Syntax Continued

1
Syntax Continued

• Constituency Tests
• Phrase Structure Rules

2
How to determine constituency

• Semantic intuitions
• sometimes, we just know that certain strings of
  words go together as a unit.
• Constituency Tests (more reliable)
• tests that can be applied to string of words in a
  given sentence to determine if the string is a
  constituent or not.

3
Three kinds of constituency tests

• Stand Alone Test
• Substitution Test
• Movement Test

4
Stand Alone Test

• A constituent can often be replaced by a question
  expression such as who, what, where, how, why, or
  do/did what.
• The replaced constituent can then stand alone as
  an answer to the question.

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Stand Alone Test

• Clarice played the accordion under the table.
• Q Where did Clarice play the accordion?
• A under the table
• Clarice played the accordion under the table.
• Q Clarice played what under the table?
• A the accordion

6
Substitution Test

• Only constituents can be replaced by pro-forms.

Pro-form examples pronouns she, he, it, they,
us, her, that pro-verbs do, be pro-adverbs the
re, then, here pro-adjectives such, so, thus
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Substitution Test

• Clarice played the accordion under the table.
• Clarice played the accordion there.
• Clarice played the accordion under the table.
• Clarice played it under the table.
• Clarice played the accordion under the table.
• Clarice did. (Who played the accordion under the
  table?)

8
Movement Test

• If a string can be moved to the beginning of a
  sentence, it is a constituent.
• Clarice played the accordion under the table.
• Under the table, Clarice played the accordion.
• ? The accordion Clarice played under the table.
  (We already know this is a constituent.)
• Played the accordion under the table Clarice.
• (We already know this is a constituent.)
• Sometimes, constituency tests wont work for
  strings that are actually constituents.

9
When applying const. tests, keep this in mind

• The tests arent foolproof. Often a constituent
  will only pass two of the three tests.
• Decide whether or not a string is a constituent
  based on how convincing the test results are.
• One strong pass is enough to determine
  constituency in some cases.

10
When applying const. tests, keep this in mind

• We can only say whether or not a string is a
  constituent relative to a particular sentence.
• Time flies like an arrow.
• Fruit flies like a banana.
• We watched shooting stars all night
• The Milky Way was shooting stars from the
  galactic center.

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Phrase Structure Rules

• Our Grammar Consists of a set of rules acquired
  in order to form sentences
• They are formed by putting words from different
  lexical categories together
• PSRs (Phrase structure Rules) differ from
  language to language.

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Lexical category

• Parts of speech
• Many words, limited categories
• What you learned in school
• Noun
• Person, place or thing
• Verb
• Action word
• Adjective
• Describes something

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But

• bad
• oops, my bad
• sandwich
• to sandwich something between two things

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Determiners

• a, an, the, every, this, that, those, her, his,
  my, yours
• ______ (Adj) N
• Det

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Nouns

• ______ plural morpheme -s
• Det (Adj) ______
• N

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Adjectives

• ______ comparative morpheme
• more/most ______ very/quite ______
• linking verb ______ (seems, feels, is)
• Det ______ N
• A

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Verbs

• ______ progressive morpheme -ing
• ______ past tense morpheme -ed
• auxiliary verb ______ (must, will, might)
• to ______
• ___ (NP) (PP)
• V

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Prepositions

• at, up, over, into, above, through
• right ______ NP
• ___ NP
• P

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Phrase Structure Rules (PSRs)

• Make observations about language
• subject and predicate (NP and VP)
• Make a rule
• S ? NP VP
• a sentence consists of an NP and a VP

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Noun phrases (NPs)

• Cats make good pets
• NP ? N
• The book is red
• NP ? Det N
• My friendly neighbor enjoys jogging
• NP ? Det Adj N

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Collapse the rules

• NP ? N
• NP ? Det N
• NP ? Det Adj N
• NP ? (Det) (Adj) N

22
English PSRs

• S ? NP VP
• NP ? (Det) (AP) N
• VP ? V (NP)(PP)
• AP ? (Adv) A

23
Building trees

• Words and rules
• Different ways
• top-down
• bottom-up

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Top-down

• S

25
Top-down

• S
• VP
• NP

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Top-down

• S
• VP
• NP NP
• V

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Top-down

• S
• VP
• NP NP
• Det A N V Det A
  N

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Top-down

• S
• VP
• NP NP
• Det A N V Det A
  N
• My new roommate eats my leftover food

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Bottom-up

• My new roommate eats my leftover food

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Bottom-up

• Det A N V Det A N
• My new roommate eats my leftover food

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Bottom-up

• NP NP
• Det A N V Det A N
• My new roommate eats my leftover food

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Bottom-up

• VP
• NP NP
• Det A N V Det A
  N
• My new roommate eats my leftover food

33
Bottom-up

• S
• VP
• NP NP
• Det A N V Det A N
• My new roommate eats my leftover food

34
Practice Sentences

• The energetic boy ran up the hill.
• The little dog ate the biscuits.