1. PHRASE STRUCTURE RULES
Marc Kenneth L Marquez
MAEd- ELT

2. Basic Concepts Every word belongs to a lexical category.
Lexical categories form heads of phrases.
A phrase is built up around a single word (head), which extends it’s properties to the entire phrase.
Phrases are generated by rules of the grammar (phrase structure rules). In a tree, each subtree needs to correspond (ie “be licensed”) by a phrase structure rule in the grammar. (Crowgey, 2012)

3. Phrase Structure Rules illustrate mathematically our knowledge of how the basic units of a sentence are assembled. The theory of rules states that there is a limited number of rules that are carefully ordered:
There is a limited number of rules which serve to reflect the linguistic competence and knowledge of a native speaker.
These rules are arranged in order: rule 1 must precede rule 2, which must precede rule 3, etc.
These rules can be illustrated in phrase structure trees.
These rules can be equated mathematically in phrase structure rules.

4. What came before Phrase Structure Rules?
The predecessor to phrase structure rules was an approach to syntax used by structural linguists called “immediate constituent analysis,” which accounted for the linear order of words on the surface and the hierarchical structure of the sentence. It was based on the principle that words enter into relationship with one another within coherent units known as constituents, the proper subparts of sentences.
An even older form of phrase structure grammar is the sentence diagramming of traditional grammar.

5. Argument against Immediate Constituent Analysis
Noam Chomsky argued that immediate constituent analysis, though not wrong, was insufficient since it dealt only with surface order. It could not account for the relation between an active and corresponding passive sentence or a declarative and corresponding interrogative sentence.

6. PHRASE STRUCTURE RULES FOR THE AUXILIARY

7. auxiliary

8. AUXILIARY + VERB
a. John wrote a book. (past tense + write = wrote)
b. John should write a book. (modal should + write = should write)
c. John has written a book. (pres tense + perfect have…-en + write= has written)
d. John is writing a book. (pres tense + progressive be…-ing + write = is writing)
e. John is going to write a book. ( pres tense + phrasal modal be going to + write= is going to write)
f. Write a book! (imperative mood + write = write)

9. g. John had to be writing a book
g. John had to be writing a book. (AUX = past tense, phrasal modal, and progressive aspect)
h. John has been writing a book (AUX = present tense, perfect and progressive aspects)
i. John should have written a book. (AUX = modal and perfect aspect)
j. John will have been writing a book (AUX = modal, perfect and progressive aspects)
k. John will have to have written a book.(AUX = modal, phrasal modal, and perfect aspect)
l. John had to have been writing a book.(AUX = past tense, phrasal modal, perfect and progressive aspects)

10. perfect and progressive aspects
Thus, we can summarize the relationships as:
tense
phrasal modal
modal
perfect and progressive aspects
imperative mood

11. perfect and progressive aspects
tense
phrasal modal
perfect and progressive aspects

12. phrasal modal
Phrasal modals (have to, be able to, etc.), also called preriphrastic modals, pseudo modals, or quasi-modals, are multiword forms ending in infinitive to which function semantically like true modals.
modal
Modals (can, will, would, etc.) are tenseless auxiliaries that take no subject-verb agreement and no infinitive to before the verb that follows.

13. imperative mood
Imperatives are commands, also known as directives, whose function is to get someone to do something. (note: diffuse imperatives, let’s imperatives, etc.)

14. It carries tense, mood, modality, and
Why do we have a separate node for the elements?
Auxiliary is syntactically very important in forming interrogative and negative sentences.
It carries tense, mood, modality, and
and accounts for most of the morphological
complexity in English.
AUX
voice

15. PHRASE STRUCTURE RULES FOR THE VERB PHRASE

16. verb phrase

17. noun phrase
copula
adjective phrase
prepositional phrase

18. AUX carries the tense (and number)
is a teacher (be) a teacher
is very pretty (be) very pretty
is in the rest room (be) in the rest room
d. gave the money to Sally (give) the money to Sally
e. gave Sally the money (give) Sally the money
AUX carries the tense (and number)

19. copula
verb

20. SYNTACTIC ROLES OF NPs IN PREDICATE

21. NPs can function as OBJECTS and PREDICATES
a. direct objects Jim read a book. b. indirect objects Sarah gave me some flowers. c. objects of prepositions Sam lives in a big house.
a. Subject noun predicates Jan is a teacher. b. Object noun predicates We elected Sam treasurer. NP

22. SYNTACTIC ROLES OF PrepPs IN PREDICATE

23. PrepP in NP : a man of honor, an ounce of vodka
Prepositional phrases (PrepP) can be generated as parts of (a) noun phrases, (b) verb phrases, (c) adjective phrases, (d) adverbials, or (e) object noun predicates:
PrepP in NP : a man of honor, an ounce of vodka
PrepP in VP : be in the house, give the book to Mavis
PrepP in AP : fond of cats
PrepP in advl : do laundry on Saturday
PrepP in object noun predicate : take the flowers on the table
We can only generate prepositional phrases under the verb phrase in the following cases:
a. where the PrepP follows the copular verb be and predicates something of the subject NP, such as:
John is in his room.
b. where the PrepP is needed to complete the argument structure of a verb
intransitive verb : The baby lay in the crib.
transitive verb : She handed the letter to Mr. Blake.
PrepP

24. TRANSFORMATIONS IN PHRASE STRUCTURE RULES

25. Q: How are superficially different sentences closely related
Q: How are superficially different sentences closely related? A: Transformation
Every language has a set of basic or kernel sentences [simple, (one clause), active, declarative, positive sentences]. All other sentences in the language could be described as reflecting systematic changes or transformations of the underlying structure underlying one of these basic sentences. a. Chris won the fellowship. b. The fellowship was won by Chris. c. Did Chris win the fellowship? d. Chris did not win the fellowship. e. Wasn’t the fellowship won by Chris?

26. Phrase Structure Grammar generates kernel, more abstract sentences
(Deep Structure)
Transformations operate on kernel sentences to generate non-kernel sentences
(Surface Structures)
The dog bit the cat. (D-Structure) The cat was bitten by the dog (S-Structure)
where an optional transformation called “passive/passivization” has applied

27. Negation and “NOT” Placement
mapping rules

28. Yes/No Questions
Q placement
mapping rules

29. Imperatives
mapping rules
“you” placement

30. Wh-Questions
Q-wh placement

31. Passive Voice
“pass” placement

32. SENTENCE DERIVATION

33. MAPPING and MAPPING RULES
Phrase structure rules generate the basic structure to which lexical items are added to complete the representation of the sentence. In many cases, changes must be made on the output of the phrase structure rules to produce grammatical English sentences.
MAPPING and MAPPING RULES

34. mapping rules

35. output : John –pres have to be –en work –ing in the library
copy s/t : John –pres [+3+ sg] have to be –en work –ing in the library
morphology : John has to have been working in the library.
number
person

36. INTRODUCTION TO TRANFORMATIONAL-GENERATIVE GRAMMAR

37. What is Generative Grammar?
Generative Grammar is a linguistic theory which describes a set of rules to use sequence of words properly to form grammatical sentences. The Generative grammar thus includes the studying particular rules in relation to the syntax and morphology of sentences in a language. Generative grammar is the basis of the study of different grammars such as transformational grammar, tree-adjoining grammar, relational grammar, categorical grammar among others.

38. What is Transformational Grammar related to Generative Grammar?
Transformational Grammar is looked upon as one of the approaches to generative grammar which describes a language with the help of transformational rules. It involves logical reasoning to understand fully the meaning of the selected words. As such transformational grammar goes a step ahead of structural grammar which focuses more on the sentence structures used for communication. Apart from the use of correct sentence structure, transformational grammar analyses the words with reference to its underlying thoughts. Transformational grammar employs most of the linguistic tools such as syntax and context to explore the possible meanings of words.

39. STRUCTURAL AMBIGUITY AND RECURSION

40. Q: How are superficially similar sentences different
Q: How are superficially similar sentences different? A: Structural Ambiguity
a. SYNTACTICAL AMBIGUITY – more than one possible structure for the same string of words. I saw a man with a telescope. (Who has the telescope, me or the man?) We need more intelligent leaders. (need more or more intelligent?) b. MORPHOLOGICAL AMBIGUITY – a form has more than one morphological interpretations a. un-lockable = [un- [lock-able]] = that cannot be locked b. unlock-able = [[un-lock] -able] = that can be unlocked c. LEXICAL AMBIGUITY (homonymity) – a word has more than one meaning. Did you see the bat? (the animal or the object) Where is the bank? (the riverbank or the institution)

42. 1. The rule (a) licenses a PP.
Recursion can be a thought of as a process of “looping back” or “feeding oneself,” which makes it possible for an infinite number of rules to produce any number of phrases and sentences.
(a) NP (Det) (A) N (PP)
(b) PP P NP
1. The rule (a) licenses a PP.
2. This PP is described by the rule (b), which requires an NP.
3. This NP is again described by rule (a), which again allows PP.
4. This PP is described by the rule (b), which requires an NP.
5. ………………
These two rules taken together generate many phrases including:
The book on the shelf in the corner in the bedroom of my house in LA .

43. EVIDENCES AND TESTS OF SYNTACTIC CONSTITUENTHOOD

44. Substitution
The most basic test for syntactic constituenthood is the substitution test. The reasoning behind the test is simple.
A constituent is any syntactic unit, regardless of length or syntactic category.
A single word is the smallest possible constituent belonging to a particular syntactic category.
So if a single word can substitute for a string of several words, that is evidence that the word and the string are constituents of the same category.

45. Syntactic Phrases

46. Syntactic Phrases
Movement
If it is possible to move a particular string from its ordinary position to another position - typically, the beginning of the sentence - that, too, is evidence that the string is a constituent. In order to make the result of movement completely acceptable, it's sometimes necessary to use a special intonation or to invoke a special discourse context, especially in the case of noun phrases.

47. Syntactic Phrases

48. Questions and Short Answers
Syntactic Phrases
Questions and Short Answers
Another diagnostic for whether a string is a constituent is whether the string can function as a short answer to a question. The question itself also functions as a diagnostic test, since we can think of it as being derived by substitution of a question word for a string, with subsequent movement of the question.

49. Syntactic Phrases

50. Syntactic Phrases
It Clefts
We begin by noting that ordinary sentences can often be divided into two parts: a part that contains background information that is presupposed, the ground, and a part that is intended to be particularly informative, the focus. In spoken language, this focus-ground partition (also known as its information structure) is generally conveyed by intonation. In written language, where intonation is difficult to represent, it is still possible to indicate a sentence's information structure by fitting the focus and the ground into a syntactic frame consisting of it, a form of the copula to be, and the subordinating conjunction that.

51. Syntactic Phrases
In the examples in (15), the frame is in black, the ground is in blue, and the focus is in red. Notice that a single sentence can be partitioned into focus and ground in more than one way, giving rise to more than one it cleft.

52. SUMMARY OF THE PHRASE STRUCTURE RULES