Detecting Complements and Adjuncts

Rajat Kumar Mohanty

Center for Indian Language Technology
IIT Bombay
Outline

 X-bar Theory Revisited

 Complement and Adjuncts within an NP
 Detecting Complements and Adjuncts
 Structural Ambiguity
 Phrase Structure Rules for Noun Phrases
 Reordering of Adjuncts
 Co-ordination
 Extraposition
 Preposing
 Co-occurrence Restrictions
 Generalization
 Exercises

Monday, July 11, 2005 CFILT

X-bar Theory

 It tells us how words are combined to make

phrases and sentences.

 It captures the commonality between different

types of phrases, which PS-rules cannot.

Monday, July 11, 2005 CFILT

X-bar Projection

XP (Maximal projection)

YP X `(Intermediate projection)

X (Minimal projection) ZP

Monday, July 11, 2005 CFILT

X-bar Projection

XP (X-phrase)

YP(Specifier) X`

X (Head) ZP
(Complement)

Monday, July 11, 2005 CFILT

X-bar Projection

XP

YP X`
(Specifier)

X` ZP
(Adjunct)

X (Head) ZP (Complement)

Monday, July 11, 2005 CFILT

X-bar Projection

NP

NPspecifier N`

John’s Nhead PPcomplement

solution
to the problem

Monday, July 11, 2005 CFILT

X-bar Projection
NP

Detspecifier N`

the
N` PPadjunct

in the cabinet
Nhead PPcomplement meeting

discussion of the cricket match

Monday, July 11, 2005 CFILT

Complement and Adjuncts within an NP
NP

Detspecifier N`

a
N` PPadjunct

with long hair

Nhead PPcomplement

student of NLP

Monday, July 11, 2005 CFILT

Structural Ambiguity in an NP

 A student [of high moral principles]

 Is there any ambiguity in this NP ?
 a person who studies high moral principles
 a student who has high moral principles

 This ambiguity can be characterized in structural

terms

Monday, July 11, 2005 CFILT

a person who studies high moral
principles
NP

Detspecifier N`

a
Nhead PPcomplement

student of high moral principles

Monday, July 11, 2005 CFILT

a student who has high moral principles
NP

Detspecifier N`

a
N` PPadjunct

of moral principles
Nhead

student

Monday, July 11, 2005 CFILT

Examples
1. Arguments [with John] are often pointless. (???)
2. Arguments [with few premises] are often pointless.
(???)

3. Arguments [with John] [with few premises] are often

pointless.
4. *Arguments [with few premises] [with John] are often
pointless.

Monday, July 11, 2005 CFILT

Phrase Structure Rules for Noun Phrases
 The complement must precede an adjunct.
 Rules
 NP N’ (PP) adjunct rule
 N’ N (PP) complement rule

 Examples
1. a student [of Physics] [with long hair]
2. * a student [with long hair] [of Physics]

Monday, July 11, 2005 CFILT

Phrase Structure Rules for Noun Phrases

 Adjunct rules are recursive.

 A complement rule is not recursive, i.e., it
can apply only once.

 Examples
1. a student [with long hair] [with short arms]
2. * a student [of Physics] [of Chemistry]

Monday, July 11, 2005 CFILT

Reordering of Adjuncts

 Unlike complements which have to precede

adjuncts, adjuncts can be freely reordered
with respect to each other.

1. a student [with long hair] [with short arms]

2. a student [with short arms] [with long hair]

Monday, July 11, 2005 CFILT

Co-ordination
 Complements can be co-ordinated with other
complements.
 a student [of linguistics] and [of Computer Science]

 Adjuncts can be co-ordinated with other adjuncts.

 a student [with short arms] and [with long hair]

 But adjunct PPs and complements PPs cannot be

co-ordinated.
 * a student [of Physics] and [with short arms]
 * a student [with short arms] and [of Physics]

Monday, July 11, 2005 CFILT

Extraposition

 Adjuncts are less tightly bound to the head

noun than complements.
 It is possible to extrapose adjuncts PPs but not
possible to extrapose complement PPs.
 Examples
1. A student [with long hair] came to see me yesterday.
2. ? A student came to see me yesterday [with long
hair].
3. * A student came to see me yesterday [of Physics].

Monday, July 11, 2005 CFILT

Preposing

 Complements and Adjuncts behave differently

with respect to preposing.
 Examples
1. [What branch of linguistics] is John a student of?
2. * [What kind of hair] is John a student with?
 Note that Complements and Adjuncts go in
opposite directions with respect to Extraposition
and Preposing.
 Heads are more closely related to their
complements than to their adjuncts.

Monday, July 11, 2005 CFILT

Co-occurrence Restrictions
 Heads place significant restrictions (i.e. ,
subcategorisation) on what can appear as their
complement.
1. a student of NLP
2. * a boy of NLP
3. * a girl of NLP
4. * a teenager of NLP

 No similar restrictions are imposed on adjuncts.

 a student with long hair
 a boy with long hair
 a girl with long hair
 a teenager with long hair

Monday, July 11, 2005 CFILT

Generalization

 Heads are more closely related to their

complements than to their adjuncts.

 Subcategorisation restrictions hold only

between a head and its complement, not
between a head and its adjuncts.

Monday, July 11, 2005 CFILT

Exercise-I

 Identify the complements and adjuncts in the

following NPs:
1. your reply [to my letter]
2. the attack [on Starr]
3. the loss [of the ship]
4. John’s disgust [at Mary’s behavior]
5. his disillusionment [with life]
6. the book [on the table]
7. the advertisement [on the television]
8. the fight [after the match]
9. his resignation [because of the scandal]
10. a cup [with a broken handle]

Monday, July 11, 2005 CFILT

Exercise-II

 Provide trees for the bracketed NPs in the

following sentences:
 I met [a specialist in fibreoptics from Japan].
 [The journey from Mumbai to Delhi on the
Christmas Day] was tiring.
 [The discussion of the riots in the bar] was full and
frank.
 [The solution to the problem given by John] is
better than the solution given by Mary.
 [The solution to last week’s quiz on page 20] is a
better one.
Monday, July 11, 2005 CFILT
Sources and Suggested Readings

 Introduction to Government and Binding

Theory, 2nd edn., Liliane Haegeman,
Blackwell, 1994.
 Syntactic Structures Revisited, Howard
Lasnik, MIT Press, 2000.
 Bhatt, R. 2003. Introduction to Syntax.
 Principles and Parameters, Peter Culicover,
Oxford, 1997.

Monday, July 11, 2005 CFILT

 THANK YOU

Monday, July 11, 2005 CFILT