1. Lecture Week 5 Basic Constructions of English Sentence

2. Sentences and Clauses Node

3. Structural ambiguity? Fast cars and motorcycles are dangerous. Fast cars and motorcycles are dangerous. Any ambiguity? Yes/No? Explain!

4. Phrase structure rules (1)S  NP VP (2)NP  (Detv) (AdjP)* N (PP) (3)AdjP  (AdvP) Adj (4)VP  V (NP) (NP) (PP)* (5)PP  P (NP/PP)

5. Complex Sentence S NP VP V CP COMP (SUB) S I know that the tall librarian put the book on that shelf Upper S = sentence Lower S = clause

6. Complex Sentence S S Conj S The tall librarian put the book on AND the short one removed it the shelf Upper S corresponds to a sentence Lower S corresponds to a clause

7. The status of VP in English S  NP + VP (as in (1)) VP  V (NP) (NP) (PP)* (as in (4)) Tests for phrasehood of VP: Substitution Substitution Clefting  Clefting  Movement  Movement 

8. (8)a. The tall librarian put the book on the shelf, and so did John. The tall librarian put the book on the shelf, and John did so too. b.*It was put that book on the shelf that the tall librarian _____. b.*It was put that book on the shelf that the tall librarian _____. c. (I told the tall librarian to put that book on the shelf, and) c. (I told the tall librarian to put that book on the shelf, and) *put that book on the shelf the tall librarian ___.

9. (9)a. (I told the tall librarian to put that book on the shelf, and) put that book on the shelf the tall librarian did ___. b.... the tall librarian did put that book on the shelf. b.... the tall librarian did put that book on the shelf.

10. (10)a. (She denies that) she puts all the linguistics books in the bin, but put them in the bin she does. b. *puts them in the bin she ___. c. She does put all the linguistics books in the bin. d. * She does puts all the linguistics books in the bin.

11. (11)a. The bowler took a great catch. b. *Took a great catch the bowler ___. c. (...and) take a great catch the bowler did ___. d. The bowler did take a great catch. e. *The bowler did took a great catch. so

12. puts/takes puts/takes does put/take put / took did put/take so

13. puts presentPUT put pastPUT takes presentTAKE took pastTAKE

14. Revised S S NP AUX VP TENSE The tall librarian does/did put that book on….. ---------- puts/put that book on.. The bowler does/did take a great catch ----------- takes/took a great catch

15. Revised S S NP AUX VP TENSE The tall librarian does/did so (16a) ---------- *so (16b) The bowler does/did so ----------- *so

16. What about the cleft test? (20)a.?It was take a great catch that he did ____. b.*It was took a great catch that he ____.

17. Functions in the Clause S  NP AUX VP Subject Tense Predicate Subject Tense Predicate Mary PAST cleaned her teeth. John PRESENT eats his dinner. The baby does drink milk PRESENT PRESENT

18. Subjects Typically filled by NP Typically filled by NP –The babyate the yoghurt Can also be filled by PP Can also be filled by PP –Under the bedseems the safest. Or by a clause Or by a clause –That John leftsurprised me

19. Predicates Typically filled by VP Typically filled by VP –The baby does drink milk. Can also be filled by AdjP Can also be filled by AdjP –The baby is extremely happy. Or by an NP Or by an NP –John is a good doctor. Or by a PP Or by a PP –John was in the house.

20. Summary Simple sentence = single S or clause Complex sentence > 1 S or clause Functions of main constituents of S: Subject: NP/PP/clause Subject: NP/PP/clause Tense: Auxiliary verb (Lexical verb) Tense: Auxiliary verb (Lexical verb) Predicate: VP/AdjP/NP/PP Predicate: VP/AdjP/NP/PP

21. Summary (con't) VP = V (minus tense-marking) +..... –VP with untensed verb passes all three tests for phrasehood:  Substitution (by so )  Cleft  Movement –VP with tensed verb fails all three tests

22. Further reading: Fromkin, V. Rodman, R. et al. 2005. An Introduction to Language Ch. 4