Syntax

Session 1 Lecture
❖ Introduction
❖ Constituency
❖ Linear & Hierarchical
Ordering
❖ Structural Ambiguity
Introduction
1. Definition of syntax
Syntax: the study of sentence structures
(how words and phrases are arranged to
create well-formed sentences in a
language)
2. Structure of a typical sentence
- Referring expression
- Predication
Introduction
Referring expression
- a word or phrase used to identify or
refer to a particular entity, person,
object, or idea.
- often a noun phrase (can be proper
nouns (Dalat, Peter); pronouns (He,
They), definite descriptions (The man in
a blue hat, The tallest building))
- can serve as the subject of a sentence
Example:
The cat on the mat is sleeping.
They ate all the biscuits.
Introduction
Predication
- the part of a sentence or clause that
provides information about the subject
- typically involves a verb and other
components (such as objects,
complements, or adverbial phrases)
Example:
The cat on the mat is sleeping.
They ate all the biscuits.
Constituency
Definition of constituency
refers to the linguistic concept that
sentences are composed of smaller units,
called constituents, which are organized
hierarchically.

Definition of constituents
a word or a group of words that function
as a single structural/grammatical unit
within a hierarchical structure of a
sentence.
Constituency
Examples of constituents
• a determiner: this in this book
• a verb: sings in She sings beautifully.
• an adjective: black in The cat is black.
• an adverb: quickly in He ran quickly.
• a verb phrase: are singing a song in
They are singing a song.
• A noun phrase: The quick brown fox
and the lazy dog in The quick brown
fox jumps over the lazy dog.
Constituency
Examples of constituents
• a prepositional phrase: in the park in She
is running in the park.
• a clause: when she arrived in I was
watching TV when she arrived.
• a sentence: The tall girl ate the biggest
cake.
NOTE: parts of speech such as verbs,
adjectives, adverbs, ect. can be constituents
when they function as single units within a
sentence's structure. However, they can also
be part of larger constituents when combined
with other words.
Linear ordering of constituents
Definition
the sequence or arrangement of
constituents in a sentence (usually appear
from left to right in a sentence, following
the syntactic rules of a given language)

Example
The dog chased the cat. (English SVO
Order)
the black dog (English adjectives
preceding nouns)
Linear ordering of constituents
Characteristics of linear ordering
- crucial for understanding and producing
grammatically correct sentences
- not fixed
- If changed:
 a) two well-formed sentences with
different meanings
Ex: The dog chased the cat.
The cat chased the dog
Linear ordering of constituents
Characteristics of linear ordering
 b)two well-formed sentences with the
same meaning
Ex: He sometimes watches TV.
He watches TV sometimes.

 c) ill-formed sentences
Ex: *Chased the dog the cat
Hierarchical ordering of constituents
Definition
how different words and phrases are
grouped together to form meaningful
grammatical units
(showing the relationships between the
constituents, indicating which words or
phrases belong together and which do not)
=> constituent structure
Hierarchical ordering of constituents
Example
The little boy ate the cake.
[The little boy ate the cake]: the biggest
constituent (S)
The S contains 2 smaller constituents (NP
VP): [The little boy] [ate the cake]
The NP contains 3 smaller constituents
(Det AdjP N): [The] [little] [boy]
The VP contains 2 smaller constituents (V
NP): [ate] [the cake]
Structural ambiguity

Ex1: old men and women

 Meaning 1: old men and old women
[old] [men and women]

 Meaning 2: old men and all other

women
[old men] [and] [women]
Structural ambiguity

Ex2: He sold the car to his brother in NY.

 Meaning 1: He sold the car to his
brother who lived in NY.
[sold] [the car] [[to] [his brother in NY]]

 Meaning 2: NY was the place where he

sold the car to his brother.
[sold] [the car] [to his brother] [in NY]
 Syntax
Session 2 Lecture

Phrase structure
rules
Phrase structure
1. Heads
2. Specifiers
3. Complements
Heads
1. Definition
The central component of the phrase that
determines its type
2. Examples
❖ a noun in an NP
Potatoes (are good for health.)
❖ a verb in a VP
(He) left.
❖ an adjective in an AdjP
(He is) old.
❖ an adverb in an AdvP
(She sang) well.
❖ a preposition in a PP
(She dived) into (the water.)
Specifiers
1. Definition
A component that typically appears at
the beginning of a phrase to provide
additional information about the head
2. Specifiers of each type
❖ Specifiers of nouns: determiners
Ex1: The cat is sleeping.
Ex2: My friend called me yesterday.
Ex3: Some chairs were broken.
Specifiers
❖ Specifiers of verbs: auxiliaries
Ex1: She has eaten already.
Ex2: They are running fast.
Ex3: He will go to the party.

❖ Specifiers of Adjs/Advs/Preps: Degree

words/quantifiers
Ex1: He is quite tall.
Ex2: He spoke too loudly.
Ex2: She stood right in front of the door.
(Degree words/quantifiers: very, less, almost,
more, just, exactly, extremely, terribly, so,
fairly, somewhat, rather, much, far, hardly,
absolutely, slightly, moderately, least, most,
etc.)
Complements
1. Definition
A component that provides the
necessary information to complete
the meaning of the head (usually
attached to the right of the head in
English)
2. Examples of complements of
different phrase types
❖ Complements of NPs:
Ex1: The cat on the mat is sleeping.
Ex2: We laughed at the reason for
his absence.
Complements
❖ Complements of VPs:
Ex1: He had left the room.
Ex2: They kicked the ball hard.

❖ Complements of AdjPs:
Ex1: Puppies are very curious
about the world.
Ex2: She is afraid of ghosts
Complements
❖ Complements of AdvPs:
Ex: He speaks English more
fluently than his colleague.

❖ Complements of PPs:
Ex1: She stood right in front of
the door.
Ex2: I need the key to the
cellar.
 Syntax
Session 4 Lecture

Tests for phrase

structure
The Substitution Test
If a group of words can be replaced by a
single word, it is a phrase.
- Pronouns like ‘they, it, she, he’ can
replace a noun phrase
Ex: The girl who won the first prize was
talented. => She was talented.
- Pro-adverbs like ‘there’ can replace a
prepositional phrase.
Ex: John went to the national park and we
went there, too.
- Pro-verbs like ‘do, did’ can replace a verb
phrase.
Ex: They played pickleball regularly and so
did I.
The Movement Test
If a group of words can be moved as a
single unit to a different position in a
sentence (without changing the core
meaning), it is a phrase (a constituent).
Ex1: John built a play house for the
children in the garden.
 In the garden John built a play house for
the children.
Ex2: The sword hung menacingly above his
head.
=> Above his head the sword hung
menacingly.
The Coordination Test
If a group of words can be joined with
another group of words using conjunctions
such as and, or or but, it is a phrase (a
constituent).
Ex1: The chef prepared the meal and
served it to the guests.
Ex2: The scientist conducted several
experiments to test the hypothesis and
wrote a detailed report on the findings.
 Syntax
Session 6 Lecture
- Grammatical Relations
- Deep and Surface
Structures
- Transformation
Grammatical Relations
Subject
the NP immediately dominated by S
Ex: John in John is reading a book.

Direct Object
The NP immediately dominated by VP
Ex: a book in John is reading a book.
Grammatical Relations
Intransitive verb
the verb that does not require a direct
object
Ex: snored in He snored loudly.
Transitive verb
the verb that requires a direct object
Ex: bought in They bought a new house.
Note: Some verbs can be used both
transitively and intransitively.
Ex: He walked. He walked the dog.
Grammatical Relations
Indirect object
the NP that receives the direct object
Ex: me in They gave me the flowers.
Oblique
The NP that is the object of a preposition
Ex: bed in She sent the kids to bed
early.
Possessor
The NP that possesses something in a
sentence
Ex: Joanna’s in Joanna’s dress is new.
Deep and Surface Structures
Surface structure
The level represented by the linear strings
of words as uttered or written
Ex: Diana wanted to go.

Deep/Underlying structure
The abstract level underlying the surface
structure
Ex: * Diana wanted Diana to go.
Deep and Surface Structures

How to generate a surface structure

Transformation
Equi-NP deletion
A transformational rule which allows the subject
NP of an embedded clause to be deleted when
that NP is the same as the NP subject of the
matrix clause
*Fred want Fred to win.

Equi-NP deletion

Fred wanted to win.

Note: In Fred want Fred to win, Fred wanted is
the matrix clause and Fred to win is the
embedded clause.
Transformation
Formation of Yes-No questions
1. An auxiliary is postulated in the
underlying structure of a sentence.
S => NP AUX VP
2. The application of Subject-Auxiliary
Inversion Transformation
(inverting the subject NP and the AUX)
3. Production of the surface structure of a
question
S => AUX NP VP
Transformation
Formation of Yes-No questions
S => NP AUX VP

Subject-Auxiliary Inversion
Transformation

S => AUX NP VP
Transformation
Formation of Yes-No questions
For the underlying structure containing no
auxiliary, we need to apply Do Insertion
before the application of Subject-
Auxiliary Inversion Transformation

Do Insertion: allowing the insertion of Do

into the empty Aux position

Note: Do + ‘past’ => did

: Do + ‘third person’ => does
Transformation
Formation of Yes-No questions
S => NP AUX VP

Do Insertion

S => NP AUX VP

Subject-Auxiliary Inversion
Transformation

S => Aux NP VP
Transformation
Formation of information questions
1. An echo question is postulated as the
underlying structure
Ex:
Statement: He is eating biscuits.
Echo question: He is eating what?
(Note: what: wh-word)
2. A landing site for wh-word is needed
(The complementizer (COMP)is located at the
front of the underlying structure, ready to
receive the wh-word when transformation
occurs.
Transformation
Formation of information questions
3. The application of Subject-Auxiliary
Inversion Transformation
Ex: Produced structure: Is he eating what?

3. The application of Wh-movement

Transformation (allowing the wh-word to
move to the front of the sentence and
attach to the COMP)
Ex: Surface structure: What is he eating?
Transformation
Formation of information questions
Echo question (underlying structure)

Subject-Auxiliary Inversion
Transformation

Wh-movement Transformation

Information question (surface form)

 Syntax
Session 7 Lecture
- Relative Clause
Transformation
- Constraints on
Transformation
Relative Clause Transformation
1. Relative clause
A relative clause is a dependent clause
that is embedded into an NP of another
clause.

Ex1: The book that I borrowed from the

library is fascinating.

Ex: The woman who lives next door is a

famous TV star.
Relative Clause Transformation
2. Head noun
The noun in the main clause that is
modified by the relative clause

Ex1: The woman who lives next door is a

famous TV star.

Ex2: The book that I borrowed from the

library is fascinating.
Relative Clause Transformation
3. Relativized NP
The NP in the dependent clause that is
replaced by a relative pronoun when
transformation occurs.

- Relativized NP functioning as a subject

Ex: The student is from Spain. The
student won the award.
=> The student who won the award is
from Spain.
Relative Clause Transformation
3. Relativized NP
- Relativized NP functioning as a direct
object

Ex: The film was very interesting. We

watched the film.
=> The film that we watched was very
interesting.
Relative Clause Transformation
3. Relativized NP
- Relativized NP functioning as an oblique

Ex: The music was weird. We listened to

the music.
=> The music which we listened to was
weird.
Relative Clause Transformation
3. Relativized NP
- Relativized NP functioning as a
possessor

Ex: The woman is my neighbor. Her car

was stolen.
=> The woman whose car was stolen is my
neighbor.
Relative Clause Transformation
4. Co-referential NPs
- Two NPs that refer to the same thing,
person, or concept.
-
Ex1: The woman is a famous star. The
woman lives next door.

Ex2: The book is fascinating. I borrowed

the book from the library
Relative Clause Transformation
5. COMP node (complementizer)
The node that serves as the landing site
for the relativized NP when
transformation occurs.

Ex: The book …….COMP……… is

fascinating. I borrowed the book from the
library.
Relative Clause Transformation
6. Formation of relative clauses
When two clauses share a pair of co-
referential NPs, a relative clause is
formed by embedding one clause into the
other.
Ex: The woman is a famous star. The
woman lives next door.
Main clause: The woman is a famous star.
Embedded clause: The woman lives next
door.
=> The woman who lives next door is a
famous TV star.
Relative Clause Transformation
7. Relative clause transformation
Relativized NP functioning as the subject
Surface structure: I talked to the woman who
was a millionaire.
Deep structure: I talked to the woman the
woman was a millionaire.
- The relativized NP is pronominalized (made
into a pronoun)
I talked to the woman the woman was a
millionaire.
=> I talked to the woman who was a
millionaire.
Relative Clause Transformation
7. Relative clause transformation
Relativized NP functioning as the object/
oblique
Surface structure: The book that I
borrowed from the library is fascinating.
First step: in the deep structure, there
exists a COMP node in front of the
dependent clause.
Ex: The book …COMP….. I borrowed the
book from the library is fascinating.
Relative Clause Transformation
7. Relative clause transformation
Second step: The relativized NP is
pronominalized (made into a
pronoun)
Ex: The book …COMP….. I borrowed
the book from the library is
fascinating.
=> The book …COMP….. I borrowed
that from the library is fascinating.
Relative Clause Transformation
7. Relative clause transformation
Third step: The Wh-movement
transformation moves the pronominalized
relativized NP to the front of the clause,
where it is attached to the COMP node,
forming the relative clause.
Ex: The book …COMP….. I borrowed that
from the library is fascinating.
 The book that I borrowed from the
library is fascinating.
Constraints on Transformation
1. Coordinate NP constraint
Mary ate rice and kuy teav.
Echo question: Mary ate rice and what?
(The Wh-word – ‘what’ - is contained within
the coordinate NP)
Application of Wh-movement transformation
 *What did Mary eat rice and? => ill-formed
structure
=> Wh-movement cannot occur when the
Wh-word is part of a coordinate NP
structure.
Constraints on Transformation
2. Relative clause constraint
An loves the girl who lives in Cut and Shoot.
Echo question: An loves the girl who lives
where?
(The Wh-word – ‘where’ - is contained within
the relative clause)
Application of Wh-movement transformation
 *Where does An loves the girl who lives? =>
ill-formed structure
=> Wh-movement cannot occur when the
Wh-word is part of a relative clause.
Constraints on Transformation
3. Adverbial clause constraint
Jane would clean the house before Batman
Bin Superman came.
Echo question: Jane would clean the house
before who came?
(The Wh-word – ‘who’ - is contained within
the adverbial clause)
Application of Wh-movement transformation
 *Who would Jane clean the house before
came? => ill-formed structure
=> Wh-movement cannot occur when the
Wh-word is part of an adverbial clause.
Constraints on Transformation
4. Indirect question constraint
Peter would tell his father where he put the
boomerang.
Echo question: Peter would tell his father
where he put what?
(The Wh-word – ‘what’ - is contained within
the indirect question)
Application of Wh-movement transformation
 *What would Peter tell his father where he
put? => ill-formed structure
=> Wh-movement cannot occur when the
Wh-word is part of an indirect question.