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PHRASE STRUCTURE GRAMMAR

Diana Soto Linares Linguistics Third year English

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SYNTAX
- GENERATIVE GRAMMAR APPROACH
  - Phrase structure grammar
    - Immediate constituent analysis
      - Diagramming
      - Hierarchical structure
      - Linear order of words on the surface
      - Does not deal with deep structure
        Active vs passive sentences
        Structural ambiguity
        "visiting relatives can be tiresome"
        Valorative vs corresponding interrogation
    - Deep structure (D-structure)
      - Abstract level in which all meaning resides
    - Rewrite rules
      - Set of ordered rules which are applied stepwise
      - A single symbol on the left and one or more on the right
        A → B + C C → D
        Tree diagram
        A= Branching node C= Non-branching node
        B + C are daughters to A and sisters to each other
        CONSTITUENT
        B and C are constituend because are dominated by a single node (A)
        Proper subparts of sentences
        Formed by phrases
        Words or sequences of words with syntactic significance
        Not all sequences of words work as constituents, only entire constituents are movable
        "Beautiful flowers"
        "I received beautiful flowers for my bithday"
        "though beautiful, flowers cause me to sneeze"
        Relationships
        One-way dependency (modifier-head)
        The modifier can be omitted but not the head
        "Blue eyes"
        "Deep blue eyes"
        Mutual dependency (governor-component)
        Neither sister can be omitted
        Verb/object
        "run a race"
        Verb/complement
        "be a fool"
        Preposition/complement
        "on the shore"
        Adjective/complement
        "dear to me"
        Subject/predicate
        "the weather is improving"
        DOMINATION
        A dominates B and C but not D
        IMMEDIATE DOMINATION
        A dominates B, C and D
        Formed by nodes
        Notational variant
        a[b[D]C]
        "A is rewritten as B followed by C"
        Choices
        A → (B) C Optionally B Obligatory C
        A → ({B, C}) D
        A → {B, C} Only one of the options
  - Transformational grammar
    - Surface estructure (S-structure)
      - Level in which elements can be re-arranged, deleted or changed without changing meaning
      - ≠
    - Chomsky
  - FORM OF SENTENCES
    - Grammatical
    - Meaningful
      - ≠
      - "Colorless green ideas sleep furiously"
  - Constitutive rather than regulatory rules
    - CONSTITUTIVE: grammatical structure
    - REGULATORY: "good" forms to use
    - The rules are finite in number but must produce any possible sentence in English
      - PHRASE STRUCTURE
        Categories
        NOUN PHRASE
        Adjective (AP) (before noun)
        Degree words
        Quality
        Intensity
        Degree adverbs
        "The very fiercely barking dog"
        Adverb phrase (AdvP)
        Modifier of adjectives
        Preposition (PP) (after noun)
        Contains a preposition modifier of the noun
        Prepositional specifiers (Pspec)
        Right, straight, slap
        "right after lunch"
        "straight along this road"
        Conjunction
        Conjoins two or more constituents
        And, or, but...
        Noun (obligatory)
        "The large dogs"
        Determiner
        (Dem)onstrators
        This, that, these, those
        (Q)uantifiers
        Some, any, every...
        (Poss)esive
        My, your, her, their...
        (Art)icles
        A, an, the
        (Wh)- words
        Which, where, how, when, who, what, why
        VERB PHRASE
        Verb group (Vgr)
        Lexical verb with or without a particle (verb in base form)
        Verb complementation (subcategorization)
        TRANSITIVE
        __NP (direct object)
        Hit, kill, eat, break
        "Reynald broke the vase"
        DITRANSITIVE
        __NP1 __NP2
        Give, send, tell, lend, buy offer, show
        "he sent Olga roses"
        DIPREPOSITIONAL
        __PP PP
        Confer, talk, consult, argue
        "she argued with him about money"
        PREPOSITIONAL
        __ PP
        Locative
        Stand, lie, lean, hang, sit, flow
        "he agreed to the terms" "she stood on the ladder"
        Non-locative
        Agree, work, defend, look, refer, insist, respond
        INTRANSITIVE
        __# (no complement is required or allowed)
        Arrive, cry, laugh, swim
        "the package has arrived"
        COMPLEX TRANSITIVE
        __ NP {NP, AP. PP}
        Locative
        Hang, put, place lay, set, touch, shoot, pierce
        __NP NP "we consider him a fool" __NP AP "she made him unhappy" __NP PP "they regard that as the best design"
        Non-locative
        Find, consider, make, think, elect, call, hold, regard, take, devote
        COPULATIVE
        __ {NP, AP, PP}
        Become, seem, appear, feel. be, grow, look
        __NP "Priya is a scientist" __AP "Priya seems tired" __PP "Priya is in a good mood"
        __NP __AP __PP
        Functions
        SUBJECT: Topic, actor, thing that is being talked about
        PREDICATE: comment, action, that which is said about the subject