Conceptually (see
also The Fundamental Relations
of Syntax and Conceptual Structure) the head of each sentence
is a predicate. The predicate combined with its arguments to form
a basic eventuality. The head is a syntactic term corresponding
with the synjtactic term 'head'. Consider the following sentence:
(1) Bill dropped a cup.
We represent the predicate here as "DROP", and the lexico-syntactic from as DROP (no quotes). We consider here DROP and all forms in CAPs only to be abstract morphemes (in the lexicon) which correspond in some way to conceptual (information-semantic). Theta roles are not abstract morphemes. A predicate is a bundle of abstract morphological features.
(2) Property: Head
A head is a bundle of abstract lexical features in the syntax which represents an eventuality or an object.
Let us start with the head:
(3) DROP.
Every head and predicate (events and states) must have at least one argument. Arguments are extensions of a predicate, that are required a part of the meaning of the predicate. An argument refers to either the participants of the event, or it can refer to a proposition itself as we will see below. DROP implies two arguments: the one who drops something (Bill--the agent) and the object that is dropped (a cup--the theme). Arguments are enclosed in angled brackets:
(4) <BILL> DROP <CUP>
Note that CUP is the central head of the argument 'a cup.' The names for these arguments is covered in week 2. The above form based on a predicate and its arguments is called a phrase. By convention, we prefer to place the predicate first, and the arguments after the predicate:
(5) DROP <CUP> <BILL>
Furthermore, by convention, we prefer to place the internal argument first, the external argument last (see argument.assignment).
We have noted that the abstract morphological form DROP takes two arguments: <BILL> and <CUP>. Other predicates take one argument:
(6) John slept.
There is no linear order in propositional and lexico-syntactic structure. As mentioned above we will put the head and predicate first, and the arguments after it:
(7) SLEEP <JOHN> ("SLEEP" <"JOHN">.
(8) DROP <CUP> <BILL> ("DROP" <"CUP "> <"BILL">).
Some predicates assignment more than two arguments:
(9) Sally set her books on the desk.
(10) PUT <HER BOOKS> <ON DESK> <SALLY>
(11) Henry bought his car from Jane for $250.
(12) BUY <HIS CAR> <FROM JANE> <$250> <HENRY>
The arguments of most eventualities are objects.
Consider sentence
(1) again. If we extract the lexical proposition from it, what
remains is the tense of the verb. Tense is an operator. We will write operators in
CAPS enclosed in square brackets:
(17). [TENSE].
In English there are two tenses: present and past. We can represent tense in binary features:
(18). [+Past], [-Past].
[+Past] refers to an event that precedes the speech event; [-Past] refers to an events the does not precedes the speech. Hence the [-Past] tense can be present or future. Click here to go to tense. The forms in (18) are called features. All operators contain a simple or complex set of features. Predicates can be decomposed in semantic features underlying lexical morphemes also. We will not attempt to do so here. Verb Phrase (VP) is an argument of [TENSE [+Past]]:
(19) [TENSE [+Past] < VP>
(20) VP = <BILL> DROP <CUP>
therefore:
(21) [TENSE [+Past] < DROP <CUP> <BILL> > ]
(21) is technically part of a proposition. We will cover some of the remaining operators that are required to make a complete proposition later. (Go to aspect.) The incomplete proposition (21) and even more complex propositions are difficult to read as they are drawn in a linear format. (21) can be redrawn in a tree-structure format, common to linguists. The incomplete proposition containing both [TENSE] and the E-proposition is a T-Proposition :
(22)
Normally, in syntax the labels 'phrase, operator, argument, and head' are not used. Thnis is just a convention and it has no theoretical implication.
In the weeks that
follow we will discuss the syntactic representation related to
propositional structures. We will commence with tense.
