SYNTAX:

The Sentence Patterns of Language

Introduction to English Linguistics

2012 FALL
 The Syntax rules
 Grammaticality judgment
 Structural Ambiguity
 Sentence Structure
 Constituents & Syntactic Category
 Phrase Structure trees
 Recursive rules => X-bar structure
 Heads and complements
 Categorical Selection & Semantic Selection
 Sentence Relatedness
 Transformational Rules
 UG Principles and Parameters
Do we store sentences in our
mental lexicon?
 John found a book in the library.
 John found a book in the library in the
stacks.
 John found a book in the library in the
stacks on the fourth floor.
 John found a book in the library in the
stacks on the fourth floor on December
24.
Syntax
 We store the knowledge of
how words are put together to make
sentences.
 The grammar that represents the
knowledge of sentences and their
Syntax
structures is called ___________
CHAPTER 2: Syntax

WHAT SYNTAX RULES DO?

Syntax Rules

 Combine words into phrases and phrases

into sentences
(1a) The President nominated a new Supreme
Court justice.
(1b) *President the new Supreme justice Court a
nominated.
Syntax Rules
 Describe the relationship between the
meaning of words and the arrangements of
those words.
2a) I mean what I say.
2b) I say what I mean.

I'm a man who says what he means

and he means what he says.
Syntax rules specify the relationship btw the
meanings of words and their arrangements

2a) I mean what I say

= I am not joking or exaggerating.

2b) I say what I mean

= I say what I am trying to tell you.
(Definitely and accurately I am giving my opinion)
p. 78 Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (Lewis Carroll, 1865)

“Then you should say what you mean,” the March Hare went on.
“I do,” Alice hastily replied, “at least - I mean what I say- that’s the same thing,
you know.”

“Not the same thing a bit!” said the Hatter. “You might just as well say that
‘I see what I eat’ is the same thing as ‘I eat what I see’!”

“You might just as well say, “ added the March hare, “that ‘I like what I get ‘ is
the same thing as ‘I get what I like’!”

“You might just as well say,” added the Dormouse. “that ‘I breathe when I sleep’
is the same thing as ‘I sleep when I breathe’!”
“It is the same thing with you,” said the Hatter.
Syntax Rules..
 Specify the grammatical relations
such as subject and direct object.

(3a) Your dog chased my cat.

(3b) My cat chased your dog.
Syntax rules specify other constraints
sentences must conform to.

 Put a star when one is ungrammatical.

*
(4a)(1) The boy found.
*
(2) The boy found quickly.
*
(3) The boy found in the house.
(4) The boy found the ball.
Syntax rules specify other constraints
sentences must conform to.

 (1) (4) is ungrammatical?

Why ______
*
(4b)(1) Disa slept the baby.
(2) Disa slept soundly.
Cf (3) Disa found the baby.
*
(4) Disa found soundly.
=> sleep cannot takes a noun phrase, while
find is followed by other phrases
Find the one which is ungrammatical.

a) Zack believes Robert to be a gentleman.

b)
*
Zack believes to be a gentleman.
c)

d)
*
Zack tries Robert to be a gentleman.
Zack tries to be a gentleman.
e) Zack wants to be a gentleman.
f) Zack wants Robert to be a gentleman.
Believe +sb +to vs. try to vs. want (sb)+to

a) Zack believes Robert to be a gentleman.

b) *Zack believes to be a gentleman.
c) *Zack tries Robert to be a gentleman.
d) Zack tries to be a gentleman.
e) Zack wants to be a gentleman.
f) Zack wants Robert to be a gentleman.

Native speakers know the syntax rules.

6a. Jack and Jill ran up the hill.
6b. Jack and Jill ran the hill up.
6c. Up the hill ran Jack and Jill.
6d. Jack and Jill ran up the bill.
6e. Jack and Jill ran the bill up.
6f. Up the bill ran Jack and Jill.
a. Jack and Jill ran up the hill.
b. Jack and Jill ran the hill up.

c. Up the hill ran Jack and Jill.

d. Jack and Jill ran up the bill.

e. Jack and Jill ran the bill up.

f. Up the bill ran Jack and Jill.
a. Jack and Jill ran up the hill.
b. *Jack and Jill ran the hill up.

c. Up the hill ran Jack and Jill.

d. Jack and Jill ran up the bill.

e. Jack and Jill ran the bill up.

f. *Up the bill ran Jack and Jill.
a. Jack and Jill ran up the hill. (preposition)
b. *Jack and Jill ran the hill up.

c. Up the hill ran Jack and Jill. (preposition)

d. Jack and Jill ran up the bill. (adverb)

e. Jack and Jill ran the bill up. (adverb)

f. *Up the bill ran Jack and Jill.
Syntax Rules..
 Syntactic knowledge includes knowledge
of how words form groups.

ran [up the hill] vs. [ran up] the bill.

[up the hill] ran vs. [ran the bill up]

 V + [Prep + NP] [V + Adv/particle] + NP

CHAPTER 2: Syntax

STRUCTURAL AMBIGUITY
Hierarchical structure
 Syntactic knowledge includes knowledge
of how words are hierarchical structures.

waitress’s [nose ring]

vs.
[waitress’s nose ] ring
 Syntactic Knowledge and Ambiguity
 Structural ambiguity
 For sale: an antique desk suitable for lady with
thick legs and large drawers.

 Lexical Ambiguity
 This will make you smart.

 Can pills make you smarter? This will make

you smart!
 Be ware of the smoke from the fire! It will
make you smart.
Ambiguity due to different structures
For sale: an antique For sale: an antique
desk suitable for lady desk suitable for lady
with thick legs and with thick legs and
large drawers. large drawers.
CHAPTER 2: Syntax

SYNTACTIC VS. SEMANTIC

KNOWLEDGE
 What grammaticality is not based on
(10) Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.
(11) *Furiously sleep ideas green colorless.
(12) *The boy quickly in the house the ball found.
(13) ‘Twas brillig, and the slithy boves did gyre and
gimble in the wabe

Grammatical vs.
meaningful? Interpretable?
Grammatical, meaningful, interpretable, true

(11a) Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.

 grammatical, not meaningful

(11b) *Furiously sleep ideas green colorless.

 Ungrammatical, meaningless

(11c) *The boy quickly in the house the ball found

 ungrammatical

 Interpretable!
 What Grammaticality is Not Based On
(11d) ‘Twas brillig, and the slithy boves did
gyre and gimble in the wabe
 grammatical

 meaningless

 uninterpretable
CHAPTER 2: Syntax

SENTENCE STRUCTURE:
PS RULES & TREES
SENTENCE STRUCTURE

 Everysentence has natural

constituents
groupings called ______________.

 Thesentence structure can be

represented by a tree diagram.
Constituents (p. 84)
 Sentence structure can be represented by a
tree diagram.

The child found

a puppy

 Constituents: a word or a group of words

that have a closer relationship with each
other than with any others.
 root

The child found

a puppy

The hierarchical organization of the tree

reflects the natural groupings of the
words of the sentence (constituents).
Syntactic Categories

 A family of expressions
that can substitute for
one another without loss
of grammaticality
Syntactic Categories
 a bird
 the red banjo
 have a nice day
 with a balloon
 the woman who was laughing
 it
 John
 went
Syntactic Categories
 a bird Noun Phrase (NP)
 the red banjo Noun Phrase
 have a nice day

 with a balloon

 the woman who was laughing NP

 it NP
 John NP
 went
SYNTACTIC CATEGORIES
a) Phrasal categories
S, NP, VP, PP, AdjP, AdvP

b) Lexical categories:
Det, N, V, P, Adj, Adv, Conj, Aux
LEXICAL CATEGORIES
the, a, this, some, each… Determiner (Det)
puppy, boy, soup, happiness … Noun (N)
find, run, sleep, throw, believe … Verb (V)
up, down, across, into … Preposition (P)
Red, big, hopeless, fair … Adjective (Adj)
again, carefully, very …Adverb (Adv)
and, but, or …Conjunction (Conj)
have, be, may, can, will … Auxiliary (Aux)
PHRASAL CATEGORIES
Sentence (S)
Noun phrase (NP)
Verb phrase (VP) <- predicate
Adjective phrase (AdjP)
Adverb phrase (AdvP)
Prepositional phrase (PP)
 Phrase Structure Trees
= Constituent structure trees
 Phrase structure tree: tree diagram with
syntactic category information provided.
S
 hierarchy

NP1 VP
Det1 N1 V NP2
the child found Det2 N2
a puppy
 linear
Phrase Structure Trees

 Points in a tree are called nodes.

 Every higher node is said to dominate
all the categories beneath it.
 A node is said to immediately dominate
the categories one level below it.
 Categories that are immediately
dominated by the same node are sisters.
Phrase Structure Rules

 Capture the knowledge that speakers

have about possible structure of a lg.

 Speakers unconsciously have a finite set

of rules that “generate” a tree for any
sentence in the lg.
Phrase Structure Rules

1. S  NP VP [I love linguistics].
2. NP  Det N [The boy] had [a sister].
3. VP  V NP The child [found the puppy].
4. VP  V The man [danced]
5. VP  V PP The puppy [played in the garden]
6. PP  P NP A girl laughed [at the monkey].
7. VP  V CP The prof said [that he passed the exam].
8. CP  C S She asked [if they understood the lesson].
Conventions for building PS trees

The S occurs at the top/“root” of the tree

(upside down)

1. Find the rule with S on the left side of the

arrow and put the categories on the right
side below the S.
S
S  NP VP
NP VP
Conventions for building PS trees

2. Continue by matching any syntactic category at

the bottom of the tree to a category on the left
side of a rule.

NP  Det N NP VP

Det N
Conventions for building PS trees

3. then expand the tree with the categories

on the right side.

NP VP V  V NP
Det N V NP
4. Continue until none of the categories at
the bottom of the tree appears on the left
side of any rule.

NP VP

Det N V NP NP  Det N

Det N
 The boy left.
 (Rule 4: VP V)

 The wind blew the kite.

 (Rule 6: VP V NP)

 The senator hopes that the bill passes.

 (Rule 7: VP V CP)
PS Rules generate sentences
4. VP  V The woman laughed.
 S The man danced.

NP VP The horse galloped.

Det N V The baby slept.

The puppy ran.
the woman laughed
The session ended.
……...
Sentence generation by PS Rules
5. VP  V PP The puppy played in the garden.
6. PP  P NP The boat sailed up the river.
S
NP VP
Det N V PP
A girl laughed P NP
at Det N
the monkey
Complementizer (C) that
7. VP  V CP The prof said that the student passed the exam.
8. CP  C S

The teacher asked if the students understood the lesson.

I don’t know whether I should talk about this.