Syntax and Embedded Sentences

Syntax: Additional Structures

Embedded Sentences

  • Example Sentence: "The children hope that the teacher forgets the exam"

    • Analysis Task: Analyze the sentence.

    • Identify the main verb phrase (VP).

    • Determine the function of the word "that" in the sentence.

  • Phrase Structure Breakdown:

    • Sentence Outline:

    • [The children hope [that the teacher forgets the exam]]

    • Components:

    • TP (Tense Phrase)

      • NP (Noun Phrase)

      • Det (Determiner)

      • N (Noun)

      • T’ (T-prime)

      • T (Tense)

      • VP (Verb Phrase)

      • V’ (Verb-prime)

      • V (Verb)

      • CP (Complementizer Phrase)

      • C’ (C-prime)

      • C (Complementizer)

      • -Q (Questions)

      • TP

        • NP

        • T’

        • T

        • VP

Recursive Rule in Practice: Recursive Sets

  • Embedding Concept: Embedding of categories within categories in syntax.

    • Key Insight: A finite syntactic system can generate an infinite number of sentences.

  • Competence vs Performance:

    • Linguistic Competence: Refers to the underlying mental grammar.

    • Linguistic Performance: Encompasses the actual use of grammar for language production and comprehension.

  • Example Application: Recognizing recursive rules in embedded sentences.

Transformation Rules and Movement

Question Formation Example

  • Statement: "The manager will fire the employee."

  • Related Question: "Will the manager fire the employee?"

    • Relationship Insight: There is an intuitive relation between the statement and the question.

    • Investigation Method: Analyze how questions derive from statements to reveal this relationship.

Surface Structures and Deep Structures

  • Example Sentences:

    • Statement: "The manager will fire the employee."

    • Question: "Will the manager fire the employee?"

    • Movement Analysis: The auxiliary verb "will" is moved to the beginning of the question.

    • Testing the Theory: Validating this movement by observing sentence structure.

Application to Complex Sentences

  • Complex Sentence: "The manager who will fire the employee will succeed."

    • Identify Auxiliaries: Two auxiliaries are present, leading to ambiguity over which one to move.

    • Initial Rule Application: If the first auxiliary moves, the result is ungrammatical:

    • Resulting Sentence: "*Will the manager who [ _ ] fire the employee will succeed."

Revising the Rule

  • Identifying Structure: Deep hierarchical structure reveals:

    • One auxiliary is situated in the main VP, while the other is in the embedded sentence.

  • Revised Rule: Move the auxiliary in the main VP to the front of the sentence.

Rule Testing and Confirmation

  • Testing the Revised Rule:

    • Resulting Sentence: "Will the manager who will fire the employee [ _ ] succeed."

    • Outcome: Produces a well-formed English sentence.

  • Relation to Universal Grammar (UG): Highlights that grammar is structure-dependent.

Yes-No Questions Reviewed

  • Observation: Various sentence types relate systematically to others.

  • Examples:

    • Statement: "The boy will dance."

    • Derived Question: "Will the boy dance?"

  • Underlying Structural Concept: Common underlying structures exist among sentence types.

  • Generation Process:

    • Two Steps involved:

    1. Phrase Structure Rules generate a basic (deep) structure.

    2. Transformational Rule—Auxiliary Inversion Rule—applies to produce the surface structure.

Structure Dependent Examples

  • Example Sentence: "The students in the linguistics class study the patterns of syntax."

    • Grammatical Form: This sentence is grammatically correct.

  • Incorrect Example: "*The student in the linguistics class studies the patterns of syntax."

    • Analysis: The incorrect form shows the necessity of syntactic structures.

Final Summary of Universal Grammar (UG)

  • Objective of UG Theory: Characterize native speaker knowledge and first language acquisition processes.

  • Principles and Variations:

    • UG Principles: Universal principles consistent across all languages.

    • UG Parameters: Account for the variations observed within the universally applicable principles.