Practical Grammar

Review

If you need a review on parts of speech and phrases, then follow these links:

• [Words]
• [Phrases]

Syntactic Categories

S, NP, N, VP, V, PP, P, AP, A, D

Evidence for Syntactic Constituents

(Based on Radford (1988), Chapter 2)

Only phrasal constituents (i.e. whole phrases) can undergo Preposing

(1) I cant stand your elder sister.

(2)

a. Your elder sister I can’t stand.
b. * Your elder I can’t stand sister.
c. * Elder sister I can’t stand your.
d. * Sister I can’t stand your elder.
e. * Your I can’t stand elder sister.

Pronouns

Pronouns replace NPs

(6)

a. SPEAKER A: What do you think of [ NP the [ N guy] who wrote that unbelievably boring book onTransformational Grammar]?
b. SPEAKER B: I can't stand [ NP him].
c. SPEAKER B: *I can't stand [ NP the [ N him] who wrote that unbelievably boring [ N book] onTransformational Grammar]

there replaces PPs

(8)

a. SPEAKER A: Have you ever been [ PP to Paris]?
b. SPEAKER B: No, I have never been [ PP there].

do so replaces VPs

(9) Lilly [ VP went home early].
(10)

a. Sandy [ VP did so] , too.
b. Sandy will [ VP do so], too.
c. Sandy might [ VP do so], too.

Exercise 1.1 Find constituents

Based on the the constituency tests, determine the constituency of the bracketed expressions in the following sentences. Use only the following syntactic categories: S, NP, N, VP, V, PP, P, AP, A, D.

Assume that sentences are created by the following rule, which says that an NP followed by a VP is an S (= sentence):

S -> NP VP

(1) John [disappeared].
(2) the bottle [broke].
(3) Martha [stayed at the hospital].
(4) Fred [talks about Chicago].
(5) Robert [went to the hospital].
(6) Alice [moved into the room].
(7) Joe [saw Fred].
(8) Alice [broke the bottle].
(9) we [moved it into the room].
(10) Fred [took Alice to the hospital].
(11) John [sent Martha a check].
(12) we [gave Fred a wastebasket].

Illustration

The constituent structure of (5) is the following:

[S [NP [N Robert]] [VP [V went] [PP [P to] [NP [D the] [N hospital]]]]].

You can create a visual representation of the tree at the following website:

jsSyntaxTree

- To draw a tree for the structure above, paste it into the textfield of jsSyntaxTree.
- Note: if the program doesn't draw a tree, then below the textfield it will tell you what the problem is. A frequent error is that you have an opening bracket without a closing bracket or the other way round.
- You can download the tree by clicking on it.

Evidence for the constituent structure of (5) from the pronoun test:
a. The words the hospital can be replaced by the pronoun it and the most important word is a noun. Hence, the hospital is an NP (= noun phrase).
b. The words to the hospital can be replaced by the proform there and the most important word is a preposition. Hence, to the hospital is a PP (= prepositional phrase).
c. The words went to the hospital can be replaced by the proform do so and the most important word is a verb. Hence, went to the hospital is a VP (= verb phrase).
d. The word Robert can be replaced by the pronoun he and it is a noun. Hence, it forms a single-word NP (= noun phrase).
e. Sentences consist of an NP followed by a VP. Since Robert is an NP and went to the hospital is a VP, Robert went to the hospital is an S (= sentence).

Exercise 1.2 Draw trees

Draw a tree for each sentence with jsSyntaxTree and check whether it has all and only the constituents you have provided evidence for.

Phrase Structure Rules

A phrase structure rule is well formed, if it is of one of the following forms

C₀ -> C₁
C₀ -> C₁ C₂
C₀ -> C₁ C₂ C₃

and each C is one of the categories listed above.

b. Write the phrase structure rules needed to license the trees for (1)-(12).

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