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Syntax Transformations

The document discusses syntax and syntactic transformations. It notes that syntax shows sentences have internal structure made up of constituents like phrases. Phrase structure rules determine the structure of constituents across languages. Questions in English are formed through transformations that move auxiliary verbs or wh-words to the start of the sentence, leaving traces of the moved elements. Transformations allow different surface structures to have the same underlying structure, capturing how questions are related to declarative sentences.

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Rishabh Jain
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
67 views

Syntax Transformations

The document discusses syntax and syntactic transformations. It notes that syntax shows sentences have internal structure made up of constituents like phrases. Phrase structure rules determine the structure of constituents across languages. Questions in English are formed through transformations that move auxiliary verbs or wh-words to the start of the sentence, leaving traces of the moved elements. Transformations allow different surface structures to have the same underlying structure, capturing how questions are related to declarative sentences.

Uploaded by

Rishabh Jain
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Syntax

Transformations
Syntax shows us:

• Sentences have internal ‘structure’.


• The main unit of the
structure is the constituent.
• Constituents are phrases.
• Phrases follow the X’‐schema.
• Phrase structure rules tell us the internal struc
ture of constituents, across languages.
Additionally, syntax tells us
• What is grammatical and what is ungrammatical.
• That grammaticality is not dependent on
meaningfulness.
• Ambiguity: The same string of words can give rise
to multiple meanings.
• Recursion: Structures can go on ad infinitum, in
theory - productivity.
• Structures can look different but mean roughly
the same thing.
• Structures can look the same but have
completely different meanings. 3
Revisiting recursion
1. This language has become extinct.
2. [The linguist knows [CPthat this language has become
extinct]].
3. The biologist believes [CP that the linguist knows that
this language has become extinct].
4. The neuroscientist claims [CP that the biologist
believes that the linguist knows that this
language has become extinct].
5. The judge wrote [CPthat the neuroscientist claims
that the biologist believes that the linguist knows
that this language has become extinct].
and so on….
So in design terms

• infinite output from finite means (design


features: productivity, duality of patterning)
• yielding massive diversity on the surface, ev
en though the difference is very
simple at the core.
Sentence relatedness
Some sentences are intuitively seen to be related
• Your neighbour has played the violin
• Has your neighbour played the violin?
Can the PSRs or rewrite rules generate the
question?
Or how about –
• The dog will chase the cat.
• Will the dog chase the cat?
• The cat, the dog will chase?
Option 1 – change the PSR rules
• TP  T NP VP (for the questions)
• What about The cat, the dog will chase ?
• NP NP T VP; What happens to the VP rule?
• (*The cat, the dog will chase the mouse.)
• Chase – sometimes has an object and sometimes
doesn’t.
Problem? There are two kind of TPs now, and further
we cannot account for the ‘relatedness’ between
the two sentences. Further, if you have longer
sentences with moved elements, you have to
proliferate PSRs.
Transformation/Movement
• To capture the relatedness between the two sentences
, we rely on a new kind of rule: a transformation
• A transformational rule is a syntactic operation that ta
kes one structure (produced by PSRs) as input and
operates on it producing a modified syntactic structure
as output (alternate surface strings).
• Transformations only moves objects from one
position to another. They do not change categories,
constituents, compositional meaning etc.
Structures can look different but mean
roughly the same thing.
• The hammer has hit the nail Active
• Has the hammer -- hit the nail? Question from
the active

• The nail was hit by the hammer. Passive


• Was the nail hit by the hammer? Question from
the passive

Question formation in English requires the


auxiliary( in T) to move in front of the subject.
What about the other kind of
question?
• What has your friend played?
These two words are in unexpected positions. And, it can
happen anywhere: (recall the movement test)
• Freshly brewed coffee, Ram said that he absolutely
needed first thing in the morning.
• Subcategorization (i) tells us that play is a transitive
verb and requires an object, NP; (ii) that object we see
is what (it would be incorrect to say, *What has your
friend played the oboe?)
• Has holds the tense information of the verb and the
information about the subject – 3 person, singular
(your friend)
Where do these things go?
• [TP Your friend has played the piano]
• Has [TP your friend – played the piano?]
• What has [TP your friend – played – ?]
Recall that some verbs selected a CP
complement whose head is a COMP (that,
whether, if)?
John asked [CP if [TP your friend has played the
piano]]?
*John asked [CP if has [TP your friend – played
the piano?]]
Questions
• Yes-no questions of English are formed by
– Moving the T to COMP position, yielding the surface order
Auxiliary verb - Subject-VP
• Wh-questions are formed by doing two things,
– Moving the T to COMP as above AND
– Moving the wh-phrase to Spec, CP
• Restrictions on movement
– Head moves to Head (auxiliary in T to C)
– Phrases to Spec, CP.
Note:
Tree branches are not cut off as a result of movement.
The tree in all respects has to observe the PSRs. Only
contents are moved around.
Variation

• This process is seen in English, French etc. but not


in Hindi.
• Transformations are optional in the grammar.
• Even in French there are variations
– Jean a lu/lit le livre (John has read/reads the book)
– A Jean lu le livre? AND Lit Jean le livre
– Has John read the book but not *Reads John the book?
• What about Hindi? Ram-ne kya paRha? Ram-ne
kisko dekha?
• WH IN SITU
Advantages?

Two advantages:
• There is only one type of auxiliary verbs in
English, and they occur under T.
An extra process (inversion) accounts for the
positioning of auxiliaries in yes‐no questions.
• The two sentences (the statement and the yes‐no
question) have the same basic structure.
They differ only in that inversion has applied to
move the contents of T category in the question

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