1367260110.5528Understanding Syntax

How do we identify constituents? 157a new test: ellipsis. Section 5.3.2 introduces another diagnostic for constituency:co‐ordination. And Section 5.3.3 considers whether all languages have the sameconstituents.5.3.1 Verb classes and constituent structure tests5.3.1.1 Phrasal verbs and prepositional verbsBefore turning to some detailed tree diagrams which represent sentences ofEnglish, I first discuss the differences between two verb classes: phrasal verbs andprepositional verbs. Let’s examine two more sentences that may appear superficiallysimilar, but which, in fact, have different constituent structures:(45) Those smugglers shook off their pursuers.(46) Those smugglers relied on the weather forecast.There is one clear indication that these two examples are syntactically distinct. In(45), we can take the preposition off and place it immediately after the direct objectNP their pursuers, to give Those smugglers shook their pursuers off. The verb shake offis a transitive verb – it must have an NP complement, i.e. a direct object. In (46), wedon’t have a transitive verb, but instead we have a verb rely and its PP complement.The verb does not have a direct object at all, and if we attempt to put the prepositionon after the NP, the result is ungrammatical:(47) *Those smugglers relied the weather forecast on.This test identifies very successfully one particular verb class: transitive phrasalverbs such as shake off always allow the preposition to be placed after their objectNP. These verbs are single lexical items comprising a V and a P: [ Vshake off].We have, in fact, already met another example of a transitive phrasal verb in (33),namely write down, as we can confirm from the fact that we can get My brotherwrote his address down. English has a vast number of phrasal verbs, both transitiveand intransitive. Further examples of the transitive kind include turn over, pulldown, pick up, put out, switch on and break off. As (48) shows, the preposition canfollow the direct object (in bold) in each case. (For some of these, you may preferto leave the preposition next to the verb. The point I am making is simply that itmay follow the direct object.)(48) a. We turned the place over.b. They pulled that old farm building with a thatched roof down last week.c. I’d pick that snake up.d. She broke her last engagement off very suddenly.This test also allows you to identify the full extent of the direct object NP, because thepreposition has to be placed immediately after that NP (and not in the middle of it).