Lecture 8-9 - Syntax Flashcards
I. Basics: what is grammar ?
II. Word Classes
III. Phrases
IV. Constituents and constituency tests
I. Basics: what is grammar ?
Definitions (broad and narrow):
- “The term grammar is used to refer to characteristics of morphology and syntax of language” (B&B 2010: 100)
- “grammar, rules of a language governing the sounds, words, sentences, and other elements, as well as their combination and interpretation. The word grammar also denotes the study of these abstract features or a book presenting these rules. In a restricted sense, the term refers only to the study of sentence and word structure (syntax and morphology), excluding vocabulary and pronunciation.”
- “In linguistics, the term ‘grammar’ refers to the complete system of phonological, morphological, syntactic and semantic information and rules that speakers of a given language possess” (Plag)
I. Basics: what is grammar ?
Definitions extended
A definition of ‘grammar’ is very hard to find; The concept is used in many different ways.
Grammar is a feature of the mind; information stored abstractly in the neural network of the human brain. Grammar is one of the mechanisms which enable the speaker to make sense of strings of words and to communicate. In order to communicate, the speakers of a language need to adhere to certain rules -> grammar can be seen as a set of rules in the human mind or but not necessarily in a grammar book.
Syntax is the set of rules, principles, and processes that govern the structure of sentences in a given language, usually including word order. The word syntax comes from ancient Greek: σύνταξις “coordination”, which consists of σύν syn, “together”, and τάξις táxis, “an ordering”.
Grammar is responsible that a sentence makes sense, even if it has nonsense-words in it
I. Basics: what is grammar ?
How to be a competent speaker:
- Lexicon (Wortschatz)
- Phonology (Pronunciation)
- Grammar (Syntax & Morphology: Inflectional & Derivational)
I. Basics: what is grammar ?
analysis
Identifying and classifying elements: categories, phrases, clauses, constituents
Ordering of elements: within the word, within the phrase, within the clause
Different levels: hierarchy, recursivity, ambiguity
Functions and meaning of certain syntactic elements
Sentence: (my dad adores old cars which were built in the 50ies)
-> sentence types (declarative, imperative, interrogative, complex, compound…)
Clause: (my dad adores old cars)
- > finite vs. non-finite
- > Types of clauses (noun clause, relative clause, adverbial clause…)
Phrase: (my dad) (adores) (old cars)
-> Types of phrases and their syntactic functions, head vs. dependents, hierarchy inside the phrase, …
Word/Lexeme: (my)+(dad)+(adores)+(old)+(cars)
Morpheme:car+s
Phoneme:/k/+/a/+/r/+/z/
I. Basics: what is grammar ?
sentence vs. utterance
Sentence:
▪ a string of words put together by the grammatical rules of language.
▪ The meaning of a sentence can be derived from the meaning of its individual words and phrases.
▪ A sentence consists of at least a verb and often a subject and objects and adjuncts.
▪ Usually an independent syntactic unit that begins with a capital letter and ends with a full stop, question mark…
▪ Competence; grammatical term
Utterance:
▪ the use of one or several sentences in a particular context, utterances are actual, physical events
▪ The meaning of an utterance can only be derived from the context.
▪ An utterance can consist of a single word or several sentences.
▪ Performance, communicative term
- a sentence can consist of one or more clauses (organized around a (main) verb)
- there are dependent and independent clauses
- Dependent clauses can be finite or non-finite (or sometimes verbless)
I. Basics: what is grammar ?
Approaches to grammar:
- Prescriptivevs.descriptive
- Traditional
- Theoretical: a linguists unified account or model of the organization, acquisition, and development of languages in general
II. Word Classes
Closed and Open word classes
Closed word classes:
- determinatives
- Coordinators and subordinators
- Prepositions
Open word classes:
- Nouns
- Adjectives
- Verbs
- Adverbs
II. Word Classes
types of Nouns
Nouns
-> common nouns, proper nouns, pronouns
Common nouns
-> count, non-count
Count
- > concrete (one bun, one toy, a pair of jeans)
- > abstract (difficulty, remark)
Non-count
- > concrete (butter, gold, milk, homework) - don’t have PL, can’t be counted
- > abstract (music, homework)
II. Word Classes
Criteria for classification:
- semantic
- morphological
- Syntactic (distributional)
Categories are based on semantic, morphological & syntactic (distributional) criteria. Nevertheless, they are a ‘secondary’ (epi)phenomenon.
II. Word Classes
what do Nouns do
denote persons and (concrete or abstract) objects, e.g. student, book, love
Semantic criteria – classification problems
▪ Nouns can also denote events (accident, explosion, event)
▪ Nouns can also denote qualities (patience, intelligence)
▪ Nouns and pronouns can also denote places (inside, border; here, there) or times (today, now)
▪ Adjectives can also denote possibility: possible, probable
II. Word Classes
what do verbs do
Verbs denote actions or states, e.g. eat, laugh, live, know
II. Word Classes
what do adjectives do
Adjectives denote (concrete or abstract) qualities (of persons or objects): dead, green, asleep, funny, real
II. Word Classes
what do prepositions do
Prepositions denote places (in, on), times (after, during), relations (with, for)
II. Word Classes
what do adverbs do
Adverbs denote manner (quickly), possibility (probably), frequency (often), attitude (unfortunately), degree (very)
II. Word Classes
what do determinative do
decide which kind of reference an NP has = definite (the), indefinite (a/an), partitive (some) or universal (all).
II. Word Classes
what do conjunctions do
Conjunction is a part of speech that connects words, phrases, or clauses that are called the conjuncts of the conjoining construction
II. Word Classes
Morphological criteria
Morphological criteria
▪ Nouns: inflection (plural ending); derivational suffixes
(e.g. -er, -ment, -tion, -ness)
▪ Verbs: inflection (past tense ending); derivational affixes (e.g. re-, dis-, -fy, -en)
▪ Adjectives: inflection (comparative/superlative endings); derivational affixes (e.g. un-, -al, -ful, -less, -able)
▪ Adverbs: -ly, -wise
II. Word Classes
Morphological criteria - classification problems
may be misleading:
▪ goodly (A), friendly (A); interesting (A), building (N), tired (A)
One form may productively occur with different word classes:
▪ -s: walks (V-s), streets (N-s), smiles (V-s or N-s) ▪ -er: winner (V-er), smaller (A-er)
▪ -ish: childish (N-ish) , greenish (A-ish)
even productive morphemes do not apply to all members of the class:
▪ mass nouns: no plural forms (milk-s, advice-s)
▪ verbs denoting a permanent state: no progressive form
(I am know-ing this)
▪ non-gradable adjectives: no comparative/superlative forms (dead-er/deadest)
II. Word Classes
Syntactic criteria – distribution
▪ adjectives precede nouns (black cats, *cats black)
▪ determiners precede adjectives (the black cats, *black the cats, *cats black the)
▪ adverbs precede adjectives (extremely cheap, cheap extremely)
▪ conjunctions occur in initial position (I went home because I was tired. * I went home, I was tired because)
▪ prepositions precede noun phrases (on the table,table the on)
II. Word Classes
Syntactic criteria – classification problems
▪ adjectives can also follow nouns
the book available, the people present
▪ adverbs can occur in many positions
Suddenly he had left the room, He suddenly had left the room, He had suddenly left the room, He had left the room suddenly.
▪ not only conjunctions can occur in initial position
▪ prepositions do not always precede a noun phase
What are you staring at?, The man invited us in.
II. Word Classes
Conclusion
▪ criteria not conclusive individually (but often jointly)
▪ word class not always easy to establish
(e.g.:
− Is my a determiner or a pronoun?
− What kind of word is back? in He gave it back to me; John is back
− What about like? in He like begged me to stay; I was like ʹNo way!ʹ
▪ Best to take a prototype approach:
e.g. some nouns are more prototypical than others
II. Word Classes
Noun
syntactic category:
- Noun (N)
meaning:
- person, object, place, abstract, entity
inflection:
- Plural, possessive
distribution:
- subject or object of a sentence
- may follow a determiner
- may be modified by an adjective
- the STUDENTS went quickly to the new PUB
II. Word classes
Verb
syntactic category:
- Verb (V)
meaning:
- act, event, state, emotion
inflection:
- 3rd person sing. present indicative
- ing-form
- past tense
- past participle
distribution:
- predicate of a sentence
- usually follows the subject, may precede an object
- combines with auxiliaries
- may be modified by an adverb
- The students WENT quickly to the new pub.
II. Word classes
Adjective
syntactic category:
- Adjective (ADJ)
meaning:
- quality, attribute
inflection:
- comparative
- superlative
distribution:
- modifies nouns
- occurs before a noun, may be prided by a determiner
- The students went quickly to the NEW pub.
II. Word classes
Adverb
syntactic category:
- Adverb (ADV)
meaning:
- quality, attribute
distribution:
- modifies verbs, adjetives, adverbs, prepositions
- The students went QUICKLY to the new pub.
II. Word classes
Preposition
syntactic category:
- Preposition (Prep)
meaning:
- location, direction, relation
distribution:
- occurs before a noun or a determiner
- The students went quickly TO the new pub.
III. Phrases
Types of phrases:
▪ Noun Phrase (NP)
a dog, two black cats
[the book I bought yesterday] NP
[the end of the story] NP
▪ (Extended) Verb Phrase (EVP)
bought a car, is watching a movie
[gave my sister a present] EVP
[has answered the question] EVP
▪ Adjectival Phrase (AP) very big, incredibly stupid [smaller than that one] AP [as boring as ever] AP [fond of chocolate]AP
▪ Prepositional Phrase (PP)
on the table, during the lecture
[with a knife] PP
[for my mother] PP
▪ Adverbial Phrase (AdvP)
very often
[as quickly as possible] AdvP
[reasonably safely] AdvP
= syntactic unit above the word level (but not a clause)
5 word classes can function as HEADS of phrases
III. Phrases
Internal structure of phrases:
Heads
▪ most important element of the phrase
▪ element which indicates what is being described by the phrase
E.g.:
a black car (describes object, not colour)
bought (describes action, not object)
on the table (describes location, not object)
III. Phrases
Internal structure of phrases:
Dependents
- prehead dependents
- posthead dependents)
e. g. modifiers, complements,…
e. g., not quite all the hot buttered currant (buns) on the table
II. Phrases
Internal NP structure
The diligent students of Physics with long hair, who are revising for the exam
Prehead
The - determinative
diligent - adjective
Head
students - noun, subject
Posthead
of Physics - PP, complimentary
with long hair - PP, modifier
who are revising for the exam - Clause, Peripheral Dep.
IV. Constituents and constituency tests
What are constituents
Structural units (building blocks) that can make up larger units
IV. Constituents and constituency tests
How to identify constituents
Constituency tests:
- Pronominalization/Substitution (test)
- Movement (test)
- Coordination (test)
- Gapping
- Sentence fragments /question test (stand-alone test)
IV. Constituents and constituency tests
Pronominalization:
substitution of a constituent by a pronoun/pro-form/pro-phrase;
if you can substitute a string by a proform it is likely to be a constituent
The dog ate some bones.
→ It ate them.
→ The cat did so too.
IV. Constituents and constituency tests
Movement:
placing a constituent in another position;
if a string of words can together be moved to another sentential position it is likely to be a constituent
The dog ate some bones.
→ It was some bones that the dog ate (It-cleft)
→ Some bones were eaten by the dog (passive)
IV. Constituents and constituency tests
Coordination:
coordinating a constituent with a mirroring constituent of the same kind by a coordinating conjunction;
if we can coordinate a constituent with a similar constituent by ‘and‘, it is likely that it is a constituent
− The dog ate some bones and some cookies.
− The dog ate some bones and drank some water.
− The dog chased the cat through the kitchen and into the garden.
IV. Constituents and constituency tests
Gapping:
creating a tag question which leaves a gap for the constituent
− The dog has eaten all the bones, hasn‘t it _________?
− The dog will eat all the bones, but the cat won‘t _____.
IV. Constituents and constituency tests
Sentence fragments:
using constituents to answer a formulated question question;
if a sentence fragment is the answer to a formed question, it is likely to be a constituent
▪ Who has eaten all the bones? The dog.
▪ What has the dog eaten? All the bones.
▪ What did the dog do? Eat all the bones.
▪ Where did the dog chase the cat? In the garden.
V. Features of grammar
name the 3 Features of grammar
- Hierarchy
- Recursivity
- Ambiguity
V. Features of grammar
Hierarchy
Merging:
creates a hierarchy of constituents, where smaller constituents are embedded into larger ones
My parents live in a small village. [my parents]NP [a small village]NP [in [a small village]NP] PP [live [in [a small village]]] VP [[my parents] [live [in [a small village]]]]Cl
V. Features of grammar
Hierarchy tree diagram
My parents live in a small village.
Clause: My parents live in a small village.
NP - VP: My parents - live in a small village
Det+N - V+PP my, parents - live, in a small village
// - P+NP: in, a small village
// - // - Det+A+NP: a, small, village
V. Features of grammar
Recursivity:
My little brother has broken the window of the room at the back of the house on the corner of the street behind the post office in the ninth district.
My little brother has broken [1 the window [2 of the room [3 at the back [4 of the house [5 on the corner [6 of the street [7 behind the post office [8 in the ninth district ]8 ]7 ]6 ]5 ]4 ]3 ]2 ]1
Recursion
is the process or the result of repeating items in a self-similar way (selbst-ähnliche Strukturen).
Recursivity (e.g. of language)
is the property of allowing recursion.
V. Features of grammar
Ambiguity
The soldiers saw the men with binoculars.
- The soldiers saw [the men with binoculars].
- The soldiers [saw] [the men] [with binoculars].
You don’t know where to draw the phrase boundaries or which
units belong together
VI. Syntactic form vs. syntactic function
syntactic form:
- defined by semantic, morphological and syntactic criteria
- word classes (N, A, V, etc.)
- phrases (NP, VP, AP, etc.)
VI. Syntactic form vs. syntactic function
syntactic function:
- the role of an element in its grammatical context
- subject, predicate, complement, adjunct
VI. Syntactic form vs. syntactic function
syntactic function: subject
- most reliable formal properties:
- agreement:
He talks/talk a lot.
- case:
He talks a lot/Him talks a lot. - word order (in the case of English):
The student corrected the teacher.
-> i.e. subject precedes verb - often realized by NPs
(but also clauses and PPs)
VI. Syntactic form vs. syntactic function
syntactic function: predicate
Predicate in traditional grammar refers to everything but the subject
My little sister (likes books about medieval knights)
Predicate/predicator/verb refer only to the verb
My little sister (likes) books about medieval knights
VI. Syntactic form vs. syntactic function
syntactic function: complement
a (non-subject) constituent that cannot be left out (and complements the verb)
VI. Syntactic form vs. syntactic function
syntactic function: complement, types of complement
Direct objects
- My friend chased me/*I.
=> oblique form; follows verb
- mostly realized by NPs or clauses
Indirect objects My friend gave me/*I a book. My friend gave the book TO ME. => oblique form; between verb and direct object, or in a PP - mostly realized by NPs or PP (for, to)
Prepositional objects - Location - We returned TO London - He put the book ON the table => follows verb or direct object => realized by PPs
Subject complements
- = complement “to the subject”
- My little sister is HAPPY/A SPOILT BRAT
=> provides information about subject
=> mostly realized by NPs or AdjPs
=> follows copular verb (with be, seem, appear, look, sound, smell, taste, feel, become, get,…)
Object complements
- = complement “to the object”
- He makes me NERVOUS, I consider her A SPOILT BRAT.
=> follows direct object; provides information about object
- mostly realized by NPs or AdjPs
VI. Syntactic form vs. syntactic function
syntactic function: Complement: adjunct, adverbial
o Syntactic function o Not obligatory syntactically o Provides additional information o Time, place, reason, and manner in a sentence e.g., I met him LAST WEEK The cat is sleeping UNDER THE TABLE
-> you can leave them out
VI. Syntactic form vs. syntactic function
syntactic function: Complement: No one-to-one relation:
o One form may have many functions
o One function may be expressed by different forms
o e.g., boring -> can be a modifier, subject or object
a boring lecture -> modifier
The lecture was boring. -> subject complement
The students found the lecture boring. -> object complement
Boring is the new sexy. -> subject
VII. Complementation patterns
the verb is …
- The verb is the most powerful element in a clause
VII. Complementation patterns
Verbs express a variety of concepts:
- Number, Tense, Aspect, Modality, Voice, Peron
- In order to understand and speak English properly, one has to know how to
treat verbs
VII. Complementation patterns
Complementation pattern depends on different verb classes:
- intransitive verbs: e.g. laugh, snore, fall, tremble, die
- monotransitive verbs: e.g. buy, build, destroy, kill, ruin
- ditransitive verbs: e.g. give, donate, hand, send
- PP-complement verbs: e.g. venture, put, lie, subtract
- copular verbs: e.g. be, become, seem, appear
VII. Complementation patterns
Complementation pattern depends on different verb classes:
- intransitive verbs:
- no complements (S V)
The girl cried.
The leaves are falling.
VII. Complementation patterns
Complementation pattern depends on different verb classes:
- Monotransitive verbs:
- one complement (S V Od)
The dog ate the bone.
John bought a book.
VII. Complementation patterns
Complementation pattern depends on different verb classes:
- Ditransitive verbs:
- two complements (S V Oi Od/S V Od Oi)
The girl gave the dog the bone.
My brother sent me an email./My brother sent the email to me.
VII. Complementation patterns
Complementation pattern depends on different verb classes:
- PP complement verbs (complex-transitive verbs):
a) prepositional object only (S V Op)
- He ventured into the deserted building.
- They longed for a rest.
b) direct object and prepositional object (S V Od Op)
- He put the book on the table.
- The dog knocked the vase off the table.
VII. Complementation patterns
Complementation pattern depends on different verb classes:
- Copular verbs – subject complement:
(S V Cs)
- The dog is in the garden.
- The dog is asleep.
- Alice was a little girl.
VII. Complementation patterns
Complementation pattern depends on different verb classes:
- Sentences with object complement:
copular verb can be seen as implied (S V Od Co)
- I consider him a fool (I think that he is a fool)
- He made me angry (He did something → I am angry)
- Allice called Humpty Dumty a liar.
