1、Syntax I Checklist,Grammar Formalisms Spring Term 2004,Background,Facts about English that are typically covered in a first course (or maybe second course) on syntactic theory. By people who were teaching generative linguistics in the 1970s More effective if taught as a course on problem solving and
2、 argumentation: For each new piece of data, the students update the current set of grammar rules. Spend class time evaluating alternative solutions.,Parts of Speech,Categories of words: Open class: you can make up new words in these categories Noun, verb, adjective, adverb Closed class: you cant mak
3、e up new words in these categories Quantifier, determiner, preposition,Parts of speech are defined by:,1. Distribution: Determiners can go here: He wrote _ other works. He wrote the/all/these/no/few/many other works. *He wrote despair/be/have other works. *He wrote student other works. ?He wrote suc
4、cessful other works.,Parts of speech are defined by:,2. Morphology,Parts of speech are defined by:,3. Other criteria that are: Falsifiable Reproducible,Parts of speech are not defined by squishy semantic notions,Definition: noun denote entities Counter-example: assassination is a noun that denotes a
5、n event Reply: no, it denotes the idea of the event, which is an entity How do you tell the difference between an event and the idea of an event? Without precise definitions, this theory cannot be disproved. (In language technologies, imprecise definitions lead to poor intercoder reliability, which
6、leads to poor training, etc.),Non-lexical categories,Noun Phrase (NP) Verb Phrase (VP) Prepositional Phrase (PP) Adjective Phrase (AP) Also defined by distribution, morphology, and other falsifiable, reproducible tests.,Constituent Structure,Sam climbed up the ladder.,Sam picked up the ladder.,N V P
7、 Det N,N V P Det N,NP,NP,NP,VP,S,V,S,Tree 1,Tree 2,Tree Terminology,Mother Daughter Sister Dominate Immediately Dominate Node (branching or non-branching) Branch Terminal Node/Leaf Node Phrasal Nodes (non-terminal) Lexical Nodes (pre-terminal),Constituent,A constituent is a string of words such that
8、 there is one node that dominates those words and no other words.,The coordination test for constituency,Sam climbed up the ladder and out the window. *Sam picked up a ladder and out some new boots.,Movement as a test for constituency,A constituent might appear in different positions in a sentence,
9、but stay in one piece. There are different movement rules that affect different constituents (NP, PP, AP, VP).,Transformational Grammar and Movement Rules,S,NP VP,The kids V NP,ate the chocolate,Deep Structure,S,NP VP,The chocolate V PP,was eaten by the kids,Surface Structure,Meaning preserving tree
10、-to-tree mapping,Movement is a useful metaphor at this stage in the course,Sam climbed up a ladder. Up a ladder Sam climbed up a ladder. Sam likes chocolate. It is chocolate that Sam likes chocolate.,Another movement rule (and an explanation of methodology),Identify a meaning preserving movement rul
11、e and illustrate it with a non-controversial example: He ran into the room. It was into the room that he ran. Apply the movement rule to the controversial examples that you want to test. He climbed up a ladder. It was up a ladder that he climbed. passes the test He picked up a ladder. *It was up a l
12、adder that he picked. fails the test,Be sure that you are testing the right thing,Are these sentences relevant in showing Tree 1 and Tree 2 have different structures? It was a ladder that Sam climbed up. It was a ladder that Sam picked up. Sam climbed up a ladder and a wall. Sam picked up a ladder a
13、nd a rope. ?*A ladder was climbed up by Sam. A ladder was picked up by Sam. A ladder he climbed up. A ladder he picked up.,Non-Constituent Coordination (Syntax II),John found the letter and Bill signed the letter. John found the letter and Bill signed the letter.,John found the letter,NP V Det N,NP,
14、VP,S,Right Node Raising: If you conjoin two strings of words that have identical final constituents, delete the first instance of the identical constituent.,Non-Constituent Coordination,I gave a book to Mary and gave a letter to Sue. I gave a book to Mary and gave a letter to Sue.,I gave a book to M
15、ary,NP V NP PP,VP,S,Left Peripheral Ellipsis: If you conjoin two strings of words that have identical initial constituents, delete the second instance of the identical constituent.,Test for constituency: These smart students of linguistics and clever students of chemistry,Tests for constituency lead
16、 you to discover structures that you might not have thought of otherwise.,X-bar theory,Chomsky (1970) “Remarks on Nominalizations” Jackendoff (1977) X-bar Syntax Looking at lots of phrase structure rules for different languages, make observations about what they have in common. Rome destroyed the ci
17、ty. Romes destruction of the city,This student of linguistics with long hair,This smart student of linguistics,So completely in the wrong,So very fond of Mary,So fond of Mary in some ways,Specifier,Adjunct,Argument/complement,Test for constituency: These smart students of linguistics and clever stud
18、ents of chemistry,Tests for constituency lead you to discover structures that you might not have thought of otherwise.,Specifiers,Test for constituency: These smart students of linguistics and clever students of chemistry,Tests for constituency lead you to discover structures that you might not have
19、 thought of otherwise.,Heads,Test for constituency: These smart students of linguistics and clever students of chemistry,Tests for constituency lead you to discover structures that you might not have thought of otherwise.,Adjuncts,Test for constituency: These smart students of linguistics and clever
20、 students of chemistry,Tests for constituency lead you to discover structures that you might not have thought of otherwise.,Complements/Arguments,Verbs and their arguments,From Fillmore and Kay, lecture notes, Chapter 4: The children devoured the spaghetti. *The children devoured. *The children devo
21、ured the spaghetti the cheese.She handed the baby a toy. *She handed the baby. *She handed the toy.Problems exist. *Problems exist more problems.,Valency,(Linguists took this term from chemistry how many electrons are missing from the outer shell.),Valency,Verbs (and sometimes nouns and adjectives)
22、describe events, states, and relations that have a certain number of participants. Devouring generally involves two participants. Handing generally involves three particpants. Existing generally involves one participant. The number of participants is called the verbs valence or valency. Devour has a
23、 valency of two. Hand has a valency of three. Exist has a valency of one. The participants are referred to as arguments of the verb. (Like arguments of a function.),Subcategorization: Remember this word,Verbs are divided into subcategories that have different valencies. Here is how the terminology w
24、orks: Exist, devour, and hand have different subcategorizations. Devour subcategorizes for a subject and a direct object. Devour is subcategorized for a subject and a direct object. Devour takes two arguments, a subject and a direct object (or an agent and a patient).,Arguments are not always Noun P
25、hrases,The italicized phrases are also arguments: He looked pale. The solution turned red. I want to go. He started singing a song. We drove to New York.,Optional and Obligatory Arguments,The children ate. The children ate cake. Patient/theme argument is optional *The children devoured. The children
26、 devoured the cake. Patient/theme argument is not optional The dog ran. The dog ran from the house. The dog ran to the creek. The dog ran from the house to the creek through the garden along the path.,Complements: Remember this word,Arguments are sometimes called complements of the verb. However, ju
27、st to confuse you, the word complement also refers to complement clauses embedded clauses that are arguments of a verb. Examples of complement clauses: The children think that the book is interesting. The children told the teacher that the book is interesting. The children want to read the book. The
28、 children expect the teacher to read the book.,Motivation for the existence of Semantic Roles,John opened the door with a key. The key opened the door. The door opened. The door was opened by John with a key. Semantic roles explain what the meanings of these sentences have in common even though thei
29、r grammatical relations and subcategorization frames are different. The key fills the instrument role, whether it is the subject of the sentence or a prepositional phrase. John fills the agent role, whether he is the subject or in a prepositional phrase. The door fills the theme or patient role, whe
30、ther it is a subject or direct object.,Semantic Roles are different from Grammatical Relations,Subjects that are not agents: The clothes were washed by the woman. The clock broke. The rock shattered the window. The window shattered. The ship sank. The students received awards.,Examples of Semantic R
31、oles,Agent: an agent acts volitionally or intentionally The students worked. Sue baked a cake.,Examples of Semantic Roles,Experiencer and Stimulus: An experiencer is an animate being that perceives something or experiences an emotion. The stimulus is the thing that the experiencer perceives or the t
32、hing that caused the emotional response. The students like linguistics. (emoter and stimulus) The students saw a linguist. (perceiver and stimulus) Linguistics frightens the students. (emoter and stimulus) The students thought about linguistics. (cognizer and stimulus),Examples of Semantic Roles,Pat
33、ient: A patient is affected by an action. Sam kicked the ball. Sue cut the cake. Beneficiary: A beneficiary benefits from an event Sue baked a cake for Sam. Sue baked Sam a cake. Malefactive: Someone is affected adversely by an event. My dog died on me. Instrument: The boy opened the door with a key
34、. The key opened the door.,Semantic Roles for Directed Motion: Ray Jackendoff,Theme: changes location, is located somewhere, or exists Source: the starting point of the motion. Goal: the ending point of the motion. Path: the path of the motion.,Examples of Location and Directed Motion,Many problems
35、still exist. The clock sits on the shelf. The ball rolled from the door to the window along the wall. Same walked from his house to town along the river. Sue rolled across the room. The car turned into the driveway.,Being in a state or changing state,The car is red. The ice cream melted. The glass b
36、roke. Sam broke the glass. The paper turned from red to green. The fairy godmother turned the pumpkin into a coach.,Having or Changing possession,The teacher gave books to the students. The teacher gave the students books. The students have books.,Exchange of Information,The teacher told a story to
37、the students. The teacher told the students a story.,Extent,The road extends/runs along the river from the school to the mall. The string reaches the wall. The string reaches across the room to the wall.,Problems with Semantic Roles,The definitions are vague: If themes are things that moved, is his
38、hand a theme in John moved his hand? Linguists keep making up new role names without proper motivation. Proper motivation would be a test. Linguists keep writing about the same small set of verbs that have clearly identified roles. Many roles are not clearly covered. (Fillmore and Kay, pages 4-22) H
39、e risked death. We resisted the enemy. She resembles her mother.,Predicate-Specific Role Names,It is ok to use predicate-specific role names when you want to avoid the vagueness of semantic role names. E.g., devourer and devouree,Adjuncts,Locations, times, adverbs, and other things that can go with
40、almost any sentences are called adjuncts. The children ate the cake quickly at 2:00 in the kitchen. Predicates specify how many arguments they take and also specify the grammatical functions, semantic roles, and case markings of their arguments. Predicates do not specify the semantic roles, grammati
41、cal functions, or case markings of adjuncts.,How to tell arguments from adjuncts,There are some general guidelines that are not always conclusive. Adjuncts are always optional. (but some arguments are optional too) Repeatability: The children devoured the cake at 2:00 on Monday. (Two temporal adjunc
42、ts) The children devoured the cake in Pittsburgh in a restaurant. (Two locative adjuncts) *The children devoured the cake the dessert. (arguments are not repeatable),Embedded Clauses,Embedded Clause,Matrix Clause,Embedded Clauses:,Main verbs are subcategorized for The complementizer (that, for, to,
43、etc.) Non-finite for-to We hoped for there to be no trouble. A word at the beginning of a subordinate clause that identifies it as a complement The morphology of the embedded verb Finite: present or past tense Non-finite: infinitive, present participle, past participle,Finite embedded clauses,Finite
44、 embedded clause I believe (that) it is snowing. Say, think, scream Finite with dummy subject It seems that they have left. Finite embedded question I wondered/asked whether/if it was snowing. Finite plus object We told them that it was snowing. Finite plus PP We said to them that it was snowing.,No
45、n-finite embedded clauses,Non-finite for-to We hoped for there to be no trouble. Non-finite: Raising to subject They seem (to us) to have left. Appear, continue Non-finite: Subject Equi They tried to leave. Intend, expect, plan, hope Non-finite: Raising to object We believe them to have left. consid
46、er Non-finite: Object Equi We persuaded them to leave. Convince, order, force, signaled Non-finite: promise We promised them to leave.,Raising to subject,Raising to subject,Seem takes one semantic argument. Two syntactic subcategorization frames Dummy subject and tensed clause Subject and infinitive
47、 clause missing a subject Subject of embedded clause is coded as subject of matrix clause Occurs before the matrix verb in English Matrix verb agrees with it,Raising to subject,Only the subject of the embedded clause can be removed from the lower clause and coded as the matrix clause subject. * They
48、 seem I to have seen _. * The knife seems I to have cut the bread with.,Raising-to-Object or Exceptional Case Marking,Believe takes two semantic arguments. Two syntactic subcategorization frames: Subject and tensed embedded clause. Subject, object, and infinitive VP I believe that they have left. I believe them to have left.,I believe that they have left,NP VP,COMP S,V S-bar,NP VP,S,Matrix Clause,Embedded Clause,Raising to object,I believe them to have left,COMP VP,V NP VP-bar,NP VP,S,S,Raising-to-Object: We will use this one in this class.,
