Oh Syntax Tree, Oh Syntax Tree

Merry Christmas Syntax Tree

To all of my wonderful readers,
Hoping you enjoy your family and friends and a little syntax this Christmas.

Take a Linguistics Fish Boating

I noticed a semantically and syntactically thought-provoking billboard on I-75 North in Michigan this fall and I have been meaning to comment on it. The tagline on the billboard was "Take a fish boating".

My first thought (based on a literal interpretation) was...who the heck would take their pet goldfish out boating with them? Along the lines of "take your son boating".


Syntactically, the sentence is obviously a command with the implied subject "you".

Semantically (and phonetically), I interpreted the tagline as follows: You take a fish when out boating.

This interpretation made me think the ad was created to promote the sport fishing industry and all that goes along with it: boats, bait, lures, rods, bobbers, etc.

It wasn't until I googled the phrase and saw this image of a lure, which by the way, was not on the billboard, that I realized the billboard was advertising a type of lure that resembles a fish.

Parse Tree Puzzle

Spotted this fun puzzle at the Speculative Grammarian

Self-Defining Puzzle

by Swivelhips Smith, D.Phil.Taxidermy Tech

Scroll down for answers.

Keep going.

A little more.

1. NP vs Np
2. # is rotated 90°
3. S vs Q at root
4. .—? vs ?
5. differences vs diferences
6. two vs 2
7. line length for MD—Can

Syntax with Sherlock - Sentence Ambiguity Illustrated and Diagrammed

*For simplicity's sake, because the phrase "using binoculars" functions like a prepositional phrase, I have taken the liberty of changing "using" to "with" for the diagrams.

Here is a syntactic diagram of the version of the sentence pictured on the left.

Here is a syntactic diagram of the version of the sentence pictured on the right.




The above syntactic trees show that the ambiguous nature of the sentence results from the possibility of the prepositional phrase attaching to the noun phrase or directly to the verb phrase.

Click here for more sentence ambiguity diagrams.

Sherlock image from - http://bb.ustc.edu.cn/

An Introduction to Sentence Types and Basic Sentence Trees

Simple Sentence

Every sentence must contain a noun phrase and a verb phrase (in some sentences the noun phrase may be null).

Coordinate Sentence

Every coordinate sentence must contain at least two simple sentences joined by a coordinating conjunction.

Complex Sentence

Every complex sentence must contain one simple sentence and at least one dependant clause that includes a subordinating conjunction and a simple sentence.

Complex-Coordinate Sentence (example 1)

Complex-Coordinate Sentence (example 2)

Every complex-coordinate sentence must contain at least two simple sentences joined by a coordinating conjunction and at least one dependant clause that includes a subordinating conjunction and a sentence.


Please note: Because of the recursive nature of language a coordinate sentence could have an unlimited number of simple sentences joined by coordinating conjunctions, and a complex sentence could have an unlimited number of dependant clauses joined by subordinating conjunctions, and a complex-coordinate sentence could have an unlimited number of simple sentences joined by coordinating conjunctions and dependant clauses joined by subordinating conjunctions, and, and, and, and.....

An Introduction to Basic Phrase Structure Trees

Noun Phrase

A noun phrase must include a noun (determiner, adjective and prepositional phrase are optional). Alternatively, a noun phrase can be a pronoun that represents a noun.

Verb Phrase

A verb phrase must include a verb (auxiliary, noun phrase or adjective, prepositional phrase and dependant clause are optional).

Prepositional Phrase

A prepositional phrase must include a preposition and a noun phrase.

Dependent Clause

A dependent clause must include a subordinating conjunction and a sentence.

Key:
det = determiner
adj = adjective
N = noun
Pro = pronoun
aux = auxiliary verb
V = verb
P = preposition
PP = prepositional phrase
SC = subordinating conjunction
S = sentence

Please note: Because adverbs can modify several different elements in a sentence, they will be covered in a separate post in the future.

Who Had the Fork? - Sentence Ambiguity Diagrammed

The cat ate the mouse with a fork.

IS IT...

The cat used a fork to eat the mouse. (The cat had the fork)

OR IS IT...
The cat ate the mouse that had a fork in its possesion. (The mouse had the fork)

Click here for more sentence ambiguity diagrams.

Blossoms Crash on Garden Path Resulting in Conflicting Trees

Garden path sentences are those that lead a reader down a path to an incorrect semantic and/or syntactic interpretation of the sentence during the initial analysis or parsing of the sentence. The field of psycholinguistics has shown that these incorrect interpretations occur because readers process sentences one word at a time.



A simple yet cogent example of a garden path sentence is:

The old man the boat.

When reading this sentence the most likely initial interpretation (illustrated by the syntactic tree below) is that "old" is an adjective describing "man". But what happens when you get to "the boat"? This can't be a sentence without a verb.
By backtracking and reading the sentence again the proper interpretation with "old" being a collective noun and "man" being a verb can be reached. In other words, "the boat is manned by the old (people)."
Similar to garden path sentences are newspaper headlines that are written in such a way as to lead a reader to an incorrect interpretation (often by omission of words). These headlines have been dubbed "crash blossoms" based on the following headline:





Here is a diagram of the likely initial interpretation followed by a diagram of the intended interpretation (with words added for clarification).



Parse 1:

Parse 2:Language Log posted more about the evolution of the name "crash blossoms" here.

And here are two additional crash blossoms that I find particularly amusing followed by their respective conflicting syntactic trees.



Parse 1: Parse 2:




Parse 1:

Parse 2:

Linguistics Cartoon Favorites - Diagramming Sentences

Why no one diagrams sentences anymore.

Where Was the Girl? - Sentence Ambiguity Diagrammed

Harry ordered a drink for the girl at the bar.

The girl at the bar is the one Harry ordered the drink for.

Harry ordered a drink, at the bar, for the girl (the girl sitting at a table? the girl in the bathroom? the girl across the street?).

Syntax really can be fun.

The Glenlivit Syntax Tree

Instead of the traditional Christmas tree for the holidays, it looks to me like Glenlivit is giving away syntax trees in their new ad campaign.

While it is not an accurate syntax tree, can you see why this ad immediately brought to mind syntax trees?

Diagramming Sentences: The Syntactic Tree

The method of sentence diagramming(shown below) that most high school students still learn today is based on on the work of Alonzo Reed and Brainerd Kellogg from 1877.

The sentence diagrams preferred by linguists today are based on the work of Noam Chomsky and Ray Jackendoff and are called syntactic trees. Syntactic trees are preferred because they illustrate the dimensionality of sentences; in other words they show that sentences are more than just strings of words with a flat structure.

All people should be as happy as linguists.