The structure of sentences Syntax The structure of sentences

Formal syntax: Learning objectives Explain the notions “language organ” and “Universal Grammar” Explain the similarities and differences between languages (principles and parameters) Explain how sentences are constructed

Evidence for an independent language faculty: People display a knowledge of grammar that is deeper than what they could get from the linguistic input they receive – the poverty-of-the stimulus argument Language impairment (aphasia/Down syndrome): language independent from intelligence

Transformational generative grammar Chomsky: structuralist explanations could not distinguish between sentences such as: John is easy to please and John is eager to please While the surface structure is similar, the deep structure reveals a major difference: the implied subject in the first is John and in the second John is the object

Transformational generative grammar Chomsky: structuralist grammars could not explain ambiguity which can arise from the syntactic arrangement of clauses, e.g. Stolen painting found by tree

Universal Grammar: Principles & parameters People – “pre-programmed” with principles of grammar – Universal Grammar (UG) Universal grammar has a biological basis– a language organ Principles of UG are common across all languages One of these principles, which is considered as an essential property of human language, is recursion: allows individuals to understand an unlimited number of sentences without memorizing each one of them (cf. poverty of stimulus)

Principle of recursion Grammars are finite but they nonetheless enable individuals to produce and understand an infinite number of sentences This is made possible through the principle of recursion Recursion means that grammatical processes can apply more than once, which enables speakers to produce sentences of indefinite length and complexity

Mechanisms of recursion Embedding: One can always add additional subordinate clauses within a frame of the sentence e.g. This is the house that Jack built<This is the cheese that lay in the house that Jack built< This is the mouse that nibbled the cheese that lay in the house that Jack built etc. Coordination: We can use coordinating conjunctions (and, but, or etc.) to link an indefinite number of sentences e.g. Mary went to the airport and John went to the bus station but Joanna cancelled her trip and went to the mall.

Parameters of UG Some of the principles of UG are underspecified, which means that they can be realized through different parameters in different languages Once all the parameters have been correctly set for a particular language, then we have a grammar for this language Example: every language must have a subject – principle (underspecified); subject can be expressed in different ways – parameter values (pronouns in English and Italian)

Modularity of language Principles and parameters – part of a syntactic computational mechanism This mechanism feeds both the articulatory (phonetic) component and the interpretative (semantic) component Each of these components functions independently - modularity Various modules can feed each other through interfaces Phonetic form (PF) interface with articulatory module; Logical form (LF) – interface with the interpretative module

Y-model: centrality of syntax Syntax draws information from the lexicon and “feeds” both PF and LF PF LF Lexicon Syntax

Table of grammatical categories Type Word category Examples Phrasal category Lexical Noun (N) Puppy, park Noun Phrase (NP) Verb (V) Take, run, be Verbal Phrase (VP) Adjective (A) Good, red, big Adjective Phrase (AP) Adverb (Adv) Happily, fast Adverb Phrase (AdvP) Functional Determiner (D) This, the, a, his Determiner Phrase (DP) Preposition (P) In, on, between Prepositional Phrase (PP) Complementizer (C) that Complementizer Phrase (CP

Lexical vs. Functional categories Words that belong to lexical categories are semantically rich and contribute primarily to the meaning of the sentence (nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions) – open category Words in functional categories – semantically weak, and contribute more to the grammar of sentences than to the meaning (e.g. determiners) – closed category

Compositionality Grammar of every language – compositional and hierarchical Sentences are made of smaller constituents (phrases), which in turn are made up of even smaller constituents (words)

Compositionality: Constituency tests 1) noun replacement (A girl with a golden earring ate an apple > She ate an apple vs. *She with a golden earring ate an apple)- only an entire nominal constituent can be replaced with a pronoun 2) verb replacement (She ate an apple and so did I vs. *She ate an apple and so did I a pear)- only an entire verbal constituent can be replaced with do Certain groups of words form close units: constituents, e.g. Nominal constituent (1) (NP=noun phrase), (2) verbal constituent (VP=verb phrase)

Hierarchy Even though sentences are linear on the surface, their constituents are organized in a hierarchical way

Projection Composing the structure of a sentence begins with words that belong to categories such as noun, verb, preposition, adjective, or determiner These words – heads of phrases Phrases are constructed bottom-up: words are drawn from a lexicon – a mental dictionary stored in people’s brain - and merged into structures Once they are inserted into structures they project phrases (XPs) of the same category (e.g. NP, VP, DP) which form larger constituents that compose a sentence

Merge Structure building begins with the predicate, which is the central element of a clause Once a predicate projects its phrase, it has to be combined with a phrase/s of the type it needs To do that, the grammar must have a mechanism that combines phrases This is done by merging one phrase with another

Merge: example (1) Those children want a puppy Want – a transitive verb or a two-place predicate, which means that it requires two NPs of a certain type as arguments: an agent argument and a theme argument (thematic (theta) roles) It projects two empty positions which need to be filled by NPs (e.g. Those children - agent and a puppy - theme) Direct object (puppy) – internal argument because it forms a closer unit with a predicate Subject (Those children) – external argument; does not form the same unit as predicate and direct object Substitution test: Those children want a puppy and so do I; *Those children want a puppy and so do I a cat

Nominal constituent merge (DP) Each of the nominal constituents that the predicate selects is a product of a separate merge operation which consists of merging a noun and a determiner Note the nominal constituent a puppy in Example 1: The determiner a projects a determiner phrase (DP), which needs a noun phrase (NP) as its complement Since DP selects NP and not viceversa, DP is the head of the nominal constituent (e.g. a puppy)

DP merge NP puppy is inserted in the complement NP node projected from D a to create DP a puppy DP NP D: a N: puppy

VP merge VP DP NP V: want D: a N: puppy DP a puppy merges with V want to create VP want a puppy VP DP NP V: want D: a N: puppy

Merge: sentence construction So far the grammar has created a new constituent (VP) by merge The next step is to merge the VP with the external argument (subject) to form the whole sentence The external argument cannot be directly merged onto the VP (substitution shows that they do not form the same constituent) We need a separate node (XP) above VP to merge the subject with

Tense phrase (TP) Semantic core of the sentence is constituted by tense Tense projects its own phrase (TP) which connects different constituents together into a sentence T-head contains information related to tense, as well as agreement Tense phrases provide the central “scaffolding” for a sentence, a structure to which the more meaningful lexical phrases will be attached External argument is linked with VP through TP

Tense Phrase (TP) Those children want a puppy. TP DP VP those NP want DP children a NP puppy

Tense Phrase TP takes VP as its complement The external argument (subject) is not a complement: it does not occupy a complement position but a specifier position to the left of TP (in English) Two syntactic levels: VP – lexical information pertaining to constituents; TP: grammatical information pertaining to the sentence (tense+agreement) There is an even higher level of structure, which contains information pertaining to discourse: at this level, sentence type (e.g. declarative, interrogative) is encloded This highest structural level is usually defined as CP (Complementizer phrase)

Complementizer phrase (CP) The basic function of complementizers is to turn an independent sentence into a complement Therefore each subordinate clause is headed by an additional phrase projected by the complementizer (CP) Different types of complementizers depending on the type of subordinate clause: in declaratives, complementizers like that (I heard that those children want a puppy); in interrogtives, comps like if (He wondered if it would rain) A CP selects a TP in this context

Projection of CP from that C: that TP those children want a puppy

CP in simple sentences Matrix clauses can also be divided in different types (e.g. declarative, interrogative, exclamative) In subordinate contexts, different types of clauses are associated with different complementizers, which means that clause type is determined at the CP level Since matrix clauses can also be divided along the same lines, CP is also present and determines clause type in matrix contexts (even though there is no overt complementizer)

Adjunction Merge joins phrases by placing one phrase into the complement or specifier of another phrase It is also possible to merge phrases that are not complements or specifiers of their host phrase - this is called adjunction and it adds modifiers to phrases Heads, complements, and specifiers make up the core meaning of a phrase, while adjuncts add extra description (Those little children in the park want a puppy badly)

Adjunction Since adjoined phrases are different from complements and specifiers, adjunction creates a site for Merge by copying the phrasal node of the host phrase All the adjuncts are attached to the extended structures In this way the integral parts of a phrase,i. e. head, specifier, and complement, are distinguished from adjuncts There are restrictions on the number of complements or specifiers we can have in the sentence but not on adjuncts: the phrasal node can be copied indefinitely

Adjunction VP VP AdvP DP badly NP V:want D: a N:puppy

Movement Besides building phrase structures, syntax can also move parts of phrase structures around, by detaching them from the position in which they were originally inserted in the structure, and moving them somewhere else

Movement and deletion Movement functions by copying an item into a new location, leaving a copy in the original position (sometimes described as a trace (t). This copy must later be deleted, because both copies cannot be pronounced at the same time Syntax distinguishes between two types of movements: head movement (e.g. auxiliary movement in questions) and phrasal movement (e.g. wh-movement in questions)

Auxiliary movement Auxiliary (Aux) movement comes into play when we want to generate a simple question in English e.g. Does the man like movies? The auxiliary do is originally inserted under T, acquiring tense and agreement features, and then moves to C CP has an empty complementizer C as its head and it has a TP as its complement. Aux movement in the case of simple questions takes whatever there is under T (do+tense/agreement=does) and moves it to the previously empty head position, C

Illustration CP TP C does T VP DP [PRES/AGR] the man V DP like movies Move

WH-movement Wh-questions (e.g. What do you like?), unlike simple questions, exhibit two different movements to CP: head movement of the auxiliary (T-C) and phrasal movement of the wh-phrase (i.e. wh-movement) Therefore, in questions such as “What do you like?”, CP must contain two empty positions to host the moved elements: the C-head position for the auxiliary and the specifier position for the wh-phrase

WH-movement What appears after the verb like, as its complement. Like is a transitive verb and requires a direct object complement, and what stands in for the missing thing that you would like (e.g. What do you like? I like coffee). First, aux movement applies . The auxiliary do undergoes head movement from T to C. Then, wh-movement applies. The wh-phrase moves from its original complement position (since it replaced the complement of the verb like) to the specifier of CP.

WH-movement CP SpecCP What C TP do SpecTP you VP T V DP aux movement like what wh-movement

Summary Much of grammatical structure does not have to be “learned” People “know” a lot about what is or isn’t a possible grammatical structure without having been taught, or even having had the right kind of experience to have learned it: they know it because principles of UG are innate The principle of recursion enables individuals to produce and understand an infinite number of sentences based on a limited input (cf. Poverty of stimulus)

Summary One principle of the structure of sentences – compositionality: sentences are composed of clauses and phrases, which in turn are made up of smaller clauses and phrases or words Compositionality - achieved by projection of simple phrases from words from the mental lexicon The phrases projected take on the lexical and functional categories of the words that project them

Summary Formal syntax - based on deducing abstract grammatical principles from observing what sentences are possible and not possible, without regard to how they are used Formal approaches insist on the centrality of syntax whithin the human language faculty; other types of approaches (e.g. functional perspectives) put greater emphasis on semantics or language usage

Learning objectives Explain the notions “language organ” and “Universal Grammar” Explain the similarities and differences between languages (principles and parameters) Explain how sentences are constructed