1. English Linguistics Chapter Six Syntax

2. http://www.zzone.cn 中国. 中学政治教学网崇尚互联共享 Syntax Syntax is the study of how words are combined with others to form sentences and in what order.

3. Syntactic relations Basic patterns of word combinations Immediate constituent analysis Deep and surface structures Syntactic rules A sketch of the minimalist approach to syntax

4. 1. Syntactic relations Positional relation and relation of substitutability 1.1 Positional relation: 1.2 Relation of substitutability Sequential arrangement of words or word order in a language. The dog bites the man. He (Tom, Mary) cries (shouts, smiles). The man bites the dog. Canis mordet hominem. Canis hominem mordet. Hominem mordet canis. Mordet canis hominem.

5. 2. Basic patterns of word combinations The subject-predicate pattern: The relationship between the subject and the predicate. These American students are working in the lab. The verb-object pattern: The relationship between the action of the verb and the object to the verb. To write a research paper.

6. Linguists use different function labels to describe subjects and objects to suit different needs : (1) The key opened the door. Agent Theme Beneficiary GoalInstrumentExperiencer (2) The dog died. Theme Instrument Theme (3) David sent the parcel to the aged relative. Agent Theme Goal

7. Three kinds of subjects : grammatical, logical and psychological. A grammatical subject: A noun which can establish correspondence with the verb and which can be checked by a tag-question test. John likes linguistics the most, (doesn’t he?) A logical subject: The doer of the agent or action involved. The dog was kicked by the boy. A psychological subject: The subject matter that the speaker has in starting his remark.

8. Red is the east.

9. 3. Immediate constituent analysis Immediate constituent (IC) analysis: Describing a sentence up into its immediate constituents by using binary cuttings until obtaining its ultimate constituents. A top-down approach

10. S NP VP S NP V the linguistics class take NP Linda V suggestedJane

11. IC analysis can help to account for ambiguity of certain constructions. Visiting aunts can be boring. S NPVP NP S Aunts who visit can be boring (1) S VP Someone to visit aunts can be boring S’ NP VP (2)

12. IC analysis’ difficulty: ambiguous sentences (a) The shooting of the hunters was terrible. (b) Flying planes can be dangerous. (c) Time flies. (d) John loves Richard more than Martha. (e) The police were ordered to stop drinking about midnight.

13. 4. Deep and surface structures Every sentence has two levels of structure. One,which is obvious on the surface, is called surface structure, and the other, which contains all the units and relationships that are necessary for interpreting the meaning of the sentence, is called deep structure. Chomsky The love of God God loves someone Someone loves God

14. 5. Syntactic rules Transformational-generative (TG) grammar provides a model for the description of such syntactic rules. The rules which determine what morphemes and words are combined into larger grammatical units and how they are put together in a sentence are the syntactic rules of the language.

15. 5.1 X-bar theory 5.1.1 X-bar theory and lexical categories XP Spec X’’ X’ Adjunct X Comp

16. VP Adv both V’’ V’ V PP NP sign their names in the office discussion NP Det the N’’ N’ N PP pp at the meetingof the event

17. 5.1.2 X-bar theory and non-lexical categories 5.1.2.1 Nonlexical category—TP Spec Mary T’ T VP TP NP has V eaten the honey

18. 5.1.2.2 Nonlexical category— CP Spec IIII T’ T VP TP CP will V say ask John will leave Peter will sing tonight. C’ TP Spec C that if

19. 5.2 Transformational rules Common types of transformations : deletion substitution movement insertion

20. 5.2.1 Deletion A: Where have you been? B: To the park. (Deep structure: I have been to the park.) 5.2.2 Substitution Jane hurt herself. (Deep structure: Jane hurt Jane.)

21. 5.2.3 Movements 5.2.3.1 Inversion TP NP Spec The N’ N guest T’ will T VP V V’ arrive TP NP Spec the N’ N guest T’ t T VP V V’’ arrive CP C’’ C Will (1)(2)

22. 5.2.3.2 Wh-movement TP Spec you we you T’ can should are T VP V’’ V speak take going NP what languages which road where

23. CP Spec What languages Which road Where C’ can should are C TP VP T’ you we you tttttt Spec T V NP speak take going tttttt

24. 5.2.4 Insertion: do-support Insert do into an empty T position. CP Spec Where C’ do C TP Adjunct T’’ they t Spec T’ VP havet lunch T VN

25. 5.3 Constraints on movement Compare (1) and (2) (a) * How do you wonder whether Peter solved the problem? (b) * [ CP How do[ TP you wonder[ CP whether[ TP Peter solved the problem t]]]] (a) How do you think (that) Peter solved the problem? (b) [ CP How do [ TP you think [ CP that [ TP Peter solved the problem t ]]]] (1) (2)

26. (a) 他最喜欢 [ 张三写 ] 的书。 (b) * 张三 i 他最喜欢 [t i 写 ] 的书。 Similar island constraints in Chinese : (a) 他喜欢 [ 妈妈烧 ] 的菜。 (b) * 他喜欢 [ 妈妈为什么烧 ] 的菜。 (1) (2)

27. 5.4 Parametric variation 5.4.1 Head-complement order (a) Head-first Head parameter: bought the ball V’ VP VNP den ball kaufte V’ VP NPV (b) Head-last (English) (German)

28. 5.4.2 The Wh-movement parameter What did you buy? [ CP What did [ TP you buy t]] Kimi-wa nani-o kaimasita ka? You-TOP what-ACC bought Q “What did you buy?” 你买了什么？ “What did you buy?”

29. 6. A sketch of the minimalist approach to syntax 6.1 I-language A speaker’s I-language is his or her tacit knowledge of their native language. 6.2 A minimalist theory of I-language LF PF Lexicon

30. 6.3 Features and Full Interpretation 6.3.1 Types of features: Interpretable and uninterpretable features 6.3.2 Full Interpretation : The structure to which the semantic interface rules apply contains no uninterpretable features.

31. 6.4 Checking and derivation 6.4.1 Checking Checking under sisterhood: An uninterpretable c-selectional feature F on a syntactic object Y is checked when Y is sister to another syntactic object Z which bears a matching feature F. pandas [N] kiss[V,uN] VP (1)

32. (2) Checking under Agree: An uninterpretable feature F on a syntactic object Y is checked when Y is in a c-command relation with another syntactic object Z which bears a matching feature F. (a) Jane misses David. (b) Jane missed David. (c ） T[present]…V+v [ u present] （ d) T[past]…V+v [ u past]

33. 6.4.2 Derivation Numeration ｛ see, v, T, Peter, David ｝ Peter saw David. Derivation Step 1 see [V,uN] VP David[N]

34. Step 2 v’[uN] v VP see v[uV*, upast] David[N] Step 3 vP Peter[N, nom]v’[uN] see V v v[uV*,upast] David[N]

35. Step 4 Step 5 T’ T[past, uN*, nom] vP see v’[uN] Peter[N,nom] v[uV*,upast] David[N] V v T’[uN*] T[past, nom] vP see v’ Peter[N,nom] v[uV*,upast] David[N] V v

36. Step 6 TP T[past, nom] T’[uN*] see V Peter[N,nom] v[uV*,upast] David[N] v’[uN] v vP

37. Thank you