Syntax LING 200 Spring 2002

Overview What is syntactic competence? Morphology and syntax: inflectional morphology Word order Representing the structure of sentences Arguments for structure Transformations Cross-linguistic variation

Syntactic competence Characterizing what native speakers know about: Possible vs. impossible sentences Restricted distributions of words/ morphemes What sentences mean

Sources of evidence in syntax Observation of native speaker productions Elicitation of native speaker grammaticality judgements from self from others

Establishment of syntactic paradigms declarative The Mariners will beat the Yankees. subordinate (embedded) clause I bet (that) the Mariners will beat the Yankees. negative: The Mariners won’t beat the Yankees. yes/no question: Will the Mariners beat the Yankees?

Syntactically relevant morphemes Derivation Inflection 1. Category changing? often -able: likeable -ness: happiness no -s pl.: apples -s 3sS: sees 2. Productive? often restricted: -hood: brotherhood, *daughterhood yes, but subject to blocking: -s pl.: child, children

Syntactically relevant morphemes Derivation Inflection 3. Morpheme order inner: usu. added before inflectional; industrializationalize outer: usu. added after derivational: industrializationalizes 4. Syntactic relevance not sensitive to syntactic information often sensitive to syntactic information Rose sees (vs. I see_)

Some verbal inflectional affixes visit I ___ Virginia on the weekends. -ing present participle visiting I am ___ Virginia now. -ed past visited I ___ Virginia yesterday. -ed past participle I have already ___ Virginia.

Agreement Spanish: adjectives agree with nouns in gender, number entrada ‘ticket (to a show)’ vs. boleto ‘ticket’ ‘the’ ‘this’ ‘expensive’ entrada la entrada esta entrada entrada cara entradas las entradas estas entradas entradas caras boleto el boleto este boleto boleto caro boletos los boletos estos boletos boletos caros

Agreement entrada ‘ticket (to a show)’ vs. boleto ‘ticket’ Vendiste las entradas? ‘Did you sell the tickets?’ No, las (*los) tengo todavía. ‘No, I still have them.’

Word order English vs. Witsuwit’en 1. Prepositions precede nouns in English. count for me   Postpositions follow nouns in Witsuwit'en: spe c’ot«w me for you (sg.) count

Word order 2. In English, adjectives precede nouns. narrow rope   narrow rope In Witsuwit'en, an adjective follows a noun: t'o tet ‘fine babiche’ rope narrow

Word order 3. In English, the possessor noun normally precedes the possessed noun.  my friend's tanning stretcher but can follow the possessed noun: the tanning stretcher of my friend   In Witsuwit'en, the possessor noun always precedes the possessed noun: sq'aqhE pmsti my friend his/her tanning stretcher

Word order 4. In both Witsuwit'en and English, subjects precede verbs:   Driftwood is floating around. tz nt driftwood is floating around

Word order 5. In English, the direct object follows the verb.   We bought food. In Witsuwit'en, the direct object precedes the verb: t'a nets'ottqht food we bought

Attested word order patterns (S = Subject, O = Object, V = Verb): SOV Witsuwit'en SVO English VSO Irish OSV Apurinã (Arawakan, Brazil) OVS Parecís (Arawakan, Brazil) (also SOV) VOS Oro Win (Chapacura-Wanham, Brazil) (5 speakers)

Frequency of each type < Sample of 402 languages. Word Order Number of languages SOV 180 45% SVO 168 42% VSO 37 9% VOS 12 3% OVS 5 1% OSV 0%

Recursion and phrase structure (Potentially) infinitely long sentences:   This is the house that Jack built. This is the malt that lay in the house that Jack built. This is the rat that ate the malt ...

This is the priest all shaven and shorn that married the man all tattered and torn that kissed the maiden all forlorn that milked the cow with the crumpled horn that tossed the dog that worried the cat that killed the rat that ate the malt that lay in the house that Jack built. ...

How to characterize (potential) infinity? Phrase structure rules. Properties of phrase structure rules:   ·      specify word order ·      are recursive (output of one rule can be rewritten via another rule)

General schema X --> Y Z (“X consists of/is Y Z”) examples:   examples: English: PP --> P NP Witsuwit'en: PP --> NP P PP = Pre/postpositional phrase P = Pre/postposition NP = Noun phrase

Equivalent representational devices phrase structure rule: PP --> P NP   labeled bracketing: PP[P NP] tree structure: PP v P NP

Some terminology constituent syntactic unit consisting of one or more words = node (in tree) root node branching node terminal node PP v P NP g g with N g Fritz

More phrase structure rules S --> NP (Aux) VP = S --> NP VP S --> NP Aux VP   S = sentence NP = noun phrase VP = verb phrase

More phrase structure rules NP --> (Det) (Adj) N (PP)   Det = determiner Adj = adjective N = noun

Determiners vs. adjectives NP --> (Det) (Adj) N (PP) Det --> a/an, some, the, your (etc.) Adj --> big, green, juicy (etc.) One determiner per NP: your pickle, the pickle, *your the pickle More than one Adj is possible: your big pickle, your big green pickle, your big green juicy pickle

More phrase structure rules VP --> V (NP) (PP) (Adv) VP = verb phrase V = verb Adv = adverb

Some simple tree structures S --> NP VP NP --> (Det) (Adj) N (PP) VP --> V (NP) (PP) (Adv)   S v NP VP g g N V g g cats sleep

Some simple tree structures NP --> (Det) (Adj) N (PP) PP --> P NP   NP v N PP g v fog P NP g v in Det N g g the morning

NP fgh Det N PP g g fi the piano P NP g fgi on Det N PP g g gi the stage P NP g r g i in Det N PP g g gi the music building P NP g g on N g campus

Some simple tree structures VP --> V (NP) (PP) (Adv)   VP f g h V NP PP g v v put Det N P NP g g g v the car in Det N g g the garage

Constituent structure Some tests: Structural ambiguity Coordination Substitution Movement

Structural ambiguity Synonymy words phrases pail = bucket couch = sofa It's hard to find a good latte. = A good latte is hard to find.

Ambiguity Ambiguous words homophones [dIr] (dear), [dIr] deer (2 different morphemes)

Structurally ambiguous words Adj Adj t g g y un Adj V able g y t g V able un fold g fold 2 readings: ‘not capable of being folded’ ‘capable of being unfolded’ un- negative: Adj[___Adj[ un-‘reverse’: V[___V[

Structurally ambiguous phrases Fritz spilled the beans. figurative/idiomatic reading: Fritz inappropriately released the information. literal reading: There were some beans and Fritz spilled them.

Structurally ambiguous headlines “Enraged cow attacks man with axe.” "The nomination of Dr. Henry Foster to the Surgeon General's office appears to be in trouble after he admitted that he had performed at least 39 abortions on TV last night."

Structural ambiguity reveals constituent structure “Enraged cow attacks man with axe.” the real world reading: S tu NP VP fh v Adj N V NP g g g gi enraged cow attacks N PP g v man P NP g g with N g axe

“Enraged cow attacks man with axe.” the humorous reading:   S ru NP VP f h fhi A N V NP PP g g g g v enraged cow attacks N P NP g g g man with N g axe

Structural ambiguity and constituency "he admitted that he lied yesterday" VP  V S’ S’ --> that S ‘ he lied yesterday’ reading: S f h NP VP g f h N V S’ g g fh he admitted that S fi g fh N V Adv g g g he lied yesterday