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Syntax
LING 200
Spring 2002
Overview
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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
Characterizing what native speakers know about:
• Possible vs. impossible sentences
• Restricted distributions of words/
morphemes
• What sentences mean
Sources of evidence in syntax
• Observation of native speaker productions
• Elicitation of native speaker grammaticality
judgements
– from self
– from others
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?
Syntactically relevant morphemes
1. Category
changing?
2. Productive?
Derivation
Inflection
often
-able: likeable
-ness: happiness
often restricted:
-hood:
brotherhood,
*daughterhood
no
-s pl.: apples
-s 3sS: sees
yes, but subject to
blocking:
-s pl.:
child, children
Syntactically relevant morphemes
Derivation
Inflection
3. Morpheme inner: usu. added
outer: usu. added after
order
before inflectional; derivational:
industrializationalize industrializationalizes
4. Syntactic
relevance
not sensitive to
syntactic
information
often sensitive to
syntactic information
Rose sees (vs. I see_)
Some verbal inflectional affixes
visit
I ___ Virginia on
the weekends.
-ing present
participle
visiting
I am ___ Virginia
now.
-ed past
visited
I ___ Virginia
yesterday.
-ed past participle visited
I have already ___
Virginia.
Agreement
• Spanish: adjectives agree with nouns in gender, number
entrada ‘ticket (to a show)’ vs. boleto ‘ticket’
‘the’
‘this’
‘expensive’
entrada
la entrada
esta entrada
entrada cara
entradas
las entradas
estas
entradas
entradas
caras
boleto
el boleto
este boleto
boleto caro
boletos
los boletos
estos boletos boletos caros
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.’
Word order
• English vs. Witsuwit’en
1. Prepositions precede nouns in English.
count for me
Postpositions follow nouns in Witsuwit'en:
spe c’otw
me for
you (sg.) count
Word order
2. In English, adjectives precede nouns.
narrow rope
In Witsuwit'en, an adjective follows a noun:
t'o tet
rope narrow
‘fine babiche’
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
my friend
pmsti
his/her tanning stretcher
Word order
4. In both Witsuwit'en and English, subjects precede verbs:
Driftwood is floating around.
tz
driftwood
ntE
is floating around
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tqhEt
food we bought
Attested word order patterns
(S = Subject, O = Object, V = Verb):
SOV
Witsuwit'en
SVO
English
VSO
Irish
OSV
Apurinã (Arawakan, Brazil)
OVS
Parecís (Arawakan, Brazil) (also SOV)
VOS
Oro Win (Chapacura-Wanham, Brazil) (5
speakers)
Frequency of each type
< Sample of 402 languages.
Word Order
SOV
Number of
languages
180
45%
SVO
168
42%
VSO
37
9%
VOS
12
3%
OVS
5
1%
OSV
0
0%
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.
...
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.
...
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)
General schema
X --> Y Z (“X consists of/is Y Z”)
examples:
English:
Witsuwit'en:
PP = Pre/postpositional phrase
P = Pre/postposition
NP = Noun phrase
PP --> P NP
PP --> NP P
Equivalent representational devices
phrase structure rule:
PP --> P NP
labeled bracketing:
PP[P
tree structure:
PP
v
P NP
NP]
Some terminology
constituent
syntactic unit consisting of one or more words
= node (in tree)
root node
branching node
terminal node
PP
v
P NP
g
g
with N
g
Fritz
More phrase structure rules
S --> NP (Aux) VP
=
S --> NP VP
S --> NP Aux VP
S=
NP =
VP =
sentence
noun phrase
verb phrase
More phrase structure rules
NP --> (Det) (Adj) N (PP)
Det =
determiner
Adj =
adjective
N = noun
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
More phrase structure rules
VP --> V (NP) (PP) (Adv)
VP = verb phrase
V = verb
Adv =
adverb
Some simple tree structures
S --> NP VP
NP --> (Det) (Adj) N (PP)
VP --> V (NP) (PP) (Adv)
S
v
NP VP
g
g
N V
g
g
cats sleep
Some simple tree structures
NP --> (Det) (Adj) N (PP)
PP --> P NP
NP
v
N
PP
g
v
fog P
NP
g
v
in Det N
g
g
the morning
NP
fgh
Det N PP
g
g fi
the piano P
g
on
NP
fgi
Det N
PP
g g
gi
the stage P
NP
g rg i
in Det N
PP
g
g
gi
the music building P
g
on
NP
g
N
g
campus
Some simple tree structures
VP --> V (NP) (PP) (Adv)
VP
f g h
V
NP
g
v
put Det N
g g
the car
PP
v
P NP
g v
in Det N
g g
the garage
Constituent structure
Some tests:
•Structural ambiguity
•Coordination
•Substitution
•Movement
Structural ambiguity
• Synonymy
– words
• pail = bucket
• couch = sofa
– phrases
• It's hard to find a good latte.
• = A good latte is hard to find.
Ambiguity
• Ambiguous words
– homophones [dIr] (dear), [dIr] deer (2
different morphemes)
Structurally ambiguous words
Adj
tg
un Adj
g y
V able
g
fold
Adj
g y
V able
t g
un fold
2 readings:
‘not capable of being folded’ ‘capable of being unfolded’
un- negative:
Adj[___Adj[
un-‘reverse’: V[___V[
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.
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."
Structural ambiguity reveals
constituent structure
“Enraged cow attacks man with axe.”
the real world reading:
tu
NP
fh
Adj N
g
g
enraged cow
S
VP
v
V
NP
g
gi
attacks N
PP
g
v
man
P NP
g
g
with N
g
axe
“Enraged cow attacks man with axe.”
the humorous reading:
S
ru
NP
VP
f h
fhi
A
N
V
g
g
g
enraged cow attacks
NP
g
PP
v
N
P NP
g
g
g
man with N
g
axe
Structural ambiguity and constituency
"he admitted that he lied yesterday"
VP  V S’
S’ -->
S
‘he
liedthat
yesterday’
reading:
S
f h
NP
VP
g
fh
N V
S’
g
g
fh
he admitted that S
fi
NP
VP
g
fh
N
V Adv
g
g
g
he lied yesterday