Syntax III

March 27, 2012

Just So You Know• Phonology homeworks will be graded by Thursday.

• Syntax homework will also be posted on Thursday…

• And will be due the following Tuesday.

• Let’s check out the remaining practice sentences for syntax…

There is no “I” in “verb”• In English, the I slot may be explicitly filled with

auxiliary verbs:

• be {am, are, is, was, were}

• have {has, had}

• Verbs following auxiliaries bear affixes marking them for tense {am going, has gone} or voice {is gone}.

• Modals are a special kind of auxiliary verb:

• will, would, can, could, shall, should, may, might, must, (do/did)

• Verbs following modals are always in their root (infinitive) form. {I must go; I could go; etc.}

Potential Problems• There are some limitations on the extent to which the syntactic rules can ignore the specific words that fit into each phrase.

• Example (from last week’s Quick Write):

• Is it possible to “swim a carcass”?

Sub-categorization• It turns out that it is necessary to break lexical categories down further, into sub-categories.

• For instance, some verbs must be followed by a noun phrase:

I devoured the sandwich. *I devoured.

I invited the teacher. *I invited.

• Other verbs must not be followed by a noun phrase:

I sprinted. *I sprinted the ball.

I slept. *I slept the dog.

I danced. *I danced the horse.

Verb Sub-Category #1

• Intransitive Verbs (Vi): must not be followed by an NP

• = they do not take an object NP as a complement.

• VP Vi

• *VP Vi NP

• Examples: sneeze, fall, elapse, snorkel

• Good: The boy slept.

• Bad: *The boy slept the dog.

• Good: The girl fell.

• Bad: *The girl fell the dog.

Verb Sub-Category #2

• Transitive Verbs (Vt): must be followed by an NP

• = they must take an object NP as a complement.

• VP Vt NP

• *VP Vt

• Examples: devour, defy, harm, invite

• Good: The children harmed the dog.

• Bad: *The children harmed.

• Good: The zombies devoured the vampires.

• Bad: *The zombies devoured.

Verb Sub-Category #3

• Ditransitive Verbs (Vdt): must be followed by two objects

• = either two NPs or a combination of {NP, PP}.

• VP Vdt NP NP

• *VP Vt

• Examples: give, sell, send, put

• Good: The boy gave the dog a bone.

• Bad: *?The boy gave the dog.

• Alternative: The students sold a chew toy to the professor.

A + N Sub-categories• Adjectives and nouns can have complement requirements, too--often for particular PPs:

Mary is fond of John.

*Mary is fond.

*Mary is fond by John.

• Some nouns require specific prepositional phrases:

George talked about our reliance on oil.

*George talked about our reliance.

*George talked about our reliance for oil.

• This information has to be included in the lexicon for each word.

Verb Sub-Category #4• Sentential Verbs (Vs):

• = include a sentence in their complement.

• Examples: know, believe, wonder, think…

• Marge thinks that [Homer ate the cake]IP.

• Don wondered whether [Sidney scored a goal]IP.

• Phoebe believed that [Chandler married Monika]IP.

• Gandalf knew if [Frodo had the ring]IP.

• Notice that the sentence in the VP complement is always preceded by a funny kind of word:

• that, whether, if…

Complementizer Phrases• New lexical category: complementizers (C).

• Ex: if, that, whether

• Complementizers function as the heads of complementizer phrases. (CPs)

• The complement of the CP is another IP (sentence).

• Ex: Marge thinks [that [Homer ate the cake]IP]CP.

• Matrix clause = highest-level sentence

• “Marge thinks…”

• Complement, or embedded clause = within the CP

• “Homer ate the cake.”

IP

NP I’

Marge I VP

[-past] V’ CP

V C’

thinks C IP

that NP I’

Homer I VP

[+past] V’

V NP

ate the cakeCP Example

matrix clause

embedded clause

Infinite Recursion, part 2• It is possible to create infinitely long sentences by embedding complementizer clauses within complementizer clauses…

• John said [that Mary thought [that Robin knew [that Angela hoped [that Quinton wished [that Bronwen believed that…]]]]]

• VP V CP V CP

• CP C IP V C IP

• IP NP VPV C NP VP

• VP V CP V C NP V CP

• etc.

Infinite Recursion, part 3• There is one other (very boring) way to produce inifinitely long sentences in language:

• I like baseball and basketball and hockey and football and soccer and rugby and cricket and ultimate and polo and lacrosse….

• Sentences like this take advantage of the syntactic phenomenon of coordination.

• Coordination combines phrases or words of the same type with a conjunction (and, but, or…)

• to create a phrase or word of the same type.

• General coordination rule: Xn Xn Con Xn

Coordination Examples• NP NP and NP

NP The fat man and the little boy

• VP VP or VP

VP fish or cut bait

• IP IP but IP

IP Ringo plays drums but Paul plays bass.

• Coordination of individual words works the same way:

• P P and P

• She went [[above]P and [beyond]P]P the call of duty.

Ambiguity• Coordination can lead to a very simple kind of structural ambiguity.

• I like green eggs and ham.

• Interpretation #1: just the eggs are green.

• I like [[green eggs]NP and [ham]NP]NP.

• Interpretation #2: both the eggs and ham are green.

• I like [green [[eggs]N’ and [ham]N’]NP.

• Let’s check out the trees…

Interpretation #1• Only the eggs are green:

IP

NP I’

Pro I VP

I [-past] V’

V NP

like NP Con NP

AP N’ and ham

green N

eggs

Interpretation #2• Both the eggs and ham are green:

IP

NP I’

Pro I VP

I [-past] V’

V NP

like AP N’

green N’ Con N’

N and N

eggs ham

Further Ambiguity• Let’s try another one:

• The police shot the terrorists with rifles.

• Why is this sentence ambiguous?

• (How can you describe the ambiguity, structurally?)

• Interpretation #1: the terrorists have rifles.

• [with rifles] is a PP embedded in the object NP.

• Interpretation #2: the police have rifles.

• [with rifles] is a PP that modifies the main VP.

• Let’s check out some more trees…

Interpretation #1IP

NP I’

the police I VP

[+past] V’

V NP

shot Det N’

the N PP

terrorists P’

P NP

with rifles

In this one, the terrorists have the rifles.

Interpretation #2IP

NP I’

the police I VP

[+past] V’ PP

V NP P’

shot Det N’ P NP

the N with rifles

terroristsIn this one, the police are using the rifles to shoot the terrorists.

The PP is a modifier of the VP here, not a complement.

= it’s not required by the verb.