Things a LINGUISTICS 100 Student should know

Meagan Louie

January 2016

BASIC CONCEPTS

1. PHONETICS: place of articulation, manner of articulation, voicing, vowel (i) height, (ii)front/backness, (iii) roundedness, (iv) lax/tenseness, distinctive features/”natural classes”, etc.,

2. PHONOLOGY: allophone, phoneme, minimal pairs, contrast, complementary distribution,underlying representations, surface representations, syllable, onset, nucleus, coda, rhyme, sonor-ity hierarchy, ”The Sonority Sequencing Principle,” etc.,

3. MORPHOLOGY: morpheme, allomorph, bound/free, derivational/inflectional, suf-fix/prefix/infix

4. SYNTAX: subject, object, grammatical category, constituency tests,

5. SEMANTICS: truth, reference, compositionality, entailment

6. PRAGMATICS: presupposition, implicature, speech acts

KNOW HOW TO

1. IN GENERAL: Apply tests and interpret results, make a claim, provide evidence for thatclaim, assess whether evidence supports claims, identify alternative hypotheses.

2. PHONETICS: Identify/label articulatory anatomy, transcribe English with the IPA, catego-rize sounds into natural classes,

3. PHONOLOGY: How to argue that x and y are distinct phonemes, or are allophones of thesame phoneme, how to draw a syllable structure, how to explain why certain consonant clustersare ruled out (in terms of the SSP)

4. MORPHOLOGY: Describe the (i) form, (ii) meaning and (iii) distribution of a morpheme(i.e., what category the morpheme is, what category it attaches to), categorize a word-formationprocess (with tests),

5. SYNTAX: Determine what the subject is (tests!), determine what the object is (more tests!),argue that something is (or is not) a constituent (even more tests!), draw a syntactic tree,

1 Phonetics

Speech sounds can be categorized into vowels and consonants.

Consonants can be further categorized in terms of their:

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1. Place of articulation:

• bilabial ({b, p, m, ...})• labio-velar ({w,...})• labiodental ({f, v, ...}),• dental ({D, T ,...}),• alveolar ({t, d, s, z, n, l, ô, ... }),• postalveolar ({S, Z, tS, dZ, ...}),• palatal ({j,...})• velar ({k, g, N, ...}),• glottal ({P, h, ...}),

2. Manner of articulation:

(a) Obstruents

• Plosive/oral stop ({ p, t, k, b, d, g, P, ... }),• Fricative ({f, v, T, D, s, S, z, Z, h ... }),• Affricate ({tS, dZ, ... }),

(b) Sonorants

• Nasal stop ({ m, n, N, ... }),• Glide ({w, j }),• Liquids ({ l, ô, ... }),

3. Airstream Mechanism:

• voiced ({b, v, D, d, g, z, Z, dZ, w, j, m, n, N, l, ô, ... }),• voiceless ({p, f, T, t, k, s, S, tS, P, h, ... }),

Vowels can be further categorized in terms of their

1. Height

• High ({i, I, u, U ... })• Mid ({ e, E, o, O, ... })• Low ({ æ, a, A, ... })

2. Frontness

• Front ({ i, e, æ, I, E, ... })• Central ({@, 2, a, ... })1

• Back ({ u, U, o, O, A, 2, ... })

3. Roundedness

• Round ({u, U, o, O, ..., })• Unround ({i, e, E, æ, a, A, ... })

4. Laxness

• Tense ({ i, u, e, o,.. })1My guide-to-all-things-phonetic, [Ladefoged(2001)] has [2] as back, but our textbook, [Yule(2006)], has it as central. So as

long as you don’t call it front, we’re good.

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• Lax ({ I, U, E, O,... })

Combinations of these features can be used to define natural classes. So for instance, the set of HIGH,FRONT vowels may behave a specific way in a language (eg., all of these vowels, and only these vowelsdevoice between voiceless consonants.) Without the phonetic features HIGH and FRONT to describe thisclass, we wouldn’t be able to describe such generalisations.

A phonetic feature is a distinctive feature if two sounds that differ only in that phonetic feature’svaluation (i.e., one sound is voiced, the other voiceless) can be used to distinguish/contrast meaning.

2 Phonology

2.1 Sound units (Segments) and Contrast

Sounds segments on their own do not have meaning,2 but they can be used to distinguish/contrastmeaning. This means you should be able to find minimal pairs - i.e., morphemes that differ phonologicallyonly in one segment. An example of a minimal pair is ”seat” [sit] and ”sheet” [Sit]. Because [sit] and [Sit]correspond to different meanings, we can say that:

1. The sound segments [s] and [S] can be used to contrast meaning, i.e., [s] and [S] are separate phonemes,and

2. The place of articulation features ALVEOLAR and POSTALVEOLAR are distinctive features inEnglish.

BASIC CONCEPTUAL DIFFERENCE: Phonemes vs Morphemes

PHONEME: The smallest unanalylzeable unit in a language which is capable of distinguishingmeaning.a

MORPHEME: The smallest unanalyzeable unit in a language which contains meaning.→ So a morpheme can be thought of as the smallest unanalyzeable sound-meaning pair.b

aThis always corresponds to a segment - i.e., a sound that can be written with the IPA. One could technically’analyze’ a sound like [b] into its distinctive features (i.e., [+voice, +bilabial, +plosive]), but we still consider [b] to bea phoneme in English.

bMore appropriately, it should be a ”form-meaning” pair, but in for spoken languages, the ”form” is a sound (orcombination thereof).

If two sounds cannot be used to contrast/distinguish meaning, they may be free variants or allo-phones. This means that you cannot find minimal pairs that differ only in terms of one sound segment.For example, in English there is no distinction between the alveolar approximate [ô] and the alveolar trill[r]. Whether I say [brAd] or [bôAd], this can only mean one thing in English: ”broad.”3 These sounds arejust two surface variants of the same underlying phoneme.

Two sounds are allophones of the same phoneme if

1. They fail to contrast meaning (as discussed above - i.e., are surface variants of the same underlyingphoneme) AND

2. The two sounds are in complementary distribution.

2So when my 10-month old niece makes [b] noises at me, or makes [E] noises at me, no matter how much I think she’s thecleverest baby in the world, I can’t construe those noises as actually meaning something. This contrasts with a situation whereshe produces a bunch of sounds in sequence, eg., she produces: [naj naj] . This combination of sounds is associated with theCantonese word for ’milk,’ and since my niece always yells this when she sees her bottle, I can be an overly-proud aunt andconstrue her collection of sounds as having meaning - i.e., I can construe this as her saying the word for ”milk.”

3I just sound like I’m trying to poorly imitate a Scottish person if I say [bôAd] instead of [brAd].

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Complementary distribution, in phonology, means that one sound only shows up in a certain phono-logical environment (eg., only after voiced consonants, or only at the end of a word, or only between twovowels, etc.,), while the other sound shows up in a ’complementary’ (i.e., non-overlapping) phonologicalenvironment (eg., never after voiced consonants, or never at the end of a word, or never between two vowels,etc., )

Example of Allophones: Inuktitut ([O’Grady & Archibald(2004)])

(1) a. [iglumut] ’to a house’

b. [ukiaq] ’late fall’

c. [aivIq] ’walrus

d. [aniguvit] ’if you leave’

e. [aglU] ’seal’s breathing hole’

f. [iglumit] ’from a house’

g. [anigavit] ’because you leave’

h. [pinna] ’that one up there’

i. [anI] ’female’s brother’

j. [iglU] ’(snow)house’

k. [panna] ’that place up there’

l. [aivUq] ’she goes home’

m. [inI] ’place, spot’

n. [ukiUq] ’winter’

1. Phonetic Inventory of vowels: i, u, a, U, I

2. The sounds [i] and [I] are in complementary distribution, and so are the sounds [u] and [U]

(i) The sounds [I] and [U] show up at the end of words, or preceding [q]

(ii) The sounds [i] and [u] show up elsewhere (i.e., at the beginning of words, and in the middlewords so long as they are not followed by [q].

3. Generalisation: The high lax vowels [I] and [U] only appear (1) word-finally or (2) before [q].The high tense vowels [i] and [u] appear otherwise.

4. Thus [i] and [I] appear to be allophones of the same phoneme, as do [u] and [U].

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An Analogy for Allophones: Allophone the Lizard

You notice that your friend has an aquarium that has a red bowl in it, and a green leaf. The firstday you visit your friend, you notice a small red lizard sitting in the red bowl. The next two days,you notice a small green lizard sitting on the green leaf. And then the next day, you see the redlizard again, sitting in the red bowl! You begin to wonder...

Question: Are there actually two distinct lizards (one red and one green)? Or is there only onelizard, whose appearance depends on its surroundings? i.e., are the red and green lizard merely twosurface variants of the same underlying lizard?

We never see the two lizard at the same time - we only see the red one one in the red bowl, and weonly see the green one on the green leaf. They are in complementary distribution - the green lizardshows up in one environment, and the red one shows up in a different environment. This suggeststhat there is only one lizard (and that it’s a chameleon). In order to argue that there are two distinctlizards, you would have to show that they are not in complementary distribution (i.e., you’d have toprovide evidence that the red lizard can occur on the green leaf, or the green lizard in the red bowl)

Approaching Phoneme/Allophone Problems

Are X and Y distinct (allophones of different) phonemes, or are they allophones of the same phoneme?

1. Look for minimal pairs (which differ only in that one morpheme has X where theother has Y)

(a) Found a minimal pair? Good, then you have evidence that X and Y are distinct phonemes.

(b) Didn’t find any? Good! Then you get to do a phonology puzzle! Proceed to step 2.

2. Look for complementary distribution between X and Y

i. Look at the phonological contexts where you find X, and the phonological contexts whereyou find Y (hint: make a chart!)

ii. Generalise over the contexts where you find X and Y (use distinctive features!)

iii. If the environments that you found for X and Y are complementary (i.e., do not overlap),then you’ve found evidence that X and Y are allophones

Allophones arise because languages have rules about which sound segments can combine together. I.e.,some languages may require that adjacent consonants all share the same place of articulation. This meansan underlying form like /mitka/ would have to surface as [mitta] or [mikka]. Or a language may require thatall consonants in a word have to share the same value for [+/-nasal]. Then /mitka/ would have to surfaceas [minNa] or [bitka]. These sorts of phonological rules can be written as follows:

(2) Rule 1-version 1:C[αplace] C[βplace] → C[αplace] C[αplace] (to form [mitta] from /mitka/)

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Rule 1-version 2:C[αplace] C[βplace] → C[βplace] C[βplace] (to form [mikka] from /mitka/)

2.2 Phonological Constituents

Phonological rules (i.e., rules about how the sounds of a language can combine) are often sensitive to thenotion of a syllable. A syllable (σ) is a sequence of sound segments that behave like a unit. Syllablesalso have internal structure - i.e.., within the unit ’syllable,’ there are even smaller units which we call theonset, nucleus, coda and rhyme. As shown in the structure below, the nucleus and coda together formthe rhyme, and the rhyme combines with the onset to create the syllable.

σ

Onset Rhyme

Nucleus Coda

Samoan Problem Set: Evidence for Syllables

Q: How do you form the plural subject verb forms from the singular subject verb forms? If [malosi]means ’he is strong,’ how do you say ’they are strong’?

(3) a. mate ’he dies’

b. nofo ’he stays’

c. galue ’he works’

d. tanu ’he buries’

e. alofa ’he loves’

f. taoto ’he lies’

g. atamaPi ’he is intelligent’

(4) a. mamate ’they die’

b. nonofo ’they stay’

c. galulue ’they work’

d. tatanu ’they bury’

e. alolofa ’they love’

f. taooto ’they lie’

g. atamamaPi ’they are intelligent’

A: The penultimate (second to last) syllable is reduplicated. Thus [ma.te] becomes [ma.ma.te], and[ga.lu.e] becomes [ga.lu.lu.e]. The form [ma.lo.si] would become [ma.lo.lo.si].

→ Because the rule to form plural subject verb forms requires reference to a specific syllable (i.e., youcouldn’t formalize the rule in terms of taking the two sound segments that are two segments from theend of the singular form), we have evidence that languages treat syllables like a unit, and hence wecan propose a theoretical entity ’syllable.’

There’s also phonological motivation for the subconstituents of the syllable - i.e., evidence that the nu-cleus and coda together form a constituent called ’the rhyme.’ Since we discussed this extensively in lecture,

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I’m not going to talk about it again!

The following can be viewed as a syllable template for English - i.e., English only allows syllables ascomplex as the following (You need four coda positions, for words like ’sixths’ [sIksTs] , and three onsetpositions for words like ”strain” [stôein] . If you have three consonants in your onset though, the first oneis always [s].):

σ

Onset

(C) (C) (C)

Rhyme

Nucleus

V V

Coda

(C) (C) (C) (C)

Guideline for Drawing Syllable Structures

For a single syllable:

1. Identify the nucleus (usually a vowel).

2. Every consonant after the nucleus forms part of the coda

3. Every consonant before the nucleus forms part of the onset

If you have more than one syllable, you need to divide the sounds up into separatesyllables:

1. Minimize codas (i.e., CV syllables preferred over CVC syllables)

2. Maximize onsets (i.e., CV syllables preferred over V syllables)

3. Try to make each syllable satisfy the Sonority Sequencing Principle!

The Sonority Sequencing Principle (Guideline for Syllabification)

In terms of sonority, syllables should peak at the nucleus

The Sonority Hierarchy

obstruents︷ ︸︸ ︷stops ≺ fricatives ≺

sonorants︷ ︸︸ ︷nasals ≺ liquids ≺ glides ≺ vowels

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3 Morphology

Phonemes and meanings/concepts are the building blocks you use to make up morphemes, which canbe thought of as 〈form,meaning〉 pairs. The ’form’ part of a 〈form,meaning〉 correspondence usuallyrefers to a collection of (one or more) phonemes. The ’meaning’ part of a 〈form,meaning〉 correspondenceis something we’ll discuss when we learn about semantics. For now we’ll represent the ’concept/meaning’with all caps like DOG, or CAT.

BASIC CONCEPTUAL DIFFERENCE: Words vs Morphemes

MORPHEME: The smallest unanalyzeable unit in a language which contains meaning.

WORD: The smallest free-standing unit in a language which contains meaning.

NOTATIONAL NOTE: IPA vs Orthography

It’s EXTREMELY IMPORTANT to use the IPA when you’re doing any sort of phonological analysis(since orthography doesn’t correctly represent the actual sounds we’re trying to analyze).

Since we’re doing morphology now, and not analyzing the actual sounds like we do in phonology, it’snot as important that we use the IPA.

So for what follows, I’ll often use orthography to represent a 〈form,meaning〉 pair. So somethinglike 〈[dAg], DOG〉 will be represented with ’dog.’

3.1 Different Kinds of Morphemes

Morphemes are the building blocks you use to make up words. They can be categorized in several differentways. For instance, you can categorize them according to whether they are stems, roots or affixes:

1. Affixes: Affixes are morphemes which attach to other morphemes, and cannot stand on their own.The element that affixes attach to is called a stem.

• Suffixes: Attach to the end of a stem, eg., -ing, -ed, -tion, etc.,

• Prefixes: Attach to the beginning of a stem, re-, un-, in-, etc.

• Infixes4: Attach inside a stem, eg., -EXPLETIVE-

Affixes are BOUND MORPHEMES.

2. Stems: The stem may be made up of more than one morpheme. If it is only one morpheme, the stemis also a root.

3. Roots: The root is the core of a word, when all affixes have been stripped off.

Stems and roots can be either BOUND or FREE, where

1. BOUND morphemes are ones that cannot stand on their own (i.e., are not also words), and

2. FREE morphemes are ones that CAN stand on their own (i.e., are also words).

You can further categorize affixes in terms of whether they are derivational or inflectional:

4Some languages have ’circumfixes’ where they consist of both a suffix and a prefix, and it attaches AROUND the stem.

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1. Inflectional Affixes:These affixes attach to a stem, and the resulting form has the same category and(basic) lexical meaning as the stem.

(5) Examples of inflectional affixes:

a. -sPL: dog-s, cat-s, door-s, etc.,

b. -edPAST: walk-ed, jump-ed, etc.,

c. -ingPROGRESSIVE: walk-ing, jump-ing, etc.,

Inflectional morphemes are morphemes that are conditioned by particular morphosyntactic contexts -eg. agreement morphemes. So the difference between ’is’ and ’are’ below doesn’t reflect a differencein lexical semantics - (6a) and (6b) might be describing the same event.5

(6) a. Destiny’s Child is performing on the main stage at 3pm.

b. Beyonce, Kelly and Michelle are performing on the main stage at 3pm.

2. Derivational Affixes: These affixes attach to a stem, and the resulting form is differs from the stem interms of its (basic) lexical meaning, and often its category as well.

(7) Examples of derivational affixes that change category

a. VERB-tionN: act-ion, insert-ion, interrupt-tion, etc.,

b. ADJ-ifyV: claf-ify, green-ify, french-ify, etc.,

(8) Examples of affixes that are derivational, but don’t change the category:

a. anti-N : anti-bomb, anti-Twilight, anti-Justin Bieber

b. N-ite: Israel-ite, Vancouver-ite, Justin Bieber-ite6

Both of these are derivational. You can tell that (a) is derivational because it changes category(even though it’s a prefix! This is rare!). And even though (b) doesn’t change category, it’s stillderivational. The set of things consisting of Vancouver-ites is not the same as the set of thingsconsisting of Vancouver. The set of things referred to by ”Justin Bieber” is not the same as the set ofthings referred to by ”Justin Bieber-ite(s)”. They thus have different lexical semantics.

You can also categorize morphemes in terms of their morphosyntactic category - i.e., as nouns, verbs,adjectives, prepositions, etc. Notice that many of the affixes discussed above are sensitive to morphosyn-tactic category: -tion will only attach to nouns, -ify will only attach to adjectives, and the progressive -ingwill only attach to verbs. This means that while we’ve been talking about morphemes as 〈form,meaning〉pairs, they should really be thought of as 〈form,meaning, category〉 triples. Here are some ”Formal Word-Category Tests” (for ENGLISH):

5You guys are probaby too young to even know Destiny’s Child. Sigh.6Yeah, I know they’re actually called Beliebers.

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QUESTION How do we know something is a NOUN?

If a word can occur in these contexts, you have evidence that it’s a noun:

1. Plural/Singular Morphology baker-sPL

2. Preceded by determiners {The, a, every, my} baker

3. Preceded by adjectives {red, hungry, ridiculous} baker

4. Often formed by the derivational suffixes -er, -ion, -ment:

QUESTION How do we know something is a VERB

1. Temporal/Aspectual Morphology

(a) Simple Past ascertain-edPAST

(b) Simple Present ascertain-s3sg.PRESENT

(c) Perfect Aspect have ascertain-en/-edPAST

(d) Progressive Aspect is ascertain-ingPROG

2. Can appear before or after adverbs

{quickly, slowly, angrily}texttexttexttexttexttext{quickly, slowly, angrily}

3. Can appear after modal auxiliaries

{must, might, can, will}texttexttext

(9) Adverb Test for Verbhood

a. They slowly perpetuated the stereotype

b. They ascertained (the answer) quickly

c. *They angrily cat

d. *He happily enjoyment

(10) Modal test for Verbhood

a. They must perpetuate the stereotype

b. They will ascertain (the answer) quickly

c. *They might cat

d. *He can enjoyment

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QUESTION How do we know something is a ADJECTIVE

If a word can occur in these contexts, you have evidence that it’s a adjective:

1. Can follow ”very”

2. Can follow determiners and precede nouns

3. Can take comparative (-er) and superlative (-est) morphology

4. Often formed by derivational suffixes -ish, -some

(11) a. The very hungry caterpillar crawled along the leaf.

b. *The very ascertain caterpillar crawled along the leaf.

c. *The very cat caterpillar crawled along the leaf.

d. *The very between caterpillar crawled along the leaf.

(12) a. hungry, hungri-er, hungri-est

b. ascertain, *ascertain-er, *ascertain-est

c. cat, *cat-er, *cat-est

d. between, *between-er, *between-est

QUESTION How do we know something is a PREPOSITION

If a word can occur in these contexts, you have evidence that it’s a preposition:

1. Can be preceded by ”right” right texttexttext

2. Can’t take nominal or verbal inflection *-ed, *-s3.sg.PRES, *-sPL

3. Precede determiners texttexttextthe, every, a

(13) a. Right between the pages

b. *between-ed, *between-s

(14) a. Right under the pages

b. *under-ed, *under-s

(15) a. *Right cat the pages

b. The cats

(16) a. *Right ascertain the pages

b. ascertain-ed, *ascertain-s

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3.2 Surface Allomorphy

The ’form’ part of a 〈form,meaning, category〉 correspondence usually correlates to a string of phonemes.This underlying string of phonemes can have different surface forms, however. These surface forms are calledallomorphs of an underlying morpheme.

Allomorphy can be conditioned in different ways:

1. Phonologically conditioned allomorphs:We’ve seen in class/lectures/video, with the plural morpheme, where the surrounding sounds changethe underlying form of the morpheme into its different allomorphs. I.e., a preceding voiceless segmentwill cause the plural morpheme /-z/ to surface as [-s].

2. Morphosyntactically conditioned allomorphs:The surrounding morphemes, eg., suffixes, prefixes, determine what form of the morpheme you get.

So the phonological difference between the roots of the words ’consume’ [kAnsum] and ’consumption’[kAns2mSIn], and ’presume’ [pôIzum] and ’presumption’ [pôIz2mSIn] (i.e., whether the root has [u] or[2] in it) is conditioned by the following morphology. You get the [u] form if nothing follows, but the[2] form if the -tion /-SIn/ suffix follows the root.

3. Lexically conditioned allomorphs:These are different surface forms that don’t seem conditioned by either (i) phonological environmentor (ii) morphological environment, so we assume that the speakers just have to memorize which formsgo in which context.

For instance, ’go’ [gow] (present) and ’went’ [wEnt] (past), which presumably correspond to someunderlying morpheme having to do with motion from this place to another.

4 Syntax

Phonology is the system that takes sounds, and combines them into strings of sounds. Morphology is thesystem that takes morphemes and combines them into words. Syntax is the system that takes words andcombines them into phrases and sentences.7

The phrases that syntax creates are also referred to as constituents - these are strings of words thatact like a unit. We represent these constituents with tree structures:

S

NP

N

Clifford

VP

VP

V

ate

NP

D

his

NP

N

apple pie

Adv

voraciously

7Sentences are a special kind of phrase.

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4.1 Meagan’s Guide to Tree-Drawing

Basic Approach to Tree Drawing: The Steps

1. Label the category of each word (using word-category tests if necessary)!

2. Find constituents (using constituency tests)!

3. Draw and label the constituents using the tree structures

4.2 Constituency Tests

Question: How do you know if a given string of words is a constituent?

Answer: Apply constituency tests!

1. The Movement Test

2. The Replacement (pro-form) Test

3. The Coordination/Conjunction Test

4. The Sentence-Fragment Test

5. The Deletion (omissability) Test

4.3 the Movement Test

QUESTION

Can the string of words undergo movement? (Eg. into cleft position)

If so, this suggests that string of words is a constituent

A MOVEMENT TEST: The Cleft Construction

CLEFT TEMPLATE: It was X that Y.

You can cleft almost any constituent in a sentence. Let’s use the following as an example:

The frog ate his lunch on the log at noon very quickly.

1. It was [the frog] that ate his lunch on the log at noon.

2. It was [on the log] that the frog ate his lunch at noon.

3. It was [his lunch] that the frog ate on the log at noon.

4. It was [at noon] that the frog ate his lunch on the log.

5. It was [very quickly] that the frog ate his lunch on the log at noon.

(17) Murray’s villainous uncle cackled evilly about his nefarious scheme in his remote castle on the cliff’sedge.

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(18) a. It was Murray’s villanous uncleNP that cackled evilly about his nefarious scheme in his remotecastle on the cliff’s edge.

b. It was about his nefarious schemePP that Murray’s villainous uncle cackled in his remote castleon the cliff’s edge.

c. It was in his remote castle on the cliff’s edgePP that Murray’s villainous uncle cackled evillyabout his nefarious scheme.

d. It was cackle evilly about his nefarious schemeVP that Murray’s villainous uncle did in hisremote castle on the cliff’s edge.

e. It was his nefarious schemeNP that Murray’s villainous uncle cackled about in his remote castleon the cliff’s edge.

f. *It was evilly about his that Murray’s villainous uncle cackled nefarious scheme in his remotecastle on the cliff’s edge.

g. *It was castle on the that Murray’s villainous uncle cackled about his nefarious scheme in hisremote on the cliff’s edge.

A MOVEMENT TEST: The Pseudo-Cleft Construction

PSEUDOCLEFT TEMPLATE: X is who/what/why/where/when Y.

You can pseudocleft almost any constituent in a sentence:

The frog ate his lunch on the log at noon very quickly.

1. [The frog] is who ate his lunch on the log at noon very quickly.

2. [His lunch] is what the frog ate on the log at noon very quickly.

3. [On the log] is where the frog ate his lunch at noon very quickly.

4. [At noon] is when the frog ate his lunch on the log very quickly.

5. [Very quickly] is how the frog at his lunch on the log at noon.

A MOVEMENT TEST: The Passive Construction

PASSIVE TEMPLATE:

THEME

BE(Auxiliary verb)︷ ︸︸ ︷was/is .....

Past Participle︷ ︸︸ ︷V − en/ed (by AGENT).

The ’Passive Construction’ targets the THEME constituent(which is the OBJECT in the ’active’, but the SUBJECT in the ’passive).

1. The frog ate his lunch → His lunch was eaten by the frog

2. Scooby foiled my evil plan. → My evil plan was foiled by Scooby.

3. Socrates corrupted the youth of Athens.→ The youth of Athens was corrupted by Socrates.

4. Jane sent a letter to Bingley→ A letter was sent to Bingley by Jane (Direct Object Passivization)→ Bingley was sent a letter by Jane. (Indirect Object Passivization)

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4.4 the Replacement (pro-form) Test

QUESTION

Can you replace the string of words with proforms like

1. ”he, ”she,” ”it” ”them” (for NP constituents),

2. ”did” for (VP consituents) and

3. ”here” or ”there” (for PP constituents)a?

If so, this suggests that string of words is a constituent

aThis only works for PPs that denote locations, of course.

(19) a. Mehmed II [conquered Constantinople] when he was only 23 years old.

b. (How many people conquered Constantinople?) Mehmed II [did so] when he was only 23 yearsold.

(20) a. The fall of Constantinople [allowed the Ottomans to advance into Europe without an adversaryto their rear.]

b. (What could allow the Ottomans to advance into Europe without an adversary to their rear?)The fall of Constantinople [did so]

(21) a. The fall of Constantinople allowed the Ottomans to advance into Europe without an adversaryto their rear.

b. The fall of Constantinople allowed the Ottomans to advance there without an adversary to theirrear.

4.5 the Coordination/Conjunction Test

(22) a. I stealthily stole [the diamondsNP and the rubiesNP]

b. *I stealthily [stoleV and the diamondsNP]

c. I [stealthily stole the diamondsVP and clumsily dropped the rubiesVP]

d. I [stealthilyAdjP and flawlesslyAdjP] stole the diamonds]

GENERALIZATION

“And” takes two phrases of the same category, and yields a phrase of that category:

[NP and NP]NP

[VP and VP]VP

[AdjP and AdjP]AdjP

• This means that if a string of words is conjoinable with something we know to be an XP, wehave evidence that that string of words is a constituent (of category XP)

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4.6 the Sentence Fragment Test

QUESTION

Can the string of words stand alone as the answer to a question?

If so, this suggests that string of words is a constituent

(23) Murray’s villainous uncle cackled evilly about his nefarious scheme in his remote castle on the cliff’sedge.

(24) a. Who t cackled evilly about his his nefarious scheme in his remote castle on the cliff’s edge?([Murray’s villanous uncle]NP)

b. What did Murray’s villainous uncle cackle evilly about t in his remote castle on the cliff’s edge?([his nefarious scheme]NP)

c. How did Murray’s villainous uncle cackle t about his nefarious scheme in his remote castle on th

e cliff’s edge? ([evilly]AdjP)

d. What did Murray’s villainous uncle do in his remote castle on the cliff’s edge? ([cackle evillyabout his nefarious scheme]VP)

e. ??What did Murray’s villainous uncle do about his nefarious scheme in his remote castle on thecliff’s edge? (??[cackle evilly]VP)

f. Where did Murray’s villainous uncle cackle evilly about his nefarious scheme t? ([in his remotecastle on the cliff’s edge]PP)

4.7 the Deletion (omissability) Test

QUESTION

Can the string of words undergo deletion? (Eg. into cleft position) If so, this suggests that string ofwords is a (modifying/non-argument) constituent

(25) a. The fall of Constantinople allowed the Ottomans to advance into Europe without an adversaryto their rear.

b. The fall of Constantinople allowed the Ottomans to advance into Europe without an adversaryto their rear.

(26) a. Murray’s villainous uncle cackled evilly about his nefarious scheme in his remote castle on thecliff’s edge.

b. Murray’s villainous uncle cackled evilly about his nefarious scheme in his remote castle on thecliff’s edge

c. Murray’s villainous uncle cackled evilly about his nefarious scheme in his remote castle on thecliff’s edge

d. Murray’s villainous uncle cackled evilly iabout his nefarious scheme in his remote castle on thecliff’s edge

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4.8 Labelling Constituents

QUESTION

How do you know how to categorize phrases?

→ According to their distribution

(27) Headedness in Syntax (Phrases)

a. Clifford is a [dog]N

b. Clifford is a [redAdj dogN]NP

c. Clifford is [red]Adj

d. Clifford is [extremelyAdv redAdj]AdjP.

e. Clifford [ate]V

f. Clifford [ate his apple pie voraciously]VP

• If you apply the tests for word-classes, you’ll find that the distribution of [red dog] is like a noun, andthe distribution of [extremely red] is like an adjective

• We represent this with category labels: [red dog] we call a noun phrase (NP), and [extremely red] wecall an adjective phrase (AdjP)

The various kinds of phrases/constituents can be associated with ’Phrase Structure Rules’ (PSRs). ThesePSRs are like templates (i.e., they indicate what an NP can look like, what a VP can look like, what an Scan look like):

(28) Phrase Structure Rules

a. Clifford is [a redAdj dogN]NP NP → (Det) Adj N

b. Clifford [ate his apple pie voraciously]VP VP → (Adv) V (NPobject) (PP)

c. .[Clifford ate his apple pie voraciously]S S →NPsubject VP

Notice that (i) sentences (S) always consist of a SUBJECT NP, and a VP, and (ii) that VPs often consistof verbs plus a DIRECT OBJECT.

So identifying the SUBJECT and DIRECT OBJECT (if there is one) is something you should do beforedrawing the tree.

5 Drawing Trees

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Basic Approach to Tree Drawing: The Steps

(i) Label the category of each word (using word-category tests if necessary)!

(ii) Find constituents (using constituency tests)!

(a) the subject NPa

(b) the direct object NP (if the verb is transitive)

(c) the indirect object NP (if the verb is ditransitive)

(d) the VP (the verb plus the direct object and indirect object, if present)

(e) Any modifiers, etc.,

(iii) Draw and label the constituents using the tree structures

aTESTS: Tag-questions, subject-verb agreement)

S

NP

N

Clifford

VP

V

is

NP

D

a

NP

Adj

red

N

dog

S

NP

N

Clifford

VP

VP

V

ate

NP

D

his

NP

N

apple pie

Adv

voraciously

(1) Mehmed II conquered Constantinople and brought an end to the Byzantine Empire.

(2) Mehmed II transported his lighter warships over land and bypassed the heavy chain that blocked theriver mouth.

(3) He also ordered the construction of the Topkapi Palace.

(4) Topkapi Palace consists of four main courtyards and many smaller buildings.

(5) They named a bridge after Mehmed II in Istanbul.

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S

NP

N

Mehmed II

VP

VP

V

conquered

NP

N

Constantinople

and VP

V

brought

NP

D

an

NP

N

end

PP

P

to

NP

D

the

NP

Adj

Byzantine

N

Empire

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S

NP

N

Mehmed II

VP

VP

V

transported

NP

D

his

NP

Adj

lighter

N

warships

and VP

V

bypassed

NP

D

the

NP

N

chain

CP

C

that

VP

V

blocked

NP

D

the

N

river mouth

20

S

NP

N

He

VP

Adv

also

VP

V

ordered

NP

D

the

NP

construction PP

P

of

NP

D

the

N

Topkapi Palace

S

NP

N

Topkapi Palace

VP

V

consists

PP

P

of

NP

NP

Adj

four

NP

Adj

main

N

courthards

and NP

D

many

NP

Adj

smaller

N

buildings

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S

NP

They

VP

VP

V

named

NP

D

a

N

bridge

PP

P

after

NP

Mehmed II

PP

P

in

NP

N

Istanbul

6 Semantics

(under construction)

7 Pragmatics

(under construction)

References

[Ladefoged(2001)] Ladefoged, Peter. 2001. A course in phonetics. 4th edition. Orlando: Harcourt CollegePublishers.

[O’Grady & Archibald(2004)] O’Grady, William Delaney & John Archibald. 2004. Contemporary LinguisticAnalysis, 5th Edition. Pearson Longman.

[Yule(2006)] Yule, George. 2006. The study of language, third edition. Cambridge University Press.

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