Intro to EL, Lecture 8 PN 2018

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