Further notes on English Phrase Structure

The simple PS rules we have assumed up to now generate only “flat” clause structures, with the verb and all of its complements being immediate daughters of S as shown in (39a). This kind of analysis seems to be correct for many languages, e.g. Malayalam (Mohanan1982). In English, however, and in a number of other languages, there is good reason to believe that the subject NP is not a sister of V. Rather, the verb, its object, and oblique arguments form a constituent labeled VP, and it is this VP which is a sister to the subject NP. The VP analysis for English is shown in (39b).

The evidence which supports a VP constituent for English is fairly complex, and we will not consider it in detail here.⁸ A few of the relevant patterns are illustrated in (40–41). These examples show that the combination of V +OBJ (+ OBL) can function as a sentence fragment in answer to a question (40), and can be re-ordered or deleted as a unit (41). These are some of the classic tests for constituency.

Because the VP analysis for English is so widely assumed. However, we will continue to assume a flat clause structure for other languages, because we will not have time to examine the evidence for constituency in each individual language. In general, we prefer to assume the simplest possible structure consistent with the language-specific evidence. With respect to Phrase Structure, this means assuming a flat clause structure unless we find specific evidence supporting a VP constituent in a particular language.

Another question that arises in the analysis of English is the position of the auxiliary verb (AUX). Here the evidence is slightly more ambiguous, and several different analyses have been proposed over the years. Without going into the details of the debate, we will assume that the AUX in English is a daughter of S, a sister to both the VP and the subject NP, as shown in (42).

Based on these assumptions, we would assign the structure shown in (43) to a basic clause like Mary could sell air-conditioners to an Eskimo.

⁸. See Radford (1988, Analyzing word structure); and Kroeger (2004, Analyzing word structure) for a discussion of the kinds of evidence which support this claim.

⁹. From Radford (1988:101).

اخر الاخبار

اخبار العتبة العباسية المقدسة

قسم التطوير يقيم دورة عن أخلاقيات المهنة للمنتسبين الجدد

تتضمن زيارة المراقد المقدسة في كربلاء.. معهد القرآن الكريم النسوي ينظم سفرة دينية لطالباته

المجمع العلمي يحتفي بذكرى ولادة الإمامين الباقر والهادي (عليهما السلام)

قسم الشؤون الفكرية يطلق فعاليات الأسبوع الثالث من برنامج البذرة الصالحة

المزيد

الآخبار الصحية

ثورة طبية.. الذكاء الاصطناعي يكشف سرطان الكلى في وقت قياسي

لتعزيز الطاقة والتغلب على التعب.. عليك بـ7 طرق بسيطة

لتحسين الهضم والتحكم في الشهية.. ما أفضل وقت لتناول التمر؟

خبراء يكشفون تأثير الاستحمام في الظلام على جودة النوم !

المزيد

الآخبار التكنلوجية

إزالة ثاني أكسيد الكربون من الغلاف الجوي.. ما دور المحيطات والبحار؟

نظائر الهيليوم مقياس لاكتشاف رواسب الذهب.. كيف ذلك؟

الصين تطلق أول ناقلة نفط خام ذكية في العالم تعمل بالميثانول

الزمن على المريخ أسرع من الأرض.. دراسة علمية تكشف الفوارق

المزيد

مواضيع ذات صلة

Recursive rules

Adjectives and Adjective Phrases (AP)

Complements and adjuncts of N

Lexical entries and well-formed clauses Conclusion

Uniqueness of oblique arguments

Well-formedness conditions

Subcategorization

Selectional restrictions

Properties of a well-formed clause

Valence alternations

Transitivity and valence

Argument structure and subcategorization