Syntax V

November 26, 2010

Weekday Update• Syntax homework will be posted after class today

• …due next Wednesday (December 1st)

• On Monday, we will:

• wrap up the syntax lectures

• work on a few more practice syntax exercises.

• Afterwards, we’ll conclude the term with an analysis of meaning:

• Pragmatics + Semantics

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.}

Splitting Syntactic Hairs• Regarding the confusion between adverbs and degree words:

• Degree words are a sub-category of adverbs.

• They can modify adjectives and prepositions, but not verbs.

• The light sabre is quite red.

• *The Emperor quite frowns.

• In order to avoid any future confusion on this score:

• I’ll consider these two terms to be interchangeable on the homework (and final).

In Our Last Episode…• We learned that 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 VPV C NP VP

• VP V CP V C NP V CP

• etc.

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 cakeCP Example

matrix clause

embedded clause

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 frisbee 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

• (where Xn = X, X’ or XP)

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.

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…

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

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

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…

Interpretation #1IP

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.

Interpretation #2IP

NP I’

the police I VP

[+past] V’ PP

V NP P’

shot Det N’ P NP

the N with rifles

terroristsIn 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.

Modifiers?IP

NP I’

the police I VP

[+past] V’ PP

V NP P’

shot Det N’ P NP

the N with rifles

terroristsIn this tree, 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.

More Modifiers• From the last Quick Write:

IP

NP I’

She I VP

[-past] V’ AdvP

V CP Deg Adv’

wants IP really Adv

I VP badly

to V NP

play tennis

(I’m glossing over some of the structure here)

In this interpretation, “really badly” modifies “wants”.

More ModifiersIP

NP I’

She I VP

[-past] V’

V CP

wants IP

I VP

to V NP AdvP

play tennis really badly

(I’m glossing over some of the structure here)

In this interpretation, “really badly” modifies “play”.

Language Universals• All languages have phrases with heads and complements.

• All languages have nouns and verbs.

• All languages can exhibit recursion.

• Linguists hypothesize:

• All of this information is part of Universal Grammar (UG)

• Children do not need to learn these aspects of grammar from their environment.

• But: languages can differ syntactically within these universal limits.

Language Choices• One syntactic feature which differs between languages:

head-first vs. head-final

• English is a head-first language

• = the head of the phrase precedes any complements.

• For example:

V’ V (NP) (PP)

N’ N (PP)

A’ A (PP)

P’ P (NP)

In general: X’ X (Complement)

Language Choices• Other languages are head-final

• Ex: Japanese

• The head of the phrase in Japanese always follows its complements:

In general: X’ (YP) X

Example: P’ NP P

niwa-de

“garden in” = “in the garden”

N P

• By the way: in languages like these, “prepositions” are called “post-positions”

Syntactic Typology• Sentences in head-final languages usually follow the pattern: subject - object - verb (SOV)

• Japanese examples:

Taro-ga inu-o mitsuketa

Taro-subject marker dog-object marker found

“Taro found a dog.”

Inu-ga niwa-de asonde iru

dog-subject marker garden-in playing is

“The dog is playing in the garden.”

Syntactic Typology• There are six possible orders for subject, verb, and object in a sentence.

• All six orders have been attested in at least one of the world’s languages.

• 44% of the world’s languages are SOV languages.

Japanese, Korean, Turkish

• 35% of the world’s languages are SVO languages.

English, French, Chinese

• 19% of the world’s languages are VSO languages.

Irish, Arabic, Welsh

Syntactic Typologies• 2% of the world’s languages are VOS languages.

Aramaic, Hawaiian, Tagalog, Maori

• OSV languages are very rare

Xavante, Jamamadi (spoken in Brazil)

• OVS languages are the rarest of all

Guarijio (northwest Mexico), Hixkaryana (also Brazil)

• Another OVS language: Klingon

• Some languages have free word order

Dyirbal (spoken in Australia) (by about five people)

Scrambling!• Dyirbal is a “scrambling” language

• = free word-order, syntactically

• Case-marking of nouns makes this possible…

• “The man hit the woman.”

bangul jara-ngu balan djugumbil balgan

ERG1 man-ERG OBJ2 woman hit (SOV)

balan djugumbil bangul jara-ngu balgan

OBJ2 woman ERG1 man-ERG hit (OSV)

• “The dingo took her baby.”

bangun ganibarra-gu budin bangun gudjarra

ERG2 dingo-ERG take GEN2 baby (SVO)

Yodish• What sort of language does Yoda speak?

• Some examples are (relatively) straightforward:

• My home this is.

• To Obi-Wan you listen.

• In these sentences, the complement of the verb moves to the front of the sentence.

• (= OSV)

• The others are slightly different:

• Help you I can.

• Take you to him I will.

• In these two, Yoda moves the whole VP to the front.

Wait…things move?• Movement rules can explain syntactic patterns in language that phrase structure rules alone cannot account for.

• For instance: some sentences are systematically related to other sentences.

Declarative Interrogative

The boy is sleeping. Is the boy sleeping?

The boy has slept. Has the boy slept?

The boy can sleep. Can the boy sleep?

The boy will sleep. Will the boy sleep?

The boy did sleep. Did the boy sleep?

• What’s the pattern?

What’s the Pattern?• Declarative sentences like “The boy is sleeping” can be generated with the usual syntactic rules.

IP

NP I’

Det N’ I VP

the N is V’

boy V

sleeping• We get the interrogative sentence “Is the boy sleeping?” by inverting the order of the subject and the auxiliary.

InversionCP

C’

C IP

NP I’

Det N’ I VP

the N is V’

boy V

sleeping

InversionCP

C’

C IP

NP I’

Det N’ I VP

the N is V’

boy V

sleeping

• Rule: move the I head to the C node.

• This “inversion” rule creates a yes/no question.

• Note: the auxiliary verb moves from one head slot to another.

Inversion ResultsCP

C’

C IP

is NP I’

[+Q] Det N’ I VP

the N t V’

boy V

sleeping• The C slot has to be marked with a [+Q] (for “question”) to make this movement happen.

• …like the I slot being marked for tense.

The movement leaves a “trace” (t) behind in the I slot.

Transformations• The syntactic rules that we’ve seen so far are phrase structure rules:

• NP Det N’

• P’ P NP

• A rule that generates one kind of sentence from another sentence is called a transformational rule.

• “Transformations” give us the questions for “free”…

• so long as our phrase structure rules generate the corresponding declarative sentences.

A More Complex Case• Does our transformational rule work for this sentence?

The chicken crossed the road.

• Maybe.

• To create this question: “Did the chicken cross the road?”

• …it is first necessary to add the auxiliary verb “do”.

• = “Do” insertion

• The chicken crossed the road.

• The chicken did cross the road.

• Did the chicken cross the road?

• In English, it is not possible to invert non-auxiliary verbs.

Split-Levels• Syntactic phrase structure rules (“Merge”) create the Deep Structure of a sentence.

• Transformation rules (“Move”) change the Deep Structure into the Surface Structure that we see in interrogative sentences.

• Phonology analogy:

• Underlying representation = Deep Structure

• Surface representation = Surface Structure

• In both cases, this is called a derivation.

• and multiple rules can apply before the final product appears on the surface.

A More Complex Case• Does our transformational rule work for this sentence?

• Bob said that the chicken crossed the road.

• Maybe.

• There are actually two options:

• Did Bob say that the chicken crossed the road?

• *Did Bob said that the chicken cross the road?

• Yes/No questions can only be formed from the main (highest level) sentence.

• They cannot be formed from an embedded sentence.

• The Complementizer (“that”) fills the C slot and prevents an embedded auxiliary from moving up.

Wh Questions• Here’s another relationship between sentences:

Declarative Interrogative

Bart kicked the ball.

What did Bart kick?

Lisa put the leash on the table.

Where did Lisa put the leash?

Marge sent a card to Selma.

Who did Marge send a card to?

• These questions are known as “Wh-Questions”

• why, who, where, when, what, how

Wh Question Rules• The formation of these questions is considerably more complex.

Step 1: Wh-substitution

Substitute impersonal NPs with “what”

Substitute personal NPs with “who”

Substitute location PPs with “where”

etc.

• Examples:

Bart kicked the ball. Bart kicked what?

Lisa put the leash on the table.

Lisa put the leash where?

Wh Movement Rules• Step 2: Move (or insert) the auxiliary verb to the beginning of the sentence.

Bart kicked what? Did Bart kick what?

Lisa put the leash where?

Did Lisa put the leash where?

• Step 3: Move the Wh word to the beginning of the sentence.

Did Bart kick what? What did Bart kick?

Did Lisa put the leash where?

Where did Lisa put the leash?

Wh-MovementCP

(Spec) C’

C IP

NP I’

Bart I VP

did V’

V NP

kick what

Wh-MovementCP

(Spec) C’

C IP

did NP I’

Bart I VP

t V’

V NP

kick what

Wh-Movement

CP

NP C’

What C IP

did NP I’

Bart I VP

t V’

V NP

kick t

The Wh- particle moves from a non-head position to another non-head position.

(so it doesn’t cross paths with move #1)