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LING 220 Lecture #12: Possible Utterances

This document summarizes a lecture on syntax and sentence structure. It defines syntax as the study of sentence formation and categories. There are lexical categories like nouns, verbs, adjectives, and prepositions. There are also non-lexical categories like determiners and auxiliaries. Words can be grouped into phrases based on their category, like noun phrases and verb phrases. Phrases have a hierarchical structure with a head word and may include specifiers or complements. Phrase structure rules describe how specifiers, heads, and complements are arranged in phrases.

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Kochar A. Saeed
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70 views

LING 220 Lecture #12: Possible Utterances

This document summarizes a lecture on syntax and sentence structure. It defines syntax as the study of sentence formation and categories. There are lexical categories like nouns, verbs, adjectives, and prepositions. There are also non-lexical categories like determiners and auxiliaries. Words can be grouped into phrases based on their category, like noun phrases and verb phrases. Phrases have a hierarchical structure with a head word and may include specifiers or complements. Phrase structure rules describe how specifiers, heads, and complements are arranged in phrases.

Uploaded by

Kochar A. Saeed
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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LING 220

LECTURE #12

SYNTAX: THE ANALYSIS OF SENTENCE STRUCTURE


Syntax is the study of sentence formation; it is a system of categories and
rules that allow words to form sentences.
Grammatical sentences: the native speakers of a language judge them as
possible utterances.
...The fundamental aim in the linguistic analysis of a language L is to
separate the grammatical sentences which are sentences of L from the
ungrammatical sentences which are not sentences of L, and to study the
structure of grammatical sentences. N. Chomsky. 1957. Syntactic
Structures.
Sylvia wanted George to go.
*Sylvia George go want.
Grammaticality does not depend on whether:
1.

The utterance has been heard before


A pigeon-toed sloth won the beauty contest wearing a purple tutu.

2.

The utterance is false


My horse is a professor of mathematics.

3.

Semantically it does not make any sense


Colourless green ideas sleep furiously.
ALL THE ABOVE SENTENCES ARE GRAMMATICAL!

CATEGORIES AND STRUCTURE


The shared characteristics of words allow us to organize them into a relatively
small number of groups, called SYNTACTIC CATEGORIES:
Lexical categories

Non-lexical categories

LEXICAL CATEGORIES:
NOUN

(N)

John, box, girl, truth

VERB

(V)

come, see, receive

ADJECTIVE

(A)

nice, red, cheap, big

PREPOSITION (P)

of, by, to, on

ADVERB

slowly, now, cleverly

(Adv)

NON-LEXICAL CATEGORIES (=functional categories):


DETERMINER (Det)

the, a, this

DEGREE WORD (Deg)

very, so, more

QUALIFIER (Qual)

perhaps, almost

AUXILIARY (Aux)

may, have, will

CONJUNCTION (Con)

and, but, or

STUDY Table 5.1 on p. 168


How can we determine a words category?
There are three criteria that help to identify the syntactic category of a word:
1.

MEANING
Nouns entities such as individuals (John, Mary),
objects (book, knife), etc.
Verbs designate actions (walk, speak), sensations (feel, hurt), and states
(remain, be)
Adjectives they designate properties or attributes of nouns (small,
white)

Adverbs they designate properties of verbs (slowly, loudly)


Problems: the meaning does not always have a direct relationship to the category of
the word, for example:

2.

a.

abstract nouns (kindness, likelihood etc.) do not represent entities in


the sense presented above

b.

some verbs can be used as nouns (call, push etc.)

c.

words of similar meaning may belong to different categories:


like (V) fond of (A).
INFLECTION
Inflection is associated with a certain lexical category, see Table 5.2 (p.
170).
Problem: inflection does not always reveal the category, for example:
not all adjectives in English can take Comparative or Superlative suffixes
(*beautifulest);
some nouns may not normally take the Plural suffix (bravery, thoughtfulness)

3.

DISTRIBUTION
John saw ----------a.

the girl

b.

the boy with the puppy

c.

runs

d.

had a drink

e.

the accident

(a), (b) and (e) belong to the same category: they can be substituted for one another
without loss of grammaticality.
MEANING, INFLECTION AND DISTRIBUTION TOGETHER HELP TO
IDENTIFY THE SYNTACTIC CATEGORY OF A WORD.

PHRASE STRUCTURE
Sentences have a hierarchical structure in which words are grouped into successively
larger structures.
Members of each lexical category share certain combinational properties: they form
larger units (=phrases) with certain types of words.
NOUN PHRASE (NP):
NP
Det
|
the

N
|
man

VERB PHRASE (VP):


VP
Qual
|
never

V
|
talk

ADJECTIVE PHRASE (AP):


AP
Deg
|
quite

A
|
similar

PREPOSITIONAL PHRASE (PP):


PP
Deg
|
almost

P
|
in

HEADS: each phrase is built around a lexical category:


NP: around N
VP: around V
etc.
The lexical category around which the phrase is built: HEAD of the phrase. It is not
possible to have a VP without a V, a NP without a N, etc.
However, it is possible to have a phrase in which only the HEAD position is filled:
NP
|
N
|
(she loves) cats

(babies)

VP
|
V
|
cry

(I am)

AP
|
A
|
hot

PP
|
P
|
(he walked) out
SPECIFIERS: in addition to the HEAD, phrases may include a second word with a
special semantic or syntactic role (determiners, qualifiers and degree words).
Specifiers make the meaning of the HEAD more precise: semantic role!
Specifiers mark a phrase boundary. In English, specifiers occur at the left boundary
of the phrase.
the cats (NP)
very fast (AP)
almost in (PP)
5

the, very, almost : SPECIFIERS


STUDY Table 5.4 on p. 172
COMPLEMENTS
Complements provide information about entities and locations whose existence is
implied by the meaning of the head.
head

A vegetarian would never eat [a hamburger].

complement
(naming the thing eaten)
head

on the roof

complement (naming a location)


Complements are attached to the right of the head in English.
VP
NP
Qual
|
never

V
|
eat

Det
|
a

N
|
hamburger

DIRECT OBJECT: The NP that is the complement of VP (a hamburger in this


example).

Deg
|
almost

PP
|
P
NP
|
on
the roof

(Triangle: the internal structure of the phrase is not specified space saving!)

NP

Det
|
the

N
|
songs

PP
about the country

NP
|
AP
|
A
|
red

Det
|
the

N
|
coat

Study Figure 5.4 and 5.5 on pp. 173-174.


PHRASE STRUCTURE RULES: a special grammatical device for ensuring that
specifiers, heads and complements occupy the correct position in the phrase
structure.
the arrow means consists of or branches into
The parentheses indicate optionality
NP
VP
AP
PP

(Det) (AP) N (PP)


(Qual) V (NP) (PP)
(Deg) A (PP)
(Deg) P (NP)

Generalizing the rules:


The structural similarities between NPs, VPs, APs, and PPs:
Specifier:
left of the head
Complement:
right of the head

X = N, V, A or P
XP
Specifier

X
Head

Complement

The Phrase Structure Template


The XP Rule:
XP (Specifier) X (Complement)

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