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Syntax Continued

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Title: Syntax Continued


1
Syntax Continued
  • Constituency Tests
  • Phrase Structure Rules

2
How to determine constituency
  • Semantic intuitions
  • sometimes, we just know that certain strings of
    words go together as a unit.
  • Constituency Tests (more reliable)
  • tests that can be applied to string of words in a
    given sentence to determine if the string is a
    constituent or not.

3
Three kinds of constituency tests
  • Stand Alone Test
  • Substitution Test
  • Movement Test

4
Stand Alone Test
  • A constituent can often be replaced by a question
    expression such as who, what, where, how, why, or
    do/did what.
  • The replaced constituent can then stand alone as
    an answer to the question.

5
Stand Alone Test
  • Clarice played the accordion under the table.
  • Q Where did Clarice play the accordion?
  • A under the table
  • Clarice played the accordion under the table.
  • Q Clarice played what under the table?
  • A the accordion

6
Substitution Test
  • Only constituents can be replaced by pro-forms.

Pro-form examples pronouns she, he, it, they,
us, her, that pro-verbs do, be pro-adverbs the
re, then, here pro-adjectives such, so, thus
7
Substitution Test
  • Clarice played the accordion under the table.
  • Clarice played the accordion there.
  • Clarice played the accordion under the table.
  • Clarice played it under the table.
  • Clarice played the accordion under the table.
  • Clarice did. (Who played the accordion under the
    table?)

8
Movement Test
  • If a string can be moved to the beginning of a
    sentence, it is a constituent.
  • Clarice played the accordion under the table.
  • Under the table, Clarice played the accordion.
  • ? The accordion Clarice played under the table.
    (We already know this is a constituent.)
  • Played the accordion under the table Clarice.
  • (We already know this is a constituent.)
  • Sometimes, constituency tests wont work for
    strings that are actually constituents.

9
When applying const. tests, keep this in mind
  • The tests arent foolproof. Often a constituent
    will only pass two of the three tests.
  • Decide whether or not a string is a constituent
    based on how convincing the test results are.
  • One strong pass is enough to determine
    constituency in some cases.

10
When applying const. tests, keep this in mind
  • We can only say whether or not a string is a
    constituent relative to a particular sentence.
  • Time flies like an arrow.
  • Fruit flies like a banana.
  • We watched shooting stars all night
  • The Milky Way was shooting stars from the
    galactic center.

11
Phrase Structure Rules
  • Our Grammar Consists of a set of rules acquired
    in order to form sentences
  • They are formed by putting words from different
    lexical categories together
  • PSRs (Phrase structure Rules) differ from
    language to language.

12
Lexical category
  • Parts of speech
  • Many words, limited categories
  • What you learned in school
  • Noun
  • Person, place or thing
  • Verb
  • Action word
  • Adjective
  • Describes something

13
But
  • bad
  • oops, my bad
  • sandwich
  • to sandwich something between two things

14
Determiners
  • a, an, the, every, this, that, those, her, his,
    my, yours
  • ______ (Adj) N
  • Det

15
Nouns
  • ______ plural morpheme -s
  • Det (Adj) ______
  • N

16
Adjectives
  • ______ comparative morpheme
  • more/most ______ very/quite ______
  • linking verb ______ (seems, feels, is)
  • Det ______ N
  • A

17
Verbs
  • ______ progressive morpheme -ing
  • ______ past tense morpheme -ed
  • auxiliary verb ______ (must, will, might)
  • to ______
  • ___ (NP) (PP)
  • V

18
Prepositions
  • at, up, over, into, above, through
  • right ______ NP
  • ___ NP
  • P

19
Phrase Structure Rules (PSRs)
  • Make observations about language
  • subject and predicate (NP and VP)
  • Make a rule
  • S ? NP VP
  • a sentence consists of an NP and a VP

20
Noun phrases (NPs)
  • Cats make good pets
  • NP ? N
  • The book is red
  • NP ? Det N
  • My friendly neighbor enjoys jogging
  • NP ? Det Adj N

21
Collapse the rules
  • NP ? N
  • NP ? Det N
  • NP ? Det Adj N
  • NP ? (Det) (Adj) N

22
English PSRs
  • S ? NP VP
  • NP ? (Det) (AP) N
  • VP ? V (NP)(PP)
  • AP ? (Adv) A

23
Building trees
  • Words and rules
  • Different ways
  • top-down
  • bottom-up

24
Top-down
  • S

25
Top-down
  • S
  • VP
  • NP

26
Top-down
  • S
  • VP
  • NP NP
  • V

27
Top-down
  • S
  • VP
  • NP NP
  • Det A N V Det A
    N

28
Top-down
  • S
  • VP
  • NP NP
  • Det A N V Det A
    N
  • My new roommate eats my leftover food

29
Bottom-up
  • My new roommate eats my leftover food

30
Bottom-up
  • Det A N V Det A N
  • My new roommate eats my leftover food

31
Bottom-up
  • NP NP
  • Det A N V Det A N
  • My new roommate eats my leftover food

32
Bottom-up
  • VP
  • NP NP
  • Det A N V Det A
    N
  • My new roommate eats my leftover food

33
Bottom-up
  • S
  • VP
  • NP NP
  • Det A N V Det A N
  • My new roommate eats my leftover food

34
Practice Sentences
  • The energetic boy ran up the hill.
  • The little dog ate the biscuits.
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