Syntax IV

November 20, 2009

Wrap-up• Let’s check out the remaining practice sentences…

• One note on syntactic abbreviations:

• The triangle notation

Check This Out1. A phrase structure rule for NPs looks like:

• NP Det N’

• (Det = the Specifier)

2. And a PP can be a complement of a head noun:

• N’ N PP

3. And an NP can be a complement of a prepositional phrase:

• PP (Deg) P’

• P’ P NP

• Where can this combination of rules take us?

Whoa, Nellie• There is a possibility for infinite recursion.

• NP Det N PP

• NP Det N P NP

• NP Det N P Det N PP

• NP Det N P Det N P NP

• NP Det N P Det N P Det N PP, etc.

• Example: the book from the library in the city near the airport beside the apartment complex with the playground of the children from the school behind the train tracks...

• The fact that our grammar can generate phrases like this is why we need to know patterns of patterns.

More Patterns of Patterns• Awhile back, we heard about potentially infinite

sentences that sounded like:

• Jean knows that Charlie said that Sue suspects that Bill thinks that Beth hopes that Barry is a genius.

• Or:

• In order to understand the (potentially infinite) structure of sentences like these, we need to know more about:

1. Sentence structure

2. Verb complements

Sentences• The basic phrase types include:

• NP, VP, AP, PP

• A basic sentence is an “inflectional phrase” (IP).

• The head of the IP is the tense of the verb.

• I = INFL = inflection = [past], [future], [present], etc.

• The specifier of the IP is the subject NP.

• The complement of the I is a VP.

• If that complement is an NP, then it is called the object of the verb.

• Note: verbs have lots of different complement options.

IP

NP I’

Det N’ I VP

the

N [+past] V’ NP

coach

V Det N’

dropped the

N

ball

Sentence Structure

Note: the V in the VP must agree in tense with the I tense marker.

IP

NP I’

Det N’ I VP

the

N will V’ NP

coach

V Det N’

drop the

N

ball

Sentence Structure

• Note: Auxiliaries show up in the I slot.

• (Verbs after auxiliaries don’t display tense)

A Note on Tenses• There are only two tenses in English that are marked without an auxiliary preceding the verb:

• past [+past]

• = dropped, ran, sang, watched, lost, etc.

• present [-past]

• = drop/drops, run/runs, sing/sings, watch/watches, etc.

• For this class, if there is an auxiliary verb in the I slot, it is not necessary to put an explicit tense marker there.

• Otherwise, choose between [+past] and [-past].

IP

NP I’

Det N’ I VP

the

N will V’ NP

coach

V Det N’

drop the

N

ball

Sentence Terminology

• The subject of a sentence (in English) is:

• the NP specifier of the sentence IP.

IP

NP I’

Det N’ I VP

the

N will V’ NP

coach

V Det N’

drop the

N

ball

Sentence Terminology

• The object of a sentence (in English) is:

• an NP complement of the main VP.

English Case Marking• The form of some English pronouns changes, depending on whether they are subjects or objects.

• For Example:

I know you. You know me.

He knows them. They know him.

We know her. She knows us.

• But word order is still constrained:

*Her know we.

*Them knows he.

Subject/Object Marking• In other languages, subjects and objects are specified by morphological inflections on nouns.

• Example: Russian case marking

ja tita-ju knig-u “I read the book.”

I read-1st pers-sing. book-object

alternate order : ja knig-u tita-ju

alternate order: knig-u ja tita-ju

• knig-a byla v komnat-e

book-subject wasin room-object

“The book was in the room.”

Potential Problems• There are some limitations on the extent to which the syntactic rules can ignore the specific words that fit into each phrase.

• Example (from last week’s Quick Write):

• Is it possible to “dance a horse”?

Sub-categorization• It turns out that it is necessary to break lexical categories down further, into sub-categories.

• For instance, some verbs must be followed by a noun phrase:

I devoured the sandwich. *I devoured.

I met the teacher. *I met.

• Other verbs must not be followed by a noun phrase:

I sprinted. *I sprinted the ball.

I slept. *I slept the dog.

I danced. *I danced the horse.

Verb Sub-Category #1

• Intransitive Verbs (Vi): must not be followed by an NP

• = they do not take an object NP as a complement.

• VP Vi

• *VP Vi NP

• Examples: sneeze, sprint, fall, elapse, snorkel

• Good: The boy slept.

• Bad: *The boy slept the dog.

• Good: The girl fell.

• Bad: *The girl fell the dog.

Verb Sub-Category #2

• Transitive Verbs (Vt): must be followed by an NP

• = they must take an object NP as a complement.

• VP Vt NP

• *VP Vt

• Examples: devour, defy, harm, invite

• Good: The children harmed the dog.

• Bad: *The children harmed.

• Good: The zombies invited the vampires.

• Bad: *The zombies invited.

Verb Sub-Category #3

• Ditransitive Verbs (Vdt): must be followed by two objects

• = either two NPs or a combination of {NP, PP}.

• VP Vdt NP NP

• *VP Vt

• Examples: give, sell, send, put

• Good: The boy gave the dog a bone.

• Bad: *?The boy gave the dog.

• Good: The students sold the professor a chew toy.

• Bad: *?The students sold the professor.

• Alternative: The students sold a chew toy to the professor.

A + N Sub-categories• Adjectives and nouns can have complement requirements, too--often for particular PPs:

Mary is fond of John.

*Mary is fond.

*Mary is fond by John.

• Some nouns require specific prepositional phrases:

George talked about our reliance on oil.

*George talked about our reliance.

*George talked about our reliance for oil.

• This information has to be included in the lexicon for each word.

Verb Sub-Category #4• Sentential Verbs (Vs):

• = include a sentence in their complement.

• Examples: know, believe, wonder, think…

• Marge thinks that [Homer ate the cake]IP.

• Don wondered whether [Sidney scored a goal]IP.

• Phoebe believed that [Chandler married Monika]IP.

• Gandalf knew if [Frodo had the ring]IP.

• Notice that the sentence in the VP complement is always preceded by a funny kind of word:

• that, whether, if…

Complementizer Phrases• New lexical category: complementizers (C).

• Ex: if, that, whether

• Complementizers function as the heads of complementizer phrases. (CPs)

• The complement of the CP is another IP (sentence).

• Ex: Marge thinks [that [Homer ate the cake]IP]CP.

• Matrix clause = highest-level sentence

• “Marge thinks…”

• Complement, or embedded clause = within the CP

• “Homer ate the cake.”

IP

NP I’

Marge I VP

[-past] V’ CP

V C’

thinks C IP

that NP I’

Homer I VP

[+past] V’

V NP

ate the cakeCP Example

matrix clause

embedded clause

Infinite Recursion, part 2• It is possible to create infinitely long sentences by embedding complementizer clauses within complementizer clauses…

• John said [that Mary thought [that Robin knew [that Angela hoped [that Quinton wished [that Bronwen believed that…]]]]]

• VP V CP V CP

• CP C IP V C IP

• IP NP VPV C NP VP

• VP V CP V C NP V CP

• etc.

Infinite Recursion, part 3• There is one other (very boring) way to produce inifinitely long sentences in language:

• I like baseball and basketball and hockey and football and soccer and rugby and cricket and ultimate frisbee and polo and lacrosse….

• Sentences like this take advantage of the syntactic phenomenon of coordination.

• Coordination combines phrases or words of the same type with a conjunction (and, but, or…)

• to create a phrase or word of the same type.

• General coordination rule: Xn Xn Con Xn

Coordination Examples• NP NP and NP

NP The fat man and the little boy

• VP VP or VP

VP fish or cut bait

• IP IP but IP

IP Ringo plays drums but Paul plays bass.

• Coordination of individual words works the same way:

• P P and P

• She went [[above]P and [beyond]P]P the call of duty.

Ambiguity• Coordination can lead to a very simple kind of structural ambiguity.

• I like green eggs and ham.

• Interpretation #1: just the eggs are green.

• I like [[green eggs]NP and [ham]NP]NP.

• Interpretation #2: both the eggs and ham are green.

• I like [green [[eggs]N’ and [ham]N’]NP.

• Let’s check out the trees…

Interpretation #1• Only the eggs are green:

IP

NP I’

Pro I VP

I [-past] V’

V NP

like NP Con NP

AP N’ and ham

green N

eggs

Interpretation #2• Both the eggs and ham are green:

IP

NP I’

Pro I VP

I [-past] V’

V NP

like AP N’

green N’ Con N’

N and N

eggs ham

Further Ambiguity• Let’s try another one:

• The police shot the terrorists with rifles.

• Why is this sentence is ambiguous?

• (How can you describe the ambiguity, structurally?)

• Interpretation #1: the terrorists have rifles.

• [with rifles] is a PP embedded in the object NP.

• Interpretation #2: the police have rifles.

• [with rifles] is a PP that modifies the main VP.

• Let’s check out some more trees…

Interpretation #1IP

NP I’

the police I VP

[+past] V’

V NP

shot Det N’

the N PP

terrorists P’

P NP

with rifles

In this one, the terrorists have the rifles.

Interpretation #2IP

NP I’

the police I VP

[+past] V’ PP

V NP P’

shot Det N’ P NP

the N with rifles

terroristsIn this one, the police are using the rifles to shoot the terrorists.

The PP is a modifier of the VP here, not a complement.

= it’s not required by the verb.