ling 100 - introduction to constituency and tree-drawing

Introduction to ConstituentsPractice Drawing Trees

Midterm Review

Constituents, Tree Drawing, Midterm ReviewLING 100 2013W Tutorial

Meagan Louie

November 1st, 2013

Meagan Louie Constituents, Tree Drawing, Midterm Review


Midterm Review

Motivation for ConstituentsRepresenting Constituents with TreesLabelling Constituents with Categories

Outline

1 Introduction to ConstituentsMotivation for ConstituentsRepresenting Constituents with TreesLabelling Constituents with Categories

2 Practice Drawing Trees

3 Midterm ReviewBASIC Concepts you should know!BASIC Things you should know how to do!



Midterm Review


How do you form Y/N questions?


(1) a. John is lost.

b. Is John lost?

Hypothesis 1: You switch the linear order of the first two words around.



Midterm Review


How do you form questions?


(2) a. The remote control is acting up.

b. Is the remote control acting up?

Hypothesis 1: You switch the linear order of the first two words around ×



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(3) a. The remote control is lost.

b. Is the remote control lost?

Hypothesis 2: You take the first/left-most verb, and move it to the frontof the sentence



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(4) a. The remote control that was acting up is lost.

b. *Was the remote control that acting up is lost?

Hypothesis 2: You take the first/left-most verb, and move it to the frontof the sentence ×



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(5) a. The remote control that was acting up is lost.

b. Is the remote control that was acting up lost?

Hypothesis 3: You take the subject, and the immediately following verb/auxiliary, and switch their linear order (Subject-verb/auxiliary inversion)



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Hypothesis 3: You take the subject, and the immediately following verb/auxiliary, and switch their linear order (Subject-verb/auxiliary inversion)

(1) subject = John

(2) subject = the remote control

(3) subject = the remote control that was acting up

The rule for Y/N question formation needs to be able to talk about a “subject”- i.e., a set of words in the sentence that acts like a unit.



Midterm Review


Motivation for Constituents

A set of words in the sentence that acts like a unit = a constituent

We can’t define constituents in terms of the linear order of the words (eg.Hypothesis 2)

We can represent constituents with hierarchically structured treerepresentations



Midterm Review


How to Represent ConstituentsHierarchically Structured Tree Representations

S

NP

NP

The remote control

CP

that was acting up

VP

V

is

A

lost

With this sort of representation, we can have rules that target specificstrings of words - i.e., those that correspond to a higher node (like NP,CP, VP or S).



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Today’s Goal:

Learn how to draw structured tree representations for sentences.

Observation: There are operations in language (like the formation ofY/N-questions) which move constituents around

So if we see a string of words, eg. “the remote control”, being targeted bysuch operations

...we have evidence that “the remote control” is a constituent.

And we should represent it as such in our tree



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How to Approach Tree-Drawing

(i) Label the category of each word (using word-category tests if necessary)

(ii) Find constituents (using constituency tests), eg.,(a) the subject NP(b) the direct object NP (if the verb is transitive)(c) the indirect object NP (if the verb is ditransitive)(d) the VP (the verb plus the direct object and indirect object, if present)(e) Any modifiers, etc.,

(iii) Draw and label the constituents using the tree structures



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How to Represent ConstituentsLabelling Constituents in terms of their Head

(6) Headedness in Syntax (Phrases)

a. Clifford is a [dog]N

b. Clifford is a [redAdj dogN]NP

c. Clifford is [red]Adj

d. Clifford is [extremelyN redAdj]AdjP.

e. Clifford [ate]V

f. Clifford [ate his apple pie voraciously]VP

Applying the tests for word-classes (from last week):(i) the distribution of [red dog] is like the noun [dog], and(ii) the distribution of [extremely red] is like an adjective [red]

We represent this with category labels: [red dog] we call a noun phrase(NP), and [extremely red] we call an adjective phrase (AdjP)



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The various kinds of constituents can be associated with ’Phrase StructureRules’ (PSRs)

These PSRs are like a template (i.e., they indicate what an NP can look like,what a VP can look like, what an S can look like):

(7) Phrase Structure Rules

a. Clifford is [a redAdj dogN]NP NP → (Det) Adj N

b. Clifford [ate his apple pie voraciously]VP VP → (Adv) V (NP) (PP)

c. .[Clifford ate his apple pie voraciously]S S →NP VP



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S

NP

N

Clifford

VP

V

is

NP

D

a

NP

Adj

red

N

dog



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S

NP

N

Clifford

VP

VP

V

ate

NP

D

his

NP

N

apple pie

Adv

voraciously



Midterm Review

Outline






Midterm Review

Practice Sentences for Tree Drawing

How to Approach Tree-Drawing

(i) Label the category of each word (using word-category tests if necessary)!

(ii) Find constituents (using constituency tests)!

(iii) Draw and label the constituents using the tree structures

(1) DB Cooper hijacked a Boeing 727 in 1971.

(2) He walked onto the plane with a bomb in a briefcase.

(3) He sat down and ordered a bourbon.

(4) He handed a note to a flight attendant.

(5) The note demanded 200 000 dollars and four parachutes from the FBI.

(6) The FBI gave him the money and the parachutes.

(7) DB Cooper paid for his bourbon and let the passengers go.

(8) He jumped from the plane with his parachutes and 200 000 dollars.

(9) The FBI never found DB Cooper and his 200 000 dollars.



Midterm Review

Here are some linksFor drawing trees on your computer

Here are some links for drawing trees on your computer (although I wouldrecommend doing them by hand first)

http://ironcreek.net/phpsyntaxtree/

http://sourceforge.net/projects/treeform/?abmode=1


http://ironcreek.net/phpsyntaxtree/

http://sourceforge.net/projects/treeform/?abmode=1


Midterm ReviewBASIC Concepts you should know!BASIC Things you should know how to do!

Outline







BASIC Concepts you should know!

1 DESIGN FEATURES: arbitrariness, duality of patterning, productivity,displacement, etc.,

2 PHONETICS: place of articulation, manner of articulation, voicing, vowel (i)height, (ii) front/backness, (iii) roundedness, (iv) lax/tenseness, distinctivefeatures/"natural classes", etc.,

3 PHONOLOGY: allophone, phoneme, minimal pairs, contrast,complementary distribution, underlying representations, surfacerepresentations, syllable, onset, nucleus, coda, rhyme, sonority hierarchy,"The Sonority Sequencing Principle," etc.,

4 MORPHOLOGY: morpheme, allomorph, bound/free,derivational/inflectional, suffix/prefix/infix, compounding, blending,borrowing, conversion, etc.,

5 SYNTAX: subject, object, grammatical category, constituency tests,




BASIC things you should know how to do!

1 IN GENERAL: Apply tests and interpret results, make a claim, provideevidence for that claim, assess whether evidence supports claims, identifyalternative hypotheses.

2 PHONETICS: Identify/label articulatory anatomy, transcribe English withthe IPA, categorize sounds into natural classes,

3 PHONOLOGY: How to argue that x and y are distinct phonemes, or areallophones of the same phoneme, how to draw a syllable structure, how toexplain why certain consonant clusters are ruled out (in terms of the SSP)

4 MORPHOLOGY: Describe the (i) form, (ii) meaning and (iii) distribution ofa morpheme (i.e., what category the morpheme is, what category it attachesto), categorize a word-formation process (with tests),

5 SYNTAX: Determine what the subject is (tests!), determine what the objectis (more tests!), argue that something is (or is not) a constituent (even moretests!), draw a syntactic tree,


ling 100 - introduction to constituency and tree-drawing

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