Syntax

1. Syntax November 9, 2009

2. Gentle Reminders • Turn in your homeworks! • (if you haven’t already) • Note: I will not be holding office hours on Thursday. • Today we’re going to look at syntax: • the study of how words are put together to form sentences and phrases.

3. Flashback • Way back when, we talked about how it’s possible to produce infinitely long sentences in a language. • Example: • John said that Mary thought that Robin knew that Angela saw that Quinton wanted Sam to think that Becky heard that Steve wished that Forrest hoped that Bronwen believed that.... • Idea: our knowledge of language consists of “patterns of patterns”

4. Flashback • We also talked about sentences like the following... • Colorless green ideas sleep furiously. • I’m memorizing the score of the sonata I hope to compose someday. • ‘Twas brillig, and the slithy toves • Did gyre and gimble in the wabe… • The claim was that these were “acceptable” sentences of English, even though they made no sense.

5. Flashback • In contrast, the following sentences were not acceptable: • Green sleep ideas furiously colorless. • I’m memorizing the perform of the score I sonata to hope someday. • Brillig and, slithy and the toves • Wabe gimble in the gyre and did… • What makes these sentences unacceptable, and the other sentences acceptable?

6. Syntax • Syntax = the rules a language has for putting words together into sentences • also: rules for putting words together into phrases • Important terminology: grammatical • = strings of words that form possible sentences of a language • = conform to the syntactic rules a language has for putting words together into sentences • What is grammatical is based on a native speaker’s judgment of acceptability. • (descriptive grammar)

7. On the other hand • Another important term: ungrammatical • = string of words that is not a possible sentence in a language • = cannot be produced by the syntactic rules of a language • What is ungrammatical is also based on a native speaker’s judgments • Symbolized with a * before a string of words: • *Green sleep ideas furiously colorless.

8. Game Plan • Our goal for today: • Figure out some basic syntactic rules • i.e., how languages put words together into larger units • Let’s start with this observation: • The rules for putting words together into sentences do not necessarily yield utterances that make sense. • Colorless green ideas sleep furiously. • Q: If syntactic rules are not based on what words mean, how do they work?

9. Lexical Categories: Distribution • The rules for putting words together into sentences operate on lexical categories (word types), not word meanings. • Words of each lexical category have a specific syntactic distribution: • = the words that may appear around them, in their “syntactic environment” • Also: there are restrictions on the inflectional affixes which may attach to them. • = “morphosyntax”

10. Lexical Categories: Distribution • Example: Nouns (N) • Semantically: refer to persons, places and things • Syntactically: • May occur after Determiners • this book, the water, an idea • *this excite, *the somber, *an exactly • May be modified with Adjectives • this funny book, the bad water, a slippery idea • Also, nouns can be plural: • the dogs, the cats, *the sombers, *the exactlys

11. Lexical Categories: Distribution • Verbs (V) • Semantically: refer to events and states of affairs • Syntactically: may appear after Auxiliaries • he can go, she will stay, I have walked • *he can printer, *she will strange, *I have occasionally • Verbs also take specific inflectional affixes: • He runs, She plays, It works. • *He printers, *She stranges, *It precipitouslies. • He is running, She is playing, It is working. • *He is printering, *She is stranging, *It is occasionallying

12. Lexical Categories: Distribution • Adjectives (Adj) • Semantically: describe things that nouns refer to • Syntactically: may be modified by Degree Words • very funny, too wet, quite slippery • *very building, *too walk, *quite these • Adjectives can also take specific inflectional affixes: • wetter, funniest • *buildinger, *walkest

13. Lexical Categories, part 1 • The familiar lexical categories are “open-class” categories… • It is relatively easy to add new items to the category. • Nouns (N): wickedness, phonology, smock, blog… • Verbs (V): eat, smash, insult, hug, chillax… • Adjective (A): creepy, red, humungous, snarky… • Adverb (Adv): quickly, now, sneakily… • Note: many adverbs are derived from adjectives. • But remember that category membership can be fluid... • Ex: Calvin’s verbing of nouns

14. Lexical Categories, part 2 • Other lexical categories are “closed-class” or functional categories… • It is very difficult to add new items to the category. • Prepositions (P): to, in, on, near, at, by… • Pronouns (Pro): I, you, he, she, we, they, it… • Auxiliaries (Aux): will, can, may, must, should, could… • Determiner (Det): a, the, this, those, my, their… • Conjunction (Con): and, but, or… • Degree (Deg): too, so, very, more, quite… • The meaning of these categories is harder to define; their function is to help string words in a sentence together.

15. Check it out! • Words can be categorized on the basis of distributional and morphosyntactic evidence... • Even if they don’t mean anything: • 'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves • did gyre and gimble in the wabe. • All mimsy were the borogoves, • And the mome raths outgrabe. Pro V A Con Det A N V V Con V P Det N Det A V Det N Con Det A N V

16. ‘Twas Brillig? • “Brillig” is actually in the appropriate syntactic frame for either an adjective or a noun. • “It was pleasant…” • “It was evening…” • “It was four in the afternoon….”

17. A First Hypothesis • How do we put words together into (grammatical) sentences? • The simplest way = string one word category after another: • S  Det N V Det N • ( = “may consist of”) • The child found a puppy. • S  Det A N V P Det N • The slithy toves gimbled in the wabe. • These syntactic rules capture patterns of words.

18. Important Data • What’s going on in these sentences? • We need more intelligent leaders. • I like green eggs and ham. • The police shot the terrorists with rifles. •  Syntax also puts words together in units that are smaller than sentences. • These units are called phrases. • Same string of words, more than one interpretation = • more than one phrase structure • structural ambiguity

19. Actual Newspaper Headlines • One way in which syntax can enrich your life is through unintentional humor. • HOSPITAL SUED BY SEVEN FOOT DOCTORS • LAWYERS GIVE POOR FREE LEGAL ADVICE • ENRAGED COW INJURES FARMER WITH AX • COMPLAINTS ABOUT NHL REFEREES GROWING UGLY • CROWDS RUSH TO SEE POPE TRAMPLE MAN TO DEATH • FRENCH OFFER TERRORIST REWARD

20. Ambiguity (again) • There are two ways to represent structural ambiguity in sentences. • Method 1: Bracketing • [more intelligent] leaders • more [intelligent leaders] • Just like morphological bracketing: • [[unlock]able] • [un[lockable]]

21. Ambiguity (again) • Method 2: Phrase Structure Trees • more intelligent leaders • more intelligent leaders

22. Tree Terminology • more intelligent leaders • more intelligent leaders root node node constituents

23. Ambiguity (continued) • Recall: in morphology, each node in a tree had to be a real word • Adj • Adj • Aff Verb Aff • [un-] [lock] [-able] • = not able to be locked

24. Ambiguity (continued) • Recall: in morphology, each node in a tree had to be a real word • Adj • Verb • Aff Verb Aff • [un-] [lock] [-able] • = able to be unlocked

25. Phrases • The nodes in a syntactic tree above the word level represent phrases. • phrase = string of words that function as a unit • Basic phrase types: • Noun Phrases (NP): [intelligent leaders] • Verb Phrases (VP): [shoot terrorists] • Prepositional Phrases (PP): [with rifles] • Adjective Phrases (AP): [more intelligent]

26. Phrase Phacts • Every phrase has to have at least one constituent • This constituent is called the head of the phrase. • The head determines the phrase’s function, behavior and category. • For example, noun phrases have to consist of at least one noun. • Robin the book • a picture of Robin a picture of the unicorn • that weird picture of Bob’s unicorn

27. In General • There’s a pattern to how these things work: • Noun phrases (NPs) are headed by nouns • NP  N • Verb phrases (VPs) are headed by verbs • VP  V • Prepositional phrases (PPs) are headed by prepositions • PP  P • Adjective phrases (AdjP) are headed by adjectives • AP  A • Basic Phrase Structure Rule: XP  X

28. More About Phrases • Beyond the heads, phrases can be expanded with specifiers and complements. • Specifiersprecede the head of the phrase; • they pick out a particular version of the head. • Examples: • this book (Determiner specifying noun) • very late (Degree word specifying adjective) • often forgets (Adverb specifying verb) • almost in (Degree word specifying preposition)

29. Complements • Complements always follow the head of the phrase… • And provide more information about that head. • this book about unicorns • PP complement of the head of the NP. • very late to class • PP complement of the head of the AP. • often forgets his hat • NP complement of the head of the VP. • almost in the basket • NP complement of the head of the PP.

30. X-Bar Theory • Together, heads and their complements form a phrasal structure known X’ (“X-bar”). • Here’s the way phrases (of all kinds) normally break down: • XP • (Specifier) X’ • X (Complement) • Head • note: heads are the only obligatory element in the phrase • optional stuff is in parentheses