Syntax and Semantics

February 28, 2012

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Plan
!
Syntax:
!
Recap
!
Trees
!
Trees
!
Trees
!
Semantics:
!
Intro
!
Semantic change
Syntax trees
!
Syntactic trees help us the look at the hierarchy of constituency
within a sentence
!
Its called a tree, as it looks like an upside-down tree (sort of!)
!
When drawing trees, we only ever use binary branching
!
We start from the top, and work our way down, keeping
constituency in mind
!
We also keep in mind allowable sequences in Phrases
Trees glorious trees
!
Once we are clear on constituency, we can start drawing trees
!
We will be using X Bar structure (rst proposed by Chomsky in
1970)
!
This is the basic structure:
XP
X
X
(Specier)
NP
N
N
Specier
The
Cat
(Complement)
Joining phrases
!
We can join phrases together to form larger phrases and sentences
!
Remember our constituency rules!
NP
N
N
Det
The
cat
in
hat
PP
NP
P
N
Optional complements
come off the X level
N det
the
P
Practice
!
Try drawing trees for:
!
Sat on the mat
!
went to the shop
!
The cat on the oor
Answers - sat on the mat
VP
V
V
PP
NP
P
N
sat
on
N
the
mat
P
Went to the shop
VP
V
V
PP
NP
P
N
went
to N
the
shop
P
The cat on the oor
NP
N
N
PP
NP
P
N
cat
on
N
the
oor
the
Det
P
IP structure
!
Weve seen that the basic structure is:
!
This rings true for every phrase
!
We need to consider an IP: Inectional Phrase
!
This phrase contains inection - things like
tense, agreement etc
!
Well see later that auxilliaries (John will have visited Mary) and
modals (she would have done that) also go in this position
IP
I
I
Specier
Comp
Test sentence
!
The cat sat on the mat
!
First work out constituency:
!
The cat sat there - On the mat is a constituent of sat
!
The cat sat on it - the mat is a constituent of on
!
[NP] [VP [PP [NP]]]
The cat sat on the mat
!
IP -> [NP] [VP [PP [NP]]]
IP
NP
VP
PP
NP
P
Det
N
Det
N
The
cat
sat
V
on
the
mat
N
V
P
N
We start with IP, as this is
an inected phrase
I
(past)
I
Are you still alive?
!
If so, well done. Keep it up, as we have some examples to do...
!
Keelin ate a cake
!
I like peanuts
!
Cake is delicious
!
The puppy found the child
Answers
IP
NP
VP
NP
N Det
N
Keelin
ate
V
a
cake
N
V
N
I
(past)
I
Answers
IP
NP
VP
NP
N
N
I
like
V
peanuts
N
V
N
I
(present)
I
Answers
IP
NP
VP
AP
A
N
Cake
is
V
delicious
N
V
A
I
(present)
I
Answers
IP
NP
VP
NP
Det
N
Det
N
The
puppy
found
V
child
the
N
V
N
I
(past)
I
What about new information?
!
What if we want to say: The fat cat sat happily on the ugly mat
!
These words are called modiers - they modify the head of a
phrase
!
They are not necessary for the sentence to be grammatical, theyre
extra
!
However, we can nd a place to put them
!
We create new positions for them to go, by adding new X levels
Here
IP
NP
VP
PP
NP
P
Det
N
Det
N
The
cat
sat
V
on
the
mat
N
V
P
N
I
(past)
I
Modiers (Adjuncts)
!
If we need to put in modiers, we make a new X
!
This is where extra information goes
XP
X
X
Specier
X
The
fat
cat
AdjP
A
VP
V
V
V
sat
AdvP
Adv
happily
The adjunct can also go
on the other side
Adv
A
Complement
The fat cat sat happily on the
ugly mat
NP
VP
PP
NP
P
Det
N
Det
N
The
cat
sat
V
on
the
mat
N
V
P
N
N
AdjP
Adj
fat
N
AdjP
A
ugly
IP
I
(past)
I
V
happily
Adj
A
AP
A
A
Exercises
!
Keelin sat daintily on the gilded chair
!
The kind-hearted boy had many girlfriends
!
The huge cat slowly chased the mouse
Answers
NP
VP
PP
NP
P
N
Det
N
sat
V
on
the
chair
N
V
P
N
V
N
AdjP
A
gilded
IP
I
(past)
I
Keelin
A
daintily
AP
A
A
V
Answers
VP
NP
Det
Det
N
had
V
many
girlfriends
V
N
IP
I
(past)
I
NP
N
The
boy
N
N
AP
A
kind-hearted
many here is an example of a
degree determiner
A
Answers
NP
VP
NP
Det
N
Det
N
The
cat
chased
V
the
mouse
N
V
N
N
AP
A
huge
V
AdvP
Adv
slowly
IP
I
(past)
I
Adv
A
The fat cat sat on the ugly mat
with pleasure
!
Think about where with pleasure needs to t in
!
What is it a constituent of?
!
Remember: replacement and movement tests
!
Also, what kind of Phrase is it? with?
!
PP
!
The fat cat sat happily (Replace PP with Adverb)
!
[NP] [VP [PP] [PP] ]
With pleasure
NP
VP
PP
NP
P
Det
N Det
N
The
cat
sat
V
on
the
mat
N
V
P
N
N
AP
A
fat
V
AdvP
Adv
happily
N
AP
Adj
ugly
PP
P
P
NP
N
with
N
pleasure
xs
IP
I
(past)
I
A
A
V
Exercise - Trees
!
The magician touched the child with the wand Whats unusual
about this sentence? How might you account for that?
!
Using the wand, the magician touched the child
!
The magician touched the child who was
holding the wand
The magician touched the child
with the wand
NP
VP
NP
Det
N
Det
N
The
magician
touched
V
the
child
N
V
N
N
V
PP
P
P
NP
N
with
N
wand
IP
I
(past)
I
Det
the
Using the wand, the magician touched the child
V
The magician touched the child
with the wand
NP
VP
NP
Det
N
Det
N
The
magician
touched
V
the
child
N
V
N
N
V
PP
P
P
NP
N
with
N
wand
IP
I
(past)
I
Det
the
N
The magician touched the child
who was holding the wand
Auxilliaries and Modals
!
Auxilliaries are found in sentences such as He will be drunk later
!
Modals are conditionals - would,could, should, might etc
!
Auxilliaries and Modals are the only overt words which go in the
spec I position
!
Otherwise, as we saw, it is reserved for agreement and tense
Auxilliary
IP
NP
VP
AdjP
PP
A
N
P
He
be
V
drunk
later
N
V
A
I
I
will
Remember, the I position
is reserved for inection,
modals and auxilliaries
P
Modal
IP
NP
VP
NP
Det
N
She
paint
V
the
N
V
N
I
I
would
N
car
Exercises
!
Draw the trees for:
!
Keelin will eat the cake
!
Annabel would go to the shop
!
John has gone there
Answers - Keelin will eat the cake
IP
NP
VP
NP
N
N
Keelin
eat
V
cake
N
V
I
I
will
det
the
Annabel would go to the shop
IP
NP
VP
PP
NP
P
N
N
Annabel
go
V
to
shop
N
V
P
I
I
would
det
the
N
John has gone there
IP
NP
VP
PP
N
P
John
gone
V
there
N
V
I
I
has
P
Embedded sentences
!
One of the key aspects of human language is that we can express
long dependencies of thought and action
!
Think of: She said that he said that you thought that Mary had
cheated on Ben with John
!
We need a way to syntactically express sentences within sentences
!
Think of the sentence The teacher believes that the student knows
the answer
!
The teacher believes that the student knows the answer
!
the student knows the answer is a complement to the verb, its
inside the VP
Embedding
!
[NP] [VP [IP]]
IP
NP
VP
CP
IP
C
Det
N
Det
V
The
teacher believes
V
that
the
student
N
V
C
N
I
(present)
I
(present)
VP
NP
V
NP
Det N knows
the answer
CP: Complementiser
Phrase
Syntax trees
!
Trees can get MUCH more complex than weve seen
!
We havent touched on the more complex syntactic theories, but
hopefully you have an idea of how to approach syntactic analysis
!
Crucially, syntax is about making sense of what is allowed,
grammatically, in a language
!
This involves working out what phrases are governed by others,
and laying these observations out in rules
!
We use trees as a visual way to immediately see whats going on in
the syntax of a language
Break
Semantics
!
Semantics is the study of the linguistic meaning of morphemes,
words, phrases and sentences
!
Well be looking at lexical semantics - the meanings of words, and
the meaningful relationship between words
!
Related to semantics is pragmatics, which is the study of how
context can affect meaning
!
Learning a language includes learning the meaning of individual
elements and how to combine these to make further meaningful
phrases and sentences
!
We cant just make words mean whatever we want them to mean
Book, dog, comb, run, eat
!
Theres nothing about these words that is matched to their meaning
!
There is nothing about the word book that means paper, with
words...
!
Its an arbitrary link, but a conventional arbitrary one
!
We must know the conventions
Principle of Compositionality
!
The meaning of a sentence is determined by the meaning of its
component parts and the manner in which they are arranged in
syntactic structure (OGrady, 284)
!
So, the meaning of a sentence is over and above just the word
meanings
!
Interface of syntax and semantics - syntax inuences meaning
!
Keelin killed John vs John killed Keelin: huge difference
Metaphor
!
The use of an expression that usually expresses one concept - its
literal meaning - but is used to describe another concept, creating
an implicit comparison
!
Metaphor is a hugely important part of language - we use it to
express abstract things etc
!
Often, the literal interpretation is so unlikely that people will use their
imagination to interpret any anomaly e.g. Walls have ears
!
Here, the principle of compositionality becomes stretchy - listeners
stretch is to produce a likely meaning
!
John is a snake in the grass Time is money
Idioms
!
These are phrases which have a set meaning that must be learned
- the Principle of Compositionality doesnt help us in interpreting
them
!
They cannot be broken down into composite meaningful parts, nor
re-worded or recombined
!
She put her foot in her mouth
!
She threw her weight around
!
Bite your tongue
!
Ill give you a piece of my mind
<--Perhaps a
metaphorical
extension here?
Semantic change/shift
!
One of the most interesting aspects of semantics (in my opinion) is
tracking the changing meaning of words through time
!
Even when a word is retained in a language, its meaning will often
change over time
!
Often social change - people change how its used
!
www.slate.com/articles/life/the_good_word/2011/04/
the_nonplussed_problem.html
Semantic broadening
!
Here, words get a more general meaning than they once had
old meaning new meaning
aunt fathers sister
parents sister, wife
of parents brother
manage handle a horse handle anything
holiday holy day any day off
Semantic narrowing
!
The opposite - where words now have a more narrow meaning
than before
old meaning new meaning
meat any type of food esh of an animal
liquor liquids alcoholic drinks
accident
any unforseen
event
unforseen ,with
negative consequence
Amelioration
!
A word gets a more positive connotation than it had before
old meaning new meaning
pretty tricky, sly, cunning attractive
knight boy
man of honourable
military rank
dogged doglike
tenacious/
determined
Pejoration
!
A word gets a more negative connotation than it had before
old meaning new meaning
silly happy, blessed foolish
wench girl wanton woman
stench smell unpleasant smell
Exercise (from Meyerhoff 2006)
gay
persons full
of joy and
mirth
(1310)
addicted to
social
pleasures
(1637
(woman)
leading an
immoral life
(1825)
homo-
sexual
(1935)
stupid,
hopeless
(1980s)
girl
a child of
either sex
(1290)
female child,
unmarried
woman
(1530)
sweetheart
lady-love
(1648)
prostitute
or mistress
(1711)
Black
woman
(1835)
harlot
Low fellow,
knave
(1330)
male
servant
(1386)
unchaste
woman,
strumpet
(1450)
hussy
mistress of
the
household
(1530)
playfully rude
term to
address
women (17 C)
female of
low/improper
behaviour
(18thC)
Exercise
tart
delicious
baked
pastry
(1430)
young
woman,
affectionate
(1846)
female
prostitute
(1887)
young
favourite of
older man,
male
prostitute
queen
kings
wife
(893)
endearment
for woman
(1588)
attractive
woman,
girlfriend
(1900)
male
homo-
sexual
(1924)
whore
female
prostitute
(1100)
woman
committing
adultery
(1440)
general
term of
abuse
(1633)
male
prostitute
(1968)
wench
female
child
(1290)
wanton
woman
(1362)
servant
(1380)
working
class girl
(1575)
Exercise
!
What is the type of semantic change seen in the table above
(adapted from Meyerhoff (2006))?
!
Can you think of any other terms for women which have similarly
shifted over time?
!
Pejoration
!
Mistress
!
Buxom: kind and loving - big busted
Exercise
!
Identify each of the semantic changes below
word earlier meaning
moody brave
uncouth unknown
butcher
one who slaughters goats
witch
male or female sorcerer
sly skilful
argue make clear
carry transport by cart
grumble
murmur, make low sounds
type of shift
shift
pejoration
broadening
broadening? narrowing?
pejoration
shift/pejoration
broadening
pejoration
Sense relations - Synonymy
!
This term refers to different words with the same meaning
(apathetic, phlegmatic, passive, sluggish, indifferent)
!
So, if these terms really do mean exactly the same thing, they
should t easily into the same environment
!
An apathetic/phlegmatic/passive/sluggish/indifferent man
!
Perhaps not.... Its actually very unusual to nd two words which
mean precisely the same thing
!
This is because true synonyms are disliked in language - if two
words have roughly equal meaning, they tend to have a distinct,
specialised use
Synonymy
!
An example of perfect synonymy?
!
Hes sitting on the sofa/ hes sitting on the couch
!
Were very likely to be able to interpret either sentence if we know
both words
!
Sofa and couch refer to the same type of concrete object, and have
many semantic properties in common
!
When synonyms occur in otherwise identical sentences, the
sentences are known as lexical paraphrases (same meaning)
Homonymy
!
Homonymy can be seen as the opposite of synonymy
!
Here, one form is associated with more than one meaning
!
This is also known as homophony (same-sound)
!
Cross (cross the street, she is cross, Jesus on the cross)
!
Bat (baseball, winged animal)
!
Homonyms need not always be homographs (same spelling) e.g.
tale/tail
Ambiguity
!
Homonymy can create lexical ambiguity (not structural)
!
Prostitutes appeal to the Prime Minister
!
Here, the ambiguity comes from the term appeal
!
Ill meet you by the bank
!
By the nancial institution or the riverside?
!
We must use additional information/context to decipher this
ambiguity
Polysemy
!
Dont confuse this with homonymy
!
Here, we have one form with different, but related meanings
!
A dirty oor, a dirty trick/A dark room, a dark secret
!
Here, the relationship is one of semantic extension
!
The meaning of dirty (soiled, not clean) has been extended to suit
things that seem underhand, shady etc
!
Bear is polysemous (to tolerate, to carry, to support), and is also
homonymous (animal, and the polysemous verb above)
Antonymy
!
This occurs when we have words which are opposite in meaning
!
long-short/ young-old/male-female/small-large/dead-alive
!
Two types: complementary and gradable
!
Complementary antonyms: These are not gradable. There are only
two options, you cant have both at the same time
!
Alive-dead, male-female, present-absent, awake-asleep
Antonymy
!
Gradable antonyms: These allow us to use modied such as very,
rather, a little
!
Gradable antonyms often come from sets of words on a
continuum: tiny, small, medium, large, huge, gargantuan
!
big-small, hot-cold, fast-slow, happy-sad
!
The meaning of adjectives here is related to the object modied:
A small elephant is bigger than a big mouse
!
Gradable antonyms: the negative of one is not synonymous with
the other e.g. not happy is not necessarily sad
!
Usually, one is marked and one is unmarked: We ask how high is
the mountain, rather than how low. Here, high is unmarked
Converses
!
Here, each word of a pair represents a different side of the same
relationship
!
Above-below, buy-sell, husband-wife, teacher-pupil
!
So, I bought a car from someone who sold it
!
Same relationship, different views
!
Also sometimes known as Relational Opposites
Hyponymy
!
A word is a hyponym of another word if it belongs to a general
class expressed by the other word
!
Terrier, corgi, alsatian are all hyponyms of dog
!
Lion, tiger, leopard are all hyponyms of cat/feline
!
Seafoam, royal, turquoise are all hyponyms of blue
!
Here, think of hypo - under. The hyponyms fall under the general
class
Hyperonymy
!
On the other hand, if a word expresses a more general category of
which another word is a member, then it is a hyperonym of the
other word
!
Dog is hyperonym of terrier, corgi, alsatian
!
Blue is hyperonym of seafoam, turquoise, royal
!
Here, think of hyper over - Hyperonyms exist over the more
detailed distinctions
Exercises
!
Explain the semantic ambiguity of these sentences by coming up
with two sentences which paraphrase them. Why are they
ambiguous?
(e.g. She cant bear children - she cant give birth to children/ she
cant tolerate children) - polysemy of bear
!
The proprietor of the sh shop was the sole owner
!
You should see her shop
!
When he got the clear title to the land, it was a good deed
!
It takes a good ruler to make a straight line
!
He saw that gasoline can explode
!
Every man loves a woman
Answers
!
The proprietor of the sh shop was the sole owner (sole = sh/only
- homonymy)
!
You should see her shop (shop = N/V - homonymy)
!
When he got the clear title to the land, it was a good deed (deed =
action/ proof of ownership)
!
It takes a good ruler to make a straight line (ruler = ruler of country/
thing that helps draw straight lines - homonymy)
!
He saw that gasoline can explode (can = N, modal verb -
homonymy, that = determiner/ complementiser - homonymy)
!
Every man loves a woman (a woman = can be one woman, or each
man loves a different woman)
Summary
!
Semantics aims to look at meaning in language
!
This involves looking at word meanings and sentence meanings
!
It also involves looking at how meanings can and do change over
time
Reading for next week
!
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/crux/2012/01/19/leave-los-
ninos-alone-the-mental-costs-of-linguistic-assimilation/
!
This looks at bilingualism, which well be looking at next week (as
well as language acquisition, disruption etc)
References
!
Fromkin, V., Rodman, R., and Hyams, N. (2003). An Introduction to
language. 7th edition. Massachusetts: Thomson Heinle
!
Meyerhoff, M (2006). Introducing sociolinguistics. New York:
Routledge
!
OGrady, W., Dobrovolshy, M., and Katamba, F. (1997)
Contemporary linguistics: An introduction. Essex: Pearson
Education Ltd