1. Syntax
LING 200
Spring 2002

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

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

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

5. 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?

6. 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

7. 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_)

8. 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.

9. 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

10. 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.’

11. 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

12. 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

13. 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

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

15. 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

16. 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)

17. 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%

18. 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
...

19. 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.
...

20. 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)

21. 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

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

23. 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

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

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

26. 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

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

28. 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

29. 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

30. 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

31. 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

32. Constituent structure
Some tests:
Structural ambiguity
Coordination
Substitution
Movement

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

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

35. 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[

36. 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.

37. 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."

38. 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

39. “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

40. 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