Syntax I Checklist

1. Syntax I Checklist Grammars and Lexicons Fall Term 2004

2. Background • People who were teaching generative linguistics in the 1970’s established a set of facts about English that are typically covered in a first course (or maybe second course) on syntactic theory. • Definitions and theoretical constructs • Skills (manipulation and argumentation) • Structures and typical examples • In this class, you will learn to use these definitions and skills in any language and identify the structures in any language.

3. Parts of Speech • Categories of words: • Open class: you can make up new words in these categories • Noun, verb, adjective, adverb • Closed class: you can’t make up new words in these categories • Quantifier (all, most) • Determiner (the, a) • Preposition (of, to, from) • Etc.

4. Parts of Speech • How to identify the part of speech • Is “worth” a preposition or an adjective in “This book is worth $500.” • Is “yesterday” a noun or an adverb in “I saw the movie yesterday”? • Is “most” a determiner or quantifier in “Sam ate the most cake”? • Similar questions in other languages. • Identify by Distribution • Identify by Morphology

5. Non-lexical categories • Noun Phrase (NP) • Verb Phrase (VP) • Prepositional Phrase (PP) • Adjective Phrase (AP) • Identify by distribution

6. Constituent Structure • Why are Tree 1 and Tree 2 (next slide) different? • Which would be the correct tree for: • Sam looked up the number. • Sam ran out the door.

7. VP PP NP S Tree 1 NP N V P Det N Sam climbed up the ladder. S Tree 2 VP NP NP V N V P Det N Sam picked up the ladder.

8. Tree Terminology • Mother • Daughter • Sister • Dominate • Immediately Dominate • Node (branching or non-branching) • Branch • Terminal Node/Leaf Node • Phrasal Nodes (non-terminal) • Lexical Nodes (pre-terminal)

9. Constituent • A constituent is a string of words such that there is one node that dominates those words and no other words.

10. Tests for Constituency(any language) • Coordination • Deletion • Pro-form substitution • Movement

11. Grammaticality • Assume that human languages are formal languages. • Assume that the human brain is a machine that can accept or reject strings of sounds as being contained in the language or not. • Rejected sentences are ungrammatical. • Marked with a *

12. Constituency checklistEnglish Particles and PPs • Coordination test • Sam climbed [up the ladder] and [out the window]. • *Sam picked [up a ladder] and [out some new boots]. • Movement test (topicalization) • Up a ladder Sam climbed. • *Up a ladder Sam picked. • Movement test (Clefting) • It was up a ladder that Sam climbed. • *It was up a ladder that Sam picked. • Particle test • *Sam climbed a ladder up. • Sam picked a ladder up. • Pro-form substitution test • Sam climbed there. • *Sam picked there.

13. Constituency Checklist English VPs • Verb phrase deletion test • Sam climbed up a ladder and Sue did too. • Sam will climb up a ladder and Sue will too. • Sam is climbing up a ladder and Sue is too. • Sam has climbed up a ladder and Sue has too. • Sam has been climbing up a ladder and Sue has too.

14. Constituency Checklist English VPs • Partial verb phrase fronting test • I thought that Sam had written a letter, and written a letter he had. • Do-so (pro-form substitution) test • Sam wrote a letter and Sue did so too. • Sam will write a letter and Sue will do so to. • Sam is writing a letter and Sue is doing so too. • Sam has written a letter and Sue has done so too.

15. Constituency Checklist English NPs and sub-constituents of NP • Pro-form substitution test • I saw this student of linguistics with long hair and you saw that one with short hair. • I saw this student of linguistics and you saw her too. • Coordination test • I met those students of linguistics and teachers of chemistry. • I met those students of linguistics and those teachers of chemistry.

16. Non-Constituent Coordination(English) • John found the letter and Bill signed the letter. • John found the letter and Bill signed the letter. Right Node Raising: If you conjoin two strings of words that have identical final constituents, delete the first instance of the identical constituent. S VP NP NP V Det N John found the letter

17. Non-Constituent Coordination (English) • I gave a book to Mary and gave a letter to Sue. • I gave a book to Mary and gave a letter to Sue. Left Peripheral Ellipsis: If you conjoin two strings of words that have identical initial constituents, delete the second instance of the identical constituent. S VP NP V NP PP I gave a book to Mary

18. X-bar theory • Head • Complement • Specifier • Adjunct

19. Xn X’’ X’’ Xn X’ Xn X’YP X YP YP Xn XnYP YP X YP X’ Adjunct Specifier This student of linguistics with long hair This smart student of linguistics So completely in the wrong Argument/complement So fond of Mary in some ways So very fond of Mary

20. NP AP N-bar A-bar N-bar A-bar N-bar PP A-bar PP PP NP PP NP Det Adj N P NP P Det Adv Adj P NP P This smart student of linguistics with long hair So very fond of Sam in some ways Specifiers

21. NP AP N-bar A-bar N-bar A-bar N-bar PP A-bar PP PP NP PP NP Det Adj N P NP P Det Adv Adj P NP P This smart student of linguistics with long hair So very fond of Sam in some ways Heads

22. NP AP N-bar A-bar N-bar A-bar N-bar PP A-bar PP PP NP PP NP Det Adj N P NP P Det Adv Adj P NP P This smart student of linguistics with long hair So very fond of Sam in some ways Adjuncts

23. NP AP N-bar A-bar N-bar A-bar N-bar PP A-bar PP PP NP PP NP Det Adj N P NP P Det Adv Adj P NP P This smart student of linguistics with long hair So very fond of Sam in some ways Complements/Arguments

24. Verbs and their arguments • From Fillmore and Kay, lecture notes, Chapter 4: • The children devoured the spaghetti. • *The children devoured. • *The children devoured the spaghetti the cheese. • She handed the baby a toy. • *She handed the baby. • *She handed the toy. • Problems exist. • *Problems exist more problems.

25. Valency • (Linguists took this term from chemistry – how many electrons are missing from the outer shell.)

26. Valency • Verbs (and sometimes nouns and adjectives) describe events, states, and relations that have a certain number of participants. • Devouring generally involves two participants. • Handing generally involves three particpants. • Existing generally involves one participant. • The number of participants is called the verb’s valence or valency. • Devour has a valency of two. • Hand has a valency of three. • Exist has a valency of one. • The participants are referred to as arguments of the verb. (Like arguments of a function.)

27. Subcategorization: Remember this word • Verbs are divided into subcategories that have different valencies. • Here is how the terminology works: • Exist, devour, and hand have different subcategorizations. • Devour subcategorizes for a subject and a direct object. • Devour is subcategorized for a subject and a direct object. • Devour takes two arguments, a subject and a direct object (or an agent and a patient).

28. Arguments are not always Noun Phrases • The italicized phrases are also arguments: • He looked pale. • The solution turned red. • I want to go. • He started singing a song. • We drove to New York.

29. Optional and Obligatory Arguments • The children ate. • The children ate cake. • Patient/theme argument is optional • *The children devoured. • The children devoured the cake. • Patient/theme argument is not optional • The dog ran. • The dog ran from the house. • The dog ran to the creek. • The dog ran from the house to the creek through the garden along the path.

30. Complements:Remember this word • Arguments are sometimes called complements of the verb. • However, just to confuse you, the word complement also refers to complement clauses – embedded clauses that are arguments of a verb. • Examples of complement clauses: • The children think that the book is interesting. • The children told the teacher that the book is interesting. • The children want to read the book. • The children expect the teacher to read the book.

31. Motivation for the existence of Semantic Roles • John opened the door with a key. • The key opened the door. • The door opened. • The door was opened by John with a key. • Semantic roles explain what the meanings of these sentences have in common even though their grammatical relations and subcategorization frames are different. • The key fills the instrument role, whether it is the subject of the sentence or a prepositional phrase. • John fills the agent role, whether he is the subject or in a prepositional phrase. • The door fills the theme or patient role, whether it is a subject or direct object.

32. Semantic Roles are different from Grammatical Relations • Subjects that are not agents: • The clothes were washed by the woman. • The clock broke. • The rock shattered the window. • The window shattered. • The ship sank. • The students received awards.

33. Examples of Semantic Roles • Agent: an agent acts volitionally or intentionally • The students worked. • Sue baked a cake.

34. Examples of Semantic Roles • Experiencer and Stimulus: An experiencer is an animate being that perceives something or experiences an emotion. The stimulus is the thing that the experiencer perceives or the thing that caused the emotional response. • The students like linguistics. • (emoter and stimulus) • The students saw a linguist. • (perceiver and stimulus) • Linguistics frightens the students. • (emoter and stimulus) • The students thought about linguistics. • (cognizer and stimulus)

35. Examples of Semantic Roles • Patient: A patient is affected by an action. • Sam kicked the ball. • Sue cut the cake. • Beneficiary: A beneficiary benefits from an event • Sue baked a cake for Sam. • Sue baked Sam a cake. • Malefactive: Someone is affected adversely by an event. • My dog died on me. • Instrument: • The boy opened the door with a key. • The key opened the door.

36. Semantic Roles for Directed Motion: Ray Jackendoff • Theme: changes location, is located somewhere, or exists • Source: the starting point of the motion. • Goal: the ending point of the motion. • Path: the path of the motion.

37. Examples of Location and Directed Motion • Many problems still exist. • The clock sits on the shelf. • The ball rolled from the door to the window along the wall. • Same walked from his house to town along the river. • Sue rolled across the room. • The car turned into the driveway.

38. Being in a state or changing state • The car is red. • The ice cream melted. • The glass broke. • Sam broke the glass. • The paper turned from red to green. • The fairy godmother turned the pumpkin into a coach.

39. Having or Changing possession • The teacher gave books to the students. • The teacher gave the students books. • The students have books.

40. Exchange of Information • The teacher told a story to the students. • The teacher told the students a story.

41. Extent • The road extends/runs along the river from the school to the mall. • The string reaches the wall. • The string reaches across the room to the wall.

42. Problems with Semantic Roles • The definitions are vague: • If themes are things that moved, is his hand a theme in John moved his hand? • Linguists keep making up new role names without proper motivation. Proper motivation would be a test. • Linguists keep writing about the same small set of verbs that have clearly identified roles. Many roles are not clearly covered. (Fillmore and Kay, pages 4-22) • He risked death. • We resisted the enemy. • She resembles her mother.

43. Predicate-Specific Role Names • It is ok to use predicate-specific role names when you want to avoid the vagueness of semantic role names. • E.g., devourer and devouree

44. Adjuncts • Locations, times, adverbs, and other things that can go with almost any sentences are called adjuncts. • The children ate the cake quickly at 2:00 in the kitchen. • Predicates specify how many arguments they take and also specify the grammatical functions, semantic roles, and case markings of their arguments. • Predicates do not specify the semantic roles, grammatical functions, or case markings of adjuncts.

45. How to tell arguments from adjuncts • There are some general guidelines that are not always conclusive. • Adjuncts are always optional. • (but some arguments are optional too) • Repeatability: • The children devoured the cake at 2:00 on Monday. (Two temporal adjuncts) • The children devoured the cake in Pittsburgh in a restaurant. (Two locative adjuncts) • *The children devoured the cake the dessert. (arguments are not repeatable)

46. S NP VP VS-bar S COMPNPVP We thinkthat they have left. Embedded Clauses Matrix Clause Embedded Clause

47. Embedded Clauses: • Main verbs are subcategorized for • The complementizer (that, for, to, etc.) Non-finite for-to • We hoped for there to be no trouble. • A word at the beginning of a subordinate clause that identifies it as a complement • The morphology of the embedded verb • Finite: present or past tense • Non-finite: infinitive, present participle, past participle

48. Finite embedded clauses • Finite embedded clause • I believe (that) it is snowing. • Say, think, scream • Finite with dummy subject • It seems that they have left. • Finite embedded question • I wondered/asked whether/if it was snowing. • Finite plus object • We told them that it was snowing. • Finite plus PP • We said to them that it was snowing.

49. Non-finite embedded clauses • Non-finite for-to • We hoped for there to be no trouble. • Non-finite: Raising to subject • They seem (to us) to have left. • Appear, continue • Non-finite: Subject Equi • They tried to leave. • Intend, expect, plan, hope • Non-finite: Raising to object • We believe them to have left. • consider • Non-finite: Object Equi • We persuaded them to leave. • Convince, order, force, signaled • Non-finite: promise • We promised them to leave.

50. S S NP VP NP VP VS-bar VVP-bar S VP COMPNPVP COMP It seemsthat they have left. They seemto have left. Raising to subject