S yntax

1. Syntax Structures of sentences

2. Syntax is… • Openness • Ordering words in sequences to express meanings for which no separate word exists. • Meanings we want to express far outstretch the resources provided by the lexicon & morphology

3. Syntax is… • Openness • Ordering words in sequences to express meanings for which no separate word exists. • Meanings we want to express far outstretch the resources provided by the lexicon & morphology • Though the lexicon & morphology are somewhat open (to new members/meanings), syntax gives another way to express new meanings/nuances/ precision/links between ideas

4. Syntax is… • Openness • Syntax enhances the creativity of expression • All grammatical systems (phonology, morphology, the lexicon) are open, however openness is a more salient feature in syntax.

5. Syntax is… • Sentences • The largest linguistic unit showing grammatical structure (over which patterns apply)* • Opposite the morpheme – the smallest such unit

6. Syntax is… • Sentences • The largest linguistic unit showing grammatical structure (over which patterns apply)* • Opposite the morpheme – the smallest such unit • Bloomfield: S= a string of words not included in any larger form by virtue of grammatical structure • John went home. I saw him. • 2 sentences; bec the 2 are gram’ly independent

7. Syntax is… • A system of principles constructing & interpreting new sentences (hence, it’s open) • New sentences are quite common, more so than words. They’re more likely to be considered unremarkable (vs. words)

8. Syntax is… • Grammaticality • Not to be confused with ‘meaningfulness’ • Some grammatical sentences are nonsensical • Some ungrammatical sentences are sensical

9. Syntax is… • Grammaticality • Not to be confused with ‘meaningfulness’ • Some grammatical sentences are nonsensical • Some ungrammatical sentences are sensical • Recognizing the ungrammatical tells us about the syntax of a language. • As across all science, finding ‘problems’ leads to insights about the system.

10. Hierarchy: sentence structure • Grouping • ‘above’ the level of morphology and words (the lexicon) and ‘below’ the sentence, we have another unit which we need to recognize in order to understand language.

11. Hierarchy: sentence structure • Grouping • ‘above’ the level of morphology and words (the lexicon) and ‘below’ the sentence, we have another unit which we need to recognize in order to understand language. • We find evidence for these ‘chunks’ of words in three tests: movability, contractibility, & structural ambiguity.

12. Hierarchy: sentence structure • Grouping: • Movability • If certain groups always move about together, they constitute a single group

13. Hierarchy: sentence structure • Grouping: • Movability • If certain groups always move about together, they constitute a single group • A reasonable criterion but imperfect: • ‘on the fence’ ‘the fence….the net on’ (p 109)

14. Hierarchy: sentence structure • Grouping: • Movability • If certain groups always move about together, they constitute a single group • A reasonable criterion but imperfect: • ‘on the fence’ ‘the fence….the net on’ (p 109) • However, words that don’t belong together don’t consistently move around in concert • Cf. ‘the net on’ (p 109)

15. Hierarchy: sentence structure • Grouping: • Contractability • The potential for a string of words to be replaced by a single word (if it is, that string = a gr’mtcl element)

16. Hierarchy: sentence structure • Grouping: • Contractability • The potential for a string of words to be replaced by a single word (if it is, that string = a gr’mtcl element) • Also imperfect: are ‘through the mtns’ or ‘the line through mtns’ replaceable?

17. Hierarchy: sentence structure • Grouping: • Contractability • The potential for a string of words to be replaced by a single word (if it is, that string = a gr’mtcl element) • Also imperfect: are ‘through the mtns’ or ‘the line through mtns’ replaceable? • Again, groups of words which don’t belong together cannot be replaced by a single word • E.g. ‘chugged along the’

18. Hierarchy: sentence structure • Grouping • Meaning differences/structural ambiguity • Sometimes a sentence/phrase which has ambiguous meanings can be interpreted by alternative groupings (or construing the structure differently) • E.g. ‘to shoot the man with the rifle’ • This, thus, recognizes the various groups as valid units

19. Syntactic units • Grammatical units showing unified behavior • E.g. morphemes, words, sentences…clauses & phrases

20. Syntactic units • Grammatical units showing unified behavior • E.g. morphemes, words, sentences…clauses & phrases • Clauses • Simple sentences: just one verb and one event • Complex sentences: combine simple Ss

21. Syntactic units • Grammatical units showing unified behavior • E.g. morphemes, words, sentences…clauses & phrases • Clauses • Simple sentences: just one verb and one event • Complex sentences: combine simple Ss Simples Ss or their modified versions = clauses

22. Syntactic units • Clauses • 1. minor clause: basically no structure (e.g. interj.) • 2. major clause: refers to real/imaginary event & “has” a verb and accompanying nouns • A. Independent – stand alone • B. Dependent – but correspond to ind. clauses

23. Syntactic units • Phrases • Intermediate-sized units b/w words & clauses

24. Syntactic units • Phrases • Intermediate-sized units b/w words & clauses • Grouped by internal structure: • NP & VP - found in most languages • NB nouns & verbs are not separate p.o.s. in all languages

25. Syntactic units • Phrases • Intermediate-sized units b/w words & clauses • Grouped by internal structure: • NP & VP - found in most languages • NB nouns & verbs are not separate p.o.s. in all languages • PP, AdjP, AdvP– even less common

26. Syntactic units • NPs • Typically refers to some concrete/abstract entity • May include: Determiner, Possessive Pron, Demonstrative, Adjective

27. Syntactic units • NPs • Typically refers to some concrete/abstract entity • May include: Determiner, Possessive Pron, Demonstrative, Adjective • VPs • Refers to events that NPs are involved in • Includes: lexical verb + gram &/or lex free/bnd morphemes

28. Clause structure • Clauses – sequences of phrases of various types • Similar to phrase structure • Sample structures: • NP VP I ate • NP VP PP I ate at home • VP NP PP Are you at home?

29. Clause structure • Clauses – sequences of phrases of various types • Similar to phrase structure • Sample structures: • NP VP I ate • NP VP PP I ate at home • VP NP PP Are you at home? • PP VP NP In Norway lives a nysse • VP NP NP Are you my mother? • NP VP NP NP I will give her something precious • INT VP NP What is that thing? • INT VP NP PP When was the train in Voss?

30. Clause structure • However…. • Consider questions which use auxiliaries: • Should we go? Do you like me? Will you give that to him?

31. Clause structure • However…. • Consider questions which use auxiliaries: • Should we go? Do you like me? Will you give that to him? • Notice the AUX and its VERB are split

32. Clause structure • However…. • Consider questions which use auxiliaries: • Should we go? Do you like me? Will you give that to him? • Notice the AUX and its VERB are split • We can ‘record’ such sentences but that would greatly increase the number of sentence patterns that we store.

33. Clause structure • However…. • Consider questions which use auxiliaries: • Should we go? Do you like me? Will you give that to him? • Notice the AUX and its VERB are split • We can ‘record’ such sentences but that would greatly increase the number of sentence patterns that we store. • As you’ve noticed, linguistics: • looks for ways to streamline all language-related units we store

34. Clause structure • However…. • Consider questions which use auxiliaries: • Should we go? Do you like me? Will you give that to him? • Notice the AUX and its VERB are split • We can ‘record’ such sentences but that would greatly increase the number of sentence patterns that we store. • As you’ve noticed, linguistics: • & tries to do so by making generalizations/rules. (thus, this increase in sentence patterns to be memorized is rejected in favor of formula which capture pattern regularities)

35. Clause structure • Grammatical relations • Furthermore…the NP VP PP variety description, although capturing generalizations about clause structure, fails to say anything about meaning: • Leaving out any acct of systematic sims & difs in mng

36. Clause structure • Grammatical relations • Furthermore…the NP VP PP variety description, although capturing generalizations about clause structure, fails to say anything about meaning: • Leaving out any acct of systematic sims & difs in mng • Such a description merely specifies possible formal shapes, related only in that they involve similar component units

37. Clause structure • Grammatical relations • Furthermore…the NP VP PP variety description, although capturing generalizations about clause structure, fails to say anything about meaning: • Leaving out any acct of systematic sims & difs in mng • Such a description merely specifies possible formal shapes, related only in that they involve similar component units • Gr roles show differences in mng expressed by formally related Ss & also deepens understanding

38. Grammatical relations • Gr roles show differences in mng expressed by formally related Ss & also deepen understanding:

39. Grammatical relations • Gr roles show differences in mng expressed by formally related Ss & also deepen understanding: • …by recognizing gr’tcl roles or functions assoc’d w/ the formal syntactic shapes it is possible not just to acct for differences of mng expressed by formally re- lated Ss, but also to describe clausal syntax beyond merely listing alternatives

40. Grammatical relations • Gr roles show differences in mng expressed by formally related Ss & also deepen understanding: • …by recognizing gr’tcl roles or functions assoc’d w/ the formal syntactic shapes it is possible not just to acct for differences of mng expressed by formally re- lated Ss, but also to describe clausal syntax beyond merely listing alternatives • 3 different types of gr’tcl functions: • Experiential roles, Subj/obj, Theme

41. Grammatical relations • Experiential roles • NP VP PP etc tell us sthg @ a S’s structure • But not @ meaning

42. Grammatical relations • Experiential roles • NP VP PP etc tell us sthg @ a S’s structure • But not @ meaning • 1 The Northstar is leaving from track 2 • 2 The Northstar is being shunted from track 2

43. Grammatical relations • Experiential roles • NP VP PP etc tell us sthg @ a S’s structure • But not @ meaning • 1 The Northstar is leaving from track 2 • 2 The Northstar is being shunted from track 2 Same phrase patterns (NP VP PP) but NP is an Actor ‘doers of event’ (in 1) and an Undergoer ‘patient or sufferer’ (in 2)… (Verb = Event)

44. Grammatical relations • Subject/Object – needed in add’n to above 3 experiential roles • The sniper shot the tourist • The tourist was shot by the sniper

45. Grammatical relations • Subject/Object – needed in add’n to above 3 experiential roles • The sniper shot the tourist • The tourist was shot by the sniper • But note how the unfortunate tourist is ‘undergoing’ in both but functions grammatically differently. i.e. it ‘moves’ to the front, before the verb; verb ‘agrees’ w/ NP; NB use of pronoun substitution for the NP and the use of tag Qs.

46. Grammatical relations • Subject/Object – needed in add’n to above 3 experiential roles • The sniper shot the tourist • The tourist was shot by the sniper • But note how the unfortunate tourist is ‘undergoing’ in both but functions grammatically differently. i.e. it ‘moves’ to the front, before the verb; verb ‘agrees’ w/ NP; NB use of pronoun substitution for the NP and the use of tag Qs. • Thus subjectdiffers from actor

47. Subject/Object: not so easy • Is it (the S or O) just a formal gr’tcl role assoc’d w/ an NP in a particular structural position?

48. Subject/Object: not so easy • Is it (the S or O) just a formal gr’tcl role assoc’d w/ an NP in a particular structural position? • Or is it also a meaningful gr’tclreln? (like actor,etc)

49. Subject/Object: not so easy • Is it (the S or O) just a formal gr’tcl role assoc’d w/ an NP in a particular structural position? • Or is it also a meaningful gr’tclreln? (like actor,etc) • If yes, consider: • Subject = perspective clause is viewed from • Viewed from sniper/tourist’s p.o.v.

50. Subject/Object: not so easy • Is it (the S or O) just a formal gr’tcl role assoc’d w/ an NP in a particular structural position? • Or is it also a meaningful gr’tclreln? (like actor,etc) • If yes, consider: • Subject = perspective clause is viewed from • Viewed from sniper/tourist’s p.o.v. • (or) Sub= the thing about which the truth of the proposition can be evaluated