Lecture X

Lecture X

Syntax

December 4th, 2008

Structure of the lecture

Structure of the lecture



Definition of the term syntax



Word-level categories



Phrase structure



Specifiers and complements



Phrase structure rules



Tests for phrase structure



Complement options



Trasformations

Key definitions

Key definitions



Components of the grammar: phonetics,
phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics



Syntax – rules for combining words to form
sentences or relations that hold between the
elements of a sentence.



Grammatical sentence: any utterance judged by a
native speaker as well-formed.



Ungrammatical sentence: an ill-formed sentence
that is unlikely to be ever generated by a native
speaker



Transformational syntax – the most popular
approach to syntactic analysis

Transformational syntax

Transformational syntax



Transformational syntax – rules
specifying how

tree structures can be

modified by moving an element from
one position to another

Word-level categories

Word-level categories

Lexical categories – have a dictionary

meaning:



Verb – arrive, love, smile, kick,



Noun – boy, table, dogs, loyalty,
bravery



Adjective – nice, funny, ridiculous,



Adverbs – beautifully, carefully, fast,
hard

Word-level categories

Word-level categories

Non-lexical categories – do not usually have a

dictionary meaning:



Determiner: the, a, an, this, those



Degree word: too, so, very, more, quite



Qualifier: always, perhaps, almost, often



Auxiliary: will, have, do, should, might



Conjunction: and, but, or

!!! Some words belong to two different

categories, e.g. work, walk, hard, fast, near,
etc.

Determining a word’s lexical

Determining a word’s lexical

category

category



Meaning – nouns name entities, verbs name

actions, adjectives desribe certain properties of

nouns, adverbs describe how actions are

performed



Distribution: nouns appear with determiners (the

book), verbs with an auxiliary (will see), adjectives

with a degree word (very rich)



Inflection:

nouns - the plural suffix –s: books, cars
verbs – the past suffix –ed: watched, looked
the progressive – ing: watching
adjectives – comparative suffixes –er, -est: taller,
tallest

Phrases

Phrases



The man is good to the baby



Det N V A P Det N



Sentence structure



S → Det N V A P Det N



Almost any sequence of category types are possible:



N, A (the best thing imaginable)



A, N (such a kind girl)



V, P (I look into your eyes)



P, V (the man you are waiting for has called)



A, P (living is easy with eyes closed)



V, N (I’ll never lose affection)



N, V (Moscow girls make me sigh)



Certain groups of words tend to occur in the same positions,

e.g. Det N, Aux V. Such strings of words are referred to as

phrases.

Tree structure

Tree structure

Phrase structure

Phrase structure



Phrases and sentences are not formed by stringing

words together:



John doesn’t like his uncle.



*like doesn’t John uncle his



Inflectional languages are more flexible in this respect:



Rdza zżera stare żelazko vs. Żelazko stare zżera rdza.



* Stare rdza zżera żelazko.



The word around which a phrase is built is called the

head.



NP, VP, AP, PP



Phrases don’t normally contain one word, e.g. the bird

Tree structure II

Tree structure II

Tree structure III

Tree structure III

Specifiers

Specifiers



Specifiers make the meaning of the head more
precise:



the boy – the indicates that the speaker has a
specific boy in mind



Never drinks coffee – never indicates non-
occurring event



Quite nice – quite shows the extent to which a
given property is manifested



In English specifiers are always located to the
left of the head

Complements

Complements



Complements provide information
about entities and locations whose
existence is implied by the meaning of
the head, e.g.



[NP the books about the war]



[VP never drinks coffee with milk]



[AP quite sure about Luke’s innocence]



[PP almost ready to become president]

Complement options

Complement options

Phrase structure rules

Phrase structure rules



Phrase structure rules stipulate, i.e.
state, the position of specifiers,
heads and complements in phrases.



NP → (Det) N (PP) ...



VP → (Qual) V (NP) ...



AP → (Deg) A (PP) ...



PP → (Deg) P (NP) ...

Sentence structure

Sentence structure



Sentence – the largest unit of syntactic
analysis.



Sentences usually consist of a NP combined
with a VP.



The young scientist invented a mobile
phone.



It is assumed that sentences have as their
head an abstract category called inflection,
which indicates the sentence’s tense.

A tree structure

A tree structure

A sentence structure with an

A sentence structure with an

auxiliary

auxiliary

Tests for phrase structure

Tests for phrase structure



The substitution test:



[The guests] left after [they] had been
cheated.



The movement test:



There is a lamp [on the table] vs. [On the
table], there is a lamp.



The coordination test:



The children [often sweep the floor] but
[never make the bed].

Transformations

Transformations



Transformations – various
syntactic operations performed to
make questions.



Basic operations include:



inversion in yes-no questions,



wh-movement,