Syntax III

November 19, 2012

Sentences• The basic phrase types include:

• NP, VP, AP, PP

• A basic sentence is an “inflectional phrase” (IP).

• The head of the IP is the tense of the verb.

• I = INFL = inflection = [+past] or [-past]

• The specifier of the IP is the subject NP.

• The complement of the I is a VP.

• If that complement is an NP, then it is called the object of the verb.

• (Note: verbs have lots of different complement options.)

• Let’s practice with: “The coach dropped the ball.”

IP

NP I’

Det N’ I VP

the

N [+past] V’ NP

coach

V Det N’

dropped the

N

ball

Sentence Structure

Note: the V in the VP must agree in tense with the I tense marker.

IP

NP I’

Det N’ I VP

the

N [+past] V’ NP

coach

V Det N’

dropped the

N

ball

Sentence Structure

Note: the V in the VP must agree in tense with the I tense marker.

IP

NP I’

Det N’ I VP

the

N will V’ NP

coach

V Det N’

drop the

N

ball

Sentence Structure

• Note: Auxiliaries show up in the I slot.

• (Verbs after auxiliaries don’t display tense)

IP

NP I’

Det N’ I VP

the

N will V’ NP

coach

V Det N’

drop the

N

ball

Sentence Terminology

• The subject of a sentence (in English) is:

• the NP specifier of the sentence IP.

IP

NP I’

Det N’ I VP

the

N will V’ NP

coach

V Det N’

drop the

N

ball

Sentence Terminology

• The object of a sentence (in English) is:

• an NP complement of the main VP.

English Case Marking• The form of some English pronouns changes, depending on whether they are subjects or objects.

• For Example:

I know you. You know me.

He knows them. They know him.

We know her. She knows us.

• But word order is still constrained:

*Her know we.

*Them knows he.

Subject/Object Marking• In other languages, subjects and objects are specified by morphological inflections on nouns.

• Example: Russian case marking

ja tita-ju knig-u “I read the book.”

I read-1st pers-sing. book-object

alternate order : ja knig-u tita-ju

alternate order: knig-u ja tita-ju

• knig-a byla v komnat-e

book-subject was in room-object

“The book was in the room.”

Building Trees from Scratch• Basic tips:

1. First identify the lexical category of each word.

2. Then build up phrase structure from right to left.

• Note: words of type V, N, A or P will always project up to a phrase of the relevant type:

• VP, NP, AP, PP, etc.

• Other lexical categories (Determiners, Degree words, Qualifiers) function only as specifiers.

Building Trees from Scratch• In working through the sentence from right to left…

1. If you encounter words like Determiners, Degree words, etc.,

• You should include them as specifiers of the current phrase.

2. If you encounter a word which can form the head of a phrase (V, N, A, P):

• The current phrase is likely to be a complement of a larger phrase headed by that word.

• (although it’s possible that the new phrase may be a specifier of the current one…)

Phrase Structure Tests• When in doubt, you can attempt to apply the three

phrase structure tests:

1. Substitution

• Pronouns for noun phrases

• “do so” for verb phrases

• “there” for some prepositional phrases

2. Movement

• Can you move the string of words, as a unit, to the front of the sentence?

3. Coordination

• Try to link with a phrase of a known type.