Intro Handouts - syntax lectures

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SYNTAX : BASIC CONCEPTS

1. Word Classes.
Important terms: lexical content class, functional class, open/closed class, agreement

2. (Immediate) Constituent ("IC") Structure
Constituents are linguistic units which are components of larger units. A syntactic
consituent can be a word or a group of words which form a larger syntactic unit.

Tests for constituency:
1. If a string of words is subject to a syntactic rule, it is a constituent. Example:

syntactic rule of topicalisation in English:
I cant stand her ---->
her, I cant stand

I cant stand his girlfriend
His girlfriend, I cant stand
*Girlfriend, I cant stand his


2. Substitution: if you can substitute a string of words for a single word, that suggests
that the string is a constituent of the same type as the single word. Constituents of the
same type are distributionally equivalent. Example:

[the soloist] [played a doleful tune]

string
1. 'a doleful tune' can be substituted by, e.g."it"
2. 'played a doleful tune' can be substituted by, e.g "left"
3. 'the soloist' can be substituted by, e.g "he"

a; doleful; tune; are IC's of constituent 1; played; a doleful tune (constituent 1);
are IC's of constituent 2, the soloist (3); played a doleful tune (2) are IC's of the
Sentence. (Notice that constituents 3 and 1 are identical by virtue of their potential
structure).
So we end up with the parsing:
[[the] [soloist]] [[played] [[a] [doleful] [tune]]]
But you must be careful with this test! John stalked out of the room and John left
the room do not have the same IC structure. The first test is a surer one.
Intro Handouts - syntax lectures

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2. Phrase Structure ("PS") is a system of rules which formalises (=makes explicit) the constituent
structure of a sentence.

Some important constituents in English:

N (noun) {boy, girl, house, table...}
V (verb) {laugh, run, hit, see...}
DET (determiner) {the, a, this, some...}
ADJ (adjective) {big, red, good, angry...}
PREP (preposition) {in, on, under, before...}
NP (noun phrase) constituent whose main member (head) is an N.
VP (verb phrase) constituent whose main member (head) is a V.
PP (prepositional phrase) constituent whose main member (head) is a P.



Structure of the NP in English (simplified)

the big fat hairy monster DET ADJ ADJ ADJ N
those remarkable inventions DET ADJ N
incredible dexterity ADJ N
my lovely flowers DET ADJ N
him N
the bunyip DET N
tables N


PS rules generalising over the above data:

(Note the formulaic conventions: {x,y } = a disjunction -- either x or y ; (x) = x is optional; X* any
number of X, including 0.)

s NP POSS
* PP N * ADJ
POSS
DET
NP

|
|

\
|
)
`

Intro Handouts - syntax lectures

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Some simplified PS rules for English and their application.

1. S ----> NP VP
2. VP ----> V (NP) (PP)
3. NP ----> see above
4. PP ----> P NP


S

NP VP

Det N V NP PP

the soloist played Det Adj N P NP

a doleful tune on Det N

his flute

3. Transformations
Not all sentences in English can be adequately accounted for by phrase structure rules
of this sort. These assignments, Ive already marked is best thought of as being
related to the more basic Ive already marked those assignments by a process
which is called a transformation (named topicalization).

4. Sentences containing more than one clause

The structure of some sentences can be understood to have resulted from the joining
together of two or more simple sentences or clauses.

There are two main types of sentences which consist of more than one clause:
compound and complex. Compound sentences involve co-ordination while complex
sentences involve subordination.

1) Co-ordination. Two simple sentences added together or 'conjoined'. He stood up
and she left the room (< He stood up. She left the room.); He ran but I caught him (<
He ran. I caught him.) Sentences joined by co-ordination are compound sentences.

2) Subordination. One simple sentence 'embedded' in another (replacing or
modifying a simpler unit in the matrix sentence). The embedded clause is called the
subordinate clause and the clause into which it is embedded is called the matrix
(sometimes main) clause. One important type of subordination is
complementation. A complement is an essential non-verbal part of a sentence, such
as the man in I see the man. We speak of complementation when a complement is
an entire clause, as in I see that you did the job. Any sentence that involves
subordination is a complex sentence.


Intro Handouts - syntax lectures

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Some examples of analysis of compound and complex sentences.




S
C o n j o i n i n g : P S r u l e : S - > S ( c o n j S ) *
S S
c o n j
a n d
N P
N P
V P
V P
w a s h e d
t h e m
N
N
h e
s h e
t h e
V
N P
D e t
N
d i s h e s
V
N P
N
d r i e d

Complementising PS rule: VP V
NP
S'




`
)
|
\

|

|
PP *
(Replaces earlier VP rule)


PS rule expanding S: S' Comp S
(Addition to earlier rules)


S

NP VP

N V S

I see Comp S

that NP VP

N V NP

you did Det N

the job

Intro Handouts - syntax lectures

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SYNTAX 2: GRAMMATICAL RELATIONS

1. The need for grammatical relations
Semantic relations are recoverable from formal properties of the sentence, but only indirectly.
We need an intermediate level of grammatical relations (subject, object, etc.) The NP directly
before the verb in English is always the subject, but its semantic role depends on which
semantic role is linked to the grammatical relation subject for a given verb. Processes like
passivization change the grammatical relations, but not the semantic roles.

Schematically, we assume:
Semantic roles (determined by verb)

linking determined by verb

Grammatical relations
encoding determined by general principles
of a particular language

Form (position, number agreement)

2. The encoding of grammatical relations
Grammatical relations are encoded differently in different languages. There are three basic
strategies:
1. Constituent order (word order)
English, Vietnamese, etc.

2. Cross-referencing (agreement)
Huichol, Zulu, etc.

3. Case marking
Malayalam, Latin, Warlpiri, etc.

The form that processes such as passivization takes in a given language will depend on the
strategy for encoding grammatical relations.

Examples used:
(1) The man bites the dog
(2) The dog bites the man
(3) The dog was bitten by the man
(4) The dog bites the man
(5) The dog bites the men
(6) The dogs bite the man
(7) The dogs bite the men
(8) *The dog bite the men
(9) The man was bitten by the dog
(10) The men were bitten by the dog
(11) *The man were bitten by the dogs
(12) I saw it
(13) I heard it
(14) No one benefits from this situation
(15) This situation benefits no one
(16) I learned from the experience
(17) *The experience learned me
(18) I've already corrected these assignments. Those ones, I'll do at
home.
(19) taame eek te-meci-zeiya
we you 1pl 2sg see (Huichol)
We see you
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(20) kuti aanaye aar aaiccu (Malayalam)
child elephant worshipped
(nom) (acc)
The child worshipped the elephant (Malayalam)
(21) aanaye kuti aar aaiccu
elephant child worshipped
(acc) (nom)
The child worshipped the elephant
(22) kutiyal aana aar aaikkappeu (Malayalam)
child elephant was-worshipped
(instr) (nom)
The elephant was worshipped by the child
(23) yugu-ngun bayan dumbi (Guugu Yimidhirr)
tree erg house broke
A O
The tree crushed the house
(24) yugu buli (Guugu Yimidhirr)
tree fell
S
The tree fell
(25) yarra-ngun yugu bandi (Guugu Yimidhirr)
boy (erg) tree chop
A O
The boy chopped down the tree
Intro Handouts - syntax lectures

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SYNTAX 3: CONSTITUENT ("WORD") ORDER TYPOLOGY

(a) Typological parameters of order of core constituents (Subject NP, Verb,
Object NP: S V O (English, French); S O V (Japanese, Tibetan);
V S O (Irish); V O S (Malagasy); O S V (?some Amazon languages);
O V S (Hixkaryana).
(b) Other parameters and correlations


PARAMETERS:
RELATIVE
ORDER OF...

Gloss
IRISH (V S O) JAPANESE (S O V)
1 V, O



John is
writing a
letter
T Sen ag scrobh litir
is at writing
V S O
Jon wa tegami o kaite imasu
letter write pol. pres
S O V
2
Adj, Noun:


red book leabhar dearg
N Adj
akai hon
Adj N
3
Head N, Relative
Clause:
The man
who came
yesterday
an fear a thnig
inn
the man Rel Pro came yest.
Head N Rel Clause
kinoo kita hito
yest. came person
Rel Clause Head

4
Possessor, N:

The horse's
leg
cos an chapail
leg the horse (gen)
N Possessor
uma no ashi
horse gen leg
Possessor N

5
Adposition, N:

on the table ar an mbord
on the table
Prep N
teeburu no ue ni
table (gen) top on
N Postp

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Comparative
Adj,
standard of
comparison:
the table is
bigger than
the book
is m an bord
is bigger the table
Comp Adj

n an leabhar
than the book
Standard

teeburu wa hon yori
book than
Standard

ookii
big
Comp Adj


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Aux, Main Verb: he is
reading a
book
N.A.
(T s ag lamh leabhair)
V he at reading of a book

ano hito wa hon o
that person book

yonde imasu.
read pres polite.
V Aux

Intro Handouts - syntax lectures

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8
Adverb, Verb. he speaks
slowly
labhronn s go mall
speak he slowly
V Adv
ano hito wa
that person

yukkuri hanasimasu
quickly speak
Adv V