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Syntax: The Sentence Patterns of LanguageWEEK 4 DAY 1
Contents◦ Last lecture: Morphology (Other Morphological Processes, Back‐Formations, Compounds, “Pullet Surprises”)
Today:◦ What the Syntax Rules Do
We can produce and understand an infinite number of sentences!
The kindhearted boy had many girlfriends.
The kindhearted, intelligent boy had many girlfriends.
The kindhearted, intelligent, handsome boy had many girlfriends.
...
John found a book in the library.
John found a book in the library in the stacks.
John found a book in the library in the stacks on the fourth floor.
...
The cat chased the mouse.
The cat chased the mouse that ate the cheese.
The cat chased the mouse that ate the cheese that came from the cow.
The cat chased the mouse that ate the cheese that came from the cow that
grazed in the field.
The rules of syntax combine words into phrases and phrases into sentences. Among other things,
the rules determine the correct word order for a language.
The rules of the syntax also specify the grammatical relations of a sentence,
such as subject and direct object.
5. Your dog chased my cat.
6. My cat chased your dog.
Rules of Syntax
Structural Ambiguity
[old men] and [women] [old [men and women]]
Ambiguous Sentence (1)He went to the bank.
Ambiguous Sentence (1)He went to the bank.
“Lexical Ambiguity”
Ambiguous Sentence (2)The girl saw the boy with a telescope.
Ambiguous Sentence (2)
The girl saw the boy with a telescope.
“Syntactic Ambiguity”
saw the boy with a telescope saw the boy with a telescope
“I shot an elephant in my pajamas.”
I shot an elephant, wearing my pajamas.
I shot an elephant that was in my pajamas.
shot an elephant in my pajamas shot an elephant in my pajamas
Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.
A verb crumpled the milk.
*Furiously sleep ideas green colorless.
*Milk the crumpled verb a.
We showed that the structure of a sentence contributes to its meaning. However,
grammaticality and meaningfulness are not the same thing.
Grammaticality also does not depend on the truth of sentences.
What Grammaticality is Not Based On
[[the] [child]][[found] [[a] [puppy]]]
The natural groupings or parts of a sentence “constituents”
Sentence Structure
“stand alone” test“replacement by a pronoun”“move as a unit” test
The child found a puppy.What did you find? a puppyWhere did you find a puppy? I found him in the park.John found a puppy and Bill did too.It was a puppy that the child found.A puppy was found by the child.
Constituency Tests
Syntactic Category
Phrase Structure TreeLexical categories
Fucntional categories
S ‐> NP VP
NP ‐> Det N
VP ‐> V NP
(1) The defendants denied the charge: they claim that they did [VP not destroy the garden].
(2) She proposed [NP an analysis of the sentence].
(3) Jack is [AP so fond of coffee].
(4) They are [PP quite in agreement].
(5) My sister cycles [AvP much faster than me].
Phrase Structure Tree
X‐bar Syntax
The child found a puppy.
Wrap‐up
Next class
Reading Assignment: pp. 94 – 102
Exercises: #3, 5
Syntax: The Sentence Patterns of LanguageWEEK 4 DAY 2
Contents
◦Last lecture: Syntax, what the syntax rules do, syntactic ambiguity, constituency tests
Today:◦phrase structure trees and rules
[[the] [child]][[found] [[a] [puppy]]]
The natural groupings or parts of a sentence “constituents”
Sentence Structure
Phrase Structure Treesrepresent three aspects of a speaker’s syntactic knowledge1. the linear order of the words in the sentence
2. the identification of the syntactic categories of words and groups of words
3. the hierarchical structure of the syntactic categories (e.g., an S is composed of an NP followed by a VP, a VP is composed of a V that may be followed by an NP, and so one)
Phrase Structure Rules
1. S → NP VP2. NP → Det N3. VP → V NP
Phrase Structure RulesThe woman laughed.
1. S → NP VP2. NP → Det N3. VP → V NP4. VP → V
Phrase Structure Rules
The puppy played in the garden
1. S → NP VP2. NP → Det N3. VP → V NP4. VP → V5. VP → V PP6. PP → P NP
Phrase Structure Rules
1. S → NP VP
2. NP → Det N
3. VP → V NP
4. VP → V
5. VP → V PP
6. PP → P NP
7. VP → V CP
8. CP → C S
The professor said that the student passed the exam.
Draw the phrase structure tree (tree diagram).
1. S → NP VP
2. NP → Det N
3. VP → V NP
4. VP → V
5. VP → V PP
6. PP → P NP
7. VP → V CP
8. CP → C S
The professor asked if the students understood the lecture.
We can produce and understand an infinite number of sentences!
The kindhearted boy had many girlfriends.
The kindhearted, intelligent boy had many girlfriends.
The kindhearted, intelligent, handsome boy had many girlfriends.
...
John found a book in the library.
John found a book in the library in the stacks.
John found a book in the library in the stacks on the fourth floor.
...
The cat chased the mouse.
The cat chased the mouse that ate the cheese.
The cat chased the mouse that ate the cheese that came from the cow.
The cat chased the mouse that ate the cheese that came from the cow that
grazed in the field.
VP → V PP
NP → NP PP
NP → Adj NP
Recursive rules
(1) The defendants denied the charge: they claim that they did [VP not destroy the garden].
(2) She proposed [NP an analysis of the sentence].
(3) Jack is [AP so fond of coffee].
(4) They are [PP quite in agreement].
(5) My sister cycles [AvP much faster than me].
Phrase Structure Trees
X‐bar Syntax
The child found a puppy.
Wrap‐upPhrase Structure Tree and Rules
Next class
Reading Assignment: pp. 103‐114
Exercises: #6, 8, 11
Syntax: The Sentence Patterns of LanguageWEEK 5 DAY 1
Contents
◦Last lecture: phrase structure trees and rules
Today:More phrase structure trees and rules, Head‐ComplementX‐bar theory
(1) The defendants denied the charge: they claim that they did [VP not destroy the garden].
(2) She proposed [NP an analysis of the sentence].
(3) Jack is [AP so fond of coffee].
(4) They are [PP quite in agreement].
(5) My sister cycles [AvP much faster than me].
Phrase Structure Trees
X‐bar Syntax
X‐bar theory is the theory that all XPs have three levels of structure
◦ 1. the XP◦ 2. the specifier (modifier)◦ 3. X’ with head X and a complement
The child found a puppy.
Many linguists use the symbols
T (tense) and TP (tense phrase)
instead of Aux and S, with the
TP having an intermediate T’
category
TP
Wrap‐upPhrase Structure Tree and Rules
Next class
Reading Assignment: pp.
Exercises: #
![Common Syntax Errors. syntax = [rules for] sentence building Word Choice Sentence Structure Paragraph Structure](https://img.pdfslide.net/doc/110x75/56649e405503460f94b32524/common-syntax-errors-syntax-rules-for-sentence-building-word-choice-sentence.jpg)
