LEVELS Syntax and Semantics
LEVELS • SYNTACTIC STRUCTURES • hierarchy: smaller units – larger units • (e.g. words and phrases→ clauses, words and phrases and clauses →complex sentence) • two basic types of syntactic structures: a)constituent structure • b) dependency structure
LEVELS • constituent structure: which units are included in a given structure • e.g. NP that old car • dependency structure: which units depend on which units
LEVELS • 3 basic kinds of dependency relations: • a) modification (headword & modifiers) NP all these books • b) complementation (verb + complement) • VP V+ direct object/subject complement • c) predication (subject & predicate) • clause subject+predicate
LEVELS • like morphological structures, syntactic structures - exocentric and endocentric • NP, AdjP, AdvP • PP, clauses
LEVELS • IC analysis for syntactic structures: • subject and predicate separated first • 2) His sister visited her friends last week. • tree diagrams (račvasti dijagrami)
LEVELS • 3) That girl opened the door. • • NP • Det N That girl
S PredP VP V opened
NP Det the
N door
LEVELS • ambiguities, e.g. • blue shirts and trousers SYNTACTIC FUNCTIONS • the role which a unit has in a clause • subject, predicate, direct & indirect object, adverbials, subject & object complement
LEVELS Subject: noun/prounoun, NP or clause preceding the verb (declarative clause), agreement with the predicate in person and number, the topic • Predicate: indicating something new about the topic (subject), verb is the central element of predication
LEVELS • linking verbs (copulas), transitive (VT) and intransitive verbs (VI) • VI – no complement (e.g. The boys ran.) • VT + complement - direct (DO) and sometimes indirect object (IO) • in English, DO is an NP or a clause following • the verb (declarative clauses)
LEVELS • IO is placed before DO or it is a PP after DO • 4) a) Pamela gave Mary that book. • b) Pamela gave that book to Mary. • object complement after DO, e.g. • 5) a)They elected him president. • b) Ona je učinila svoju ćerku srećnom. • c) They painted the bathroom blue.
LEVELS • Copulas are not VT or VI; • + subject complement (Sc) • DO vs Sc: • A) subject and Sc have the same reference, subject and DO not • 6) a) These flowers are nice. • b) Paul bought these flowers.
LEVELS • B) in most cases, DO can be passivized, Sc cannot • 7) a) Linda became a teacher. • b) Linda bought a new dress. • C) subject and Sc agree in gender and number • 8) a) Ken became an actor/*actors. • b) She is his *brother.
LEVELS • some exceptions in agreement: • 9) Their main product is potatoes. • in English, the most frequent copulas are BE, BECOME, SEEM
LEVELS • some verbs used as copulas and VT/VI: • • 10) a) Tom became a lawer. • b) The milk turned sour. • c) He turned the tap. • d) He grew old. • e)They grew vegetables.
LEVELS • Adverbials: modifying the verb, adjectives or adverbs • place, time, manner, condition, cause etc. • • 11) a) She visited them last year. • b) They failed because they didn’t study enough. • c) If they arrive soon, we’ll go for a walk.
LEVELS • Exponents of syntactic functions • structures having a certain function • a linguistic unit representing a certain function or a category (e.g. in morphology {s} an exponent of the category of number) • words, phrases and clauses as exponents • exponents of subject: words, NP, clauses
LEVELS • 12) a) Lenny will arrive tomorrow. • b) That new computer is very fast. • c) That she is still alive is sheer luck. • • • •
exponents of object: words, NP, clauses 13) a) I don’t know whether we need it. b) She bought the new syntax textbook. c) He saw Barbara.
LEVELS • exponents of adverbial: Adv, AdvP, NP, PP and clauses • 14) a) They will arrive tomorrow. • b) She will be here next week. • c) That book is not in the library.
LEVELS • exponents of subject complement: NP, Adj, AdjP and clause • 15) a) Helen is clever. • b)The assumption is that things will improve.
LEVELS • Some syntactic functions viewed as the arguments of a verb • number of arguments: • A) monovalent verbs (VI, subject + verb) • B) bivalent verbs (VT, subject + verb + object) C) trivalent verbs (VT, subject + verb + IO + DO)
LEVELS • 16) a) Peter gave Conny a book. • b) Harry bought the flowers. • these arguments related to semantic roles • the typical semantic role of subject is agent, but there are other possibilities:
LEVELS 17) a) Vince bought a new car. b) The computer solved the problem. (instrument) c) The electric shock killed them. (external cause) d) Tomorrow is Wednesday. (temporal) e) Madrid is a large town. (locative)
LEVELS • the direct object- the patient, • the indirect object - the recipient or addressee
• Communicative sentence perspective • Structure of clauses and sentences within communication and transfer of information
LEVELS • theme or topic (information known to the speaker/hearer) • rheme or comment (something new about the topic) • 18) Paul bought a house in the country.
LEVELS arrangement of information in a clause/ sentence: • A) communicatively unmarked clauses/ sentences (typical WO) • B) communicatively marked clauses/ sentences (WO emphasizes something)
LEVELS • 19) a) Helen ate the cookie. • b) The cookie was eaten by Helen. • 20) a) Petar je kupio knjigu. • b) Knjigu je kupio Petar. • TRANSFORMATIONAL-GENERATIVE SYNTAX • Noam Chomsky, from late 1950s • surface and deep structure, transformations
LEVELS • • • • • • • •
tree diagrams Their parents have bought a new house. S NP PredP Det N VP NP Their parents Aux V Det NP Pres have buy a Adj N new house