Syntax Word order, constituency

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Syntax Word order, constituency

• LING 200
• Spring 2003

Reading Files 6.1, 6.3, 6.5, 6.7
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Overview

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

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Syntactic competence
What native speakers know about

• Possible vs. impossible sentences
• Restricted distributions of words/ morphemes
• What sentences mean

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Sources of evidence in syntax

• Observation of native speaker productions
• Elicitation of native speaker grammaticality
  judgements
• from self
• from others

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Morphology overlaps with syntax
Syntactically relevant morphemes inflection
Derivation Inflection
1. Category changing? often -able likeable -ness happiness no -s pl. apples -s 3sS sees
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Inflection vs. derivation
Derivation Inflection
2. Productive? (very general conditions on affixation?) often restricted -hood brotherhood, neighborhood, daughterhood yes, but subject to blocking by irregular forms -s pl. child, childs, children Russianize vs. Russify
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Inflection vs. derivation
Derivation Inflection
3. Morpheme order inner usu. added before inflectional -NalAdj -N,AdjizeV -VationN industrializationalize outer usu. added after derivational 3sS -s industrializationalizes
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Inflection vs. derivation
Derivation Inflection
4. Syntactic relevance no usually sensitive to syntactic information -s 3sS Rose sees (vs. I see_)
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Some verbal inflectional affixes
-ing present participle visiting I am ___ Virginia now.
-ed past visited Last weekend I ___ Virginia.
-ed past participle visited I have just ___ Virginia.
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Syntactic relevance agreement

• Spanish adjectives agree with nouns in gender,
  number
• gender (arbitrary) noun classes

entrada ticket (to a show) vs. boleto ticket
the this expensive
sg. entrada la entrada esta entrada entrada cara
pl. entradas las entradas estas entradas entradas caras
sg. boleto el boleto este boleto boleto caro
pl. boletos los boletos estos boletos boletos caros
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Agreement
Vendiste las entradas? Did you sell the
tickets? you sold the tickets No, las (los)
tengo todavía. No, I still have them.
them I have still
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Word order

• English vs. Witsuwiten

1. Prepositions precede nouns in English. count
for me   Postpositions follow nouns in
Witsuwit'en spe co?tw count for me
me for you (sg.) count
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Word order
2. In English, adjectives precede nouns.   narrow
rope   In Witsuwit'en, an adjective follows a
noun   t?'o? tet fine babiche rope
narrow
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Word order
3. In English, the possessor noun normally
precedes the possessed noun.  my friend's
house but can follow the possessed noun the
house of my friend   In Witsuwit'en, the
possessor noun always precedes the possessed
noun   sq'aqhE p?y?X my friends
house my friend his/her house
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Word order
4. Subject of sentence instigates action
(transitive verbs), undergoes action or state
(intransitive verbs) In both Witsuwit'en and
English, subjects precede verbs Driftwood is
floating around.   t?z n?t???? driftwood it
is floating around
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Word order

• (Direct) (undergoes action of verb) object only
  in sentences with transitive verbs.
• 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

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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)
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Frequency of each type
lt Sample of 402 languages.
Word order languages
SOV 180 45
SVO 168 42
VSO 37 9
VOS 12 3
OVS 5 1
OSV 0 0
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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 that lay in the
house that Jack built. ...
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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. ...
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How to characterize (potential) infinity?
Phrase structure rules. Properties        
specify word order       are recursive (output
of one rule can be rewritten via another rule)
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Phrase structure rules
General schema X ? Y Z (X consists of/is Y
Z)   examples English PP ? P
NP Witsuwit'en PP ? NP P   PP
Pre/postpositional phrase P Pre/postposition NP
Noun phrase
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Equivalent representational devices
phrase structure rule PP ? P NP   labeled
bracketing PPP NP   tree structure
PP

P NP
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Some terminology
constituent syntactic unit consisting of one or
more words node (in tree) root
node branching nodes
terminal nodes
PP P NP with Det N
the money
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More phrase structure rules
S ? NP VP   S sentence NP noun phrase VP
verb phrase
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More phrase structure rules
NP ? (Det) (Adj) N (PP)   Det determiner Adj
adjective N noun ( ) optional
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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, the your pickle More than one
Adj is possible ( notation) your big pickle,
your big green pickle, your big green juicy pickle
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More phrase structure rules
VP ? Vtrans (NP) (PP) (Adv) VP verb
phrase Vtrans transitive verb Adv adverb
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Some simple tree structures
S ? NP VP NP ? (Det) (Adj) N (PP) VP ? V (NP)
(PP) (Adv)   S
NP VP N V
cats sleep
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Some simple tree structures
NP ? (Det) (Adj) N (PP) PP ? P NP  
NP N
PP fog P NP
in Det N

the morning
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NP Det N PP
the piano P NP
on Det N PP

the stage P NP

in Det N
PP

the music building P NP



on N



campus
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Some simple tree structures
VP ? V (NP) (PP) (Adv)   VP
V NP PP
put Det N P NP
the car in Det N

the garage
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Summary of syntax (so far)

• Syntactic competence
• Morphology and syntax inflectional morphology
• Word order
• Recursion
• Representing the structure of sentences
• phrase structure rules
• tree diagrams
• labeled bracketing