1. Syntax III
March 27, 2012

2. Just So You Know Phonology homeworks will be graded by Thursday.
Syntax homework will also be posted on Thursday…
And will be due the following Tuesday.
Let’s check out the remaining practice sentences for syntax…

3. There is no “I” in “verb”
In English, the I slot may be explicitly filled with auxiliary verbs:
be {am, are, is, was, were}
have {has, had}
Verbs following auxiliaries bear affixes marking them for tense {am going, has gone} or voice {is gone}.
Modals are a special kind of auxiliary verb:
will, would, can, could, shall, should, may, might, must, (do/did)
Verbs following modals are always in their root (infinitive) form. {I must go; I could go; etc.}

4. Potential Problems
There are some limitations on the extent to which the syntactic rules can ignore the specific words that fit into each phrase.
Example (from last week’s Quick Write):
Is it possible to “swim a carcass”?

5. Sub-categorization
It turns out that it is necessary to break lexical categories down further, into sub-categories.
For instance, some verbs must be followed by a noun phrase:
I devoured the sandwich. *I devoured.
I invited the teacher. *I invited.
Other verbs must not be followed by a noun phrase:
I sprinted. *I sprinted the ball.
I slept. *I slept the dog.
I danced. *I danced the horse.

6. Verb Sub-Category #1
Intransitive Verbs (Vi): must not be followed by an NP
= they do not take an object NP as a complement.
VP  Vi
 *VP  Vi NP
Examples: sneeze, fall, elapse, snorkel
Good: The boy slept.
Bad: *The boy slept the dog.
Good: The girl fell.
Bad: *The girl fell the dog.

7. Verb Sub-Category #2 Transitive Verbs (Vt): must be followed by an NP
= they must take an object NP as a complement.
VP  Vt NP
 *VP  Vt
Examples: devour, defy, harm, invite
Good: The children harmed the dog.
Bad: *The children harmed.
Good: The zombies devoured the vampires.
Bad: *The zombies devoured.

8. Verb Sub-Category #3
Ditransitive Verbs (Vdt): must be followed by two objects
= either two NPs or a combination of {NP, PP}.
VP  Vdt NP NP
 *VP  Vt
Examples: give, sell, send, put
Good: The boy gave the dog a bone.
Bad: *?The boy gave the dog.
Alternative: The students sold a chew toy to the professor.

9. A + N Sub-categories
Adjectives and nouns can have complement requirements, too--often for particular PPs:
Mary is fond of John.
*Mary is fond.
*Mary is fond by John.
Some nouns require specific prepositional phrases:
George talked about our reliance on oil.
*George talked about our reliance.
*George talked about our reliance for oil.
This information has to be included in the lexicon for each word.

10. Verb Sub-Category #4 Sentential Verbs (Vs):
= include a sentence in their complement.
Examples: know, believe, wonder, think…
Marge thinks that [Homer ate the cake]IP.
Don wondered whether [Sidney scored a goal]IP.
Phoebe believed that [Chandler married Monika]IP.
Gandalf knew if [Frodo had the ring]IP.
Notice that the sentence in the VP complement is always preceded by a funny kind of word:
that, whether, if…

11. Complementizer Phrases
New lexical category: complementizers (C).
Ex: if, that, whether
Complementizers function as the heads of complementizer phrases. (CPs)
The complement of the CP is another IP (sentence).
Ex: Marge thinks [that [Homer ate the cake]IP]CP.
Matrix clause = highest-level sentence
“Marge thinks…”
Complement, or embedded clause = within the CP
“Homer ate the cake.”

12. CP Example matrix clause IP NP I’ Marge I VP [-past] V’ CP V C’
thinks C IP
that NP I’
Homer I VP
[+past] V’
V NP
ate the cake
embedded clause
CP Example

13. Infinite Recursion, part 2
It is possible to create infinitely long sentences by embedding complementizer clauses within complementizer clauses…
John said [that Mary thought [that Robin knew [that Angela hoped [that Quinton wished [that Bronwen believed that…]]]]]
VP  V CP V CP
CP  C IP V C IP
IP  NP VP V C NP VP
VP  V CP V C NP V CP
etc.

14. Infinite Recursion, part 3
There is one other (very boring) way to produce inifinitely long sentences in language:
I like baseball and basketball and hockey and football and soccer and rugby and cricket and ultimate and polo and lacrosse….
Sentences like this take advantage of the syntactic phenomenon of coordination.
Coordination combines phrases or words of the same type with a conjunction (and, but, or…)
to create a phrase or word of the same type.
General coordination rule: Xn  Xn Con Xn

15. Coordination Examples
NP  NP and NP
NP  The fat man and the little boy
VP  VP or VP
VP  fish or cut bait
IP IP but IP
IP  Ringo plays drums but Paul plays bass.
Coordination of individual words works the same way:
P  P and P
She went [[above]P and [beyond]P]P the call of duty.

16. Ambiguity
Coordination can lead to a very simple kind of structural ambiguity.
 I like green eggs and ham.
Interpretation #1: just the eggs are green.
I like [[green eggs]NP and [ham]NP]NP.
Interpretation #2: both the eggs and ham are green.
I like [green [[eggs]N’ and [ham]N’]NP.
Let’s check out the trees…

17. Interpretation #1 Only the eggs are green: IP NP I’ Pro I VP
I [-past] V’
V NP
like NP Con NP
AP N’ and ham
green N
eggs

18. Interpretation #2 Both the eggs and ham are green: IP NP I’ Pro I VP
I [-past] V’
V NP
like AP N’
green N’ Con N’
N and N
eggs ham

19. Further Ambiguity Let’s try another one:
The police shot the terrorists with rifles.
Why is this sentence ambiguous?
(How can you describe the ambiguity, structurally?)
Interpretation #1: the terrorists have rifles.
[with rifles] is a PP embedded in the object NP.
Interpretation #2: the police have rifles.
[with rifles] is a PP that modifies the main VP.
Let’s check out some more trees…

20. Interpretation #1 IP NP I’ the police I VP [+past] V’ V NP shot Det N’
the N PP
terrorists P’
P NP
with rifles
In this one, the terrorists have the rifles.

21. Interpretation #2 IP NP I’ the police I VP [+past] V’ PP V NP P’
shot Det N’ P NP
the N with rifles
terrorists
In this one, the police are using the rifles to shoot the terrorists.
The PP is a modifier of the VP here, not a complement.
= it’s not required by the verb.