Chapter 2: Lexical and Phrasal Signs

Syntactic Constructions in English

Kim and Michaelis (2020)

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1 Linguistic Signs and Constructions as Form-Meaning Pairs
2 From Lexical Signs to Phrasal Signs as a Continuum
3 Lexical Signs
Classifying Lexical Signs
Grammar with Lexical Categories Alone
4 Phrasal Constructions and Constituency Tests
5 Forming Phrasal Constructions: Phrase Structure Rules
NP: Noun Phrase
VP: Verb Phrase
AP: Adjective Phrase
AdvP: Adverb Phrase
PP: Preposition Phrase
CP and ConjP: Complementizer and Conjunction Phrases
6 Grammar with Phrasal Constructions
7 Multi-Word Expressions: Between Lexical and Phrasal Constructions
Fixed Expressions
Semi-Fixed Expressions
Syntactically Flexible Multi-Word Expressions
8 Conclusion
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What is language?

One key theoretical assumption of SBCG (Sign-based Construction

Grammar) is the traditional notion that language is an infinite set of
signs, arbitrary and conventional pairings of form and meaning.

Figure: An example of a sign

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Examples of signs

Construction-based grammars recognize a distinction between signs

and configurations of signs, the latter of which are called constructs
in SBCG.
(1) Simple word-level signs: school, house, hot dog, chase, run,
glitter, tall, big, extremely, very, in, on, ...
(2) Idioms with no variables:
a. The suspect is still at large.
b. I’m really feeling under the weather today; I have a
terrible cold.
c. Don’t beat around the bush. Just tell me the truth.
(3) Idioms with variables:
a. I tried jogging mom’s memory, but she couldn’t remember
Joe’s phone number either.
b. Don’t worry about what he said. He’s just pulling your leg.

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Examples of signs (cont’d)

(4) Comparative correlatives:

a. The younger, the better.
b. The longer the trip, the longer the recovery period.
c. The stronger you are, the less likelihood you’ll ever have to use
it.

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Examples of signs (cont’d)

(5) Ditransitive construction:

a. Pedro [gave [her] [his email address]].
b. The player [passed [Paulo] [the ball]].
c. Dad [read [me] [the letter]].
d. My mom [taught [me] [the importance of being clean]].
e. My Auntie Julia, a seamstress, [sewed [me] [a leopard bikini]].
(6) a. He took the Brooksville Elementary flag to the summit of Mt.
Kilimanjaro.
b. ??He took the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro the Brooksville
Elementary flag.

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Examples of signs (cont’d)

(7) Subject-predicate construction:

a. [Elvis] [sang softly].
b. [The furious dog] [chased me].
c. [They] [made the problem more difficult].

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Interim summary

In sum, words, multi-word expressions, and phrases (including clauses)

are all analyzed as signs, pairings of form and meaning.
We use lexical descriptions (also called lexical entries) to describe
words, word classes, and multi-word expressions.
On the other hand, we use constructions to describe phrasal signs.
Constructions can thus be understood as recipes for combining lexical
signs and phrasal signs into larger units.

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Range of sign types as a continuum of idiomaticity

(8) Idiomaticity as a continuum:

/
| | | | |
words fixed idioms with comparative subj-pred cx
idioms variables conditional cx

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Two major descriptive goals of the construction-based view

(9) Two major descriptive goals of the construction-based view of

linguistic knowledge:
a. to identify the ‘constructions’ needed to describe the syntactic
combinations of a language
b. to investigate the constructions (or rules) that license the
combination of words and phrases

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From lexical to phrasal/clausal constructs

From words to a clause and a well-formed sentence!

(10) sentence

. . . clause . . .

. . . phrase . . .

... word ...

The term ‘clause’ ?
(11) a. The weather is lovely today.
b. I am hoping that [the weather is lovely today].
c. If [the weather is lovely today], then we will go out.
d. The birds are singing because [the weather is lovely today].

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Lexemes and words

Lexeme: basic unit of syntax; an abstract sign that captures the

form-meaning correspondence common to all instantiations of that
sign (e.g., walk in a dictionary)
Words: inflected instantiations (e.g., walked, walks, walking )
Lexemes can be grouped into classes based on their parts of speech (a
given lexeme may belong to a couple of different parts of speech).
Lexemes can be placed into different syntactic categories according to
three criteria: meaning, morphological form, and syntactic
function.

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Determining the lexical categories: by meaning - not so
reliable

At first glance, it seems that words can be classified depending on

their meaning.
(12) a. N: referring to an individual or entity
b. V: referring to an action
c. A: referring to a property
d. Adv: referring to the manner, location, time or frequency
of an action
What about words like sincerity, happiness, pain, absence, and loss?
What about words like assassination, construction, remain, appear ,
and exist?

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Determining the lexical categories: by morphological form -
not so reliable, either

Morphological criteria may be better than semantic meaning criteria.

(13) a. N: + plural morpheme -(e)s
b. N: + possessive ’s
c. V: + past tense -ed
d. V: + 3rd singular -(e)s
e. A: + -er/est (or more/most)
f. A: + -ly (to create an adverb)
(14) a. N: trains, actors, rooms, man’s, sister’s, etc.
b. V: devoured, laughed, devours, laughs, etc.
c. A: fuller, fullest, more careful, most careful, etc.
d. Adv: fully, carefully, diligently, clearly, etc.
But, think about information, furniture, love, pain, absent, etc.

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Determining the lexical categories: by syntactic
distribution - most reliable

The most reliable criterion in judging the lexical category of a word is

its syntactic function or distributional potential.
(15) a. They have no {TV/car/information/friend}.
b. They have no {*went/*in/*old/*very/*and}.
(16) a. They can {sing/run/smile/stay/cry}.
b. They can {*happy/*down/*door/*very}.
(17) a. They read the {big/new/interesting/scientific} book.
b. They read the {*sing/*under/*very} book.
(18) a. He treats John very {nicely/badly/kindly}.
b. He treats John very {*kind/*shame/*under}.
(19) a. He walked right {into/on} the wall.
b. He walked right {*very/*happy/*the} wall.

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Some examples for basic lexical categories

(20) a. N: TV, car, information, friend, . . .

b. V: sing, run, smile, stay, cry, . . .
c. A: big, new, interesting, scientific, . . .
d. Adv: nicely, badly, kindly, . . .
e. P: in, into, on, under, over, . . .

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Supporting evidence for the category ‘Det’

Data
(21) a. vaccine could soon hit the market.
b. We found out that job is in jeopardy.
(22) Determiners: the, my, his, some, these, those, etc.
One clear piece of evidence for grouping these elements in the same
category, ‘Det’, comes from the fact that they cannot occupy the
same position at the same time.
(23) a. *[My these jobs] are in jeopardy.
b. *[Some my jobs] are in jeopardy.
c. *[The his jobs] are in jeopardy.

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Supporting evidence for the category ‘Conj’
Data
(24) a. He is a very good pitcher, he just has to have
confidence in his pitches.
b. he is a very good pitcher, he just has to have
confidence in his pitches.
Coordinating conjunctions: and, but, so, for, or yet, ...
(25) a. [He immediately turned over to the right], for [he had
been asleep on his left side].
b. [She knew he shouldn’t drive], yet [she gave him the car
keys].
Subordinating conjunctions: since, when, if, because, though, until, ...
(26) a. When we spoke, she had been doing chores for her
landlord in exchange for free rent.
b. Those who drop out may do so because they were not
adequately prepared for college.
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Supporting evidence for the category ‘complementizer’

(27) a. She didn’t think she could stand on her own.

b. I doubt he would listen to any moderate voice.
c. I’m so anxious him to give us the names of the people.
(28) a. She didn’t think that [she could stand on her own].
b. I doubt if [he would listen to any moderate voice].
c. I’m so anxious for [him to give us the names of the people].

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Tense for the complement clause of complementizers

The complementizers introduce a complement clause and are sensitive

to the tense of that clause.
(29) a. *She didn’t think that [her to stand on her own].
b. *I doubt if [him listening to any moderate voice].
c. *I’m so anxious for [he gave us the names of the people].

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Evidence for the category ‘auxiliary verb’

(30) a. I not know what I was going to do.

b. CNN bring you the president’s remarks.
c. NASA scrap the shuttle program?
d. She had accepted that, even embraced it, but he not.
(31) a. Main verbs: [aux –]
b. Auxiliary verbs: [aux +]

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Particles

There is one remaining category we need to consider, the ‘particles’

(Part).
(32) a. Stacey had called off the engagement.
b. I had to go home and look up the word.

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Particles vs. prepositions

Particles behave differently from prepositions in that they can occur

after the object.
(33) Particle
a. Stacey had called the engagement off.
b. I looked the word up.
(34) Preposition
a. She fell off the deck.
b. The two boys looked up the high stairs (from the floor).
(35) a. *She fell the deck off .
b. *The students looked the high stairs up (from the floor).

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Particles vs. prepositions (cont’d)

We can also find differences between particles and prepositions in

combination with an object pronoun.
(36) a. She called it off . (particle)
b. *She called off it.
(37) a. *She fell it off .
b. She fell off it. (preposition)

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Summary: lexical categories in English

(38) a. N (noun): trains, book, desk, Kim, Mimi, he, she, ...
b. V[aux –] (main verb): devour, send, call, look, fall, ...
c. V[aux +] (auxiliary verb): will, can, must, shall, should, to, ...
d. A (adjective): full, careful, diligent, clear, honest, ...
e. Adv (adverb): carefully, diligently, clearly, well, ...
f. P (preposition): of, to, at, in, on, up, off,...
g. Part (particle): in, on, up, off, ...
h. Det (determiner): the, a, this, that, which, ...
i. C (complementizer): that, for, whether, if, ...
j. Conj (conjunction): and, so, but, when, while, whether, if, ...

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Grammar with lexical categories alone

(39) Sentences:
a. A man kicked the ball.
b. A tall boy threw the ball.
c. The cat chased the long string.
d. The happy student played the piano.
(40) S → Det (A) N V Det (A) N

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Grammar with lexical categories alone (cont’d)
(41) S

Det N V Det N

... ... ... ... ...

(42) a. Det: a, that, the, this, . . .
b. N: ball, man, piano, string, student, . . .
c. V: kicked, hit, played, sang, threw, chased, . . .
d. A: handsome, happy, kind, long, tall, . . .
(43) a. That ball hit a student.
b. The piano played a song.
c. The piano kicked a student.
d. That ball sang a student.
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Grammar with lexical categories alone (cont’d)

Even this simple grammar rule can easily extend to generate an

infinite number of English sentences by allowing iteration of the A.
(44) S → Det A∗ N V Det A∗ N
(45) a. The tall man kicked the ball.
b. The tall, handsome man kicked the ball.
c. The tall, kind, handsome man kicked the ball.
(46) The happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy man sang a
song.

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Grammar with lexical categories alone: problems with
agreement facts

A grammar using only lexical categories can be specified to generate

an infinite number of well-formed English sentences; however, this
simple grammar cannot capture the agreement facts.
(47) a. [The mother of [the boy and the girl]] is arriving soon.
b. [The mother of the boy] and [the girl] are arriving soon.
The grouping of words into larger phrasal units which we call
constituents provides the first step in understanding the agreement
facts.

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Grammar with lexical categories alone: problems with
ambiguity facts

The simple grammar making only use of lexical categories also cannot
capture structural ambiguity.
(48) a. Pat saw the man with a telescope.
b. I like chocolate cakes and pies.
c. We need more intelligent leaders.
(49) a. Pat saw [the man with a telescope].
(the man had the telescope)
b. Pat [[saw the man] with a telescope].
(Pat used the telescope)

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Constituents

If we were asked to group the words in (50) into phrases or phrasal

constructions, what constituents would we come up with?
(50) The businessmen enjoyed their breakfasts at the hotel last
week.
(51) a. [The businessmen] [enjoyed [their breakfasts] [at the hotel]
[last week]].
b. [The] [businessmen enjoyed] [their breakfasts at the hotel]
[last week].
c. [The businessmen] [[enjoyed their breakfasts] [at the hotel
last week]].

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Constituency tests: cleft
Cleft: The cleft construction, which places an emphasized or focused
element in the X position in the pattern ‘It is/was X that . . . ’, can provide
us with straightforward evidence for the existence of phrasal units.
(52) The policeman met several young students in the park last
night.
(53) a. It was [the policeman] that met several young students in the
park last night.
b. It was [several young students] that the policeman met in the
park last night.
c. It was [in the park] that the policeman met several young
students last night.
d. It was [last night] that the policeman met several young
students in the park.
(54) a. *It was [the policeman met] that several young students in the
park last night.
b. *It was [several young students in the park] that the policeman
met last night.
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Constituency tests: constituency questions and the
stand-alone test

Constituent Questions and the Stand-Alone Test: For any given

wh-question, the answer can either be a full sentence or a fragment.
This stand-alone fragment is a constituent.
(55) Q: Where did the policeman meet several young students?
A: In the park.
(56) Q: Who(m) did the policeman meet in the park?
A: Several young students.

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Constituency tests: constituency questions and the
stand-alone test (cont’d)

(57) Lee put old books in the box.

(58) Q: What did Lee put in your box?
A: Old books.
A0 : *Old books in your box.
(59) Q: What did Lee do?
A: *Put old books.
A0 : *Put in the box.
A00 : Put old books in the box.

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Constituency tests: prepositions vs. particles

(60) a. He looked up the street.

b. He looked up the answer together.
(61) Q: What did he look up?
A: The street.
A0 : The answer.
(62) A: Where did he look?
A: Up the street.
A0 : *Up the answer.
(63) A: Up what did he look?
A: The street.
A0 : *The answer.

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Constituency tests: proform replacement test

Replacement by a Proform: If the expression in question is a

constituent, it can be replaced with a proform.
(64) a. What do you think the woman who is standing by the
door is doing now?
b. What do you think she is doing now?
There are other ‘pro-forms’ such as there, so, as, and which, that also
refer back to other constituents.
(65) a. Have you been [to Seoul]? I have never been there.
b. Pat might [go home], so might Lee.
c. Pat might [pass the exam], as might Lee.
d. If Pat can [speak French fluently] – which we all know he
can – we will have no problems.

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Constituency tests: proform replacement test (cont’d)

(66) a. John asked me to put the clothes in the cupboard, and to

annoy him I really stuffed them there [there = in the
cupboard].
b. John asked me to put the clothes in the cupboard, and to
annoy him I stuffed them there [them = the clothes].
c. *John asked me to put the clothes in the cupboard, but I did so
[so = put the clothes] in the suitcase.

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NP

(67) [liked ice cream].

(68) Mary, I, you, students, the students, the tall students, the
students from Seoul, the students who came from Seoul, etc.
(69) a. students: N
b. the students: Det N
c. the tall students: Det Adj N
d. the students [from Seoul]: Det N PP
e. the students [who came from Seoul]: Det N S
(70) NP → (Det) A∗ N (PP/S)

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NP (cont’d)

(71) NP

(Det) A∗ N (PP/S)

... ... ... ...

(72) *the whistle tune, *the easily student, *the my dog, . . .

One important point is that as only N is obligatory in NP, a single

noun such as Mary, you, or students can constitute an NP by itself.
Hence, the subject of the sentence She sings will be an NP, even
though that NP consists only of a pronoun.

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VP

Just as N projects an NP, V projects a VP.

(73) The student .
(74) snored, ran, sang, loved music, walked the dog through
the park, lifted 50 pounds, thought Tom is honest, warned
us that storms were coming, etc.
(75) a. snored: V
b. loved [music]: V NP
c. walked [the dog] [through the park]: V NP PP
d. thought [Tom is honest]: V S
e. warned [us] [that storms were coming: V NP CP
(76) VP → V (NP) (PP*/S/CP)
(77) *leave the meeting sing, *the leave meeting, *leave on time
the meeting, . . .

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VP (cont’d)

The presence of a VP is essential in forming a grammatical S, and the

VP must be finite (present or past tense).
(78) a. The monkey wants to leave the meeting.
b. *The monkey eager to leave the meeting.
(79) a. The monkeys approved of their leader.
b. *The monkeys proud of their leader.
(80) a. The men practice medicine.
b. *The men doctors of medicine.

(81) S → NP VP

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VP with aux verb

(82) a. The students .

b. The students want .
(83) a. run, feel happy, study English syntax, . . .
b. can run, will feel happy, must study English syntax, . . .
c. to run, to feel happy, to study English syntax, . . .

(84) VP → V[aux +] VP

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VP with a modifier

(85) a. They [[entered the country] illegally].

b. They [[entered the country] in the last decade].

(86) VP → VP Adv/PP
(87) S

NP VP

They VP PP

entered the country in the last decade

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AP

(88) John feels .

(89) happy, uncomfortable, terrified, sad, proud of her, proud to be
his student, proud that he passed the exam, etc.
(90) a. happy: A
b. proud [of her]: A PP
c. proud [to be his student]: A VP
d. proud that he passed the exam: A CP

(91) AP → A (PP/VP/CP)
(92) a. John sounded [AP happy].
b. John sounded [AP proud [PP of her]].
c. John felt [AP proud [CP that his son won the game]].

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AP (cont’d)

(93) a. VP

V AP

sounded A PP

proud of her
b. *VP

V PP

sounded in the park

(94) John sounded [*happily/*very/*the student/*in the park].
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AdvP

(95) soundly, well, clearly, extremely, carefully, very soundly, almost

certainly, very slowly, etc.
(96) a. They had behaved very .
b. They worded the offer .
c. They treated the sources .
(97) a. They had behaved very differently.
b. They worded the offer really carefully.
c. They treated the sources separately.
(98) AdvP → (AdvP) Adv

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PP

(99) from Seoul, in the box, in the hotel, into the soup, with John
and his dog, under the table, etc.
(100) a. John came from Seoul.
b. They put the book in the box.
c. They stayed in the hotel.
d. The fly fell into the soup.
(101) The squirrel ran straight/right .
(102) a. The squirrel ran straight/right up the tree.
b. *The squirrel is straight/right angry.
c. *The squirrel ran straight/right quickly.
(103) PP → P NP
(104) *in angry, *into sing a song, *with happily, . . .

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CP and ConjP

(105) a. Complementizers: that, if, whether (finite), for (nonfinite)

b. Coordinating Conjunctions: for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so, ;
(FANBOYS; as acronym)
c. Subordinating Conjunctions: if, since, until, unless, whereas,
while, as though,...
(106) a. He hopes [C that [S you go ahead with the speech]].
b. [Conj After [S I had an interview]], I met her.
(107) a. The police officer asked *(if the death was not an accident).
(Complementizer if – obligatory)
b. The police officer missed the evidence (if the death was not an
accident). (Subordinating conjunction if – optional)
(108) a. CP → C S
b. ConjP → Conj S
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Some PS rules

(109) a. S → NP VP
b. NP → (Det) A* N (PP/S)
c. VP → V (NP) (PP/S/VP)
d. AP → A (PP/CP)
e. AdvP → (AdvP) Adv
f. PP → P NP
g. VP → VP AdvP

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From PS rules to tree structures

(110) S

NP VP

Det A N V NP PP

... ... ... ... Det N P NP

... ... ... Det N

... ...

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Lexicon and generated outputs

(111) a. Det: a, an, this, that, any, some, which, his, her, no, etc.
b. A: handsome, tall, fat, large, dirty, big, yellow, etc.
c. N: book, ball, hat, friend, dog, cat, man, woman, John, etc.
d. V: kicked, chased, sang, met, believed, thinks, imagines,
assumes, etc.
(112) a. The tall man met a dog.
b. A man kicked that small ball.
c. The woman chased a cat in the garden.
d. The little boy gave a present to his friend.

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Generating an infinite number of sentences: recursiveness

Recursive PS rules
(113) a. S → NP VP
b. VP → V S/CP
Licensed examples by ‘recursively’ applying the two rules
(114) S

NP VP

N V S

John believes NP VP

N V CP

Mary thinks C S

that Tom is honest.

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Recursive examples

It is possible to expand this sentence by applying the two rules again

and again.
(115) a. Bill claims (that) John believes (that) Mary thinks (that)
Tom is honest.
b. Jane imagines (that) Bill claims (that) John believes
(that) Mary thinks (that) Tom is honest.
There is no limit to this kind of recursive application of PS rules: it
proves that this kind of grammar can generate an infinite number of
grammatical sentences.

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Another example for recursive applications: recursive aux

(116) S

NP VP

N V[aux +] VP

They will V NP

study English syntax

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Another example for recursive applications: recursive aux
(cont’d)

(117) S

NP VP

N V[aux +] VP

They will V[aux +] VP

have V[aux +] VP

been studying English syntax

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Hierarchical structure: resolving ambiguity

Another important property that PS rules bring us is the ability to

make reference to hierarchical structures within given sentences,
where parts are assembled into sub-structures of the whole.
One merit of such hierarchical structural properties is that they enable
us to represent the structural ambiguities.
(118) a. The little boy hit the child with a toy.
b. Chocolate cakes and pies are my favorite desserts.

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Hierarchical structure: resolving ambiguity (cont’d)

(119) a. VP

VP PP

V NP with the toy

hit the child

b. VP

V NP

hit Det N PP

the child with the toy

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Different structures for CP and ConjP

(120) a. S

NP VP

She V CP

wondered C S

if he was honest
b. S

S ConjP

She would approve it Conj S

if he was honest

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Coordination rule

The variation of coordination structures, allowing the coordination of

not only Ss but also any other lexical as well as phrasal categories,
needs a different PS rule.
(121) a. *The children were in their rooms and happily.
b. *Lee went to the store and crazy.
(122) X(P) → X(P)+ Conj X(P)
(123) a. Paul [lives] and [works] in the same city.
b. The gentleman bought my [house] and [car] last year.
c. He has a [big] and [beautiful] swimming pool.
(124) a. [The chicken] and [the rice] go well together.
b. The president will [understand the criticism] and [take
action].
c. Susan works [too slowly] and [overly carefully].

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Coordination rule (cont’d)

(125) a. PP

PP Conj PP

in their rooms or on the porch

b. *PP

PP Conj AP

to the store and crazy

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Multi-word expressions: between lexical and phrasal
constructions

In addition to word and phrasal expressions, there are also so-called

multi-word expressions which contain two or more words but behave
like a word or fixed phrase in the sense that its grammar or meaning
is often idiosyncratic or unpredictable.
There are at least three different types of multi-word expressions in
English.

Syntactic Constructions Chapter 2 61 / 70

Fixed expressions

Expressions like by and large, in short, in spite of are fully lexicalized

in the sense that they do not undergo internal variations.
(126) a. *in shorter/*by and larger/*in spiter of
b. *in very short/*by and really large/*in truly spite of
(127) S

PP S

P NP NP VP

in spite of the heavy snow she arrived on time

Syntactic Constructions Chapter 2 62 / 70

Semi-fixed expressions

Idiomatic expressions like kick the bucket (die), throw in the towel
(give up), shoot the breeze (talk idly) are also fixed expressions in the
sense that they do not allow syntactic variations and their meaning is
not predictable.
(128) a. *John kicked the bucket we all must kick. (no internal
modification)
b. *The bucket was kicked. (no passivization)
(129) S

NP VP

My phone Adv VP[=die]

recently V NP

kicked the bucket

Syntactic Constructions Chapter 2 63 / 70

Syntactically flexible multi-word expressions

We have seen that verb-particle constructions with an object behave

differently from verb-preposition examples.
(130) a. Everyone was panting as if they’d all run up a steep hill.
(up as a preposition)
b. The disease would run up a bill as high as $50 billion. (up
as a particle)
Only particles, but not prepositions, can occur after the object.
(131) a. *John ran a big hill up.
b. John ran a big bill up.

Syntactic Constructions Chapter 2 64 / 70

Syntactically flexible multi-word expressions (cont’d)

Constituency tests tell us that unlike the preposition, the particle does
not form a constituent with the following NP.
(132) Preposition up
a. It was [up a big hill] that John ran. (cleft)
b. It was [a big hill] that John ran up. (cleft)
(133) Particle up
a. It was [a big bill] that John ran up. (cleft)
b. *It was [up a big bill] that John ran. (cleft)

Syntactic Constructions Chapter 2 65 / 70

Syntactically flexible multi-word expressions (cont’d)

Another interesting data set concerns the so-called ‘gapping’ which

allows the ellipsis of a redundant (repeated) verb or verb complex.
(134) a. John ran up a big hill, and Jack up a small hill. (gapping
ran)
b. *John ran up a big hill, and Jack a small hill. (no gapping
ran up)
(135) a. John ran up a big bill, and Jack up a small bill. (gapping
ran)
b. John ran up a big bill, and Jack a small bill. (gapping ran
up)
These examples imply that the postverbal particle forms a unit with
the preceding main verb while the preposition forms a unit with the
following NP.

Syntactic Constructions Chapter 2 66 / 70

Syntactically flexible multi-word expressions (cont’d)

(136) a. VP

V PP

ran P NP

up a big hill
b. VP

V NP

V Part a big bill

ran up

Syntactic Constructions Chapter 2 67 / 70

Syntactically flexible multi-word expressions (cont’d)

(137) V → V, Part
(138) a. Did Jill run [up a big hill] or [up a small hill]?
b. *Did Jill run [up a big bill] or [up a small bill]?
c. Did Jill [run up] [a big bill] or [a small bill]?
(139) a. the rapid [looking up] of the information is important.
b. the prompt [sending out] of reports is commendable.
(140) a. *the rapid looking of the information up
b. *the prompt sending of the reports out

Syntactic Constructions Chapter 2 68 / 70

Syntactically flexible multi-word expressions (cont’d)

The facts we have not discussed include examples where the particle
occurs right after the object.
(141) a. Jill brought the cat in.
b. He shut the gas off.
(142) VP → V NP Part
(143) VP

V NP Part

shut the gas off

Syntactic Constructions Chapter 2 69 / 70

Conclusion

The theoretical framework we adopt here is based on the fundamental

assumption that language is an infinite set of signs, and that both
lexical entries and constructions license signs.
Lexical entries license lexemes and constructions license constructs,
phrases that consist of a mother plus one or more (phrasal or lexical)
daughter nodes. Lexemes belong to syntactic categories like noun,
verb and preposition.
A constituent is a series of words that behaves like an indivisible unit
for certain syntactic purposes, e.g., serving as the ‘clefted’ constituent
in the it-cleft construction.
Some phrases, like the semi-fixed expressions kick the bucket and
throw in the towel, are phrasal units whose meanings cannot be
predicted from the meanings of the head word or its complement(s).

Syntactic Constructions Chapter 2 70 / 70