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Phrase structure grammar uses rewrite rules and tree diagrams to represent the constituency structure of sentences. It divides sentences into constituents like subject noun phrase and predicate verb phrase. Phrase structure rules specify how larger constituents are composed of smaller constituents, allowing for the generation of new sentences. While powerful, phrase structure grammar has limitations as it cannot represent all linguistic phenomena.

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82 views4 pages

My Syntax Presentation Explaination

Phrase structure grammar uses rewrite rules and tree diagrams to represent the constituency structure of sentences. It divides sentences into constituents like subject noun phrase and predicate verb phrase. Phrase structure rules specify how larger constituents are composed of smaller constituents, allowing for the generation of new sentences. While powerful, phrase structure grammar has limitations as it cannot represent all linguistic phenomena.

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moin khan
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PHRASE STRUCTURE GRAMMAR: -
1. Phrase Structures:
The term phrase structure grammar was originally introduced by Noam Chomsky. The
defining trait of phrase structure grammars is thus their adherence to the constituency
relation, as opposed to the dependency relation of dependency grammars. Phrase
structure grammars are all those grammars that are based on the constituency relation,
as opposed to the dependency relation associated with dependency grammars; hence,
phrase structure grammars are also known as constituency grammars. The constituency
relation derives from the subject-predicate division of Latin and Greek grammars that is
based on term logic and reaches back to Aristotle in antiquity. Basic clause structure is
understood in terms of a binary division of the clause into subject (noun phrase NP) and
predicate (verb phrase VP).
Moreover, phrase structure grammar is an alternative way of expressing the
information found in a tree diagram by means of `re-write' rules. In this model the
linguist formalizes the grammar by means of generative rules which explicitly assign the
correct constituent structure to sentences. Such systems are called simple `phrase
structure grammars. This model of grammar shows not only the terminal elements or
constituents of a linear structure but also specifies the subunits and the level at which these
units form natural groups. So, the linguist is her interested in
1. the pattern underlying the sentence and the constituents; and in
2. the syntactic devices used to link the constituents together, and the ways in which various
parts relate to one another.
Without the axiom, there are bound to be an unlimited number of rules. This implies that we
can neither formulate nor write down such rules in one lift time which rules out the
possibility of someone using this grammar to master a language. The fact that we learn a
language by the time we are three or four years old refutes such an implication and compels
us to believe that the rules of a grammar have got to be finite and not infinite.
The binary division of the clause results in a one-to-one-or-more correspondence. For each
element in a sentence, there are one or more nodes in the tree structure that one assumes for
that sentence. A two-word sentence such as Luke laughed necessarily implies three (or more)
nodes in the syntactic structure: one for the noun Luke (subject NP), one for the verb laughed
(predicate VP), and one for the entirety Luke laughed (sentence S). The constituency
grammars listed above all view sentence structure in terms of this one-to-one-or more
correspondence.
One of the important aspects of phrase structure grammar is that any set of sentences
that can be generated by a finite state grammar can equally be generated by a phrase
structure grammar. Chomsky himself has attempted to construct a grammar on the
basis of a carefully axiomatized and consistently detailed level of phrase structure that
is, roughly, bracketing as it is usually termed in linguistics, immediate constituent
analysis. Phrase structure grammar is more powerful than finite state grammar as they
do everything that finite state grammars do and more.
The phrase structure of a sentence is generally represented by a tree diagram. This
representation of the phrase structure of a sentence is known as its `phrase marker' or `P
marker' for short. The points that are joined by the lines or branches are called `Nodes'. Each
of the nodes, except those on the bottom line (which are the terminal nodes) is given a label
that represents a grammatically definable constituent - N, V, NP, VP, etc. where one mode is
higher than another and joined to it by branches, it is said to `Dominate' it, if it is placed
immediately above it and joined by a single line, it `Immediately' dominates it. `Dominance'
then shows how a larger constituent may consist of one or more constituents of a smaller
kind. It is also important to note that the tree structure preserves the linear order of the
constituents, just as plain IC analysis does. The first noun phrase precedes the verb phrase,
the verb precedes the second noun phrase. The determiner precedes the noun. `Precedence'
thus like `Dominance' is clearly shown in the tree diagram.
The sentence "the man followed a girl" will be represented by a tree diagram as : -
S
NP VP
Det N V NP
Det N
The man followed a girl.
Labeled bracketing and phrase structure trees provide much more information than IC
analysis, but they still do not state, except by implication, how new sentences can be
generated. This can be done with the use of `phrase structure rules' (PS rules). The tree
structure of the sentence given in the example can be generated by six rules.
1. S-----NP------VP
2. VP----V--------NP
3. NP----DET-----N
4. V---------Followed
5. DET-------the, a
6. N----------man, girl
These rules will not generate only the one sentence handled in the tree diagram - `The man
followed a girl'. Since both `the' and `a' are shown as determiners and both `man' and `girl' as
nouns, the rules permit us to permute the determiners in each determiner position and the two
nouns in each noun position and in fact, to generate no less than sixteen different sentences
including, for instance:
 A girl followed the man.
 The girl followed a man.
 A girl followed a man.
The phrase structure rule can generate longer sentences also.

2. Phrase structure rules:


3. Head Driven Phrase Structure Grammar
4. Limoitations Of Phrase Structure Grammar
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