Level 5-2014/2015: Week 2

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Syntax

Level 5—2014/2015
Dr Akis Kechagias

Week 2
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My Details

Dr. Axiotis (Akis) Kechagias

Maxwell, Room 841.

a.kechagias@salford.ac.uk

Office hours: Monday 16.00-17.00 & Thursday 13.00-14.30


I can see students even outside my official "drop-in" hours. Either way, remember to make an appointment by
email first! 


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Last Week: Overview
1. Module Preliminaries


2.Grammar as Science: Introduction to


Generative Grammar


3. Parts of Speech—An Overview

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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


3. Phrase Structure Rules & Trees (I)


SYNTAX
SYNTAX 2014 2015
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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

•Yes/no questions can be answered by “yes” or


“no” or “maybe”
•Bear with me, I’m going to run this using the
scientific method, and I have a particular set of
hypotheses to run through!

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An argument for
structure: Yes/No questions

•Let’s start with the assumption that there is no


structure, and sentences are just a linear string of
words. Now consider the following pair of
sentences.

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Structure

• Consider the following sentences:


a. Alex can’t eat chocolate covered almonds.
b. Can’t Alex eat chocolate covered almonds?
• Hypothesis # 1
To form a yes/no question move the 2nd
word to the front of the sentence.

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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?)

•What’s the problem here?


•The first auxiliary is part of the subject of the sentence:
[The TA who is here] can 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)

[The TA who is here] can eat chocolate.

Bracketing (as above) is one of two notations


for representing, or marking, constituents.
(The other is tree notation, which we will look
at in a bit).

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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.

Six hungry hippos spotted the sandwiches

• Whereas, you’ll probably agree that the boxed group of words in the following
clause is not a possible word group.

Six hungry hippos spotted the sandwiches

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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

‘a’ and ‘red’ both modify ‘balloon’ so they are all


part of the same constituent: [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

LINGUISTICS GENERAL’S WARNING: There are a


*lot* of situations where the conjunction test will give
you false results. Use it sparingly and with caution!
(See textbook for details.)
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Caution:

• The constituency tests are NOT fool proof.You


should always apply at least two to any given string
of words, just in case you have got false results for
some reason.

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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.

• Replace by a Pro-form (pronoun, pro-verb)?


• John [eats at really fancy restaurants] and Bill [does (so) too]

• 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

• Constituent: A group of words that functions


as a unit.
• Captures judgments about the relatedness of
words and about the hierarchical structure of
sentences

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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

• In  generative  grammar,  generalisations  about  structure  are  


represented  by  rules.  These  rules  are  said  to  “generate”  the  
tree.  

• The  rules  are  called  phrase  structure  rules  (PSRs)  because  


they  generate  the  phrase  structure  tree  of  a  sentence.


• A  tree  diagram  with  syntactic  category  information  is  called  


a  phrase  structure  tree  (constituent  structure  tree).

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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:


  1.  the  linear  order  of  the  words  in  the  sentence  


  2.  the  groupings  of  word  into  syntactic  categories  i.e.  the  
hierarchical  structure  of  the  syntactic  categories  

(e.g.  sentence  is  composed  of  a  NP  followed  by  a  Verb  
Phrase  is  composed  of  a  Verb  that  may  be  followed  by  a  
NP,  and  so  on.)

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Phrase  Structure  Rules

• PSRs consist of a label for the phrase or clause being


represented, followed by an arrow, and then a
specification of the contents of the phrase or clause.The
arrow simply indicates that the phrasal category on the
left is made up of the string of elements on the right.

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PSRs  &  Trees

• Rules to represent hierarchical structure

eg. TP à NP VP
constituent
TP
(sub)constituents
NP VP

[TP [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

• This will be our first case study:


• We will propose a rule,
• Test it against evidence, and repeatedly revise it until we get a
more adequate picture of what the rule is.

• Along the way, we’ll be practicing tree structure diagrams, both


creating them and reading them.

• We’ll then extend the analysis of NPs to other phrases.


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Noun Phrases (NP)
• A noun phrase can be just a bare noun:

• [NP John] left NPà N

– So all other material other than the Noun itself


will be optional.

• The N in an NP is called the Head of the NP,


NP
N
John

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Noun Phrases (NP)

• NPs can have an optional determiner and


adjective phrases.

• You are allowed one determiner and as many


AdjPs as you like:
• [slippers] NPà (D) (AdjP+) N
• [the slippers]
• [pink slippers]
• [the pink slippers]
• [pink fluffy slippers]
• [the pink fluffy slippers]
• *the a slippers

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Noun Phrases (NP)

NPà (D) (AdjP+) N


NP

D AdjP AdjP N
the slippers
A A
pink fluffy

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Noun Phrases (NP)

• NPs also allow as many optional PPs


following the N as you like:

• The book of poems


• The book of poems with the red cover
• The book of poems with the red cover from New York

NPà (D) (AdjP+) N (PP+)

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Noun Phrases (NP)

• NPs can also be modified by clauses (CPs):

• The fact [that I like haggis]


• The book of poems with the red cover [that I bought
in NYC]

NPà (D) (AdjP+) N (PP+) (CP)

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Noun Phrases (NP)
“Followed by an optional CP”

• NP à (D) (AdjP+) N (PP+) (CP)

“followed by a
“NP consist of” noun” (the
head.)
“an optional “followed by any number of
determiner” (brackets mean optional Prepositional
optional) Phrases”

“followed by any number of optional


Adjective Phrases” (+= any number of)

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Noun Phrases (NP)

• NP à (D) (AdjP+) N (PP+) (CP)

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

• Adjs and Advs can stand on their own as phrases:


• the [red] lipstick
• AdjP → Adj
• John left quickly
• AdvP → Adv

• But they can also be modified by AdvPs:


• John left [rather quickly]
• the [very red] lipstick
• AdjP → (AdvP) Adj
• AdvP → (AdvP) Adv

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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

• if an XP modifies some head Y, then XP must be Y’s sister

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

• Verbs can be modified by adverbs:


• Marko [often sang]
• Susan [sang beautifully]
• Luis [often sang beautifully]
• VP →(AdvP+) V (AdvP+)

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Verb Phrases (VP)

• Verbs modified by PPs:


• Marko sang [though a microphone]
• Susan sang [to her parents] beautifully
• Susan sang beautifully [to her parents]
• VP→ (AdvP+) V (AdvP+) (PP+) (AdvP+)

• Verbs with an NP object:


• Marko sang [a song] to his parents beautifully
• VP →(AdvP+) V (NP) (AdvP+) (PP+) (AdvP+)

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Verb Phrases (VP)

• Verbs with an NP object and NP indirect object:


• Marko sent [his parents] [a package].
• VP →(AdvP+) V (NP) (NP) (AdvP+) (PP+) (AdvP+)

• Verbs with a Sentence (CP) Object:


• Fred said [Marko sang a song] with some derision
yesterday
• Fred asked Bill [if his T-shirt was inappropriate]
• VP →(AdvP+) V (NP) ({NP/CP}) (PP+) (AdvP+)

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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!


• Before next week’s lecture:


• Carnie (2013) Chapter 3 (remainders)
• Carnie (2013) Chapter 4

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