1 / 18

Syntax Word order, constituency

Syntax Word order, constituency. LING 200 Spring 2006. Overview of unit. Characterizing syntactic competence Word order Representing the structure of sentences Tests for constituent structure (time permitting) Transformations Cross-linguistic variation

anniewalker
Download Presentation

Syntax Word order, constituency

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. SyntaxWord order, constituency LING 200 Spring 2006

  2. Overview of unit • Characterizing syntactic competence • Word order • Representing the structure of sentences • Tests for constituent structure • (time permitting) Transformations • Cross-linguistic variation • (time permitting) Syntactically relevant morphology in Sahaptin • Japanese syntax (guest lecture)

  3. Syntactic competence • Possible vs. impossible sentences • Restricted distributions of words/ morphemes • Relations between sentences • What sentences mean What native speakers know about:

  4. How to characterize infinity? • Sentences are potentially infinitely long. • This is the house that Jack built. • This is the malt • that lay in the house that Jack built. • This is the rat • that ate the malt • that lay in the house that Jack built. • ...

  5. This is the priest all shaven and shorn that married the man all tattered and torn that kissed the maiden all forlorn that milked the cow with the crumpled horn that tossed the dog that worried the cat that killed the rat that ate the malt that lay in the house that Jack built. ...

  6. How to characterize (potential) infinity? • Phrase structure rules • General form of phrase structure rules • L  M N • (“L consists of/is M N”) • M  P Q • Q  R L • Properties of phrase structure rules • specify word order • are recursive (output of one rule can be rewritten via another rule)

  7. Some phrase structure rules • English • PP  P NP • it cooked [on the grill] • Abbreviations • P = Preposition (or postposition) • English: on, from, to, under, … • PP = Prepositional phrase • NP = Noun phrase

  8. Equivalent representational devices phrase structure rule: PP  P NP labeled bracketing: PP[P NP] tree structure: PP P NP

  9. Some terminology constituent syntactic unit consisting of one or more words = node(in tree) root node branching nodes terminal nodes PP P NP with Det N the money

  10. More phrase structure rules S  NP VP S = sentence NP = noun phrase VP = verb phrase

  11. More phrase structure rules • NP  (Det) (Adj+) N (PP) • Det = determiner • Adj = adjective • N = noun • () = optional • + = one or more

  12. Determiners vs. adjectives • More PS rules • Det a/an, some, the, that, your (etc.) • Adj big, old, green (etc.) • One determiner per NP • your truck, the truck • *your the truck, *the your truck • More than one Adj possible • big trucks, big green trucks, big old green trucks • Det precedes Adj • your big truck

  13. More phrase structure rules • VP  V (NP) (PP) • VP = verb phrase • V = verb • transitive (requires an object) • find: *I found; I found my keys • intransitive (cannot occur with an object) • arrive: I arrived; *I arrived my office • optionally transitive (object possible or not) • eat: I ate; I ate a bagel

  14. Some simple tree structures S  NP VP NP  (Det) (Adj+) N (PP) VP  V (NP) (PP) S NP VP N V cats sleep

  15. Some simple tree structures NP  (Det) (Adj+) N (PP) PP  P NP NP N PP fog P NP in Det N the morning

  16. NP Det N PP the piano P NP on Det N PP the stage P NP in Det N PP the music building P NP on N campus

  17. More simple tree structures VP  V (NP) (PP) VP V NP PP put Det N P NP the car in Det N the garage

  18. Summary • Syntactic competence • Infinity of syntax • Representing the structure of sentences • phrase structure rules, a recursive system • tree diagrams • labeled bracketing • Some PS rules of English

More Related