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Unit 5: Syntax
(The Sentence Patterns of Language)
KMK1133 Introduction to Linguistics Analysis

Recap: Creativity of Linguistic Knowledge

Enable production & comprehension of infinite
number of new sentences
• Does this ability of us also suggest that our brain has the infinite
capacity to store all the new sentences?
• Brain = finite space!
• Language – discreteness (a property of Human Language which
distinguishes it from Animal Language)
– When we speak, we combine units (sounds & words) according to shared
& conventional rules
– Knowing a language, therefore, means knowing both the units & rules for
combining them

More on Discreteness
• Words are composed of discrete units of sounds that
are combined to communicate a meaning
– / /, /I/, /p/ = ship
– / /, /i/, /p/ = sheep
• Discrete units of meanings (words) are combined to
form meaningful sentences
That part of grammar that represents a speaker’s
knowledge of sentences & their structures

SYNTAX

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Parsing – assigning a structural analysis

(specific patterns) to the meaningful word
Syntax sequences that constitute sentences

Syntax is about Parsing

• Syntax specifies the parsing rules that identify
string of words as a sentence
– How words are put together to make up sentences

Parsing: Structure of a sentence

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Example of Parsing
(Computational Linguistics)

What the Syntax Rules Do

• Combine words into phrases & phrases into
sentences
• Specify the correct word order for a language

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What the Syntax Rules Do

• Describe the relationship between the meaning
of a particular group of words and the
arrangement of those words
– Say what you mean.
– Mean what you say.

Word order of a sentence contributes significantly to its meaning

Example
• Please do.
• Do please.

Example
• I like you.
• You like me.

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Example
• I saw what you did last night.
• I saw what you did last.
• I saw what you did.
• I saw you.
• I saw.

What the Syntax Rules Do

• Specify the grammatical relations of a sentence,
such as subject & direct object
– Provide information that facilitate understanding of
the meaning of a sentence
Subject Verb Direct Object
The detectives examined the scene of the crime
Fire destroyed The palace

Subject Verb Prep Direct Object

The palace was destroyed by fire
The scene of the crime was examined by the detectives

What the Syntax Rules Do

• Specify certain constraints which sentences must
adhere to in order for them to be accepted as
grammatical
– E.g. Stative verbs are NOT used in continuous tenses
• Jamie knows the poem./Jamie is knowing the poem.
• Jamie needs an umbrella./ Jamie is needing an umbrella.
– E.g. Verbs + to infinitive
• She agreed to speak at the meeting./She agreed speak at the meeting.
• He attempts to sing at the party./He attempts sing at the party.

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What the Syntax Rules Do: In Sum

• Reveal the grammatical relations among the
words of a sentence as well as their order and
hierarchical organization
• Explain how the grouping of words relates to its
meaning (address ambiguity)
• Permit speakers to produce & understand a
limitless number of sentences never produced or
heard before

Syntactic vs Semantic Knowledge

• Knowledge of how words form groups in a
sentence, how they are hierarchically arranged
with respect to one another
Grammaticality &
Meaningfulness are
NOT the same
Grammaticality does
cow NOT depend on
magsu truth of sentence

Sentence Structure
• Sentences have a hierarchical organization
– words are grouped into natural units (i.e. Constituents)

Root
Subject Predicate

Tree Diagram/Syntactic Tree

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Constituency Test
• Stand alone test
– If a group of words can stand alone, they form a
constituent
– Constituents = the set of words that can be used to
answer a question
• What do fruit flies like? – a banana
• Which insects like a banana? – fruit flies

Constituency Test
• Replacement by a pronoun or the word ‘do’
– Pronouns can substitute for natural groups
– The word ‘do’ can replace the entire predicate
• What do fruit flies like? – They like a banana.
• Fruit flies like a banana and monkeys do too.

Constituency Test
• Move as a unit test
– If a group of words can be moved, they form a
constituent.
• It was a banana that fruit flies like.
( Fruit flies like a banana)
• A banana is liked by fruit flies.

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Ambiguous Sentence
• A sentence that has MORE than one constituent
structure

Possible Meanings?
• Mary kissed the children in the kitchen.

Mary kissed the children in the kitchen.

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Possible Meanings?
• Students hate annoying professors.
• They hit the man with the cane.
• Visiting relatives can be a nuisance.
• The girl hit the boy with a book.
• The chicken is ready to eat.

Structural ambiguity occurs when a phrase or a sentence

has more than one underlying structure (i.e. each phrase
can be represented in more than one way)

Syntactic Categories

A Syntactic Category?
• A family of expressions that can substitute for
one another without loss of grammaticality
Determiner, Demonstratives, VP contains a V & may
Auxiliary, Modals contain other categories
– NP or PP
teacher cow Each lexical category
has a corresponding
queen girl phrasal category –
• noun
• verb
• preposition
NP may function as the Subject or
• adjective
Object in a sentence • adverb
(Proper Noun & Pronouns)

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Phrase Structure Tree

A tree diagram with syntactic category
information is called a phrase structure
tree or a constituent structure tree
Explicit graphic representations of a
speaker’s knowledge of the structure
of sentences of his language
Represents 3 aspects of speaker’s
syntactic knowledge:
• linear order of words in sentence
• identification of syntactic categories
of words & groups of words
• hierarchical structure of syntactic
categories

Phrase Structure Tree & Rules

root
• PS rules – another means of
representing PS tree
node node 1. S → NP VP
2. NP → Det N
3. VP → V NP
sisters
4. VP → V
5. VP → V PP
6. PP → P NP
7. VP → V CP
8. CP → C S
• PS rules – templates that a tree
must match to be grammatical

Phrase Rules
1. S → NP VP 2. NP → Det N

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Phrase Rules
3. VP → V NP 4. VP → V

NP VP
N V

Liza sleeps

Phrase Rules
5. VP → V PP 6. PP → P NP

Phrase Rules
7. VP → V CP 8. CP → C S
• CP – complementizer preceding the • Complementizer phrase
embed sentence

complementizer

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The Infinity of Language

• VP → V PP = VP → VP PP
– Variation – Recursive Rule
• Revision of earlier rule (# 5)
• Repetition of category (VP) &
more than one PPs
• Recursive Rules – enable the
grammar to generate an infinite set
of sentences
• PS rules – define allowable
structures of the language
• Reformulation of earlier rules -
(embed sentences, recursiveness)

The Infinity of Language

• Embedding of categories within categories common to
all languages
– Brain capacity (finite) stores only a finite number of
categories & rules for their combination
– Finite means – enables infinite set of sentences
• Constraints to production/reception of infinite set of
sentences
– short-term memory limitation
– muscular fatigue
– breathlessness
– boredom

Understanding Phrase
• A group of words forming a unit around a head,
e.g., a N or a V.
– merging two words together.
• Help+ you = help you = VP because it can
occupy a verb position in a sentence.
– Help= head
– you= complements

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Heads & Complements

• PS trees also show relationships among elements
closest to root

subject

closest to VP
direct object

Heads & Complements

• Head of a phrase
– word whose lexical
category defines the type of
phrase
– Noun (NP)
– Verb (VP), etc
head • Sister phrase
complement – complements/completes
the meaning of the phrase
• the order of the head & complement may differ in different
languages (e.g. In Japanese – Complement & Head)

Heads & Complements

• whether a verb takes a
complement or not
depends on the properties
of the verb
– transitive verb
• requires NP complement
(direct object)
– intransitive verb
• cannot take an NP
complement
– He has arrived.
– John goes to school.
– She speaks fast.

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Complement Types:
C – Selection & S – Selection
Well-formedness of a phrase depends on at least two factors:
• whether conform to PS rules (describes structural constraints)
• whether obeys selectional requirements of the head

• Categorical selection • Semantic selection

– The information about – A specification of certain
complement types selected by intrinsic semantic properties of
particular verbs & other lexical their subjects & complements
items – ‘murder’ (v)
• Sentential complement • Subject & object = human
• AdjP – ‘drink’ (v)
• PP • Subject = animate & object =
• CP liquid

Complement Types:
C – Selection & S – Selection
• know can take NPs, sentencial • put selects for a location:
complement, and – Bill put the book on the table.
interrogative S’s. – Bill put the book there.
– John knows the time. – *Bill put the book.
– John knows that the world is
full of noises.
– John knows what the time is.
• prepositions typically require
NP complements.
– on the brown table
– *on brown table,
– *on brown,
– *on below the brown table
• Violation of S-selection
because the verb sleep
requires an animate object

What heads the Sentence?

AUX – head sentence (S)
- a sentence is about a
situation or state of affairs
that occur at some point in
time

AUXILIARY VERBS
• Specify a time frame for the sentence: has/have/had
– situation described will take place is/was/were
may/would/can, etc
– situation described is taking place (-ing)
selectional relationship
– situation described already took place (-en)
between Aux & VP
– possibility of situation occurring (infinitive)

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Uniform Notation
• TP (tense phrase - S)
TP • T (tense - Aux)
• T’ (T-bar – intermediate T)
T’

T X-Bar Theory
a universal schema specifying that
the internal organization of all
phrasal categories can be broken
down into three levels

X-bar theory
Basic X-bar schema
XP ( NPs, PPs, VPs, AdjPs, TPs)

Modifier (optional
constituent)

NP specifier – determiner
VP specifier – adverb
AdjP specifier – degree word

Sentence Relatedness
The dinosaur is singing. Is the dinosaur singing?
• declarative sentence • yes-no question
– asserting that the condition – asking whether the such
exists situation holds (asking for
confirmation)
Deep Structure (d-structure)
Surface Structure (s-structure)

two sentences may have structural differences that correspond in a

systematic way to meaning differences

PS rules do not account for the fact that certain sentence types in
language relate systematically to other sentence types

Transformational Rule – movement/insertion

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Transformational Rules

Universal Grammar (UG)

• Basic design of language is Universal.
– individual languages are simply variations (parameters) on this
basic design
• All languages have PS rules that specify allowable d-structures
• In all languages, phrases consist of heads & complements, &
sentences are headed by Aux (T).
• A child acquiring a language must fix the parameters of UG for
that language

End of Unit 5...

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