Syntax
VP and constituent structure
tests
LING 400
Winter 2010
Overview
 Constituent structure tests and VP
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Coordination
Substitution
Movement
Structural ambiguity
please turn off and put
away your cell phone
Verb Phrase (VP)
Phrase structure rule: VP  V (NP)
play the violin
Coordination test
• Robin and Sharon are sisters.
• Conj (= Conjunction)  and, or, but, as
well as, etc.
 XP  XP Conj XP
Only identical categories can be
conjoined.
Ungrammatical coordination
If conjoined elements belong to different categories
The student wrote NP[a letter].
The student wrote PP[to the professor].
*The student wrote NP[a letter] and PP[to the professor].
The student wrote a letter to the professor.
Coordination and constituency
Robin sings.
Robin plays the violin.
Robin sings and plays the violin.
[sings] and [plays the violin] are the same kind of
constituent (VP):
Coordination of post-verb elements
 I want dinner.
 I want Dave to start cooking.
 *I want dinner and Dave to start cooking.
 I want Dave to start cooking and Robin to
start doing dishes.
Dave to start cooking is not an NP
Summary of coordination test
 Only same kind of constituent can be
conjoined
 V, V+NP can be conjoined
Substitution test
•Do you know Mark Emmert?
No, I haven’t met him yet.
Substitution only applies to constituents.
•Words that substitute: pro-forms.
•NP
pronoun
•S
it, that, so
Verb Phrases and substitution
One possibility for VP: do so
Robin sings, and so does Lee.
Robin plays the violin, and so does Lee.
do so substitutes for entire VP
Robin VP[plays the violin], and VP[so does] Lee.
If do so substitutes for part of VP
*Robin plays the violin, and so does David the
piano.
(Robin plays the violin, and David the piano.)
ellipsis
Summary of substitution test
 Pro-forms can substitute for constituents
 do so can substitute for V, V+NP
Movement test
• Assumption: 1 sentence of pair more
basic
• What did Robin see?
• < Robin saw a bear.
Only single constituents can be
“moved”
 I said I would write to the president.
 I said I would write to the president, and to
the president I wrote.
 *I said I would write to the president about
it, and to the president about it I wrote.
to the president about it not a constituent
Movement test and VP
 Robin said she would play the violin.
 Robin said she would play the violin, and
play the violin she did.
Summary of movement test
 Only constituents can be moved
 V+NP can be moved
Structural ambiguity and VP
 Words in same phrase have tighter
semantic connection
 VP helps represent meanings
An ambiguous sentence
 “The nomination of Dr. Henry Foster to
the Surgeon General’s office appears to
be in trouble after he admitted that he
had performed at least 39 abortions on
TV last night.” (1995)
 VP  V (NP) (Adv) (PP) (Adv)
 “he admitted...last night”
vs.
“he performed abortions…last night”
‘He performed … last night’
‘he admitted ... last night’
Structural ambiguity
 Adverbs are an optional VP constituent
 Ambiguity results from 2 VPs
Summary
 Tests for constituency
 Coordination test
 Substitution test
 Movement test
 V+NP is a constituent: VP
 Structural ambiguity
 Adv in more than one VP