Questions tagged [syntax-trees]
Graphical representations of hierarchical analyses of grammatical relations. Requests to make syntax trees are off-topic.
241 questions
0
votes
1
answer
70
views
Is there an error-free web-based parser that automatically draws a syntax tree from an English text?
The only web-based automatic parser I know is CoreNLP version 4.5.5, where you can put in an English text and get a constituency tree (when you select 'parts-of-speech' as Annotations and click '...
- 812
-1
votes
1
answer
47
views
Thematic structure of verb and preposition
I am just wondering what would be the theta roles for the verbs and preposition phrases for this sentence "The coach genuinely believes the striker to be a big star." so far this is what i ...
2
votes
0
answers
119
views
Syntactic representation of a compound word
I want to create a syntactic representation of a compound word "стакан воды". Here, "стакан" is in the nominative and "воды" is in the genitive. Both nouns also have no ...
- 43
3
votes
1
answer
90
views
Drawing phrase markers "What/Who is a phonologist?"
In the book "Analysing Sentences" by Noel Burton-Roberts, there's an exercise on drawing phrase markers for the 2 sentences "What is a phonologist?" and "Who is a phonologist?&...
- 69
1
vote
0
answers
128
views
How is this question ambiguous?
How is this question ambiguous?
Who knows when the train will arrive?
The sentence is ambiguous and I have to argue the reason of its ambiguity focusing on the interpretation of the wh-adverb. And ...
- 11
4
votes
0
answers
93
views
Best OCR for formal linguistics papers?
I have a fair number of formal linguistics papers (generative syntax, semantics) and I am looking for a good OCR software to digitize them as searchable PDFs. Unfortunately, the programs I have tried ...
2
votes
1
answer
180
views
Can a complementizer (C) take two complements (COMPS)?
The 1997 paper "English Relative Clause Constructions" by Ivan A. Sag has these diagrams:
(53) shows a diagram of to go to the UK, and (54) of for them to go to the UK. In (54), ...
- 812
0
votes
0
answers
76
views
How does the syntax work for a phrase like "already much too cocky?"
I'm working on a syntax tree for the sentence "The belief that syntactic theory reveals the inner structure of sentences emboldened the already much too cocky professor," and I'm stuck on &...
- 1
3
votes
0
answers
59
views
Under the DP hypothesis, does anything ever go in the Spec of NP?
I attach Carnie's illustration of "several people who she kissed" below:
My question is on the NP to N' branch (red boxed). I was taught that restrictive relatives clauses are adjuncts to ...
- 175
2
votes
0
answers
52
views
Is there always at least one parse which accounts for all words cleanly using Phrase Structure Grammar trees?
A few small but related questions here. I'm looking at ways to define "sentence patterns", at least starting with English. That led me back to phrase structure grammars, which have nice and ...
- 4,438
2
votes
0
answers
92
views
How do I identify constituents and clause boundaries?
I'm going through some practice exercises for an upcoming exam and trying to do syntax trees is really tripping me up. Could anyone please walk me through how they would break them down and how to ...
- 69
1
vote
0
answers
59
views
Is this syntactic tree correct so far? [closed]
*Not homework
I have been doing practice problems, but I am really struggling with syntax trees.
I think I have the first part of the tree, but I'm not sure about the rest.
Here is the practice ...
- 11
3
votes
1
answer
236
views
What is HMC in generative grammar?
I'm currently reading a Ph.D. thesis concerning the structure of English adjectives. These generative trees are used to illustrate the structure of the phrase "someone tall". The author ...
- 319
1
vote
1
answer
66
views
What does a prime mean in a node label in a X-bar structure tree?
In Anderson's Essentials of Linguistics, a X-bar structure tree contains nodes labeled with '. What does the prime mean? What do N', V', and T' mean? Thanks.
- 913
3
votes
0
answers
28
views
Is an OBL argument in complement or adjunct position?
My syntax lecture materials on Arguementhood vs Adjuncthood explain that one difference between arguments and adjuncts lies in the participation in alternations: only arguments participate in ...
- 175
1
vote
0
answers
51
views
On the argument structure of 'bet'
I have some problems with defining the argument structure of bet in the following pair of sentences:
a) John bet £300 on Manchester United.
b) John bet Bill £300 that Manchester United would win the ...
- 175
2
votes
0
answers
90
views
How to show the difference between the opaque reading and the transparent reading via syntax?
Is there any way using any version of Generative Grammar (EST, REST, GB, MP) to show the difference between "the transparent reading" and "the opaque reading" of the same line ...
- 21
2
votes
2
answers
101
views
Is it possible to have a repeated node appear under the same node? (Syntax Tree) [illustration provided]
Please help me understand these syntax trees (French and English).
For context we are learning about the representation of movement in syntax trees.
From my understanding, we'd have to use an X' under ...
- 21
3
votes
1
answer
336
views
Why are these adjectives being presented as adverbs in syntax tree (Carnie, 3rd Edition)?
I am in a Syntax class where we use the textbook Syntax: A Generative Introduction, 3rd Edition by Andrew Carnie.
There is a tree presented in the chapter on x-bar theory that indicates that the words ...
- 33
3
votes
1
answer
81
views
Name for ongoing syntactic dependencies after a word
Consider the sentence "I love my dog." There are three syntactic dependencies in this sentence: (a) the subject dependency from "I" to "love," (b) the modifier dependency ...
8
votes
2
answers
301
views
How do syntacticians explain object pronouns in the subject position ("Me and him" or "Lui et moi")?
Me and a lot of other native English speakers sometimes use object pronouns as the subject of sentences if there's an "and" in the subject. This has been mentioned on Stack Exchange before ...
- 226
3
votes
1
answer
197
views
Argumentation for the existence of Tense phrase
I could not find syntactic arguments to support the existence of a separate T(ense) category inside the tree for the sentence “John rarely spends the weekend with his family”
As well as syntactic ...
- 65
4
votes
0
answers
95
views
In X-Bar theory, what could the Specifiers of PPs and AdvPs ever be?
In X-Bar theory, do prepositional phrases, adverbial phrases, adjectival phrases etc. ever have specifiers? What could they be?
The only phrases I know the possible specifiers for are: Noun Phrases, ...
user31190
3
votes
1
answer
184
views
How does an AdvP attach in X-bar syntax?
I am studying Linguistics and for the life of me, I cannot seem to get my head around X bar theory. I have to figure out the X bar sytax tree of this sentence:
"I love the cover of the book very ...
- 31
4
votes
3
answers
2k
views
Is triple branching necessary in making a syntax tree for 'the girl in the room waved to me'? [closed]
If 'the girl in the room' is my constituent, should I use triple branching under my first N'? The two options I am considering are below. Which would be correct?
- 41
4
votes
0
answers
176
views
Stacking of prepositions in English?
The Cambridge Grammar Of The English Language recognises the existence of intransitive prepositions (p. 612):
The case for allowing prepositions with no complements is most compelling where the same ...
- 295
1
vote
0
answers
632
views
How do I treat phrasal verbs in X-bar theory?
I need to draw the tree of this sentence according to x-bar theory.
She would back me up when it was needed
What do I do with the phrasal verb with the pronoun in the middle?
Thank you!
0
votes
0
answers
167
views
French V-to-T movement and modifier
I am struggling with this question that concerns the location of a modifier in a French sentence. How would you account for the last sentence?
Thank you in advance.
0
votes
1
answer
72
views
How to recognize Heads [closed]
I'm reading "Introduction to English linguistics" and in the chapter 4, there is a paragraph that I don't understand :
The other crucial cluster of properties of heads concern their ...
2
votes
1
answer
101
views
How can the following phrase ambiguously have two trees: "expensive shoes from Italy"?
This is an exercise from "Introducing syntax" by Olaf Koeneman & Hedde Zeijlstra, 2017. The chapter this exercise is taken from deals with "Merge".
- 33
1
vote
0
answers
103
views
Infinitive clauses in syntactic bracketing/trees [closed]
I am a little confused on how the bracketing of a sentence like “millie forced me to play” would look like when also breaking down the tenses within the phrase. Thank you!
- 11
4
votes
2
answers
248
views
Is there a language whose syntactic structure accepts a specifier of a PP?
We know a preposition (in X-bar theory) is the head of a prepositional phrase and it has a complement that is the sister of this very preposition. However I've never seen a language with a constituent ...
- 1,456
1
vote
1
answer
223
views
"STARBUCKESE" syntax problem
In standard English, one can’t put a PP before a head noun that the preposition modifies. For example, the NP in (a) is completely ungrammatical.
a) *The with milk coffee.
But there is a major chain ...
- 13
2
votes
1
answer
115
views
Difference between the Merge postion and the base position
I was reading this analysis of the derivation below. And I wasn't familiar with the terminology "original Merge position." Is it just like "the base position"? Here is the sentence ...
- 175
0
votes
0
answers
50
views
Why is the PP, according to this derivation, directly moved from the lower (farther) DP, not the nearer one?
The sentence being parsed:
De CHOMSKY varios libros han ganado premios internacionales, no de Trotsky.
of Chomsky several books have won awards international-PL, not of Trotsky
Why is the PP on top ...
- 175
0
votes
1
answer
98
views
Why two appearances of the past participle "ganado" in this derivation?
The sentence being parsed:
De CHOMSKY varios libros han ganado premios internacionales, no de Trotsky.
of Chomsky several books have won awards international-PL, not of Trotsky
Could someone please ...
- 175
1
vote
0
answers
146
views
How do you draw a x-bar tree with negative inversion? [closed]
For example: 'Never was I so offended'
There is already a T to C inversion with 'was', where do we put the word 'Never'?
And how should we label it? AdvP or Neg?
- 11
0
votes
1
answer
80
views
In syntax trees, why aren't single-word phrases reduced to that word?
Why do phrases like "the car in Texas" break down into
(NP (Det the) (N car)
(PP (P in) (NP (N Texas))))
Why is the prepositional phrase "in Texas" constituted of the ...
user31190
0
votes
1
answer
83
views
Handling enumerations in Generative syntax trees
How can we build syntax trees for sentences with enumerations?
I have three sentences as examples:
S1: John, Mary, Paul, Alice and Bob eat a cake.
S2: I'm eating an apple, a pear, a cherry, a ...
4
votes
1
answer
2k
views
How to treat adverbial phrases in X-bar theory
My question is about how to represent so-called adverbial phrases like "last night" or "all day". My confusion arises because there seems to be a consensus that these phrases are ...
- 131
3
votes
1
answer
386
views
Difference between primary and secundary predicates(/argument small clauses) and their (overt) 'heads', and transition/ambiguity between the two
What is the exact difference between primary and secundary predicates?
From what I understood, primary predicates are verbal and have a predicate head (usually a copula - he was a mine worker). ...
- 37
5
votes
1
answer
102
views
Why is "addressing" discontinuity/nonprojectivity important?
I was reading about dependency grammars on Wikipedia, and then, following up on the term "(non-)projectivity", was lead to the page about discontinuity. Now, the concept is quite easy to ...
- 508
1
vote
1
answer
103
views
Meaning of superscript numbering in phrase structure trees
In some recent studies, I stumbled upon some seemingly conventional notation that I do not understand.
In syntax structure trees, I often encounter superscript notations in various forms: $T^0$, $...
- 37
2
votes
0
answers
85
views
How to determine structure of answer for a wh- question
Consider a wh-question (in english language) such as "Who closed the door?". Personally, I can determine that an answer will look like "NP closed the door.", where NP would be a ...
- 21
2
votes
1
answer
118
views
Wh-movement Question
For wh-movements, I always think of what the sentence would have looked like if it wasn't a question (e.g. for sentence "which promise did he not keep?", I would think that the original ...
1
vote
0
answers
305
views
Help with syntax tree generation with movements [closed]
This is my attempt at the sentence "Which compound appears to have been created with the recently found chemical element yesterday?" , but I'm not sure if it's correct:
Is the wh-movement ...
1
vote
0
answers
115
views
Is there a way to convert a syntax tree back to text?
I'm looking for a reference \ algorithm \ tool that can convert a syntax tree to text.
The intention is to parse a sentence, apply some rules on the tree, and generate the output from the modified ...
- 111
1
vote
0
answers
31
views
What notable works are there that try to express the structures of linguistics by modelling them with Artificial Neural Networks (ANN)?
I know of a few works in Phonology and 1 recent work in Semantics but I will not list these here since what I would really be looking for in an answer would be a survey paper or a comprehensive list.
...
- 111
1
vote
1
answer
775
views
Best book for introduction to Syntax, with exercises
I am new to the field of linguistics and I was looking for some books in order to learn syntax.
I put my eyes on two main textbooks:
Basic English Syntax with Exercises, by Mark Newson (I was ...
- 169
0
votes
1
answer
77
views
What is the more natural parsing, the one that leads to the preferred reading of the sentence
I have those rules:
and those two possible parse trees:
I am asked for the next question:
What is the more natural parsing, the one that leads to the preferred reading of the sentence?
Can anyone ...
- 103