Practical Grammar 4

Verbs and VPs

Next, we want to associate verbs and VPs with reasonable f-structures. As with NPs, we do this in two steps:

a. We add appropriate features to the lexical entries of verbs, and b. we add the correct annotation to the VP-rules, so that each node in the VP tree gets the desired f-structure.

Features of verbs

Let us look at the following sentences:

(1) I am happy. (2) They are happy. (3) I was happy.

Exercise

In the previous unit, we formulated the following annotated c-structure rule for combining a D and an N into NP:

1. NP -> D N
2. {
3.  ↑=↓1;
4.  ↑=↓2;
5. }

Let us now turn to the rule that combines a V and an NP into a VP:

VP -> V NP;

Exercise 4

♣ Add the following test sentences to your grammar and tell the program that they are ungrammatical:

(1) *John [disappeared the hospital].
(2) *Martha [stayed the hospital].
(3) *Fred [resides].
(4) *Joe [saw Fred John].
(5) *John [sent Martha to a check].
(6) *We [gave Fred].

♣ Parse each sentence.
♣ Does the grammar make the right prediction?
♣ If not, formulate in grammatical terms what the problem seems to be.

The PRED feature and valence

Valence is the representation of the knowledge speakers have about what other kinds of constituents a word needs to combine with. You will remember from traditional grammar the distinction between intransitive and transitive verbs. These are just names for those verbs, respectively, which do not need a direct object (i.e. the verb disappear) and those which do (like see).

(1)
John disappeared.
[PRED   'DISAPPEAR<SUBJ>']

(2)
The bottle broke.
[PRED   'BREAK<SUBJ>']

(3)
Joe saw Fred.
[PRED   'SEE<SUBJ,OBJ>']

(4)
Alice broke the bottle.
[PRED   'SEE<SUBJ,OBJ>']

(5)
John sent Martha a check.
[PRED   'SEE<SUBJ,OBJ,OBJ-TH>']

(6)
We gave Fred a wastebasket.
[PRED   'SEE<SUBJ,OBJ,OBJ-TH>']

PER	3
NUM	sg
DEF	-

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