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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