Syntax – Week 4, Lecture 2
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Complements and Adjuncts,
Semantic Roles & Grammatical
Relations
1. Complements vs Adjuncts
I have argued on semantic grounds that some PP’s are complements and
others are adjuncts. E.g. the first PP below is a complement, and the
second PP is an adjunct:
The student of linguistics with long hair.
What other tests are there which we can use to distinguish between
complements and adjuncts?
1. Stacking
Because complements are subcategorized for by the head, they can’t be
stacked. For example:
I saw the cat *I saw the cat the dog.
I lied to Mary *I lied to Mary to Bob
Because adjuncts are not subcategorized by the head, and only ever
provide extra optional information, they can be stacked subject to
semantic considerations:
I saw the cat at your house at three.
I lied to Bob by the bridge near the river.
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Stacking Part 2
An adjunct can be stacked after a complement, but a complement can’t
(usually) be stacked after an adjunct:
The student of linguistics with long hair
PP:COMP PP:ADJUNCT
*The student with long hair of linguistics
PP:ADJUNCT PP:COMP
I put the book on the table at 9pm.
PP:COMP PP:ADJUNCT
*I put the book at 9pm on the table.
PP:ADJUNCT PP:COMP
I saw the cat last night
NP:COMP NP:ADJUNCT
*I saw last night the cat
NP:ADJUNCT NP:COMP
2. Complements are selected by the head
Complements are associated with specific lexical heads in a way that
adjuncts are not:
A student of linguistics. vs *A woman of linguistics.
Furthermore, the preposition choice in a PP complement is frequently
selected by the head of the phrase:
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A student of linguistics vs *a student with linguistics
fond of chips *fond by chips
keen on dancing *keen of dancing
Compare these complements with the adjuncts below:
The dog slept in the house
on the house
by the house
near the house etc…
3. Coordination Test
Complements can be coordinated with complements. Adjuncts can be
coordinated with adjuncts. However, complements and adjuncts can’t be
coordinated with each other:
A student of linguistics and of chemistry [PP:COMP and PP:COMP]
A student with long hair and with old shoes. [PP:ADJ and PP:ADJUNCT]
*A student of linguistics and with old shoes. *[PP:COMP and PP:ADJUNCT]
I ate the bread and the cheese. [NP:COMP and NP:COMP]
I ate last night and the night before last. [NP: ADJUNCT and NP:ADJUNCT]
*I ate the bread and last night. *[NP:COMP and NP:ADJUNCT]
I put the books on the chair and on the table. [PP:COMP and PP:COMP]
*I put the book on the chair and at 9pm. *[PP:COMP and PP:ADJUNCT]
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4. Extraposition
Adjuncts can often be moved, complements can’t be:
A student with long hair →
A student came to see me yesterday with long hair.
A student of linguistics →
*A student came to see me yesterday of linguistics
5. Question Test for PPs (Note: this is a hard test to use)
Complements can be questioned, whereas adjuncts can’t be:
What kind of linguistics are you a student of?
*What kind of hair are you a student with?
Practice with Comp/ADJ Tests:
Verify that the PP’s below are complements:
Your reply [to my letter]
the attack [on the PM]
the sinking [of the ship]
her disgust [at his behavior]
his disillusionment [with phonetics]
Verify that the PP’s below are adjuncts:
the book [on the table]
the advertisement [on television]
the fight [after the match]
his resignation because [of the scandal]
a cup [with a broken handle]
Worked Example:
The sinking of the ship vs The fight after the match
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Stacking:
The sinking of the ship after the storm
?The sinking after the storm of the ship Complement
The fight after the match after the storm.
The fight after the storm after the match. Adjuncts
*The sinking of the frigate of the aircraft carrier. Complement
The fight after the match after the storm. Adjunct
Preposition selected by head:
The fight before/after/near/in the match. Adjunct
The sinking of/#near/#by the ship. Complement
Coordination:
The sinking of the frigate and of the aircraft carrier
*The sinking of the frigate and after the storm. Complement
The fight after the match and after the storm. Adjunct
Extraposition/movement:
The fight was studied yesterday after the match. N/A – why not?
*The sinking was studied yesterday of the ship Complement
?The fight was captured by the reporter with cream pies… ???
Question:
Which type of ship was the sinking of? Complement
What kind of match was the fight after? ?/Adjunct
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2. Semantic Roles
Many verbs, as part of their meaning, define certain roles. There are
specific semantic roles which come with real world knowledge. For
example, consider the verb hung in a sentence like I hung a picture.
The verb is associated with two specific semantic roles – a person doing
some hanging (the hanger upper), and a thing that is being hung (the
hanging thing).
What do we know about these entities?
As you expand the number of verbs you look at, you start to find that
often the specific semantic roles have some properties in common. For
example, a common part of the definition for many specific semantic roles
is “an entity who wants to cause a change to something” (this would be
true of a hanger upper, but also of a hunter in the verb hunt, a pusher in
the verb push etc). This type of semantic role is called “agent” and is
usually found encoded as the subject.
It turns out when we examine the worlds’ languages, time and time again,
we find that some properties associated with specific semantic roles are
often encoded grammatically, whereas others rarely or never are.
The semantic properties that are often encoded grammatically are called
semantic roles or theta-roles (θ-roles):
Inventory of Semantic Roles (pg 54-55, Kroeger)
Agent: Causer or initiator of events
Experiencer: animate entity which perceives a stimulus or undergoes a mental state.
Recipient: animate entity which receives or acquires something.
Beneficiary: entity for whose benefit an action is performed.
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Instrument: entity used by agent to perform some action.
Theme: entity undergoing a change in location or possession, or whose location is being specified.
Patient: entity which is acted upon.
Stimulus: object of perception which is seen, heard, known, hated etc.
Location: Reference point of event.
Source: Origin of beginning point of motion.
Goal: the destination or end point of a motion.
Path: the pathway of a motion.
Accompaniment: entity which accompanies the performance of an action.
Mary hit John Mary: Agent John: Patient
Mary loves John Mary: Experiencer John: Stimulus
The key opened the lock key: Instrument lock: patient
Water flowed through the drain water: Theme through the drain: path
Key point
Although the semantic roles associated with a particular event do not
change from language to language, the grammatical structure which
encodes the arguments which play these semantic roles may.
verb Semantic roles Gramm. Struc. English Gramm. Struc. French
push Ag, Pt Joe pushed Bob
NP____NP
Joe a poussé Bob
NP_____NP
telephone Ag, Pt Joe telephoned Bob
NP____NP
Joe a téléphoné à Bob
NP_____PP
see Exp, Stim Bob saw Joe
NP____NP
Bob a vu Joe
NP____NP
look Exp, Stim Bob looked at Joe
NP____PP
Bob a regardé Joe
NP____NP
We’ll now consider the relations between semantic roles (such as Agent,
Patient, etc.), grammatical functions (such as subject, object etc.) and
phrasal level constituents (such as NP, PP, AdjP etc.)
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3. Grammatical Functions
Already we have used the terms “subject” and “object” – and they have
been loosely defined as:
● subject: doer of the verb/action
● object: the thing which has the verb done to it.
However, these definitions are inadequate. Consider the following
sentences for example:
● She was pushed.
● He fell asleep.
● She heard a scream.
The subject in each of these instances can’t be described as ‘doing’ the
verb. Or in other words, we can’t use semantic roles to define what the
subject is. So, how is the subject defined? We must use grammatical
features. In English, subjects have the following properties:
1. Word Order: in basic sentences, the subject comes before the verb.
2. Pronoun Forms: When the subject is a 3rd person sg pronoun, the
forms he/she are used. These forms are not used in non-subject
positions:
■ He/She saw the horse.
■ The horse saw him/her *he/*she
3. Agreement with verb: When the subject is sg, in the present tense, a
-s is suffixed to the verb:
● The man(sg) bothers him.
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● The men(pl) bother him.
4. Content Questions: If the subject is replaced by a question word, the
rest of the sentence remains unchanged. This is not the case for
other grammatical functions:
• John stole the money.
• Who stole the money? John.
• What did John steal? The money.
5. Tag Questions: Tag questions in English can only refer to the
subject:
■ John loves Mary, doesn’t he?
■ *John loves Mary, doesn’t she?
Key point: Subjects can’t be defined using semantic roles. For example,
the subject is not always an agent (that is, the doer of the verb). Instead,
we define subjects solely through grammatical properties.
The tests for objects are more complex. Two properties of objects in
English are listed here:
● Objects are the NP which occurs after the verb.
● Objects may be passivized:
John saw [Mary]obj
> Mary was seen by John.
Subjects and Objects are called Direct or Core Arguments. This is because
they are grammatically bound closely to the verb.
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Indirect Objects
Some verbs in English subcategorize for two objects, a direct object and
an indirect object. Both of the objects are NP’s:
I gave the woman the roses
NP:Obji NP:Objd
Oblique Arguments
As well as subjects and objects, there is also a class of arguments called
obliques. Oblique arguments encode a variety of semantic roles which are
selected by the verb such as recipient, instrument, location etc. Whereas
subjects and objects are represented using NP’s in English, oblique
arguments are represented using PP’s:
● [I] put [my wallet] [on the table.]
Subj:Ag Obj:Pt Obl:Location
NP NP PP
● [I] gave [the roses] [to Mary]
Subj:Ag Obj:Theme Obl:Recipient
NP NP PP
Arguments Summary:
So far, we have looked at three kinds of arguments; Subjects, Objects
(direct and indirect) and Obliques. Arguments are associated with
different kinds of phrases:
● Subject, Object: NP
● Oblique: PP
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What is the difference between an argument and a complement?
A complement is a type of argument. A complement is an argument which
is represented grammatically as a sister to the head of the phrase with
which it is associated. For example, in the sentence “Bob saw Mary” both
“Bob” and “Mary” are arguments to the predicate “see”:
S
NP VP
V -head NP – sister
Bob saw Mary
Subject Object
However, only the NP “Mary” is a complement. This is because the NP
“Mary” is sister to the head of the VP. The NP “Bob” is neither a head nor
a sister – it is something called a specifier. Although “Bob” is an argument
(in particular, the subject with the semantic role of experiencer), “Bob” is
not a complement to anything.
See also the summary table in Canvas (Week 4 Module).
4. Arguments/complements vs Adjuncts (again)
Adjuncts supply optional information which is not specified or implied by
the head of the phrase in which it appears:
She briefly saw the happy woman on the train in the afternoon
Usually, PP’s, AdjP’s and AdvP’s function as adjuncts – although it is
possible for NP’s to also be adjuncts. In terms of analysis, the most
common difficulty lies in identifying the function of PP’s – are they
oblique arguments (complements), or are they adjuncts? We saw that
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there are several tests which can help tease these two functions apart.
Consider the phrase:
She was [fond of cheese].
Fond is an adjective which heads the adjective phrase “fond of cheese”:
AdjP
Adj PP
fond of cheese
Is the PP “of cheese” an oblique (and therefore complement to the head
of the phrase ‘fond’) or is it an adjunct?
1. The PP is required – therefore it is an argument – “*she is fond” Oblique
2. Semantically, “fond” requires something to be fond of. Oblique
3. Stacking: *She was fond of cheese of bread Oblique
4. Stacking: *She was fond for dinner of cheese Oblique
5. Preposition selected by fond: *She was fond with cheese Oblique
6. Coord: She was fond of cheese and of bread
*She was fond of cheese and at dinner Oblique
7. Question: What food was she fond of? Oblique
Rules of thumb:
● If a phrase is required after a head, it is always an argument. The
other tests are less definitive.
● AdvP’s modifying Adv’s or Adj’s are nearly always Adjuncts.
● AdjP’s modifying N’s are nearly always Adjuncts.
● Adjectives and nouns formed from verbs often take an oblique as
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optional argument, their former object:
We sunk the ship. “the ship” = object and compl
The sinking (of the ship) was fun. “of the ship” = oblique “” “”
5. Terminology Summary:
Recall that as part of the meaning of a verb, it specifies various semantic
roles. For example, the verb “to love” requires an experiencer to feel the
love, and stimulus to invoke the feeling of love. Likewise, the verb “to eat”
requires an agent to do the eating, and a patient, which is the thing
eaten. These semantic roles do not change in different languages.
Even though these semantic roles are part of the meaning of the verb,
languages vary (both internally and with respect to each other) with
respect to whether these semantic roles are required to be present within
a sentence. For example, the patient role in the verb “to eat” is optional,
but is required in the verb “to hit”:
Mary hit Bob. *Mary hit.
[agent] [patient] [agent]
Mary ate some bread. Mary ate.
[agent] [patient ] [agent]
Note that in the sentence “Mary ate”, the patient is still ‘there’ – it is
simply not expressed.
We saw that when a semantic role is present in a sentence, it is encoded
as an argument (a subject, object, indirect object or an oblique). However,
arguments could only be identified by grammatical properties and not
semantic ones. This is illustrated by “John” in the sentence below. John
can be the subject or the object of the verb, but in both sentences, John is
the patient:
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Bob saw John vs. John was seen by Bob
[Subj:Agent] [Obj:Pt] [Subj:Pt] [Obl:Ag]
Example
The woman gave the roses to the man
The woman gave the roses to the man hurriedly
in the morning
last night
GF SUBJ OBJ OBL Adjunct
Phrase NP NP PP AdvP, PP, NP
Semantic
Role
Agent Theme Recipient
S
NP VP
V NP PP PP
the woman gave the roses to the man in the morning
A worked example:
The really smart student of linguistics loves syntax.
Step 1. Identify all the parts of speech:
The: Determinative (closed class)
really: Adverb
semantics: assigns degree to an adjective – really smart
morphology: many adverbs end in -ly
syntax: has the same distribution as other adverbs:
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I (really/certainly) like it (really/certainly).
smart: Adjective
semantics: assigns a property to a noun – the student who is smart
morphology: takes adjective endings – smarter, smartest
syntax: occurs before a noun – smart student
Student: Noun
semantics: refers to an entity
morphology: can be pluralized (students)
syntax: can occur after a determiner – the student
functional: can occur as subject or object.
of: Preposition (closed class)
linguistics: Noun
semantics: refers to a thing.
morphological: fails this test.
syntactic: can be modified by a preceding adjective: I like English linguistics.
Functional: can occur as subject or object
Linguistics is hard. I like linguistics
loves: Verb
semantics: refers to an event
morphological: can take tense – She loved linguistics
syntax: Noun
See ‘linguistics’ above.
The really smart student of linguistics loves syntax.
Dtv Adv Adj N P N V N
Step 2. Identify all the phrases
Recall, that every Adj, N, P, Adv and V will be the head of its own phrase.
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Furthermore, the PSR’s give hints – for example, AdvP’s can come before Adj’s, and NP’s follow P’s:
S
NP VP
AdjP PP NP
NP
Dtv AdvP Adj N P N V N
The really smart student of linguistics loves syntax
Step 3. Identify Arguments and Adjuncts and Complements
For each NP, AdvP, PP and AdjP, identify it as either an argument (subj, obj, etc), or an adjunct. If
the phrase is an argument, also identify whether it is a complement. Start with the biggest
phrases:
The really smart student of linguistics: NP.
Subject – pronoun test – The really smart student of linguistics, she, loves syntax
As a subject, this NP must be an argument.
really smart : AdjP
Adjunct: this phrase is optional and is not selected by the noun. Attributive AdjP’s are never
complements.
really: AdvP
Adjunct: this phrase is optional and adds more information to the adjective.
of linguistics:PP
Oblique Argument: although optional, this phrase is selected by the noun – a student must
be a student of something. Because this phrase occurs as sister to the noun, it is also a
complement.
Syntax: NP
Object – therefore an argument. Because the object NP is a sister to the verb, it is also a
complement.
Step 4. Draw the Tree Structure
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