LING 1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Adpositional Phrase, Phrase Structure Rules, Syntactic Category
Constituent?
● Constituents: on a tree, exist directly under the same node
● Constituent tests
○ Test 1: Stand alone test
■ “Mary will visit the Getty”
● Who will visit the Getty? Mary
● What will Mary do? Visit the Getty.
● Where is she going to visit? The Getty.
○ Test 2: Move as a unit: Can be moved from one part of a sentence to another
■ The Getty, Mary will visit.
■ Visit the Getty, Mary will.
○ Test 3: Can be substituted by a single word (e.g. pronoun, do-replacement)
■ Mary will visit the Getty. Mary will visit it.
■ Mary will visit the Getty. She will visit the Getty
○ Constituency tests are proof against flat structure
■ Sentences are not just strings of words; have hiearchical structure
■ Not all constituents have to pass all tests; need just ONE!
Tree Structure Hypothesis
● Supported by our judgements about the constituent structure (tests) of sentences
○ Flat structures do not explain these judgements!
● Also supported by other linguistic judgements, such has when a sentence is ambiguous
Ambiguity
● Lexical Ambiguity: The words themselves have double meanings, giving the sentence
double meaning
○ Ex: “Republicans grill IRS Chief over lost emails”
■ did they cook the chief using lost emails as fuel? Did they give him a hard
time because of the lost emails? We don’t know for sure
● Structural Ambiguity: More than one tree/constituent grouping possible:
○ Ex: “Students cook and serve granparents”
■ Students [cook and serve grandparents]
■ Students [cook and serve] [grandparents]
○ Mary will hit the student with the book
■ Mary will use the book to hit the student (instrumental)
● Mary will [hit the student] [with the book]
■ Mary will hit the student carrying the book (possession)
● Mary will [hit the student with the book]
■ UNAMBIGUOUS: Mary will date the student with the book.
■ UNAMBIGUOUS: Mary will hit John with the book.
■ If we do a constituency test that forces [the student with the book] to be a
constituent, meaning 1 (instrumental) will disappear
● The student with the book, Mary will hit.
Summary
● Sentences have a tree-like (hiearchicial) sturcture, shown by constituency tests
● Sentence that corresponds to two distinct trees: structurally ambiguous
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Document Summary
Constituents: on a tree, exist directly under the same node. Test 2: move as a unit: can be moved from one part of a sentence to another. Test 3: can be substituted by a single word (e. g. pronoun, do-replacement) Constituency tests are proof against flat structure. Sentences are not just strings of words; have hiearchical structure. Not all constituents have to pass all tests; need just one! Supported by our judgements about the constituent structure (tests) of sentences. Flat structures do not explain these judgements! Also supported by other linguistic judgements, such has when a sentence is ambiguous. Lexical ambiguity: the words themselves have double meanings, giving the sentence double meaning. Ex: republicans grill irs chief over lost emails . Mary will hit the student with the book. Mary will use the book to hit the student (instrumental) Mary will [hit the student] [with the book] Mary will hit the student carrying the book (possession)
