Constituency Flashcards
Two types of ambiguity
Lexical ambiguity: results from a word being associated with more than one meaning
Syntactic ambiguity: results from different groupings of words, each originative a different meaning or interpretation
What is a constituent?
Word or group of words that function as a single unit within a hierarchical structure
Name constituency tests!
Coordination
Pronoun substitution
Do so substitution
Topicalization
answer ellipsis
Clefting & psuedo-clefting
Ellipsis
Passivization
Echo Questions
Explain the constituency test:
Coordination
Only constituents of the same type/class can be coordinated
[Kim and Lee]NP wrote the book
Kim wrote [the novel and the poem]NP
Kim [composed and recited]VP the poem
Explain the constituency test:
Pronoun substitution
Involves using a pronoun in place of a phrase
Kim wrote [the book with the blue cover]
–> Kim wrote IT
Explain the constituency test:
Do so substitution
Widely used to probe the structure of strings containing verbs
We met them in the pub because we had time
- We DID SO in the pub because we had time (met them)
- We DID SO because we had time (met them in the pub)
- We DID SO (met them in the pub because we had time)
Explain the constituency test:
Topicalization
Many languages allow marked word order to express emphasis, usually with a different intonation pattern
I won’t eat [that pizza]
That pizza, I won’t eat
Only with certain kinds of constituents
The description of [his aunt] was really funny
*His aunt, the description of was really funny
Explain the constituency test:
Answer ellipsis
Form a question with a question word
Old men drink carbonated soda
Who drinks carbonated soda?
- old men
What do old men drink?
What do old men do?
What happens to carbonated soda?
- *old men drink
Explain the constituency test:
Clefting
Place the string being tested within the structure “It was X that…” (fails to identify most individual words as constituents)
–> English typically doesn’t allow VP in cleft construction
Elena bought [the book] with her first wages
- It was [the book] that Elena bought with her first wages
- *It was [the book with her first wages] that Elena bought
Explain the constituency test:
(VP) Ellipsis
Checks which strings containing one or more predicative elements can be omitted from a sentence
Those smugglers didn’t [rely on the weather forecast] but these fisherman did [__] for sure.
Kim hasn’t been to Athens, but Lee has [__]
Explain the constituency test:
Passivization
Converting an active sentence to passive allows us see whether the subject and object are constituents
The black cat with the white whiskers chased the gray mouse with the long tail
- [The gray mouse with the long tail] was chased by [the black cat with the white whiskers]
Explain the constituency test:
Echo questions
Type of direct question that repeats part or all of something that was said; the question word remains in situ
Elena bought [what] with her first wages?
- [the book]
Explain the constituency test:
Psuedo-clefting
Place the string being tested within the structure “X is/are what…” or “What… is/are X”
The hurricane destroyed the house
- What the hurricane destroyed was [the house]
- What the hurricane did was [destroy the house]
- What destroyed the house was [the hurricane]
- *What did the house was [the hurricane destroy]
Are constituents universal?
It’s unclear; constituent structure varies cross linguistically
