Grammatical Relations

Recall that we can classify constituents in three distinct ways :

• Syntactic Category

• Grammatical Relations

• Thematic Role

Grammatical relation is a grammar based on a theory in which grammatical relations

(as subject or object) are primitives in terms of which syntactic operations are defined.

Grammatical relations are properties of phrase, not heads of phrase.

The dog ate an avocado on Tuesday

Subject
{NP/S’} daughter of S
Object
NP daughter of VP
Adjunct
Other modifier (of VP)
 Subject
Consider the following pair of examples :
a. [The cat] devoured [the rat]
b. [The rat] devoured [the cat]
These two sentence have exactly the ame word and have the same predicator
devoured. Yet they are significantly different in meaning and the main difference
comes from what serves as subject or object.
 In (a), the subject is the cat, whereas in (b)it is the rat
 the object is the rat in (a) but the cat in (b).
The subject of a sentence is not always an Agent, or even the ‘topic’ of the sentence.
 It was raining hard
 There was a duck in the garden
 My brother wears a green overcoat.

Note :
Agent is the role of an argument that by its action affects some other entity. Tom broke
the window
 Subjects cont’d.
1. Agreement
The verb usually agrees with the subject
a. The girl likes/*the boys
b. Our neighbor takes/*his children to school in his car
2. Case
If replaced with a pronoun, the subject usually has nominative case.
a. The boys like the girls.
They like the girls.
3. Inversion
The subject inverts with an auxiliary in questions.
a. It has been hot all summer
b. Has it been hot all summer ?
4. Tag Questions
a. The subject is questioned in a tag question.
b. It can get hot, can’t it ?
c. Sanam finished, didn’t she ?
 Object
 Object also can’tbe identified semantically.
a. Thunder frightens the dog.
b. The dog fears thunder.
The objects in (a) and (b) are not really affected by the action. In (a) the dog is
experiencing something, and in (b) the thunder is somehow causing some feeling in the
dog.

• Direct Object and Indirect Object

•
 Adjuncts
Adjuncts are always optional. They specify manner, location, time, or reason
(how, where, when, or why)
a. We ate quickly
b. We ate in the kitchen
c. We ate at noon
d. We ate because whe had to
At the moment, we have no way of identifying adjuncts structurally.
 Structural Relations
Structural relations : the formal relationship between items of a tree.

 Some basic terms

 Node : a constituent (unit) of syntactic structure / any point with a label.

 Label : the syntactic category of node

Ex : M, N, O, D, E, F, H, I, J

 Branch : a line connecting two nodes

Ex : the lines between M and N, M and O, N and D, N and E, N and F, O and

H, O and I, O and J.
 Brancing node : a node with two or more daughters
Ex : M, N, O.

 Root node : an undominated node

Ex : M
 Non-terminal node : a node that dominates something
Ex : N, O

 Terminal node : a node that dominates nothing

Ex : D, E, F, G, H, J
1. Dominance

The relation between a category and its constituents : A category dominates all of
its constituents.

 Immadiate dominance

Ex : A dominates B, C, D, E, F, G,

But A immediately dominates only B, C, D

 Some informal terms

 Mother : the node that immediately dominates another.

Ex : M is the mother of N, if M immediately dominates B

 Daughter : the node that is immeditely dominated by another (is an

immediate constituent of another).

Ex : N is a daughter of M if N immediately dominates M

 Sisters : two nodes that share the same mother

Ex : M is a sisters of N if M and N are daughters of the same

mother. ( D, E, F are sisters; H, I, J are sisters; N, O are sisters.
 Exhaustively dominate
a exhaustively dominates its constituent; the set of all leaf nodes that it is the
ancestor of.

N exhaustively dominates {D, E, F}

O exhaustively dominates {H, I, J}
M exhaustively dominates {D, E, F, H, I, J}

• Constituent
Each node is a constituent.
{E, H} are NOT a constituent.
• Constituent of
A dominates B, then we say B is a constituent of A.