Lecture 21Syntax 3- constituency tests, structural ambiguityHow do we discover structure?One important technique used by syntacticians is a constituency testOnly consituents can be targeted for certain syntactic processes, such as substitution and movement (displacement/reordering)Non constituents cannot be targeted for syntactic processes, since they do are not syntactic unitsSubstitution testsAn NP can be substituted with a pronounA VP can be substituted with “do so”Movement testsTopic phrase (NP,PP,VP) can be moved to the front of the sentenceFocused phrases can be clefted with “it was FOCUS that..”Pronoun substitutionSome constituents can be replaced by a pronounThe boy with the green hair left  he leftAn NP constituent can be replaced with an appropriate pronoun such as he,she, it they, etc.Non constituents cannot be replaced by a pronounThe boy with green hair left  *he with green hair leftThe failure of pronoun substitution here shows that the boy is not an NP in this treeDo-so substitutionA VP constituent can be replaced with the expression “do so”Jack ate the beans  and Jill did so tooTherefore ate the beans is a constituent in this treeA non constituent cannot be replaced with the phrase “do so”Jack ate the beans  * and Jill did so the porkTherefore ate is not a VP constituent in this treeMovement: topicalizationIf a string of words is a constituent, it can often be moved. TopicalizationJack met Jill in the meadow - in the meadow, jack met JillTherefore in the meadow is a constituent in this treeNon constituent strings cannot be moved by topicalizationJack met jill in the meadow  *in the Jack met Jill meadowTherefore in the is not a constituent in this treeMovement: VP- topicalizationA VP constituent can be fronted in the following contextJack said he will run up the hill  and run up the hill he willTherefore run up the hill is a VP constituent in this treeNon constituents cannot undergo VP-topicalizationJack said he will run up the hill  * and run up he will the hillTherefore run up is not a VP constituent in this treeMovement: cleftingVarious types of constituents can be moved via clefting: it was X that YJack met Jill in the meadow  it was in the meadow that Jack met JillTherefore in the meadow is a constituent in this treeConstituents that can be clefted include NPs, VPs, and PPsThe boy with green hair met Jill  it was the boy with the green hair that met JillTherefore the body with green hair is a constituent in this treeNon constituents cannot be moved by cleftingThe boy with green hair met Jill  * it was the boy that with green hair met JillTherefore the boy is not a constituent in this treeAmbiguityAnother type of evidence for syntactic structure comes from structural ambiguityAn ambiguous word, phrase, or sentence is one that has more than one meaningVegetarian (chicken soup)(Vegetarian chicken) soupLexical ambiguityWords or morphemes with different meanings in the lexicon that happen to sound alikeI picked up the batBat- nocturnal flying mammalBat- wooden club used in baseballEx: I picked up the nocturnal flying animal; I picked up the wooden clubThis sentence is lexically ambiguousStructural ambiguityAmbiguity that arises due to multiple possible structural representationsBart hit the clown with a balloonBart used the balloon to hit the clownBart hit the clown who was holding a balloonThis sentence is structurally ambiguousModifier ruleA modifying phrase attaches outside the phrase it’s modifyingBart (vp hit (np the clown) (pp with the balloon))Pp with a balloon is inside the VP, so it modifies the V hitBart (vp hit (np the clown (pp with a balloon)))Pp with a balloon is inside NP, so it modifies the N clownCoordinationWe can also get structural ambiguity with coordinationWealthy men and womenWealthy (men and women)  both are wealthy(Wealthy men) and (women)  the women are not necessarily wealthyLINGUIS 101 1st Edition Lecture 21 Syntax 3- constituency tests, structural ambiguity How do we discover structure?-One important technique used by syntacticians is a constituency test oOnly consituents can be targeted for certain syntactic processes, such as substitution and movement (displacement/reordering) oNon constituents cannot be targeted for syntactic processes, since they do are not syntactic units -Substitution tests oAn NP can be substituted with a pronoun oA VP can be substituted with “do so” -Movement tests oTopic phrase (NP,PP,VP) can be moved to the front of the sentence oFocused phrases can be clefted with “it was FOCUS that..” -Pronoun substitution oSome constituents can be replaced by a pronoun The boy with the green hair left  he left oAn NP constituent can be replaced with an appropriate pronoun such as he,she, it they, etc. oNon constituents cannot be replaced by a pronoun The boy with green hair left  *he with green hair left oThe failure of pronoun substitution here shows that the boy is not an NP in this tree -Do-so substitution oA VP constituent can be replaced with the expression “do so” Jack ate the beans  and Jill did so too oTherefore ate the beans is a constituent in this treeoA non constituent cannot be replaced with the phrase “do so” Jack ate the beans  * and Jill did so the pork oTherefore ate is not a VP constituent in this tree -Movement: topicalizationoIf a string of words is a constituent, it can often be moved. TopicalizationJack met Jill in the meadow - in the meadow, jack met Jill oTherefore in the meadow is a constituent in this tree oNon constituent strings cannot be moved by topicalizationJack met jill in the meadow  *in the Jack met Jill meadow oTherefore in the is not a constituent in this tree -Movement: VP- topicalizationoA VP constituent can be fronted in the following context Jack said he will run up the hill  and run up the hill he will oTherefore run up the hill is a VP constituent in this tree oNon constituents cannot undergo VP-topicalizationJack said he will run up the hill  * and run up he will the hill oTherefore run up is not a VP constituent in this tree-Movement: cleftingoVarious types of constituents can be moved via clefting: it wasX that Y Jack met Jill in the meadow  it was in the meadow thatJack met Jill oTherefore in the meadow is a constituent in this tree oConstituents that can be clefted include NPs, VPs, and PPs The boy with green hair met Jill 