Syntax –Pat II
Syntax: Phrase Structure and Syntactic Rules
Key concepts:
Phrase structure is recursive, which allows infinitely long phrases and sentences.
Our unconscious knowledge of syntax includes the ability to interpret ambiguous
sentences and unpronounced, yet understood, phrases.
That we know how to relate pronouns to their antecedents provides evidence of our
knowledge of clauses and the boundaries between them.
That we know how phases can be moved, coordinated, and deleted within the
clause provides evidence for syntactic structure and the rules that apply to it.
Six hungry gorillas spotted the sandwiches in the tree.
This sentence has two meanings:
In the tree
spotted
the sandwiches
spotted
the sandwiches in the tree
Phrase structure helps us explain how we understand ambiguity.
Recursion:
e.g.
the sandwiches
in the tree
in the forest
near the beach
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on the coast
Look at these sentences:
Shaden loves her sisters, so does Maram.
What are the two meanings?
1. Ghadeer thinks that Faezah loves her.
2. Ghadeer thinks that Faezah loves herself.
Why can the pronoun her refer to Ghadeer but not to Faezah? And why, in the
following sentence, can the pronoun herself refer to only Faezah?
Another syntactic puzzle:
The cat killed the mouse. (active)
The mouse was killed by the cat. (passive)
But we can’t form a passive sentence from the following sentence, where we’ve
replaced the verb kill with resemble:
The cat resembled the mouse.
*The mouse was resembled by the cat.
Hierarchical Structure and Ambiguity
1.
CI
NP
D
The
VP
N
V
tree
was
AP
Deg
A
2
so
2.
tall
CI
NP
D
VP
N
Each
child
V
rolled
PP
P
down
NP
D
N
the
hill
The tree diagrams illustrate hierarchical structure; one phrase dominates another.
In addition to CI dominating NP and VP, VP dominates V and AP in #1 and V and
PP in #2.
Ambiguity
Consider the following sentence: Johnny is a rat.
This sentence has two meanings: 1) a furry rodent; 2) unsavory person.
This is an example of lexical ambiguity (a word with more than one meaning)—the
noun rat has more than one meaning.
Now consider this sentence:
The cat chased the rat with a knife.
How many meanings are there to this sentence? This is called a syntactic
ambiguity.
Draw the tree diagrams.
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The hierarchical structure allows us to explain why sentences are ambiguous, even
though there are no ambiguous words. They are syntactically ambiguous; the
sentences have more than one possible structure.
Recursion
A property that allows phrase structure rules to generate phrases of infinite length.
Our mental grammar includes recursive phrase structure rules. This helps to
explain why we can generate clauses of great complexity and length quite
effortlessly. This is one reason why we call grammar generative; it is a system that
allows us to produce, or generate, very complex units of language.
Silent Syntax
Not all syntactic ambiguity can be explained in terms of hierarchical structure.
Other ambiguities arise in sentences in which material is missing but nevertheless
understood. Again phrase structure helps us explain why we understand such
sentences the way we do.
Look at the following sentence:
The crab is too hot to eat.
Who or what is the subject of eat—the crab or someone else?
Who and what is the complement of eat---crab food or crab itself?
Complements are phrases that combine with heads to form or “complete” a larger
phrase. So, eat is a verb that typically followed by an NP complement (because we
typically eat something). Here the complement is understood but not overt or
pronounced.
In order to interpret this sentence, we must assume that there is an unpronounced
subject of the (infinitival) verb eat and also an unpronounced complement of that
verb. These two “invisible” NPs are represented by the delta symbol
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The crab is too hot [
to eat
]
The crab is too hot (for someone) to eat (the crab)
The crab is too hot (for the crab) to eat (something)
The syntactic ambiguity of this sentence is not that it has two structures but there is
an “understood” or “silent” subject of eat and also a silent complement of eat.
Draw tree diagram on the board.
Another example of silent syntax:
Afnan is easy to please.
Noura is eager to please.
The difference is in the (AP) easy, eager.
Afnan is easy [
to please ].
Afnan is easy (for someone ) to please (Afnan)
Noura is eager [ to please ].
Noura is eager (for Noura) to please (someone).
Different items occupy the NP positions in the subordinate clauses in the above
examples.
Draw the tree diagrams on the board.
Evidence for Phrases and Clauses
NPs can be replaced by pronouns, words that replace noun phrases, by a process
called substitution.
The underlined NP is replaced by they.
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The new houses will make a fine addition to the neighborhood.
They will make a fine addition to the neighborhood.
They = the new houses.
The NP that mouse is replaced by the pronoun it.
That mouse ran under the bed.
It ran under the bed.
It= the mouse
Even very large NPs can be replaced by pronouns:
The mouse that Jill found in her pocket when she put her coat on yesterday ran
under the bed.
It ran under the bed.
It = The mouse that Jill found in her pocket when she put her coat on yesterday.
Students ran through the park.
They ran through the park.
Dana ran through the park
She ran through the park.
If pronouns replace nouns (rather than noun phrases), then why can’t we replace
mouse with a pronoun in the following sentences?
Proof: *The it that Jill found in her pocket when she put her coat on yesterday ran
under the bed.
*The they will make a fine addition to the neighborhood.
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*That it ran under the bed.
Pronouns replace noun phrases not nouns.
Draw tree diagrams
Substitution, therefore, provides evidence for noun phrases as syntactic units.
Proform—word that substitutes for a phrase (AP, PP, or even a clause)
Other proforms can substitute for other phrases (that aren’t NP)as well. For
example the proform do so replaces VP, again showing that VP forms a
constituent.
The mouse ran down the hall, and the cat did so, too.
VP
Juman wanted to go to Hawaii, but she couldn’t do so because she didn’t have the
money.
VP
The proform so can replace AP, and there can replace PP’s that express location:
That giraffe is extremely tall, and so is that elephant.
AP
I left the book on the table, but now it’s not there.
PP
So can even replace an entire clause:
I thought that the movie was terrific, even though you didn’t think so!
CI
Pronouns and ambiguity
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Draw tree diagrams for the sentence:
The cat chased the rat with a knife.
The cat chased him.
him= the rat with a knife
The cat chased him with a knife
Pronoun Reference.
Antecedent-- phrase to which a proform refers, antecedents can be linguistic
(spoken, written, or signed) or pragmatic (interpreted from context)
Pronoun reference-- process that relates a pronoun to its antecedent, the phrase to
which the pronoun refers.
1. A student came in, and she sat down.
2. Two children are watching a third child race down the street on a bike.
Child A: Look at him go!
Child B: Wow! He’s going really fast!
Example 1 is linguistic antecedent.
Example 2 is pragmatic antecedent.
Reflexive pronouns (the –self pronouns) and personal pronouns (he/him, she/her,
it, we/us, etc) differ with respect to the syntactic position of their linguistic
antecedents. Look at the following examples:
Arwah likes her . (Her cannot refer to Arwah.)
Arwah likes herself. (Herself must refer to Arwah.)
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These data show that although himself requires an antecedent in the same clause,
the opposite is true of him; the antecedent of this pronoun cannot be in the same
clause.
Another illustration of the above concept with subordinate clauses is:
1. Lojean thinks that Emtenan must know her.
2. *Lojean thinks that Emtenan must know herself.
In 1, her occurs in a subordinate clause. Her can refer to Lojean because in this
case Lojean is outside of the clause containing her. In 2, the reflexive pronoun
herself, on the other hand, can’t take Lojean as an antecedent, because Lojean is
outside of the underlined clause containing the reflexive.
So, the rules of pronoun reference is:
A personal pronoun must have an antecedent outside of the (immediate )
clause that contains it.
A reflexive pronoun must have an antecedent inside of the (immediate)
clause that contains it.
Conjunctions and coordination
Coordination –joining phrases (of the same category, usually) with a conjunction
(for, and, nor, but, or, yet, and so)
Look at the examples:
Aseel left this group for that one. (NP + NP)
Zahra both loves and hates soccer. (V+V)
Faridah doesn’t like soccer, nor can she play very well. (CI+ CI)
Dania saw not seven but six soccer games. (D + D)
Diyaa’ won’t or can’t play soccer. (Aux+ Aux)
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Sara doesn’t like soccer, yet she’ll play anyway. (CI+ CI)
Anoud left early, so she didn’t have to play soccer. (CI+CI)
This same category requirement is sometimes referred to as parallelism.
Coordination that violates parallelism sounds odd, if not ungrammatical.
Examples:
*Madawi plays the guitar and in the woods. (NP+PP)
Compare: Madawi plays the guitar and the violin.
Abeer saw not seven but thrilling soccer games. (D + AP)
Compare: Abeer saw not boring but thrilling soccer games)
It is important to note the difference between coordination and
subordination.
Subordinate clause is one that is contained inside another phrase. Here is an
example of an independent clause that contains a subordinate clause:
1. Ala’a is a vegetarian because she is allergic to meat.
This sentence is different in meaning and in structure when we coordinate
rather than subordinate the clauses:
2. Ala’a is a vegetarian and she is allergic to meat.
In 1, the subordinate clause is not the main idea. In 2, neither clause is
subordinate (in structure or meaning) to the other. Subordination is called
hypotaxis, and coordination is called parataxis.
Coordination and Ambiguity
Coordination also provides some interesting evidence for constituency in other
ways. For example, consider the following ambiguous sentence:
We ate chocolate-covered strawberries and apples.
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Phrase structure and coordination allow us to explain why this sentence is
ambiguous. Each meaning can be represented by a different tree diagram.
We can see that the AP (chocolate-covered) modifies only the N (strawberries), or
it modifies the coordinated Ns (strawberries and apples)
Movement and Deletion
So far we have discussed phrase structure and on the internal structure of different
phrasal categories and clauses. Phrase structure rules express many aspects of our
knowledge of syntax:
 The basic order of words in a sentence
 Syntactic categories, heads, and phrases
 Hierarchical structure
 Recursion
 Silent syntax
So phrase structure reflects the basic structure. Linguistics refer this to the
base order of phrases and clauses in a language and properties of those base
orders. Syntax is more than just phrase structure, however. Consider the
following sentences:
1. Sumaya has emptied her bag.
2. Has Sumaya emptied her bag?
#2 is derived from #1 by movement, in this case the SAI.
This idea of the base order and derived order is one of foundations of
Chomsky’s theory of generative grammar. Knowing a language doesn’t
mean knowing all the sentences in that language, rather, it means
knowing a grammar, the system of rules and operations that allow us to
generate possible sentences in the language.
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Movement rules are examples of the rules and operations that allow us to
generate sentences; or put slightly differently, they allow us to derive one
sentence to another.
Movement—syntactic operation by which phrases can be rearranged in a
sentence under specific conditions and constraints.
Deep and Surface Structure
Deep structure—clause in its base word order (in English, SVO) before
syntactic rules such as movement or deletion apply.
Surface structure—clause in its derived order after movement and
deletion rules have applied.
According to Chomsky, base order of the sentence is the deep structure
and the derived orders ( by application of the movement rules such as
SAI) are surface structures.
The following model captures the evidence that acquiring a language
involves acquiring rules rather than memorizing a (vast and limitless) list
of sentences:
Deep structure
Application of rules
Surface structure
Deletion Rules
Deletion—process by which constituents are deleted in a sentence under
certain syntactic conditions.
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Here, we will look at other examples of silent syntax (elements) and
show how they can be explained by proposing that part of our knowledge
of syntax that includes the knowledge of syntactic operation called
deletion.
Verb Phrase Deletion
The following sentences are examples of sentences in which a deletion
rule has applied:
Noura is riding a camel across the desert, and Samar is
Bashayir said she would get a cat, and she did
Even though she shouldn’t
,too.
.
, Faezah stays up late every night.
In each of these examples, the
is (unambiguously) interpreted as
identical to another constituent in the sentence.
The missing constituent in each case is a VP. This is a common
phenomenon in English called VP deletion. Deleting of VP that is close
by, not necessarily in the same sentence.
Look at the following examples:
Speaker A: Did Hatoon buy a parrot?
Speaker B: She did
.
VP deletion is in some way similar to pronoun reference.
Example: Hatoon loves her parrot, and it loves her.
Gapping
Another example of a deletion rule, called gapping, is the following.
Once again we have no trouble interpreting the missing material.
Gapping—deletion operation that applies in coordinate clauses ( Sadeem
likes cakes, and Noura, cookies).
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Constraints on Deletion
Both VP deletion and gapping are strictly constrained rules. That is, they
operate only under certain conditions. VP deletion can operate in either a
subordinate clause (introduced here by even though) or a coordinate clause
(preceded by and):
.
Faezah stays up late every night even though she shouldn’t
Subordinate clause
Faezah stays up late every night, and she shouldn’t
.
Coordinate clause
In these examples, the deleted VP follows its antecedent. The deleted VP
can also proceed its antecedent, as in the following example:
Even though she shouldn’t __ , Faezah stays up late every night.
Deleted VP
antecedent
A “gap” on the other hand, can’t occur in a subordinate clause, only in a
coordinate clause.
*Asmah bought a Coach even though Sarab
a Gucci.
subordinate clause
Asmah bought a Coach, and Sarab
a Gucci.
coordinate clause
And a gap can only follow, but never precede, its antecedent.
*Sarab
a Gucci, and Asma bought a Coach.
gapped V
antecedent V
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Look at the following rules that apply to deep structures of sentences to
derive surface structures (where VP will be missing).
DEEP STRUCTURE
Application rule
Bashyir wanted to buy a cat, and she did buy a
cat.
VP deletion
SURFACE STRUCTURE Bashyir wanted to buy a cat , and she did
Similarly, for gapping we can say that the rule deletes V under certain
conditions.
DEEP STRUCTURE
Sadeem likes cakes, but Noura likes cookies.
Application of rule
gapping
SURFACE STRUCTURE Sadeem likes cakes, but Noura
cookies.
The delta (triangle-shaped) used to represent silent syntax may be more
accurately analyzed as a silent pronoun, and there is evidence or different
kinds of silent pronouns, including null subject pronouns.
Linguists have argued that the missing material in VP deletion contexts (also
represented by delta here) might be another type of silent proform, a “proVP.”
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Empty verb phrases are silent proforms that can precede their antecedents
but under certain conditions. For example:
Even though she shouldn’t
, Faezah stays up late every night.
Deleted VP antecedent
Reordering Phrases: Movement
One movement rule is SAI . Example:
DEEP STRUCTURE
Nouf is singing the Nasyid.
Application of rule
SAI
SURFACE STRUCTURE
Is Nouf singing the Nasyid?
Another is active and passive sentences below:
The cat chased the mouse.
The mouse was chased by the cat.
The active sentence is the deep structure, and the passive is a possible
surface structure which is derived by the application of the rule that moves
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the mouse to the subject position and the cat to the object position. This rule
is called passive.
DEEP STRUCTURE
The cat chased the mouse.
Application of rule
passive
SURFACE STRUCTURE
The mouse was chased by the cat.
Constraints on Movement
There are constraints on movement rules. For example, passive can only
apply in clauses with certain verbs. Passive is impossible in clauses with
stative verbs, such as resembled, become and remain. It is acceptable in
clauses with active verbs such as meet and discuss.
The child met an adult
An adult was met by the child.
The girls discussed old friends..
Old friends were discussed by the girls.
The child became an adult.
*The adult was become by the child.
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The girls remained old friends.
*Old friends were remained by the girls.
There are also constraints on SAI. Although the rule applies freely in main
clauses, it cannot apply in subordinate clauses:
Nouf is singing the Nasyid----- Is Nouf singing the Nasyid?
I think Nouf is singing the Nasyid----- * I think is Nouf singing the Nasyid?
Wh-Movement
Another movement rule that involves the syntactic phenomenon is whmovement. Wh-movement can be described as operating in two steps. First
the noun phrase s replaced by an interrogative (wh)-phrase (who, what,
when, where, how, why) or a wh-phrase (which car, how many teeth, what
in the world, etc)
DEEP STRUCTURE RULE
You talked to Haneen.
Rule 1: substitution of wh-phrase
You talked to who(m)?
Rule 2: movement of wh-phrase
Whom did you talk to ________?
SURFACE STRUCTURE
Whom did you talk to?
Here’s another example:
DEEP STRUCTURE
Thekra bought a dress.
Rule 1: substitution of wh-phrase
Thekra bought which dress?
Rule 2: movement of the wh-phrase
Which dress did Thekra buy?
SURFACE STRUCTURE
Which dress did Thekra buy?
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Other phrases can also be questioned the same way as the NP. Example:
The students wrote their term papers quickly yesterday so they could go
swimming.
What? Terms papers
How? Quickly
When? Yesterday
Why? Can go swimming
Wh-movement is subjected to a number of constraints.
Consider this example which the wh-movement has applied:
You think [Syaima likes kabsa].
Who do you think [___likes Kabsa]?
The subordinate clause can also optionally be introduced by the word that.
However, when the word that is present in this case, wh-movement is
apparently bocked from applying (because if we do apply the result is
ungrammatical):
You think [that Syaima likes Kabsa].
*Who do you think [that ___likes Kabsa]?
It seems, then, that wh-movement of the subject of a subordinate clause is
possible only if that is absent.
Let’s look at another constraint on wh-movement. The first sentence below
contains two coordinate clauses, The second sentence contains a subordinate
clause, introduced by that.
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1.Sharks eat meat, but whales like plankton.
Coordinate
coordinate clause
Clause
2.Malak thinks that whales like plankton.
Subordinate clause
In 2 the object NP plankton can undergo wh-movement , moving that over.
What does Malak think that whales like _______?
But plankton cannot undergo wh-movement in the coordinate clause (1):
*What do sharks eat meat and whales like ____?
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