Syntax: Dependencies

• tree diagram ➝ generative approach. main theory of syntax

• dependency: when 2+ elements occur in a syntactic arrangement, some kind of dependency exists   * Head: dominant element   * Dependent: all elements that must co-occur because of the head

• a dependency relation doesn’t have to have the head next to the dependent

• there can be a long-distance dependency

• three types of dependency, depending on the strength of the bond   * Bilateral dependence: the occurrence of each element is dependent on the occurrence of the other     * Subject-Verb. The cyclist crashed     * Preposition-Object. with the pencil     * the head still governs the syntactic properties of the construction (verb, preposition)   * Unilateral dependence: the head can occur without any dependents     * adjuncts ➝ adjectives, time, manner, place, adverbs   * Coordinate dependence: all elements are of equal status, both heads and dependence. shown by ‘and’     * Kim saw Chris and Dana.     * Kim saw and loathed Chris.

• Dependency relations are crucial to morphosyntax

• dependent-marking: some languages require morphosyntactic coding only on the dependents   * head is generally unmarked but the dependent is marked morphology

• head-marking: other languages require morphosyntactic coding only on the heads   * dependent is generally unmarked but the head is marked morphologically   * this is how polysynthetic languages work

• zero-marking   * usually analytic languages   * no morphology to encode heads or dependents

• mixed marking: some morphology on heads and dependents

• A Theory of Dependencies   * tree analysis gives no information about dependencies   * notiational dependencies     * Word Grammar (pointing from head to dependencies)       * Bilateral: double arrow       * Unilateral: one arrow       * Coordinate: no arrow

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