HG 8001

HG8001
Syntax
Francesco
Yoda Talk
YODA: Away put you weapon, I

mean you no harm!
YODA: I'm wondering, why are

you here?
LUKE: I'm looking for someone...
YODA: Looking? Found
someone you have I would say
hmmm?
LUKE: Right.
YODA: Help you I can,
yes...mmm
LUKE: I don't think so, I'm
looking for a great warrior.
YODA: Ahhh! Great warrior.
Wars not make one great...
GRAMMAR!!!
Phonetics
Cat -> cats
[ket] -> [kets]
Dog -> dogs
[dog] -> [dogz]
Morphology review
What is the subject matter of morphology?
The study of the structure of words
What is a word?
An arbitrary pairing of sound and meaning
What is a morpheme?
Building blocks of complex words
5
Morphology review
You should be able to explain the following distinctions:
Content words and function words
Content concepts, open class
Function grammatical function, closed class
Bound and free morphemes

Free: independent words bound: affixes
Derivational morphology and inflectional morphology

Derivational: root + bound morpheme =new word with new meaning
Inflectional: root + bound morpheme = new word with marking of
some grammatical aspect.
6
Morphology review
Word formation
Morphology (and Semantics) show how new words are
created.
Word formation rules (derivations)

Coining
Compounding
Blending
Acronyms
Clippings
Backformation
Conversion
Grammar - morphology
Friend
Friend-ly
Un-friend (new from Facebook?)
Un-friend-ly
Friend-li-er
Affection-ate-ly
*affectionatelier
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Morphology review
The hierarchical structure of words
Whats the evidence?
How do we represent the hierarchical structure of
words?
Think of an ambiguous word and represent the

meanings in tree diagrams
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Untieable
Adjective
-able
Verb
Un-
Verb
tie
Can be untied
10
Untieable
Adjective
Un- Adjective
Verb
-able
tie
Cannot be tied
Compare with: Can be untied
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Grammar relations
I eat
She eat-s
The morphological change is decided by
the subject
12
Subject is a word or phrase that does an

action and usually comes before the verb
Object is a word or phrase that receives an
action and usually comes after the verb
13
The tests of subjecthood 1

Subject-verb agreement
Number
He is, they are
1st
person
Person
I am, you are, he is, we are
Examples:
2nd
person
The French Chanter to sing

The Italian parlare to speak
3rd
person
singular
plural
Je chante
Nous
chantons
parlo
parliamo
Tu chantes
Vous
chantez
parli
parlate
Il chante
Ils chantent
parla
parlano
Syntax
What is syntax?
The study of sentence structure
15
Grammaticality
Grammatical sentences are sequences of
words that conform to the rules of syntax.
Ungrammatical sentences violate syntactic
rules (among other rules J)
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Grammaticality judgment
Language speakers have intuitions about
grammaticality
The boy found the ball
*The boy found quickly
*The boy found in the house
The boy quickly found the ball in the house
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Are these sentences

grammatical?
Humongous short haired buffoons in
purple pants sang at the party
Colorless green ideas sleep furiously
The earth is flat
Singapore is a cold and dry place.
Francesco is a bad teacher
18
The ability to make grammaticality judgments does NOT
depend on:
Having heard the sentence before
Humongous short haired buffoons in purple pants sang at the
party
Whether a sentence is meaningful or not

Colorless green ideas sleep furiously
The truth of sentences

The earth is flat
Singapore is a cold and dry place.
Francesco is a bad teacher
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Ungrammaticality
You may understand the meaning of a
sentence and still judge it to be ungrammatical
*The boy in quickly the house the ball found
*The in found the the quickly house ball boy
20
What is Syntax?
Syn means together
tax means arranging
Are you how ?
Syntax is a level of
grammar that
specifically refers to the
arrangement of words
and morphemes in the
construction of
sentences.
The rules of syntax specify the correct
word order for a language!
Meanings & Arrangement of Words

1. He burps what he
means.
2. He means what he
burps.
The rules of syntax

describe the
relationship between
meanings & sequence
of words.
The sentences contain
the same words but the
meanings are quite
different.
Grammatical Relations
1. Your dog chased my
cat.
2. My cat chased your
dog.
The rules of syntax

specify the grammatical
relations of a sentence
such as subject &
object.
They provide
information about who
is doing what to whom.
Word Order in Different Languages

S-V-O [English, German, French, Thai,
Swahili, etc.]
S-O-V [Bengali, Turkish, Persian &
Navajo]
V-S-O [Tagalog, Irish, & Welsh]
V-O-S [Fijian & Malagasy]
O-V-S [Carib from Brazil]
O-S-V [None till recently]
Flexible word order [Indigenous
languages of Australia]
What is the basic sentence structure

in Japanese?
Tanaka-ga tegami-o kakimasu
Tanaka letter
write
(Tanaka writes a letter)
Tanaka-ga shinbun-o yomimasu
Tanaka newspaper read
(Tanaka reads a newspaper)
Ambiguity
Syntax can also account for multiple
meanings --- AMBIGUITY
Like words, sentences have hierarchical
structure.
26
Ambiguity
Paraphrase the multiple meanings.
Example: She cant bear children
can mean either
She cant give birth to children or
She cant tolerate children.
Ambiguity
He waited by the bank.
Is he really that kind?
The proprietor of the fish store was the
sole owner.
The long drill was boring.
Every man loves a woman.
Bill wants to marry a Norwegian woman.
Ambiguity and Structure

Consider the ambiguous phrase:
stupid pet tricks

Within the phrase, the words can be
grouped in two possible ways:
(stupid pet) tricks, i.e., tricks performed by
stupid pets, or
stupid (pet tricks), i.e., stupid tricks done
by pets
Similarly to morphology, we can draw

the phrase with a tree:
(stupid
stupid
pet)
(pet
tricks
tricks)
Similarly to morphology, we can draw

the phrase with a tree:
(stupid
stupid
pet)
(pet
tricks
tricks)
Ambiguity: a word, phrase or

sentence with multiple meanings
American history teachers
American history teachers
American
history
teachers
History teachers who are American
American
history
teachers
Teachers of American history
Ambiguity
Nanyang Chronicle headline:
Complaints about NTU lecturers

growing ugly
33
Some sentences may be lexically or structurally ambiguous,

or both.
Example: I saw him walking by the bank.
Meaning 1: I saw him and he was walking by the bank of

the river.
Meaning 2: I saw him and he was walking by the financial
institution.
Meaning 3: I/He was walking by the bank of the river
when I saw him.
Meaning 4: I/He was walking by the financial institution
when I saw him.
Provide paraphrases showing you comprehend all the

meanings.
We laughed at the colorful ball.

He was knocked over by the punch.
I said I would file it on Thursday.
I cannot recommend visiting professors too
highly.
The license fee for pets owned by senior citizens
who have not been neutered is $1.50. (Actual
notice)
Wanted: Man to take care of cow that does not

smoke or drink. (Actual notice)
For sale: Several old dresses from grandmother
in beautiful condition. (Actual notice)
Time flies like an arrow. (Hint: There are at least
4 paraphrases, but some of them require
imagination)
The design has big squares and circles

Terry loves his wife and so do I
No smoking section available
Hui En finally decided on the boat
The sheepdog is too hairy to eat
37
Ambiguity
The girl saw the man with the telescope.
(The girl) (saw) (the man with the telescope)
(The girl) (saw) (the man) (with the telescope)
We can tree the ambiguity (will do so

shortly after we look at sentence structure).
38
Sentence structure
Syntactic rules determine the order of
words in a sentence and how the words
are grouped
The students love this syntactic analysis
How many groupings are possible?
39
How many groupings are possible?

The students love this syntactic analysis
The students
syntactic analysis
this syntactic analysis
love this syntactic analysis
But NOT:
love this
this syntactic
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Labeling Phrases
The Constituent Structure of a Sentence
The art student looked at a very beautiful painting.
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Phrase and Sentence Structure:

Constituency
As we have seen, we can organize words
together in a sentence or other phrase into
natural groupings with coherent meaning:
(stupid pet) tricks
old (men and women)
stupid (pet tricks)

(old men) and women
These groupings are called constituents.
Identifying Constituents
A constituent is a group of words with a
coherent meaning; therefore,
a sentence will always be a constituent, as will
the individual words in it.
Identifying other constituents within a sentence is
not always so easy. There are some tests,
however, for distinguishing constituents from
mere strings of words.
Labeling the Constituents of a

Sentence
The Words (Parts-Of-Speech):
Art adj N
verb prep art adv adj
N
IMPORTANT!! You must be able to

recognize what each word is!
44
PARTS OF SPEECH
1. NOUNS
are words which are used to represent
Persons
Places
Things
Something that substantively exists and something which substantively
doesnt exist but it is conceptually understood and has a particular
quality
Quality
The quality of things such as height, beauty, brightness, density,
prosperity, strength, courage, etc
Actions
Ideas
Occurrences
NOUNS
can function as:
The subject or object of a sentence
The object of a preposition
EXAMPLES
I saw a student wearing a red shirt
I
student
shirt
person, subject
person, object
thing, object
EXAMPLES:
London is one of the famous tourist destination
in the world
London:
Destination:
The world:
place, subject
things, object
place, object
2. VERB
a word or a group of words which is used:
To express an action
To express the existence of a particular noun (is,
am, are)
To make a statement (will, shall, can)
To link noun to noun
To link noun to adjective
Examples for action verbs:

The scientists explore the use of ginger for
medicine
I made this cake last week
She cooks Peranakan food very well
The students dont listen to my lecture
Examples for linking verb
She is a humble young lady

My daughter became a famous author
The yoghurt drinks taste delicious
The cake looks horrible
After a heating period for one hour, the
temperature remains constant.
The cake will expire soon
3. PRONOUNS
are words that substitute a noun or a noun phrase
Personal pronoun which can act as subject or

object
Possessive adjective pronoun
Possessive pronoun
Pronouns
Subject
Object
Possessive
ME
MINE
WE
US
OURS
YOU
YOU
YOURS
SHE
HER
HERS
HE
HIM
HIS
IT
IT
ITS
THEY
THEM
THEIRS
Pronouns
interrogative pronouns (who, which, what) used
for asking questions
relative pronouns (who, which, what, that) used in
complex sentences
demonstrative pronouns (this, that, these, those)
indefinite pronouns (some, all, both, each, etc.)
Examples
The food youre cooking smells delicious. -->
That smells delicious.
The pretzel-like yoga move were doing really hurts. -->
This really hurts.

What is the strange, polka-dotted, Sasquatch-like creature
coming toward us? -->
What is that?
The cockroaches currently giving birth under our kitchen sink

are totally gross. -->
Those are totally gross.
The delicious, pink petit fours on my plate are my favourites. -->
These are my favourites.

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Examples
I let you take this book but not those.

We gave these materials last semester.
Those flowers are not for sale.
I have only one like that at home.
Indefinite pronouns
Indefinite pronouns refer to an unknown or
undetermined person, place or thing.
Care must be taken to identify whether the pronoun is
singular or plural to ensure the proper conjugation of
the verb.
These are singular pronouns :
Another, Anyone, Anybody, Anything, Everyone,
Everybody, Everything, Nothing, Each, Either, No
One, Neither, Nobody, One, Someone, Somebody,
Something
4. Adjectives
Adjectives are a class of words used to modify a
noun or other substantives by qualifying, limiting and
specifying
There are 2 types of adjectives:
a. Describing adjective
b. Limiting adjective
Describing adjectives
Normally describing adjectives answer questions
what kind
For examples :
Beautiful
Colorful
Comfortable
Enjoyable
Delicious
Famous
Marvelous
Roses are beautiful flowers

High protein intake gives you strong muscles.
I have an interesting topic for my FYP.
In the last 24 hours the bacteria showed a fast
growth
The researchers have shown wonderful teamwork.
My students are hard workers
They achieved a great result on the project.
I love dark color clothes
Cardinal Numbers as adjectives

I bought 10 souvenirs for my friends
10 specifies the amount of souvenirs
It answers question How many souvenir did you
buy?
Ordinal Numbers as adjectives

The 2nd repetition gave the highest rendement
2nd specifies the repetition
It answers question Which repetition gave the
highest rendement?
Demonstrative adjectives
I am going to work in that shop across the road
That specifies the shop the speaker means is the
one across the road
It answers question which lab are you going to
work in?
Possessive adjective
I used my recipe for this cake
"My" specifies the recipe that belongs to the
speaker only
It answers question which recipe did you use for
this cake?
Quantity adjectives
I am going to make a lot of cookies tonight
"A lot of" specify the number or amount of cookies
that will be made by the speaker
It answers question how many cookies are you
trying to make?
5. ADVERBS
An adverb is a part of speech
comprising a class of words that
modifies, or adds to the meaning of
A verb (except linking verb)
An adjective
Another adverb
A sentence
An adverb modifies a verb

Fire from bunsen burner heats the test
tube quickly
Older people eat slowly
Young children play aggressively
Student must work carefully in the lab
My son speaks Chinese fluently
Decrease the temperature immediately
after baking
An adverb modifies an adjective

The growth is very slow
The city has changed very fast
The food tastes really nice
Our cloth is cloudy yellow
An adverb modifies another adverb

The cooling period is done too slowly
An adverb modifies a sentence

Unfortunately, we have run out of baking
powder
Suddenly, he switched off the motor
Previously, we had found no changes in
the demographics
A preposition introduces a noun or pronoun

or a phrase or clause functioning in the sentence
as a noun.
The preposition
never stands alone!
Some Common Prepositions

aboard
about
above
across
after
against
along
among
around
at
before
behind
below
beneath
beside
between
beyond
by
down
during
except
for
from
in
into
like
of
off
on
over
past
since
through
throughout
to
toward
under
underneath
until
up
upon
with
within
without
7. Conjunctions
A conjunction is a word that joins words
or groups of words.
And
Or
Either / or
But
Neither / nor
8. Interjections
Interjection is a word, a phrase or a short
sentence which can stand alone.
It is used to exclaim, command, or to
express emotion.
Examples
Wow, that is incredible!
No, thank you!
Sorry! I cant give you any money.
Oh dear! You shouldnt have done this!
Excuse me!
9. Articles
Definite -> The
Indefinite -> a, an
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Back to Constituents!
The natural groupings of a sentence are
constituents
Our knowledge of the constituent structure
can be represented with a tree
78
Syntactic categories
A family or group of expressions that can substitute for
one another retaining grammaticality is called a syntactic
category
A police officer found the puppy in the garden

Your neighbor found the puppy in the garden
This yellow cat found the puppy in the garden
They found the puppy in the garden
What syntactic category is the subject in the above

sentences?
Can you think of other syntactic categories?
79
A family of expressions that can substitute for one
another retaining grammaticality is called a syntactic
category

Your neighbor found the puppy in the garden
This yellow cat found the puppy in the garden
They found the puppy in the garden
What syntactic category is the subject in the above

sentences?
80
A family of expressions that can substitute for one
another retaining grammaticality is called a syntactic
category

Your neighbor found the puppy on the roof
This yellow cat found the puppy under the table
They found the puppy by the hot dog stand
What syntactic category is in yellow in the above

sentences?
81
S: sentence
Phrases are named for one of their main elements
(The Head).
NP: noun phrase
VP: verb phrase
PP: prepositional phrase
AdjP: adjectival phrase
N: noun, V: verb, P: preposition, A (Adj): adjective,
82
Head of a Phrase
The head of a phrase is
the word that
determines the
syntactic or phrasal
category of that phrase.
The head of an NP is a
noun, the head of a VP
is a verb & the head of
a PP is a preposition.
Examples of NPs
- The boat
- The title
All other parts of a
phrase are called the
phrases complements.
Noun Phrases
A. Zoe mailed a letter .
1.
2.
3.
4.
A noun phrase in a
sentence can function B. Zoe came late.
as the:
Subject
C. Zoe & her friends went
Direct Object
into the house.
Indirect Object
Object of a Preposition D. She gave the card to me.
Determiners
Categories:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Demonstratives
Possessives
Interrogatives
Definite Articles
Indefinite Articles
Identifying Constituents
Constituents and Hierarchy

Constituent structure is hierarchical: that is, one
constituent may be part of another.
Many executives eat at really fancy restaurants.
But this is pretty hard to see: which brings us back to the

tree diagrams we love so much.
A Tree Diagram
Note that each constituent consists of
everything below a given node.
Many executives eat at really fancy restaurants.
many executives
eat at really fancy restaurants
at really fancy restaurants
Really fancy restaurants

really fancy
Many
executives
eat
at
really
fancy
restaurants.
A Tree Diagram
Note that each branching point describes
a complete constituent.
Many
executives
eat
at
restaurants
really
fancy
Substitution:
Many executives eat at really fancy
restaurants.
Some people eat at really fancy restaurants.
A few of my friends eat at really fancy
restaurants.
Gorillas eat at really fancy restaurants.
Syntactic Categories
Note that each grouping in the tree diagram is a
member of a large family or group of similar
expressions.
For example, many executives belongs to a
family that includes some people, a few of my
friends, gorillas and many others.
Any member of this family can be substituted for
many executives without affecting the
grammaticality of the sentence:
Syntactic Categories and

Phrase Structure Rules
These families of expressions are called
syntactic categories. A single such
expression is a phrase.
The rules for how words go together to
create phrases and how phrases in turn go
together are called phrase structure
rules.
Issues with Constituents

Note that we can not say whether a given group of
words is a constituent in general, only relative to a
given sentence. For example, consider the group of
words Jack and Jill:
Jack and Jill raised yetis.
In this sentence, Jack and Jill is a constituent.
The Lamas raised Jack and Jill grew up in Peru.
In this sentence, it is not.
How many groupings are

possible?
The student looked at a very beautiful painting.
the student
a very beautiful painting
at a very beautiful paining
looked at a very beautiful painting
But NOT:
looked at a
beautiful painting
94
Labeling Phrases
The art student
95
Labeling Phrases
The art student
Noun Phrase (NP)

= [ Art + Adj + N]
96
Labeling Phrases
97
Labeling Phrases
Verb Phrase (VP) = [V+??]
98
Labeling Phrases
Verb Phrase (VP) = [V+PP]

Prepositional Phrase (PP)= [P+??]
99
Labeling Phrases

Prepositional Phrase (PP)= [P+??]
100
Labeling Phrases

Prepositional Phrase (PP)= [P+NP]
(NP) = [Art+Adv+Adj+N]
101
Diagnostics for constituents

Diagnostics for phrasal constituents
Substitution/Pronoun substitution
Gong Li loves apples => She loves apples
My sister eats everything she sees => She eats it/all.
Blue crabs hate orange-lined Triggerfish => They hate them.
Zhang Ziyi went to that ulu university in Singapore => She went there
Stand alone/Questions
What does Gong Li love?
Where did Zhang Ziyi go?
Apples.
To that ulu university in Singapore
Relocation (movement)
to that ulu university in Singapore Zhang Ziyi went.
Coordination
My sister eats everything she sees but drinks nothing she pours herself.
102
Phrase structure trees

Constituents can be represented graphically as nodes in
a tree
A tree diagram with syntactic category information is
called a phrase structure tree
They represent (encode) three aspects of speakers
syntactic knowledge:
The linear order of words
The groupings of words into syntactic categories
The hierarchical structure of syntactic categories
103
Lexical categories
Phrasal categories
verb
sentence
noun
VP
verb phrase
preposition
NP
noun phrase
Adj
adjective
PP
prepositional phrase
complementizer
AdjP
adjectival phrase
determiner
AdvP
Adverbial phrase
Adv
adverb
CP
complementizer phrase
Aux
auxiliary
104
Phrase Structure
extremely
interesting
Phrase Structure
AdjP
Adv
extremely
Adj
interesting
AdjP
AdvP
Adv
extremely
Adj
interesting
Tree diagram
108
Tree terminology
Syntactic trees tend to be upside down
The root of the tree
The leaves of the tree
The nodes of the tree
Mother-daughter relation
Siblings: sister-sister relation
Dominate relation
Immediately dominate relation
109
Practice
Draw phrase structure trees for the following
sentences:
red books on the shelf
The ice melted
The professor bit the student
A frightened passenger landed the damaged plane
The house on the hill collapsed in the wind
110
Tree Diagrams
NP
PP
NP
Adj
red
NP
books
on
Det
the shelf
NP
Det
The
VP
ice
melted
VP
NP
NP
Det
The
professor
bit
Det
the student
VP
NP
NP
AdjP
AdjP
Det
Adj
Det
Adj
A frightened passenger landed the damaged plane
The house on the hill collapsed
in
the
wind
Heads and complements

Phrase structure rules show relations between the
members of the phrase
A VP, for example, contains a V which is the head of the
phrase
The VP may contain other categories but the entire
phrase refers to what the head refers
E.g. kick the ball into Michaels stomach refers to the event of
kicking
The other constituents in the phrase are complements or

adjuncts
116
Heads and complements

Every phrasal category has a head of its
same syntactic type:
VP: V
NP: N
PP: P
AdjP: Adj
AdvP: Adv
117
Practice
Find the head and the complements of the
following phrases
The man with the telescope
The destruction of Rome
.. wrote the best seller
.. bowled a perfect game
118
Practice
following phrases
119
Practice
following phrases
120
Italian example
following phrases
Il
grande cane
pastore
The
big
dog
shepherd
(The big shepherd dog)
la Cappella Sistina dipinge

... the Chapel Sistine paints (paints the Sistine Chapel)
121
Italian example
following phrases
Il
grande cane
pastore
The
big
dog
shepherd
(The big shepherd dog)
(Michelangelo) la Cappella Sistina dipinge

(...) the Chapel Sistine paints (paints the Sistine Chapel)
122
Complements and Adjuncts

A complement is a constituent that cannot be
removed
Without changing the meaning of the sentence, or
making the sentence ungrammatical
E.g. program in:

John was running the program
John liked the program
An adjunct can always be removed without

changing the core meaning of a sentence:
John was running in the park
the nice program for syntactic analysis
123
Complement selection
Whether a verb takes more than one complement
depends on the properties of the verb
The verb find is a transitive verb and requires an NP
direct object complement
This information selection is included in the lexical entry
of the word and explains the grammaticality judgment of
the following:
The boy found the ball
*They boy found quickly
*The boy found in the house
124
Sleep is intransitive, it cannot take an NP
complement
Michael slept
*Michael slept a fish
125
Think takes (selects) a clausal complement (CP).
I think (that) Sam won the race
Tell selects clausal complement or NP or an S.

I told Sam (that) Michael was on the bicycle
I told him
Feel selects an AdjP or a CP

They felt strong as oxen
They feel (that) they can win
*They feel
126
Its not only verbs that have selectional
restrictions
Belief selects a PP or an S
We believe in you / the world is flat
Sympathy selects a PP
We have sympathy for .
Tired selects a PP etc.

We are tired of this topic.
127
The infinity of language

aka recursion
The number of sentences in a language is infinite
This is because sentences can be lengthened by
various means
The heart of this linguistic property is the ability
to generate recursive structures
128
This is the house that Jack built...

by Mother Goose
This is the farmer sowing the corn,

That kept the cock that crowed in the morn.
That waked the priest all shaven and shorn,
That married the man all tattered and torn,
That kissed the maiden all forlorn,
That milked the cow with the crumpled horn,
That tossed the dog,
That worried the cat,
That killed the rat,
That ate the malt
That lay in the house that Jack built.
129
Infinity of language
The repetition of categories within categories is
common in all languages and explains the infinity
of language
Our brain capacity is finite and able to store only
a finite number of categories and rules for their
combination
These finite means place an infinite set of
sentences at our disposal
130
Subconscious Knowledge
Fluent speakers of a
language possess an
However, we know little
enormous subconscious
or nothing about the
knowledge, known as
rules of a language we
linguistic competence,
do not understand.
of the rules of their own
language.
Subconscious Knowledge about

Examples
We know about:
Syntax
Completeness
*That house not pretty.
Word Order
*You had early get up

wanted.
-
-
-
Ambiguity:
Lexical / Polysemantic A sentence is ambiguous if
Structural / Syntactic
it has more than one
Part-of-speech
meaning.
Syntactic Categories
A Sentence (S) consists of an NP and a VP.

An NP consists of a N and
A VP consists of V and
A Prepositional Phrase (PP) consists of a
preposition plus an NP.
An Adjectival Phrase (AdjP) consists of an
adjective and any adverbs that modify it.
An Adverbial Phrase (AdvP) consists of an adverb
and any other adverbs that modify it.
Lexical Categories (Noun, Verb, Preposition,
Adjective and Adverb,) also function as Syntactic
Categories.
Noun Phrases
Many executives, some people, a few of my friends,
and so on belong to the syntactic category Noun
Phrase (NP).
An NP is a constituent which may function as a
subject or an object in a sentence.
You can test an NP by inserting the constituent into
one of three contexts:
Who found _____?
_____ was seen by everyone.
What/Who I heard was _____.
Noun Phrase Recognition

Which of the following are NPs?
a bird
the red banjo
have a nice day
with a balloon
the woman who was laughing
it
John
went
Lecture Notes Hand Out

How are PS rules derived?
Boys love old cars.
Rule for NP:
NP
The boys love old cars.
Rule for NP:
NP
The ugly boys love old cars.
Rule for NP:
NP
AdjP

The very ugly boys love old cars.
Rule for NP:
NP
AdjP
The very ugly boy in the blue shirt loves old cars.
Rule for NP:
NP
He loves old cars.
Rule for NP:
NP

at the park
Rule for PP:
PP
The ugly, disgusting, hungry boys love old cars.

Rule for NP:
NP
The boy and his father love old cars.
Rule for NP:
NP

The ugly and hungry boy loves old cars.
Rule for NP:
NP
AdjP
(warm milk) and cake
Rule for NP:
NP
NP
NP
warm (milk and cake)
Rule for NP:
NP
Verb Phrases
Eat at really fancy restaurants, live in
expensive apartments, like cheese and so
on belong to the syntactic category Verb
Phrase (VP).
A VP is a constituent which may function
as the predicate of a sentence.
You can test a VP by inserting the
constituent into the following context:
The child _____.
Verb Phrase Recognition

Which of the following are VPs?
saw a clown
a bird
slept
old
ate the cake
found the cake in the cupboard
realized that the earth was round

He cried.
Rule for VP:
VP
He kicked the ball

Rule for VP:
VP
He gave Mary the ball
Rule for VP:
VP

He cried in the garden.
Rule for VP:
VP
He kicked the ball in the garden.
Rule for VP:
VP
He gave Mary the ball in the garden.
Rule for VP:
VP

Run!
S
Actually = you run!
He likes pizza
Rule for S:
He will kick the ball

Rule for S:
S
Others
She made Melody a cake on her birthday

Rule for S:
S
I hate but need the medicine
Rule for VP:
VP
VP

He told Mary that the ball is in the garden.

Rule for S:
S
(He told Mary)
S
(the ball is in the garden)
that = Complementizer

Rule for S:
S
NP VP (He told Mary)
S
NP VP (the ball is in the garden)
that = Complementizer
Rule for
VP
Rule for
CP
Phrase Structure Trees and

Rules
By labeling each constituent of a sentence,
from individual words to groups of words to
groups of groups, we can draw a phrase
structure tree for it.
Phrase Structure Trees show

us:
The linear order of words in a sentence,
and how this is derived from the
hierarchical structure of the sentence as a
whole.
The identification of the syntactic
categories of the words and constituents in
the sentence.
The hierarchical structure of the syntactic
categories.
Structural Ambiguity
The boy is hitting the man with the telescope
S
NP
Det
Aux
N
VP
V
NP
Det
PP
N
NP
Det
The
boy
is
hitting the
man with the telescope
S
NP
Det
Aux
N
VP
V
NP
Det
PP
N
NP
Det
The
boy
is
hitting the
S
NP
Det
Aux
N
VP
NP
V
Det
PP
P
NP
Det
The
boy
is
hitting the
S
NP
Det
Aux
N
VP
NP
V
Det
PP
P
NP
Det
The
boy
is
hitting the
Complement
He told Mary that the ball is in the garden
S
NP
VP
V
Pr
He
NP
told
Mary
Complement
S
NP
VP
PP
NP
Det N
the ball
is in the garden
Det
Complement
S
NP
VP
V
CP
NP
C
NP
VP
PP
NP
Pr
He
Det N
told Mary that the ball
Det
is in the garden
Complement
He told Mary that Peter said that the ball is in the garden
Complement
S
NP
VP
V
Pr
He
NP
told
Mary
Complement
S
NP
N
Peter
VP
V
said
Complement
S
NP
VP
PP
NP
Det N
the ball
is in the garden
Det
Complement
S
NP
VP
CP
V NP
C
S
NP
VP
CP
S
VP
NP
PP
Pr
He
Det N
told Mary that Peter said the
that
ball
is
in
Det
NP
N
the garden
SUMMARY OF PS rules
Rule for S:
Rule for NP:
(PP*)
S
NP
NP
NP
NP
Rule for VP: VP
{NP CP} (Aux) VP

(Det) (AdjP)* N (NP)
Pr
NP Conj NP
N Conj N
V (NP) { (NP) (CP) } (PP*) (AdjP)

SUMMARY OF PS rules
Rule for CP:
Rule for PP:
Rule for AdjP:
Rule for AdvP
CP
C S
PP
P NP
PP
P CP
AdjP
(AdvP) A
AdjP
AdjP Conj AdjP
AdjP
Adj Conj Adj
AdjP
Adj CP
AdvP
(Deg) Adv
E.g. very quickly
Complementizer Phrases
NP -> N CP
It was proof that ....
The man that ....
The idea that .
AdjP -> Adj CP
I was certain that ...
It was so bad/large/rotten that
PP -> P CP
They argued over whether ...
They talked about whether ...

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YODA: Away put you weapon, I

YODA: I'm wondering, why are

Bound and free morphemes

Derivational morphology and inflectional morphology

Word formation rules (derivations)

Think of an ambiguous word and represent the

Subject is a word or phrase that does an

The tests of subjecthood 1

The French Chanter to sing

Are these sentences

Whether a sentence is meaningful or not

The truth of sentences

Are you how ?

Meanings & Arrangement of Words

The rules of syntax

The rules of syntax

Word Order in Different Languages

What is the basic sentence structure

Ambiguity and Structure

stupid pet tricks

Similarly to morphology, we can draw

Similarly to morphology, we can draw

Ambiguity: a word, phrase or

American history teachers

History teachers who are American

Teachers of American history

Complaints about NTU lecturers

Some sentences may be lexically or structurally ambiguous,

Meaning 1: I saw him and he was walking by the bank of

Provide paraphrases showing you comprehend all the

We laughed at the colorful ball.

Wanted: Man to take care of cow that does not

The design has big squares and circles

We can tree the ambiguity (will do so

How many groupings are possible?

Phrase and Sentence Structure:

stupid (pet tricks)

These groupings are called constituents.

Labeling the Constituents of a

IMPORTANT!! You must be able to

Examples for action verbs:

Examples for linking verb

She is a humble young lady

Personal pronoun which can act as subject or

The pretzel-like yoga move were doing really hurts. -->

This really hurts.

The cockroaches currently giving birth under our kitchen sink

The delicious, pink petit fours on my plate are my favourites. -->

These are my favourites.

I let you take this book but not those.

Roses are beautiful flowers

Cardinal Numbers as adjectives

Ordinal Numbers as adjectives

An adverb modifies a verb

An adverb modifies an adjective

An adverb modifies another adverb

An adverb modifies a sentence

A preposition introduces a noun or pronoun

never stands alone!

Some Common Prepositions

A police officer found the puppy in the garden

What syntactic category is the subject in the above