Chapter 3 Constituency, Trees, and Rules

Chapter 3: Constituency, Trees, and Rules Syntax: study of sentence structure Constituents: group of words that function together as a unit Constituency/Hierarchical structure: constituents in a sentence are embedded inside other constituents Phrase structure rules: CP  (C) TP TP  {NP/CP} (T) VP VP  (AdvP+) V (NP)({NP/CP})(AdvP+)(PP+)(AdvP+) NP  (D)(AdjP+) N (PP+)(CP) PP  P (NP) AdjP  (AdvP) Adj AdvP  (AdvP) Adv XP  XP conj XP X  X conj X Psychological Reality of Constituency -people tend to perceive embedded clicks in sentences at the edges of constituents rather than where they actually occur Head: the head of a phrase is the word that gives the phrase its category Principle of Modification: if an XP modifies some head Y, then XP must be a sister to Y (ex. a daughter of YP) Ex. Label used for a clause = TP CP = embedded clause Coordination (Conjunction) -words that combine 2 adjectives into a single modifier, combine 2 NPs, combine 2 VPs, 2 sentences, and 2 PPs Test for constituency: tests that show that a group of words functions as a unit (there are 4) Replacement: if you can replace a group of words with a single word, those group of words form a constituent Ex. The man from NY flew in.  HE flew in. Stand-alone/Sentence-fragment: form a constituent if the words can stand alone in response to a question Ex. Paul ate at a restaurant.  What did he do? – ate at a restaurant Movement: words form a constituent if you can move a group of them around in the sentence Ex. He bought a brand new car. It was a brand new car that he bought. Clefting: putÝng string of words between “It was/It is” and a “that” at the beginning of the S Ex. He bought a brand new car. It was a brand new car that he bought. Preposing: putÝng string of words before a “is/are what/who” at front of sentence Ex. Big bowls of beans are what I like. From  I like big bowls of beans. Coordination/Conjunction: if you can join a group of words with a similar group of words, you form a constituent Ex. JOHN and THE MAN went there. Vs. JOHN and VERY BLUE went there. Polysynthetic language: language where a sentence is really just one complicated word *assume that all non-head material is optional Recursion: the possibility of loops in the phrase structure rules that allow infinitely long sentences and explain the creativity of language