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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

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 VP

D N V AP

The tree was

Deg A

so tall

2. CI

NP VP

D N V PP

Each child rolled P NP

down 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.

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

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.

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.

*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

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.)

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)

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.

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.

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.

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 ,too.

Bashayir said she would get a cat, and she did .

Even though she shouldn’t , 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).

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

Look at the following rules that apply to deep structures of sentences to derive surface structures (where VP will be missing).

DEEP STRUCTURE Bashyir wanted to buy a cat, and she did buy a cat.

Application rule 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 “pro-VP.”

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 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.

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 wh-movement. 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?

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.

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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