Detecting Complements and Adjuncts

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Detecting Complements and Adjuncts

• Rajat Kumar Mohanty
• Center for Indian Language Technology
• IIT Bombay

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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

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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.

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X-bar Projection
XP
(Maximal projection)
(Intermediate projection)
X
YP
X
ZP
(Minimal projection)
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X-bar Projection
XP
(X-phrase)
YP
X
(Specifier)
X
ZP
(Head)
(Complement)
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X-bar Projection
XP
X
YP
(Specifier)
ZP
X
(Adjunct)
(Complement)
ZP
(Head)
X
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X-bar Projection
NP
N
NPspecifier
PPcomplement
Johns
Nhead
solution
to the problem
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X-bar Projection
NP
N
Detspecifier
the
PPadjunct
N
in the cabinet meeting
PPcomplement
Nhead
of the cricket match
discussion
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Complement and Adjuncts within an NP
NP
N
Detspecifier
a
PPadjunct
N
with long hair
PPcomplement
Nhead
of NLP
student
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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

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a person who studies high moral principles
NP
N
Detspecifier
a
PPcomplement
Nhead
of high moral principles
student
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a student who has high moral principles
NP
N
Detspecifier
a
PPadjunct
N
of moral principles
Nhead
student
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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.

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Phrase Structure Rules for Noun Phrases

• The complement must precede an adjunct.
• Rules
• NP? N (PP) adjunct rule
• N? N (PP) complement rule
• Examples
• a student of Physics with long hair
• a student with long hair of Physics

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Phrase Structure Rules for Noun Phrases

• Adjunct rules are recursive.
• A complement rule is not recursive, i.e., it can
  apply only once.
• Examples
• a student with long hair with short arms
• a student of Physics of Chemistry

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Reordering of Adjuncts

• Unlike complements which have to precede
  adjuncts, adjuncts can be freely reordered with
  respect to each other.
• a student with long hair with short arms
• a student with short arms with long hair

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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

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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
• A student with long hair came to see me
  yesterday.
• ? A student came to see me yesterday with long
  hair.
• A student came to see me yesterday of Physics.

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Preposing

• Complements and Adjuncts behave differently with
  respect to preposing.
• Examples
• What branch of linguistics is John a student
  of?
• 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.

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Co-occurrence Restrictions

• Heads place significant restrictions (i.e. ,
  subcategorisation) on what can appear as their
  complement.
• a student of NLP
• a boy of NLP
• a girl of NLP
• 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

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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.

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Exercise-I

• Identify the complements and adjuncts in the
  following NPs
• your reply to my letter
• the attack on Starr
• the loss of the ship
• Johns disgust at Marys behavior
• his disillusionment with life
• the book on the table
• the advertisement on the television
• the fight after the match
• his resignation because of the scandal
• a cup with a broken handle

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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 weeks quiz on page 20 is
  a better one.

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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.

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THANK YOU