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Structural Relations and Binary Trees

This document discusses structural relations and binary trees in syntax. It defines key structural relations like dominance, precedence, and c-command. It then explains features of syntactic trees, including that they involve the projection of heads into phrases, employ binary branching and single motherhood, and involve operations like merge and adjoin. It also discusses properties of syntactic trees like endocentricity, the order of merger, and feature checking.

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55 views4 pages

Structural Relations and Binary Trees

This document discusses structural relations and binary trees in syntax. It defines key structural relations like dominance, precedence, and c-command. It then explains features of syntactic trees, including that they involve the projection of heads into phrases, employ binary branching and single motherhood, and involve operations like merge and adjoin. It also discusses properties of syntactic trees like endocentricity, the order of merger, and feature checking.

Uploaded by

rasquella lulu
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
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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structural relations and binary

trees
structural relations, constituents of syntactic trees, features of
syntactic trees

Structural relations
a syntactic tree is often compared to a family tree (the nodes represent the different
family members)
but syntactic trees are made up of women only
a node which has immediate constituents is the mother of those constituents and the
constituents are its daughters
two nodes which have the same mother are called sisters
SR1. Dominance (motherhood, hierarchical organization)
→node A dominates node B iff: node A is higher up in the tree than B + a line
(route) can be traced from A to B going only downwards
→dominance is a one-way and not a two-way/mutual relationship
SR2. Precedence (linear order)

structural relations and binary trees 1


node A precedes node B iff: there is no dominance between A and B + A is at the
left of B
SR3: C-command
node A c-commands node B iff: there is no dominance between A and B + the
first branching node dominating A also dominates B
the total of the nodes c-commanded by X: the c-command domain of X
mutual/symmetric c-command: node A and node B are sisters
asymmetric c-command: node A c-commands node B but node B does not c-
command node A

X = zero projection (head) (V, A, P)

X’ = intermediate projection (X-bar) (V’, A’, P’)


XP = maximal projection (VP, AP, PP, etc)
ZP = specifier (spec)
YP = complement (a phrase the head merges with)
WP = adjunct
syntactic trees:
a. projection of X

b. projection of x: economy of representation (no intermediate projection)


c. merge (XP branching mode, X terminal node)

d. specifier - head- complement (ZP - X - YP)


e. specifier - head-complement-adjunct (ZP - X - YP - WP)

basic operations: merge vs adjoin

merge: X (head)+ YP (full phrase). X’ + ZP(full phrase) =xp


(the merged constituents are dominated by the resulting constituent)

*** ”transparent” to the c-command relation?

structural relations and binary trees 2


adjoin: Y(head) + X(head) = phrasal verb (X)?. WP(full phrase) + XP(other full
phrase)
(the adjoined constituent is not dominated by the resulting constituent→ WP is
not dominated by the higher XP)

*** ”opaque” to the c-command relation

feature 2: endocentricity (endo=inside)

*there is only one head per phrase: XP has one and only one head X
*the head gives the phrase its category (X gives the phrase the category XP)

feature 3: binary branching

merge is a binary operation→ syntactic trees are binary and not ternary
a mother has at most two daughters and not three

feature 4: single motherhood

a mother can have two daughters but a daughter has only one mother

feature 5: order of merger


what merges first with the head =/= what merges last with the head

YP(the complement argument) merges first with the head


ZP(the specifier argument) merges last with the head (intermediated by X’?)

feature 6: feature checking [V] and [uN]

interpretable features [V]: the morphological labels of the categories

love has an interpretable verb feature; love is a verb

uninterpretable features [uN]: the syntactic valence of the constituent

structural relations and binary trees 3


love needs to merge with a nominal constituent to have this
uninterpretavle feature checked and cancelled ([uN]) by that nominal

feature 7: theta-role assignment


the semantic interpretation of the constituent the head merges with

love merges with nominal constituent to have this uninterpretable feature


checked and cancelled ([uN]) but, at the same time, the verb semantically
interprets the nominal it merges with

V(love) + DPstimulus(Mary) [love merges with Mary which is semantically


interpreted as Stimulus(not cause or patient)

structural relations and binary trees 4

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