MODERN THEORIES

OF GRAMMAR

HANNA JOY M. OCAMPO

PHD ENGLISH STUDENT
 TOPICS:

What Grammaticality Is Not Phrase Structure Trees, More Structures,

Based, Building Phrase Structure Transformational Analysis,
On Sentence Structure, Trees, The Structure Dependency
Constituents and The Infinity of Language: of Rules,
Constituency Tests, Recursive Rules, UG Principles and
Syntactic Categories, What Heads the Sentence, Parameters
Structural Ambiguities,
Syntax vs. Semantics

Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.

-HOWARD LASNIK, The Human Language: Part One, 1995
 Introduction
What Grammaticality Is Not Based On
People can recognize grammatical correctness without prior exposure.
Example: "Enormous crickets in pink socks danced at the prom."
Demonstrates creativity in language understanding and creation.
Grammar ≠ Meaning: e.g., "Colorless green ideas sleep furiously."
Some sentences understood despite grammatical errors: e.g., "The boy quickly in
the house the ball found."
Nonsense words can form grammatical sentences: e.g., Lewis Carroll's
"Jabberwocky."
Grammar independent of truth: Allows discussion of imaginary or impossible
scenarios.
Unconscious rules form "mental grammar" before formal education.
 Sentence Structure
The child found a puppy.
 Constituents: Natural groups of words in sentences that carry
meaning.

Constituents and Determines if a group of words can make sense

Constituency Tests independently.
"a puppy" -can stand alone
"What did you find?" -can stand alone
"found a" -cannot
Check if pronouns can substitute for natural groups of
words.
"Where did you find a puppy?", "him" can replace "a puppy" in
"I found him in the park."
Assesses if a group of words can change position without
altering meaning.
"a puppy" can move in sentences like "It was a puppy that the
child found"
"A puppy was found by the child," while "found a" cannot.
"the child" (subject), "found a puppy" (predicate), and "a
puppy" (direct object)
 Constituent Structure and Tree Diagrams:

Constituents and Sentences are analyzed in terms of constituent

Constituency Tests parts.

Tree diagrams visually represent how words group
into meaningful units within sentences.
Studies indicate that speakers process sentences
as structured constituents, not linear strings of
words.
Experiments inserting clicks into sentences show
that clicks at major constituent boundaries are more
noticeable to subject
Each sentence can have multiple constituent
structures.
"I bought an antique desk suitable for a lady with
thick legs and large drawers"
- In syntax, words and phrases in English are grouped
by their functions in sentences.
- Noun phrases (NPs) like "The child found a puppy" can
be varied ("A police officer found a puppy", "This yellow
cat found a puppy") without affecting grammar.
- NPs serve as subjects or objects and include
determiners and nouns ("a puppy"), proper names
("John"), pronouns ("he"), or clauses.
- Examples like "John found the puppy" show NP
versatility in sentences.
- In complex sentences, NPs like "The girl that
Professor Snape loved" (subject) and "the man of her
dreams" (object) illustrate their roles.
- Understanding NPs helps us understand how parts
Syntactic
of speech and phrases create sentences across Categories
languages, guiding our grasp of grammar.
 Syntactic Categories
Verb Phrases (VP) consist of verbs (V) and can include Noun Phrases (NP) or
Prepositional Phrases (PP)

Examples like "saw a clown," "slept," "ate the cake," "found the cake in the cupboard,"
and "realized that the earth was round" complete sentences like "The child __________ ."

Terms like "a bird" and "smart" do not fit into VP structures and create ungrammatical
sentences in "The child __________ ."

Understanding these categories aids in analyzing sentence construction and how

elements interact within sentences.
 Lexical and Functional
Categories
Noun
Pronoun
Verb There are ten parts of speech, and
Adjective
Adverb they are all troublesome.
Preposition
Conjunction -MARK TWAIN
Interjection
Determiner
Article
Syntactic categories: help us understand how sentences are
formed.

Phrasal categories
Syntactic
- Groups of words that function together as a unit in a sentence
1. Noun Phrase (NP) Categories:
Phrasal vs.
2. Verb Phrase (VP)
3. Adjective Phrase (AdjP)
4. Prepositional Phrase (PP)
5. Adverbial Phrase (AdvP)
Lexical
Lexical categories
- Built around a central word ("head").
- Individual words that are the building blocks of phrases.
1. Noun (N)
2. Verb (V)
3. Preposition (P)
4. Adjective (Adj)
5. Adverb (Adv)
 1. Structure
Phrasal: Multiple words (e.g., "the big dog").
Lexical: Single words (e.g., "dog").
Differences 2. Function
Phrasal: Specific roles in sentences (e.g., subject, object).
Between Lexical: Basic elements of phrases.
Phrasal and 3. Complexity
Phrasal: Can be simple or complex.
Lexical Lexical: Always simple, just one word.

Categories 4. Modifiability
Phrasal: Can be expanded with more words.
Lexical: Can be modified, but are not phrases themselves.
5. Role in Sentence Formation
Phrasal: Form larger sentence structures.
Lexical: Basic building blocks for phrases.

Understanding these categories helps us create and analyze

sentences correctly.
Phrase Structure Trees and Rules

An allusion to a religious text, story or figure.

Tree diagrams show the structure of sentences in a

detailed, labeled way.

Key Elements
1. Overall Structure: S (Sentence) at the top
2. Noun Phrases (NP)
3. Verb Phrase (VP)

Components of the Tree Diagram:

1. Linear Order
2. Syntactic Categories
3. Hierarchical Structure
 Phrase Structure Trees (PS Trees): Formal

Phrase representations of sentence structures in language.

Structure
Significance: Reveals how sentences are organized and
understood during language use.
Experimental Evidence: Click experiments show speakers
Trees and PS naturally follow PS tree structures in linguistic processing.
Phrase Structure (PS) Rules: Formalize innate language

Rules knowledge into generative rules for sentence structures.

Example PS Rules:
1. S → NP VP: Sentence consists of a noun phrase
followed by a verb phrase.
2. NP → Det N: Noun phrase consists of a determiner
followed by a noun.
3. VP → V NP: Verb phrase consists of a verb followed
by a noun phrase.
4. Application: Constructing the PS tree for "The child
found a puppy" using PS rules.
 Phrase Structure Rules
A noun phrase can contain a determiner followed by a noun in that order.
A determiner followed by a noun is a noun phrase.

Definition: Precise rules showing how words form meaningful units in sentences.
- NP → Det N: A noun phrase (NP) consists of a determiner (Det) followed by a noun (N).
For instance, "the dog" follows this rule with "the" as the determiner and "dog" as the noun

Application:
- Valid Examples: "the dog," "a house," "this book."
- Understanding Structure: These phrases adhere to the rule of having a determiner before a
noun.
- Significance: Formalizes how sentences are constructed, ensuring consistency in language
use.
Phrase Structure Example Rule:
NP → Det N
Rules
What it Says:
-Left Side (NP): This tells us we're
dealing with a noun phrase.

- Right Side (Det N): These are the

ingredients of the noun phrase.
- Det: A determiner (like "the", "a").
- N: A noun (like "dog", "house").
Phrase Structure Rules:

Outline essential components and their order within sentences.

S → NP VP: A sentence (S) consists of a noun phrase (NP) followed by a verb phrase
(VP).

VP → V NP: A verb phrase (VP) consists of a verb (V) followed by a noun phrase
(NP).

Templates for sentence structure without specific words, focusing on syntactic

relationships and order.
 A VP need not contain an NP object, however. It may include a verb alone, as in the following
sentences:
The woman laughed.
The man danced.
The horse galloped.

4. VP → V
The puppy played in the garden.
The boat sailed up the river.
A girl laughed at the monkey.
The sheepdog rolled in the mud.

Phrase Structure Rules:

Phrase Structure Rules:

“The professor 5. VP → V PP
said that the 6. PP → P NP
student passed the
exam”
7. VP → V CP CP contains a complementizer
such as that followed by the
8. CP → C S embedded sentence.

I don’t know whether I should talk

about this.

The teacher asked if the students

understood the syntax lesson.
 1. S → NP VP
PS rules 2. NP → Det N
3. VP → V NP
4. VP → V
5. VP → V PP
6. PP → P NP
7. VP → V CP
8. CP → C S
Building Phrase Structure Trees
Building Phrase Structure Trees
Building Phrase Structure Trees
Building Phrase Structure Trees
Building Phrase Structure Trees

The boys left. (VP → V)

The wind blew the kite. (VP → V NP)
The senator hopes that the bill passes. (VP → V CP)
Example: "The House That Jack Built"
The Infinity
- Each line builds upon the previous one,
expanding the narrative with each of Language:
addition.
Recursive
maintaining grammatical structure:
- Phrases like "I think that..." or "What is Rules
the name of the unicorn that noticed
that..." illustrate this ability.

VP → V PP can be extended to include

multiple prepositional phrases (PPs)
-Rule Revision: Rectify the problem by
revising rule 5 to VP → VP PP. The Infinity of
-Recursive Rule: Rule 5 repeats its own
Language:
category (VP) within itself. Recursive Rules
- Importance: Recursive rules enable the
grammar to generate an infinite set of
sentences.

- Example Application: Shows how syntax

permits structures with multiple
prepositional phrases (PPs), like in "The girl
walked down the street with a gun toward
the bank."
Archetypes refer to recurring themes, motifs, or
character types that are universally recognized and The Infinity of Language:
appear across different texts and cultures.
Recursive Rules
These also evoke intertextuality through invoking
associations with other texts, without explicitly
mentioning them. Archetypes have built-in cultural or
literary meanings that the audience recognizes,
allowing them to understand the implicit reference.

For example, a character who embodies the archetype

of the "tragic hero" inevitably recalls references to
other literary tragic heroes, such as Oedipus or Hamlet.

This implicit reference creates depth and resonance by

tapping into the collective knowledge and emotions
associated with those archetypal narratives.
9. NP → NP PP - Rule 9: NP → NP PP
A noun phrase (NP) includes
another NP followed by a
prepositional phrase (PP).

- "The house (NP) on the hill (PP)"

illustrates this embedding.

- VP → V CP
- CP → C S
- S → NP VP
- "The children hope (S) that the
teacher knows (S) that the
principal said (S) that the school
closes for the day."
 Recursive NP Rule Consideration

Recursive NP Rule Consideration:

Initially proposed: NP → Adj NP
Allowed for recursive adjectives before noun phrases, like
"The kindhearted, intelligent, handsome boy."

N-bar (N') Structure

NP → Det N': Specifies a noun phrase begins with a
determiner followed by an N-bar.
N' → Adj N': Permits multiple adjectives within the N-bar.
N' → N: Allows a simple noun to constitute an N-bar.
 Heads and Complements
NP Example: "An argument over jelly beans"
Head: argument (Noun)
Complement: over jelly beans (PP)

VP Example: "Wrote a long letter to his only sister"

Head: wrote (Verb)
Complements: a long letter (NP) + to his only sister (PP)
WHAT HEADS
THE
SENTENCE
Role of Auxiliary Verbs: In sentences like
"Sam will kick the soccer ball," "Sam has
kicked the soccer ball," "Sam is kicking the
soccer ball," and "Sam may kick the soccer
ball," auxiliaries (e.g., will, has, is, may) play a
key role.
Category of Auxiliaries (Aux): Includes
modals (might, could, would, can).
Function: Specifies tense, aspect, or
modality of the main verb
For example, the auxiliary be takes a
progressive (-ing) form of the verb,
The boy is dancing.
while the auxiliary have selects a past
participle (-en) form of the verb,
The girl has eaten.
and the modals select the infinitival form of
the verb (no affixes),
The child must sleep
The boy may eat.
Structural Ambiguities
The rules have been renumbered.
1. S → NP VP
2. NP → Det N'
3. Det → NP poss
4. NP → N'
5. NP → NP PP
6. N' → Adj N'
7. N' → N
8. VP → V
9. VP → V NP
10. VP → V CP
11. VP → Aux VP
12. VP → VP PP
13. PP → P NP
14. CP → C S
 More Structures
1. The dog completely destroyed the house.
2. The cat and the dog were friends.
3. The cat is coy.
The “Shoe” cartoon’s joke
is based on the fact that
curse may take an NP
complement (“cursed at
the day”) and/or be
modified by a temporal
adverbial
phrase (AdvP) (“cursed on
the day”), leading to the
structural ambiguity:
Michael writes poetry and surfs. (VP
and VP)
Sam rode his bicycle to school and to
the pool. (PP and PP)
Sentence (3) contains the main verb be
followed by an adjective. The structure
of main verb be sentences is best
illustrated using T' notation.
The main verb beacts like the modals
and the auxiliaries be and have. For
example, it is moved to the beginning of
the sentence in questions (Is the cat
coy?).
The boy is sleeping. Is the boy sleeping?.
“Move Aux”

Move the highest Aux to adjoin to (the root) S

1. The phrase structure rules generate a basic
structure.
2. Aux movement applies to produce the derived
structure.
The
Structural
Dependency
of Rules
 UG
Principles
and
Parameters
 UG
Principles
and
Parameters
UG Principles and Parameters
UG Principles and Parameters
UG Principles and Parameters
1. (a) Emily paid a visit to the senator that wants to hire who?
(b) *Who did Emily pay a visit to the senator that wants to hire ___?
2. (a) Miss Marple asked Sherlock whether Poirot had solved the crime.
(b) Who did Miss Marple ask ___ whether Poirot had solved the crime?
(c) *Who did Miss Marple ask Sherlock whether ___ had solved the crime?
(d) *What did Miss Marple ask Sherlock whether Poirot had solved ___?
UG Principles and Parameters
 UG Principles and Parameters
Universal Grammar (UG) and Language Acquisition:
Constraints on wh-movement are universal across languages with wh-movement,
governed by Universal Grammar (UG).
Children innately grasp these structural principles and learn language-specific
grammar details.

Parameters and Language-Specific Rules:

Children adapt quickly to their native language's parameters.
Grammar variations, like wh-phrase movement in questions, are specific to each
language.
For instance, Japanese differs from English in verb-object order.
Thank you for listening!