Syntax and Pragmatics

Chs. 5 and 8
Definition of Syntax
Syntax studies the
organization of words into
phrases and of phrases
into sentences, including
the rules that dictate such
formation
Units: words and
phrases (constituents)
Words are referred to as
lexical categories, and
phrases as phrasal
categories
Lexical categories
include nouns, verbs,
adjectives, adverbs,
adpositions, determiners
Phrasal categories
include noun phrases,
verb phrases, adjective
phrases, adverb phrases,
adpositional phrases,
determiner phrases, and
sentences
Approaches to Grammar
Functionalist
Grammatical structure is
strongly influenced by
context
Context strongly influences
meaning of grammatical
structure
Meaning of grammatical
structures (constructions)
develops along a
continuum, from frozen
idioms to more flexible
constructions (templates)
Continuum of varying
degrees of compositionality
of meaning
Formalist
Grammatical structure is
independent of context
Context does not influence
meaning of grammatical
structure
Meaning of grammatical
structures is the result of
componentiality: the sum of
the parts
Compositionality
Much of meaning is
compositional: it results
from the adding up or
relating the meanings of
morphemes and words
within their phrases, and
adding up or relating the
phrases, phrase by
phrase, until you arrive at
the meaning of a
sentence
Example:
the river
by the river
the pond by the river
in the pond by theriver
beavers
beavers in the pond by
the river
with gusto
tasty fish
eat tasty fish with gusto
beavers in the pond by
the river eat tasty fish
with gusto
Compositionality
Linear compositionality:
Meaning of a sentence is
the sum of its parts
Previous slide has example
Also: A guy who wants to
talk to you is at the door
Non-linear
compositionality:
Discontinuous constituents
breakup linear accretion of
meaning
E.g. A guy is at the door
who wants to speak to you
This is a case of
extraposition: a relative
clause is extraposed or
moved outside of the noun
phrase it modifies
Also wh-fronting
Non-compositionality
However, some meaning
is non-compositional:
idioms, linguistic
expressions that are
syntactically and/or
semantically idiosyncratic
in various ways
Examples:
All of a sudden
In point of fact
Kith and kin
Tickle the ivories
While some idioms are
frozen, others are more
like templates into which
a variety of words can be
applied:
The X-er, the Y-er (e.g. the
longer you practice, the
better youll become)
Nth cousing (M times
removed) (e.g. second
cousin, three times
removed)
Pull NPs leg (e.g. Dont
pull my/his/her leg)
Compositional-Non-
Compositional Continuum
Some linguists see
the difference
between
compositional and
non-compositional
meaning as a matter
of degree

Words/lexicon: this,
green
Syntactic categories:
Determiner, Adjective,
Verb, Noun
Morphology: Noun-s,
Verb-s/-ed
Idioms: all of a sudden,
pull-s/-ed NP-s leg,
Syntax: SBJ be-TENSE
VERB-en (by OBL)
passive sentence
Reference and Predication
Referring expressions
(referents):
Entities (people,
places, things, ideas,
events)
Noun Phrases
E.g. Judge Judy has a
daughter
Predicative
expressions
(predicates):
What is said about
entities
Verb Phrases
E.g. Judge Judy has a
daughter
Sentence
A sentence typically
consists of a verb
phrase (predicate)
and a noun phrase
(referring expression)
A simple noun
phrase-verb phrase
sentence is called a
clause (one referent,
one predicate)

Clauses then are
formed of phrases,
also called
constituents:
Structural units
relevant to the
organization of
phrases and clauses
Clues to Constituency
Grammaticality of possible
strings of words
Harry liked Peeves
A: Harry liked is not a
constituent
B: liked Peeves is a
constituent
Grammaticality of word order
rearrangements (movements)
The farmer saw the
poltergeist
The poltergeist, the farmer
saw it
Poltergeist, the farmer saw
the
The, the farmer saw
poltergeist
Substitution by pro-forms (e.g.
pronouns, proverbs,
proadjectives, proadverbs)
He liked Peeves: Harry
substituted by He, a pronoun
He did: Liked Peeves substituted
by did, a pronoun (e.g. Did he
like Peeves? Yes, he did).
Structural ambiguity:
He sold the car [to his brother [in
New York] ]
Paraphrase: It was to his brother
in New York that he sold the car
He sold the car [to his brother]
[in New York]
Paraphrase: In New York he
sold the car to his brother
Linear Ordering
Phrase structure behaves
according to linear order
and hierarchical order
principles
For example:
John glanced at Mary
Mary glanced at John

Both sentences have
Subject (Doer)-Verb-
Object (Patient) word
order
In English, the subject
role (doer) comes before
the verb, and the object
role (patient) comes after
the verb; thus, relative
linear order of the two
with respect to the verb
matters!
Hierarchical Structure
In addition, sentences are
made up of groupings of
words into semantically
coherent groupings, or
constituents, which make
up phrases
For example:
We need more intelligent
leaders
Has two meanings, each
one based on a different
grouping of words
Structural ambiguity tells
us that a single phrase
(more intelligent leaders)
can have different internal
structures
We need more intelligent leaders
We need more intelligent leaders
Structural Ambiguity
Practice 1
Figure out what the alternative groupings
are for each of the following structurally
ambiguous phrases
I like to eat nutritious foods and drinks
Do you want to try on that dress in the
window?
I saw an alien with a telescope
Practice 2
Apply whatever
constituency test works
best to the following
sentences and answer
whether the underlined
phrases are constituents
or not:
The clouds rolled across
the sky
My uncle crashed our
new car
Some students hate
computers
The bride and groom ran
out of the church
The men wept
Michael suspects his wife
had an affair
Major Constituents of a Sentence
Verb Phrase
Harry liked Peeves
Siubhan goes to the
store
The giant sleeps
Noun Phrase
Prepositional Phrase
Adjective Phrase
Adverb Phrase
Every phrase has a
head
In a VP a verb is the
head
In an NP a noun is
the head
In an AP an adjective
In a AdvP an adverb
In a PP a preposition
Syntactic Functions or Categories
Lexical:
Content: Noun (N), Verb (V),
Adjective (A), Adverb (Adv)
Functional: Preposition (P),
Determiner (Det), Auxiliary
(Aux), Degree word (Deg)
(handout)
Lexical categories are
determined by meaning,
distribution of inflectional
affixes, and their context
within phrases (handout)
Phrasal
Each type of lexical category
can make up the head of a
phrase
A noun (N) makes up a noun
phrase (NP)
A head of a phrase can take
modifiers:
A specifier (Spec): the book,
quite hungry, will go; sister of
XP
A complement (Comp): an
entity implied by the meaning
of the head of the phrase;
sister of X
the hamburger in (The
customer) may eat the
hamburger [thing eaten]
the house in Almost in the
house [location]
An adjunct (Adjunct): sister
of N
Lexical Categories
Lexical categories can be defined by:
semantics (e.g. objects = nouns, properties =
adjectives, actions = verbs)
affixational distribution (e.g. nouns do not take ed,
but the do take s plural; verbs are the exact
opposite; only adjectives take comparative er and
superlative est)
combinatorial distribution (e.g. nouns can be
preceded by the, but not by the auxiliary will; verbs
can be preceded by the auxiliary will, but not by the)

Verb and Noun Phrases
NP VP
Alex Disappeared ___
0
Bobs nephew spilled the potion
1
That nerd with the stud
ring who came by the
other day when you
were asleep
won the bike
1
in a
contest
2
over by the lake
Active and Passive Sentences
A1: Zelda auctioned
the famous wooden
spoon
A2: The famous
wooden spoon was
auctioned by Zelda
A3: The famous
wooden spoon was
auctioned
A4: Famous wooden
spoon auctioned
(Hierarchical) Structure
Dependency
Much of grammatical structure depends on
hierarchical relations, not merely linear
order
Active: The judge fined an old plumber from
Pasadena
Passive1: Old plumber from Pasadena
judge was fined an by the
Passive2: An old plumber from Pasadena
was fined by the judge
Phrase Structure Rules
NP (Det) (AdjP) N (PP)
VP (Aux) V (NP) (NP) (PP)
PP (Deg) P (NP)
AP (Deg) Adj (PP)
Adv (Deg) Adj
S NP VP
S S CONJ S

Deg, Det, Aux = SPECIFIERS
Adv = adverb
Adj = adjective
Generalizing
XP (SPECIFIER) (COMPLEMENT) X (COMPLEMENT)
XP XP CONJ XP

XP (SPECIFIER) (COMPLEMENT) X (COMPLEMENT)
NP Det AdjP N PP
VP Aux AdvP V NP NP PP
AdjP Deg AdvP A PP
PP Deg P NP
Lexical Categories:
Inflection and Combination
Phrasal Categories
Tree Diagrams
Tree diagrams
represent:
Linear word order
Hierarchical structure
Constituent groupings
Syntactic Functions
or Categories
Lexical categories
Phrasal categories
Grammatical relations
The same
information can be
represented with
brackets, []
I ate the chocolate
[
S
[
NP=SJ
I] [
VP
[
V
ate] [
NP=DO
the chocolate]]]
VP
NP = DO
N Det
V
PRO
NP =
Subject
S
Tree Diagrams
Node S dominates (is
above) all the other
nodes
Node S directly
dominates nodes NP
1

and VP
1
Nodes NP
1
and VP
1
are
the offspring of S
Nodes Det
1
, N
1
are
siblings
I ate the chocolate
VP
1
N Det
V
PRO
NP
1
=
Subject
S
NP
2
= DO
Phrasal Modifiers I: Specifiers
Practice 3
Draw tree diagrams for
the following phrases and
label all the nodes of
each tree:
those mugs
these plates
extremely tall
somewhat short
almost under
not-quite over
should bathe
will bathe
Now, for two of the
phrases, use the
bracket convention to
show their structure
Phrasal Modifiers II:
Complements
Practice 4
Draw tree diagrams for
the following phrases and
label all the nodes of
each tree:
the story about the hobbit
very confident about my
results
might destroy the comet
almost under the table
the bone with tooth marks
Now, for two of the
phrases, use the
bracket convention to
show their structure
Variation: Head is Obligatory
Generalization: XP Rule
NPs, VPs,
APs, and PPs
have same
structure!
Sentence Structure
Practice 5
Draw tree diagrams for each of the
following sentences:
Sue put on her hat
Sue put her hat on
Sue put her hat with red flowers on
He threw the book away
A rather large dog left a bone on the carpet
More Structure Still
do so functions as a pro-form here; it substitutes for the part of a VP
that does not include the auxiliary, only the verb and its complement
one functions as a pro-form here; it substitutes for the part of an NP
that does not include the determiner this, only the noun and its
complement
An Intermediate Level: X-Bar
V is intermediate between VP and V
nodes
N is intermediate between NP and N
nodes
X-Bar and Pro-Form
Substitution
Pro-form substitution is
usually the best way to see
the X-Bar structure of
language
Example:
I know this [readheaded
student] better than that
[one]
**I know [this readheaded
student] better than [one]
one substitutes for
readheaded student, not
this readheaded student
In other words:
[the [readheaded
[student]
N
]
N
]
NP
Another Example
We sold the box of crackers
with the green label
**We sold the box with the
green label of crackers
Here of crackers is more
closely related to the box
than with the green label
is:
[NP [DET the [N' [N box]
[PP of crackers]] [PP with
the green label]]]
But note this is not true of:
The man from Paris with
grey hair
The man with grey hair from
Paris
Why?
(Generalization: X-Bar Levels)
Thus, it is time for more
generalizing:
(Multiple X-Bar Levels and
Modifiers)
An adjunct is a modifier that
is higher up in the hierarchy
(closer to the NP node) than
the complement modifier,
which is closer to the N node
Specifier: directly under XP
Adjunct: directly under first
X below XP
Complement: immediately
above X
Complements and
Subcategorization
The verb put normally
requires
(subcategorizes for)
two complements: an
NP (direct object) and a
PP (location/target)
Subcategorization
Some verbs are not very strict in their
subcategorization scheme:
After getting home, they ate (the sandwiches)
Others are very picky:
**After getting home, they devoured
After getting home, they devoured the
sandwiches
Devour requires a complement
Complements
More Complements
And Coordination
Conjunctions can coordinate like constitutents
with one another
English generally uses conjunctions for this
purpose: and, or, but, neither nor, either or
More Rules:
Adjuncts, Complements,
Coordination
The asterisk means
that there may be
more than one
constituent before
the conjunction
Practice 6
Draw tree diagrams for the following
sentences:
You say goodbye and I say hello
The answer soon became apparent to the
student
We dashed across the field

Recursion
Sentences within
sentences:
[I said [I know]]
[I know [I said [I know]]]
[[I said it] and [I believe it]]
Noun phrases within
noun phrases:
[three coins in [the
fountain]]
[[dear hearts] and [gentle
people]]
Verb phrases within verb
phrases:
[likes to [play games]]
[[stop completely] and [look
both ways]]
Prepositional phrases
within noun phrases
within prepositional
phrases
[for [a vacation [in [the
month [of [May]
NP
]
PP
]
NP
]
PP
]
NP
]
PP
Transformations
A transformation is an operation that moves
a lexical or phrasal category (e.g. N, NP, V,
VP) from one location to another within a
structure
Consider the sentences:
Some linguists argue that the sentences
above are related: that they all stem from (are
surface structures of) the same basic,
underlying structure
Movement
Thus, if we look at
sentence 11a, and
we assume
movement of the
tensed verb (has)
has taken place,
resulting in
inflection
movement, and
also movement of
the wh-interrogative
(as a type of pro-
form) from the NP
position dominated
by the VP
Movement
We can arrive derive
one sentence from
another through
simple movement
operations based on
the same underlying
structure:
I-Movement
Wh-Movement
Both 11a and 12a are
accounted for by
single process, and
this proposal upholds
observation that
conceal can take only
one NP complement
Other types of movement: NP-
Movement
Grammaticalization
Free morphemes can
undergo semantic
shift as a result of
innovative uses in a
given syntactic
context; over time,
such morphemes can
become bound
morphemes
Examples:
English will future
auxiliary < want
French est-ce que
question marker < Is
it that?
Finnish rinna chest;
postposition < chest
-ful of spoonful (< I
need a spoon full of
nutmeg)
Grammaticalization
Meillet: the attribution of
a grammatical character
to a formerly independent
word
Grammaticalization
theory is a very active
subfield of linguistics
these days
English will:
originally meant to want (e.g.
have the will, if you will, good
will)
became semantically
bleached (lost its sense of
want) and was
grammaticalized as a future
marker (content > function)
now it is contracted often, as
in Ill, Hell, Shell, etc.
Grammaticalization: Major Traits
Objects of
investigation
Changes from
content/lexical item to
functional/grammatical
item (often from free to
bound form)
Changes from
discourse structure to
morphosyntactic
(case) marking
Associated semantic
and morpho-
phonological
processes
Semantic bleaching
Phonological reduction
Loss of morphemic
independence (free
morpheme > clitic >
affix)
Typical Grammaticalization Changes
Auxiliary < main verb
English will future auxiliary
< will to want
Aspect marker < main
verb
Habitual < to live, stay,
go, sit, use
Terminative < to finish
Progressive/habitual <
keep, do, copula,
positional verb (e.g. stay,
sit)
Aspect marker <
adverb/adjective
Habitual < long
Case suffixes <
postpositions
Adpositions < (locative +)
body parts
Ahead < at + head
Abreast < at + breast
Behind < by + hind