SYNTAX

WHAT IS SYNTAX? The scientific study of sentence structures How words are assembled to form meaningful and grammatical utterances Syntactic rules in a grammar account for the grammaticality of sentences, and the ordering of words and morphemes. WHAT IS SYNTAX?

A hierarchically organized structure of words that maps sound to meaning and vice versa. What is a sentence?

Rules: A kind of hypothesis A group of rules is called a Grammar. A grammar in the linguistic sense is a cognitive structure. It is the part of mind that generates and understands language. Rules: A kind of hypothesis

The role of words in a sentence English word order Subject Verb Object (SVO) The boy kicked the ball ?The ball kicked the boy Ahmad hired Ah Seng Ah Seng hired Ahmad *book the *Men are *Talked in The role of words in a sentence

Visiting cousins ARE boring. vs Visiting cousins IS boring Visiting cousins ARE boring. vs Visiting cousins IS boring. Subject verb agreement allows us to disambiguate here.

Recursion Rules can be applied more than once in generating sentences E.g. repeat prepositional phrase more than once The gun was on the table near the window in the bedroom in the pink house Put sentences inside sentences This is the cat that ate the rat that ate the cheese that was sold by the man that lived in the city that was on the river… No end to recursion- produce longer complex sentences Recursion

Syntactical knowledge Humans can understand & produce an infinite number of sentences they never heard before “Some dragonflies are starting to tango in the garden” Our grammar can understand and produce long sentences “John said that he thought that the esteemed leader of the house had it in mind to tell the unfortunate vice president that the calls that he made from the office in the White House that he thought was private…..” Syntactical knowledge

Syntax and meaning Non-sense sentences with clear syntax Colorless red ideas eat furiously. A noun crumpled the milk. I gave the question a scuba-diving bottle. *Furiously eat ideas red colorless. *Milk the crumpled *the question I a bottle scuba-diving gave. Sentences are composed of discrete units that are combined by rules. These rules explain how speakers can store infinite knowledge in a finite space- brain. Syntax and meaning

Noam Chomsky 1950s Generative = a very explicit system of rules specifying what combinations of basic elements result in well-formed sentences. Generative Grammar = a group of rules that generate the sentences of a language Defines the syntactic structure of a language. Generative Grammar

Productivity of language Phrase structure rules Transformational rules Productivity of language

One aspect of the syntactic structure of sentences is the division of a sentence into phrases, and those phrases into further phrases, and so forth. Another aspect of the syntactic structure of a sentence is "movement" relations that hold between one syntactic position in a sentence and another. Sentence Structure

Phrase structure rules Some words seem to belong together: {The man} {is reading a book} Groups of words that belong together are called constituents The component that determines the properties of the constituent is the head, and the constituent can be referred to as a phrase: e.g. noun phrase Phrase structure rules

Phrase Structure Rules If we look at phrases, some patterns emerge: Det N the instructor = NP Det N a friend = NP some homework = NP two classes = NP Phrase Structure Rules

Phrase Structure Rules some more patterns: V Det N call the instructor= VP V Det N meet a friend = VP V Det N do some homework = VP V Det N skip two classes = VP Phrase Structure Rules

Phrase Structure Rules and yet more patterns: Prep Det N with the instructor= PP Prep Det N from a friend = PP with some homework = PP Prep Det N after two classes = PP Phrase Structure Rules

Phrase Structure Rules Rules for determining the structure of phrases Generate a lot of sentences from a small number of rules. The structure of a phrase will consist of one or more constituents in a certain order. What does a NP consist of? “noun phrases have a Det and a N” NP Det N Phrase Structure Rules

We need lexical rules to specify which words can be used when we rewrite constituents such as N. PN {Mary, George} N {girl, boy, dog} Art Pro Lexical Rules

Phrase Structure Rules V Det N V Det N V Det N run a marathon eat the food read the book V Prep Det N V Prep Det N go to the store talk with a teacher V Det N Prep Det N take your sister to the library “Verb phrases have a V, (sometimes) an NP, and (sometimes) a PP” VP -> V (NP) (PP) Phrase Structure Rules

Phrase Structure Rules 1. S  NP VP 2. NP  {Det N, Pro, PN} 3. VP  V (NP) (PP) (Adv) 4. PP  P NP 5. AP  A (PP) Phrase Structure Rules

Phrase Structure Rules & tree diagrams NP  (Det) N PP  P NP the boy in the yard NP The boy (NP) Det N Det N PP The boy P NP Det N The boy in the yard

Phrase Structure Rules VP  V (NP) (PP) S  NP VP took the money from the bank VP took the money (VP) V NP V NP PP Det N Det N P NP took the money Det N took the money from the bank

Example (1) The old tree swayed in the wind S NP VP Det Adj N V PP P

Example (2) The children put the toy in the box S NP VP Det N V NP PP

Example 3

Deep and surface structure The deep structure is an abstract level of structural organization in which all the elements determining structural interpretation are represented. Sentences that have alternative interpretations Sentences that have different surface forms but have the same underlying meaning. Surface structure= how the sentence is actually represented Deep and surface structure

Surface structure is the actually produced structure Surface structure is the actually produced structure. In Bussman's (1996: 465-466) words, it is the directly observable actual form of sentences as they are used in communication, and from the perspective of transformational grammar, surface structure is a relatively abstract sentence structure resulting from the application of base rules and transformational rules.

The relationship between deep structure and surface structure is that of transformation. Since the relationship is usually a complicated one, we can best use transformational rules in the total process of relating deep structure to surface structures.

Deep and surface structure How superficially different sentences are closely related? Charlie broke the window. The window was broken by Charlie Charlie who broke the window. Was the window broken by Charlie? Difference in their surface structure = difference in syntactic forms BUT they have the same ‘deep’ or underlying structure Deep and surface structure

Structural Ambiguity (1) The boy saw the man with the telescope NP VP Det N V NP PP Det N P NP Det N The boy saw the man with the telescope Meaning: Using the telescope, the boy saw the man

Structural Ambiguity (1) The boy saw the man with the telescope NP VP Det N V NP PP Det N P NP Det N The boy saw the man with the telescope Meaning: Using the telescope, the boy saw the man

Transformational Rules

Exercises In what way are these sentences ambiguous? We met an English history teacher Flying planes can be dangerous Exercises