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Syntax Das
Syntax Das
Syntax Das
Linguistics
Sounds of
language Grammar Meaning
Syntax 2
Dr Alok K Das
Why syntax?
Syntax 3
Dr Alok K
Reasons for studying syntax
Infinity of expressions
There is an infinite number of possible
utterances in every language
It is obvious that all these utterances cannot
be stored in our brains
Our knowledge of a language consists of
A finite number of words (the lexicon; the
“dictionary in your head”), and
Rules (the grammar of the language)
It is the job of the syntactician (and the
morphologist) to find out what these
rules are
Syntax 4
Dr Alok K
Language acquisition
Everyone who can speak knows how to
use the rules
and it is amazing that children can do it
so fast
But nobody can really state exactly
what the rules are!
Understanding syntax (and
morphology) can help researchers to
understand how young children learn
their native language
Syntax 5
Dr Alok K
Universal grammar
Theory of Chomsky
UG has Principles, true of all languages
All languages have the same underlying
structure
e.g. all languages have nouns and verbs
and Parameters, whose setting varies
from language to language
English and Chinese SVO; Japanese SOV
Spanish and Chinese pro-drop; English not
pro-drop
Syntax 6
Dr Alok K
All languages have constituents
Take a simple sentence
Johnny danced
We can call the sentence S, and label the syntactic
categories N and V
N V
Johnny danced
Syntax 7
Dr Alok K
Phrase structure grammar
N and V aren’t always
very good labels S
Johnny is similar to the
handsome student,
because they are both the
same kind of constituent
They are both Noun
Phrases
NP VP
We can remove The
Johnny and add the danced
handsome student, handsome
and the sentence student
structure is still
similar
Syntax 8
Dr Alok K
Different sentence, same
constituents
S
Now let’s add an object
danced the lambada is
the same kind of
constituent as danced
a VP
NP VP
You can swap danced for The danced the
danced the lambada and handsome lambada
the basic structure is the
same
student
Syntax 9
Dr Alok K
What are the NP and VP?
The frog ate the lizard.
The frog sat on the lilypad.
The fat frog ate the long lizard slowly.
The fat frog with a lizard in its mouth
sat on the lilypad.
The fat frog who was sitting on the
lilypad with a lizard in its mouth
danced the lambada.
Syntax 10
Dr Alok K
Phrase structure rules
Now, you know this phrase structure rule:
S NP VP (a Sentence comprises a Noun
Phrase followed by a Verb Phrase)
Draw a tree for the phrase Emma drinks
Here are two more phrase structure rules:
VP V NP
NP N
Think about that carefully
Now, draw a tree with more detail
For the sentence Emma drinks whisky
Syntax 11
Dr Alok K
Now let’s change the NP rule
First, DET means determiner
Function words like the, a, this, several
NP (DET) N
That means a noun phrase can have a determiner,
and it must have a noun
Now you can diagram Johnny danced the
lambada in a bit more detail than I did on the
other slide
Remember:
S NP VP
VP V NP)
Syntax 12
Dr Alok K
Now let’s change the NP rule
again
Such that we have
S NP VP
VP V NP
NP (DET) (ADJ) N
Now you can diagram this sentence
The unhappy book ate the green lambada
The sentence is syntactically well-formed,
by the way
Syntax 13
Dr Alok K
Grammatical or Ungrammatical:
Syntax 14
Dr Alok K
Das
Syntactic Categories
Syntax 15
Dr Alok K
Das
Syntactic Categories
Syntax 16
Dr Alok K
Das
Indicate the category of each
word in the following sentences.
Syntax 17
Dr Alok K
Das
Phrases
NP : Noun Phrase
The car, a clever student
VP : Verb Phrase
study hard, play the guitar
PP : Prepositional Phrase
in the class, above the earth
AP : Adjective Phrase
very tall, quite certain
Syntax 18
Dr Alok K
Das
Phrase Structure Rules
NP (Det) N (PP)
PP P NP
Det N
Det N PP
The bus P NP
Det N
V NP
V NP PP
Det N
Det N P NP
Syntax 21
Dr Alok K
Das
The main structure rules
1. S NP (Aux) VP
2. NP (Det) (AP) N (PP)
3. VP V (NP) (PP) (Adv)
4. PP P NP
5. AP A (PP)
Syntax 22
Dr Alok K
Das
Example
The old tree swayed in the wind
NP Aux VP
Det Adj N V PP
P NP
Det N
Syntax 23
Dr Alok K
Das
Example
The children put the toy in the box
NP VP
Det N V NP PP
Det N P NP
Det N
Syntax 24
Dr Alok K
Das
Ambiguity: a word, phrase or
sentence with multiple meanings
Syntax 25
Dr Alok K
Das
Ambiguities often lead to humorous results
Syntax 26
Dr Alok K
Das
Structural Ambiguity
The boy saw the man with the telescope
NP Aux VP
Det N V NP PP
Det N P NP
Det N
The boy past saw the man with the telescope
Syntax 27
Dr Alok K
Das
Structural Ambiguity
The boy saw the man with the telescope
S
NP Aux VP
Det N V NP
Det N PP
P NP
Det N
The boy past saw the man with the telescope
Syntax 28
Dr Alok K
Das
Draw two phrase structure trees representing the two
meanings of the sentence:
Syntax 29
Dr Alok K
Das
Declarative – Interrogative
Move the auxiliary to the left of the subject.
NP Aux VP Aux NP VP
Det N V Det N V
Syntax 30
Dr Alok K
Das
The Wh Movement
Surface structure: Which car should the man repair?
Deep structure: S
NP Aux VP
Det N V NP
Det N
Syntax 32
Dr Alok K
Das