syntax ii
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Syntax II. “I really do not know that anything has ever been more exciting than diagramming sentences.” --Gertrude Stein. Quick Review. Syntax: the study of how words are put together to form sentences and phrases. These rules operate on lexical categories… - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
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Syntax II
“I really do not know that anything has ever been more exciting than diagramming sentences.”
--Gertrude Stein
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Quick Review• Syntax: the study of how words are put together to form sentences and phrases.
• These rules operate on lexical categories…
• independently of the meaning of the words.
• Lexical categories can be defined by:
• the syntactic distribution of words
• the types of inflectional affixes which may attach to them
• Lexical categories (noun, verb, adjective, preposition, etc.) were used to make the old game “Mad Libs” work.
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The Last Quick Write• Mad Libs!
• The following sentence is both grammatical and (somewhat) sensible:
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Colorless Green Libs?• These sentences are grammatical but don’t make that much sense:
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Bad Libs.• The following sentences are not grammatical.
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Bad Libs.• The following sentences are not grammatical.
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Artsy Libs.• Some of you were quite enthusiastic about the exercise.
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How does this work?• We know that words of different lexical categories have to fit together with the words in their environment to make a sentence grammatical.
• A first hypothesis--the rules for putting sentences together string one word category after another:
S Det N V Det N
( = “may consist of”)
The child found a puppy.
S Det A N V P Det N
The slithy toves gimbled in the wabe.
• These syntactic rules capture patterns of words.
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Important Data• What’s going on in these sentences?
1. We need more intelligent leaders.
2. I like green eggs and ham.
3. The police shot the terrorists with rifles.
• Syntax also puts words together in units that are smaller than sentences.
• These units are called phrases.
• Same string of words, more than one interpretation =
• more than one phrase structure
• structural ambiguity
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Ambiguity (again)• In order to represent phrase structure, we will use tree diagrams.
more intelligent leaders
more intelligent leaders
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Phrases
• The nodes in a syntactic tree above the word level represent phrases.
• phrase = string of words that function as a unit
• Basic phrase types:
1. Noun Phrases (NP): [intelligent leaders]
2. Verb Phrases (VP): [shoot terrorists]
3. Prepositional Phrases (PP): [with rifles]
4. Adjective Phrases (AP): [more intelligent]
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Phrase Phacts• Every phrase has to have at least one constituent
• This constituent is called the head of the phrase.
• The head determines the phrase’s function, behavior and category.
• For example, noun phrases have to consist of at least one noun.
Robin the book
a picture of Robin a picture of the unicorn
that weird picture of Bob’s unicorn
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In General• There’s a pattern to how these things work:
• Noun phrases (NPs) are headed by nouns
• NP N
• Verb phrases (VPs) are headed by verbs
• VP V
• Prepositional phrases (PPs) are headed by prepositions
• PP P
• Adjective phrases (APs) are headed by adjectives
• AP A
• Basic Phrase Structure Rule: XP X
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More About Phrases• Beyond the heads, phrases can be expanded with
specifiers and complements.
• Specifiers precede the head of the phrase;
• they pick out a particular version of the head.
• Examples:
1. this book (Determiner specifying noun)
2. very late (Degree word specifying adjective)
3. often forgets (Adverb specifying verb)
4. almost in (Degree word specifying preposition)
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Complements• Complements always follow the head of the phrase…
• And provide more information about that head.
1. this book about unicorns
• PP complement of the head of the NP.
2. very late to class
• PP complement of the head of the AP.
3. often forgets his hat
• NP complement of the head of the VP.
4. almost in the basket
• NP complement of the head of the PP.
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X-Bar Theory• Together, heads and their complements form a phrasal structure known X’ (“X-bar”).
• Here’s the way phrases (of all kinds) normally break down:
XP
(Specifier) X’
X (Complement)
Head
• note: heads are the only obligatory element in the phrase
• optional stuff is in parentheses
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Tests for Phrase Structure• There are some tests you can use to figure out if a
group of words constitutes a phrase.
1. Substitution
• Phrases (and only phrases) can be substituted for by shorter expressions.
• Ex: Pronouns can be substitutes for NPs.
• The coach wanted a picture of the book.
• She wanted a picture of the book. (= the coach)
• The coach wanted it. (= a picture of the book)
• The coach wanted a picture of it. (= the book)
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Tests for Phrase Structure• VPs can be substituted with the phrase “do so”.
• Ex: The coach dropped the ball, and the professor did so, as well. (= dropped the ball)
• PPs can be substituted with “there”.
• The children waited at the corner, and we waited there, too. (= at the corner)
• Substitutions do not work for non-constituents (or the wrong constituents):
• *The coach dropped the ball, and the did so, too.
• *The children waited at the corner, and we waited at there, too.
• *The coach dropped the it.
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Tests for Phrase Structure2. Movement: sometimes, constituents can be moved to
another part of the sentence.
• NP movement: He hated the Jedi Knights.
• The Jedi Knights, he hated.
• Bad examples:
• *Jedi Knights, he hated the.
• *The Jedi, he hated Knights.
• VP movement:
• Hate the Jedi Knights, he did.
• PP movement: We ran up the hill.
• Up the hill, we ran.
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Tests for Phrase Structure3. Coordination
• Conjunctions like {and, but, or} coordinate phrases of the same type.
• NP-coordination:
• I like [romantic sunsets] and [long walks on the beach].
• PP: We went [over the river] and [through the woods].
• VP: They want to [eat pizza] or [play video games].
• AP: The blizzard was [very intense] but [surprisingly short].
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Tests for Phrase Structure3. Coordination
• Conjunctions like {and, but, or} coordinate phrases of the same type.
• Coordination of unlike phrases can sound quite bad:
• NP + AP: *I like [romantic sunsets] and [surprisingly short].
• PP + VP: *We went [over the river] and [play video games].
• VP + NP: *They want to [eat pizza] or [long walks on the beach].
• AP + PP: *The blizzard was [very intense] but [through the woods].
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Example Tree
NP
Det N’
the N
book
How about: “a picture of the book?”
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NP
Det N’
a N PP
picture P NP
of Det N’
the N
book
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More Example Trees• Let’s draw trees for the following phrases:
• VP: often forgets his hat
• PP: almost in the basket
• AP: very late to class
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A VP Example
VP
Adv V’
often V NP
forgets Det N’
his N
hat
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An AP Example
AP
Deg A’
very A PP
late P NP
to N’
N
class
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Check This Out1. A phrase structure rule for NPs looks like:
• NP Det N’
2. And a PP can be a complement of a head noun:
• N’ N PP
3. And an NP can be a complement of a prepositional phrase:
• PP (Deg) P’
• P’ P NP
• Where can this combination of rules take us?
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Whoa, Nellie• There is a possibility for infinite recursion.
• NP Det N PP
• NP Det N P NP
• NP Det N P Det N PP
• NP Det N P Det N P NP
• NP Det N P Det N P Det N PP, etc.
• Example: the book from the library in the city near the airport beside the apartment complex with the playground of the children from the school behind the train tracks...
• The fact that our grammar can generate phrases like this is why we need to know patterns of patterns.