Syntax (Part 2)
Summary
TLDRThis educational video script discusses the creation of tree diagrams in linguistics to illustrate the structural organization of sentences. It explains how to draw these diagrams top-down, starting with a sentence node and branching into noun and verb phrases. The script guides viewers through progressively complex examples, including sentences with adjectives, adverbs, and prepositional phrases, demonstrating how tree structures can represent recursion in language. It also addresses structural ambiguity, showing how different tree structures can clarify multiple meanings of a sentence.
Takeaways
- π³ Tree diagrams are used by linguists to represent the structural organization of sentences in a language.
- π’ It's recommended to draw tree diagrams top-down, starting with 'S' for sentence, as it simplifies the process.
- π Basic English sentences minimally consist of a noun phrase (NP) and a verb phrase (VP), which are the starting points for tree diagrams.
- π Tree structures help in understanding how different components of a sentence are organized into constituents and phrases.
- π Adverbs and prepositional phrases are connected to verb phrases and can be used to describe actions or states of the verb.
- π Sentences like 'He left quickly' and 'The big man left quickly' demonstrate how adverbs modify verb phrases.
- π― Transitive sentences with a subject, verb, and object, such as 'The man hit the ball', are dissected to show the structure of each constituent.
- π Recursion in language is illustrated by phrases embedded within phrases, which can extend indefinitely.
- π€ Structural ambiguity arises when a sentence can have multiple meanings, as shown in the example 'I killed a mouse in my pajamas'.
- π Tree structures can disambiguate meanings by connecting prepositional phrases to different parts of the sentence, indicating different relationships.
Q & A
What are tree diagrams used for in linguistics?
-Tree diagrams in linguistics are used to represent the structural organization of different components in a sentence, showing how they are organized into constituents and phrases, and how they work together to form a well-formed sentence.
Why is it recommended to draw tree diagrams top-down?
-Drawing tree diagrams top-down is recommended because it is more effective and less cluttered compared to drawing from the bottom up, allowing for easier visualization and understanding of the sentence structure.
What does the 'S' at the top of a tree diagram represent?
-The 'S' at the top of a tree diagram stands for 'sentence', indicating that whatever is being diagrammed is a complete sentence.
What is the minimal structure of a sentence in English according to the script?
-The minimal structure of a sentence in English, according to the script, consists of a noun phrase (NP) and a verb phrase (VP), in that order.
How does the script illustrate the representation of a pronoun in a tree diagram?
-The script illustrates the representation of a pronoun by using the example 'he left', where 'he' is identified as a pronoun and becomes an intermediate node in the tree diagram.
What is the role of an adverb in a sentence structure, as explained in the script?
-An adverb in a sentence structure, such as 'quickly' in 'he left quickly', describes something about the verb and is connected to the verb phrase in the tree diagram.
How does the script explain the tree diagram for the sentence 'the big man left quickly'?
-The script explains that 'the' is a determiner, 'big' is an adjective, and 'man' is a noun, all part of the noun phrase. The verb 'left' and the adverb 'quickly' are part of the verb phrase, with 'quickly' describing the verb.
What is a transitive sentence, and how is it represented in a tree diagram?
-A transitive sentence is a sentence with a subject, a verb, and an object, like 'the man hit the ball'. In a tree diagram, it is represented with a determiner, a noun for the subject, a verb, and another noun phrase as the object.
How does the script describe the embedding of phrases within phrases in a sentence?
-The script describes the embedding of phrases within phrases by showing how a prepositional phrase can be embedded within a noun phrase, which is in turn embedded within a verb phrase, illustrating recursion in language structure.
What is structural ambiguity, and how can tree diagrams help disambiguate it?
-Structural ambiguity occurs when a sentence can have at least two possible meanings. Tree diagrams can disambiguate these meanings by connecting different parts of the sentence to different nodes, showing different relationships and thus clarifying the intended meaning.
How does the script use the example 'I killed a mouse in my pajamas' to demonstrate structural ambiguity?
-The script uses the example 'I killed a mouse in my pajamas' to show how the prepositional phrase 'in my pajamas' can be connected to either the verb phrase (indicating the speaker was wearing pajamas) or the noun phrase (indicating the mouse was in the pajamas), demonstrating two different meanings.
Outlines
π³ Introduction to Tree Diagrams in Linguistics
This paragraph introduces the concept of tree diagrams in linguistics, which are used to visually represent the structural organization of sentences. The speaker emphasizes the importance of drawing these diagrams from the top down, starting with the 'S' for sentence. The basic structure includes a noun phrase (NP) and a verb phrase (VP), which are the minimal components of an English sentence. The paragraph provides a step-by-step guide on how to break down and represent simple sentences like 'He left' and more complex ones with adverbs, such as 'He left quickly'. The speaker also touches on the need for space when drawing these diagrams to avoid clutter and ensure clarity.
π Deepening the Tree: Noun Phrases and Verb Phrases
This section delves deeper into the construction of tree diagrams by examining the components of noun phrases and verb phrases. The speaker uses the sentence 'The big man left quickly' to illustrate how to represent determiners, adjectives, and nouns within a noun phrase. The paragraph also discusses how to identify and incorporate adverbs, which describe the verb, into the tree structure. The concept of recursion in language is introduced, where phrases can be embedded within phrases to create complex structures. The speaker provides an example with a transitive sentence, 'The man hit the ball,' to show how objects are incorporated into the verb phrase, and how prepositional phrases can be added to provide additional information.
π Disambiguating Sentences with Tree Diagrams
In this paragraph, the speaker explores how tree diagrams can be used to disambiguate sentences with multiple meanings. The example 'I killed a mouse in my pajamas' is used to demonstrate structural ambiguity. The speaker explains how different tree structures can represent different interpretations of the sentence, either that the speaker was wearing pajamas while killing the mouse or that the mouse was in the speaker's pajamas. The paragraph highlights the importance of connecting prepositional phrases to the appropriate nodes in the tree to accurately reflect the intended meaning of the sentence.
Mindmap
Keywords
π‘Phrase Structure Rules
π‘Tree Diagrams
π‘Constituents
π‘Noun Phrase (NP)
π‘Verb Phrase (VP)
π‘Adverb
π‘Determiner
π‘Pronoun
π‘Prepositional Phrase
π‘Structural Ambiguity
π‘Recursion
Highlights
Linguists use tree diagrams to represent the structural organization of sentence components.
Tree diagrams help to illustrate how different components are organized into constituents and phrases.
The process of drawing tree structures begins with a top-down approach for clarity.
An 'S' is placed at the top to represent the sentence in tree diagrams.
English sentences minimally consist of a noun phrase and a verb phrase in that order.
Tree structures should allow for ample space at the top for clarity as the diagram expands.
Intermediate nodes in tree diagrams specify the type of phrase, such as pronouns or verbs.
Adverbs are connected to the verb phrase because they describe the verb.
Determiners like 'the' are identified as the first word in a noun phrase.
Adjectives precede nouns in noun phrases, as seen in 'the big man'.
Verb phrases in English include the verb and everything that follows it.
The presence of an adverb like 'quickly' indicates its association with the verb phrase.
Transitive sentences with a subject, verb, and object can be represented with additional nodes for clarity.
Constituents can be tested by substitution with pronouns to confirm their syntactic role.
Recursion in language is demonstrated by phrases embedded within phrases.
Prepositional phrases must contain a preposition and a noun phrase.
Tree structures can distinguish meanings in structurally ambiguous sentences.
The position of prepositional phrases in tree diagrams can disambiguate different meanings of a sentence.
Structural ambiguity arises when a sentence can have multiple interpretations.
Different tree structures can represent the two possible meanings of 'I killed a mouse in my pajamas'.
Transcripts
all right so now that we've just talked
about phrase structure rules we can now
start to draw tree structures or tree
diagrams again linguists use these tree
diagrams to represent what's going on
structurally in a sentence how are these
different components organized into
constituents and into phrases and how
does it all work together as a
well-formed sentence in whatever
language so for our examples today we're
just going to be using English but let's
take examples so let me walk you through
how to draw an effective tree diagram
now the term tree diagram itself might
be kind of misleading because tree
suggest you draw from the bottom up um
just as a a hint um from past experience
as a student it's much more effective to
draw these things top down so anytime
you are asked to draw a tree structure
draw it top down the first thing you
want to do is to put an S up top that
means sentence that whatever you're
drawing is going to be a sentence for
our purposes in this class we're just
really going to be tackling sentences
here so remember our old tree uh our old
phrase structure rule in English that a
sentence minimally consists of a noun
phrase and a verb phrase in that order
so it's always useful to give yourself a
lot of space when you're drawing these
tree structures because things become
cluttered down here so the more space
you give yourself up here the easier it
is down here you'll see what I mean in a
moment so we have a noun phrase and a
verb phrase so all tree structures that
you're asked to draw in this class
they're they're going to start like this
so we can take a lot of sentences and
represent it through this very simple
tree diagram right here like this
sentence he
left so we need to do a little bit more
detail we can't just do noun phrase and
then draw out he we've got to specify
what this intermediate node is here and
we'd want to call that oh a pronoun so a
pronoun as in
he well all right after that we have the
verb left so let's just remind ourselves
that that is a
verb left so it's a very simple tree
diagram for that sentence he left well
let's start to complicate it a little
bit more so let's throw in an adverb
like he left quickly well we've already
got a verb phrase
here and because quickly as an adverb is
describing something about the verb we
want to connect it to the verb
phrase so that would be an example of
how we represent the phrase uh the
sentence he left quickly in
English well let's take one that's maybe
a little bit more complicated and I'll
leave up the NP and the VP because like
I said that's how all of these sentences
are going to start
so let's change it around a bit let's
take a sentence like the big man left
quickly well all right now we've got to
do something about the noun phrase here
so we have the big man so maybe take a
second pause this video see if you can
figure out how to draw the rest of this
tree diagram otherwise we'll walk you
through it so we have the' let's start
let's start out with the' and take it
word by word what uh lexical category
does that belong to it's an article
technically but it's also a determiner
let's just call it a determiner here so
we have the
determiner the but we have two other
words that we need to take care of in
this noun phrase big man so what's big
that is an
adjective so we're getting there almost
done with this noun phrase and now we
have the noun man
then we have the verb phrase so once you
reach the verb in English you know
automatically right off the bat that
that verb and everything after it is
going to be part of the verb phrase just
as a helpful
tip so we have the
verb left and then once again we have
this adverb quickly how do you know
you're dealing with an adverb well most
of the time if it ends in ly you could
be pretty sure it is an adverb as it is
in this case it's saying something about
the quality of the verb how quickly did
he leave or how did he leave quickly so
let's take another one how about um a
transitive sentence where you get a
subject a verb and an object so
something like the man hit the ball
don't get too intimidated we have
everything we need to draw this tree
diagram so we have uh once again the
determiner the then we have the noun
man hit the ball okay well we've H we've
arrived at the verb hit so we know that
and everything after it must be part of
the verb
phrase hit the ball but now before you
uh before you dive in what is the ball
take it word by word and think about it
as a constituent um so it kind of
behaves syntactically as one unit the
ball you could substitute it with a
pronoun he hit it that's a test for
knowing that you're dealing with
constituents here but anyway the ball do
you have any idea what kind of phrase
that is it's actually a noun
phrase so we have to indicate that by
drawing another node coming off of the
verb
phrase and then we have the determiner
the and then we have the noun ball the
man hit the ball so maybe you're looking
at this and you could see how recursion
happens just as a side note that you
have phrases embedded within phrases
embedded within a sentence we could even
have a prepositional phrase embedded
within this noun phrase which is
embedded in this verb phrase and keep
going deeper and deeper and that's how
you would yield an infinitely long
utterance we don't have the space on the
chalkboard or the time to do it today
but that's how you can structurally
represent that recursion so let's take a
slightly more complicated sentence the
man hit the ball with the bat well all
right so what do we have here once again
the determiner the and the noun
man hit the ball with a bat starts with
that verb hit everything after it has to
be part of the verb
phrase then we have the noun phrase with
the
determiner the and the
noun Ball but then we have this
prepositional phrase with the bat so
remember our phrase structure rules in
English say that a prepositional phrase
must contain a preposition and a noun
phrase so that tells you right there
that with the bat has
to start with the
preposition with and then you have
another noun phrase within this
prepositional
phrase the as a
determiner and then you have the
noun
that the man hit the ball with a bat so
that's again how you can see this
embedding phrases within phrases so you
can get the recursive property that we
see in human
language so this is basically how you
draw tree structures but let's take the
idea a little bit further by showing how
tree structures can actually distinguish
meanings in structurally ambiguous
utterances so structural ambiguity
arises when you have one sentence that
could yield at least two possible
meanings all right so let's take a
sentence like I killed a mouse in my
pajamas I'm sorry it's a kind of violent
example but it's a great example that
illustrates structural ambiguity I
killed a mouse in my pajamas there's two
possible meanings to that utterance one
is that you were actually wearing
pajamas when you killed the mouse the
other possible meaning is that uh you
killed a mouse and that Mouse happened
to either crawl up your pajamas while
you were wearing them or they pajamas
were on the ground and you saw the mouse
kind of skittering along in them and
that's when you killed the mouse either
way I know this is not a pleasant
thought but again great example of
structural ambiguity so we can actually
represent both of those possible
meanings through tree structures so
let's take the first of those possible
meanings that I was wearing pajamas and
happened to kill a mouse wherever it was
so again we have um the noun here or I
should be a little bit more specific
that's a
pronoun I and then we have the verb
killed so again there's the verb
everything after it and including it is
part of the verb phrase it's kind of a
long sentence though so let's drag our
verb note all the way over here which is
okay I killed now we have uh a mouse all
right so what kind of phrase is a
mouse that's right it's a noun
phrase so we have this determiner uh I
killed uh and then and the noun
Mouse and now we have what kind of
phrase in my pajamas that is a
prepositional
phrase so it starts with that
preposition in and then we have my
pajamas now that's also a phrase and
it's a noun
phrase and it's also got that determiner
a possessive pronoun more specifically
my and then you have the
noun
pajamas so this is basically what that
tree structure basically is going to
look like for both of those meanings but
it's all about where we connect this
prepositional phrase to disambiguate the
meanings
so we have everything laid out here I
killed a mouse in my pajamas so the
ambiguity structurally arises here in my
pajamas is is it the mouse that's in
there or are you as the killer in the
pajamas so let's say that uh it's that
first meaning that I was wearing uh the
pajamas when I killed the mouse in that
case we want to connect it to the verb
phrase here because it's saying
something about the Act of Killing I
know it sounds kind of weird but you
could also think of it like this that
could you tack on an ly uh to this noun
in the prepositional phrase and could it
make kind of sense like I killed a mouse
in my uh I killed a mouse pajam Le I
know that sounds totally weird but it
would sort of describe your act of what
you were doing what you were wearing in
this case when you killed that poor
Mouse so it connects to the verb phrase
because after all you're the one who is
wearing the pajamas here but what if for
example the mouse happened to be in the
pajamas whether it was crawling up your
pant leg and you smooshed it or it was
on the floor well in that case we can't
draw that prepositional phrase there
instead it has to be drawn here because
it's now describing a property of the
mouse where that Mouse is
located so again with this meaning here
with the dotted line it represents that
I as the speaker was wearing the pajamas
when I killed the mouse but if you're
drawing the line from the prepositional
phrase to the noun phrase here it means
that the mouse was in my pajamas when I
killed it so that's how you can
structurally disambiguate two possible
meanings from the same exact sentence
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