1. Techniques of Grammatical Analysis
Rajat Kumar Mohanty
IIT Bombay

2. What is Grammar? A theory of language
A theory of competence of a native speaker
An explicit model of competence
A finite set of rules

3. What are the requirements?
A model of competence
Should be able to generate an infinite set of grammatical sentences of the language
Should not generate any ungrammatical ones
Should be able to account for ambiguities
If two sentences are understood to have same meaning, the grammar should give the same structure for both at some level
If two sentences are understood to have different internal relationship, the grammar should assign different structural description

4. Techniques of Grammatical Analysis
Two main devices
Breaking up a string
Sequential
Hierarchical
Transformational
Labeling the constituents
Morphological
Categorial
Functional
A grammar may combine any of these devices for grammatical analysis.

5. Breaking up Labeling Morphological Categorial Functional
Grammatical Analysis Techniques
Sequential
Hierarchical
Transformational
Morphological
Categorial
Functional

6. Breaking up and Labeling
Sequential Breaking up
Sequential Breaking up and Morphological labeling
Sequential Breaking up and Categorial labeling
Sequential Breaking up and Functional labeling
Hierarchical Breaking up
Hierarchical Breaking up and Categorial Labeling
Hierarchical Breaking up and Functional Labeling

7. Sequential Breaking up
This device breaks up a sentence into a sequence of morphemes
the + boy + s + kill + ed + the + un + happy + rat + s
raam + ne + dande + se + saap + ko + maar + aa
If a sentence is understood in two different ways, a grammar should give two corresponding descriptions
They + can + fish
They are able to fish
They put fish in cans

8. Sequential Breaking up and Morphological labeling
After breaking up a sentence, we can give morphological labels to each units
the + boy + s + kill + ed + the + un + happy + rat + s
word stem affix stem affix word affix stem stem affix
raam + ne + dande + se + saap + ko + maar + aa
word affix word affix word affix word affix

9. Sequential Breaking up and Categorical Labeling
This boy can solve the problem
This boy can solve the problem
Det N Aux V Det N S

10. Sequential Breaking up and Categorical Labeling (…continued)
They can fish
Pronoun Aux Verb
They can fish
Pronoun Verb Noun

11. Sequential Breaking up and Categorical Labeling (…continued)
They called her a taxi
Pronoun Verb Pronoun Article Noun
They said she was a taxi
They called a taxi for her

12. Sequential Breaking up and Functional labeling
They called her a taxi
Subject
Verbal IO DO
They called her a taxi
Object Complement
Subject
Verbal DO

13. Sequential Breaking up and Functional labeling (…continued)
Old men and women
modifier
Head
coordinator
Head

14. Hierarchical Breaking up
This device breaks up a sentence into its constituents at different hierarchies or levels
Old men and women
Old men and women
men and women
Old men
and
women
Old
men
and
women
Old
men

15. Hierarchical Breaking up and Categorial Labeling
Poor John ran away
ADJ N V
ADV NP VP

16. Hierarchical Breaking up and Functional Labeling
Immediate Constituent Analysis
Construction types in terms of the function of the constituents:
Predication (subject + predicate)
Modification (modifier + head)
Complementation (verbal + complement)
Subordination (subordinator + dependent unit)
Coordination (independent unit + coordinator + independent unit)

17. In the morning, the sky looked much brighter
Mod
Head
Mod
Head
Mod
Head
Verbal
Complement
Subject
Predicate
Sub DU
Head
Modifier

18. Hierarchical Breaking up and Categorial /Functional Labeling
Hierarchical Breaking up coupled with Categorial /Functional Labeling is a very powerful device
But there are ambiguities which demand something more powerful

19. Love of God Love of God Love of God Someone loves God
God loves someone
Love of God
Love of God
Head
Modifier
Noun Phrase
Prepositional Phrase
Sub- DU
love of
God
love of
God

20. Generative Grammar A generative grammar
generates all the grammatical sentences of the language
rejects all the ungrammatical ones
It is free to choose and combine any of the techniques of breaking up and labeling
Depending upon what tools the grammar combines, we have different types of grammar

21. Types of Generative Grammar
Finite State Model
(sequential)
Phrase Structure Model
(sequential + hierarchical)
Transformational Model
(sequential + hierarchical + transformational)

22. Phrase Structure Model
Inadequacies
Ambiguity
Paraphrase Relationship
Constructional Homonymy

23. Ambiguity
If a sentence is understood to have two meanings, a grammar should give two corresponding structural descriptions
PS grammar fails to meet this demand
The shooting of the hunters
The hunter shot someone
Someone shot the hunters

24. NP PP NP
Det N P NP
Det N
the
shooting of
the
hunters

25. Paraphrase Relationship
If two sentences are understood to have the same meaning, a grammar should give the same structural description for the two sentences at some level
PS grammar fails to meet this demand
Examples
The boy slapped the girl
The girl was slapped by the boy

26. S VP NP
Det N V NP
Det N
The
boy
slapped
the
girl

27. S VP NP
Det N V PP
Aux V P NP
The
girl
was
slapped by
the
boy

28. Constructional Homonymy
If two sentences are not understood the same way, a grammar should give two structural descriptions
PS grammar cannot do this
The audience was asked to leave by the side-door
The audience was asked to leave by the chairman

29. The audience was asked to leave by the S VP NP V Inf. Phr Det N Aux VPP P NP
Det N
The
audience
was
asked to
leave by
the
Side-door

30. The audience was asked to leave by the S VP NP V Inf. Phr Det N Aux VPP P NP
Det N
The
audience
was
asked to
leave by
the
Chairman

31. Transformational Model
If a generative grammar makes use of all the three
-sequential
-hierarchical and
-transformational
is called a Transformational grammar.

32. Transformational model
PS model
Makes use of PS rules exclusively
PS rules generate surface structure
Makes use of PS rules and transformational rules
PS rules generate DS
DS is converted into the surface structure by transformational rules

33. PS grammar
Surface Structure
PS rules
Transformational grammar
PS rules
Transformation
Deep Structure
Surface Structure

34. Why wasn’t he punished? PS rules: S  NP – VP VP  V - NP – PP
V  Aux – V
Aux (Tense)-(Modal)-(Perf)-(Prog)
Tense  {pres/past}
NP  (PreDet) - (Det) - (Ord) -(Quan) -(AP)-N
Lexical substitution

35. S VP NP VG NP PP
Aux V
Tense
Someone
past
punish
him
for some reason

36. Why wasn’t he punished? (…continued)
Transformations
Passivization
Agent deletion
Negation
Neg. Contraction
Wh- substitution
Interrogation
Wh- fronting
Affix switch

37. Passivization S VP NP VG PP PP
Aux V P NP N
Tense
Pass
for
Some
reason He
past be en
punish by
someone

38. Agent Deletion S VP NP VG PP
Aux V
Tense
Pass
for some reason He
past be en
punish

39. Negation S VP NP VG PP
Aux V
Tense
Pass
for some reason He
past be
not en
punish

40. Neg. Contraction S VP NP VG PP
Aux V
Tense
Pass
for some reason He
past
be’not en
punish

41. Wh- Substitution S VP NP VG WH
Aux V
Tense
Pass
why He
past
be’not en
punish

42. Interrogative S VP
Aux NP VG WH V
Tense
why
past
be’not he en
punish

43. Wh-fronting S VP WH
Aux NP VG V
Tense
why
past
be’not he en
punish

44. Affix switch S VP WH
Aux NP VG
Tense V
be’not
past
punish en
why
was’not he
punished

45. Suggested Readings Lyons, John. 1977. Chomsky. Fontana, London.
Palmer, Frank. Grammar
Crystal, David. Linguistics

46. THANK YOU
Q\A