LING 1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Coreference, Definite Description
ALL grammar rules pertain to structure, not linear order
The English yes/no rule
â—Ź Hypothesis 1: move auxiliary/modal to beginning of sentence
â—‹ The man is eating a fish that is rotten.
â—‹ *IS the man is eating a fish that __ rotten?
â—Ź Hypothesis 2: Move to the beginning of the sentence the first auxiliary that is uttered
â—‹ The man that is eating a rotten fish is enjoying his meal.
â—‹ No, this rule makes reference to linear order
â—Ź Hypothesis 3: Move ot the beginning of the sentence the auxiliary that is immediately
under the right-hand daughter of the root (structure dependent)
Derivation of a yes/no question
â—Ź Two steps in the derivation of a yes/no question
â—‹ The basic declaritive sentence generated by PS rules (D structure)
○ The “aux movement” rule applies to produce the question form (S structure)
â—‹ By generating the sentence in two steps, we are saying that the declarative and
interrogative of the sentence come from a single source
Two types of syntactic rules
â—Ź PS rules generate basic structures (D-structures)
â—Ź Transformational (movement) rules describe relationships between different sentences;
work on the output of the PS rules and generate S-structures (like the aux movement
rule)
â—‹ All structure dependent
Transofrmational (movement) rules
â—Ź Seentence types that have systematic form-meaning relationships
○ Ex: aux movement/yesno rule’ passive rule, there insertion rule, to dative rule
Syntax and Meaning: Coreference
â—Ź Coreference: a relationship where 2 NPS refer to the same individual
â—‹ I saw John yesterday. He seemed happy.
â– he=John
â—‹ John will know that he snores
â– he=John
â—‹ He will know that John snores
â– He does not mean John in this case
â—‹ His mother will know that John snores
â– his=John
â—‹ That he snores really bothers John
â– his=John
â—Ź The coreference rule is UNIVERSAL!
Structure Dependent Coreference Rule
â—Ź A pronoun and a proper name or definite description CANNOT corefer if the first
branching node dominating the pronoun also dominates the name/definite description
â—‹ Proper names and definite (the) description
find more resources at oneclass.com
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Document Summary
All grammar rules pertain to structure, not linear order. Hypothesis 1: move auxiliary/modal to beginning of sentence. The man is eating a fish that is rotten. Hypothesis 2: move to the beginning of the sentence the first auxiliary that is uttered. The man that is eating a rotten fish is enjoying his meal. No, this rule makes reference to linear order. Hypothesis 3: move ot the beginning of the sentence the auxiliary that is immediately under the right-hand daughter of the root (structure dependent) Two steps in the derivation of a yes/no question. The basic declaritive sentence generated by ps rules (d structure) The aux movement rule applies to produce the question form (s structure) By generating the sentence in two steps, we are saying that the declarative and interrogative of the sentence come from a single source.
