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SyntaxWord order, constituency
LING 200
Spring 2003
Reading: Files 6.1, 6.3, 6.5, 6.7
Overview
• What is syntactic competence? • Morphology and syntax: inflectional morphology • Word order • Representing the structure of sentences• Arguments for constituent structure• Transformations• Cross-linguistic variation
Syntactic competence
• Possible vs. impossible sentences
• Restricted distributions of words/ morphemes
• What sentences mean
What native speakers know about:
Sources of evidence in syntax
• Observation of native speaker productions
• Elicitation of native speaker grammaticality judgements – from self– from others
Morphology overlaps with syntax
Derivation Inflection
1. Category changing?
often
-able: likeable
-ness: happiness
no
-s pl.: apples
-s 3sS: sees
Syntactically relevant morphemes: inflection
Inflection vs. derivation
Derivation Inflection
2. Productive? (very general conditions on affixation?)
often restricted:
-hood: brotherhood, neighborhood, *daughterhood
yes, but subject to blocking by irregular forms:
-s pl.:
child, *childs, children
Russianize vs. Russify
Inflection vs. derivation
Derivation Inflection
3. Morpheme order
inner: usu. added before inflectional: -]Nal]Adj
-]N,Adjize]V
-]Vation]N
industrializationalize
outer: usu. added after derivational:
3sS -s
industrializationalizes
Inflection vs. derivation
Derivation Inflection
4. Syntactic relevance
no usually sensitive to syntactic information; -s 3sS: Rose sees (vs. I see_)
Some verbal inflectional affixes
-ing present participle
visiting I am ___ Virginia now.
-ed past visited Last weekend I ___ Virginia.
-ed past participle
visited I have just ___ Virginia.
Syntactic relevance: agreement• Spanish: adjectives agree with nouns in gender, number • gender: (arbitrary) noun classes
entrada ‘ticket (to a show)’ vs. boleto ‘ticket’
‘the’ ‘this’ ‘expensive’
sg. entrada la entrada esta entrada entrada cara
pl. entradas las entradas estas entradas entradas caras
sg. boleto el boleto este boleto boleto caro
pl. boletos los boletos estos boletos boletos caros
Agreement
Vendiste las entradas? ‘Did you sell the tickets?’you sold the tickets
No, las (*los) tengo todavía. ‘No, I still have them.’ them I have still
Word order • English vs. Witsuwit’en
1. Prepositions precede nouns in English. count for me Postpositions follow nouns in Witsuwit'en:
spe c’otw ‘count for me’
me for you (sg.) count
Word order
2. In English, adjectives precede nouns. narrow rope In Witsuwit'en, an adjective follows a noun: t'o tet ‘fine babiche’rope narrow
Word order3. In English, the possessor noun normally precedes the possessed noun.
my friend's house
but can follow the possessed noun:the house of my friend
In Witsuwit'en, the possessor noun always precedes the possessed noun: sq'aqh py‘my friend’s house’my friend his/her house
Word order
4. Subject of sentence: instigates action (transitive verbs), undergoes action or state (intransitive verbs)
In both Witsuwit'en and English, subjects precede verbs:
Driftwood is floating around. tz ntdriftwood it is floating around
Word order5. (Direct) (undergoes action of verb) object only in sentences
with transitive verbs.
In English, the direct object follows the verb.
We bought food. In Witsuwit'en, the direct object precedes the verb:
t'a nets'ottqhtfood we bought
Attested word order patterns(S = Subject, O = Object, V = Verb):
SOV Witsuwit'en
SVO English
VSO Irish
OSV Apurinã (Arawakan, Brazil)
OVS Parecís (Arawakan, Brazil) (also SOV)
VOS Oro Win (Chapacura-Wanham, Brazil) (5 speakers)
Frequency of each type< Sample of 402 languages.
Word order # languages
SOV 180 45%
SVO 168 42%
VSO 37 9%
VOS 12 3%
OVS 5 1%
OSV 0 0%
Recursion and phrase structure (Potentially) infinitely long sentences: This is the house that Jack built.This is the malt
that lay in the house that Jack built.This is the rat
that ate the maltthat lay in the house that Jack built.
...
This is the priest all shaven and shornthat married the man all tattered and tornthat kissed the maiden all forlornthat milked the cow with the crumpled hornthat tossed the dogthat worried the catthat killed the ratthat ate the maltthat lay in the house that Jack built.
...
How to characterize (potential) infinity?
Phrase structure rules. Properties: specify word order are recursive (output of one rule can be rewritten via another rule)
Phrase structure rulesGeneral schema:
X Y Z (“X consists of/is Y Z”) examples:
English: PP P NPWitsuwit'en: PP NP P
PP = Pre/postpositional phraseP = Pre/postpositionNP = Noun phrase
Equivalent representational devices
phrase structure rule: PP P NP labeled bracketing: PP[P NP]
tree structure: PP P NP
Some terminology
constituentsyntactic unit consisting of one or more words
= node (in tree)root nodebranching nodes
terminal nodes
PP P NP with Det N the money
More phrase structure rules
S NP VP S = sentenceNP = noun phraseVP = verb phrase
More phrase structure rules
NP (Det) (Adj+) N (PP) Det = determinerAdj = adjectiveN = noun
( ) = optional
Determiners vs. adjectives
NP (Det) (Adj+) N (PP)Det a/an, some, the, your (etc.)Adj big, green, juicy (etc.)
One determiner per NP:your pickle, the pickle, *your the pickle,
*the your pickle
More than one Adj is possible (+ notation):your big pickle, your big green pickle,
your big green juicy pickle
More phrase structure rules
VP Vtrans (NP) (PP) (Adv)
VP = verb phraseVtrans = transitive verbAdv = adverb
Some simple tree structures
S NP VPNP (Det) (Adj+) N (PP)VP V (NP) (PP) (Adv) S NP VP N V cats sleep
Some simple tree structures
NP (Det) (Adj+) N (PP)PP P NP NP N PP fog P NP in Det N the morning
NP Det N PP the piano P NP on Det N PP the stage P NP in Det N PP the music building P NP on N campus
Some simple tree structures
VP V (NP) (PP) (Adv) VP V NP PP put Det N P NP the car in Det N the garage
Summary of syntax (so far)
• Syntactic competence• Morphology and syntax: inflectional morphology • Word order • Recursion• Representing the structure of sentences
– phrase structure rules
– tree diagrams
– labeled bracketing