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. 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).

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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