Chomskyan theory

Adjectives permitting CP: afraid, CP: certain, aware, confident e.g. They are afraid that Mary left. Nouns permitting CP: claim, belief, CP: fact, knowledge, proof e.g. They lack proof that Mary left. Prepositions permitting CP: over, CP: about e.g. They argued over whether Mary had left.
Some verbs permitting CP Complements: believe, know CP e.g. They believe that Mary left. persuade, tell NP CP e.g. They told Eric that Mary had left. admit, concede PPto CP e.g. They admitted to Eric that Mary had left.
2.2 Complement clauses Words such as that, if, and whether are known as complementizers. There is no limit on the number of embedded clauses that can occur in a sentence. But, not all verbs can take a CP complement.
Noun complements Ø the car__ PPof the memory of a friend PPof PPto the presentation of a medal to the winner PPwith PPabout an argumemt with Sean about politics
1.3 Test for phrase structure
The substitution test: NPs and VPs can often be replaced by an element such as they, it or do so. so. The movement test: a constituent can be moved as a single unit to a different position within the sentence. The coordination test: a group of words forms a constituent if it can be joined to another group of words by a conjunction.
1. Categories and structure
1.1 Word-level categories: Lexical/NonWordLexical/Nonlexical Lexical: N, V, A, P, Adv Nonlexical/functional:
Determiner Determiner Degree Degree word as too, so, very, more, quite Qualifier Qualifier as always, perhaps, often, never, almost Auxiliary Auxiliary Conjunction Conjunction
A word’s category membership does word’ not always bear such a straightforward relationship to its meaning. e.g. abstract noun as difficulty, truth, etc. some action naming words can also be used as nouns as push, shove, etc. words with very similar meanings belong to different categories as like/fond.
Coordinate structures: joining two or more elements of the same type with the help of a conjunction such as and/or. The coordination rule: X X* con X Modifiers: describes properties of the head.
The XP rule: rule: XP (specifier) X (complement) All sentences of English have Infl which indicates the sentence’s tense. Infl takes a sentence’ VP as its complement and an NP(the subject) as its specifier. Infl may be realized as either a tense label or an auxiliary. auxiliary. Auxiliary verbs are treated as Infl. They are inherently associated with a particualr tense(nonpast).
1.4 X’ category
Complements and heads may actually be attached to a level of phrase structure midway between the word level and the phrase level, the intermediate level of structure is represented by the symbol X’. X’ All phrases have the tri-level tristructure. The XP rule: XP (specifier) X’ X’ X’ X (complement)
Distribution: Distribution: the most reliable criterion for determining a word’s word’ category. Nouns occur with a determiner. Verbs occur with an auxiliary. Adjective occur witwk.baidu.com a degree word.
Nouns typically name entities such as individuals (Harry, Sue) and object (book, desk). Verbs characteristically designate actions (run, jump), sensations (feel, hurt), and state (be, remain). Adjectives designate a property or attribute of the entities denoted by nouns. Adverbs denote properties and attributes of the actions, sensations, and states designated by verbs.
3. Transformations
3.1 deep structure and surface structure D-structure is formed by the XP rule in accordance with the head’s head’ subcategorization properties. S-structure results from applying whatever transformations are appropriate for the sentence in question.
Some heads can take more than one complement. the XP rule (revised) XP (specifier) X (complement*)
An asterisk* after the complement to indicate that one or more of these elements is permitted.
Adjective complements Ø very tall__ PPabout curious about China PPto obvious to the student PPof fond of chocolate
Preposition complements Ø she got down__. NP in the house PP down into the cellar
2. Complement options
2.1 Subcategorization: refers to information about a word’s word’ complement options. Complement options for verbs: Vanish, arrive, die Ø__ Devour, cut, prove NP Be, become AP Dash, talk, refer PPto
1.2 Phrase structure Head , specifier & complement Specifiers help to make more precise the meaning of the head, and mark a phrase boundary. Some specifiers as determiner, qualifier, degree word. Complements provide information about entities and locations whose existence is implied by the meaning of the head.
Inflection Meaning is only one of several criteria that determines a word’s word’ category. Inflection is another criterion. -s, -’s -ed, -ing -er, est
Spare, hand, give NP NP Hand, give, send NP PPto Buy, cook, reserve NP PPfor Put, place, stand NP PPloc Talk, speak PPto PPabout Open, fix NP PPfor PPwith
Lecture 6
Transformational syntax
Main points
1. 2. 3. 4.
5. 6.
Categories and structure Complement options Transformation Universal Grammar and Parametric variation Some extensions Other types of syntactic analysis