2
Heads vs. Dependents
Phrase: head of the phrase and dependents to that head เดินเร็วมาก Morphology & สวยมากๆ Syntax ในกล่อง ใบไม้ทีเปลียนเป็นสีแดง Heads & Dependents
1
3 4
Head Head
Bears the crucial semantic information Can dependents be omitted? Determines the word class of the whole phrase He [died slowly]. Has the same distribution as the whole phrase He [killed her slowly]. Is the obligatory item in the phrase (can’t be omitted) Dependents can be obligatory or optional.
Discuss the examples in slide 2 using these A head is required for a phrase; there may be criteria. dependents (obligatory or optional). 5 6
Generalizations Heads and dependents
The subject of a clause is normally a phrase of one Heads select dependents of a particular word class. word or more which is headed by a noun. beautiful girl, *beautifully girl The predicate is normally a VP, which may contain Heads require their dependents to agree with just a head verb or a head verb and its dependents. grammatical features of the heads. un livre vert a:MASC book green:MASC ‘a green book’ Une pomme verte a:FEM apple green:FEM ‘a green apple’
7 8
Heads and dependents Complement and adjunct
Heads require their NP dependents to occur in a Complement : dependent that is selected by the particular case. head and has a close relationship with the head Kodomo-ga hon-o yon-da Complements can be obligatory or optional. child-NOM book-ACC read-PAST Adjunct : dependent that carries additional ‘The child read the book.’ information and does not have a close relationship with the head Adjuncts are optional. 9 10
Complement and adjunct Complement and adjunct
Discuss the following examples. sings in the bath We killed! in the car, at school, before dinner He dashed across the field. The form of the PP is not constrained by the verb. relies on her parents *in the car, *at school, *before dinner
11 12
Complement and adjunct Verbs and complements
A complement occurs closer to head than an Verbs can be categorized according to what adjunct. complements they select. We sang Christmas carols yesterday. Complements are contained within the VP which *We sang yesterday Christmas carols. the verb heads. She [saw her friends]. Adverb phrases Kim practices carefully. You should treat sensitive people carefully. 13 14
Verbs and complements Verbs and complements
Intransitive verbs: no complement Verbs with an NP and a PP complement Transitive verbs: an NP complement Prepositional verbs: a PP complement Verbs with transitive/intransitive alternation Verbs with an object NP and a clausal I broke the window. / The window broke. complement I phoned him. / I phoned. Ditransitive verbs I sent Jack a flower. / I sent a flower to Jack.
15 16
Prepositions and complements Adjectives and complements
Intransitive prepositions Optional complements nearby I’m [sorry for your loss]. Transitive prepositions I’m [glad that you can come ]. in, under, after Obligatory complements She is [fond of fruit]. 17 18
Nouns and complements Complementizers and complements
Optional complements A complementizer (C) selects a clause and forms a a student of Physics, a manufacturer of tyres complementizer phrase (CP). John said [that Mary cried]. [For John to be a teacher] is impossible.
19 20
Complement and adjunct Determiners and nouns
Complement Adjunct Specifier Selected by the head Not selected by the Determiner as head of an NP, forming a Close relationship with head determiner phrase (DP) the head No close relationship An NP is a complement of the head D. This box of dates Obligatory or optional, with the head depending on the head Optional Has the same distribution as the entire phrase Limited number Potentially unlimited Is obligatory part of the phrase PP dependents selected PP dependents of Requires their dependents to agree with by the head different kinds grammatical features of the heads 21 22
Head placement Head-initial
A head tends to have a fixed position in all phrases eats apples within a language. behind the door Head-initial languages: the head precedes its happy for you complement students with long hair Head-final languages: the head follows its complement
23 24
Head-marking and dependent- Head-final marking Taroo-ga [Hanako-ni hana-o ageta] Marking head or dependent to indicate syntactic Taro-NOM Hanako-DAT flower-ACC gave ‘Taro gave Hanako flowers.’ relationship between them Head-marking: agreement, cross-referencing [tomodaji-to] Dependent-marking: case friend-with ‘with a friend’ In some languages, the relationship between the head and dependent is not marked. [sono tesuto e no zisin] that test to POSSESSIVE confidence ‘confidence in that test’ 25 26
Adposition and object Verb and arguments German Southern Tiwa mit mein-em Freund bey-mu-ban with my-DAT friend 2SG:SU/1SG:OBJ-see-PAST ‘with my friend’ ‘You saw me.’
Welsh Japanese arna i Taroo-ga [Hanako-ni hana-o ageta] On:1SG me Taro-NOM Hanako-DAT flower-ACC gave ‘on me’ ‘Taro gave Hanako flowers.’
27 28
Noun and possessor NP Noun and AP Mary’s sister Chadian Arabic mara tawila Saliba sine natu-na woman tall:FEM woman child-3SG ‘a tall woman’ ‘the woman’s child’ Hawrami Ayacucho aesp-I zil runa-pa wasi-n man-GEN house-3POSSESSIVE horse-SUFFIX big ‘a person’s house’ ‘big horse’ 29 30
Head-marking and dependent- marking Exercises
English has both head-marking and dependent- 1 (p. 118) marking. 3 (pp. 119-120) Possessive NPs 4 (pp. 120-121) Subject-verb agreement