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NP. D. N´. Ø. N. PP. P. NP. D. N´. N. PP. P. NP. Almen sproglig viden og metode (General linguistics). Introduction. to. the. Study. of. Syntax. CLM, engelsk. tt. Grammar. Morphology : the structure of words. Syntax : the structure of sentences. Rules.
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NP D N´ Ø N PP P NP D N´ N PP P NP Almen sproglig viden og metode(General linguistics) Introduction to the Study of Syntax CLM, engelsk tt
Grammar Morphology: the structure of words Syntax: the structure of sentences
Rules Morphology describes the rules by which morphemes combine into words Syntax describes the rules by which words combine into sentences
Some basic notions Grammaticality Meaningfulness Ambiguity
Meaningfulness Colorless green ideas sleep furiously - vs. grammaticality *Green furiously ideas sleep colorless
synthetic synthetic buffalo buffalo hides hides What he means… …and what she scribbles
The hierarchical structure of sentences he was late Rule of question formation: ? - switch the order of the first two words? the secretary general was late *secretary the general was late ? [The secretary general] is a syntactic unit – a constituent - switch the order of the first two constituents(better – but not yet quite correct)
The aim of syntax • to identify the constituents of sentences • to name those constituents* • to determine their syntactic functions • to determine their semantic functions • * another way to say this: • to assign constituents to syntactic categories
S NP VP V S´ AdvP S NP VP This is how it works Principles of Syntactic Analysis
naturally naturally naturally naturally naturally naturally naturally naturally Identifying constituent boundaries:the adverbial test [All the students may pass their exams] [[Naturally] [all the students may pass their exams]] *All [naturally] the students may pass their exams *All the [naturally] students may pass their exams [[All the students] [naturally] may pass their exams] [[All the students] [may] [naturally] pass their exams] *All the students may pass [naturally] their exams *All the students may pass their [naturally] exams [[All the students] [may] [ pass their exams] [naturally ]]
Identifying constituents… Naturally = of course [Sentence adverbial] Naturally = in a natural way [Manner adverbial] [Naturally [all the students may pass their exams]] [[All the students] naturally[may pass their exams]] [[All the students] [may] naturally [pass their exams]] [[All the students] [may] [ pass their exams] [naturally]]
Identifying constituents:the substitution + deletion tests [All the students] [The students] [All students] [Students] [may pass their exams] [All] *[The] [They]
Identifying constituents:the substitution + deletion tests [may pass their exams] [*may their exams] [may] [All the students] [pass their exams] [pass] [do] Constituents that may substitute for each other belong to the same distributional class, or paradigm
Identifying constituents:movement tests [[All the students] [may] [pass their exams]] [[May][all the students] [pass their exams]] [[Pass their exams] is what [all the students] [[may]] [[Their exams] is what [all the students] [may] [pass]] [[The students] [may] [all] [pass][their exams]] *[[Pass their ][all the students] [may] [exams]] Only constituents at some level of analysis may move!
All constituents identified [[[All] [[the] [students]]] [[may] [[pass] [[their][exams]]]]] All the students may pass their exams This is a simple box-diagram
Naming constituents: lexical and phrasal categories Lexical categories Phrasal categories NP N(oun) - Pro(noun) N´ - Proper (name) VP V(erb) Phrasal categories are said to be projections from lexical categories - Main; Lexical V´ - Aux(iliary); Modal AP A(djective) AdvP Adv(erb) DP D(eterminers) PP P(reposition) Subord(inator) CL(ause) Clausal and sentential categories Coord(inator) Interjection S(entence)
Naming constituents [S [DP [DAll] [NP [Dthe] [Nstudents]]] [VP [Auxmay] [VP [Vpass] [NP [Dtheir][Nexams]]]]] This is a socalled ’labelled bracketing’ It is difficult to read, therefore …
S DP ] [ [ ] [ ] ] ] All the students [ [ [ DP NP D D N S [ [ ] [ [ ] [ [ ] [ ] ] ] ] ] may pass their exams Aux V NP VP VP D N
S DP [ ] [ ] [ ] ] ] All the students [ [ [ DP NP D D N S [ [ ] [ [ ] [ [ ] [ ] ] ] ] ] may pass their exams Aux V NP VP VP D N
S DP VP NP Aux D VP V NP All D N may D N the students pass their exams This is a so-called tree diagram, growing the wrong way. The top node [S], is the root, the lines are branches, and the words at the bottom are leaves. The nodes connected by the lines carry category labels.
Naming constituents S DP VP NP Aux D VP V NP All D N may D N the students pass their exams
○ Δ Syntactic functions(’kryds og bolle’) All the students may pass their exams Subject ○ Verb Δ Object Is this right?
○ Δ Syntactic functions(’kryds og bolle’) All the students may pass their exams Subject ○ Verb Δ Object Is this right?
○ Δ Predicate Syntactic functions(’kryds og bolle’) All the students may pass their exams Subject ○ Verb Δ Object This is (almost) right - but as you can see, (at least) two levels of analysis are needed
Assigning syntactic functions to constituents S Subject Predicate DP VP Operator Aux All the students VP Predicator Object V NP may The important thing here is that V(erb) is reserved as a category label. The syntactic function of the verb is split into two, i.e. an Operator function (the finite auxiliary) and a Predicator function(the lexical verb). pass their exams
Danish English Grundled (subjekt) Prædikat - Verballed (Objekt) - Genstandsled - Hensynsled Omsagnsled t. grundled Omsagnsled t. genstandsled - (Adled) Adverbialled Subject Predicate Operator Predicator Object - direct - indirect Subject Complement Object Complement Adverbial Complement Adjunct (Adverbial) Terminological problems
S Adjunct Subject Predicate PP NP VP As a matter of fact all the students may pass their exams Conceptual problems Syntactic functions at clause level: Subject, Predicate, Adjunct - but what about functions within phrases?
Standard functions within VP VP Operator ? Aux VP Predicator Object may V NP pass their exams We’ll return to the question mark later
Assigning syntactic functions to constituents S Subject Predicate DP VP ? ? Operator ? D NP Aux VP ? ? Predicator Object V NP All D N may ? ? the students pass D N their exams
naturally naturally naturally AdvP AdvP Naturally AdvP naturally naturally Adjunct positions… S DP VP NP Aux D VP V NP All D N may the students pass D N their exams
naturally AdvP AdvP naturally AdvP naturally naturally Adjunct positions… S DP VP NP Aux D VP V NP All D N may the students pass D N their exams