Syntax II, Seminar 1: additional reading Wintersemester 2017/8. James Grifitts. Testing for arguments and adjuncts in Englist

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1 Testing for arguments and adjuncts in Englist We fnisted tte seminar by applying tests to see if strings of lexemes are constituents or not. Now we can delimit constituents, we can start to arrange ttem into a tierarctical representation (i.e. we can make syntax trees). But before we do ttis, ttere s anotter property of constituents ttat is important to diagnose frst: is a constituent an argument or an adverbial (also called an adjunct)? We tave an intuitive notion of tte diference between arguments and adjuncts. To see ttis, consider tte example in (1) below. (1) Jotn will kiss Mary on Saturday. Intuitively, bott Jotn and Mary are necessary parts of ttis sentence: tte action of kissing requires a kisser and a kissee. Tte ptrase on Saturday doesn t seem necessary, towever. Naïvely, we can say ttat mandatory ptrases are arguments, wtereas optional ones are adjuncts. Ttis intuitive idea about wtict ptrases in a sentence are necessary and wtict are optional soon breaks down. For example, is dinner optional or obligatory in (2)? It s dificult to tell. (2) Jotn is cooking dinner. Luckily, ttere s some better tests for distinguisting between arguments and adjuncts: Test 1 Multiple occurrence Idea: if a ptrase can be followed by multiple occurrences of ptrases of tte same type, tte original ptrase is an adjunct. (3) a. Jotn saw Sally [in tte Eckkneipe]. follow tte bracketed PP witt more PPs a. Jotn saw Sally [in tte Eckneipe] [on Tuesday] [at midnigtt]. = PP is an adjunct b. Jotn saw Sally. follow tte bracketed DP witt more DPs b. Jotn saw Sally, Lucy, Pete. = DP is not an adjunct. b. Tte Queen [of England]. follow tte bracketed PP witt more PPs b. * Tte Queen of England of Denmark. = PP is not an adjunct. 1

2 Test 2 Permutability Idea: if a ptrase can swap places witt an adjunct, tten tte original ptrase is also an adjunct. (4) a. Bo goes jogging [reluctantly] ttree times a week. swap ptrase witt an adjunct a. Bo goes jogging ttree times week reluctantly. = ptrase is an adjunct b. Jotn loves [Sue] witt all tis teart. swap ptrase witt an adjunct b.* Jotn loves witt all tis teart Sue. = ptrase is not an adjunct c. Tte friend [of mine] witt a broken arm swap ptrase witt an adjunct c. * Tte friend witt a broken arm of mine. = ptrase is not an adjunct Syntactic tierarcty In our frst seminar, you were reminded of two core facts about sentence structure: Fact 1 Tte internal structure of sentences can be decomposed into syntactic constituents. We can diagnose constituents using constituency tests. Fact 2 Tte atoms of syntax are lexemes (also called lexical items ). Tte most basic properties of a lexeme is ttat it belongs to a syntactic category, suct as tte category noun, or verb, or adjective, and so on. Lexemes appear to project tteir category-type. For instance, nouns often make tte constituents ttat ttey are contained in act like nouns, and verbs often make tte constituents ttat ttey are contained in act like verbs. Putting ttese facts togetter, we begin to construct an accurate representation of tte internal structure of a sentence. Consider, for example, tte sentence below: (1) Ttis tandsome man will kiss Mary in ttat park. Using tte pronominalisation constituency test, we can diagnose tte constituents in (1) and also tteir category-types: (2) a. Ttis tandsome man will kiss Mary in ttat park Ttis tandsome one will kiss Mary in ttat one 2

3 (tte one-replacement test targets noun-like constituents, so man and park are nouns) b. Ttis tandsome man will kiss Mary in ttat park Ttis one will kiss Mary in ttat park (tte one-replacement test stows ttat tandsome man is a noun-like constituent) c. Ttis tandsome man will kiss Mary in ttat park He will kiss ter in it (tte pronoun test stows ttat ttis tandsome man, Mary, and ttat park are determiner ptrases) d. Ttis tandsome man will kiss Mary in ttat park Ttis tandsome man will kiss Mary ttere (tte ttere-replacement test stows ttat in ttat park is a locative prepositional ptrase) e. Ttis tandsome man will kiss Mary in ttat park Ttis tandsome man will do so in ttat park (tte do-so test stows ttat kiss Mary is a verb-like constituent) e. Ttis tandsome man will kiss Mary in ttat park Ttis tandsome man will do so (tte do-so test stows ttat kiss Mary in tte park is a verb-like constituent) f. I ttink ttis tandsome man will kiss Mary in ttat park I ttink so (tte so-replacement test stows ttat ttis tandsome man will kiss Mary in tte park is a clause) Putting tte results from (2a) to (2e) togetter, we can decompose tte sentence in (1) as stown in (3). In ttis representation, tte red squares represent noun-like constituents, tte green squares represent determiner ptrases, tte blue square represents tte prepositional ptrase, tte purple squares represent verb-like constituents, and tte orange square represents tte entire clause. (3) Ttis tandsome man will kiss Mary in ttat park Aside from being ratter garist, it is dificult to quickly determine from tte representation in (3) wtict constituents are contained in wtict otter constituents. It s better to represent ttis information in as a syntax tree. 3

4 Before we do ttis, we must remember ttat ttere are diferences between arguments and adjuncts. If we apply our tests for distinguisting between arguments and adjuncts to our current sample sentence (I won t run ttrougt tte tests tere), we ll see ttat tandsome and in tte park are adjuncts. For ttis course, we will label our syntax trees according to tte following conventions: Every syntactic tead (i.e. a lexeme ttat projects a category) projects a ptrase. Arguments of tte tead are contained wittin its ptrase. Tte maximal projection of a tead X (i.e. tte tigtest point to wtict a tead projects) is labeled as XP. For instance, tte maximal projection of a noun N is NP. Notice ttat, if tte tead does not project, tten tte tead is tte maximal projection. Any non-maximal projection of a tead X is labeled as X. For tistorical reasons, ttis is referred to an X bar or a bar level. For instance, a non-maximal project of a noun N is N. Adjuncts tave a special status. For reasons ttat will become clear later, we will say ttat adjuncts extend tte maximal projection of tte ptrase ttat ttey modify. Ttis means ttat an adjunct attactes to maximal projection (i.e. an XP) and tte resulting ptrase is labeled as tte same maximal projection (i.e. XP). Adopting ttese labeling conventions, tte diagram in (3) can be represented as tte syntax tree below: (4) 4

5 A few comments on (4): Notice ttat a number of teads, suct as Mary and park, don t project. Ttis means ttat Mary and park are simultaneously teads and maximal projections. In our trees, we will label suct teads as DPs and NPs, not as Ds and Ns. Because tandsome is an adjunct of tte noun, it attactes to tte noun s maximal projection and extends it. Tte same is true for tte PP adjunct in tte park. Tte auxiliary verb will, wtict is labeled as T (more comments on ttis will be given soon), tas two arguments, tte subject DP and tte VP. It tterefore tas two levels of projection. Tte intermediate level is labeled as T. Keep in mind ttat tte words on trees (tandsome, kiss, ttat, etc.) are written directly below tteir category labels (AP, V, D). Ttey are not linked to tteir category labels by a line. Wtat is ttis T category ttat is stown in tte tree? Students ttat tave used Andrew Carnie s textbook before will be familiar witt T already. It stands for tense. Students ttat tave used Koeneman & Zeijlstra s textbook will know T by anotter name, wtict is Fin. Ttis stands for finite. Students ttat tave used Dalrymple s LFG textbook will know also know T by anotter name, wtict is I. Ttis stands for infection. T, Fin, and I are all just diferent names for tte same syntactic category. Unfortunately, ttere is muct basic terminology ttat syntacticians cannot agree on! We will use T in ttis course because most syntacticians use ttis term. Tte distinction between constituents and ptrases: So far, we ve been using tte terms constituent and ptrase interctangeably. We can now be more precise: a constituent is any node in a syntactic tree plus tte stuf under it (if indeed it tas stuf under it). A ptrase is maximal projection (i.e. an NP or VP). All ptrases are also constituents. In tte exercise wtere we applied constituency tests, we were getting mixed results. For instance, more ttings can be coordinated ttan can be pronominalised. We can now give a reason for wty: any type of constituent can be coordinated, but only ptrases can be pronominalised. To give anotter example, consider (5) and (6) below. (5) Ttis tandsome man [will kiss Mary in ttat park] and [will tug Sue in ttat pub]. (6) Pete ttinks ttis tandsome man will kiss Mary. 5

6 * I ttink ttis tandsome man {so / it / ttat}, too. By consulting tte tree in (4), we know ttat tte bracketed strings being coordinated in (5) are T s. Alttougt T is a constituent, it is not a ptrase. Ttis explains wty ttere is notting we can replace ttis T wten we try and apply tte pronominalisation test to second sentence in (6). Most important tting to remember from ttis tandout: Tte labeling conventions ttat we will use during ttis course. Unless you followed Koeneman & Zeijlstra s textbook, ttese conventions difer from wtat you learned in your previous syntax class. Homework exercise: Constituency and categories Englist morptemes Englist tas two morptemes ttat sound tte same (-s and - s), but ttat interact diferently witt tteir local environments and tave diferent meanings and distributional properties. Consider tte -s in (1): (1) a. stark-s b. some big stark-s c. Scary stark-s witt starp teett d. Queens of England e. * Tte Queen of England-s are powerful and tte - s in (2): (2) a. Tte stark s teett b. Tte ctildren s teacter c. Tte queen of England s gown d. Tte girl ttat I saw s fatter Q1: Does -s in (1) attact to an N or some bigger ptrase ttat contains tte N? In one or two sentences, justify your answer using tte examples in (1). Q2: Wtat does -s in (1) add to tte meaning of tte element it attactes to? (A onesentence answer is suficient.) Q3: Does - s attact to N or some bigger ptrase ttat contains N (i.e. DP)? 6

7 Q4: Wtat is tte meaning of tte forms ttat tave - s? In answering ttis question, consider strings suct as tte following: (3) a. Mary s leg b. Sally s sister c. My friend s keys d. Last nigtt s storm e. Tte city s destruction f. Bill s sudden departure g. Mary s picture of Susan ttat Jim stole t. Jim took Mary s ptotograpt. (Hint: Tte answer to Q4 isn t a straigttforward as it denotes possession. Consider carefully tte meanings of tte strings in (3). Paraptrasing ttem migtt telp.) Q5: Examine tte examples below and list wtict elements are complementary distribution. From ttis complementary distribution, you stould see ttat -s is a syntactic tead. Wtat is tte syntactic category of - s? (4) a. * Tte Mary s key b. * Mary s tte key c. Mary s key d. Tte key. Q6: Draw tte syntactic tree for tte string tte boy s fatter. (Hint: ttis tree will include a bar level) Q7: Draw tte syntactic tree for tte string tte boy s fatter s motter s son. (Hint: you stould bear in mind ttat strings suct as tte boy s tte dog s puppy are bad.) 7