Complementation versus modification

5 minute homework

1. Dr Who remembered [ the sonic screwdriver $_{NP}$ ]

2. Dr Who remembered [ that she had left her sonic screwdriver behind $_{Clause}$]

3. Dr Who remembered [ to bring her sonic screwdriver $_{Infinitval~Clause}$ ]

4. Dr Who remembered [ how to kill a Dalek $_{Wh-word + Infinitival~Clause}$]

5. Dr Who remembered [ what fun it was killing Daleks! $_{Exclamative~Clause}$ ]

Complementation

After the verb remember we can complete the sentence in 5 different ways. Remember takes five different kinds of complements. The complement completes the sentence, e.g.

1. A: Dr Who remembered.

2. B: Remembered what?

3. A: Dr Who remembered [ the sonic screwdriver $_{NP}$ ]

and...

1. X: Jeanine filled the car

2. Y: With what?

3. X: Jeanine filled the car [ with Petrol $_{PP}$ ]

and...

1. P: Jack is proud.

2. Q: Of What?

3. P: Jack is proud [ of his essay $_{PP}$ ]

NB we have previously used the word complement to describe 2 different syntactic functions: the Subject and Object complements. Here we are using complement in a broader fashion to describe 'ways of completing the sentence'. Under this broader definition, direct and indirect objects can also be described as complements

Complements versus Modifying Phrases (a)

Complements are "chosen" by verbs, or other words/phrases in the sentence. They sentence sounds odd without them.

Modifying phrases feel "added on". They are optional. There are two types of modifying phrases, Adverials, and Postmodifiers (see below).

Complements of the verb

All post-verbal arguments can be described as complements of the verb. These are Od, Oi, Co, Cs. So far, we have only looked at phrasal complements, e.g. Noun Phrases, Adjective Phrases, or Prepositional Phrases.

1. Amy dropped [ the pen $_{NP}$ ]

2. Jack painted $[$ the roof ${NP}$ $]$ $[$ bright red ${Adj.}$ $]$

3. Jack smashed $[$ the vase ${NP}$ $]$ $[$ into pieces ${Prep.~Phrase}$ $]$

Verbs can also specify clausal complements (i.e. mini sentences)

1. Jack said [ that he was hungry $_{Clause}$ ]

2. Magda alleged $[$ that Carter was seeing another woman $_{Clause~(with~"that")}$ $]$

3. Angie told $[$ Mel ${NP}$ $]$ $[$ that she was seeing another woman ${Clause~(with~"that")}$ $]$

When a clause is used a complement it takes on the same function as the equivalent Noun Phrase, e.g.

1. Angie told $[$ Mel ${NP~=~ Oi}$ $]$ $[$ something ${Od}$ $]$

2. Angie told $[$ Mel ${NP~=~ Oi}$ $]$ $[$ that she was seeing another woman ${Clause~=~Od}$ $]$

Complements of other words

Complements of Adjectives

1. Jack is afraid [ of pigeons $_{PP}$ ]

2. Jack is afraid [ for his friend $_{PP}$ ]

3. Jack is afraid [ that pigeons will get him $_{Clause~(with~"that")}$ ]

4. Annie is surprised [ by Greg's behaviour $_{PP}$ ]

5. Annie is surprised [ at Greg's behaviour $_{PP}$ ]

6. Annie is surprised [ that Greg came late $_{Clause~(with~"that")}$ ]

7. Mei Lin is disappointed [ by the news $_{PP}$ ]

8. Mei Lin is disappointed [ about the news $_{PP}$ ]

9. Mei Lin is disappointed [ that Greg came late $_{Clause~(with~"that")}$ ]

Complements of Nouns

1. Donna's belief [ in fairies $_{PP}$ ] is amusing

2. Anna's fear [ of lamp posts $_{PP}$ ] is puzzling

3. The destruction [ of the temple $_{PP}$ ] shocked the tribes of Israel

A recap on terminology

Phrases = Groups of words which behave as a whole. We can do tests for phrases, e.g. can you question them or substitute them?

Functions = A label to describe the syntactic role which phrases play in a sentence. NB though certain functions tend to have certain semantic roles, functions are primarily syntactic, e.g.

1. The sweets were given to all those with perfect marks

The sweets is the Direct Object of the "underlying" sentence, e.g. she gave the sweets to the child. However, here the sweets has been moved into Subject position, and is therefore a subject. Note that it has the formal syntactic properties of a Subject, namely subject-verb agreement (the sweets are / were), and nominative case-marking when the Noun Phrase is replaced by a pronoun (they / them were given to all those with perfect marks)

Argument = Essential Participants in the event described by the verb. The arguments are chosen by the verbs. The verb also specifies the role fo the arguments, and their order.

Complement (narrow definition) = Word to describe a post-verbal argument which serves to modify either the Subject or Object.

Complement (broader definition) = A phrase which "completes" the sentence. It is chosen by a particular word, and comes after that word. Postverbal arguments (e.g. Od, Oi, Co, Ci) can be described as complements of the verb. However, other word classes can have complements, e.g. Adjectives and Nouns.

Complements versus Modifiers (b)

Adverbials and Post-modifiers

As mentioned, there are two modifying functions: Adverbials and Postmodifiers. While Adverbials tend to modify the entire sentence, Postmodifiers modify the preceding Noun Phrase.

1. $[$ Next Tuesday ${Adverbial}$ $]$ we'll sell our house $[$ with any luck ${Adverbial}$ $]$

2. The house $[$ at the end of the street $_{PP~acting~as~Post-Modifer}$ $]$ was for sale

3. The house $[$ that was at the end of the street $_{Clause~acting~as~Post-Modifer}$ $]$ was for sale

Both types of modifying phrases are optional. Adverbials are also moveable, and are able to occur at either peripheral position (the very beginning or very end of the sentence).

Focus on adverbials

Adverbials and adverbs refer to almost the same thing

1. Adverb = a single word which tends to sit in the verb complex and modfies the verb, e.g. She $[$ quickly ran $_{Verb~Complex}$ $]$ to the shops

2. Adverbial = a phrase (often containing multiple words) which sits at the sentence periphery, and modifies the entire sentence, e.g. $[$ Next Tuesday ${Adverbial}$ $]$ we'll sell our house $[$ with any luck ${Adverbial}$ $]$

Adverbials have a variety of functions. They can be used to express manner, place, or time, e.g.

1. MANNER: She walks [ with a slight limp ]

2. PLACE: She plays cricket [ in the park ]

3. TIME: [ On Tuesday ] she sold the house

The can also express a variety of discourse functions, e.g.

1. CHANGING TOPIC: [ Anway ], have you heard the news about Ruth?

2. EXPRESSING LOGICAL RELATIONSHIPS: [ However ], she still couldn't lift heavy weights. (NB the sentence CONTRADICTS information in the preceding discourse, e.g. She trained hard. However she still couldn't lift heavy weights).

3. EXPRESSING AN OPINION: [ In my opinion ] we should treat syntactic difficulties using recasts

Focus on Post-modifiers

Can be either a Prepositional Phrase or a clause:

1. The man [ with the hat $_{PP}$ ] lost his wallet

2. The man [ who was wearing a hat $_{Clause}$ ] lost his wallet

3. The man [ who was wearing a hat $_{Reduced~clause}$ ] lost his wallet

Distinguishing between complements and modifiers

While complements "snuggle up" to the word that specifies them, modifiers can be separated from that word;

1. The teacher $[$ of mathematics ${PP}$ $]$ $[$ with red hair ${PP}$ $]$ just won the lottery

2. *The teacher $[$ with red hair ${PP}$ $]$ $[$ of mathematics ${PP}$ $]$ just won the lottery

3. Jeanine filled the car $[$ with petrol ${PP}$ $]$ $[$ on Tuesday ${PP}$ $]$

4. *Jeanine filled the car $[$ on Tuesday ${PP}$ $]$ $[$ with petrol ${PP}$ $]$

5. Jack is proud $[$ of his achievements ${PP}$ $]$ $[$ with good reason ${PP}$ $]$

6. *Jack is proud $[$ with good reason ${PP}$ $]$ $[$ of his achievements ${PP}$ $]$

Complements and lexical representation

Are complements predictable from meaning?

How do we know which type of complement to use after a verb, adjective or noun? To a certain extent complement types are predictable from the meaning of the verb, noun, or adjective. For example, we tend to use clausal complements with mental state verbs because clauses describe imaginary scenes or situations which we are able to think about.

1. I hope [ that you won't miss the train ]

2. I imagine [ that he was very angry ]

3. I believe [ that he's in a relationship ]

However, complements are not wholly predictable from meaning. Why are we surprised by something, but delighted with something? Admire and like have very similar meanings (a positive emotion about someone) but they differ very much in their syntactic behaviour:

1. I like $[​$ that you don't get down about stuff $_{that~plus~clause}​$ $]​$

2. ?? I admire $[$ that you don't get down about stuff $_{that~plus~clause}$ $]$

The answer is that the word specifies its own syntactic behaviour.

The lemma (and the lexeme)

We were introduced to the "lemma" at the end of Week 3. This is a level where word-mearnings are stored. By contrast, word-forms are stored at a later level, the "lexeme" level. Evidence for the separation of the "lemma" and "lexeme" levels comes from tip-of-the-tongue phenomena, and phonological substitutions.

The lemma also contains the complement-selection properties of a word. This helps us to use the word in a sentence, e.g. by determining the structure of the sentence after the word.

Perhaps the strongest motivation for the lemma comes from languages where nouns have genders, e.g. masculine and feminine, e.g. French, Italian, Spanish. Data from patient "Dante" (Badecker et al. 1995), an individual with aphasia, suggests that the ability to report the gender of a word, is independent of the ability to name that word. This suggests the separation of the lemma and the lexeme.

Roughly-speaking the lemma contains modality-general information about a word, while the lexeme contains modality-specific information.

Five-minute exercise

Look at the following speech errors. What does this say about the integration between (a) planning the structure of the sentence, and (b) inserting words in sentences, and (c) producing phonemes.

1. I'm a weekend for maniacs.

Bibliography

Badecker, W., Miozzo, M., & Zanuttini, R. (1995). The two-stage model of lexical retrieval: Evidence from a case of anomia with selective preservation of grammatical gender. Cognition, 57(2), 193–216.