Morphology and Syntax
? England?s Queen is Elizabeth II.
The Queen of England is Elizabeth II.
He loves books,
He is a lover of books.
The planes which fly are red.
The flying planes are red.
He is hungrier than she.
He is more hungry than She.
Syntax
? To grammar even kings bow.
J,B,Moliere,Les femmes savantes,II,1672
? The Sentence Patterns of Language
? Knowledge of a L includes the ability to construct
phrases and sentences out of morphemes and
words,The part of the grammar that represents a
speaker?s K of these structures and their formation
is called Syntax.
? Part of what we mean by structure is word
order,The meaning of a sentence depends to
great extent on the the order in which words
occur in a sentence.
?,I don?t sing because I am happy,I am happy
because I sing.”
? Brazil defeated Germany.
? Germany defeated Brazil.
? However,sometimes a change of word order
has no effect on meaning:
? The Chief Justice swore in the new President.
? The Chief Justice swore the new president in.
? The grammars of all languages include rules
of syntax that reflect speaker?s knowledge.
What Grammaticality Is Based
On
a,The boy found the ball.
b,The boy found quickly
c,The boy found in the house
d,The boy found the ball in the house
e,Disa slept the baby.
f,Disa slept soundly.
g,Zack believes Robert to be a gentleman.
h,Zack believes to be a gentleman.
i,Zack tries Robert to be a gentleman.
j,Zack tries to be a gentleman.
k,Zack wants to be a gentleman.
l,Zack wants Robert to be a gentleman.
m,Jack and Jill ran up the hill.
n..Jack and Jill ran up the bill,
o,Jack and Jill ran the hill up.
p,Jack and Jill ran the bill up.
q,Up the hill ran Jack and Jill.
r,Up the Bill ran Jack and Jill.
Grammaticality judgements are not
idiosyncratic but are determined by rules that
are shared by speakers of a language.
The syntactic rules that account for the ability to
make these judgements include,in addition to
rules of word order,other constraints.
To be a sentence,words must confirm to
specific patterns determined by the syntactic
rules of the L.
What Grammaticality is Not Based On
? Not on what is taught in school.
? Not on the whether the sentence is meaningful or not.
? Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.
? A verb crumpled the milk.
? Not on having heard the sentence before.
? Enormous crickets in pink socks danced.,
? Not on the truth of sentences – if it did,lying would be
impossible.
? Not on whether real objects are being discussed.
? Not on whether something is possible.
? Unconscious K of syntactic rules of grammar permits
speakers to make grammaticality judgments.
Syntactic K and Ambiguity
? Sentences have structures as well as word
order,Boutique,Ask for the synthetic buffalo
hides.
? I?d like to see the synthetic buffalo hides,
? Yes,Sir,Should I stumble on a head of synthetic
buffalo,you?ll be among the 1st to be notified.
Structural ambiguity,For sale,an antique desk
suitable for lady with thick legs and large drawers.
Lexical Ambiguity,This will make you smart.
Smart,clever/ burning sensation.
Grammatical Relations,
a,Bill hired Mary.
b,Mary hired Bill.
c,Bill was hired by Mary.
? Grammatical relations like subject and direct
object do not always tell us,who does what to
whom.
? The syntactic rules permit speakers to
produce and understand an unlimited number
of sentences never produced or heard before,
the creative aspect of L use.
? Thus,the syntactic rules in a grammar must
at least account for:
? The grammaticality of sentences
? Word order
? Structural ambiguity
? Grammatical relations
? Whether different structures have differing
meanings
? The creative aspect of Language,
? A major goal of linguistics is to show clearly
and explicitly how syntactic rules account for
this K,A theory of grammar must provide a
complete characterization of what speakers
implicitly know about language.
? Every sentence has one or more
corresponding constituent structures
composed hierarchiclly arranged parts called
constituents,These may be graphically
depicted as tree structures,Each tree
corresponds to one of the possible meanings,
Structural ambiguity can be explicitly
accounted for by multiple tree structures.
? The child found the puppy.
? A police officer found the puppy.
? This yellow cat found the puppy.
? Your neighbor found the puppy.
? A family of expressions that can be
substituted for one another without loss of
grammaticality is called a syntactic category.
? NP,VP,PP,S,Det,N,Adj,Pro,Adv,Aux,
and V,
? Speakers know the syntactic categories of
their L,even if they do not know the technical
terms.
Phrase Structure Trees
? Who climbs the Grammar-tree distinctly knows
Where Noun and Verbs and Participles grows.
? Jphn Dryden,,The Sixth Satyr of Juvenal
? A tree diagram with syntactic category information
provided is called a phrase structure tree/constituent
structure tree,This tree shows that a S is both a
linear string of words and a hierarchical structure with
phrases nested in phrases.
? Three aspects of speakers? syntactic K of sentence
structure are disclosed in phase structure trees.
? The linear order of the words in the S.
? The grouping of words into particular syntactic categories.
? The hierarchical structure of the syntactic categories.
The Lexicon
? Subcategorization,A transitive verb must be
followed by a NP,its direct object,This
specification is called subcategorization and
is also included in the lexical entry of each
word.
? Most words in the lexicon are subcategorized
for certain context.
? *The boy found quickly.
? *Disa slept the baby.
? *John put the milk.
? *Puppy loves warm milk
? *A puppies love warm milk..
? Subcategorization within the NP affects
individual nouns,Belief is subcategorized for
both a PP or an S:
? The belief in freedom of speech
? The belief that freedom of speech is a basic right.
? Their sympathy for the victims
? *their sympathy that the victims are so poor.
? Put,V,----NP PP
? Find,V ----NP
? Sleep,V ----
? Belief,N,----(PP),----(S)
? Sympathy,N,(PP)
More Lexical Differences
? Different words engender different syntactic
behavior,and this aspect of speaker knowledge is
represented in the lexicon.
? The conductor wanted the passengers to leave.
? The conductor forced the passengers to leave.
? The conductor wanted to leave.
? *the conductor forced to leave.
? Try exhibits a 3rd pattern differing from both want and
force in that it is never followed directly by an NP,
? * The conductor tried him to leave.
? The conductor tried to leave.
Transformational Rules
? Surface structure,The structures of S that we
actually speak – to which the rules of phonology are
applied,
? John is eager to please,
? John is easy to please.
? Do you like my wife?
? Ti piace mia moglie? Does my wife please you?
? How lyketh thee my wyf and her beautee?
?Chaucer,The Canterbury Tales
? Deep structure,it is essential to get below the surface
realizations to the underlying principles.
? The basic S of the L,whose phrase structure trees
are deep structures,are specified by the phrase
structure rules,Variants on those basic sentence
structures are derived via transformation.
? a,The father slept silently.
? b,The father silently slept.
? Vp? (Adv) V (NP) (PP) (Adv)
? c,*The father cleverly wept bitterly.
? A solution to this problem is to move the phrase
structure rules to generate the Adv in VP final
position,and having another formal device,called
transformational rule,move the Adv in front of the
verb,thus deriving the structure that represents (b)
from the structure that represents (a).
? Much syntactic K not revealed by phrase structure
rules is accounted for by transformations,which alter
phrase structure trees by moving,adding,or deleting
elements.
? Transformations act on structures,irrespective of the
words that they contain,They are structure
dependent.
The Vastness of Syntax
? Analogy,playing chess and forming
sentences such as Mary likes the
dress.
? *Likes the dress.
? *Mary the dress likes.
? *Likes the dress Mary.
? (*) The dress Mary Likes,(This is OK in
context as a topicalization )
? I told you that John would like that
dress,and indeed
? a.,..Like that dress,John does.
? B,*…John like,does that dress.
? It is a property of the verb Like that it
needs to appear with an object,
whereas it is a property of the English L
as a whole that a sentence need to
have subjects.
? John likes Mary.
? *John likes.
? John thinks that Mary Likes Bill.
? S->NP VP
? VP->V CP
? CP-> (C) S
Transformational Rules
? Syntactic rules that change one phrase
structure into another.
? a,Mary will like the dress.
? b,*Mary will like what?
? c,What will Mary like?
? d,*What will Mary like the dress?
? e,* The dress will Mary like.
? Move wh-words to before the first word
of an S that contains them.
? a,*what Mary will like?
? b,*What will Mary will/may like?
? Shift the auxiliary verb to the front of the
subject NP in sentences that are
interpreted as questions.
? The Interpretive Rule:
? John thinks that he likes Mary.
? Copy the referential index of an NP onto
a pronoun as its referential index.
? A,John3 thinks that he3 likes Mary4,or
? b,John3 thinks that he2 likes Mary4.
The Centrality of Constraints
? When the various rules of syntax are
stated in their simplest and most
general form,they typical,over-
generate,” producing a number of
ungrammatical sentences along with
the grammatical ones,Syntacticians
have proposed a system of constraints
that prevent these rules from running
wild.
The Beauty of Constraints
? Much of the beauty of these constraints
comes from the fact in many cases they
regulate the operation of more than one
transformational relationship.
? Relative clause formation,Mary likes
the dress -->The dress Mary likes -
? Like question movement,relative clause
formation cannot create a configuration
where the complementizer that comes
immediately before the verb.
Complementizer Constraint
? a,John will think that Mary likes the dress.
? b,John will think Mary likes the dress.
? c,What will John Mary likes -?
? d,What will John think that Mary likes -?
? Who will John think - like the dress?
? * Who will John think that - like the dress?
? A sentence is ungrammatical if a
complementizer comes immediately
before a verb (in Ls where subject
phrases are generally obligatory).
Learnability and Binary Branching
A more constrained grammar is preferred for reasons of
economy and elegance and it will also be preferred if we
think of the ultimate goal of linguistic theory,to account for
the fact that children acquire L very fast and at an early age
S
NP AUX VP
V NP PP
John will abandon the investigation after
lunch.
Features & Category Labels
? Syntactic primitives,N,V,Adj,Prep
? Primitives are ?simple?,they cannot be
further decomposed with respect to their
syntactic behavior.
? The lexical categories can be
decomposed into their features,[± noun]
[± verb]
? noun,[+N,-V]
? verb,[-N,+V]
? adjective,[+N,+V]
? prep,[-N,-V]
Motivations for Syntactic Features
? The common feature [-N] between verbs [-N,+V] and
preps [-N,-V] is argued to account for the fact that
both V and Prep can assign case to their
complement,
? E.g,John helped me,John is very fond of Mary,
He bought her a flower,He bought a flower for
her.
? Conversely,due to the common feature [+N]
between nouns [+N,-V] and adjectives [+N,+V],
neither N nor A can assign structural case.
? Bill envies John.
? *Bill is envious John,--Bill is envious of John.
? *Bill?s envy John,--Bill?s envy of John.
X’ Theory
? S--> NP VP
? NP--> Det (Adj) N (DP)
? VP--> V (NP)
? PP--> P NP
? AP--> Adj (PP)
? I(INFL) --> AUX tense [± AGR± TENSE]
? John will abandon the investigation.
? John -ed abandon the investigation.
? IP --> Spec I?; I?-->I VP
? CP (S/S?) -->Spec C?; C?-->C IP
The part of the grammar regulating the structure
of phrases has come to be known as X-bar
theory.
According to X-bar theory all phrases are
headed by a lexical or non-lexical head.
X”
… X?,..
… X,..
NP NP
Spec N? N?
Spec
N? Relative Clause N?
N N
watakusi ga Kaita
a book that I wrote hon
CP
Spec C?
C IP
NP I?
I VP
When will John - abandon the
investigation
IP
NP I?
I VP
V?
V NP
John will/-ed abandon the
investigation
Structural Relations
? Dominance,Node A dominates node B iff A
is higher up in the tree than B and if you can
trace a line from A to B going only
downwards.
? Precedence,Node A precedes node B iff A is
to the left of B and A does not dominate B or
B does not not dominate A,
S
NP VP
NP N V NP
John?s mother loves him
? C-command,Node A c-commands node B iff
? (a) A does not dominate B and B does not
dominate A;
? (b) the first branching node dominating A
also dominates B,
? Government,A governs B iff
? (a) A is a governor; and
? (b) A c-commands B and B c-commands A.
? Governors are heads.
W
A B
S
NP VP
V NP
Henryi invited himselfi.
C-command
? 1,a,John?s2 mother3 loves him2.
b.*He2 loves John?s2 mother3.
C,(?)His2 mother3 loves John2.
? An element X c-commands another element
Y if the first phrase which properly contains X
also properly contains Y.
? Disjoint reference condition (DRC)
A pronoun X may not refer to the same thing
as a nonpronominal NP Y if X c-commands
Y,
S
NP VP
He V NP
loves NP N
John?s mother
S
NP VP
NP N V NP
His mother loves John.
The Condition on Extraction
Domains (CED)
? A phrase X can move out of a phrase Y only
if Y is immediately contained in a Verb
Phrase.
? 1,a,You saw [a picture of John].
? b,Who did you see [a picture of -]?
? 2.a [A picture of John] disturbs you.
? b.*Who did [a picture of -]disturb you?
S
NP S?
who NP VP
you V NP
see a picture of --
S
NP S?
who NP VP
a picture of -- V NP
*
disturb you
1,a,the dress that John thinks Mary likes -.
b,The dress that John thinks that Mary likes.
c,The woman that John thinks - likes the dress.
d,*The woman that John thinks that - likes the dress.
2,a.The man you saw a picture of
b,*The man that a picture of disturbed you.
Shortest move condition favors short movements to
longer movements when there is a choice,Shortest
move condition = economy condition.
3,a,John give what to who.
b,What did John give to who?
c,*Who did John give what to?
4,a,John will have eaten the sandwich by noon.
b,Will John have eaten the sandwich by noon?
c,*Have John will eaten the sandwich by noon?
Binding Theory,Interpretation of NPs
? Three types of NPs
? anaphors,reflectives and reciprocals
? pronouns or pronominals
? Referential/R-expressions or non-pronominals
? Binding Theory
? Principle A,An anaphor must be bound in its
governing category.
? Principle B,A pronoun must be free in its
governing category.
? Principle C,An R-expression must be free
everywhere.
A-binding,
A A-binds B iff (i) A is in an A-position;
(ii) A c-commands B;
(iii) A and B are co-indexed.
An alternative to classify the NPs on the basis of their
feature composition,
? Anaphor:[+anaphor,-pronominal]
? Pronoun:[-anaphor,+pronominal]
? R-expression,[-anaphor,-pronominal]
? Principle A,An NP with the feature [+anaphor] must
be bound in its governing category.
? Principle B,An NP with the feature [+pronominal]
must be free in its governing category,
Binding Principles
? 1,a,*I support me.
? b,I support myself.
? c,They support me.
? d,*They support myself,
? 2,a,I don?t expect them to support me.
? b,* I don?t expect them to support myself.
? c,* They don?t expect me to support me.
? d,they don?t expect me to support myself,
? A,A reflective pronoun must have a
local antecedent.
? B,A non-reflective pronoun may not
have a local antecedent.
? 3,a,The house has a fence around {it/*itself}.
? b,We wound the rope around {it/itself},[it?itself]
? c,I wrapped the blanket around {me/myself}.
? Interaction between binding principles and the
analysis of imperatives,Assuming that the principles
are applied prior to the deletion of you,the principles
correctly predict,
? a,Protect {*myself/yourself/*himself}.
? b,Protect {me/*you/him]
? This provides further evidence that imperatives
should be treated as having second-person subjects
at some level.
haven?t I
I have won,*won?t *you?
*aren?t *we
*wouldn?t *they
won?t you
You will win,*haven?t *we?
*aren?t *they
won?t you
*haven?t *I
Close the door,*aren?t we !
*wouldn?t they
Tag Formation Transformation
S
=>
NP1 AUX2 VP
S
TAG
NP1 AUX2 VP AUX2 +n?t NP1
Imperative Transformation
S
=> S
NP AUX VP1
VP1
you will
Summary
? S have structures that can be represented by phrase
structure trees containing syntactic categories,
? Syntactic categories are either phrasal categories,
such as NP and VP,which can be decomposed into
other syntactic categories or lexical categories.
? Phrase structure rules characterize the basic phrase
structure trees of the language,the deep structures.
? The Lexicon represents the K speakers have about
the vocabulary of their L,including the syntactic
category of words and what elements may co-occur
together,expressed as subcategorization.
? Transformational rules account for S whose
surface structures are different,but have the
same meaning,They do this by deriving
multiple surface structures from a single deep
structure.
? To capture the K speakers have about the
syntax of their L,the grammar requires,at a
minimum,phrase structure rules,a lexicon
richly endowed with speakers? K about
individual words,and a set of
transformational rules describing the
structure-dependent patterning that occurs
throughout the language.
? England?s Queen is Elizabeth II.
The Queen of England is Elizabeth II.
He loves books,
He is a lover of books.
The planes which fly are red.
The flying planes are red.
He is hungrier than she.
He is more hungry than She.
Syntax
? To grammar even kings bow.
J,B,Moliere,Les femmes savantes,II,1672
? The Sentence Patterns of Language
? Knowledge of a L includes the ability to construct
phrases and sentences out of morphemes and
words,The part of the grammar that represents a
speaker?s K of these structures and their formation
is called Syntax.
? Part of what we mean by structure is word
order,The meaning of a sentence depends to
great extent on the the order in which words
occur in a sentence.
?,I don?t sing because I am happy,I am happy
because I sing.”
? Brazil defeated Germany.
? Germany defeated Brazil.
? However,sometimes a change of word order
has no effect on meaning:
? The Chief Justice swore in the new President.
? The Chief Justice swore the new president in.
? The grammars of all languages include rules
of syntax that reflect speaker?s knowledge.
What Grammaticality Is Based
On
a,The boy found the ball.
b,The boy found quickly
c,The boy found in the house
d,The boy found the ball in the house
e,Disa slept the baby.
f,Disa slept soundly.
g,Zack believes Robert to be a gentleman.
h,Zack believes to be a gentleman.
i,Zack tries Robert to be a gentleman.
j,Zack tries to be a gentleman.
k,Zack wants to be a gentleman.
l,Zack wants Robert to be a gentleman.
m,Jack and Jill ran up the hill.
n..Jack and Jill ran up the bill,
o,Jack and Jill ran the hill up.
p,Jack and Jill ran the bill up.
q,Up the hill ran Jack and Jill.
r,Up the Bill ran Jack and Jill.
Grammaticality judgements are not
idiosyncratic but are determined by rules that
are shared by speakers of a language.
The syntactic rules that account for the ability to
make these judgements include,in addition to
rules of word order,other constraints.
To be a sentence,words must confirm to
specific patterns determined by the syntactic
rules of the L.
What Grammaticality is Not Based On
? Not on what is taught in school.
? Not on the whether the sentence is meaningful or not.
? Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.
? A verb crumpled the milk.
? Not on having heard the sentence before.
? Enormous crickets in pink socks danced.,
? Not on the truth of sentences – if it did,lying would be
impossible.
? Not on whether real objects are being discussed.
? Not on whether something is possible.
? Unconscious K of syntactic rules of grammar permits
speakers to make grammaticality judgments.
Syntactic K and Ambiguity
? Sentences have structures as well as word
order,Boutique,Ask for the synthetic buffalo
hides.
? I?d like to see the synthetic buffalo hides,
? Yes,Sir,Should I stumble on a head of synthetic
buffalo,you?ll be among the 1st to be notified.
Structural ambiguity,For sale,an antique desk
suitable for lady with thick legs and large drawers.
Lexical Ambiguity,This will make you smart.
Smart,clever/ burning sensation.
Grammatical Relations,
a,Bill hired Mary.
b,Mary hired Bill.
c,Bill was hired by Mary.
? Grammatical relations like subject and direct
object do not always tell us,who does what to
whom.
? The syntactic rules permit speakers to
produce and understand an unlimited number
of sentences never produced or heard before,
the creative aspect of L use.
? Thus,the syntactic rules in a grammar must
at least account for:
? The grammaticality of sentences
? Word order
? Structural ambiguity
? Grammatical relations
? Whether different structures have differing
meanings
? The creative aspect of Language,
? A major goal of linguistics is to show clearly
and explicitly how syntactic rules account for
this K,A theory of grammar must provide a
complete characterization of what speakers
implicitly know about language.
? Every sentence has one or more
corresponding constituent structures
composed hierarchiclly arranged parts called
constituents,These may be graphically
depicted as tree structures,Each tree
corresponds to one of the possible meanings,
Structural ambiguity can be explicitly
accounted for by multiple tree structures.
? The child found the puppy.
? A police officer found the puppy.
? This yellow cat found the puppy.
? Your neighbor found the puppy.
? A family of expressions that can be
substituted for one another without loss of
grammaticality is called a syntactic category.
? NP,VP,PP,S,Det,N,Adj,Pro,Adv,Aux,
and V,
? Speakers know the syntactic categories of
their L,even if they do not know the technical
terms.
Phrase Structure Trees
? Who climbs the Grammar-tree distinctly knows
Where Noun and Verbs and Participles grows.
? Jphn Dryden,,The Sixth Satyr of Juvenal
? A tree diagram with syntactic category information
provided is called a phrase structure tree/constituent
structure tree,This tree shows that a S is both a
linear string of words and a hierarchical structure with
phrases nested in phrases.
? Three aspects of speakers? syntactic K of sentence
structure are disclosed in phase structure trees.
? The linear order of the words in the S.
? The grouping of words into particular syntactic categories.
? The hierarchical structure of the syntactic categories.
The Lexicon
? Subcategorization,A transitive verb must be
followed by a NP,its direct object,This
specification is called subcategorization and
is also included in the lexical entry of each
word.
? Most words in the lexicon are subcategorized
for certain context.
? *The boy found quickly.
? *Disa slept the baby.
? *John put the milk.
? *Puppy loves warm milk
? *A puppies love warm milk..
? Subcategorization within the NP affects
individual nouns,Belief is subcategorized for
both a PP or an S:
? The belief in freedom of speech
? The belief that freedom of speech is a basic right.
? Their sympathy for the victims
? *their sympathy that the victims are so poor.
? Put,V,----NP PP
? Find,V ----NP
? Sleep,V ----
? Belief,N,----(PP),----(S)
? Sympathy,N,(PP)
More Lexical Differences
? Different words engender different syntactic
behavior,and this aspect of speaker knowledge is
represented in the lexicon.
? The conductor wanted the passengers to leave.
? The conductor forced the passengers to leave.
? The conductor wanted to leave.
? *the conductor forced to leave.
? Try exhibits a 3rd pattern differing from both want and
force in that it is never followed directly by an NP,
? * The conductor tried him to leave.
? The conductor tried to leave.
Transformational Rules
? Surface structure,The structures of S that we
actually speak – to which the rules of phonology are
applied,
? John is eager to please,
? John is easy to please.
? Do you like my wife?
? Ti piace mia moglie? Does my wife please you?
? How lyketh thee my wyf and her beautee?
?Chaucer,The Canterbury Tales
? Deep structure,it is essential to get below the surface
realizations to the underlying principles.
? The basic S of the L,whose phrase structure trees
are deep structures,are specified by the phrase
structure rules,Variants on those basic sentence
structures are derived via transformation.
? a,The father slept silently.
? b,The father silently slept.
? Vp? (Adv) V (NP) (PP) (Adv)
? c,*The father cleverly wept bitterly.
? A solution to this problem is to move the phrase
structure rules to generate the Adv in VP final
position,and having another formal device,called
transformational rule,move the Adv in front of the
verb,thus deriving the structure that represents (b)
from the structure that represents (a).
? Much syntactic K not revealed by phrase structure
rules is accounted for by transformations,which alter
phrase structure trees by moving,adding,or deleting
elements.
? Transformations act on structures,irrespective of the
words that they contain,They are structure
dependent.
The Vastness of Syntax
? Analogy,playing chess and forming
sentences such as Mary likes the
dress.
? *Likes the dress.
? *Mary the dress likes.
? *Likes the dress Mary.
? (*) The dress Mary Likes,(This is OK in
context as a topicalization )
? I told you that John would like that
dress,and indeed
? a.,..Like that dress,John does.
? B,*…John like,does that dress.
? It is a property of the verb Like that it
needs to appear with an object,
whereas it is a property of the English L
as a whole that a sentence need to
have subjects.
? John likes Mary.
? *John likes.
? John thinks that Mary Likes Bill.
? S->NP VP
? VP->V CP
? CP-> (C) S
Transformational Rules
? Syntactic rules that change one phrase
structure into another.
? a,Mary will like the dress.
? b,*Mary will like what?
? c,What will Mary like?
? d,*What will Mary like the dress?
? e,* The dress will Mary like.
? Move wh-words to before the first word
of an S that contains them.
? a,*what Mary will like?
? b,*What will Mary will/may like?
? Shift the auxiliary verb to the front of the
subject NP in sentences that are
interpreted as questions.
? The Interpretive Rule:
? John thinks that he likes Mary.
? Copy the referential index of an NP onto
a pronoun as its referential index.
? A,John3 thinks that he3 likes Mary4,or
? b,John3 thinks that he2 likes Mary4.
The Centrality of Constraints
? When the various rules of syntax are
stated in their simplest and most
general form,they typical,over-
generate,” producing a number of
ungrammatical sentences along with
the grammatical ones,Syntacticians
have proposed a system of constraints
that prevent these rules from running
wild.
The Beauty of Constraints
? Much of the beauty of these constraints
comes from the fact in many cases they
regulate the operation of more than one
transformational relationship.
? Relative clause formation,Mary likes
the dress -->The dress Mary likes -
? Like question movement,relative clause
formation cannot create a configuration
where the complementizer that comes
immediately before the verb.
Complementizer Constraint
? a,John will think that Mary likes the dress.
? b,John will think Mary likes the dress.
? c,What will John Mary likes -?
? d,What will John think that Mary likes -?
? Who will John think - like the dress?
? * Who will John think that - like the dress?
? A sentence is ungrammatical if a
complementizer comes immediately
before a verb (in Ls where subject
phrases are generally obligatory).
Learnability and Binary Branching
A more constrained grammar is preferred for reasons of
economy and elegance and it will also be preferred if we
think of the ultimate goal of linguistic theory,to account for
the fact that children acquire L very fast and at an early age
S
NP AUX VP
V NP PP
John will abandon the investigation after
lunch.
Features & Category Labels
? Syntactic primitives,N,V,Adj,Prep
? Primitives are ?simple?,they cannot be
further decomposed with respect to their
syntactic behavior.
? The lexical categories can be
decomposed into their features,[± noun]
[± verb]
? noun,[+N,-V]
? verb,[-N,+V]
? adjective,[+N,+V]
? prep,[-N,-V]
Motivations for Syntactic Features
? The common feature [-N] between verbs [-N,+V] and
preps [-N,-V] is argued to account for the fact that
both V and Prep can assign case to their
complement,
? E.g,John helped me,John is very fond of Mary,
He bought her a flower,He bought a flower for
her.
? Conversely,due to the common feature [+N]
between nouns [+N,-V] and adjectives [+N,+V],
neither N nor A can assign structural case.
? Bill envies John.
? *Bill is envious John,--Bill is envious of John.
? *Bill?s envy John,--Bill?s envy of John.
X’ Theory
? S--> NP VP
? NP--> Det (Adj) N (DP)
? VP--> V (NP)
? PP--> P NP
? AP--> Adj (PP)
? I(INFL) --> AUX tense [± AGR± TENSE]
? John will abandon the investigation.
? John -ed abandon the investigation.
? IP --> Spec I?; I?-->I VP
? CP (S/S?) -->Spec C?; C?-->C IP
The part of the grammar regulating the structure
of phrases has come to be known as X-bar
theory.
According to X-bar theory all phrases are
headed by a lexical or non-lexical head.
X”
… X?,..
… X,..
NP NP
Spec N? N?
Spec
N? Relative Clause N?
N N
watakusi ga Kaita
a book that I wrote hon
CP
Spec C?
C IP
NP I?
I VP
When will John - abandon the
investigation
IP
NP I?
I VP
V?
V NP
John will/-ed abandon the
investigation
Structural Relations
? Dominance,Node A dominates node B iff A
is higher up in the tree than B and if you can
trace a line from A to B going only
downwards.
? Precedence,Node A precedes node B iff A is
to the left of B and A does not dominate B or
B does not not dominate A,
S
NP VP
NP N V NP
John?s mother loves him
? C-command,Node A c-commands node B iff
? (a) A does not dominate B and B does not
dominate A;
? (b) the first branching node dominating A
also dominates B,
? Government,A governs B iff
? (a) A is a governor; and
? (b) A c-commands B and B c-commands A.
? Governors are heads.
W
A B
S
NP VP
V NP
Henryi invited himselfi.
C-command
? 1,a,John?s2 mother3 loves him2.
b.*He2 loves John?s2 mother3.
C,(?)His2 mother3 loves John2.
? An element X c-commands another element
Y if the first phrase which properly contains X
also properly contains Y.
? Disjoint reference condition (DRC)
A pronoun X may not refer to the same thing
as a nonpronominal NP Y if X c-commands
Y,
S
NP VP
He V NP
loves NP N
John?s mother
S
NP VP
NP N V NP
His mother loves John.
The Condition on Extraction
Domains (CED)
? A phrase X can move out of a phrase Y only
if Y is immediately contained in a Verb
Phrase.
? 1,a,You saw [a picture of John].
? b,Who did you see [a picture of -]?
? 2.a [A picture of John] disturbs you.
? b.*Who did [a picture of -]disturb you?
S
NP S?
who NP VP
you V NP
see a picture of --
S
NP S?
who NP VP
a picture of -- V NP
*
disturb you
1,a,the dress that John thinks Mary likes -.
b,The dress that John thinks that Mary likes.
c,The woman that John thinks - likes the dress.
d,*The woman that John thinks that - likes the dress.
2,a.The man you saw a picture of
b,*The man that a picture of disturbed you.
Shortest move condition favors short movements to
longer movements when there is a choice,Shortest
move condition = economy condition.
3,a,John give what to who.
b,What did John give to who?
c,*Who did John give what to?
4,a,John will have eaten the sandwich by noon.
b,Will John have eaten the sandwich by noon?
c,*Have John will eaten the sandwich by noon?
Binding Theory,Interpretation of NPs
? Three types of NPs
? anaphors,reflectives and reciprocals
? pronouns or pronominals
? Referential/R-expressions or non-pronominals
? Binding Theory
? Principle A,An anaphor must be bound in its
governing category.
? Principle B,A pronoun must be free in its
governing category.
? Principle C,An R-expression must be free
everywhere.
A-binding,
A A-binds B iff (i) A is in an A-position;
(ii) A c-commands B;
(iii) A and B are co-indexed.
An alternative to classify the NPs on the basis of their
feature composition,
? Anaphor:[+anaphor,-pronominal]
? Pronoun:[-anaphor,+pronominal]
? R-expression,[-anaphor,-pronominal]
? Principle A,An NP with the feature [+anaphor] must
be bound in its governing category.
? Principle B,An NP with the feature [+pronominal]
must be free in its governing category,
Binding Principles
? 1,a,*I support me.
? b,I support myself.
? c,They support me.
? d,*They support myself,
? 2,a,I don?t expect them to support me.
? b,* I don?t expect them to support myself.
? c,* They don?t expect me to support me.
? d,they don?t expect me to support myself,
? A,A reflective pronoun must have a
local antecedent.
? B,A non-reflective pronoun may not
have a local antecedent.
? 3,a,The house has a fence around {it/*itself}.
? b,We wound the rope around {it/itself},[it?itself]
? c,I wrapped the blanket around {me/myself}.
? Interaction between binding principles and the
analysis of imperatives,Assuming that the principles
are applied prior to the deletion of you,the principles
correctly predict,
? a,Protect {*myself/yourself/*himself}.
? b,Protect {me/*you/him]
? This provides further evidence that imperatives
should be treated as having second-person subjects
at some level.
haven?t I
I have won,*won?t *you?
*aren?t *we
*wouldn?t *they
won?t you
You will win,*haven?t *we?
*aren?t *they
won?t you
*haven?t *I
Close the door,*aren?t we !
*wouldn?t they
Tag Formation Transformation
S
=>
NP1 AUX2 VP
S
TAG
NP1 AUX2 VP AUX2 +n?t NP1
Imperative Transformation
S
=> S
NP AUX VP1
VP1
you will
Summary
? S have structures that can be represented by phrase
structure trees containing syntactic categories,
? Syntactic categories are either phrasal categories,
such as NP and VP,which can be decomposed into
other syntactic categories or lexical categories.
? Phrase structure rules characterize the basic phrase
structure trees of the language,the deep structures.
? The Lexicon represents the K speakers have about
the vocabulary of their L,including the syntactic
category of words and what elements may co-occur
together,expressed as subcategorization.
? Transformational rules account for S whose
surface structures are different,but have the
same meaning,They do this by deriving
multiple surface structures from a single deep
structure.
? To capture the K speakers have about the
syntax of their L,the grammar requires,at a
minimum,phrase structure rules,a lexicon
richly endowed with speakers? K about
individual words,and a set of
transformational rules describing the
structure-dependent patterning that occurs
throughout the language.
