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General Linguistics - Week 5 Lecture
General Linguistics - Week 5 Lecture
General Linguistics - Week 5 Lecture
GENERAL LINGUISTICS
NOVEMBER 2, 2017
You know that this is bad English
HTTP://WWW.YOUTUBE.COM/WATCH?V=HYWGL816YRQ
Syntax Outline
Roadmap
Categories
Lexical Categories
Functional Categories
Constituency
Constituency Tests
Phrase Structure
Goal: To identify the
grammatical pieces Diagramming Sentences
we’re working with, and
how they come together
compositionally to
create a sentence with
meaning.
Lexical & Functional Categories
4
Verbs (V)
(Generally) follow subject, precedes object
Often take tense (-s, -ed), aspect (-en)
Frame: They can X, or They X-ed the bananas.
Adjectives (Adj)
Can follow very
Modify and precede nouns
Frame: He is so/very X, or The very X boy
Adverbs (Adv)
Often ends in -ly
Can appear at beginning or end of sentence, before verb
Frame: Mary treats John X, or X the men go to work
Identifying Major Functional Categories
in English
7
Determiners (Det)
Possessive pronouns (e.g. my dog)
If with a noun, generally just 1 per noun
Come before noun, adjectives
Frame: What are you looking for? X dog.
Prepositions (P)
Followed by accusative (object case): the box is X him
Modified by right/straight/long
Auxiliaries (Aux)
Can be inverted: Will he leave?
Precede negation: He will not leave
Ellipsis: John will leave but you will (not)
Frame: They X cut the bananas.
Complementizers (C)
Precede embedded sentences
Frame: Bill wonders/hopes X John left.
Now what?
8
Jane and her parents saw that Gaby had enough to eat
[Jane and her parents] -- √
[enough to eat] -- √
[that Gaby had] -- ???
Constituency tests
Substitution
Movement
Wh-word Replacement
Sentence Fragment and Question Test
Ellipsis
Category Coordination
How do we know if we have a constituent?
13
Substitution
Take a single word or a simple phrase and substitute it for a longer
phrase, thereby showing that the longer phrase is a unit. To find
noun phrases (NPs), pronouns are a good substitute (e.g., it, they).
For verb phrases (VPs), a useful substitute is do so.
For noun phrases (NPs),
[The man in the black hat] is my brother. pronouns are a good
[He] is my brother. substitute (e.g., it, they)
Substitution – Practice
Movement
a. Lisa saw [the angry gorillas].
b. [The angry gorillas] are what Lisa saw.
c. It was [the angry gorillas] that Lisa saw.
Wh-Word Replacement
a. Mike found [a ragged, dirty, old dollar bill].
b. Mike found [WHAT]?
Ellipsis
Bart can [have another ice cream], but Jane can’t . .
Category Coordination
He ate [three bananas] and [four apples].
She [ran two miles] and [swam three miles].
The dog walked [off the porch] and [into the kitchen].
Some things to note…
19
c) He will blow out the candle, but she will not… ELLIPSIS
d) He will [blow out the candle], but she will not…
More Practice!
22
TEST 1: Substitution
TEST 2: Movement
TEST 5: Ellipsis
[[put] [the book] [on the shelf]]
☺
Constituency Review
31
Quick Review:
Each language has a set of rules that determine how words can be
grouped into phrases.
Example from English: Determiners cannot combine with verbs within
a phrase (*the allowed).
Phrase structure
34
Robin
The book
An interesting book
A picture of Robin
A picture of the unicorn
A nice picture of the unicorn
A very nice picture of the white unicorn
Eats
Eats the cake
Eats the cake with a knife and fork
Fell slowly
Fell into the pond
Kicked the ball
Kicked the ball to Peter
Terry eats
DET N V AdvP
slowly
Phrase structure trees
40
NP VP
DET N V AdvP
slowly
Phrase structure trees
41
NP NP P NP
NP
DET N PP
P NP
a soldier
DET N
with a telescope
Let’s practice!
43
The dog
Under the bridge
Ate the chocolate
The habitat for the lions
The book fell into the pond.
Phrase structure rules - NP
44
Adv yellow
very
very
AdvP
AdvP
AdvP Adv
Adv Adv
Adv quickly
very quickly
very
Why??
Remember the concept of heads.
Head of a phrase = word that gives the phrase its
category.
Practice!
48
The cat
The fat cat
The very fat cat
The fluffy fat cat
The very fluffy fat cat
The very fluffy fat cat from California
Phrase structure rules - PP
49
PP P NP
NP T VP
N might V NP
Bill crash D N
the boat
Let’s practice!
53
Some examples:
NP VP
V
N met NP
I DET N PP
P NP
my friend
DET N
with an axe
Structural Ambiguity
58
NP VP
V
N met NP
PP
I DET N
P NP
my friend DET N
with an axe
Some real headlines
59
Recursion: a very big peanut, a very very big peanut, a very very
very big peanut…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVpBHVX
The House that Jack Built: DtMQ&feature=related
Some final thoughts: Properties of syntax
64
Hierarchical structure
Some final thoughts: Properties of syntax
65
Grammaticality
Colourless green ideas sleep furiously.
Is this grammatical?
meaning
NP VP
AdvP
N V NP
Adv
We finished Det N PP
officially P NP
our unit
on N
syntax
66