The Nature of Language
Tutorial 5
Syntax
Presentation Outline
Task 1: English Syntactic Structures
Task 2: Phrase Structure Rules for Ewe
Task 3: Evidence for Wh-Movement
Task 4: Wanna Contraction & Wh-Movement
1
Task 1: English
Syntactic Structures
Nature of Language
Phrase Structure Rules
1. S → NP VP
2. NP → (Det) (AdjP) N (PP)
3. VP → V (NP) (PP) (AdvP) 4. PP → P (NP)
5. AdjP → (Deg)n Adjn
6. AdvP → (Deg)n Adv
Task 1
Syntactic Constituency
Mother
1. Movability Test
- In my class, there was
this student
Sisters
2. Replacement Test
- This student there
Task 1
a. Under the bridge
4. PP → P (NP)
Task 1
b. Fell into the pond
3. VP → V (NP) (PP) (AdvP)
Task 1
c. The silly picture of Ai
2. NP → (Det) (AdjP) N (PP)
4. PP → P (NP)
5. AdjP → (Deg)n Adjn
Task 1
d. Pat loves Robin passionately
3. VP → V (NP) (PP) (AdvP)
S
VP
NP
6. AdvP → (Deg)n Adv
N
V
NP
AdvP
Pat
loves
N
Adv
Robin Passionately
Task 1
e. Robin talked to the manager over the phone
1. S → NP VP
2. NP → (Det) (AdjP) N (PP)
3. VP → V (NP) (PP) (AdvP)
4. PP → P (NP)
Task 1
e. Robin talked to the manager over the phone
e. Robin talked to the manager over the phone
Robin
The Manager
Task 1
e. Robin talked to the manager over the phone
The Manager
Robin
Task 1
e. Robin talked to the manager over the phone
1. S → NP VP
2. NP → (Det) (AdjP) N (PP)
3. VP → V (NP) (PP) (AdvP)
4. PP → P (NP)
Task 1
2
Task 2: Phrase Structure
Rules for Ewe
Nature of Language
Ewe Phrase Structure Rules
1. S → NP VP
2. N  {oge, ika, amu}
3. NP  N (Det)
4. Det  ye
5. VP  V NP
6. V  {xa, vo}
Task 2
(1) Oge xa ika ✓
1. S → NP VP
3. NP  N (Det)
5. VP  V NP
Task 2
(2) Ye amu vo oge ✗
1. S → NP VP
3. NP  N (Det)
5. VP  V NP
Task 2
(3) Ika oge xa ye ✗
1. S → NP VP
5. VP  V NP
Task 2
(4) Oge ye vo ika ye ✓
1. S → NP VP
3. NP  N (Det)
5. VP  V NP
Task 2
(5) Amu xa oge ✓
1. S → NP VP
3. NP  N (Det)
5. VP  V NP
Task 2
(6) Vo oge ika ✗
1. S → NP VP
3. NP  N (Det)
5. VP  V NP
Task 2
(7) Amu ye vo ika ✓
1. S → NP VP
3. NP  N (Det)
5. VP  V NP
Task 2
(8) Ye ika xa ye oge ✗
1. S → NP VP
3. NP  N (Det)
5. VP  V NP
Task 2
(9) Xa amu ye ✗
1. S → NP VP
3. NP  N (Det)
5. VP  V NP
Task 2
(10) Oge ye xa amu ✓
1. S → NP VP
3. NP  N (Det)
5. VP  V NP
Task 2
3
Task 3: Evidence for WhMovement
Nature of Language
Question 3
Consider the following sentence:
Where has John put the car?
WHERE
How can the following data be used to argue that where
originated to the right of the car in the underlying structure
(i.e., John put the car where?) and was moved to sentenceinitial position in the surface structure?
Task 3
Data
a)
b)
c)
d)
e)
John has put the car in the garage.
* John has put.
* John has put the car.
* John has put in the garage.
* Where has John put the car in the garage?
Task 3
Observation
Sentences
Observations from 5 sentences
a)
b)
c)
d)
e)
1. Sentence contains at least one direct
object and at least one actual location
(eg. Garage)
2. Interrogative sentence contains at least
one direct object and no actual location
John has put the car in the garage.
* John has put.
* John has put the car.
* John has put in the garage.
* Where has John put the car in the
garage?
f) Where has John put the car?
How did the interrogative sentence come about?
Solution:
• The ‘where’ (wh- word) started as an actual location and moved
away.
• The observations can be justified if the Wh-movement ( and
Subject-Auxiliary inversion) has occurred
Subject-Auxiliary Inversion
Where has John put the car ?
Indicator of location
Wh-movement
WHERE HAS
Has John put the car where
Auxiliary-Subject inversion
John has put the car where
John has put the car in the garage .
Task 3
4
Task 4: Wanna
Contraction & WhMovement
Nature of Language
Yosuke’s Quiz this week!
The sentence below is actually grammatical. Can you explain why? What is the
meaning of this sentence?
Buffalo buffalo
buffalo (buffalo
Buffalo buffalo
buffaloNY)
buffalo
. buffalo ( that the
Buffalo
from Buffalo
[that]Buffalo
Buffalobuffalo
buffalo
buffalo from Buffalo NY bully)
Buffalo buffalo buffalo (are bullying buffalo from Buffalo NY)
Homonyms!
Buffalo (PN): the city of
Buffalo, New York
Buffalo (V): “to bully”
Buffalo (N): the animal
Simplified parse tree
PN = proper noun
N = noun
V = verb
NP = noun phrase
RC = relative clause
VP = verb phrase
S = sentence
Bonus Question
Sentences a,b,c (Can Wanna)
You do want to visit Zechy. (Original Sentence)
Do you want to visit Zechy? (Subj-Aux Inversion)
Who do you want to visit? (WH-movement) (a)
You would want to go out with Zechy. (Original Sentence)
Would you want to visit Zechy? (Subj-Aux Inversion)
Who would you want to go out with? (WH-movement) (b)
You do want to invite six of your friends to the wedding. (Original Sentence)
Do you want to invite six of your friends to the wedding? (Subj-Aux Inversion)
How many of your friends do you want to invite to the wedding? (WHmovement) (C)
Task 4
Sentences d,e,f (Can’t Wanna)
You do want Yosuke to win the game. (Original Sentence)
Do you want Yosuke to win the game? (Subj-Aux Inversion)
Who do you want to win the game? (WH-movement) (d)
You would want Yosuke to look after your pets. (Original Sentence)
Would you want Yosuke to look after your pets. (Subj-Aux Inversion)
Who would you want to look after your pets? (WH-movement) (e)
You do want six of your friends to stay with us. (Original Sentence)
Do you want six of your friends to stay with us. (Subj-Aux Inversion)
How many of your friends do you want to stay with us? (WH-movement) (f)
Task 4
Wanna Contraction and WHmovement
• In English, “want to” can be contracted to
“wanna”, but not in all situations.
• The original sentences in Task 4 are all formed via
Subj-Aux inversion and WH-movement.
• Wanna contraction CANNOT take place if the
object or subject being MOVED is extracted from
the position between “want” and “to”
Task 4
Heading
Task 4