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Syntactic Categories

1. Phrase structure rules are used to define the syntactic categories and hierarchical structure of constituents in sentences. 2. Each phrase is made up of smaller constituents, and modifiers like adjectives and adverbs must be attached within the phrases they modify. 3. Various tests can determine constituency, including replacement with pronouns, conjunction of like constituents, and recursivity of rules allowing for infinite generative possibilities.

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317 views

Syntactic Categories

1. Phrase structure rules are used to define the syntactic categories and hierarchical structure of constituents in sentences. 2. Each phrase is made up of smaller constituents, and modifiers like adjectives and adverbs must be attached within the phrases they modify. 3. Various tests can determine constituency, including replacement with pronouns, conjunction of like constituents, and recursivity of rules allowing for infinite generative possibilities.

Uploaded by

Galuh Jgs
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© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Syntactic Categories Each syntactic constituent has a syntactic category (part of speech). 1. Meaning is a poor indication of syntactic category.

A noun is a person, place, or thing A verb is an action (1) a. The examination of the patient took half an hour. b. The book lay on the table.

Good indications of syntactic category: 1. morphological form (examination) 2. morphological distribution (examinations) 3. syntactic distribution (the examination) Syntactic distribution can be captured using phrase structure rules.

Phrase Structure Rules: NP NP N N: students, assignments, hat, bus (3) NP N students NP D N D: the, these, a (4) D these NP N students D the NP N hat NP N hat

NP (D) N

Phrase Structure Rules: PP PP P NP P: for, with, on (5) P for D the (6) a. b. PP NP N students

I walked [PP out the door]. I walked [PP out].

PP P (NP)

Phrase Structure Rules: NP, PP (7) a. b. the students with a hat students on the bus with a hat

NP (D) N (PP+) NP N students P on PP NP D P PP NP N hat

N with D a

the bus

The Golden Rule of Tree Structures Modifiers are always attached within the phrase they modify.

Phrase Structure Rules: AP (8) a. b. c. tall surprisingly tall very surprisingly tall

AP (AP) A AP AP AP A very (9) a. b. (10) a. b. very/more/most beautiful very/more/most quickly a quick/*quickly student I quickly/*quick walked away. A surprisingly A tall

Phrase Structure Rules: NP, AP The Golden Rule of Tree Structures Modifiers are always attached within the phrase they modify. (11) a. b. the big yellow book the very yellow book

NP (D) (AP+) N (PP+) NP D AP the A AP N D NP AP N A book

A book the AP

big yellow

A yellow very

Phrase Structure Rules: VP (12) Ignatius a. left (the room) (quickly) (often). b. (often) (quickly) left. VP (AP+) V (NP) (AP+)

(13) Bill often left the room in a huff on Tuesdays. VP (AP+) V (NP) (AP+) (PP+) VP AP V NP N P PP NP P PP NP N

A left D often

the room in D N on a huff

Tuesdays

Phrase Structure Rules: S, S' (14) Bill left the room. S NP VP (15) a. b. Bill might leave the room. Bill has left the room.

S NP (T) VP (16) a. b. Bill said [that he might leave]. Bill asked [if he could leave].

S' (C) S VP (AP+) V ({NP/S'}) (AP+) (PP+) (17) [That he might leave] is obvious. S {NP/S'} (T) VP

Phrase Structure Rules: S, S' S NP D N T might V say C that NP N VP S' S VP V NP

the student

cats like N dogs

Phrase Structure Rules: Summary S' C S S {NP/S'} (T) VP VP (AP+) V ({NP/S'}) (AP+) (PP+) NP (D) (AP+) N (PP+) PP P (NP) AP (AP) A

Structural Ambiguity (18) I tickled the boy with a feather. a. the boy had a feather b. I used a feather to tickle (18a): V tickled D the (18b): V tickled D the N boy VP NP N boy PP with a feather VP NP PP with a feather

Lexical Ambiguity V say N cat (19) a. They laugh at everything. b. She gave a short laugh. V laugh N laugh

Tests for Constituency: Replacement Personal pronouns replace NP constituents: (20) a. b. The tall man with a hat came. He came.

They cannot replace N alone: (21) a. The tall man with a hat came. b. * The tall he with a hat came. Nominative Accusative Genitive 1s I me my 2s/p you you your 3s he/she/it him/her/its his/her/its 1p we us our 3p they them their NP (D) (AP+) N (PP+) Prn

Tests for Constituency: Conjunction Constituents of the same category can be joined by a conjunction: (22) a. b. c. d. I saw that girl and a cat. It was a clear but dark night. He would not eat cake or sing. Look in trees and under rocks.

Non-constituents cannot be conjoined: (23) * He devoured and she liked cake. NP NP Conj NP a cat

that girl and

XP XP Conj XP X X Conj X

Recursivity Human language is recursive. a. b. NP (D) (AP+) N (PP+) PP P (NP) VP (AP+) V ({NP/S'}) (AP+) S' C S S {NP/S'} (T) VP AP (AP) A

c.

A recursive grammar with finite rules has infinite generative capacity.

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