
N
Adj
this small green apple
3.
The structure of a simple English sentence
An example tree for the simple English sentence in (8) is shown in (9). In this diagram, ‘S’ stands for ‘sentence’, ‘NP’ for Noun Phrase and ‘VP’ for ‘Verb Phrase’.
(8)
(9)
The ( ) parentheses around ‘Det’ indicate that it is optional. The ‘*’ following
Adj indicates that zero or more adjectives may be placed in this position.
(7)
Adj
The boy read the book.
S
VP
NP
NP
N
Det
V
NP
N
the boy read Det
N
cookies
the book
NP
b.
The phrase structure rules for S and VP are as follows:
Det
the cookies
NP
c.
Det Adj
a
S → NP VP
VP → V (NP)
(10)
N
The NP in the second rule is optional because not all verbs take an object. For
example:
(11)
N
red book
John sleeps.
S
NP
VP
N
V
John sleeps
2
4.
Figuring out the correct structure
How can we show that (9) is in fact the correct structure for (8)? Why not e.g.
(12) or (13)?
(12)
S
Constituents predicted by tree in (13):
(vi) the boy read the book
(vii) the boy read
(viii) the book
Det
N
Det
V
N
the boy read the book
(13)
S
N
NP
V
We use constituency tests to determine whether or not any given sequence
of words is a constituent. Two important principles:
If a sequence of words passes even just one of the constituency tests then we
conclude that it is a constituent.
NP
Det
Constituency tests
Det
Only if a sequence of words fails all of the constituency tests do we conclude
that it is not a constituent.
N
the boy read the book
We will use the following constituency tests:
Proform substitution without effect on meaning. (E.g. replacing a Noun
Phrase with a pronoun.)
Deletion without effect on meaning.
Movement without effect on meaning.
5.
Constituency
We say that a sequence of words is a constituent of a sentence if there is a
node in the correct tree for that sentence that connects down to all and only
the words in the sequence.
Constituents predicted by tree in (9):1
(i) the boy read the book
Showing that (ii) is a constituent
Proform substitution. We can replace the boy with a pronoun (‘he’) and preserve the meaning:
(14)
He read the book.
Movement. We can “move” the boy:
(15)
It was the boy that
read the book.
(ii) the boy
(iii) read the book
Showing that (iii) is a constituent
(iv) the book
Proform substitution. We can replace read the book with the VP proform did
without affecting the meaning:
Constituents predicted by tree in (12):
(v) the boy read the book
1 Strictly
(16)
Did the boy read the book?
Yes, the boy did read the book.
speaking, each individual word by itself is also a constituent of the sentence. To save space, these are not listed here.
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‘S → NP V (NP)’ rule.
Movement. We can move read the book without affecting the meaning:
(17)
The boy said that he would read the book, and read the book he did
Alex Drummond
University of Massachusetts, Amherst
LING 201
Class 23, Monday Oct 26 2014
.
Now that we have shown that read the book is a constituent in (8), we can see
why we need to have a separate rule for VP in (10), instead of just a single
Showing that (iv) is a constituent
The logic here is the same as for (ii).
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