Syntax: The Sentence Patterns of Language WEEK 4 DAY 1

Transcription

1 Syntax: The Sentence Patterns of Language WEEK 4 DAY 1

2 Contents Last lecture: Morphology (Other Morphological Processes, Back Formations, Compounds, Pullet Surprises ) Today: What the Syntax Rules Do

3 We can produce and understand an infinite number of sentences! The kindhearted boy had many girlfriends. The kindhearted, intelligent boy had many girlfriends. The kindhearted, intelligent, handsome boy had many girlfriends.... 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.... The cat chased the mouse. The cat chased the mouse that ate the cheese. The cat chased the mouse that ate the cheese that came from the cow. The cat chased the mouse that ate the cheese that came from the cow that grazed in the field.

4 Rules of Syntax The rules of syntax combine words into phrases and phrases into sentences. Among other things, the rules determine the correct word order for a language. The rules of the syntax also specify the grammatical relations of a sentence, such as subject and direct object. 5. Your dog chased my cat. 6. My cat chased your dog.

5 Structural Ambiguity [old men] and [women] [old [men and women]]

6 Ambiguous Sentence (1) He went to the bank.

7 Ambiguous Sentence (1) He went to the bank. Lexical Ambiguity

8 Ambiguous Sentence (2) The girl saw the boy with a telescope.

9 Ambiguous Sentence (2) The girl saw the boy with a telescope. saw the boy with a telescope saw the boy with a telescope Syntactic Ambiguity

10 I shot an elephant in my pajamas. shot an elephant in my pajamas shot an elephant in my pajamas I shot an elephant, wearing my pajamas. I shot an elephant that was in my pajamas.

11 What Grammaticality is Not Based On Colorless green ideas sleep furiously. A verb crumpled the milk. *Furiously sleep ideas green colorless. *Milk the crumpled verb a. We showed that the structure of a sentence contributes to its meaning. However, grammaticality and meaningfulness are not the same thing. Grammaticality also does not depend on the truth of sentences.

12 Sentence Structure [[the] [child]][[found] [[a] [puppy]]] The natural groupings or parts of a sentence constituents

13 Constituency Tests stand alone test replacement by a pronoun move as a unit test The child found a puppy. What did you find? a puppy Where did you find a puppy? I found him in the park. John found a puppy and Bill did too. It was a puppy that the child found. A puppy was found by the child.

14 Syntactic Category

15 Phrase Structure Tree Lexical categories Fucntional categories S > NP VP NP > Det N VP > V NP

16 Phrase Structure Tree (1) The defendants denied the charge: they claim that they did [ VP not destroy the garden]. (2) She proposed [ NP an analysis of the sentence]. (3) Jack is [ AP so fond of coffee]. (4) They are [ PP quite in agreement]. (5) My sister cycles [ AvP much faster than me].

17 X bar Syntax

18 The child found a puppy.

19 Wrap up Next class Reading Assignment: pp Exercises: #3, 5

20 Syntax: The Sentence Patterns of Language WEEK 4 DAY 2

21 Contents Last lecture: Syntax, what the syntax rules do, syntactic ambiguity, constituency tests Today: phrase structure trees and rules

22 Sentence Structure [[the] [child]][[found] [[a] [puppy]]] The natural groupings or parts of a sentence constituents

23 Phrase Structure Trees represent three aspects of a speaker s syntactic knowledge 1. the linear order of the words in the sentence 2. the identification of the syntactic categories of words and groups of words 3. the hierarchical structure of the syntactic categories (e.g., an S is composed of an NP followed by a VP, a VP is composed of a V that may be followed by an NP, and so one)

24 Phrase Structure Rules 1. S NP VP 2. NP Det N 3. VP V NP

25 Phrase Structure Rules The woman laughed. 1. S NP VP 2. NP Det N 3. VP V NP 4. VP V

26 Phrase Structure Rules The puppy played in the garden 1. S NP VP 2. NP Det N 3. VP V NP 4. VP V 5. VP V PP 6. PP P NP

27 Phrase Structure Rules The professor said that the student passed the exam. 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

28 Draw the phrase structure tree (tree diagram). The professor asked if the students understood the lecture. 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

29 We can produce and understand an infinite number of sentences! The kindhearted boy had many girlfriends. The kindhearted, intelligent boy had many girlfriends. The kindhearted, intelligent, handsome boy had many girlfriends.... 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.... The cat chased the mouse. The cat chased the mouse that ate the cheese. The cat chased the mouse that ate the cheese that came from the cow. The cat chased the mouse that ate the cheese that came from the cow that grazed in the field.

30 Recursive rules VP V PP NP NP PP NP Adj NP

31 Phrase Structure Trees (1) The defendants denied the charge: they claim that they did [ VP not destroy the garden]. (2) She proposed [ NP an analysis of the sentence]. (3) Jack is [ AP so fond of coffee]. (4) They are [ PP quite in agreement]. (5) My sister cycles [ AvP much faster than me].

32 X bar Syntax

33 The child found a puppy.

34 Wrap up Phrase Structure Tree and Rules Next class Reading Assignment: pp Exercises: #6, 8, 11

35 Syntax: The Sentence Patterns of Language WEEK 5 DAY 1

36 Contents Last lecture: phrase structure trees and rules Today: More phrase structure trees and rules, Head Complement X bar theory

37 Phrase Structure Trees (1) The defendants denied the charge: they claim that they did [ VP not destroy the garden]. (2) She proposed [ NP an analysis of the sentence]. (3) Jack is [ AP so fond of coffee]. (4) They are [ PP quite in agreement]. (5) My sister cycles [ AvP much faster than me].

38 X bar Syntax X bar theory is the theory that all XPs have three levels of structure 1. the XP 2. the specifier (modifier) 3. X with head X and a complement

39 The child found a puppy.

40 TP Many linguists use the symbols T (tense) and TP (tense phrase) instead of Aux and S, with the TP having an intermediate T category

41 Wrap up Phrase Structure Tree and Rules Next class Reading Assignment: pp. Exercises: #