sentence structure + trees

Question 1

what is a sentence

Answer 1

a large consituent made of smaller constituents

Question 2

what are phrases?

Answer 2

smaller constituents

Question 3

2 parts of phrasal constituents

Answer 3

1. Heads
2. dependents (complements + modifiers)

Question 4

types of phrasal constituents

Answer 4

S, NP, VP, AdjP, AdvP, PP

Question 5

which type of phrase?

Answer 5

phrases are named by their head
- the mat = NP

Head = most important words in the phrase

Question 6

English - finding the phrase head
(highest from hierarchy found in the phrase = head)

Answer 6

1. verb
2. preposition (unless theres a noun before it!)
3. noun
4. adjective
5. adverb

Question 7

example - find parts of speech

Answer 7

phrase ‘for her quest’
for = P
her = DET
quest = N
= prepositional phrase (occurs first)

Question 8

what is in a phrase?

Answer 8

1. heads
2. dependents

Question 9

example of head and dependents

Answer 9

constituent - PP - “on the mat”
P, DET, N
head - on
dependent - the mat
“the mat” - dependent

Question 10

‘the very sleepy dogs sat on the mat’

Answer 10

dogs = head
the very sleepy dogs = NP

Question 11

Dependents

Answer 11

all other constituents in the phrase = dependents
of the head

Question 12

dependents example

Answer 12

the wet dog in the park
NP - dog N
the wet, in the park

Question 13

Types of dependents

Answer 13

1. modifiers
2. complements

Question 14

MODIFIERS

Answer 14

Dependents that are semantically optional

Question 15

COMPLEMENTS

Answer 15

other dependents are implied by the meaning of their head

Question 16

is it a complement or modifier?

complements dont like modifiers going between them and their head

eg. i caught] [last month] [a cold]

Answer 16

optionality - modifiers MUST be omissible, complements may/may not
peripherality - complements come closer to the head than modifiers do

Question 17

dependent example 2

Answer 17

my dog sleeps in her bed
- [in her bed] - modifier, is omissible, can also put another modifier to seperate from head
thus, ‘in her bed’ is a modifier of Verb ‘sleeps’

Question 18

syntactic trees

Answer 18

visually represent the internal structure of phrases and sentences

Question 19

making the tree needs:

Answer 19

1. structure type - NP, VP, S
2. head
3. does it have dependents (complements, modifiers)
4. heads of the dependent phrases

Question 20

noam chomsky

X-bar theory

8 steps

Answer 20

generalisable blueprint of phrase structure
- represents relation between heads and dependents
- complements and modifiers
- recursivity - like inside like, noun in noun phrase

Question 21

1. every word from major word class projects to phrase of its own type

Answer 21

every X is a head of an XP
- every N is a head of an NP

Question 22

2 at least one intermeidate X’ node between every head X and the phrase it heads

Answer 22

NP
I
N’
I
N
goats

Question 23

3 complement phrases are sisters of their head

Answer 23

complement phrases and their head stem from the heads intermediate node (x’)
VP
I
V’
/ \
V NP

Question 24

4 modifier phrases are sister and daughter of X’

Answer 24

modifier phrases are sisters of one of head’s intermeidate X’ node and stem from another

Question 25

5 intermediate nodes can iterate indefinitely

Answer 25

• every phrase requires at least one
• each modifier adds one more
• complements dont add new ones

Question 26

6 branching is binary
7 determiners get special place

Answer 26

6 , 2 lines each
7 determiners such as a, an, this, that, the, our, my, his

Question 27

8 all except DET, becomes a phrase

Answer 27

eg. goats - NP
constantly - AdvP

Question 28

complements in tree

adjacent to an X (sister to head of its phrase)

Answer 28

Zp = a complement of X
is sister to its head
- daughter of the lowest X’

Question 29

modifiers in tree

adjacent to X’ (sister to an X’)

Answer 29

for each modifier, introduces a new X’
- sisters of an X’ within head phrase

Question 30

sentence =

Answer 30

NP + VP