Syntax (part 1) Grammatical Competence. Grammatical Competence. Defining lexical classes

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1 Grammatical Competence Syntax (part 1) Native speakers have subconscious knowledge of the grammar of their language. COMPETENCE = the speaker-hearer s [tacit] knowledge of [the grammar of] his/her [native] language. Neal Snape PERFORMANCE = the actual use of language in concrete situations. Grammatical Competence Examples of native speakers competence of their language: a. I enjoy syntax We know as native speakers of English that the negative of a. is; b. I don t enjoy syntax NOT c. * I no enjoy syntax Probing the nature of competence Q: What source of evidence do we have about competence? A: Native speaker intuitions about the grammaticality and interpretation of words, phrases and sentences. (i) (ii) intuitions about grammaticality intuitions about interpretation Criteria of adequacy for a theory of grammar Universality (Goal = to develop a theory of Universal Grammar (UG) Explanatory adequacy (Why do grammars have the properties they do?) Distinctiveness (How do natural languages differ e.g. from animal or computer languages?) Learnability (Must explain how children acquire grammars of their native languages) Minimalism (Must make use of the minimal set of theoretical and descriptive apparatus i.e. be as simple as possible) Defining lexical classes What is a grammatical category? Morphological criteria Inflectiona l (= different forms of the sa me word: cat/ cats) Derivational (= different type of word: sad/sadness) Morphological properties of nouns = they inflect for (singular/plural) number: dog/dogs, man/men e.g. They are fools/*foolishes BUT one sheep, two sheep two chairs, *two furnitures (count and mass nouns) watch repairer, *watches repairer (compound noun) 1

2 Syntactic/Distributional Criteria Determiners Only certain categories of word can appear in certain positions in a phrase or sentence. What tests can be used to whether a word is a noun/verb/adjective/adverb/prep ositions? They have no.. [Noun] clue/*nice/*slowly/*on They can [Verb] stay/*car/*under/*nice They are very.. [Adjective] foolish/*fools /*stupidly She behaved [Adverb] articles: the/a (definite/indefinite) demonstratives: this/these; that/those possessives: my/our/your/his/her/its/their quantifiers: all/both/some/any/several/most/few interrogative: which/what? Determiners (con d) 1. John often stays at home (Adv) 2. John goes there often 3. He is better at French than you ( Adj) 4. He speaks French better than you ( Adv) Differences between D and A Stacking Lucy likes tall, dark, handsome men *Lucy wants to borrow a this my book better is polycategorial (can be an adj or adv) Order An American compact car (D+A+A+N) A compact American car (D+A+A+N) *American a compact car ( A+D+A+N) *American compact a car ( A+A+D+N) Modifying singular count nouns A: What are you going to sell? B: *Car/*Old car/a car/my car/the car/this car/another car Determiners impose grammatical restrictions on the types of noun expressions they can modify: I d like a chair/*chairs/*furniture He doesn t have much furniture/*chair/*chairs He has several chairs/*chair/*furniture We need more furniture/chairs/*chair Adjectives impose semantic/pragmatic restrictions on the noun expressions they can modify: A kind person/gesture/?fish/??pan/!problem An intelligent student/cat/?fish/??amoeba/!carpet 2

3 Pronouns Auxiliaries and verbs Pronouns used as determiners We politicians embellish the truth You politicians are professional liars Determiners used as pronouns I don t believe that! He has/had left [perfective] He is/was waiting [impefective/progressive] He is/was seen by the doctor [passive] I really do/did love you [dummy] He can/could/may/might/must go [modal] I will/would/shall/should do it [modal] I haven t got any Functional categories and phrase structure Syntactic differences between verbs and auxilaries Question formation/inversion I saw the mayor Did you see the mayor? (do support) *Saw you the mayor? Negation I do not/don t like her much *I like not/liken t her much Tags You know the answer, do you? *You know the answer, know you? Infinitive particle to I d like to [go home] to as a preposition He stayed to [the end of the lecture] Difference between infinitive to and preposition to He wanted to go straight/right to the police *He wanted straight/right to go to the police Complementisers I think [that you may be right] I doubt [if you can help me] I m anxious [for you to receive the best treatment possible] Finiteness (1) a. We expect [John will win the race] b. We expect [John to win the race] What is the difference between these two clauses? The bracketed clause in (1a) is tensed, whereas (1b) is untensed (i.e. unspecified for tense). (2) a. I didn t know [John wears glasses] b. I ve never known [John to wear glasses] In (2a), the verb wears agrees with its third person singular subject John, but (2b) does not. (2a) is inflected for agreement, but the verb in (2b) lacks agreement. 3

4 (3) a. We expect [he/*him will win the race] b. We expect [him/*he to win the race] If we replace John with a pronoun it has to be a pronoun marked for nominative case he in (3a) but the objective form him in (3b). We say a verb is finite if it inflects for tense/agreement and has a nominative subject, and non-finite if it doesn t inflect for tense or agreement and doesn t have a nominative subject. Exercise In relation to the sentences below, say what case each of the bracketed pronoun or noun expressions carries, and whether each italicised verb/auxiliary is finite or non-finite. a. [She] loves [you] b. [Mary] thought [he] had hidden [the money] c. [Someone] has stolen [the president s] papers d. [People] want [politicians] to reduce [taxes] e. [The FBI] don t want [the CIA] interfering in [their] affairs f. [You] mustn t let [friends] pressurise [you] Using pronouns Finiteness (Case, tense and/or agreement) a. [She] loves [you] b. [She] thought [he] had hidden [it] c. [He/She] has stolen [his] papers d. [They] want [them] to reduce [them] e. [They] don t want [them] interfering in [their] affairs f. [You] mustn t let [them] pressurise [you] a. [She Nom ] loves [you Acc ] b. [She Nom ] thought [he Nom ] had hidden [it Acc ] c. [He/She Nom ] has stolen [his Gen ] papers d. [They Nom ] want [them Acc] to reduce [them Acc] e. [They Nom ] don t want [them Acc ] interfering in [their Gen ] affairs f. [You Nom ] mustn t let [them Acc ] pressurise [you Acc ] Finiteness (Case, tense and/or agreement) Finiteness (Case, tense and/or agreement) a. [She Nom ] loves [present tense] [you Acc ] b. [She Nom ] thought [past tense] [he Nom ] had hidden [past perfect tense] [it Acc ] c. [He/She Nom ] has stolen [present perfect tense] [his Gen ] papers d. [They Nom ] want [present tense] [them Acc] to reduce [no tense] [them Acc] e. [They Nom ] don t want [present tense] [them Acc ] interfering [no tense] in [their Gen ] affairs f. [You Nom ] mustn t [modal verb=tense] let [them Acc ] pressurise [no tense] [you Acc ] a. [She Nom ] loves [present tense] [you Acc ] *I loves you X b. [She Nom ] thought [past tense] [he Nom ] had hidden [past perfect tense] [it Acc ] c. [He/She Nom ] has stolen [present perfect tense] [his Gen ] papers d. [They Nom ] want [present tense] [them Acc] to reduce [no tense] [them Acc] e. [They Nom ] don t want [present tense] [them Acc ] interfering [no tense] in [their Gen ] affairs f. [You Nom ] mustn t [modal verb=tense] let [them Acc ] pressurise [no tense] [you Acc ] 4

5 that = finite if = finite for = non-finite that and if are inherently finite (introduce a finite clause), whereas for is inherently infinitival (introduce a clause containing infinitival to): a. *I think [that you to be right] b. *I doubt [if you to help me] c. *I m anxious [for you should receive the best treatment possible Differences between complementisers and determiners 1. phonological difference D = [we don t believe that/this/the rumour] 2. substitution C = [we don t believe [that/*this/*the] he is a wimp] Differences between complementisers and prepositions: Modification by straight/right 1a. He headed straight for the pub 1b. *He s keen straight for you to go Merger A: What s your aim today? B: To help you To help you = an infinitive or tense phrase [TP To [V help [D you]]] How do we know it is an infinitive phrase and not a verb phrase? Because To help you has a different distribution from a verb phrase: (1) a. They ought [to help you] = ought+tp b. *They ought [help you] = ought+vp c. They should [help you] = should+vp d. *They should [to help you] = should+tp Ought is a kind of word which requires an infinitive phrase as its complement, whereas should is the kind of word which requires a verb phrase as its complement. A. What are you doing? B. Trying to help you What evidence is there to suggest that Trying to help you is a verb phrase? It can be used after words which require a verb phrase complement like the progressive auxiliary is: a. He is helping you= is+vp (2) b. He is trying to help you = is+vp Forming clauses/sentences A: What are you trying to do? B: We are trying to help you A suggested analysis What is the labelled bracketing for the VP Trying to help you? [VP Trying [T to [V help [D you]]]] 5

6 Why is this wrong? Only complete phrases can serve as sentence fragments. A: What are you doing? B: *Are trying to help you An alternative analysis We are trying to help you is a complete TP Correctly predicts: A: What are you doing? B: We are trying to help you T originates from Inflection. T is finite as auxiliaries inflect for tense/agreement, and infinitival to is similar to infinitive inflections in languages like Italian which have overtly inflected infinitives (Italian cantare is equivalent to English to sing). Co-ordination test Co-ordination test Co-ordinating conjunctions like and, but and or can be used to co-ordinate expressions. (3) A: What did he do? B: Run up the hill and up the mountain (4) A: What did he do? B: *Ring up his mother and up his sister Why is (3) grammatical and (4) ungrammatical? up the hill is a prepositional phrase PP and can be co-ordinated with another similar type of phrase e.g. along the path. the string up his mother is not a constituent of the phrase ring up his mother and so cannot be coordinated with another similar string. ring up is a complex verb which means to phone/to call. Only like constituents can be conjoined; nonconstituent strings cannot be conjoined (5) They will try to [reduce taxes] and [increase pensions] They will try [to reduce taxes] and [to cut bureaucracy] They will [try to reduce taxes] and [attempt to eliminate poverty] They [will try to reduce taxes] but [may not succeed] He was behaving badly Tests A: How was he drinking? B: heavily / *behaving A: What was he doing? B: drinking heavily / behaving badly Therefore, it clearly looks like a VP phrase: [VP [V drinking [ADV heavily]]] 6

7 What about was drinking heavily? [? was [VP drinking heavily]] What type of phrase is it? A: How was he drinking? B: *Was drinking heavily. Only complete phrases can serve as sentence fragments. (6) *[TP [T was] [VP drinking heavily]] A: How was he drinking? B: He was drinking heavily. [? [[D He] [T' was] [VP drinking heavily]]]] 8.[TP [[D He] [T' was] [VP drinking heavily]]]] Exercise I Analyse the following sentences, showing how their structure is built up in a pairwise fashion by successive merger operations. Show how the co-ordination test can be used to provide evidence in support of the structures you posit. (a) (b) (c) (d) (e) (f) He was behaving badly We must talk to her He may feel sorry for her She is trying to solve the problem I would imagine she has forgotten them They are expecting you to contact them [? [v behaving [adv badly]]] What type of phrase is it? Adv-like? V-like? X-like? Co-ordination test He was [drinking heavily] and [acting stupidly] He [was drinking heavily] and [was behaving badly] What is the specifier of He was drinking heavily? What is the complement of He was behaving badly? What is the head of He was behaving badly? Exercise II Discuss the derivation of the following sentences, showing how their structure is built up in a pairwise fashion by successive binary merger operations He has become very fond of Mary You should try to talk to the presid en t Inflation is threatening to undermine the growth of the economy He may refuse to admit that he was defrauding the company 7