Syntactic Theory: Its Goals and Tasks Overview Introduction... 1 Preliminaries... 3 Main Goals and Tasks of Syntactic Theory... 10 Constituent Structure... 11 Syntactic Categories... 12 Syntactic Relations... 13 Structural Ambiguity... 14 Constituents and Categories... 16 Constituency Tests... 19
Introduction Identify Syntax Syntax: a. syntactic knowledge of speakers, a module of the mental grammar of speakers; b. a theory of the syntactic knowledge of speakers, a component of grammatical theory Distinguish syntactic knowledge from other aspects of the knowledge of L Distinguish syntactic facts from other facts of L Identify the area syntax covers distinguish it from other areas of language, covered by other components of the grammar, e.g., phonology. Identify the content of the adjective syntactic and distinguish it from others, e.g., semantic, pragmatic, phonological Distinguish syntactic phenomena & categories & rules from other phenomena & categories & rules of language. Introduction 1 Kinds of Acceptability In how many different ways things can go wrong, i.e., linguistic expressions be unacceptable. Grammatical (morphological & syntactic) (1) The smart girl has taught the little boy to read. (Acceptable, well-formed) (2) * Smart girl the have to taught read littles the boy. (Ungrammatical) Syntactically and morphologically ill-formed: Words in the wrong syntactic positions, -s verb-inflection combines with the wrong category (A: little). Semantic (3) % Colorless green ideas sleep furiously. (Anomalous) Semantically ill-formed, but grammatical: syntactically & morphologically OK. Pragmatic (communicative) (4) a. Could you tell me the time, please? b. It s 27 minutes to 8. (OK) c. $ Of course I could! (Inappropriate) Violates the Cooperative Principle and the Maxim of Relevance, but grammatical and semantically well-formed. Introduction 2
Preliminaries What is the constituent structure of this sentence? (5). Which of the following is the correct structural representation of the sentence? (6) (7) Preliminaries 3 (8) (9) (10) Preliminaries 4
(11) Preliminaries 5 What is the syntactic category of each constituent? (12) S Subject Predicate Operator/Aux Predicataion (13) S Subject Predicate Verb Phrase Object Adverbial Preliminaries 6
(14) S NP Aux VP (15) IP DP I' I VP Preliminaries 7 If the student of English from UMB is a constituent of the sentence, what is the internal constituent structure of this constituent? (16) (17) The student of English from UMB (18) The student of English from UMB The student of English from UMB Preliminaries 8
(19) The student of English from UMB What is the internal constituent structure of the rest of the sentence? (20) (21) will meet the Dean at six (22) will meet the Dean at six will meet the Dean at six Preliminaries 9 Main Goals and Tasks of Syntactic Theory General goals 1. Construct grammars of Ls that generate all and only the acceptable sentences of L. (observational adequacy). 2. Construct grammars of Ls that represent the linguistic knowledge (competence) of speakers of L. (descriptive adequacy). 3. Construct a Universal Grammar of NL. (explanatory adequacy, account of language acquisition). Specific tasks 1. Determine syntactic categories 2. Determine rules and principles for constructing syntactic structure 3. Determine constituent structure 4. Determine syntactic relations Main Goals and Tasks of Syntactic Theory 10
Constituent Structure Constituents of sentences Constituents may contain constituents hierarchic structure Structural restrictions structural unacceptability Different kinds of acceptability (structural, semantic, etc.) Structural ambiguity For example: Structural unacceptability: (23) a. John took Mary to the cinema. b. * Took John Mary to the cinema. Structural ambiguity: (24) a. Odd Year Book b. [Odd Year] Book c. Odd [Year Book] (25) a. a Hungarian history teacher b. a [Hungarian [history teacher]] c. a [[Hungarian history] teacher] Constituent Structure 11 Syntactic Categories Sentences are composed of syntactic categories, not words. (1) a. The boy invited his sister. b. * The boy sistered his invite. Evidence: Speakers of English never say sentences like (1b). Why not? Speakers of E know something that prevents them from saying (1b): o -ed is a Verb Inflection: Combines only with Verbs (not with Nouns). o sister is a Noun, invite is a Verb. o Nouns occur in (Object) Noun Phrases (Verbs do not). So (combinatory rules and restrictions): o [V+V-inflection] (invited) OK; *[N+V-inflection] (*sistered) Bad. o N in NP (his sister) OK; V in NP (*his invite) Bad. V, V-inflection, N, NP are syntactic categories. Syntactic Categories 12
Syntactic Relations What structural relations hold between the constituents of sentences? Examples: (1) [loves Mary] loves is the head of the VP loves Mary (2) [loves Mary] Mary is the complement of the verb love (3) John is proud of himself. An antecedent binds an anaphor. (4) The dog wants some food. Subject Verb agreement (Nr and Prsn) (5) vettél lisztet vs. megvetted a könyvet: V Object agreement. (Def/Indef) Syntactic Relations 13 Structural Ambiguity (6) Flying planes can be dangerous. structurally ambiguous Its two readings are: (7) a. Planes that fly can be dangerous. ( Flying planes are dangerous.) b. For people to fly planes can be dangerous. ( Flying planes is dangerous.) The two readings of (6) two different structures (assigned to flying planes): (7a): Planes fly planes is subject of fly (7b): People fly planes planes is object of fly, people is understood subject (6) surface form two different (homonymous) sentences ( two in one ) Syntactic theory must account for structural ambiguity descriptive adequacy Structural Ambiguity 14
Some other examples of structurally ambiguous expressions (8) a. [Odd Year] Book (a year book published in odd-numbered years) b. Odd [Year Book] (a strange year book, published annually) (9) a. a [Hungarian [history professor]] a professor of history who is Hungarian by nationality b. a [[Hungarian history] professor] a professor of Hungarian history (of unspecified nationality) (10) a. an [English [language teacher]] a teacher of some unspecified language who is English by nationality b. an [[English language] teacher] a teacher of English (of unspecified nationality) Structural Ambiguity 15 Constituents and Categories How to determine constituents and their category? (Constituency tests) Restrictions and Constraints Severe restrictions apply to combinations of lexical items Severe constraints apply to structural configurations of lexical items. Syntactic operations are structure-dependent. May be exploited in constructing constituency tests! Constituents and Categories 16
Selectional Restrictions: C-selection C-selection (Categorial Selection) (1) Lexical items c-select for the category of their complements. (2) a. John waited for Mary. b. * John waited Mary. (3) a. John awaited Mary. b. * John awaited for Mary. Wait c-selects for a for-pp complement. Await c-selects for a DP complement. Constituents and Categories 17 Constraints on Syntactic Structure Since English is an SVO language, subjects must precede verbs, and complements must (immediately) follow their heads. (1) a. John took Mary to the cinema. b. * Took John Mary to the cinema. c. * John took to the cinema Mary. d. * John Mary took to the cinema. (2) a. John looked under the bed. b. * John looked the bed under. Constituents and Categories 18
Constituency Tests Insertion Certain optional elements, like the adverb apparently, may be inserted in sentences in specific positions only. The positions out of which they are excluded may be hypothesized to be constituent-internal positions. Thus, the adverb apparently may be inserted between two constituents, but it cannot split a constituent apart. Therefore, the permissible positions may be taken to be constituent boundaries. Example (3) a. The teacher has lost his temper. b. Apparently, the teacher has lost his temper. c. The teacher apparently has lost his temper. d. The teacher has apparently lost his temper. e. The teacher has lost his temper, apparently. f. * The teacher has lost apparently his temper. g. * The teacher has lost his apparently temper. etc. Constituency Tests 19 Substitution Principles (1) Syntactic equivalence Strings of words that may mutually and regularly replace each other in sentences are syntactically equivalent. (Only syntactically equivalent expressions may replace each other.) (2) Immediate constituents The immediate constituents of an expression E are maximally long substrings X of E that may be replaced by an (ideally monomorphemic) equivalent expression Y shorter than X. X may itself be monomorphemic. Constituency Tests 20
Example (3) [The young linguist] will meet his friend in the local gallery after lunch. He [The young linguist] is a constituent of the sentence. the young linguist and he belong to the same syntactic category: NP. (4) The young linguist [will meet his friend in the local gallery after lunch]... lies / is dead [will meet his friend after lunch] is a constituent of the sentence. will meet his friend after lunch, lies, and is dead belong to the same syntactic category: (wait). (5) a. The young linguist will meet his friend in the local gallery. b. * The young linguist meet his friend in the local gallery. Will meet (Aux + V) is not a constituent. (6) The young linguist will [meet his friend in the local gallery after lunch]. lie / be dead meet his friend, lie, be dead belong to the same syntactic category: VP. will is not part of the VP. Constituency Tests 21 Movement (various types of movement) Principle (1) a. Movements move only constituents. b. Whatever expression may move in such movements is a constituent. 1 VP Fronting (2) a. He will [ VP meet his friend in the local gallery after lunch]. b. Meet his friend in the local gallery after lunch, he will. c. meet his friend in the local gallery after lunch is a VP. (3) a. John will never [ VP criticize himself]. b. Criticize himself, John never will. c. * Will criticize himself, John never. d. criticize himself is a VP. e. Aux + V (will criticize) do not constitute a VP. Constituency Tests 22
2 Pseudo-clefting Principle (1) a. Only a constituent may occur in the focus of a pseudo-cleft. b. Whatever occurs in the focus of a pseudo-cleft is a constituent. (2) a. John will want [some coffee]. b. What John will want is some coffee. some coffee is a constituent. Constituency Tests 23 Case Study What is the constituent structure of this sentence (and similar sentences)? (3) The Committee would prefer for the Chairman to resign. Alternative hypotheses a. The Committee would [ VP prefer [ PP for the Chairman] [ INFINITIVE to resign]] VP V PP Infinitive prefer for the chairman to resign for the Chairman is a PP to resign is part of the VP headed by prefer and is sister to the PP prefer takes two complements: a PP and an Infinitive for the Chairman and to resign do not form a constituent Constituency Tests 24
b. The Committee would [ VP prefer [ PP for the Chairman]] [ INFINITIVE to resign]] VP V PP Infinitive prefer for the chairman to resign for the Chairman is a PP, a constituent of the VP to resign is not a constituent of the VP headed by prefer prefer takes a PP complement for the Chairman and to resign do not form a constituent Constituency Tests 25 c. The Committee would [ VP prefer [for [the Chairman [ INFINITIVE to resign]]]] VP V Clause for Sentence NP Infinitive prefer the chairman to resign for the Chairman is not a PP not even a constituent the Chairman and to resign do form a constituent (a sentence) for combines not with the chairman, but with [the chairman to resign] [for the Chairman to resign] is a constituent of the VP Constituency Tests 26
Pseudo-clefting (4) * What the Committee would prefer for the Chairman is to resign. [to resign] cannot be pseudo-clefted. (5) What the Committee would prefer is for the Chairman to resign. [for the Chairman to resign] can be pseudo-clefted. for the Chairman and to resign are not separate constituents. for the Chairman is not a PP it is not a separate constituent. (The first two alternatives are out.) for the Chairman to resign is an (unbroken) constituent. The correct structure is the third, in which for the Chairman to resign forms a sentence-like constituent a special kind of clause. Constituency Tests 27