SYNTAX: The Sentence Patterns of Language. Introduction to English Linguistics 2012 FALL

Transcription

1 SYNTAX: The Sentence Patterns of Language Introduction to English Linguistics 2012 FALL

2 The Syntax rules Grammaticality judgment Structural Ambiguity Sentence Structure Constituents & Syntactic Category Phrase Structure trees Recursive rules => X-bar structure Heads and complements Categorical Selection & Semantic Selection Sentence Relatedness Transformational Rules UG Principles and Parameters

3 Do we store sentences in our mental lexicon? John found a book in the library. John found a book in the library in the stacks. John found a book in the library in the stacks on the fourth floor. John found a book in the library in the stacks on the fourth floor on December 24.

4 Syntax We store the knowledge of how words are put together to make sentences. The grammar that represents the knowledge of sentences and their structures is called Syntax

5 CHAPTER 2: Syntax WHAT SYNTAX RULES DO?

6 Syntax Rules Combine words into phrases and phrases into sentences (1a) The President nominated a new Supreme Court justice. (1b) *President the new Supreme justice Court a nominated.

7 Syntax Rules Describe the relationship between the meaning of words and the arrangements of those words. 2a) I mean what I say. 2b) I say what I mean. I'm a man who says what he means and he means what he says.

8 Syntax rules specify the relationship btw the meanings of words and their arrangements 2a) I mean what I say = I am not joking or exaggerating. 2b) I say what I mean = I say what I am trying to tell you. (Definitely and accurately I am giving my opinion)

9 p. 78 Alice s Adventures in Wonderland (Lewis Carroll, 1865) Then you should say what you mean, the March Hare went on. I do, Alice hastily replied, at least - I mean what I say- that s the same thing, you know. Not the same thing a bit! said the Hatter. You might just as well say that I see what I eat is the same thing as I eat what I see! You might just as well say, added the March hare, that I like what I get is the same thing as I get what I like! You might just as well say, added the Dormouse. that I breathe when I sleep is the same thing as I sleep when I breathe! It is the same thing with you, said the Hatter.

10 Syntax Rules.. Specify the grammatical relations such as subject and direct object. (3a) Your dog chased my cat. (3b) My cat chased your dog.

11 Syntax rules specify other constraints sentences must conform to. Put a star when one is ungrammatical. * ** (4a)(1) The boy found. (2) The boy found quickly. (3) The boy found in the house. (4) The boy found the ball.

12 Syntax rules specify other constraints sentences must conform to. Why (1)(4) is ungrammatical? * (4b)(1) Disa slept the baby. (2) Disa slept soundly. Cf (3) Disa found the baby. (4) Disa found soundly. * => sleep cannot takes a noun phrase, while find is followed by other phrases

13 Find the one which is ungrammatical. a) Zack believes Robert to be a gentleman. * b) Zack believes to be a gentleman. * c) Zack tries Robert to be a gentleman. d) Zack tries to be a gentleman. e) Zack wants to be a gentleman. f) Zack wants Robert to be a gentleman.

14 Believe +sb +to vs. try to vs. want (sb)+to a) Zack believes Robert to be a gentleman. b) *Zack believes to be a gentleman. c) *Zack tries Robert to be a gentleman. d) Zack tries to be a gentleman. e) Zack wants to be a gentleman. f) Zack wants Robert to be a gentleman. Native speakers know the syntax rules.

15 6a. Jack and Jill ran up the hill. 6b. Jack and Jill ran the hill up. 6c. Up the hill ran Jack and Jill. 6d. Jack and Jill ran up the bill. 6e. Jack and Jill ran the bill up. 6f. Up the bill ran Jack and Jill.

16 a. Jack and Jill ran up the hill. b. Jack and Jill ran the hill up. c. Up the hill ran Jack and Jill. d. Jack and Jill ran up the bill. e. Jack and Jill ran the bill up. f. Up the bill ran Jack and Jill.

17 a. Jack and Jill ran up the hill. b. *Jack and Jill ran the hill up. c. Up the hill ran Jack and Jill. d. Jack and Jill ran up the bill. e. Jack and Jill ran the bill up. f. *Up the bill ran Jack and Jill.

18 a. Jack and Jill ran up the hill. (preposition) b. *Jack and Jill ran the hill up. c. Up the hill ran Jack and Jill. (preposition) d. Jack and Jill ran up the bill. (adverb) e. Jack and Jill ran the bill up. (adverb) f. *Up the bill ran Jack and Jill.

19 Syntax Rules.. Syntactic knowledge includes knowledge of how words form groups. ran [up the hill] vs. [ran up] the bill. [up the hill] ran vs. [ran the bill up] V + [Prep + NP] [V + Adv/particle] + NP

20 CHAPTER 2: Syntax STRUCTURAL AMBIGUITY

21 Hierarchical structure Syntactic knowledge includes knowledge of how words are hierarchical structures. waitress s [nose ring] vs. [waitress s nose ] ring

22 Syntactic Knowledge and Ambiguity Structural ambiguity For sale: an antique desk suitable for lady with thick legs and large drawers. Lexical Ambiguity This will make you smart. Can pills make you smarter? This will make you smart! Be ware of the smoke from the fire! It will make you smart.

23 Ambiguity due to different structures For sale: an antique desk suitable for lady with thick legs and large drawers. For sale: an antique desk suitable for lady with thick legs and large drawers.

24 CHAPTER 2: Syntax SYNTACTIC VS. SEMANTIC KNOWLEDGE

25 What grammaticality is not based on (10) Colorless green ideas sleep furiously. (11) *Furiously sleep ideas green colorless. (12) *The boy quickly in the house the ball found. (13) Twas brillig, and the slithy boves did gyre and gimble in the wabe Grammatical vs. meaningful? Interpretable?

26 Grammatical, meaningful, interpretable, true (11a) Colorless green ideas sleep furiously. grammatical, not meaningful (11b) *Furiously sleep ideas green colorless. Ungrammatical, meaningless (11c) *The boy quickly in the house the ball found ungrammatical Interpretable!

27 What Grammaticality is Not Based On (11d) Twas brillig, and the slithy boves did gyre and gimble in the wabe grammatical meaningless uninterpretable

28 CHAPTER 2: Syntax SENTENCE STRUCTURE: PS RULES & TREES

29 SENTENCE STRUCTURE Every sentence has natural groupings called. constituents The sentence structure can be represented by a tree diagram.

30 Constituents (p. 84) Sentence structure can be represented by a tree diagram. The child found a puppy Constituents: a word or a group of words that have a closer relationship with each other than with any others.

31 root The child found a puppy The hierarchical organization of the tree reflects the natural groupings of the words of the sentence (constituents).

32 Syntactic Categories A family of expressions that can substitute for one another without loss of grammaticality

33 Syntactic Categories a bird the red banjo have a nice day with a balloon the woman who was laughing it John went

34 Syntactic Categories a bird the red banjo have a nice day with a balloon the woman who was laughing it John went Noun Phrase (NP) Noun Phrase NP NP NP

35 SYNTACTIC CATEGORIES a) Phrasal categories S, NP, VP, PP, AdjP, AdvP b) Lexical categories: Det, N, V, P, Adj, Adv, Conj, Aux

36 LEXICAL CATEGORIES the, a, this, some, each Determiner (Det) puppy, boy, soup, happiness Noun (N) find, run, sleep, throw, believe Verb (V) up, down, across, into Preposition (P) Red, big, hopeless, fair Adjective (Adj) again, carefully, very Adverb (Adv) and, but, or Conjunction (Conj) have, be, may, can, will Auxiliary (Aux)

37 PHRASAL CATEGORIES Sentence (S) Noun phrase (NP) Verb phrase (VP) <- predicate Adjective phrase (AdjP) Adverb phrase (AdvP) Prepositional phrase (PP)

38 Phrase Structure Trees = Constituent structure trees Phrase structure tree: tree diagram with syntactic category information provided. hierarchy NP1 S VP Det1 N1 V NP2 the child found Det2 N2 linear a puppy

39 Phrase Structure Trees Points in a tree are called nodes. Every higher node is said to dominate all the categories beneath it. A node is said to immediately dominate the categories one level below it. Categories that are immediately dominated by the same node are sisters.

40 Phrase Structure Rules Capture the knowledge that speakers have about possible structure of a lg. Speakers unconsciously have a finite set of rules that generate a tree for any sentence in the lg.

41 Phrase Structure Rules 1. S NP VP 2. NP Det N 3. VP V NP 4. VP V 5. VP V PP 6. PP P NP 7. VP V CP 8. CP C S [I love linguistics]. [The boy] had [a sister]. The child [found the puppy]. The man [danced] The puppy [played in the garden] A girl laughed [at the monkey]. The prof said [that he passed the exam]. She asked [if they understood the lesson].

42 Conventions for building PS trees The S occurs at the top/ root of the tree (upside down) 1. Find the rule with S on the left side of the arrow and put the categories on the right side below the S. S S NP VP NP VP

43 Conventions for building PS trees 2. Continue by matching any syntactic category at the bottom of the tree to a category on the left side of a rule. S NP Det N NP VP Det N

44 Conventions for building PS trees 3. then expand the tree with the categories on the right side. S NP VP V V NP Det N V NP

45 4. Continue until none of the categories at the bottom of the tree appears on the left side of any rule. S NP VP Det N V NP Det NP Det N N

46 The boy left. (Rule 4: VP V) The wind blew the kite. (Rule 6: VP V NP) The senator hopes that the bill passes. (Rule 7: VP V CP)

47 PS Rules generate sentences 4. VP V S NP VP Det N V the woman laughed The woman laughed. The man danced. The horse galloped. The baby slept. The puppy ran. The session ended....

48 Sentence generation by PS Rules 5. VP V PP 6. PP P NP NP The puppy played in the garden. The boat sailed up the river. S VP Det N V PP A girl laughed P NP at Det N the monkey

49 Complementizer (C) that 7. VP V CP 8. CP C S The prof said that the student passed the exam. The teacher asked if the students understood the lesson. I don t know whether I should talk about this.