Syntactic relations

Revision as of 19:36, 13 August 2013

Syntactic roles are the roles that constituents play inside a syntactic structure. The UNL^arium framework follows the X-bar approach and proposes four syntactic roles:

• HEAD is the nucleus or the source of the whole syntactic structure, which is actually derived (or projected) out of it.
• COMP (i.e., complement) is an internal argument, i.e., a word, phrase or clause which is necessary to the head to complete its meaning (e.g., objects of transitive verbs);
• ADJT (i.e., adjunct) is a word, phrase or clause which modifies the head but which is not syntactically required by it (adjuncts are expected to be extranuclear, i.e., removing an adjunct would leave a grammatically well-formed sentence);
• SPEC (i.e., specifier) is an external argument, i.e., a word, phrase or clause which qualifies (determines) the head;

Examples

Consider, for instance, the examples below:

1. Verbal Phrase (VP)

Peter gave a new book to Mary yesterday.

• "gave" is the HEAD (nucleus) of the whole verbal phrase (because the whole structure is derived from "gave")
• "a new book" and "to Mary" are COMP (complements) of "gave" (because they are necessary to complete the meaning of "gave")^[1]
• "yesterday" is an ADJT (adjunct) of "gave" (because, although relevant, they are not necessary to complete the meaning of "gave")^[2]
• "Peter" is the SPEC (specifier) of "gave" (because it is the subject of "gave")

2. Nominal Phrase (NP)

Notes

1. ↑ The sentences "*Peter gave to Mary yesterday" (i.e., without "a new book") and "*Peter gave a new book yesterday" (without "to Mary") will not be well-formed in the sense that something would be missing.
2. ↑ The sentence "Peter gave a new book to Mary", although less informative, would be well-formed.