Linguistic Group project
syntax
July 21, 2020
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Levels of linguistic organization
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Lexical categories
Also called word classes, word categories, parts of speech, etc.
NOTE: prepositions are a borderline case
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How to define lexical categories?
The traditional approach is based only on meaning:
NOUNS (N): refer to a person, thing, or place
VERBS (V): refer to an action, event, or process
ADJECTIVES (Adj): refer to a property
ADVERBS(Adv): refer to manner
Question: How would you define life? Or weather?
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Problems with the traditional approach
It is difficult to come up with definitions for many grammatical categories
E.g., not, okay, yes
Some words: cross-categorization
E.g., Saturday
This Saturday will be sunny. N
Our Saturday walks are a family tradition. Adj
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question
Suppose I introduce a new word broomelize. You don’t know the meaning of this word, but I tell you that it can be used in the following sentence:
Yesterday I broomelized with my friends.
What part of speech is broomelize?
A. Noun
B. Verb
C. Adjective
D. Preposition
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question
Suppose I introduce a new word broomelize. You don’t know the meaning of this word, but I tell you that it can be used in the following sentence:
Yesterday I broomelized with my friends.
What part of speech is broomelize?
A. Noun
B. Verb
C. Adjective
D. Preposition
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question
What part of speech is any word that can be put in the position of the blank:
I saw a very _____ woman.
A. Noun
B. Verb
C. Adjective
D. Preposition
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question
What part of speech is any word that can be put in the position of the blank:
I saw a very _____ woman.
A. Noun
B. Verb
C. Adjective
D. Preposition
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Nonce words
Glotty youfs sambolated in the wickersnacks.
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Nonce words
Glotty youfs sambolated in the wickersnacks.
What POS is sambolated?
Verb
What POS is youfs?
Noun
What POS is glotty?
Adjective
What POS is wickersnacks?
Noun
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Determining lexical category
MEANING: What is the meaning of the word?
FORM (morphology)
What does the word look like?
SYNTACTIC DISTRIBUTION (syntax)
Where does the word occur in a sentence?
What function does the word fulfill in the sentence?
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Sales
MEANING
FORM
SYNTACTIC DISTRIBUTION
Meaning & Form Syntactic Environment Syntactic Function 3 3 3
nouns
Semantic criteria: names for things (concrete or abstract)
common: book, envy, construction, etc.
proper: Kim, Canada, Santa Claus, etc.
Morphological criteria: marked for plural, like -s suffix in English
Exceptions: mass nouns, e.g. information (*informations) & moisture(*moistures)
irregular plurals, e.g. deer, mice, children
Syntactic criteria: can occur with determiners / can occur in the following frames in English:
They have no _________.
________ can be frightening.
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verbs
Semantic criteria: names for events, processes and states
Morphological criteria: marked for tense, like past tense -ed suffix in English
Exceptions: irregular past tense (do/did, buy/bought)
Syntactic criteria: occur in the following frames in English:
They might ______
I was happy or sad to ______
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adjectives
Semantic criteria: describing word which modifies a noun
Morphological criteria: may have comparative suffix -er or superlative suffix -est
e.g. kind-er, kind-est, fast-er, fast-est
Syntactic criteria: occur in the following frames in English:
Kim seems _______.
Kim's as _______ as Chris.
Kim is so/less _______.
Can also occur with degree modifiers
e.g. English: very heavy, too full, quite certain
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adverbs
Semantic criteria: modify adjectives, other adverbs and verbs
Morphological criteria: may have comparative suffix -er or superlative suffix -est (like Adj)
e.g. soon-er, soon-est
Syntactic criteria: occur in the following frames in English:
A _____ sad song.
They spoke as ______ as a mosquito .
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determiners
Nouns can occur with a determiner:
indefinite (article)* - a/an
definite (article)* - the
demonstratives - this/that/these/those
quantifiers - some/any/enough/no/all etc.
wh-determiners - what/which/whose etc.
numbers - one/two/three etc.
distributives - each/every/either/neither
*Yule text only covers articles, but it’s helpful to be aware of other types.
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adpositions
Semantic criteria: information concerning location/time (locative & temporal information)
e.g. under the bridge, before lunch
also optionally function as adverbials, modifying verbs, e.g. She sang in a loud voice.
Morphological criteria: don't have inflectional affixes in English, some other languages do
Syntactic criteria: combine with NPs to form prepositional or postpositional phrase (PP)
May have an object (transitive), e.g. The dog is [in [the car]]
May be used intransitively, e.g. The dog is [underneath]
May combine with closed-class modifiers, e.g. The weight is well/just inside the limit
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Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll
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Oh Freddled Gruntbuggly by Douglas Adams
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What is syntax?
Speakers do not simply memorize a list of sentences.
We can make or understand sentences that we have never heard before.
Syntax is about our mental grammar: how can we produce an unlimited number of sentences with a limited set of rules?
A sentence is not just a string of words (i.e. not linear)
It has a hierarchical organization (i.e. a tree structure)
Syntax is an investigation of this limited set of rules: how are words put together to make phrases and sentences?
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syntax
Syntax interacts with:
morphology
free vs. bound morphemes
inflectional vs. derivational morphemes
semantics (the study of meaning)
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Syntax
We are interested in:
syntactic universals – which properties are common to all languages, and
syntactic typology – classification of languages according to structural features
Two totally unrelated languages may display remarkably similar syntactic behaviour
Comparing similar syntactic processes in different languages lets us make hypotheses about how our mental grammar works
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Example
Mental grammars of native speakers: What do speakers think is ok in their language?
1. Who did you say John saw?
2. Who did you say that John saw?
3. Who did you say saw John?
4. *Who did you say that saw John?
*Asterisk – used to indicated ungrammaticality
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Grammaticality
Sequences of words that conform to the rules = well-formed or grammatical
Do not follow rules = *ill-formed or ungrammatical (marked with asterisk)
The ungrammaticality of (4) is based on the syntactic structure of the embedded clause; a rule that disallows that + empty subject
4. *Who did you say that ____ saw John?
Compare: 2. Who did you say that John saw?
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Grammaticality
Grammaticality does NOT depend on:
whether you heard the sentence before
whether the sentence “makes sense” or not
e.g. Colourless green ideas sleep furiously.
the truth of the sentence
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Newspaper headlines
DEALERS WILL HEAR CAR TALK AT NOON
JUVENILE COURT TO TRY SHOOTING DEFENDANT
COMPLAINTS ABOUT NBA REFEREES GROWING UGLY
KILLER SENTENCED TO DIE FOR SECOND TIME IN 10 YEARS
MAN EATING PIRANHA MISTAKENLY SOLD AS PET FISH
HOSPITALS ARE SUED BY 7 FOOT DOCTORS
ENRAGED COW INJURES FARMER WITH AX
SQUAD HELPS DOG BITE VICTIM
HERSHEY BARS PROTEST
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Hierarchical Structure & Structural Ambiguity
Humourous because they are ambiguous
If ambiguous, they must have 2 different structures to represent each meaning
Similar to morphological ambiguity, but now the ambiguity is at the sentence level (rather than within the morpheme)
And one more for you...
“I'm a linguist. I love ambiguity more than most people.”
Fahrettin Şirin as cited by Ben Zimmer on Language Log, May 15, 2012: http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=3959
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Word order
Syntactic knowledge lets us determine the grammatical relations in a sentence: subject, object, indirect object.
Subject Verb Object
Mary hired Bill.
Bill was hired by Mary.
Passive: object becomes subject and subject becomes indirect object.
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Grammatical Relations, Meaning Differences & Creativity
Syntactic rules reveal the grammatical relations among the words of a sentence and tell us when structural differences result in meaning differences and when they do not.
Compare: “Max hit Bob” vs “Bob hit Max”
Compare: “Mary hired Bill” vs “Bill was hired by Mary”
Syntactic rules also permit speakers to produce and understand a limitless number of sentences never produced or heard before – the creative aspect of language use.
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Grammatical relations and word order
Grammatical relations may interact with word order.
Languages can be distinguished by the order of the 3 main parts of a (transitive) sentence:
S = Subject
O = Object
V = Verb
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Word order in English
a. The penguin scored a goal. SVO
b. * The penguin a goal scored. SOV
c. * Scored the penguin a goal. VSO
d. * Scored a goal the penguin . VOS
e. * A goal scored the penguin . OVS
f. A goal, the penguin scored. OSV
SVO (OSV only possible with emphasis)
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Word orders in world languages
There are 6 logically possible word orders, but there are not equal distributions in the world's languages:
very common SOV, SVO
rarer VSO, VOS
almost non-existent OVS, OSV
SO favoured (subject saliency, Comrie 1989)
SO 96% (SOV, SVO, VSO)
OS 4% (VOS, OVS, OSV)
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Summary
The syntactic rules in a grammar account for:
1. The grammaticality of sentences
2. Hierarchical organization of sentences
3. Grammatical relations (subject, object)
4. Word order
5. Whether different structures have the same meaning
6. The creative aspect of language
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Constituency tests
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Constituents
The man with the yellow hat loves George.
George loves the man with the yellow hat.
The string the man with the yellow hat is a syntactic constituent or phrase (it functions as a unit within a hierarchical structure).
The string yellow hat loves is not a constituent.
A constituent may in turn contain smaller constituents.
E.g., the yellow hat is also a constituent.
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constituents
How do we decide whether a certain string of words is a constituent or not?
Our “gut feeling” isn’t enough
We need syntactic evidence: constituency tests
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Constituency tests
1. Movement
Only a constituent can be moved as a unit.
One kind of movement test: swap the subject and the object by making the sentence passive:
The monkey fooled the man with the yellow hat. [active]
The man with the yellow hat was fooled by the monkey. [passive]
Another movement test: cleft sentences:
It was the monkey who/that fooled the man with the yellow hat.
It was the man with the yellow hat who/that the monkey fooled.
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Constituency tests
2. Replacement (proform test)
Only a constituent can be replaced by a single proform (for instance, a pronoun).
I like the man with the yellow hat very much.
I like him very much.
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Constituency tests
3. Coordination/Conjunction
A constituent can be coordinated (= conjoined) with another constituent of the same category.
The man with the yellow hat was dancing on the table.
The man with the yellow hat and the woman in the blue dress were dancing on the table.
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Constituency tests
4. Sentence fragment test
A constituent can be used as a sentence fragment on its own, for instance in answer to a question:
Question: Who was dancing on the table?
Answer: The man with the yellow hat.
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Another test that can be applied to VPs
5. Deletion
Question: Will you tell Mary that you love her?
Answer: Yes, I will tell Mary that I love her.
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Types of constituents (= Phrasal categories)
The man with the yellow hat is a Noun Phrase (NP) because it has a noun (man) as its core (or head)
Other examples of NPs (head in blue):
the yellow hat
George’s friends
that very expensive but ugly car of yours
a beautiful movie that I once saw
George
him
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Verb phrase (VP)
loves syntax
abduct George from Africa
told Mary that I loved her
danced
Coordination: George loves syntax but hates phonology.
Replacement:
George loves the man with the yellow hat, and Bill does too.
Movement (harder to apply):
The man says he will abduct George from Africa, and abduct George from Africa he will.
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Preposition phrase (PP)
with the yellow hat
in the kitchen
at UBC
Movement: I always get lost at UBC.
At UBC, I always get lost.
Replacement: I saw her at UBC.
I saw her there.
Coordination: I saw her at UBC.
I saw her at UBC and at SFU.
Fragment: Where did you meet him?
At UBC.
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Notes on constituency tests
The tests only work one way. For example, if a string can be moved as a unit, it must be a constituent. But not every constituent of a sentence can be moved.
(1) I simply can’t stand the man with the yellow hat.
(2) ?The man with the yellow hat, I simply can’t stand.
(2) is somewhat questionable, and it may only be useable in certain contexts. But it’s certainly much better than moving an arbitrary string that is not a constituent, as in (4):
(3) I simply can’t stand the man with the yellow hat.
(4) *man with, I simply can’t stand the the yellow hat.
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Notes on constituency tests
But even a true constituent like the yellow hat may be impossible to move:
(5) The man with the yellow hat saw George.
(6) *The yellow hat, the man with saw George.
We can’t conclude from this that the yellow hat is not a constituent .
The tests only work one way!
If a string can be moved, it is a constituent
If a string CAN’T be moved, that doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s not a constituent
Or in other words: Everything that can move is a constituent, but not every constituent can move.
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exercise
Can you apply constituency tests to show that “five tall penguins” is a constituent”?
My neighbour can see five tall penguins in the backyard.
Test 1: Movement
Test 2: Replacement
Test 3: Coordination
Test 4: Sentence fragment
Note: Test 5 (Deletion) cannot be applied to this example
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Phrase structure rules
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constituents
Words in a sentence can be grouped into constituents.
Constituent structure is graphically represented by tree diagrams representing:
The linear order of words in a sentence
The groupings of words into syntactic categories
The hierarchical structure of the syntactic categories
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The infinite nature of language
The number of constituents in a language is potentially limitless
This is true of ALL languages. There is no “longest sentence”
e.g. "This is the house that Jack built..." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/This_Is_the_House_That_Jack_Built (First published 1755)
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The infinite nature of language
This is the horse and the hound and the horn
that belonged to the farmer sowing his corn
that kept the rooster that crowed in the morn
that woke the judge all shaven and shorn
that married the man all tattered and torn
that kissed the maiden all forlorn
that milked the cow with the crumpled horn
that tossed the dog that worried the cat
that killed the rat that ate the malt
that lay in the house that Jack built.
This sentence contains 14 (!) clauses. Can you identify them all?
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Phrase structure rules
Phrase structure tree: represents knowledge speakers have about structure of sentences in languages
Although we can generate unlimited sentences, we may not store unlimited phrase structure trees
Instead, a limited set of phrase structure rules generate all sentences we might ever want to say → generative grammar
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Constituent structure: tree diagrams
Every labelled node of the tree (blue letters) is a constituent (phrase or sentence)
Every phrase has a head
The other words are dependents
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Heads, dependents, and phrases
Head = in bold; dependents = not bold
NP [very tasty cookies]
VP [ate quite slowly]
PP [inside the house]
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Some terms and labels to remember
Lexical categories: N, V, A, P
Functional categories: det, deg, aux, C
Syntactic/phrasal categories: NP, VP, AP, PP, CP, S
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Differences from yule
Articles = Determiners
Consistency: As and Ps also form phrases (APs and PPs), just like the other major word classes, Ns and Vs
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sentence
Sentences express a complete thought and must contain a NP and a VP (in English)
S NP VP
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sentence
Phrase structure rules map out the structure of grammatical sentences, but they can also tell us why sentences are ungrammatical
For example, S NP (aux) VP
*the fish
Sentence is ungrammatical because the VP is missing
*swims silently
Sentence is ungrammatical because the NP is missing
*swims silently the fish
Sentence is ungrammatical because order of rule is wrong
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Phrase structure rules: sentence
S NP (Aux) VP (Aux = Auxiliary)
John will cook dinner
John cooked dinner
The girl in the red dress can dance
The girl in the red dress danced
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Phrase structure rules: Noun Phrase (NP)
e.g. the cat a book about cats fluffy cats
NP det N the cat
NP det N (PP) a book about cats
Note that the PP is optional (indicated with parentheses)
NP N cats
This example shows us the even the determiner is optional. All that's needed in an NP is N.
NP (Adj) N fluffy cats
Summary: NP (det) (Adj) N (PP)
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Phrase structure rules: Noun Phrase (NP)
NP (Det) (Adj) N (PP)
these new students from Toronto
these new students
these students from Toronto
these students
new students from Toronto
new students
students from Toronto
students
NP Pro (pronoun)
she
NP PN (proper noun)
Mary
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Phrase structure rules: Prepositional Phrase (PP)
PP P NP
on the table
without Mary
in this very stuffy classroom
for them
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exercise: Verb Phrases
never surrender
fixed the phone
walked home slowly
walked down the road
(The glass) broke.
Here just identify the structure of the sentence that is not in parenthesis.
Look at each of the VPs and write out the phrase structure rule for each (if you know some words must be members of another phrase, use phrases)
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activity: Verb phrases
never surrender VP Adv V
fixed the phone VP V NP
walked home slowly VP V NP Adv
walked down the road VP V PP
(The glass) broke. VP V
The last example shows us that the only thing required in a VP is a V.
*but depends on subcategorization of verb
Summary: VP (Adv) V (NP)(Adv)(PP)
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Phrase structure rules: Verb Phrase (VP)
VP (Adv) V (NP) (PP) (Adv)
slowly read a book in the garden yesterday slowly
read a book in the garden
read a book yesterday
slowly read a book
read a book
read in the garden yesterday
slowly read in the garden
read in the garden
read yesterday
read
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Phrase structure rules: Interim summary
S NP (Aux) VP
NP (Det) (Adj) N (PP)
NP Pro
NP PN
PP P NP
VP (Adv) V (NP) (PP) (Adv)
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How to draw a sentence tree?
Steps:
Label word classes
Group word classes into phrases, e.g., NP → N, VP → V, AP → A, PP → P
Decide what goes with what (see next slide). It can help to work from right to left.
Do you have a full sentence? S NP(aux)VP
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How do you know what goes with what? Some hints:
If an NP is the subject, it links directly to S.
NPs might be objects of Vs or Ps, so will be under a VP or PP node.
As describe Ns or Vs, so will be under an NP or VP node.
PPs describe information about the V or N, so will be under a VP or NP node.
VPs link directly to the S.
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Let’s draw a tree
The man with the yellow hat loves George
1. S NP (Aux) VP
2. a. NP (Det) (Adj) N (PP)
b. NP Pro
c. NP PN
3. PP P NP
4. VP V (NP) (PP) (Adv)
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Let’s draw a tree: label the categories
Det N P Det Adj N V PN
The man with the yellow hat loves George
1. S NP (Aux) VP
2. a. NP (Det) (Adj) N (PP)
b. NP Pro
c. NP PN
3. PP P NP
4. VP V (NP) (PP) (Adv)
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Let’s draw a tree: determine the top node
S
Det N P Det Adj N V PN
The man with the yellow hat loves George
1. S NP (Aux) VP
2. a. NP (Det) (Adj) N (PP)
b. NP Pro
c. NP PN
3. PP P NP
4. VP V (NP) (PP) (Adv)
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Let’s draw a tree: draw constituents under the node
Det N P Det Adj N V PN
The man with the yellow hat loves George
1. S NP (Aux) VP
2. a. NP (Det) (Adj) N (PP)
b. NP Pro
c. NP PN
3. PP P NP
4. VP V (NP) (PP) (Adv)
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Let’s draw a tree: focus on one phrase
Det N P Det Adj N V PN
The man with the yellow hat loves George
1. S NP (Aux) VP
2. a. NP (Det) (Adj) N (PP)
b. NP Pro
c. NP PN
3. PP P NP
4. VP V (NP) (PP) (Adv)
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Let’s draw a tree: focus on the next phrase
Det N P Det Adj N V PN
The man with the yellow hat loves George
1. S NP (Aux) VP
2. a. NP (Det) (Adj) N (PP)
b. NP Pro
c. NP PN
3. PP P NP
4. VP V (NP) (PP) (Adv)
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Let’s draw a tree: focus on the next phrase
Det N P Det Adj N V PN
The man with the yellow hat loves George
1. S NP (Aux) VP
2. a. NP (Det) (Adj) N (PP)
b. NP Pro
c. NP PN
3. PP P NP
4. VP V (NP) (PP) (Adv)
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A wrong tree: always check the rules!
1. S NP (Aux) VP
2. a. NP (Det) (Adj) N (PP)
b. NP Pro
c. NP PN
3. PP P NP
4. VP V (NP) (PP) (Adv)
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Another wrong tree: again, check the rules!
1. S NP (Aux) VP
2. a. NP (Det) (Adj) N (PP)
b. NP Pro
c. NP PN
3. PP P NP
4. VP V (NP) (PP) (Adv)
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Let’s draw a tree!
My friend lost her new purse
The younger player may win the game
1. S NP (Aux) VP
2. a. NP (Det) (Adj) N (PP)
b. NP Pro
c. NP PN
3. PP P NP
4. VP V (NP) (PP) (Adv)
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Why phrase structure rules?
Our set of phrase structure rules is a simple grammar: a system of rules specifying how to form the sentences of a language (in this case English).
This grammar is meant to represent (a part of) the unconscious knowledge of a native speaker of English.
In other words, it is a (rather simplistic) model of the mental grammar of a native speaker of English.
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Why phrase structure rules?
A phrase structure grammar generates a set of sentences (= strings of words)
The eventual goal is for a grammar to generate all and only those sentences that are judged to be grammatical by a native speaker of the language
At this point, our grammar doesn’t meet that goal yet
On the one hand, there are many sentences of English that native speakers find grammatical, but that our grammar can’t generate. This is called undergeneration
On the other hand, our grammar will generate some sentences that native speakers of English do not find grammatical. This is called overgeneration
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question
Which of the following grammatical sentences can be generated by the current set of phrase structure rules?
A: Sam owns a big black dog.
B: Mary may have won the first prize.
C: None of the children like to dance.
D: Bears and cougars live in this forest.
E: None of the above
1. S NP (Aux) VP
2. a. NP (Det) (Adj) N (PP)
b. NP Pro
c. NP PN
3. PP P NP
4. VP V (NP) (PP) (Adv)
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question
Which of the following grammatical sentences can be generated by the current set of phrase structure rules?
A: Sam owns a big black dog.
B: Mary may have won the first prize.
C: None of the children like to dance.
D: Bears and cougars live in this forest.
E: None of the above
1. S NP (Aux) VP
2. a. NP (Det) (Adj) N (PP)
b. NP Pro
c. NP PN
3. PP P NP
4. VP (Adv) V (NP) (PP) (Adv)
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question
Which of the following ungrammatical sentences can be generated by the current set of phrase structure rules?
A: *The student hate the assignment.
B: *I know he.
C: *Big chair be in kitchen.
D: *Anthea smiled the room.
E: All of the above
1. S NP (Aux) VP
2. a. NP (Det) (Adj) N (PP)
b. NP Pro
c. NP PN
3. PP P NP
4. VP (Adv) V (NP) (PP) (Adv)
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question
Which of the following ungrammatical sentences can be generated by the current set of phrase structure rules?
A: *The student hate the assignment.
B: *I know he.
C: *Big chair be in kitchen.
D: *Anthea smiled the room.
E: All of the above
1. S NP (Aux) VP
2. a. NP (Det) (Adj) N (PP)
b. NP Pro
c. NP PN
3. PP P NP
4. VP (Adv) V (NP) (PP) (Adv)
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Structural Ambiguity
He petted the dog with the stick
S S
NP VP NP VP
N
He
V NP N V NP PP
petted
Det N PP He petted Det N
the dog the dog
with the stick
with the stick
He petted [the dog [with the stick]] He petted [the dog] [with the stick]
More phrase structure rules: Adjective Phrase (AP)
very competent
full of mistakes
red (apples)
Again, the part in parenthesis is given for reference, you need to describe the part before the parenthesis
Write out the phrase structure rule for each
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Phrase structure rules for APs
very competent AP deg A
full of mistakes AP A PP
red (apples) AP A
The last example shows us that the only thing required in an AP is an A.
Summary: AP (deg) A (PP)
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What about adverbs?
We said that adverbs are in complementary distribution with adjectives
Therefore we are using the same label for the adverbial phrase, AP
But the rule is different, because the components are different:
slowly
very quickly
AP (deg) A
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Let’s revise other rules:
right outside PP AP P
Note: right can be either an adjective or an adverb, depending what it modifies (and it can also be a noun, a verb, or an interjection!). Always pay attention to this when you label words!
Revised PP rule: PP (AP) P (NP)
this very competent student NP det AP N AP deg Adj
Revised NP rule: NP (Det) (AP) N (PP)
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question
Which of the statements is true for the underlined string of words in the following sentence:
I hate raw fish and onions.
A. The phrase can be represented as [[raw fish] and [onions]]
B. The phrase can be represented as [raw [fish and onions]]
C. Both A and B are possible representations
D. The only possible structure is [raw fish and onions]
E. None of the above
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question
Which of the statements is true for the underlined string of words in the following sentence:
I hate raw fish and onions.
A. The phrase can be represented as [[raw fish] and [onions]]
B. The phrase can be represented as [raw [fish and onions]]
C. Both A and B are possible representations
D. The only possible structure is [raw fish and onions]
E. None of the above
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Structural Ambiguity
criminal law professor
[[criminal law] professor]
[criminal [law professor]]
old men and women
[[old men] and [women]]
[old [men and women]]
Recursion
S NP (Aux) VP
NP (Det) (Adj) N (PP)
PP P NP
VP V (NP) (PP) (Adv)
NP
DET N PP
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Recursion
S NP (Aux) VP
NP (Det) (Adj) N (PP)
PP P NP
VP V (NP) (PP) (Adv)
NP
DET N PP
P NP
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Recursion
S NP (Aux) VP
NP (Det) (Adj) N (PP)
PP P NP
VP V (NP) (PP) (Adv)
NP
DET N PP
P NP
DET N PP
ETCETERA!!!!!!!
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Recursion
the book on the table in the bedroom on the second floor of the house on the corner of the street in a big city in …… etc.
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Embedded Sentences
The nurse made a cup of hot chocolate
The patient saw [that the nurse made a cup of hot chocolate]
How do we know the bracketed string is a constituent?
Replacement test:
The patient saw it.
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To account for embedded sentences we add two new phrase structure rules:
CP Comp S (Comp = complementizer)
VP V CP
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CP: complementizer phrase
Recall: sentences can be infinitely long
They become longer by embedding one sentence inside of another
Embedded sentences are CPs, Complementizer Phrases
Phrase structure rule: CP C(omplementizer) S
Let’s revise some rules: VP (AP) V (NP)(AP)(PP)(CP)
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CP: complementizer phrases
A complementizer turns a sentence into a complement clause.
Complementizers in English include: that, whether, for, if
Something odd about that in English: it can be omitted (unlike other types of phrases where the head is always required)
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Complementizer phrase
Some examples (CPs in brackets, C in bold):
Jessica asked [if she could play soccer].
I wonder [whether Sanam walked the dog].
Nelson believes [(that) it will rain].
[That Avneet won the prize] is fantastic.
[Whether Paul cooks tonight] doesn't matter.
Practice: draw trees for the first two sentences
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CP Comp S
VP V CP
S
NP VP
D N V CP
the patient saw Comp S
that the nurse made a cup of hot chocolate
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CP Comp S VP V CP
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More phrase structure rules: Coordinate structures
At the pet store, I saw a fish and a gerbil.
What is the NP object of the verb saw? --> Both a fish and a gerbil are objects of the verb
They are joined by a coordinating conjunction and
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Coordinate structures
The phrase structure rule is: NP NP conj NP
What does the tree look like?
Any phrasal category can be conjoined with another of the same type:
XP XP conj XP
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Other embedded sentences
Some embedded sentences do not have tense; the verbs are non-finite, either infinitives or participles.
Catherine is waiting [for you to sing].
The host wants [the president to leave early].
The host regrets [the president's having left early.]
The tree structure is beyond the scope of LING 100, but you should know these types of embedded sentences exist.
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Summary of Phrase Structure Rules
S NP (aux) VP
NP (det) (AP) N (PP) / NP Pro / NP PN
VP (AP) V (NP)(AP)(PP)(CP)
AP (deg) A (PP)
PP (AP) P (NP)
XP XP conj XP (conjoins any two phrases of the same type)
CP C(omplementizer) S
These are not all the rules that are needed for English, but it is enough for now!
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question
Which of the following grammatical sentences can be generated by the current set of phrase structure rules?
A: Sam owns a big black dog.
B: Mary may have won the first prize.
C: None of the children like to dance.
D: Bears and cougars live in this forest.
E: None of the above
S NP (aux) VP
NP (det) (AP) N (PP)
VP (AP) V (NP)(AP)(PP)(CP)
AP (deg) A (PP)
PP (AP) P (NP)
XP XP conj XP (conjoins any two phrases of the same type)
CP C(omplementizer) S
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question
Which of the following grammatical sentences can be generated by the current set of phrase structure rules?
A: Sam owns a big black dog.
B: Mary may have won the first prize.
C: None of the children like to dance.
D: Bears and cougars live in this forest.
E: None of the above
S NP (aux) VP
NP (det) (AP) N (PP)
VP (AP) V (NP)(AP)(PP)(CP)
AP (deg) A (PP)
PP (AP) P (NP)
XP XP conj XP (conjoins any two phrases of the same type)
CP C(omplementizer) S
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Recursion Again
The nurse made coffee.
The patient saw [that the nurse made coffee].
The doctor said [that the patient saw [that the nurse made coffee]].
John thinks [that the doctor said [that the patient saw [that the nurse made coffee]]].
etc.
Recursion again
S NP (Aux) VP
VP V CP
CP Comp S
Together, these rules are recursive
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Question
A phrase structure grammar for an artificial language
lower case letters are lexical categories (a, b, c,…)
upper case letters are phrasal categories (A, B, C, ..)
S A (b) B C c
A B C D D d
B D C (E) E e
Question: Is this grammar recursive?
A: Yes
B: No
C: Don’t know.
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Question
A phrase structure grammar for an artificial language
lower case letters are lexical categories (a, b, c,…)
upper case letters are phrasal categories (A, B, C, ..)
S A (b) B C c
A B C D D d
B D C (E) E e
Question: Is this grammar recursive?
A: Yes
B: No
C: Don’t know.
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Question
Another artificial language:
S A (b) B C c
A B C D D d
B D C (A) E e
Question: Is this grammar recursive?
A: Yes
B: No
C: Don’t know.
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Question
Another artificial language:
S A (b) B C c
A B C D D d
B D C (A) E e
Question: Is this grammar recursive?
A: Yes
B: No
C: Don’t know.
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Consequences of Recursion
There is no longest sentence
Just like there is no longest word in morphology!
The number of grammatical sentences of a language is infinite
Language learning cannot simply be a matter of memorizing whole sentences (our brains are finite!)
Language users can create an infinite number of new sentences with a finite number of morphemes by applying a finite system of grammar rules
Language is a combinatorial system that “makes infinite use of finite means” (von Humboldt, often misattributed to Chomsky)
Let’s draw some trees!
My mom thinks that she saw a black bear.
John said that his mom thought that she saw a black bear.
Jack and Jill went up the hill.
S NP (aux) VP
NP (det) (AP) N (PP)
VP (AP) V (NP)(AP)(PP)(CP)
AP (deg) A (PP)
PP (AP) P (NP)
XP XP conj XP (conjoins any two phrases of the same type)
CP C(omplementizer) S
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Sentence relatedness
In ambiguous sentences, two sentences with the same words have different meanings.
Two sentences with different words or word order can also have the same meaning.
The man laughed softly.
The man softly laughed.
John hired Jane.
Jane was hired by John
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Questions
Questions are also similar to their declarative counterparts, but have different meanings.
The boy is sleeping. Is the boy sleeping?
The boy can sleep. Can the boy sleep?
The boy will sleep. Will the boy sleep?
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Sentence structure: other languages
Phrase structure trees can represent every sentence of any language
All languages have phrases made up of heads and dependents
However, the order of constituents may differ in different languages
For example, English is an S-V-O language where the verb precedes its object in the VP
Vietnamese, Cantonese and Mandarin are typically S-V-O like English
Malayalam, Hindi, Punjabi, Persian and Korean typically have S-O-V word order
Tagalog, Filipino and languages of the Salish family, spoken in the Lower Mainland and beyond, typically have V-S-O order
Arabic may be S-V-O or V-S-O depending on the dialect
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Sentence Structure Other Languages
Note: many of these languages permit variation in word order, but these are the basic or canonical orders.
Check out word order in other languages at: http://wals.info/chapter/81
How would we represent other word orders in our tree diagrams, e.g. SOV?
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