Syntax Word order constituency LING 200 Spring 2003

Syntax Word order, constituency LING 200 Spring 2003 Reading: Files 6. 1, 6. 3, 6. 5, 6. 7

Overview • • What is syntactic competence? Morphology and syntax: inflectional morphology Word order Representing the structure of sentences Arguments for constituent structure Transformations Cross-linguistic variation

Syntactic competence What native speakers know about: • Possible vs. impossible sentences • Restricted distributions of words/ morphemes • What sentences mean

Sources of evidence in syntax • Observation of native speaker productions • Elicitation of native speaker grammaticality judgements – from self – from others

Morphology overlaps with syntax Syntactically relevant morphemes: inflection Derivation 1. Category changing? Inflection often no -able: likeable -s pl. : apples -ness: -s 3 s. S: sees happiness

Inflection vs. derivation Derivation 2. Productive? (very general conditions on affixation? ) Inflection often restricted: -hood: brotherhood, neighborhood, *daughterhood yes, but subject to blocking by irregular forms: -s pl. : child, *childs, children Russianize vs. Russify

Inflection vs. derivation Derivation 3. Morpheme inner: usu. added order before inflectional: -]Nal]Adj -]N, Adjize]V -]Vation]N industrializationalize Inflection outer: usu. added after derivational: 3 s. S -s industrializationalizes

Inflection vs. derivation Derivation 4. Syntactic relevance Inflection no usually sensitive to syntactic information; -s 3 s. S: Rose sees (vs. I see_)

Some verbal inflectional affixes -ing present visiting I am ___ Virginia now. participle -ed past visited Last weekend I ___ Virginia. -ed past participle visited I have just ___ Virginia.

Syntactic relevance: agreement • Spanish: adjectives agree with nouns in gender, number • gender: (arbitrary) noun classes entrada ‘ticket (to a show)’ vs. boleto ‘ticket’ ‘the’ ‘this’ ‘expensive’ sg. entrada la entrada esta entrada cara pl. entradas las entradas estas entradas caras sg. boleto este boleto caro estos boletos caros el boleto pl. boletos los boletos

Agreement Vendiste las entradas? ‘Did you sell the tickets? ’ you sold the tickets No, las (*los) tengo todavía. ‘No, I still have them. ’ them I have still

Word order • English vs. Witsuwit’en 1. Prepositions precede nouns in English. count for me Postpositions follow nouns in Witsuwit'en: ‘count for me’ spe c’o t w me for you (sg. ) count

Word order 2. In English, adjectives precede nouns. narrow rope In Witsuwit'en, an adjective follows a noun: t 'o tet ‘fine babiche’ rope narrow

Word order 3. In English, the possessor noun normally precedes the possessed noun. my friend's house but can follow the possessed noun: the house of my friend In Witsuwit'en, the possessor noun always precedes the possessed noun: sq'aqh. E p y X ‘my friend’s house’ my friend his/her house

Word order 4. Subject of sentence: instigates action (transitive verbs), undergoes action or state (intransitive verbs) In both Witsuwit'en and English, subjects precede verbs: Driftwood is floating around. t z n t driftwood it is floating around

Word order 5. (Direct) (undergoes action of verb) object only in sentences with transitive verbs. In English, the direct object follows the verb. We bought food. In Witsuwit'en, the direct object precedes the verb: t'a nets'ot tqh t food we bought

Attested word order patterns (S = Subject, O = Object, V = Verb): SOV Witsuwit'en SVO English VSO Irish OSV Apurinã (Arawakan, Brazil) OVS Parecís (Arawakan, Brazil) (also SOV) VOS Oro Win (Chapacura-Wanham, Brazil) (5 speakers)

Frequency of each type < Sample of 402 languages. Word order # languages SOV 180 45% SVO 168 42% VSO 37 9% VOS 12 3% OVS 5 1% OSV 0 0%

Recursion and phrase structure (Potentially) infinitely long sentences: This is the house that Jack built. This is the malt that lay in the house that Jack built. This is the rat that ate the malt that lay in the house that Jack built. .

This is 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. .

How to characterize (potential) infinity? Phrase structure rules. Properties: · specify word order · are recursive (output of one rule can be rewritten via another rule)

Phrase structure rules General schema: X Y Z (“X consists of/is Y Z”) examples: English: PP P NP Witsuwit'en: PP NP P PP = Pre/postpositional phrase P = Pre/postposition NP = Noun phrase

Equivalent representational devices phrase structure rule: PP P NP labeled bracketing: PP[P NP] tree structure: PP P NP

Some terminology constituent syntactic unit consisting of one or more words = node (in tree) root node branching nodes terminal nodes PP P NP with Det N the money

More phrase structure rules S NP VP S = sentence NP = noun phrase VP = verb phrase

More phrase structure rules NP (Det) (Adj+) N (PP) Det =determiner Adj = adjective N = noun ( ) = optional

Determiners vs. adjectives NP (Det) (Adj+) N (PP) Det a/an, some, the, your (etc. ) Adj big, green, juicy (etc. ) One determiner per NP: your pickle, the pickle, *your the pickle, *the your pickle More than one Adj is possible (+ notation): your big pickle, your big green juicy pickle

More phrase structure rules VP Vtrans (NP) (PP) (Adv) VP = verb phrase Vtrans = transitive verb Adv = adverb

Some simple tree structures S NP VP NP (Det) (Adj+) N (PP) VP V (NP) (PP) (Adv) S NP VP N V cats sleep

Some simple tree structures NP (Det) (Adj+) N (PP) PP P NP N PP fog P NP in Det N the morning

NP Det N PP the piano P NP on Det N PP the stage P NP in Det N PP the music building P NP on N campus

Some simple tree structures VP V (NP) (PP) (Adv) VP V NP PP put Det N P NP the car in Det N the garage

Summary of syntax (so far) • • • Syntactic competence Morphology and syntax: inflectional morphology Word order Recursion Representing the structure of sentences – phrase structure rules – tree diagrams – labeled bracketing