Syntax

Argument

Expression required by an argument-taking expression

For a sentence to be well-formed/grammatical, all the argument-taking expressions it contains must be provided with all the arguments they need.

Can be interpreted as arguments for a function (sentence).

For example, an argument-taking expression can be a verb - which usually denote events/relations, which denote participants.

The girl kicked the blue ball

In this example, the girl and the blue ball are the arguments.

Subject

An argument that is described by the argument-taking expression

Complement

The non-subject argument.

Adjuncts

Optional expressions - where presence is not required for the acceptability of the sentence

Arguments	Adjuncts
Obligatory	Optional
No more than required	No limit
Typically cannot be freely ordered with relation to one another	Typically can be freely ordered with relation to one another
Typically occur closer to the verb	Typically occur after arguments

Constituent

String of elements that belong together

To test for constituency:

1. Answers to questions test
   • ask acceptable question where string of words in question might potentially be answer - question can be from the remainder of words in the sentence
2. Cleft test
   • It is/was X that Y
     • if a string of words can go into the X position, it forms a constitutent.
3. Topicalisation test
   • If a string of words can appear as the topic of a sentence, it forms a constituent
4. Coordination test
   • X and/or Y’
   • if a string of words can be coordinated with another string from the same lexical or phrasal category, it forms a constituent
5. Replacement test
   • May be substituted by a shorter unit
     • pronoun -> NP slept/do so/did so -> VP

Tests for constituency may give rise to inconsistent results for independent reasons.

Proving constituency does not indicate that a certain word is a subject/argument.

Syntactic/phrasal categories

If a string of words form a phrasal category, they must be constituent

Categories:

• noun phrase (NP)
  • phrasal constituent that can be replaced by pronouns
• verb phrase (VP)
  • phrasal constituent that yields a sentence when combined with an NP on the left
  • can be replaced with
    • slept (changes meaning)
    • does so
• preposition phrases (PP)
  • phrasal constituent made up of P NP sequence
  • can modify a VP within a VP and can modify a N within an NP

Verbs:

• ditransitive verbs
  • require two complements to form a VP
• sentential complement verbs
  • requires a sentential complement to form a VP

Phrase structure rules

Grammatical rules that describe how phrases are formed in a language

• S -> NP VP

Verb phrases

• VP -> SV S
• VP -> IV
• VP -> TV NP
• VP -> DTV NP NP
• `VP → VP Adv
• VP -> VP PP

Noun phrases

• NP -> Pr

• NP -> (D) (Adj*) N (PP)

• PP -> P NP

• X -> X Conj X

PS tree representations help to visualise

• constituency relations
  • constituents can contain smaller constituents

Structural ambiguity

Ambiguity that arises when more than one possible structure can be assigned to a word/phrase

PP attachment is a common source of structural ambiguity as they can be in both VP and NP phrases.

Lexical ambiguity

Ambiguity arises from a word having more than one possible meaning