Practical Grammar 8

So far, the arguments of verbs have all been determiner phrases (= DPs) like names, pronouns, or Det-N (the cat) configurations. But verbs can also take complements of other parts of speech. This week, we will encounter a new case: namely, complements which are prepositional phrases (= PPs).

Prepositional Phrases

We want our grammar to generate sentences like the following:

(1) The cat sat under the table.
(2) Robin put food on the table.

To achieve this, we need

1. lexical items for the new verbs
2. a phrase structure rule that creates PPs from a P and a DP
3. two new phrase structure rules for verb phrases.

The Syntax of PPs

We make the following assumptions about the internal and external syntax of PPs:

A. The internal structure of the PP

a. the P is the head of the PP
b. the DP daughter of the PP bears the grammatical function OBJ

B. The external relationships of the PP

a. c-structure: the whole PP is treated as just another daughter of the verb phrase whose head is the verb selecting the PP. Thus, in (1), the VP has two daughters, a V and a PP. In (2), the VP has three daughters, a V, a DP, and a PP.
b. grammatical function: we will only deal with PPs that express locations, for example under the table and on the table. Accordingly, the verbs taking the PP as argument assign it the grammatical function LOC.

The Semantics of PPs expressing locations

We make the following assumptions about the meaning of locational PPs like under the table:

a. the meaning of the DP the table is a LANDMARK (= orientation point).
b. different prepositions take the landmark as a basis and make different locations, depending on the meaning of the preposition. Thus, under uses the landmark the table to create the location under the table, whereas on makes the location on the table from the same landmark.
c. sentence (1) then says that the cat is sitting in the location under the table and sentence (2) says that Robin put the food into the location on the table.
d. in accordance with this, the whole PP bears the thematic role LOCATION to the verb, and
e. the DP object of the preposition bears the thematic role of LANDMARK to the preposition.

Important note: the Wiki page currently does not allow me to upload pictures. Therefore, I have uploaded to Olat the file

Exercise-8-expected-output.pdf

which gives you the f-structure and the Argument Structure that your grammar should produce for sentences (1) and (2).

Exercise 8

1. Open Grammar-8
2. Implement the analysis for sentences (1)-(2) as described above.
3. Parse.

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