The Nature of Language Tutorial 5

Syntax

Presentation Outline

Task 1: English Syntactic Structures

Task 2: Phrase Structure Rules for Ewe

Task 3: Evidence for Wh-Movement

Task 4: Wanna Contraction & Wh-Movement

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1Task 1: English Syntactic Structures

Nature of Language

Task 1

Phrase Structure Rules

1. S → NP VP 2. NP → (Det) (AdjP) N (PP)

3. VP → V (NP) (PP) (AdvP)

5. AdjP → (Deg)n Adjn 6. AdvP → (Deg)n Adv

4. PP → P (NP)

Task 1

Mother

Sisters

Syntactic Constituency

1. Movability Test- In my class, there was this student

2. Replacement Test- This student there

Task 1

a. Under the bridge4. PP → P (NP)

Task 1

b. Fell into the pond3. VP → V (NP) (PP) (AdvP)

Task 1

c. The silly picture of Ai

4. PP → P (NP)

5. AdjP → (Deg)n Adjn

2. NP → (Det) (AdjP) N (PP)

Task 1

d. Pat loves Robin passionately3. VP → V (NP) (PP) (AdvP)S

NP VP

NPN AdvP

Pat

V

loves AdvN

Robin Passionately

6. AdvP → (Deg)n Adv

Task 1

e. Robin talked to the manager over the phone

4. PP → P (NP)

2. NP → (Det) (AdjP) N (PP)

3. VP → V (NP) (PP) (AdvP)

1. S → NP VP

e. Robin talked to the manager over the phone

e. Robin talked to the manager over the phone

The ManagerRobinTask 1

e. Robin talked to the manager over the phone

The Manager RobinTask 1

Task 1

e. Robin talked to the manager over the phone

4. PP → P (NP)

2. NP → (Det) (AdjP) N (PP)

3. VP → V (NP) (PP) (AdvP)

1. S → NP VP

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2Task 2: Phrase Structure Rules for Ewe

Nature of Language

Ewe Phrase Structure Rules

Task 2

1. S → NP VP 2. N {oge, ika, amu}

3. NP N (Det) 4. Det ye

5. VP V NP 6. V {xa, vo}

(1) Oge xa ika ✓

Task 2

1. S → NP VP

3. NP N (Det)

5. VP V NP

(2) Ye amu vo oge ✗

Task 2

1. S → NP VP

3. NP N (Det)

5. VP V NP

(3) Ika oge xa ye ✗

Task 2

1. S → NP VP

5. VP V NP

(4) Oge ye vo ika ye ✓

Task 2

1. S → NP VP

3. NP N (Det)

5. VP V NP

(5) Amu xa oge ✓

Task 2

1. S → NP VP

3. NP N (Det)

5. VP V NP

(6) Vo oge ika ✗

Task 2

1. S → NP VP

3. NP N (Det)

5. VP V NP

(7) Amu ye vo ika ✓

Task 2

1. S → NP VP

3. NP N (Det)

5. VP V NP

(8) Ye ika xa ye oge ✗

Task 2

1. S → NP VP

3. NP N (Det)

5. VP V NP

(9) Xa amu ye ✗

Task 2

1. S → NP VP

3. NP N (Det)

5. VP V NP

(10) Oge ye xa amu ✓

Task 2

1. S → NP VP

3. NP N (Det)

5. VP V NP

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3Task 3: Evidence for Wh-Movement

Nature of Language

Question 3

Task 3

Consider the following sentence: Where has John put the car?

How can the following data be used to argue that where originated to the right of the car in the underlying structure (i.e., John put the car where?) and was moved to sentence-initial position in the surface structure?

WHERE

Data

Task 3

a) John has put the car in the garage. b) * John has put. c) * John has put the car. d) * John has put in the garage. e) * Where has John put the car in the garage?

ObservationSentences Observations from 5 sentences

a) John has put the car in the garage. b) * John has put. c) * John has put the car. d) * John has put in the garage. e) * Where has John put the car in the

garage? f) Where has John put the car?

1. Sentence contains at least one direct object and at least one actual location (eg. Garage)

2. Interrogative sentence contains at least one direct object and no actual location

How did the interrogative sentence come about?Solution: • The ‘where’ (wh- word) started as an actual location and moved

away.• The observations can be justified if the Wh-movement ( and

Subject-Auxiliary inversion) has occurred

Subject-Auxiliary Inversion

Where has John put the car ?

Has John put the car where

John has put the car whereJohn has put the car in the garage .

Indicator of locationWh-movement

Auxiliary-Subject inversion

Task 3

WHERE HAS

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4Task 4: Wanna Contraction & Wh-Movement

Nature of Language

Yosuke’s Quiz this week!

Bonus Question

The sentence below is actually grammatical. Can you explain why? What is the meaning of this sentence? Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.

Simplified parse treePN = proper nounN = nounV = verbNP = noun phraseRC = relative clauseVP = verb phraseS = sentence

Buffalo (PN): the city of Buffalo, New YorkBuffalo (V): “to bully” Buffalo (N): the animal

Homonyms!

Buffalo buffalo (buffalo from Buffalo NY) [that] Buffalo buffalo buffalo ( that the buffalo from Buffalo NY bully) Buffalo buffalo buffalo (are bullying buffalo from Buffalo NY)

Sentences a,b,c (Can Wanna)

Task 4

You do want to visit Zechy. (Original Sentence)Do you want to visit Zechy? (Subj-Aux Inversion)Who do you want to visit? (WH-movement) (a)

You would want to go out with Zechy. (Original Sentence)Would you want to visit Zechy? (Subj-Aux Inversion)Who would you want to go out with? (WH-movement) (b)

You do want to invite six of your friends to the wedding. (Original Sentence)Do you want to invite six of your friends to the wedding? (Subj-Aux Inversion)How many of your friends do you want to invite to the wedding? (WH-movement) (C)

Sentences d,e,f (Can’t Wanna)

Task 4

You do want Yosuke to win the game. (Original Sentence)Do you want Yosuke to win the game? (Subj-Aux Inversion)Who do you want to win the game? (WH-movement) (d)

You would want Yosuke to look after your pets. (Original Sentence)Would you want Yosuke to look after your pets. (Subj-Aux Inversion)Who would you want to look after your pets? (WH-movement) (e)

You do want six of your friends to stay with us. (Original Sentence)Do you want six of your friends to stay with us. (Subj-Aux Inversion)How many of your friends do you want to stay with us? (WH-movement) (f)

Wanna Contraction and WH-movement

Task 4

• In English, “want to” can be contracted to “wanna”, but not in all situations.

• The original sentences in Task 4 are all formed via Subj-Aux inversion and WH-movement.

• Wanna contraction CANNOT take place if the object or subject being MOVED is extracted from the position between “want” and “to”

Heading

Task 4