Syntax and Semantics

February 28, 2012

keelin@ling.ed.ac.uk

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 (first proposed by Chomsky in
1970)

This is the basic structure:

NP

XP

X
(Specifier)

(Complement)

Specifier
The

N
Cat

Joining phrases

We can join phrases together to form larger phrases and sentences

Remember our constituency rules!

NP

Optional complements
come off the X level

N
Det
The

N
cat

PP
P
P
in

NP
det N
the
N
hat

Practice

Try drawing trees for:

Sat on the mat

went to the shop

The cat on the floor

Answers - sat on the mat

VP
V
V
sat

PP
NP

P
P
on

N
the

N
mat

Went to the shop

VP
V
V
went

PP
NP
P
P
to

N
the

N
shop

The cat on the floor

NP
N
Det
the

N
cat

PP
NP

P
P
on

N
the

N
floor

IP structure

IP

Weve seen that the basic structure is:

This rings true for every phrase

We need to consider an IP: Inflectional Phrase

This phrase contains inflection - things like

tense, agreement etc

I
Specifier
I

Well see later that auxilliaries (John will have visited Mary) and
modals (she would have done that) also go in this position

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

I
NP

Det
The

N
N
cat

IP -> [NP] [VP [PP [NP]]]

We start with IP, as this is

VP
an inflected phrase

I
(past)

V
PP

V
sat

P
P
on

NP
Det
the

N
N
mat

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

I
VP
NP
N
N
Keelin

I
(past)

V
NP

V
ate
Det
a

N
N
cake

Answers
IP

I
VP
NP
N
N
I

I
(present)

V
V
like

NP
N
N
peanuts

Answers
IP

I
VP
NP
N

I
(present)

V
V
is

AP
A

N
Cake

A
delicious

Answers
IP

I
VP
NP

Det
The

N
N
puppy

I
(past)

V
V
found

NP
Det
the

N
N
child

What about new information?

What if we want to say: The fat cat sat happily on the ugly mat
These words are called modifiers - they modify the head of a
phrase
They are not necessary for the sentence to be grammatical, theyre
extra

However, we can find a place to put them

We create new positions for them to go, by adding new X levels

Here
IP
I
VP
NP

Det
The

I
(past)
N
N
cat

V
PP

V
sat

P
P
on

NP
Det
the

N
N
mat

Modifiers (Adjuncts)

If we need to put in modifiers, we make a new X

This is where extra information goes

XP

VP

The adjunct can also go

V
Specifier
on the other side
The
Complement
V
AdvP
AdjP

V
sat

Adv

Adv
happily

A
fat

X
X
X
cat

The fat cat sat happily on the

ugly mat
IP

NP

VP

I
Det
The
AdjP
Adj
Adj
fat

N (past)
V

N
N
cat

V
sat

PP
P

AP
A
A
happily

P
on

NP

Det
the AdjP
A
A
ugly

N
N
mat

Exercises

Keelin sat daintily on the gilded chair

The kind-hearted boy had many girlfriends

The huge cat slowly chased the mouse

Answers
IP

VP

NP

I
N
N

(past)

PP

AP

V
sat

Keelin

A
daintily

P
on

NP
Det
the

N
N
AdjP
A
A
gilded

N
chair

Answers
IP

NP

VP

N (past)

Det
The

V
had

N
AP
A

N
boy

A
kind-hearted

NP
Det
many

N
N
girlfriends

many here is an example of a

degree determiner

Answers
IP

NP

VP

N (past)

Det

The
AP
A
A
huge

N
cat

NP

V
AdvP
Adv
Adv
slowly

V
chased

Det
the

N
N
mouse

The fat cat sat on the ugly mat

with pleasure

Think about where with pleasure needs to fit 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
IP
NP
N

Det

VP

I
(past)

PP

NP

V
V

PP

The
AP
A
A
fat

N
cat

V
sat

AdvP
Adv
happily

P
on

xs

P
with

NP

Det
the

N
pleasure

N
AP
A
Adj
ugly

N
mat

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
IP
NP

Det
The

VP

I
(past)

N
N
magician

V
V
touched

V
PP

NP

Det
the

P
with

N
child

NP
N
Det
the

N
wand

Using the wand, the magician touched the child

The magician touched the child

with the wand
IP
NP

Det
The

VP

I
(past)

N
N
magician

The magician touched the child

who was holding the wand
V

V
V
touched

NP

N
Det
the

PP

N
child

P
with

NP
N
Det
the

N
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

Remember, the I position

is reserved for inflection,
modals and auxilliaries

IP
I

VP
NP
N
N
He

will
V
be

AdjP
A
A
drunk

PP
P
P
later

Modal
IP
I
VP
NP
N
N
She

would
V
paint

NP
N
Det
the

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
I
VP
NP
N
N
Keelin

will

NP

V
eat

N
det
the

cake

Annabel would go to the shop

IP

I
VP

NP
N
N
Annabel

would
V
go

PP
P
P
to

NP
det
the

N
N
shop

John has gone there

IP
I
VP
NP
N
N
John

has
V
gone

PP
P
P
there

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
I
NP

I
(present)

VP

Det
The

N
V
teacher believes

CP: Complementiser
Phrase
CP
C
IP
C
VP
that (present)
NP
Det
the

N
student

V
NP
V
knows

Det
N
the answer

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 influences 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

<--Perhaps a
Ill give you a piece of my mind 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
meat

new meaning

any type of food flesh 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

girl

persons full addicted to (woman)

of joy and
social
leading an
mirth
pleasures immoral life
(1310)
(1637
(1825)

homosexual
(1935)

a child of female child, sweetheart prostitute

unmarried
either sex
lady-love or mistress
woman
(1290)
(1648)
(1711)
(1530)
male
servant
(1386)

unchaste
woman,
strumpet
(1450)

harlot

Low fellow,
knave
(1330)

hussy

mistress of playfully rude female of

low/improper
term to
the
address
behaviour
household
women (17 C)
(18thC)
(1530)

stupid,
hopeless
(1980s)
Black
woman
(1835)

Exercise
tart

young
delicious
woman,
baked
pastry affectionate
(1846)
(1430)

queen

kings
wife
(893)

whore

female
prostitute
(1100)

wench

female
child
(1290)

female
prostitute
(1887)

attractive
woman,
girlfriend
(1900)
woman
general
committing term of
adultery
abuse
(1440)
(1633)
endearment
for woman
(1588)

wanton
woman
(1362)

servant
(1380)

young
favourite of
older man,
male
prostitute

male
homosexual
(1924)
male
prostitute
(1968)
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
moody
uncouth
butcher
witch
sly
argue
carry
grumble

earlier meaning
brave
unknown
one who slaughters goats

type of shift
shift
pejoration
broadening

male or female sorcerer broadening? narrowing?

skilful
make clear
transport by cart
murmur, make low sounds

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 fit easily into the same environment
An apathetic/phlegmatic/passive/sluggish/indifferent man
Perhaps not.... Its actually very unusual to find 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 financial 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 floor, 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 modified 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 modified:
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 fish 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 fish shop was the sole owner (sole = fish/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-losninos-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