Sentence Patterns in Language: A Guide by Prof. Dr. Nalan Kiziltan
The Sentence Patterns of Language
Prof. Dr. Nalan KIZILTAN
The
language
is
the
set of
sentences
that are described by
the grammer. The grammer ‘’generates’’
the sentences it
describes and their
structural
descriptions
. Chomsky(1957)
Knowing a language includes the ability to put words
together to form phrases and sentences that express our
thoughts. That part of the grammer that represents a
speaker’s knowledge of the structure of phrases and
sentences is called Syntax.
Sequences of words that conform to the rules of syntax
are well formed or grammatical.
Sequences of words that violate
t
h
e
syntactic rules are
ungrammatical.
There are two basic principles of sentence organization:
Linear Order
Hierarchical Structure
LINEAR ORDER
The words in a sentence must occur in a particular sequence
if the sentence is to convey the desired meaning.
1)
John glanced at Mary.
2)
Mary John at glanced.
3)
Mary glanced at John. (the meaning is completely
different from that of (1).
HIERARCHICAL STRUCTURE
The individual words in a sentence are organized into
natural, semantically coherent groupings which are
themselves organized into larger groupings. These
groupings within a sentence are called constituents of that
sentence. The relationships between constituents in a
sentence form the constituent structure of the sentence.
4)
Many executives eat at really fancy restaurants.
Many executives
Eat at really fancy restaurants.
These are constituents
Have meaning of their own.
And each makes a coherent
contribution to the meaning of
(4) as a whole.
Constituent Tests
1) Ability to stand alone
Constituents can be used alone as exclamations or as
answers to questions.
5) What do many executives do?
Eat at really fancy restaurants.
2) Substitution by a pro-form
A constituant can be replaced by a single word having the
same meaning. Pronouns are one type of pro-fo
r
m
;
such as
do, be, have
;
pro-adverbs such as there and then
;
as well as
a pro-adjectives.
6) They eat at really fancy restaurants
-
Who eats at really fancy restaurants?
7) Many executives do.
3) Movement
If some part of a sentence can be moved around – usually
to the beginning or end of the sentence – it is a constituent.
8) At really fancy restaurants, many executives eat.
9) How fancy was it?
-
Really fancy
10) Who eats at really fancy restaurants?
Many executives eat at such restaurants.
11)
Many executives eat at really fancy restaurants.
In addition to the linear order of words in a sentence, a tree
diagram is another way of representing the hierarchical nature
of constituent structure. Branching structures in which each
constituent forms a “branch”
Many executives eat at really fancy restaurants.
m
any executives eat at really fancy restaurants.
m
any executives eat at really fancy restaurants.
at really fancy restaurants
really fancy restaurants
fancy restaurants
The child found the puppy
t
he child found the puppy
t
he child found the puppy
the
puppy
Ambiguity
In every human language we can find individual expressions
which have two or more distinct meanings.
12) Long raises miniature badgers and raccoons.
l
ong raises miniature badgers and raccoons.
raises 1 miniature badgers and raccoons.
miniature badgers and raccoons.
b
adgers
and raccoons.
2 miniature badgers and raccoons.
miniature badgers and raccoons.
miniature badgers
13)
We need more intelligent leaders
w
e
1 need more intelligent leaders
n
eed more intelligent leaders
more intelligent leaders
(A greater quantity of
intelligent leaders)
14)
more intelligent leaders
m
ore intelligent leaders
m
ore intelligent
(Leaders who are more intelligent)
Structural ambiguity can be explicitly accounted for by
multiple tree structures.
In (13)
Intelligent leaders
is a constituent: for this reason (13)
represents the interpretation
‘‘
a greater quantity of intelligent
leaders.
’’
In (14), however, more intelligent forms a
constituent: (14) therefore represents the meaning
‘‘
leaders
who are more intelligent.
’’
Although structural ambiguity is a very common kind of
ambiguity, it is not the only kind. Individual words are
sometimes ambiguous: for example,
‘‘
crane
’’
can refer to
either a kind of bird or to a large construction device. Because
words like crane have no internal constituent structure,
sentences containing such words clearly can`t be structurally
ambiguous. Instead, a sentence containing a word with more
than one meaning is said to be lexically ambiguous. Thus, both
meanings for (13)-(14) are represented with the same
constituent structure.
EXERCISES
0. Apply the constituent tests to determine if the underlined
expressions in the following sentences are constituents.
a.
Many retired workers
spend their time on relaxing hobbies.
b. Many retired workers spend their time
on relaxing hobbies
.
c. Many retired workers
spend their time
on relaxing hobbies.
1) Which of the underlined expressions in the following
sentences are constituents? Which are not? Why?
(Use the constituency tests mentioned before to show this
in each case.)
a. Marianne ate
the stale candy
.
b. Marianne
ate the stale candy
c. My little
brother snores.
d. My
little brother
snores.
2) Apply each of the constituency tests to the underlined
expressions and determine whether they are constituents.
a. The clouds rolled
across the sky.
b. My uncle crushed
our new car
c. Mattingly
hit the ball over the fence.
d. Some students hate computers.
e.
The ancient ruins of the temple
were covered by the earth.
f. The
women wept
.
g. Too many
noisy birds are
nesting on campus.
h. Joggers like to run
along the river.
i. The bride and groom ran out of
the church.
1
) T
he rules
of
syntax combine words into phrases
phrases into sentences
English
:
SUBJECT
-
VERB
-
OBJECT (SVO) language
Turkish
:
SUBJECT
-
OBJECT
-
VERB (SOV) language
2) Syntactic rules also specify other constraints that
sentences must adhere to.
a)
To find + NP = YES
* To find + ADV = NO
b) To sleep + ADV = YES
* To sleep + NP = NO
SYNTACTIC RULES
3) Syntactic rules show how words form groups in a
sentence
Syntactic rules show how they are hierarchically
arranged with respect to one another.
4) Syntactic rules reveal the grammatical relations
among the words of a sentence as well as their order and
hierarchical organization.
5) Syntactic rules explain how the grouping of words
relates to its meaning, such as when a sentence or phrase
is ambiguous.
6) The rules of syntax permit speakers to produce and
understand a limitless number of sentences never
produced are heard before – the creative aspect of
Linguistic knowledge.
A major goal of linguistics is to show clearly and
explicitly how syntactic rules account for this
knowledge.
A theory of grammar must provide a complete
characterization of what speakers implicitly know about
their knowledge.
WHAT GRAMMATICALITY IS NOT BASED ON
Grammaticality ≠ meaningfulness.
Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.
A verb crumpled the milk
Syntactically well formed
Semantically not acceptable=Nonsense
Grammaticality does not depend on the truth of
sentences. If it did, lying would be impossible.
The syntactic rules that permit us to produce,
understand, make grammaticality judgements are
unconscious rules. The grammar is a mental grammar,
different from the prescriptive one.
(7) S= NP + VP
John snored.
Everyone fled the volcano.
The major smoked a cigar.
A book lay on the table.
(8) NP= Det + N
the mayor
a book
every student
my python
(9) VP= V + NP
fled the volcano
smoked a cigar
imitated a flamingo
squeezed some fresh orange juice
We can represent these tree pieces of information in a
succinct way with the following three phrase structure
rules.
(10) S
NP VP
(11) NP
Det N
(12) VP
V NP
The arrow in these rules can be read as
‘
may consist of.
’
Thus rule (10) is just a concise way of saying
‘
a sentence
may consist of a noun phrase followed by a verb phrase
’;
similarly, rule (11) just says
‘
a noun phrase may consist of a
determiner followed by a noun.
’
Now, what does rule
(
12
)
say
?
Recall from File 52 that a syntactic category is a group of
constituents with different structures which share certain
properties. NP
’
s, for example, could be composed of
DET
+
N, as in
(
2
)
above, bur they may also have the following
structures
:
(
13
)
M
y uncle from
F
rance
A rule for this NP would look l
ike:
(
14
)
NP
NP PP
Rules
(
10
)
(
11
)
(
12
)
and
(
14
)
specify five ways in which
constituents can be combined to form larger, more
complex constituents. Some constituents, however, do not
result
from the combination of smaller constituents
;
instead,
they consist of a single word
.
F
or example, a noun
phrase may just consist of a proper name
(e.g.,
John,
P
aris
),
a plural noun
(
e
.
g
.,
elepha
nt
s
,
leaves
),
or a noun
referring to a su
b
stance
(
e
.
g.
,
cl
ay
,
gasoline
);
similarly
,
a
verb phrase may just consist of an intransitive verb such as
sneeze
,
die
,
vanish
,
or elapse
.
T
hese sorts of knowledge
can also be represented with PS rules
:
15 NP
N
16 VP
V
Phrasal Categories
A phrasal category
is a set of constituents which behave
the same or share the same functions and distribution
.
1)
Noun
P
hrase
(
NP
)
A
noun or a noun
+ other words
(
1
) ____________
ran through the park
.
a)
susan
e
)
some children
b)
students
f
)
a huge lovable bear
c)
you
g
)
my friend from turkey
d)
most dogs
h
)
the people that we interviewed
2) Verb
P
hrase
(VP)
a single verb or verb + other forms
verb + ADV
verb + N
P
+
PP
(prepositional
phrase)
(
2
)
J
ohn
________.
a)
saw a clown
b) i
s smart
c)
slept
d)
found the cake
e)
found the cake in the cupboard
3
A
djective
P
hrase a single adjective or as a constituent of
NP
s.
(
3
)
J
ohn is
____________.
a)
smart
b)
very intelligent
c)
as tall as his father
d)
smarter than the average bear
e)
certain to win
4
A
dverbial
P
hrase
A
dverb or as a constituent of V
P
s
and ADVPs.
(
4
)
J
ohn speaks
____________.
a)
fluently
b)
as fluent as a native
c)
almost certainly
5
P
repositional
P
hrase
preposition followed by a NP
.
a)
from Turkey
b)
at university
c)
through the park
d)
in the cupboard
6) Sentences
are often used by themselves
.
(
5
)
it is raining
.
I like apple pie
.
Phrase
S
tructure
T
rees
A diagram with syntactic category information
provided is called phrase structure tree
. T
his tree
shows that a sentence is both a linear string
o
f words
and hierarchical structure with phrases nested in
phrases.
Three aspects of speakers
’
syntactic knowledge of
sentence structure are disclosed in phrase structure
trees
:
1 the linear order of the words in the sentence
2 the groupings of words into syntactic categories
3 the hierarchical structure of the syntactic categories
Sentence
NP
VP
V
NP
(1)
The child found the puppy
S
NP VP
Det N Vt NP
Det N
t
he child found the puppy
(
2
)
my mother likes her cats
S
NP
VP
Det
N
Vt
NP
Det
N
m
y mother likes her cats
(3)
Many retired workers spend their time on relaxing
hobbies
.
S
NP
Det
ADJ
N
VP
Vt
NP
PP
Det
N
P
NP
ADJ
N
m
any retired workers spend their time on relaxing hobbies
(4) The boy saw the man with the telescope
S
the boy saw the man with the telescope
‘The boy used a telescope to see the man.’
NP
Det
N
V
P
Vt
NP
P
P
Det
N
P
NP
Det
N
(5) The boy saw the man with the telescope
S
the boy saw the man with the telescope
NP
Det
N
V
P
Vt
NP
P
P
Det
N
P
NP
Det
N
(6) The baby slept
S
the baby slept
NP
Det
N
V
P
Vit
(7) the girl with the feather on the ribbon on the brim.
NP
the girl with the feather on the ribbon on the brim
NP
Det
P
P
P
N
P
P
P
NP
Det
N
P
P
P
NP
N
Det
N
Det
One can repeat the number of NPs under PPs under NPs
without a limit
. This property of all human languages is
called recursion. (infinite recursion) (productivity)
The man fled from the posse.
S
the man fled from the posse.
NP
Det
N
V
P
PP
Vit
NP
P
Det
N
A girl laughed at the monkey.
S
a girl laughed at the monkey
NP
Det
N
V
P
PP
Vit
NP
P
Det
N
A large fierce black dog looked out the window.
S
a large fierce black dog looked out the window.
NP
Det
Adj
V
P
PP
Vt
NP
P
Det
N
Adj
Adj
N
The man in the kitchen drives a truck.
S
the man in the
kitchen
drives a truck.
NP
Det
N
V
P
NP
Vt
Det
N
NP
PP
NP
P
Det
N
Lexical Categories
Each word in a given language is not entirely different in
its behavior from all the other words in that language.
Instead,
a large number of words exhibit the same
properties
.
W
ords can be grouped into some
w
ord classes
based on the
ir
morphological and syntactic properties.
These
w
ord classes are called lexical categories, because
the lexicon is the list of all the words in a language (plus
various kinds of information, about those words.) For
example, one of the morphological properties of the
w
ord
book
is that it has a plural form
bo
o
ks
. All these words can
oc
c
ur in the following context:
(1) __________ + plural morpheme
.
The words that oc
c
ur in the morphological frame can also
oc
c
ur in the syntactic frames as in
(
2
)
and
(
3
)
:
(
2
)
DET
_________
(
3
)
DET ADJ
_________
Verbs
(
4
)_________
+ tense morpheme (sing-song; walk-walked)
(
5
)________ +
third person singular morpheme (I
walk,
he
walks)
(
6
)_________
+ progressive morpheme (I am walking)
(
7
)
AUX
__________
(may go)
(
8
)
(please)
___________
! ((please) leave!)
Adjectives
(9)_________ + er/est (taller, tallest)
(10) more/most+
_____(
more affectionate, most affectionate
)
(11) DET
____________
N (the unexpected guests)
(12)
L
inking verb
s__________
(looks sunny)
(13) ADV
___________
(amazingly perceptive)
Adverbs
(14) ADV (ADJ+ly) (happily, unexpectedly, skillfully)
(15)
________
ADJ
(
unusually nice)
__________
VERB or VERB PHRAS
E
(usually go)
__________
ADV (quite well)
Transformational Rules
The phrase structure rules characterize an infinite number
of different kinds of sentences; yet there remain many types
of common sentences not accounted for.
The boy is sleeping.
The boy can sleep
.
The boy will sleep
.
Words like is,
can,
will are in class of Auxiliary
V
erbs or
Auxiliary(AUX) which includes
be
and
have
as well as
may
,
might
,
would
,
could
and several other
s
. They are called
‘helping verbs’ or ‘modals’. They occur in such structures as
this one:
The boy is sleeping.
S
the boy is sleeping
NP
Art
N
V
P
Vi
AUX
The other sentences which include Auxiliaries:
Is
the boy sleeping? The interrogative or question sentences
Can
the boy sleep? are related to their ‘declarative’
Will
the boy sleep? counterparts in a simple way. In the
questions the AUX occurs at the beginning
of the sentence rather than after the subject NP.
The two sentences may be said to be transformationally related
or related by an operation called a
T
ransformation or
T
transformational
R
ule.
S
Is the boy sleeping
AUX
Det
N
V
P
V
NP
Wh-Question Transformation
(i)
P
lace the first auxiliary of the sentence to the left of the
subject NP
(i
i
)
(the first NP in the sentence).
Move the PROwh (e
.
g., what,
who,
where,
and how) to the
beginning of the sentence.
In general, transformations change sentences created by
phrase-structure rules into sentences with equivalent
meanings, but different structures. These changes are
accomplished by adding or deleting words, or rearranging
w
ord order.
Part (i) of the wh-question transformation tells us that
(
1
)
Mary can accomplish what?
Can be converted into
(
1a
) C
an Mary accomplish what?
Part
(
ii
)
of the transformation further co
n
verts this into
(
1b
)
what can Mary accomplish?
Linguists refer to the form of a sentence produced by phrase
structure rules alone as the
D
eep
S
tructure of a sentence, and
the form that the sentence has after one or more
transformations has applied as the
S
urface
S
tructure of the
sentence.
What can Mary accomplish?
S
what(x)
what can Mary accomplish?
PRO(wh)
NP
S
VP
AUX
Npr
Vt
NP
N(wh)
The boy who is sleeping was dreaming.
S
the boy who is sleeping was dreaming
AUX
NP
S’
V
P
V
NP
NP
Art
N
AUX
V
P
PRO
V
Was the boy who is sleeping dreaming?
S
Was the boy who is sleeping dreaming?
AUX
NP
S’
V
P
V
NP
NP
Art
N
AUX
V
P
PRO
V
The girl who loves John is pretty.
S
The girl who loves John is pretty.
Recursion
Recursion gives language its infinite aspect and accounts for much Linguistic
creativity.
NP
S’
V
P
V
NP
NP
Art
N
V
P
PRO
V
NP
ADJP
ADJ
You mean you didnt know that I knew she didn’t know you knew that!
S1
You mean you didnt know that I knew she didn’t know you knew that!
NP
S2
NP
Art
V
P
V
NP
V
P
V
S3
Comp
NP
V
P
V
S4
AUX
V
P
V
S5
NP
VP
V
NP
He believes that she loves the cat
He believes that she loves the cat
NP
S
NP
Art
V
P
PRO
S’
V
Comp
NP
S
V
P
V
PRO
N
SYNTAX:
LINEAR ORDER,
HIERARCHICAL STRUCTURE,
AND AMBIGUITY
While a dictionary of all the words in any human language (at a
given time) can be made, it is impossible to compile a dictionary
of all the sentences of a language; unlike words,
sentences are not
finite in number, and therefore sentences, unlike words, are not
learned individually. However, native speakers of a language seem
to get along amazingly well without such a dictionary for
sentences – they can use and understand sentences in their
language that they have not
previously encountered. Why is it
that we cannot always properly use or understand a
w
ord in our
language that we have not heard before, but can spontaneously
produce and understand new sentences? If what we learn is not
the sentences themselves,
what do we learn that enables us to
produce and understand an infinite number of sentences? This is
the question we will be concerned with as we consider syntax, the
study of the structure of phrases and sentences.
FILE 50
Though
we use sentences all the time
,
we
don’t
normally
think about how they are structured
.
H
owever
,
a little
consideration reveals
that the principles by which w
ords
are
organized in
to
sentences are
,
in fact
,
quite complex
.
I
n this
file
,
we will consider two basic principles of
sentence
organization
:
linear order and hierarchical structure
.
The most obvious principle of
sentence
organization is linear
order
;
the words
in a sentence must
occur
in a particular
sequence if the sentence is to
convey
the desired meaning
.
Co
nsider
,
for example
,
the following sentence of English
.
(1)
John
glanced
at Mary
.
If we
rearrange the words in the sentence
,
we either come up
with nonsense
,
as in
(
2
),
(
the
*
denotes an ungrammatical
expression
):
(2)
*
Mary John at glance
d.
or with a sentence whose meaning is distinctly different
from that of
(1) -
(3)
Mary
glanced
at John
.
LINEAR ORDER
C
learly
,
t
he
o
rdering of the
words
in sentences determines
,
in part
,
whether a sentence is grammatically or not
,
and
what the sentence means
.
O
ne of the many rules of English requires that the
grammatical subject of a sentence normally precedes the
main verb
, w
hich in turn normally precedes its direct object
;
thus,
s
he resembles him
is English
(
where she
i
s subject
and
him
is the object
),
but
resembles she him
and
she
him
resembles
are not
.
H
owever
,
an important fact about
rules of
word
order is that they are language
-
specific
--t
hat
is
,
languages
vary
in the ways in which they order words
.
HIERARCHICAL
S
TRUCTURE
Although linear
or
der
is an important principle of
sentence
organization
,
sentences our world than just ordered sequences
of words
;
they have internal hierarchical structure as well
.
T
hat
is
,
the individual words in a sentence are organized into
natural
,
semantically coherent groupings
,
which are
themselves organized into larger groupings
,
the largest
grouping of all being the sentence itself
(
and the smallest of all
being individual words
).
T
hese groupings within a sentence are
called
constituents
of that sentence
.
T
he relationships
between constituents in a sentence f
or
m the
constituent
structure
of the sentence
.
R
or example
,
consider the sentence in
(4).
(
4
)
Many
e
xecutives eat at really fancy restaurants
.
We can easily distinguish and number of meaningful groups
of words in this sentence
:
many e
xecutives
and
eat at really
fancy restaurants
,
for instance
,
clearly have meaning of their
own
,
and each
makes
a coherent
contribution to the
meaning of
(4)
as a whole
.
F
or these reasons
,
they are
constituents
of this sentence
.
O
n the other hand
,
some
groups of words in sentence
(4)
do
not naturally for
m
m
eaningful units
;
executive
s
eat at
and
eat at really
,
for
ex
ample
,
don't clearly have meanings of their own
. T
h
us,
th
ese
groups of w
ords
are not
constituents of (4).
Constituents
T
est
s
I
f
a constituent
is a semantically coherent group
,
then
,
of course
,
sentences are always constituents
,
as are the individual
words
within a sentence
.
I
n sentence
(4),
for instance
,
the largest
constituent is the sentence itself
;
the smallest
con
stitu
ent
s are the
individual
words
many
,
e
xecutives
,
eat
,
at
,
really
,
fancy
, and
restaurants
.
O
ther
constutiuent
s within a sentence are not always
so easy to identify
.
H
owever
,
there are a number of useful tests for
distinguishing constitue
nt
s
,
which are synthetic units
,
from
m
ere
string
s
of words,
which ar
en’t constituents,
and therefore do not
behave as a single unit
:
A
bility to
S
tand
A
lone
C
onstituents can often be sensibly used alone
,
for example as
exclamations or as answers to questions
:
(5) W
hat do m
any
e
xecutives do
?
E
at at really fancy restaurants
.
This isn't true of n
onconstituents:
if we were asked
‘‘D
o fancy
restaurants do much business
?’’
we couldn’t
sensibly answer
*’’(W
ell
),
executive
s
eat at
.’’
S
ubstitution by a Pro
-
Form
I
t
i
s often possible to replace a constituent with a single word
having the same meaning as that constituent
.
F
or example
,
if someone ask
ed
‘‘W
hat do many
e
xecutives do
?’’
we
could
answer either
with
sentence
(4)
or
with
sentence
(
6
)
in
which the constituent
many executive
s
is replaced with the
single word the
y
(
w
h
ich
,
in this context
,
would mean the
same thing as many
e
xecutives
). N
ot
e
that it is a certain
category of wor
d
which is used for the substitution test
,
namely
,
a pro
-word
or
(p
ro
-f
orm
).
P
ronoun
s
are
one
type of
p
ro
f
orm
(e.g.,
he
,
she
,
it
,
they
,
us,
her
,
and
that).
T
here are
pr
o-verbs
such as do
, be
and h
ave,
p
ro
-ad
verbs such as there
and then
,
as well as a pro
-ad
jective such
.
Y
ou may use this
p
roforms when attempting to determine
constituency.
(
6
)
They
eat at really fancy restaurants
.
S
im
ilarly,
if someone
asked
‘‘W
ho eats a
t
really fancy
restaurants
?’’
w
e could answer either with
(4)
or with
(7),
in
which the constituent eat at
really
f
ancy
restaurants is
replaced with the single word
do (
which would mean the
same thing in this context
)
(
7
)
M
any
e
xecutives
do.
B
ut there is no wor
d
that could possibly
re
place
nonconstituent eat at really in (4)
and mean the same thing
,
no matter what the question was asked
.
Movement
If
some part of a sentence can be moved around
-
usually to
the beginning or the end of the sentence
-
it is a constituent
.
F
or example
,
one
could say
:
(8)
At
really fancy restaurants
,
many
e
xecutives eat
.
I
t may sound a bit stil
ted,
but it sounds grammatical to many
English speakers in the right context
.
T
h
us,
at
real
ly
fa
ncy
restaurants must be a constituent because it can be moved
to the front of the sentence
.
C
ompare this with
:
(9) *f
ancy restaurants many
e
xecutives at really
.
T
his is not grammatical
:
fancy restaurants is not a
constituent in this sentence according to the movement test
since it cannot be moved
.
Other
I
ssues
C
oncerning
Co
nstituents
T
wo points must be kept in mind regarding
constituents.
First,
given a
group of words
,
we cannot say once and for all
whether or not it is a constituent
;
rather
,
we can only say
whether or not it is
a
co
nstituent
relat
ive
to a particular
sentence
.
T
o illustrate this
,
consider sentence
(9)
and
(10).
(10) John
and Bill
raise
weasels.
(
11
)
Mary s
aw
John and Bill talk
ed
to J
ane.
I
n
(10)
John
and Bill is a constituent:
i
t functions
as a
coherent
,
meaningful unit within the sentence
-
in
particular
,
as its subject
.
I
n
(
11
),
however
,
the very same
sequence of w
ords
is not a constituent
:
because John is the
direct object of the
f
irst cl
ause
and Bill is the subject of the
second cl
au
se
,
the seque
nce
John and Bill does not make a
coherent contribution to the meaning of th
is
sentence
.
W
e
can apply the
c
onstitu
ent
tests to verify this claim
.
F
or
example
,
al
though
John and
Bill
can be replaced with they in
(10),
this is
n’t
impossible in sentence
(
11
).
Thus,
we can
properly say that a string of words is a constituent only with
respect to a particular sentence
.
The
second
thin
g
that must be kept in mind is that
constituent
structure is hierarchical
-
that is
,
one constituent
may
be part of another
.
W
hat this means
,
in turn
,
is that
sentences are composed of
p
arts which has been grouped
together before they are grouped into the sentence
.
C
onsider
sentence
(4)
again
.
(4)
ma
ny
executive
s
eat at really fancy restaurants
.
Among the
constituents
in this sentence is the sequence
really fancy
.
T
o see this
,
not
e
that really fancy can be used by
itself
:
(
12
)
H
ow fancy was it
? -
R
eally fancy
.
and that it can be replaced with the single word s
uch:
(
13
)
W
ho eats at really fancy restaurants
?
Mant
executives
eat at such restaurants
.
But really fancy is also part of a larger constitu
ent,
namely
really fancy restaurants
;
this in turn is part of a larger
constituent
,
at really fast restaurants
,
which is itself part of
the still
large
r
constituent
eat at really fa
ncy
restaurants and
ultimately the largest constituen
t
in the sentence
,
namely
the sentence itself
.
I
f
we
underline each of the
constituents
in
(4),
the hierarchical nature of its c
onstituent
structure is
easier to
see:
(
1
4
)
Many executives eat at really fancy restaurants.
Underlining is
,
a
s in
(
14
),
on
way of
presenting the
hierarchical nature of constituent structure
.
Another
way
is
with
tree diagrams
:
branching structures in which each
constituent
f
or
m
s
a
‘‘
branch
.’’
F
or example
,
the tree
diagram for sentence
(4)
is
i
n
(
15
):
S
Many executives eat at really fancy restaurants
(b)
(a)
(c)
In this diagram
,
each of the constituents of
sentence
(4)
forms of
b
ranch
:
for example
,
m
any
e
xecutives corresponds
to the branch l
abelled (a);
at really fancy
restaurants
,
to the
branch l
abelled (b)
and really fancy
,
to the branch l
abelled
(c).
O
bserve
,
in addition
,
that groups of
words
that are not
constituents
of sentence
(4)
do not form branches in this
tree diagram
:
executives
*
eat at and
*
eat at
really,
for
instance
,
clearly
aren’t
constituents according to the diagram
in
(
15
).
In principle,
underlining is just as good as tree
diagrams for representing
constituent
structure
,
but because
tree diagrams are somewhat easier to read
,
they are usually
preferred
.
Ambiguity
I
n
every
human language we can find individual
e
xpressions
which ha
ve
two or more distinct meanings
. F
or example
,
t
he
italicized
portions of the following sentences of English can
be interpreted in more than one way
:
(16) a.
Larry ra
ises
miniature
b
adgers and raccoons
.
b.
W
e need more intelligent leaders
.
c.
T
he cranes were transported by boats to Minneapolis
.
I
n
(
16
),
miniature
b
adgers and raccoons can mean either
‘
miniature
b
adgers and miniature raccoons
’
or
‘
mini
ature
b
adgers and raccoons
(
of any size
)’;
in
(
16
b),
more intelligent
leaders can mean either
‘
a greater quantity of intelligent
leaders
’
o
r
‘
leaders who are more intelligent
’.
T
his property
of having two or more distinct meaning
s
is called
ambiguity
;
an
expression with two or more distinct
meaning
s
is ambiguous
.
Often,
an expression is ambiguous because it has more than
one possible constituent structure
.
C
onsider
,
for example
,
the
e
xpression
miniature
badge
r
s and raccoons in sentence
(
16a
): it
can have either of the following
constituent
structures
.
(17)
miniature badgers and raccoons
(18)
miniature badgers and raccoons
In
(
17
),
b
adgers and raccoons forms a constituent
; (
17
)
therefore represents the interpretation in which the
ad
jective
m
iniature applies to both the
b
adgers and
raccoons
.
I
n
(
18
),
on the other hand
,
miniature
b
adgers
forms a constituent
;
(
18
)
therefore represents the
interpretation in which only the
b
adgers are
m
iniature
.
A
n
expression which is ambiguous because it has more than
one possible
constituent
structure is s
aid
to be
structurally
ambiguous
.
The
italicized portion of the sentence
(
16b
)
is also
structurally
ambiguous:
it can have either of the following
constituent structures
.
more intelligent leaders
SYNTAX:
PHRASAL CATEGORIES
PHRASAL CATEGORIES
S
o far we have discussed only lexical categories
,
that is
,
c
lasses to
which individual word belong
.
H
owever
,
there is another kind of
syntactic category
,
namely
phrasal category
.
R
ecall that we
determine a
word’s
category by finding characteristics it shares
with other words
.
T
hat is
,
we find words
which behave the same
,
or have the same distribution
,
as other words
,
and
these
sets of
words we
group int
o a
category and give it a name
,
such as a noun
or verb
. T
hen recall that
words can
combine with other words to
form semantically coherent groupings
,
or
c
onstituents. A
phrasal
category is a set of constituents which behave the same
,
or share
the same fractions and distribution
.
F
or instance consider the following sentence
:
(1) T
he
jogger
s r
a
n through the park
.
FILE 52
One
constituent of th
is
sentence consist of the
words
the
joggers,
as can be demonstrated by
applying the
c
onstit
uent
test
s
discussed in the
F
ile 50
.
U
pon examining the lexical
categories involved
,
we see that this constituent is formed
by the combination of a
de
termin
er
and
a noun.
Now
consider each of the
words
or
groups
the words below
.
N
ot
e
that each of them could be substitute
d
for the phrase
t
he
joggers
in sentence
(
1
),
and a grammatical sentence would
result
:
(2) a.
Susan
b.
Students
c.
you
d.
most dogs
e.
some
children
f.
a huge lovable bear
g.
my friend from Brazil
h
.
the people that the interview
ed
Each of the examples in
(2)
could likewise be shown to be a
constituent in this sentence if it
occured
in the place of jo
gg
ers
.
N
ote
,
however
,
that some have different structures th
a
n DET
+ N
con
s
t
itu
ent in the
j
o
gg
ers
.
(
a
) and (b)
are single Ns, (f) is
composed of
DET
+
A
DJ +
N,
(g)
is composed of DET +
N +
PREP + N,
and
(h)
is different from all of th
e
se
.
N
ot
e
that other
sets of words that are
constituents
cannot be substituted for the
joggers,
for example
,
in the tree or ma
d
e a cake
.
W
hat we have
discovered is that constituents have different structures can have
the same functions because they can be used in the same
position in the sentence
.
T
his means that they belong to the
same category
,
and since some
constituent
s may involve
combinations of more than one word
,
these categories are called
phrasal
categories
.
I
n the category discussed above
,
a
noun
alone
or a noun plus other
words
forms
a noun phrase
(NP).
S
ometimes
,
a single word can count as an NP all by itself
,
but
not
always.
F
or example
,
the word dog cannot be a substitute
d
for
the
N
P slot in
(3)
(3)_____________
r
a
n through the park
.
Thus,
in sentence
T
he dog ran through the park
, dog
is
an
N,
but not and NP
(whereas
dogs
,
and other nouns in the
plural
,
wo
ul
d count as both if placed alone in the slot
).
S
o
we observe from
(2)
and
(3)
that proper nouns
,
pronouns
,
and plural nouns can be used individually as
NPs,
but some
types of singular
Ns
cannot be
.
An NP
can be used as the subject of a sentence
,
is in
(4);
as
the direct object
,
a
s in
(5);
as the indirect object
,
as in
(6);
and in many other ways as well
.
T
hese are descriptions of
the
functions
w
h
ich
N
P
s
can
per
form
.
(4)
S
ome children like ice cream
.
(5)
Harold like
s
some children
.
(
6
)
T
he teacher gave some children a scaffolding this morning
.
N
ow consider the sentence in
(7):
(7)
T
he mothers visited their children
.
Constituency tests
d
emo
n
strate that visited their children is
a constituent
.
I
t is composed of V
+ NP.
Note that this
particular structure does not s
hare
the same properties of
the structures group
ed
into the category of
N
P because we
could not insert visited their children in the slot in
(3).
O
ther structures could be substitute
d
for visited their
children
.
F
or example
:
a. smart
b.
love music
c.
walk the dog through the park
d.
believe that dogs are smart
e.
wanted to leave
f
.
will sleep soundly
g.
can lift a hundred pounds
h.
are wearing sunglasses
i.
go home and have a beauty rest
All of these structures behave the same
,
and th
u
s can be
grouped into another phrasal category
,
namely that of verb
phrase
(
VP
).
No
t
e
that
VP
s can consist of a single
V or a V plus
other words
;
for example
,
(
f
)
is V
+
A
D
V and
(c)
is V
+
N
P
+
PP
.
A
VP can be used as the predicate of a sentence
– i.e.,
it
combines with a subject
N
P to form a whole
S,
as shown in
(
9
):
(9)
a
.
Pa
t loss music
.
b
.
Henry wanted to leave
.
Another phrasal category is that of
adjective phrases
(ADJPs),
s
uch as those in
(
10
):
(
10
)
a
.
smart
b.
very expensive
c.
as tall as his father
d.
smarter than the average bear
e.
certain to win
N
ote that each of these could be inserted into the syntactic
frame in
(
11
):
(
11
)
John i
s ______________.
AD
JPS are often used to modify nouns and
thus
often
appear as elements of noun phrases
;
for instance
,
a very
expensive watch
;
anyone as tall as his father
.
A
dverbial phrases
(ADVPs)
such as those in
(
12
)
are often
used to modify verbs and adjectives and adverbs
,
and
th
us
appear as constituents of VP
s
and
AD
J
Ps,
a
s
i
n
(
13
).
(
12
)
a.
sound
ly
b
.
fiercely
c.
as fluently as native
d.
most certainly
(
13
) a.
speak French as fluently a
n
ative
(
VP
).
b.
fiercely loyal
(AD
JP
)
c.
sleep soundly
(VP)
Another phras
al
syntactic
category is
that
of
prepositional
phrases
(
PP
s).
PP
s
always consists of a preposition +
N
P
:
(1
4
) a.
from Brazil
b
.
with Howard a
nd his dog
c.
for nothing
d
. To the head honcho (the person who is in charge.)
A PP
can
b
e an constituent of a wide range of phrases
:
(
15
) a.
go to the movies
(
VP
)
b.
my friend from Brazil
(N
P
)
c. angry with Howard
and his dog
(
A
DJ
P
)
d.
separately from the other
s
(A
DVP
)
Sentences
(
S
s)
also form a phrasal syntactic category
.
S
entences are
,
of course
,
often used by themselves
:
(
16
)
a
.
it is raining
b
.
I like apple pie
.
B
ut a sentence may also appear as an element of another
expression
;
for example
,
each of the following
e
xpressions
contains a sentence
.
(
17
)
a
. the
fact that it is raining
(N
P
)
b.
student who met Susan last Thursday
(NP)
c.
discovered that it is raining
(VP)
d.
glad that it is raining
(AD
JP
)
Not
e
that an expression resulting from the combination of
two or more s
maller
e
xpressions
by a
co
nj
unc
tion
belongs
to the same category as the smaller ones
d
o
.
T
h
u
s
,
both
Howard and his dog are each separate
NPs,
and in
(
14
b)
and
(
15
c)
Howard and his dog is also and NP
.
L
ikewise
,
faster
than a speeding bullet and more powerful than a locomotive
is a large
r
AD
JP containing t
w
o conjoined
AD
JP
’s
and
similarly for the sentence
I
t is raining
,
but it may slee
t
which
contains two conjoined S
s.
TREE DIAGRAMS
T
ree diagrams are one way of graphically representing the
structure of sentence
.
I
n
File
50
we
s
aw
that tree diagrams
could represent which words grouped together to form
constituents
,
and
whi
ch
,
in
t
u
rn
,
fo
r
m
ed
larger
constituent
s
.
N
ow we see that
each
constituent in a
sentence b
elongs
either some
lexical or phrasal
category
.
T
his can also be
re
presented in the tree diagram by labeling
each of the
no
d
es
,
or points which indicate
a
constituent
,
with the name of the syntactic category
to w
hich
the
lexical
of
phrasal
co
nstitue
nt
belongs.
For ex
ample
,
considere the
sentence in
(
18
):
(
18
)
M
y mother likes her cats
.
We can determine
(
with
constituent
tests
)
that the phra
sal
constituents
of th
is
sentence
are
the following
:
(a)
my mother
(NP)
(b)
likes her cat
s
(
VP
)
(c)
her cats
(N
P
)
(d)
my mother likes her cats
(S)
We know that each word is a constituent as well
,
and we can
determine each lexical category
.
A
tree diagram
representing the structure of this sentence looks like
:
(19) S
my mother likes her cats.
NP
VP
NP
DET
N
V
DET
N
Not
e
that the tree diagram represents many aspects of the
structure of a sentence
.
F
irst of all
,
the linear order is
represented
because the words appear in some specific
order
(
in the above case
,
they are in the proper order
).
S
econd
ly,
t
he
categories to which words and phrases b
elong
are indicated
; for
example
,
the noun
mother is labeled as
being
an N,
and the phrase my mother is labeled as an
N
P
.
F
urthermore
,
the hierarchical structure is represented by
the lines which indicate which w
ord
s
g
roup
to form
constituents
,
and
,
in
t
u
rn
,
which constituents join to form
larger constituents
.
For ex
ample
,
the line from the
DET
above her and l
i
n
e
from the
N
abo
ve
cats join
at
a no
de
to
indicate that the
DET +
N
forms has to constituents
.
T
his
constituent joints with
the V
abo
ve
likes to form another
constituent as indicated by the lines above
NP
and
V
w
hic
h
join at a no
de
labeled VP
.
SYNTAX:
PHRASE STRUCTURE RULES
Part of every language use
r’
s knowledge of his or her
language is the knowledge of how constituents are put
together and categorized in that language
. T
his special
sort of knowledge can be represented as a set of rules
called
phrase
structure rules
(
PS rules
)
.I
n this file
,
we
consider the nature of such rules and discuss several
important properties which make them useful for
describing the syntactic competence of language users
.
FILE
54
PHRASE
STRUCTURE GRAMMA
R
Before
we discuss phrase structure rules as tools for studying
the syntax of human languages
,
l
et us look at the nature of
grammatical descriptions
that use
phrase structure
r
ules
.
PS
Rules can be understood as simple instructions for building
larger constituents formed from smaller ones
,
and they also
g
ive
information about the order in which the constituents
appear
,
and their categories
.
Thus, the
PS rule in
(1a)
gives
the instructions in
(
1
b)
and
(
1
c):
(1)a.
S
NP VP
b. T
o build a constituent of the category
S,
take
a
constituent of th
e
category
NP
and combine it with another
constituent of the category VP
.
c.
I
n building an
S
constituent
in this manner,
put the NP
constituent first
,
and the VP constituent after it
.
Thus,
(
1
a)
merely
say
s
a
sentence is made up of an NP and
a
VP in th
at
order
.
A
s part of the descriptive devices available
in
the ph
ras
e s
tructure synt
ax,
we have t
r
ee structures
(
already discussed in file 52
).
T
here is a direct connection
between
phrase
structure rules and tree structures
.
F
or
instance
,
the rule in
(1a)
allows you to construct a tree
structure as in
(2a),
but the ones in
(
2
b
)
and
(
2
c)
(
among
numerous other trees
)
are not allowed by
(1
a
):
(2)
a. S b. S c. S
NP VP N VP VP NP
To gain a precise understanding of instruction
-
g
ivi
ng aspect
of PS rules
,
let us for a moment
take
examples of PS
rules
that do not describe English or any other human language
.
Let
u
s create
w
hat linguists call a
‘‘
toy
grammar’’
for
a
‘‘
language
’’
whose lexical categories consists of a
,
b
,
c
,
and d
.
Its phrasal
categories are X
and
Y
,
in addition to S
(for
instance),
which is also a
phrasal category. The instructions
(i.e.,
PS rules
)
for building sentences in this language are
given in
(3).
(3) a. S
XY
b.
X
ab
c. X a
d. Y bed
e. Y
edY
f. Y cd
N
ow what
‘‘
sentences
’’
are acceptable
(i.e.,
grammatical
,
able to be produced with this set of rules
)
and what
sentences are ungrammatical
(i.e.,
cannot be produced
using this system of rules?
)
The shortest sentence produced
by this system is a
cd
, the
deriva
tion of which is given in
(4)
using t
r
ee structures
:
At this point
,
no further instructions can be carried out
,
and
the sequence a
cd
has been successful
de
r
i
ved in accordance
with the rules
.
O
n the other hand
,
the sequence
*abd
or
*abc
cannot be
de
ri
v
ed using the instructions in
(
3
). The
sequences
abcd, abbcd, acdcd, abcd
cdcd and maybe
ab
cdcdcdcd are all grammatical
in this
language
,
however
;
can you work out which rules must apply to d
e
rive each of
these?
The simple rule
-
system in
(3)
, far from being a
grammar
for
human languages, still is not as simple as it looks. The
‘‘
language
’’
it
produces has some of the
s
alient properties of
the syntax of human languages that we wish to focus on
.
T
o
be specific, it has the properties of
gener
ativ
ity
,
ambiguity
,
hierarchical
structure
, and
infinite
recursion
(i.e.,
productivity
).
W
e will now see how t
he
grammar in
(
3
)
shows th
ese
characteristics.
First
, it
is
generative
because it does not list a grammatical
sentences in the language
;
instead, it gives a s
che
matic
strategy for getting the infinite set of grammatical sentences
using a fi
nite
set of rules. Recall that languages that have
productivity
(i.e.,
infinite output
)
can
not
be described by
listing.
Thu
s, this toy grammar has one of the desirable
properties that we would want in a grammar for human
languages
.
Secondly, human languages contain some structural
ambiguous
sentences, and a grammar for human language
should reflect this property. The gra
m
ma
r
in
(3)
has the
power to produce structurally ambiguous sentences. Consider
the sentence abcd in this language. It could be
de
rive
d
in two
different ways, each resulting in a different consistent
structure,
i.e.,
a different way of grouping words together. The
two different d
eriva
tions are given in
(5):
(5)a. S b. S
by(3a) by (3a)
by (3b) &(3f) by (3c)&(3d)
a b c d a b c d
X
X
Y
Y
The set of rules for NP
’s
(
so far
(
11
),
(
14
),
(
15
),
and
(
16
))
e
xpress the generalization that all of these structures belong
to one category by the name of NP. However, given the PS
rules
we have developed so far, the gram
m
a
r
(i.e.,
the
collection of all the rules
)
will generate
un
grammatical as
well as grammatical sentences. For example, using the
entire set of rules given above, the following three structure
can be generated
:
S
NP
VP
DET
N
V
Now,
words
from the
l
exicon must be selected from the
appropriate lexical categories and inserted
be
lo
w
the lexical
category nodes in this tree. But any word which belongs to
the category V may be inserted, including
in
trans
itive
verbs.
Inserting such a
word
w
ould
generat
e
a sentence
such as
*The
children chased, which of course is not grammatical.
Therefore, information about subcategories must be
included in PS rules.
Thus, (
16
)
would be written
:
(18) VP Vi
Where the subscript.
(i) i
ndicates that
this
V must be
chosen from the subcategory of intransitive verbs. Transitive
verbs
(
verbs which m
u
st
t
ake
NP
objects
)
will also be called
for the other PS rules.
What would
PS rules for VP
’s
containing transitive verbs look like?
A similar situation exists
for
N
P
s.
L
eaving
(
15
)
as it is would
generate a sentence such as
*
bo
y woke
up in the middle of
night
.
H
ow m
ight
rule
(
15
)
be
r
ewritten to prevent this?
It is very important to understand that phrase structure
rules
e
xpress generalizations over many individual
sentences. The term
‘‘
rule
’’
is used because a rule describes a
pattern found in a language. Many sentences can have the
structure in
(
19
):
(19) S
DET
VP
VP
N
NP
PP
P
NP
DET
N
For example, the dog ran through the
w
oods
.
T
he woman
jump
ed on
the b
ug
. Some students read
during
t
he
night.
Our
books fell to the floor
,
and
The
rain fell from
the s
ky all
have this structure, and this pattern is reflected in the fact
that the same phrase structure rules generate each of these
sentences.
However, once you understand the structure of a particular
sentence
, you can determine what PS rules must be involved
in d
eri
ving that structure. For example, using constituency
tests and our knowledge of lexical and phrasal categories,
we can determine that the structure of the sentence
The
men in the kitchen drives a truck is as follows
:
(20) S
the man in
NP
VP
NP
PP
Vt
NP
DET
N
P
NP
DET
N
DET
N
drives
a
truck
the
kitchen
Starting at the S
nod
e, w
e can
formulate
the PS rules with
generate this structure
. T
he S
is
composed of an
NP
and a
VP
(
as usual
)
, so
a rule
which expresses this fact would be
written as
(
10
)
above
:
S NP
VP
.
T
he highest
N
P is
composed of an
N
P and a
PP. A rule
which expresses this
fact would be as NP
NP
PP
,
and so on
.
INFINITY AND RECURSION
O
ne of the things linguists attempt to do is to analyze the
structure of sentences in a given language and construct a
set of rules which can generate the grammatical sentences
of that language but which does not allow generation of
u
ngrammatical sentences. In addition, the set of rules must
be able to generate an infinite number of sentences. One of
the ways this can be accomplished is by using
recursive
rules, as discussed above. One example of recursion is
English involves the pair of rose in
(
21
)
and
(
22
)
below.
(21) NP NP PP (22) PP P NP
Together these rules generate phrases such as the man with
the d
og
,
the painter from
California, some preachers in their
pulpits, a large ant in my drink, and so on. But notice that
when one ro
le
is applied in succession, the
pair
is
recursive;
note that
since NP
oc
cu
r
s on the left of the arrow
Language consists of sentences organized by grammar rules. Syntax plays a crucial role in sentence structure. This guide explores sentence patterns, syntax principles, linear order, and hierarchical structure in language, illustrated with examples and constituent tests.
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The Sentence Patterns of Language Prof. Dr. Nalan KIZILTAN
The language is the set of sentences that are described by the grammer. The grammer generates the sentences it describes and their structural descriptions. Chomsky(1957) Knowing a language includes the ability to put words together to form phrases and sentences that express our thoughts. That part of the grammer that represents a speaker s knowledge of the structure of phrases and sentences is called Syntax.
Sequences of words that conform to the rules of syntax are well formed or grammatical. Sequences of words that violate the syntactic rules are ungrammatical. There are two basic principles of sentence organization: Linear Order Hierarchical Structure
LINEAR ORDER The words in a sentence must occur in a particular sequence if the sentence is to convey the desired meaning. 1) John glanced at Mary. 2) Mary John at glanced. 3) Mary glanced at John. (the meaning is completely different from that of (1).
HIERARCHICAL STRUCTURE The individual words in a sentence are organized into natural, semantically coherent groupings which are themselves organized into larger groupings. These groupings within a sentence are called constituents of that sentence. The relationships between constituents in a sentence form the constituent structure of the sentence.
4) Many executives eat at really fancy restaurants. Have meaning of their own. And each makes a coherent contribution to the meaning of (4) as a whole. Many executives Eat at really fancy restaurants. These are constituents
Constituent Tests 1) Ability to stand alone Constituents can be used alone as exclamations or as answers to questions. 5) What do many executives do? Eat at really fancy restaurants.
2) Substitution by a pro-form A constituant can be replaced by a single word having the same meaning. Pronouns are one type of pro-form; such as do, be, have; pro-adverbs such as there and then; as well as a pro-adjectives. 6) They eat at really fancy restaurants - Who eats at really fancy restaurants? 7) Many executives do.
3) Movement If some part of a sentence can be moved around usually to the beginning or end of the sentence it is a constituent. 8) At really fancy restaurants, many executives eat. 9) How fancy was it? - Really fancy 10) Who eats at really fancy restaurants? Many executives eat at such restaurants.
11) Many executives eat at really fancy restaurants.
In addition to the linear order of words in a sentence, a tree diagram is another way of representing the hierarchical nature of constituent structure. Branching structures in which each constituent forms a branch Many executives eat at really fancy restaurants. many executives eat at really fancy restaurants. many executives eat at really fancy restaurants. at really fancy restaurants really fancy restaurants fancy restaurants
The child found the puppy the child found the puppy the child found the puppy the puppy
Ambiguity In every human language we can find individual expressions which have two or more distinct meanings. 12) Long raises miniature badgers and raccoons. long raises miniature badgers and raccoons. raises 1 miniature badgers and raccoons. miniature badgers and raccoons. badgers and raccoons.
2 miniature badgers and raccoons. miniature badgers and raccoons. miniature badgers
13) We need more intelligent leaders we 1 need more intelligent leaders need more intelligent leaders more intelligent leaders (A greater quantity of intelligent leaders)
14) more intelligent leaders more intelligent leaders more intelligent (Leaders who are more intelligent) Structural ambiguity can be explicitly accounted for by multiple tree structures.
In (13) Intelligent leaders is a constituent: for this reason (13) represents the interpretation a greater quantity of intelligent leaders. In (14), however, more intelligent forms a constituent: (14) therefore represents the meaning leaders who are more intelligent. Although structural ambiguity is a very common kind of ambiguity, it is not the only kind. Individual words are sometimes ambiguous: for example, crane can refer to either a kind of bird or to a large construction device. Because words like crane have no internal constituent structure, sentences containing such words clearly can`t be structurally ambiguous. Instead, a sentence containing a word with more than one meaning is said to be lexically ambiguous. Thus, both meanings for (13)-(14) are represented with the same constituent structure.
EXERCISES 0. Apply the constituent tests to determine if the underlined expressions in the following sentences are constituents. a. Many retired workers spend their time on relaxing hobbies. b. Many retired workers spend their time on relaxing hobbies. c. Many retired workers spend their time on relaxing hobbies.
1) Which of the underlined expressions in the following sentences are constituents? Which are not? Why? (Use the constituency tests mentioned before to show this in each case.) a. Marianne ate the stale candy. b. Marianne ate the stale candy c. My little brother snores. d. My little brother snores.
2) Apply each of the constituency tests to the underlined expressions and determine whether they are constituents. a. The clouds rolled across the sky. b. My uncle crushed our new car c. Mattingly hit the ball over the fence. d. Some students hate computers. e. The ancient ruins of the temple were covered by the earth. f. The women wept. g. Too many noisy birds are nesting on campus. h. Joggers like to run along the river. i. The bride and groom ran out of the church.
SYNTACTIC RULES 1) The rules of syntax combine words into phrases phrases into sentences English: SUBJECT - VERB - OBJECT (SVO) language Turkish: SUBJECT - OBJECT - VERB (SOV) language 2) Syntactic rules also specify other constraints that sentences must adhere to. a) To find + NP = YES * To find + ADV = NO b) To sleep + ADV = YES * To sleep + NP = NO
3) Syntactic rules show how words form groups in a sentence Syntactic rules show how they are hierarchically arranged with respect to one another. 4) Syntactic rules reveal the grammatical relations among the words of a sentence as well as their order and hierarchical organization. 5) Syntactic rules explain how the grouping of words relates to its meaning, such as when a sentence or phrase is ambiguous.
6) The rules of syntax permit speakers to produce and understand a limitless number of sentences never produced are heard before the creative aspect of Linguistic knowledge. A major goal of linguistics is to show clearly and explicitly how syntactic rules account for this knowledge. A theory of grammar must provide a complete characterization of what speakers implicitly know about their knowledge.
WHAT GRAMMATICALITY IS NOT BASED ON Grammaticality meaningfulness. Colorless green ideas sleep furiously. A verb crumpled the milk Syntactically well formed Semantically not acceptable=Nonsense Grammaticality does not depend on the truth of sentences. If it did, lying would be impossible. The syntactic rules that permit us to produce, understand, make grammaticality judgements are unconscious rules. The grammar is a mental grammar, different from the prescriptive one.
(7) S= NP + VP John snored. Everyone fled the volcano. The major smoked a cigar. A book lay on the table. (8) NP= Det + N the mayor a book every student my python
(9) VP= V + NP fled the volcano smoked a cigar imitated a flamingo squeezed some fresh orange juice We can represent these tree pieces of information in a succinct way with the following three phrase structure rules. (10) S NP VP (11) NP Det N (12) VP V NP
The arrow in these rules can be read as may consist of. Thus rule (10) is just a concise way of saying a sentence may consist of a noun phrase followed by a verb phrase ; similarly, rule (11) just says a noun phrase may consist of a determiner followed by a noun. Now, what does rule (12) say? Recall from File 52 that a syntactic category is a group of constituents with different structures which share certain properties. NP s, for example, could be composed of DET + N, as in (2) above, bur they may also have the following structures: (13) My uncle from France A rule for this NP would look like: (14) NP NP PP
Rules (10) (11) (12) and (14) specify five ways in which constituents can be combined to form larger, more complex constituents. Some constituents, however, do not result from the combination of smaller constituents; instead, they consist of a single word. For example, a noun phrase may just consist of a proper name (e.g., John, Paris), a plural noun (e.g., elephants, leaves), or a noun referring to a substance (e.g., clay, gasoline); similarly, a verb phrase may just consist of an intransitive verb such as sneeze, die, vanish, or elapse. These sorts of knowledge can also be represented with PS rules: 15 NP N 16 VP V
Phrasal Categories A phrasal category is a set of constituents which behave the same or share the same functions and distribution. Noun Phrase (NP) A noun or a noun + other words (1) ____________ ran through the park. a) susan e) some children b) students f) a huge lovable bear c)you g) my friend from turkey d) most dogs h) the people that we interviewed 1)
2) Verb Phrase (VP) a single verb or verb + other forms verb + ADV verb + NP+ PP (prepositional phrase) (2) John ________. a) saw a clown b) is smart c) slept d) found the cake e) found the cake in the cupboard
3 Adjective Phrase a single adjective or as a constituent of NPs. (3) John is ____________. a) smart b) very intelligent c) as tall as his father d) smarter than the average bear e) certain to win
4 Adverbial Phrase and ADVPs. (4) John speaks ____________. a) fluently b) as fluent as a native c) almost certainly 5 Prepositional Phrase preposition followed by a NP. a) from Turkey b) at university c) through the park d) in the cupboard Adverbor as a constituent of VPs
6) Sentences are often used by themselves. (5) it is raining. I like apple pie.
Phrase Structure Trees A diagram with syntactic category information provided is called phrase structure tree. This tree shows that a sentence is both a linear string of words and hierarchical structure with phrases nested in phrases. Three aspects of speakers syntactic knowledge of sentence structure are disclosed in phrase structure trees: 1 the linear order of the words in the sentence 2 the groupings of words into syntactic categories 3 the hierarchical structure of the syntactic categories
Sentence NP VP V NP
(1) The child found the puppy S NP VP Det N Vt NP Det N the child found the puppy
(2) my mother likes her cats S VP NP Vt NP N Det N Det my mother likes her cats
(3)Many retired workers spend their time on relaxing hobbies. S NP VP PP Vt NP Det ADJ N NP N P Det ADJ N many retired workers spend their time on relaxing hobbies
(4) The boy saw the man with the telescope S VP NP PP Vt NP Det N Det NP N P Det N the boy The boy used a telescope to see the man. saw the man with the telescope
(5) The boy saw the man with the telescope S VP NP Vt NP Det N Det N PP NP P Det N the boy saw the man with the telescope
(6) The baby slept S NP VP N Det Vit the baby slept
(7) the girl with the feather on the ribbon on the brim. NP PP Det N NP P Det PP N P NP PP Det N NP P N Det the girl with the feather on the ribbon on the brim
One can repeat the number of NPs under PPs under NPs without a limit. This property of all human languages is called recursion. (infinite recursion) (productivity)
The man fled from the posse. S VP NP Vit PP N Det P NP Det N the man fled from the posse.
A girl laughed at the monkey. S VP NP PP Vit N Det NP P Det N a girl laughed at the monkey
A large fierce black dog looked out the window. S NP VP Det Adj PP Adj Adj N Vt NP P Det N a large fierce black dog looked out the window.
The man in the kitchen drives a truck. S NP VP NP PP NP Vt NP P Det N N Det Det N the kitchen drives a truck. the man in
Lexical Categories Each word in a given language is not entirely different in its behavior from all the other words in that language. Instead, a large number of words exhibit the same properties. Words can be grouped into some word classes based on their morphological and syntactic properties. These word classes are called lexical categories, because the lexicon is the list of all the words in a language (plus various kinds of information, about those words.) For example, one of the morphological properties of the word book is that it has a plural form books. All these words can occur in the following context:
(1) __________ + plural morpheme. The words that occur in the morphological frame can also occur in the syntactic frames as in (2) and (3): (2) DET _________ (3) DET ADJ _________ Verbs (4)_________ + tense morpheme (sing-song; walk-walked) (5)________ + third person singular morpheme (I walk, he walks) (6)_________ + progressive morpheme (I am walking) (7)AUX__________ (may go) (8) (please)___________! ((please) leave!)
Adjectives (9)_________ + er/est (taller, tallest) (10) more/most+ _____(more affectionate, most affectionate) (11) DET____________ N (the unexpected guests) (12) Linking verbs__________(looks sunny) (13) ADV___________(amazingly perceptive) Adverbs (14) ADV (ADJ+ly) (happily, unexpectedly, skillfully) (15) ________ ADJ (unusually nice) __________VERB or VERB PHRASE (usually go) __________ ADV (quite well)
