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 two new cases: namely, complements which are a. prepositional phrases and b. subordinate clauses.

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.

Complement Clauses

Exercise 8.1 (based on section 5.1 of the textbook)

• Go to https://147.210.117.56.

• Add the words in the following sentences:

(1) Fred thinks that Lilly disappeared
(2) Fred enquires whether Lilly disappeared

Implement the following:

1. that and whether belong to the part of speech C (= complementizer).
2. Complementizers head CPs.
3. CPs take two daughers: a C and an IP. The two daughters are co-heads of the CP.
4. You need to add a new VP rule which allows a VP to consist of a V and a CP. The CP bears the GF COMP.

• Make any further changes that are necessary to obtain the f-structure (10) on p. 101 for (1), with one exception: your grammar will not contain the information [CLTYPE DECL] in the main f-structure! For sentence (2), you should obtain an f-structure which is identical to that of sentence (1), with the exception that the CLTYPE of the COMP in (2) should be INTER.

Check what your grammar predicts for the following examples:

(3) *Fred thinks whether Lilly disappeared
(4) *Fred enquires that Lilly disappeared

If your grammar licenses these examples, then add information to it that makes it impossible to derive a well formed f-structure for them.

Hint: think about the function of each of the complementizers!

Subject Clauses

That- and whether-clauses can also act as subjects:

1. That Lilly disappeared sucks
2. Whether Lilly disappeared is unknown

Of course, the complementizers are still bound to their clause types:

3. *Whether Lilly disappeared sucks

Exercise 8.2

• Go to https://xlfg.labri.fr/.
• Add the sentences above to your test items.
• Change the grammar so that it makes the correct predictions for all test items.

Your grammar should yield the following Argument Structure for sentence (1):

Your grammar should yield the following Argument Structure for sentence (2):

Notes:

a. treat is as a verb which combines with a COMP and an OBJ.
b. treat unknown as an adjective.

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