English syntax

Handout 2

Basic linguistic relations

What is the basis of syntactic structure? What relations fundamentally underlie syntactic structure? Argumenthood and modification Argumenthood and modification are at bottom semantic relationships (although the expression of argumenthood is more constrained in natural language than purely semantic considerations would dictate) Argumenthood !he most ob"ious factor that determines how "ocabulary items combine has to do with their meaning (#) a $%im in"ited b $ %ohn laughed the man &n a well'formed sentence the semantic "alency of a predicate (in the gi"en cases a "erb) has to be respected (2) a %im in"ited me b %ohn laughed Invite ( a two-place predicate) or a predicate with two arguments (the "erb*s argument structure refers to the number of its semantic arguments) Laugh ( a one-place predicate) or one-argument verb !he semantic "alency of a predicate does not always completely determine the syntactic structure it appears in +or instance) eat denotes a relation between eaters and food &t is therefore a two'place predicate) li,e invite. Howe"er) unli,e invite, eat has both a transitive and an intransitive use) as illustrated(.) a We ate the pi//a b !he children ha"e eaten &n other words) the relation between the semantic) and syntactic arguments of a predicate is not one'to'one 0odification 0odifiers also restrict the denotation predicates) but are syntactically optional !hey introduce additional information (somehow not crucial for the

English syntax

Handout 2

e"ent1 situation described) Although modifiers are optional the con"erse is not true 2ot all syntactically optional constituents are modifiers (cf .b) (3) a We ate the pi//a in a restaurant yesterday b %ohn laughed from the top of his "oice 0odifiers refer to the manner of performing an act) the time of a an e"ent) its location) origin) cause) purpose 4redication

4redication ( a relation between a sub5ect and a predicate is at the heart of a clause E"ery clause is an instance of predication &t differs from argumenthood and modification in being an irreducibly syntactic relation By this) we mean that predication is not always semantically moti"ated Aristotelian predicate A predicate is e"erything said about the sub5ect (6) a & bought a camel in Egypt b %ohn is silly c We sang all night long +regean predicate A predicate is a single "ocabulary item whose denotation is restricted by arguments and modifiers (7) a & bought a camel in Egypt b %ohn is silly c We sang all night long 8ub5ect re9uirement E"ery clause has a sub5ect and a predicate) regardless of the semantic re9uirements 8ub5ect re9uirement is purely syntactic Expleti"e sub5ects(:) a It rained b It is snowing

English syntax (;) (<) a !he cat is here b There is a cat here a 8ome unresol"ed issues remained b !here remained some unresol"ed issues !ypes of clauses

Handout 2

+inite(#=) (##) He dreams about that day e"ery night >& believe >that they would contribute a lot to our cause??

2on'+inite(#2) (#.) (#3) (#6) He wants >me to start the boo, again? >!o start a boo, again? is not easy He was standing there >staring at me? >Having finished that? we left for the club

8mall clauses(#7) (#:) !hey "oted >her a president? & consider >him a fool?

Homework 1(#) 4roduce more examples of a mismatch between the semantic "alency of a "erb and the number of its syntactic arguments (2) Are the following cases examples of the mismatch between the semantic "alency of "erb and the number of its syntactic arguments? @iscuss a b c !he roof of the house was smo,ing Anfortunately) the glass bro,e 8he wal,ed the dog

(.) &dentify all the arguments and modifiers of the "erbs in the following examplesa b c d !ogether) we decided on the boat All of them put their boo,s on their des,s &t rained all day yesterday 0y sister has been li"ing in 4aris for two years already

English syntax

Handout 2

(3) Asing the concepts we ha"e introduced so far explain why the following are funny a b Bawmen from 0exico Barbecue Cuests Bawyers Ci"e 4oor +ree Begal Ad"ice

c D What did the Een master as, at the hotdog stand? A 0a,e me one with e"erything (6) !hin, of a few small clause examples