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 1

State which feature the constrast between (1) and (3) motivates. What are the feature's possible values?

Check your answer

The feature is TENSE and its possible values are pres, past, future.

Exercise 2

State which features the constrast between (1) and (2) motivates. What are the features' possible values?

Check your answer

The contrast motivates two features:
a. The feature PERSON whose possible values are 1, 2, and 3.
b. The feature NUMBER whose possible values are sg and pl.

Exercise 3

• Add appropriate TENSE, NUMBER, and PERSON features to all the verbs in the lexicon.

Annotating the rule VP -> V NP

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

VP -> V NP;

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

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

Reminder:

1. ↑=↓1; in the rule above means that the NP and its first daugher share an f-structure.
2. ↑=↓2; in the rule above means that the NP and its second daugher share an f-structure.
3. ↑=↓1; and =↓2; means that there is a single f-structure that the NP and its two daughers share.
4. As a result if the feature values of D and N are compatible, then the f-structure of the NP will be the unification of the f-structures of D and N.
   

• Give the VP rule above the same annotation as our NP rule.
• Add 'breaks the bottle' to the test sentence list and mark it as grammatical.
• Parse.
• Inspect the f-structure of the VP: is this the correct result?
  

• Now add 'breaks the bottles' to the test sentence list and mark it as grammatical.
• Parse.
• Inspect the result. Is it correct?

If not, what seems to be the problem? What is the difference between the two cases?

Check your answer

The contrast motivates two features:
a. The feature PERSON whose possible values are 1, 2, and 3.
b. The feature NUMBER whose possible values are sg and pl.

♣ 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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