Making it stick together… 690 Chapter 5: Syntax Making it stick together…

Quite a Complexion I am supposed to have been being…

Why Syntax?

Universal Grammar All languages have Words Rules Merge Move

Syntactic Category: NP _________ was given a flag. The son of Isabel and Sam Isabel’s son The boy Joe

Key Vocabulary Constituent Syntactic category Groups and subgroups of words that “go together” Syntactic category Constituents that can be substituted for one another with loss of grammaticality NP, PP, Art, Conj, S, VP, Adj, Pro…

Syntactic Category: VP Joe __________________. Finish the sentence

Key Vocabulary Constituent structure tree AKA: Phrase-structure tree Diagram of a phrase or sentence that reduces repetition by the use of syntactic category labels in the branches of a tree

Constituency Tests Substitution Relocation Conjunction …. but Pronoun Question Word Relocation Conjunction …. but Ambiguity All for 1 & 1 for all

Phrase Structure Rules: English NP  N Joe NP  Art + N the boy NP  Art + Adj+ N the big boy NP  Pro he N NP  Art (Adj)* + N Pro { }

Phrase Structure Rules: Cont’d NP  Art (Adj)* + N *the house red Spanish: la casa roja *la roja casa You tell me… a NP rule for Spanish

You tell me: *John found. John found a ball. John found a ball in the grass. *John found in the grass. A VP phrase-structure rule would be: VP  Vt + NP (PP)*

Key Vocabulary Phrase Structure Rules Lexical insertion rules Specify grammatical ways of putting sentences together Lexical insertion rules Match syntactic categories with words or morphemes at the bottom of a tree Subcategorization Restricts how lexical items can occur Examples: Transitive Verb: VP  Vt + NP (adj) Find, love, destroy Intransitive Verb: VP  Vi (adv)* Die, sleep

Ambiguity The son of Isabel and Sam You tell me… Where is the break for each meaning?

Tree Structure (Constituent Structure) The son of Isabel and Sam The son of Isabel and Sam the son of Isabel and Sam the son of Isabel

Tree Structure (Constituent Structure) The son of Isabel and Sam The son of Isabel and Sam the son of Isabel and Sam Isabel and Sam

Tree Structure (Constituent Structure)

Tree Structure (Constituent Structure) Noun Phrase Noun Phrase Prepositional Phrase Article Noun Preposition Noun Phrase the son of Noun Conj. Noun Isabel and Sam

Tree Structure (Constituent Structure) NP NP PP Det N P NP the son of N Conj. N Isabel and Sam

Joe got a flag S NP VP N I NP +pst V Det N Joe got a flag

You Tell Me… The man gave Joe a flag. S NP VP Det N I V NP NP +pst N Det N The man gave Joe a flag

Complement Clauses Universal Sentence embedded in a sentence Key words (English) That Whether If … This is the house that Jack built….

Transformations (Movement) Questions Yes / No Wh- Do Insertion CP C IP NP VP I V Adj -pst My students are smart

Key Vocabulary Transformational rule an operation that moves, deletes, or inserts a category a rule that applies to a syntactic tree to yield a new syntactic tree.

Additional Notes (value of trees) Structure Dependent Rules Surface words ≠ important Transformational rules  constituents Head NP agrees with Main VP Regardless of intervening structures Regardless of transformations

Syntax allows a NS to: produce and understand an infinite set of utterances distinguish between grammatical and ungrammatical strings interpret certain strings as well-formed grammatically but ill-formed semantically interpret certain strings as well-formed semantically but ill-formed grammatically understand the full meaning of a sentence from a string of words, which may not contain all the words necessary for an accurate interpretation perceive when two or more strings are synonymous (paraphrase) perceive structural ambiguity in a grammatical string account for grammatical and logical relations within a sentence Q: What’s the best way to help a NNS internalize the same?

Additional Structures Coordination Pulls two parts together Relatives Tells more about an NP Passives Changes the focus De-emphasizes or obscures the ‘actor’

Exercises 5 (you may want to do 3 & 4 as a lead in) 6 & 7 (as practice for later exercises) 9, 10 & 11 At least the first and last of each exercise 13 & 14 At least the first of each exercise

Tomorrow Grammar Safari Chapter 6: Semantics Find at least one in outside readings Y/N?, WH-?, DO insertion, Relative, Passive Copy (print screen) and bring to class Chapter 6: Semantics Understand trees, but don’t focus on them