BBLAN24500 Angol mondattan szem. / English Syntax seminar – BBK

2017

Handout 1

(1) a. Fiúk szőke szaladgálnak

b. Szőke szaladgálnak fiúk

c. Szőke fiúk szaladgálnak

d. Fiúk szaladgálnak szőke

(2) a. Thelma will do some exercises every day

b. Thelma will do every day some exercises

c. Every day Thelma will do some exercises

d. Every day will do Thelma some exercises

(3) a. Szőke fiúk és lányok szaladgálnak

b. Fogadták a parlamentben pingpongozó szakosztályunk tagjait

c. Louise saw the girl with the binoculars

d. I sent a postcard to my friends from London

(4) a. Az oroszlán simogatása veszélyes

b. Flying planes can be dangerous

(5) a. Louise has invited Thelma

b. Thelma has invited Louise

c. Lujza meghívta Telmát

d. Telma meghívta Lujzát

e. Lujzát meghívta Telma

f. Telmát meghívta Lujza

WARNING! syntactic constituency vs. intonational units:

(6) a. This is [the cat that caught [the rat that stole [the cheese]]]

b. [This is the cat] [that caught the rat] [that stole the cheese]

What are the Hungarian equivalents of the following linguistic terms?

a. coordination ........................

b. subordination ........................

c. sentence ........................

d. clause ........................

e. phrase ........................

f. suffix ........................

g. inflection ........................

h. noun ........................

i. pronoun ........................

j. verb ........................

k. adverb ........................

l. adjective ........................

m. auxiliary ........................

n. article ........................

o. preposition ........................

p. subject ........................

q. object ........................

r. adverbial ........................

s. attribute ........................

t. predicate ………………

Handout 2/a

Handout 2/b

1. Indicate which of the italicised strings in the sentences below can be replaced

by a pronoun.

a. Joan is slimming

b. The poor thing must have been pretty desperate

c. Her husband is a real aristocrat

d. The doctor called the young girl a fool

e. I shall speak to the headmistress

f. His wife is Greek

g. I like that picture of your father

h. The boys killed the rats with a long stick

i. The new-born baby was adopted by an elderly couple

j. David was widely acclaimed for his avant-garde paintings

2. Account for the contrasts in the following pairs of sentences.

(1) a. Up a huge hill John ran

b. *Up a huge bill John ran

(2) a. You can rely on my help entirely, naturally

b. *You can rely on my help naturally, entirely

(3) a. He obviously will appeal for support passionately

b. *He passionately will appeal for support obviously

(4) a. Pandas live entirely off bamboo shoots

b. *Poor weather kills entirely off bamboo shoots

3. Assuming that the following sentences are ill-formed (and hence can be used

only for humorous effect, for example), say why they are ill-formed.

a. *Could you turn off the fire and on the light?

b. *Your mother won’t put (and your wife is fed) up with your disgusting

behaviour

c. *I know the truth, and that you are innocent

d. *A nuclear explosion would wipe out plant life and out animal life

e. *He ran down the road and down the President

Handout 3

Verb Phrases: Types of modifier

Modifier Maximality Principle

Non-head constituents are maximal projections, i.e., phrases (XPs).

Compare buy and put:

(1) a. John will buy the book on Tuesday.

b. John will put the book on the table.

Is there a difference in meaning/status/behaviour between the book and on Tuesday,

between on Tuesday and on the table?

(2) a.*John will buy on Tuesday.

b.*John will put on the table.

the book is obligatory in both cases

(3) a. John will buy the book.

b.*John will put the book.

on Tuesday can be omitted, on the table cannot

(4) a. John will [buy the book on Tuesday], and Paul will do so as well.

b. John will [put the book on the table], and Paul will do so as well.

the bracketed constituents can be substituted for by do so

(5) a. John will [buy the book] on Tuesday, and Paul will do so on Thursday.

buy the book forms one constituent, and is of the same category as buy the book on

Tuesday, since it can be substituted for by do so

b.*John will [put the book] on the table, and Paul will do so on the chair.

the same is NOT true of put the book

(6) a. *John will buy on Tuesday the book

b. *John will put on the table the book

the book must immediately follow the verb

In sum:

both buy and put are followed by two modifiers, an NP and a PP, in the sentences

in (1), BUT:

the NP is obligatory and must be closer to the verb in both cases, the PP is

obligatory with put but not with buy

buy forms one constituent with the NP, put doesn’t

What category is this constituent? an intermediate projection of the verb, a verbal

phrase but not a Verb Phrase; let’s call it V’ (V-bar); do so, then, is a pro-V’

the bracketed constituents in (4) are also V-bars

The resulting representation:

two complements

The complement rule: V’ V XP

i.e. the complement is sister to the head

The adjunct rule: V’ V’ XP

i.e. the adjunct is sister and daughter of V’

The adjunct rule is recursive: the same category appears at the two sides of the arrow, i.e.

the output of the rule can serve as part of the input of the same rule. The adjunct rule can

apply over and over again.

Handout 4

Are there any constituents within the NP?

(1) The king of England opened the Parliament.

Independent occurrence (in certain contexts):

(2) He became king of England.

Structural parallelism:

(3) a. the king of England

b. the English king

(Simple) coordination:

(4) Who would defy the king of England and ruler of the Empire?

Right Node Raising:

(5) He was the last (and some people say the best) king of England.

Pronominalisation:

(6) The present king of England is more popular than the last one.

What is the category of this constituent? Another N, NP?

(7) *The king of England is more popular than the one of Spain.

(8) a. The king of England opened the Parliament.

b.*King of England opened the Parliament.

(9) this student of Physics with long hair

(cf.: He studies Physics)

Pronominalisation:

(10) a.*The student of Chemistry was older than the one of Physics.

b. The student with long hair is dating the one with short hair.

(11) a. Which student of Physics? This one?

b. Which student with long hair? This one?

The determiner is always in the specifier position of the NP ([Spec, NP]), i.e. sister to N’

and dominated by NP.

The specifier rule: XP (YP) X’

A detour: What is in the [Spec, VP] position?

(12) a. All the detectives have read the letters.

b. The detectives have all read the letters.

c. The policemen have [VP all [V’ done so]] too.

all: a “floating” quantifier

Other Phrases: AP, AdvP, PP

A. Adjective Phrases

(1) a. John used to be very fond of Mary, but now he is much less so.

b. John is very fond of Mary in some ways, but is less so in other ways.

c. John is very fond of Mary in some ways, but is less so than he used to be.

(2) a. fond of Mary in some ways

b.??fond in some ways of Mary

(3) He was severely personally critical of the president.

(4) He’s so utterly incompetent.

B. Adverb Phrases

(5) a. Her work is very/quite/so/too/rather/more/less/(not) that careless.

b. She works very/quite/so/too/rather/more/less/(not) that carelessly.

(6) He made up his mind quite independently of me.

C. Prepositional Phrases

(7) a. Put it right on the top shelf.

b. Put it right there.

c. The vase fell right [off the table] and [onto the floor].

(8) a. They are very much at odds.

b. I know that he’s rather at odds with his colleagues, but he’s less so with his

friends.

c. I know that he always used to be rather at odds with his colleagues, but he’s

less so these days.

(9) a. He is at odds completely with his friends.

b. He is at odds with his friends completely.

(10) a. He stayed at home because of the strike.

b. He fell out (of) the window.

(11) a. He put his hat on his head.

b. He put his hat on.

cf. c. Mary was eating apples.

d. Mary was eating.

(optional complements)

(12) a. I haven’t seen him since the party.

b. I haven’t seen him since.

(13) a. They held a reunion twenty years after the war.

b. He disappeared very shortly after the operation.

c. You must have left it down in the cellar.

(14) a. The dispute dates from before the war.

b.*The dispute dates before the war.

c. The dispute dates from right before the war.

d. The dispute dates from the time of WW1.

D. Cross-categorial structural symmetry

(15) a. This headache is an indication of severe illness.

b. This headache is indicative of severe illness.

c. This headache indicates severe illness.

(16) a. John is [a student of Physics].

b. Mary is [very proud of her son].

c. She discovered it [quite independently of me].

d. The thief fell [right out of the window].

e. You must be [all thinking of her].

Exercise: Draw phrase markers for the following phrases. Use triangles for modifiers.

1.fairly good at maths, 2.(we’re) hopeful that they do it, 3.soon after the meeting, 4.a

thousand feet above sea level, 5.interested in the outcome, 6.quite remarkable, 7.very

shortly after the operation, 8.up in the attic, 9.really close behind him, 10.right in the

middle of the city, 11.very anxious to go there, 12.from behind the tree

Handout 5: WHAT SHALL WE DO WITH CLAUSES?

(A) General rules for NPs, VPs, APs, AdvPs and PPs:

(1) XP --> X’, Specifier

X’ --> X, Complement X’ --> X’, Adjunct [optional rule]

(B) What is the head of the clause?

(2) a. Garfield will bite the postman.

b. Garfield bit the postman.

c. Garfield bites the postman.

(3) What Garfield will do is bite the postman.

(4) Bite the postman is what Garfield will do.

(5) Bite the postman, Garfield will indeed.

(6) What Garfield did was bite the postman.

(7) Bite the postman is what Garfield did.

(8) Bite the postman, Garfield did indeed.

(9) What Garfield does is bite the postman.

(10) Bite the postman is what Garfield does.

(11) Bite the postman, Garfield does indeed.

Types of Inflections:

In general:

INFL = [+/- Tense, +/- AGR] [+ Tense, + AGR] Eng finite clauses

[- Tense, - AGR] Eng non-finite clauses

[+ Tense, - AGR] ?

[- Tense, + AGR] Hu inf: Meg kell látnom.

In English:

INFL: - verbal inflections: -s, -ed

- pre-infinitival to

- modals: will, would, shall, should, can, could,

may, might, must plus:- aspectual Auxiliaries, by movement from their original V node: be [PASS/PROGR],

have [PERF] (in fact, the verb be always behaves as an auxiliary)

INFL: non-lexical or functional head, because it does not dominate open class lexical

heads; therefore, IP is a functional projection

Exercise: Draw phrase markers for the following sentences:

Mary will cook dinner. Mary did cook dinner. Mary cooked dinner. Mary should have

cooked dinner. Mary has cooked dinner.

(C) Complementisers as heads

Complementiser: subordinating conjunction; introduces clauses which function as a

complement of a V, N or A; a functional head that turns a "sentence" into a

complement clause

(12) a. Jon will have a date.

b. I wonder [if/whether [Jon will have a date]].

c. I bet [that [Jon will have a date]].

d. I am anxious [for [Jon to have a date]].

Links between Complementisers and Inflections

(13) I think [that [Garfield enjoys/*to enjoy the meal]].

(14) I expect [for [Garfield *enjoys/to enjoy the meal]]

(15) Jon wonders [if [Garfield enjoys/*to enjoy the meal]

(16) a. Jon wonders [whether [Garfield will eat it all up]]

b. Jon wonders [whether [__ to feed Garfield at all]]

Types of Complementisers:

C = [+/-INT, +/- FINITE] that [ - INT, + FINITE]

for [ - INT, - FINITE]

if [ + INT, + FINITE]

whether [ + INT, ± FINITE]

Exercise: Draw phrase markers for the following sentences:

I believe that he must be very intelligent. I don’t know whether I should stay. I’m anxious

for Mary to get home before 11. I know that he knows that I know this. I bet that Mary will

cook dinner. I bet Mary will cook dinner. For Mary to cook dinner would be surprising. I

expect for Mary to cook dinner. I wonder whether Mary will cook dinner. I wonder whether

to cook dinner.

(D) Questions, "Subject-Operator Inversion"

(17) _ Garfield will bite the postman.

(18) Will Garfield _ bite the postman?

(19) * I wonder whether will Garfield bite the postman.

(20) At what time will Garfield bite the postman?

Further examples and practice