Fundamentals of Grammar

Phrase Structure Rules

Joshua Crowgey

Ling 100

Department of Linguistics

University of Washington

25 June 2012
Today

content
▶ syntactic ambiguity
▶ phrase structure
▶ rules & trees
▶ recursion
▶ evidence for syntactic phrases
▶ movement
▶ pronominalization
▶ coordination

remember
▶ hw3 due tomorrow night (practice version available)
Syntax

Definition
Syntax is the study of the organization of words into larger
units (phrases and sentences).

evidence
▶ theoretical evidence (infinite language from finite rule set)
▶ syntactic ambiguity
syntactic ambiguity

ambiguity resulting from the syntactic structure

of the phrase or sentence.
▶ our famous headlines examples:
▶ SQUAD HELPS DOG BITE VICTIM
▶ TEACHER STRIKES IDLE KIDS
▶ HERSHEY BARS PROTEST
Syntactic ambiguity

Phrase structure trees and brackets are notational equivalents.

phrase
structure
trees
hershey protest

bars protest hershey bars

[hershey [bars protest]] [[hershey bars] protest] bracketed
phrase
structure
Phrase structure

Definition
A phrase is a string of (one or more) words
that functions as syntactic unit (or constituent).

[large [man’s hat]] [[large man’s] hat]

[large [bowling ball]] [[tiny woman’s] hat]
[large [cheese pizza]] [[young child’s] hat]
phrase structure

Phrases have hierarchical structure. Phrases can

contain other phrases.
▶ [The book]

▶ [The book [ of [ stories ]]]

▶ [The book [ of [ stories [ about ants ]]]]

phrase structure

A phrase is built up around a single word

(head), which extends it’s properties to the
entire phrase.
Example
[S [NP The man] [VP sings [PP in [NP the shower ]]]]

▶ these labelled brackets correspond to

labelled nodes on a phrase structure tree
phrase structure
[S [NP The man] [VP sings [PP in [NP the shower ]]]]
S

NP VP

the man sings PP

in NP

the shower
rules
Phrases are generated by rules of the grammar (phrase
structure rules). In a tree, each subtree needs to correspond
(ie “be licensed”) by a phrase structure rule in the grammar.
phrase structure rules

The phrase structure rules of a grammar (CFG) determine:

▶ which categories go into a phrase
▶ how these categories are ordered
▶ (by convention) which element is the head of the phrase

Example
XP → X Y
“XP consists of X followed by Y”
▶ for us, the “X” in “XP” is significant, it indicates that X is
the head of this phrase (the right hand side of the rule
needs an X!)
phrase structure rules

noun phrases
Alice NP → N
the cat NP → Det N
those two rabbits NP → Det Num N
a mouse in a cup NP → Det N PP
NP → (Det) (Num) N (PP)

generalizing PSRs (abbreviations)

It is traditional to abbreviate two (or more) rules into a single
rule using () to indicate optionality.
Likewise, we can also abbreviate sets of rules disjunctively
using large curly braces { }, or, in ASCII, using |.
(eg: VP → V { NP PP })
phrase structure rules

prepositional phrases
in PP → P
up a tree PP → P NP
from a mouse in a cup PP → P NP
PP → P (NP)
phrase structure rules

verb phrases
sleeps VP → V
found a bone VP → V NP
fell into the abyss VP → V PP
sang a song in the shower VP → V NP PP
VP → V (NP) (PP)
synactic ambiguity
[drink [tea [ with [ honey ]]]] [drink [tea ] [ with [ honey ]]]
VP VP

V NP V NP PP

drink N PP drink N P NP

tea P NP tea with N

with N honey

honey

“The PP is a constituent of the NP vs …of the VP.”

sentences

Some data:
The dog barked.
*The dog
*Barked
so S must contain at least an NP and VP
PSR for S:

S → NP VP
phrase structure tree

NP VP

Det N V NP

the dog ate Det N

the bone

What phrase structure rules were used in this derivation?

S → NP VP
NP → Det N
VP → V NP
structural ambiguity in sentences
“I hit the man with the hammer.”
(the man has the hammer) (I have the hammer)
S S

NP VP NP VP

N V NP N V NP PP

I hit Det N PP I hit Det N P NP

the man P NP the manwith Det N

with Det N thehammer

thehammer
recursion

self reference in rules

▶ when a category appears on both the left and right side
of a rule (or a pair of rules, transitively) in the same
grammar, the set of structures generated by this
grammar is non-finite

Example
▶ NP → (Det) N (PP)
PP → P (NP)
▶ [NP N [PP P [NP N [PP P [NP N [PP P [NP N [PP P …]]]]]]]]
recursion

▶ a single rule can be recursive by self reference on both

the right and left hand side:
X → XY
▶ a grammar can be recursive by containing a set of rules
which taken together allow “looping” rule application:
X→Y
Y→Z
Z→X
▶ Note: recursivity in grammars does not yield phrases of
infinite length! Any phrase generated will be of a finite
length.
▶ Recursivity in grammar does yield an infinity of phrases, a
phrase can be found for any arbitrary length
recursion

Definition
Recursion: see “recursion”
recursive NP,PP in English
NP

Det N PP

a frog P NP

on Det N PP

the log P NP

in Det N PP

the hole P NP

on Det N PP

the bottom P NP

of Det N

the sea