Level 5-2014/2015: Week 2
Level 5-2014/2015: Week 2
Level 5-2014/2015: Week 2
Level 5—2014/2015
Dr Akis Kechagias
Week 2
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My Details
a.kechagias@salford.ac.uk
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Last Week: Overview
1. Module Preliminaries
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Module Overview
Week Date Content Core Reading*
Week 11 Preliminaries & Introduction Carnie Ch. 1 & 2
Week 12 FEB
FEB What is morphology? L 1-21
Week 2 Constituency, Phrase Structure Rules & Trees (i) Carnie Ch 3*
Week 2 89 FEB
FEB
A word & its parts: types of CM 16-27
Week 3 16 FEB Constituency, Phrase Structure Rules & Trees Carnie Ch. 3 & 4
Week
Week 4
3 15
23 FEB
Lexeme Formation 1 (i)
X-bar theory [derivation] CM 44-57
Carnie &
165-198
Week
Week 54 22
2 MAR Lexeme Formation 2 [compounding]
X-bar theory (ii) CM 59-69
Carnie &
207-221*
Week
Week 65 1
9 MAR Inflection
The Lexicon: θ-theory CM 28-43
Carnie 227-241
. 76
Week
Week 8
16 Head-to-Head Movement
Subordination Carnie174-182
H&P 289-312
20 *Coursework 1* (weeks 1-6)
Week 7 15 Relative Clauses H&P 183-194
Week 8 23 DP-movement Carnie 323-346
Week 8 22 Grade and Comparison H&P 195-203
Week 9 20 APR Wh-Movement (i) Carnie 357-369
Week 9
Week 10
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27 APR
Coordination
Wh-movement (ii) H&P
Carnie225-237
369-383
Week11
Week 26
4 MAY Constituency
REVISION Tallerman
Week 3
15 REVISION 2*
*Coursework
Note that minor changes may occur in the order & content of the lectures as well as the assigned readings.Therefore it is essential
that you attend on a weekly basis.
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Today: Overview
1. Beyond Linearity: Constituency
2. Constituency Tests
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1. Beyond Linearity:
Constituency
The basic units of sentence structure
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Syntax
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Beyond Linearity:
Structure
• It appears that sentences (or phrases and clauses) are not simply ‘flat’
strings of words as it might appear at first sight. Words are not just like
pearl beads put linearly the one after the other so as to make a chain .
Rather they have some kind of hierarchy or internal structure, about which
we all have pretty strong intuitions. Our understanding of particular word-
sequences is a matter of how we structure them on our mind. This
structure is not there visibly on the page!
Vs
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An argument for
structure: Yes/No questions
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An argument for
structure: Yes/No questions
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Structure
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Structure
• Hypothesis # 1
To form a yes/no question move the 2nd word
to the front of the sentence
• Problem:
a. The TA can’t eat chocolate covered almonds.
b. *TA the can’t eat chocolate covered almonds?
• Hypothesis #2
To form a yes/no question move the auxiliary to
the front of the sentence
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Structure
• Hypothesis #2
To form a yes/no question move the auxiliary to
the front of the sentence
• Problem:
a. The TA has been eating chocolate covered almonds.
b. *Been the TA has eating chocolate covered almonds?
• Hypothesis #3
To form a yes/no question move the first auxiliary
to the front of the sentence
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• Hypothesis #3 Structure
To form a yes/no question move the first auxiliary to
the front of the sentence
• Problem:
a. The TA who is here can eat chocolate covered almonds.
b. *Is the TA who here can eat chocolate covered almonds?
c. (cf. Can the TA who is here eat chocolate covered almonds?)
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Structure
• Hypothesis 4
• To form a yes/no question move the first auxiliary
after the subject of the main clause to the front
of the sentence
•We require a notion where there is internal structure
to the sentence: We need a notion of what the
subject is: and what a main clause is… which words
are in the subject and in the main clause and which
words aren’t.
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Internal structure is
represented by the notion
of
Constituent
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A Constituent is any unit of internal
syntactic structure.
(i.e., a group of words functioning as a unit)
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1I. Diagnostics for
Constituency
i.e. Constituency Tests
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Beyond Linearity: Structure
• Words can be grouped in certain ways. For example, we’d all probably agree that
the boxed part in the following clause is a possible word group.
• Whereas, you’ll probably agree that the boxed group of words in the following
clause is not a possible word group.
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Constituency Tests:
Modification
• If one word modifies (limits the meaning of) another,
then they are probably part of the same constituent.
I bought a red balloon
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Constituency Tests:
Movement
• If you can move a group of words, they are
functioning as a unit—and are a constituent:
• Clefting: It is/was __________ that …
It was [a brand new car] that he bought
• Preposing: [Big bowls of beans] are what I
like.
• Passive: [The big boy] was kissed by the
slobbering dog.
There are other kinds of movement!
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Constituency Tests:
Replacement
• If you can replace a group of words with a
single word (keeping the meaning roughly the
same) then they form a constituent:
• I’ve always loved [the man in a natty suit]
• I’ve always loved [John]
• I’ve always loved [him]
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Constituency Tests: Pro-
form Replacement
• If you can replace a group of words with a pro-form
(pronoun, pro-verb, pro-adjective etc.) (keeping the
meaning roughly the same) then they form a
constituent:
• I’ve always loved [the man in a natty suit]
• I’ve always loved [him]
• Susan [bought a truck with mag wheels]
• Susan [did (so) too]
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Constituency Tests:
Ellipsis
• This is a special constituency test for a
constituent called a Verb Phrase (VP). If an
item is a VP, then it can be deleted under
(near) identity with another VP
• Bill [found a gold nugget in the stream] but
I don’t think John will [find a gold nugget in
the stream]
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Constituency Tests: Stand
Alone
•Can the group of words serve as a sentence
fragment in response to a question?
Q: What did Heidi buy at the flea market?
A: [A bag of moldy vacuum cleaner parts]
Q: What did Heidi do at the fleamarket?
A: [Buy some cheap T-shirts]
Q: Where did Heidi put them?
A: [In the back of her car]
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Constituency Tests:
Conjunction
• If the group of words can be coordinated (or
conjoined) with another string, then it is a
constituent of the same type:
[John] and [the man] went to the store
*[John] and [quickly the man] went to the store
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John [eats at really fancy restaurants]
• Stand Alone?
• What does John do in his spare time?
• Eat at really fancy restaurants.
• Move?
• Eating at really fancy restaurants, that’s John’s favorite pastime.
• I told John to eat at really fancy restaurants, and [eat at really
fancy restaurants] he will!
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Summary: Constituency
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Summary: Constituency
• Constituency tests:
• Modification
• Movement
• Replacement (single word & pro-form)
• Ellipsis (for VPs)
• Stand Alone (Sentence Fragment)
• Co-ordination/Conjunction
• Tests are NOT infallible. Use more than 1!
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III. Phrase Structure
A formal hypothesis for representing constituency
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Rules
and
Trees
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Rules
and
Trees
• PSRs are like the building codes that many communities enact
in order to instruct builders as to what counts as an
acceptable building for that community. PSRs sanction the
basic clauses and phrases of a language, and disallow
sequences of elements which are not part of the language –
because they fail to meet the description.
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Phrase
Structure
Tree
• Three
aspects
of
a
speaker’s
syntactic
knowledge
are
represented
in
phrase
structure
trees:
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Phrase
Structure
Rules
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PSRs
&
Trees
eg. TP à NP VP
constituent
TP
(sub)constituents
NP VP
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PSRs + means
you can
have as
many as
XP à (YP) X (ZP+) you need
elements in
the name
parentheses
of the elements without are optional
constituent parentheses are
obligatory
“consists of”
elements inside of constituent IN ORDER from Left to Right
X, Y, Z are variables representing any category (e.g., N, V, A, P, etc.)
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An Example: The Phrase Structure
rule for NPs
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Noun Phrases (NP)
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Noun Phrases (NP)
D AdjP AdjP N
the slippers
A A
pink fluffy
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Noun Phrases (NP)
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Noun Phrases (NP)
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Noun Phrases (NP)
“Followed by an optional CP”
“followed by a
“NP consist of” noun” (the
head.)
“an optional “followed by any number of
determiner” (brackets mean optional Prepositional
optional) Phrases”
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Noun Phrases (NP)
NP
D AdjP AdjP N PP
the book
Adj Adj P NP
big yellow of
N
poems
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Adjective Phrases and Adverb Phrases
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Adjective Phrases and Adverb Phrases
head head
AdvP AdjP
AdvP Adv
AdvP Adj
quickly red
Adv
Adv
head rather head very
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Adjective/Adverb Phrases
• A situation easily confused:
• The big yellow balloon
• The very yellow balloon
• What does ‘big’ modify? What does ‘very’ modify?
NP NP
D AdjP AdjP N
D AdjP N
the balloon the balloon
Adj Adj
AdvP
big yellow Adv Adj
very yellow
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The Principle of Modification
AdjP NP
AdvP Adj AdjP N
sisters sisters
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Prepositional Phrases (PPs)
• These generally consist of a Preposition and
an NP:
• up the road
• on the video screen PP
• under the avocado
• PP→P NP P NP
under
D N
the avocado
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Verb Phrases (VP)
• Verbs by themselves:
• Marko [arrived]
• Susan [sang]
• VP→ V
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Verb Phrases (VP)
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Verb Phrases (VP)
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Verb Phrases (VP)
• VP →(AdvP+) V (NP)({NP/CP})(AdvP) (PP+) (AdvP+)
VP
AdvP V NP PP PP
got
Adv D N P NP P NP
frequently his buckets from for
D N D N
the store a dollar
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Verb Phrases (VP)
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Read
• For today’s lecture:
• Carnie (2013) Chapter 3 (we’ll finish it next week)
• Supplementary tutorial on BB.
• Do as much of the exercises as possible as
homework. Check against my answers and come up
with questions!
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