Lecture 1 Syntax

7/28/2019 Lecture 1 Syntax

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Introductory course

The organisation of Grammar


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The structure of UG

- modular; a sum of subsystems of principles (rules); many ofthe principles contain parameters wh. are fixed byexperience. (empirical research). The parameters show thatmany rules are interdependent and hold crosslinguistically,they are language universals.

e.g. of a parameter: the right-hand head/left-hand head rule,i.e. position of the Head of a grammatical constituent.In the NP these big books the right-handmost word is: Nbooks (the Head). as a rule the H is the only obligatory el. ina constituent.; in a compound: farmhouse - the head ishouse - the pivotal element from a semantic point of view. InJapanese it is just the reverse.


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Organization of the Grammar

(1)

Nowadays Morphology is regarded as a synchronic disciplinefocusing on the study of word structure rather than on the evolutionof words.

LINGUISTICS

LF (semantic level) - meaning of utterances

D-Str. (syntactic level) - S-structure (syntactic

expressions, forms)Morphological level - word structure (word formationrules: inflection, derivation; compounding)

Phonology (phonemics) - sound system

These levels are ordered in a hierarchy:

D-Structure

Lexicon {context-free rules: WFR; context-sensitive rules -selectional restrictions; context-free rules: PSR or subcategorizationrules}

Move a (Transformational component)


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The Organisation of the grammar

(2)

S-Structure

The PF component the LF component

D-structure is a mapping system of representation of the lexical propertiesof lexical items, i.e. the selectional properties of the verbs, for instance. D-Structure is that component of G in which 1-to-1 correlations hold betweenthe subcategorization frames (e.g. V [TAKE] [NP1 - NP2 (NP3)] and

the categories which fulfill them [e.g. V], between referential expressionsand thematic roles (e.g. his book; John opens the door).

Move a maps the D-S representations to S-S representations (in acc. withthe Projection Principle).

S-Structure the level at which positions are linked. Morphology is thetheory of the Lexicon. The Lexicon is one of the subcomponents ofGrammar (together with Syntax, phonology, and semantics), or better said,one level of linguistic description, one way of looking at linguistic objects.The Lexicon is the level of linguistic analysis, whether phonological,morphological, syntactic, semantic or even pragmatic.


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The organisation of grammar

This brings us to the following question: thelexicon being a comprehensive list of dictionaryformatted words, or lexical entries, what do weknow when we know a word? What kind ofinformation have we learned when we learn a

word? It turns out that the information encoded ina word is fairly complex: each kind of informationencompasses in fact each of the subfields oflinguistics: phonology, morphology, syntacticcategory, pragmatics.

For every word we learn, we learn how it fits intothe overall structure of sentences in which it canbe used.

e.g. reads Mary reads the book.

readable The book is readable


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Syntax and semantics

Syntax the subfield of language that studies theinternal structure of sentences and theinterrelationships among the internal parts(according to the subcategorization rules,

selectional restrictions).Semantics studies the nature of the meaning ofindividual words and the meaning of wordsgrouped into phrases and sentences.

Pragmatics words in use, in the actual context of

discourse. (e.g. Hello no meaning unless usedas in a greeting situation).


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Morpho-syntax, a field shared by

two subfields

The common unit of study in the two subfields is the WORD,as well as some general formal properties (as discussed inX-bar theory). Some of these properties contribute toestablishing the distinction between syntactic (i.e. phrases,of the form XP) and lexical categories (N, V, A, etc.). Asyntactic category is a bundle of syntactic distinctive features

(such as transitivity, for instance, agreement, etc.) indexedby a type or a number of bars of the category, out of whichthe class features are the most important ([+/-N], +/-V]), thatmorphological categories are entities that are formallyidentical in character to syntactic categories, i.e. eachmorphological category is decomposable into a set offeatures and a type. The word level categories (X0) or thelexical categories are N, V, A, P.


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The word

The word lies at the interface of morphology and syntax, it is like abottleneck in the passage of information from the morphological tothe syntactic level of language description. From the word, syntaxgoes upward, to form larger structures (phrases and sentences),whereas Morphology goes downward, into inner constituency ofwords. A gradient of syntactic and morphological categories wouldrun as follows:

- X

- X

word - X0

- X-1/-2 (stem/root)

- XAffixMorphology deals with the interpretation of words in terms of formand meaning.


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The notion of Lexical Category

The term of LC was introduced by Chomsky (1965, SyntacticStructures) to stand for what traditional grammarians calledparts of speech. the term is built on analogy with the termlexical item and it indicates the Ns, Vs, Adj s, Adv s, Ps, etc.to which a lexical item belongs. The LC is linked to atheoretical frame (generative transformational grammar)based on the X-bar theory (R. Jackendoff, 1977) and to thephrase structure rules described by Emonds much earlier(1972). This theoretical framework is based on empiricaldata and with it we can identify the lexical categories, i.e.from the syntactic information (which is hierarchically

organized) we gather functional information. The functionalinformation leads us to inflection which gathers thesyntactically-driven word-formation rules.


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Inflectional variation

Within a linguistic context a word undergoes changes of form, as itis characterized by the presence of inflectional markers orfunctional categories, such as: case, number, gender, person,tense, aspect, mood, comparison etc.

There is a correlation between a certain part of speech (LC) and itscharacteristic inflectional markers (categories). That is why these

inflectional markers are also called relational categories. Forinstance, Nouns within a sentence undergo case or numberalternations, but never do they undergo Tense or Aspectmodifications. Comparison stands only for adjectives and adverbs.This is why inflectional variation was seen to be of a restrictivenature, to be delimiting the lexical categories. The term categorydesignates the characteristic inflectional variation of a certain partof speech. Nouns are characterized (cf. Aristotle) by the functional

categories of: case, number, gender, determination; Verbs : tense,aspect, mood, agreement. Pronouns: person, gender, number;

Adjs. and advs. - Comparison.


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Inherent vs.

Contextual/Configurational

Categories

Inflectional

Derivational morphology typically contributes to thecreation of new words pertaining to a different class (changeof lexical category) and it also adds further elements ofmeaning: the affixeser/-or turn verbs into nouns that havethe meaning of Agents or instruments (e.g.: donate/donor,kill/killer). The LCs are open classes, content words.

Inflectional morphs - paradigmatic sets ; they are closureelements:

eg. compartment+ al+ ized

z - infl. element which closesdown the word.

but * compartmentalizedation


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Paradigmatic sets

Paradigms induce closure upon words, i.e. they prohibit the furtherpossibility of having a derivational element attached to it; inflected formsalternate they are organized in paradigms, hence they are incomplementary distribution; nouns, for instance, occur in parallel sets oftwo: hat/hats; books/books, etc. Since they are organized in paradigms,inflectional markers are organised in closed sets. The elemetns of aparadigmatic set may show the phenomenon of suppletion i.e. one of theforms is not phonologically related to other forms: go/went, so, the form ofwent is said to be the suppletive form of go.

A paradigm can be defective, it can lack a form (modal verbs, or defectivenouns: trousers/*trouser).

Inflections are formal markers (semantically they are empty, abstract) thathelp us delimit the lexical category of the word to which they attach; that isto say, each lexical category (major part of speech) is characterised byspecific inflectional markers; inflectional markers are dependent on a certain

LC expressing the morpho-syntactic features of the respective lexicalcategory. Although they have no descriptive content, they pass on thedescriptive content of the category they depend on.


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The major lexical categories: N, V,

A, P

Study of the major lexical categories in terms of lexicalsemantics - relation between functional elements(morphology), syntax (morpho-syntactic) properties orfeatures (accusative case, past tense etc.) and thedistribution of these features so as to render a certain

meaning: e.g. how would will be interpreted either as amodal or a way to express futurity in English, or how would apast tense functor have the meaning of present or futuretime a.s.o.

Domain to study for this semester: the interface bet.inflectional morphology and lexical semantics and how

certain language-specific restrictions operate at the level oflexical categories.


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Inflectional variation as a delimiting

factor of LCs

Functional vs Lexical category

LC s are distinguished in terms oftheir syntactic properties

(distributional criterion, according toR. Jackendoff, 1977): subject, object,complement and determination arethe syntactic distinctive featureswhich delimit a number of 10 (majorand minor) LC s.


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categories)

Definition= a property of words that

syntax is sensitive to (relate soundand meaning)

Interpretable features= have an effect on

semantic interpretation e.g. plurality,

person, gender (but not in all langs);

Uninterpretable features= only regulate thesyntactic position of words (Nom, Acc

cases)


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Phrases/syntactic categories

Phrases are larger constituents,

projected round a head according to a

general format; X-bar theory

expresses generalizations about thephrase structure of all human

languages. It restricts the

combinatorial possibilities of wordsinto larger linguistic units. Phrases are

endocentric, they project round a

head.


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Constituency tests

(a). Substitution: [The bottle of water] might have crackedopen; [It] might have cracked open.

Ss are organised into Cs and C are further organised intosmaller units, up to lexical items.

(b) Movementleaving a trace behind: My students cantstand GG/GG my students can stand

The children ran up the hill//Up the hill the children ran(Locative inversion);

Cleft and pseudo-clefting: It is GG that they dont like - ;What they do not like is GG. (examples of movement andfocalization)

(c) Coordination: Students who like GG and inflectionalmorphology are rare (Conjoining of the same type ofcategories, Cs.


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XP_ (specifier) XYP (complement)

What is in an IP ? A bundle of functionalcategories associated with the VP: Tense, Agr,

Asp., and Mood.

The split IP Hypothesis: I _ T/Agr.IP CP (What is in a CP?)


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Summing up: the structure of

simple sentences


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Lecture 1 Syntax

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