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Syntax V

Syntax V. November 26, 2010. Weekday Update. Syntax homework will be posted after class today …due next Wednesday (December 1st) On Monday, we will: wrap up the syntax lectures work on a few more practice syntax exercises.

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Syntax V

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  1. Syntax V November 26, 2010

  2. Weekday Update • Syntax homework will be posted after class today • …due next Wednesday (December 1st) • On Monday, we will: • wrap up the syntax lectures • work on a few more practice syntax exercises. • Afterwards, we’ll conclude the term with an analysis of meaning: • Pragmatics + Semantics

  3. There is no “I” in “verb” • In English, the I slot may be explicitly filled with auxiliary verbs: • be {am, are, is, was, were} • have {has, had} • Verbs following auxiliaries bear affixes marking them for tense {am going, has gone} or voice {is gone}. • Modals are a special kind of auxiliary verb: • will, would, can, could, shall, should, may, might, must, (do/did) • Verbs following modals are always in their root (infinitive) form. {I must go; I could go; etc.}

  4. Splitting Syntactic Hairs • Regarding the confusion between adverbs and degree words: • Degree words are a sub-category of adverbs. • They can modify adjectives and prepositions, but not verbs. • The light sabre is quite red. • *The Emperor quite frowns. • In order to avoid any future confusion on this score: • I’ll consider these two terms to be interchangeable on the homework (and final).

  5. In Our Last Episode… • We learned that 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 VP V C NP VP • VP  V CP V C NP V CP • etc.

  6. matrix clause 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 cake CP Example embedded clause

  7. 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 • (where Xn = X, X’ or XP)

  8. 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.

  9. 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…

  10. 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

  11. 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

  12. Further Ambiguity • Let’s try another one: • The police shot the terrorists with rifles. • Why is this sentence 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…

  13. Interpretation #1 IP 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.

  14. Interpretation #2 IP NP I’ the police I VP [+past] V’ PP V NP P’ shot Det N’ P NP the N with rifles terrorists In 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.

  15. Modifiers? IP NP I’ the police I VP [+past] V’ PP V NP P’ shot Det N’ P NP the N with rifles terrorists In this tree, 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.

  16. More Modifiers • From the last Quick Write: • IP • NP I’ • She I VP • [-past] V’ AdvP • V CP Deg Adv’ • wants IP really Adv • I VP badly • to V NP • play tennis In this interpretation, “really badly” modifies “wants”. (I’m glossing over some of the structure here)

  17. More Modifiers IP NP I’ She I VP [-past] V’ V CP wants IP I VP to V NP AdvP play tennis really badly In this interpretation, “really badly” modifies “play”. (I’m glossing over some of the structure here)

  18. Language Universals • All languages have phrases with heads and complements. • All languages have nouns and verbs. • All languages can exhibit recursion. • Linguists hypothesize: • All of this information is part of Universal Grammar (UG) • Children do not need to learn these aspects of grammar from their environment. • But: languages can differ syntactically within these universal limits.

  19. Language Choices • One syntactic feature which differs between languages: • head-first vs. head-final • English is a head-first language • = the head of the phrase precedes any complements. • For example: • V’  V (NP) (PP) • N’  N (PP) • A’  A (PP) • P’  P (NP) • In general: X’  X (Complement)

  20. Language Choices • Other languages are head-final • Ex: Japanese • The head of the phrase in Japanese always follows its complements: • In general: X’  (YP) X • Example: P’  NP P • niwa-de • “garden in” = “in the garden” • N P • By the way: in languages like these, “prepositions” are called “post-positions”

  21. Syntactic Typology • Sentences in head-final languages usually follow the pattern: subject - object - verb (SOV) • Japanese examples: • Taro-ga inu-o mitsuketa • Taro-subject marker dog-object marker found • “Taro found a dog.” • Inu-ga niwa-de asonde iru • dog-subject marker garden-in playing is • “The dog is playing in the garden.”

  22. Syntactic Typology • There are six possible orders for subject, verb, and object in a sentence. • All six orders have been attested in at least one of the world’s languages. • 44% of the world’s languages are SOV languages. • Japanese, Korean, Turkish • 35% of the world’s languages are SVO languages. • English, French, Chinese • 19% of the world’s languages are VSO languages. • Irish, Arabic, Welsh

  23. Syntactic Typologies • 2% of the world’s languages are VOS languages. • Aramaic, Hawaiian, Tagalog, Maori • OSV languages are very rare • Xavante, Jamamadi (spoken in Brazil) • OVS languages are the rarest of all • Guarijio (northwest Mexico), Hixkaryana (also Brazil) • Another OVS language: Klingon • Some languages have free word order • Dyirbal (spoken in Australia) (by about five people)

  24. Scrambling! • Dyirbal is a “scrambling” language • = free word-order, syntactically • Case-marking of nouns makes this possible… • “The man hit the woman.” • bangul jara-ngu balan djugumbil balgan • ERG1 man-ERG OBJ2 woman hit (SOV) • balan djugumbil bangul jara-ngu balgan • OBJ2 woman ERG1 man-ERG hit (OSV) • “The dingo took her baby.” • bangun ganibarra-gu budin bangun gudjarra • ERG2 dingo-ERG take GEN2 baby (SVO)

  25. Yodish • What sort of language does Yoda speak? • Some examples are (relatively) straightforward: • My home this is. • To Obi-Wan you listen. • In these sentences, the complement of the verb moves to the front of the sentence. • (= OSV) • The others are slightly different: • Help you I can. • Take you to him I will. • In these two, Yoda moves the whole VP to the front.

  26. Wait…things move? • Movement rules can explain syntactic patterns in language that phrase structure rules alone cannot account for. • For instance: some sentences are systematically related to other sentences. • Declarative Interrogative • The boy is sleeping. Is the boy sleeping? • The boy has slept. Has the boy slept? • The boy can sleep. Can the boy sleep? • The boy will sleep. Will the boy sleep? • The boy did sleep. Did the boy sleep? • What’s the pattern?

  27. What’s the Pattern? • Declarative sentences like “The boy is sleeping” can be generated with the usual syntactic rules. • IP • NP I’ • Det N’ I VP • the N is V’ • boy V • sleeping • We get the interrogative sentence “Is the boy sleeping?” by inverting the order of the subject and the auxiliary.

  28. Inversion CP C’ C IP NP I’ Det N’ I VP the N is V’ boy V sleeping

  29. Inversion CP C’ C IP NP I’ Det N’ I VP the N is V’ boy V sleeping • Note: the auxiliary verb moves from one head slot to another. • Rule: move the I head to the C node. • This “inversion” rule creates a yes/no question.

  30. Inversion Results CP C’ C IP is NP I’ [+Q] Det N’ I VP the N t V’ boy V sleeping The movement leaves a “trace” (t) behind in the I slot. • The C slot has to be marked with a [+Q] (for “question”) to make this movement happen. • …like the I slot being marked for tense.

  31. Transformations • The syntactic rules that we’ve seen so far are phrase structure rules: • NP  Det N’ • P’  P NP • A rule that generates one kind of sentence from another sentence is called a transformational rule. • “Transformations” give us the questions for “free”… • so long as our phrase structure rules generate the corresponding declarative sentences.

  32. A More Complex Case • Does our transformational rule work for this sentence? • The chicken crossed the road. • Maybe. • To create this question: “Did the chicken cross the road?” • …it is first necessary to add the auxiliary verb “do”. • = “Do” insertion • The chicken crossed the road.  • The chicken did cross the road.  • Did the chicken cross the road? • In English, it is not possible to invert non-auxiliary verbs.

  33. Split-Levels • Syntactic phrase structure rules (“Merge”) create the Deep Structure of a sentence. • Transformation rules (“Move”) change the Deep Structure into the Surface Structure that we see in interrogative sentences. • Phonology analogy: • Underlying representation = Deep Structure • Surface representation = Surface Structure • In both cases, this is called a derivation. • and multiple rules can apply before the final product appears on the surface.

  34. A More Complex Case • Does our transformational rule work for this sentence? • Bob said that the chicken crossed the road. • Maybe. • There are actually two options: • Did Bob say that the chicken crossed the road? • *Did Bob said that the chicken cross the road? • Yes/No questions can only be formed from the main (highest level) sentence. • They cannot be formed from an embedded sentence. • The Complementizer (“that”) fills the C slot and prevents an embedded auxiliary from moving up.

  35. Wh Questions • Here’s another relationship between sentences: • Declarative Interrogative • Bart kicked the ball. • What did Bart kick? • Lisa put the leash on the table. • Where did Lisa put the leash? • Marge sent a card to Selma. • Who did Marge send a card to? • These questions are known as “Wh-Questions” • why, who, where, when, what, how

  36. Wh Question Rules • The formation of these questions is considerably more complex. • Step 1: Wh-substitution • Substitute impersonal NPs with “what” • Substitute personal NPs with “who” • Substitute location PPs with “where” • etc. • Examples: • Bart kicked the ball.  Bart kicked what? • Lisa put the leash on the table.  • Lisa put the leash where?

  37. Wh Movement Rules • Step 2: Move (or insert) the auxiliary verb to the beginning of the sentence. • Bart kicked what?  Did Bart kick what? • Lisa put the leash where?  • Did Lisa put the leash where? • Step 3: Move the Wh word to the beginning of the sentence. • Did Bart kick what?  What did Bart kick? • Did Lisa put the leash where?  • Where did Lisa put the leash?

  38. Wh-Movement CP (Spec) C’ C IP NP I’ Bart I VP did V’ V NP kick what

  39. Wh-Movement CP (Spec) C’ C IP did NP I’ Bart I VP t V’ V NP kick what

  40. Wh-Movement The Wh- particle moves from a non-head position to another non-head position. (so it doesn’t cross paths with move #1) CP NP C’ What C IP did NP I’ Bart I VP t V’ V NP kick t

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