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Linguistics: Complementisers & Ambiguity

The document discusses complementiser phrases and ambiguity. It provides examples of sentences containing complementisers like "that", "if", and "whether". It also discusses the distinction between active and passive sentences and how they have different surface structures but the same deep structure. Structural ambiguity is explained with an example showing how one sentence can have two possible deep structures depending on interpretation.

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Thila Ishu
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293 views3 pages

Linguistics: Complementisers & Ambiguity

The document discusses complementiser phrases and ambiguity. It provides examples of sentences containing complementisers like "that", "if", and "whether". It also discusses the distinction between active and passive sentences and how they have different surface structures but the same deep structure. Structural ambiguity is explained with an example showing how one sentence can have two possible deep structures depending on interpretation.

Uploaded by

Thila Ishu
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

COMPLEMENTISER PHRASE

CP contains complementise such as That followed by embedded


sentences. Other complementisers are if and whether

I dont know whether I should talk about this


The teacher asked if the students understood the syntax lesson.

The professor said that the student passed the exam.

S
NP VP

Det N V CP

C S

NP VP

det N V NP

Det N

The boat sailed up the river


Ambiguity

The deep and surface structure

Two superficially distinct sentences would be :


Charlie broke the window and the window was broken by Charlie

In traditional terminology

1) Active sentence
2) Passive sentence

The distinction between them, it can be claimed is a difference in their


surface structure means that is the syntactic form they take as actual
English sentences. However, this difference in superficial form disguises
the fact that the two sentences are very closely related even identical. At
some less superficial levels, these other underlying level where the basic
components shared by the two sentences would be represented, have
been called their deep structure. The deep structure is an abstract level
of structure organization in which all the elements determining structural
interpretation are represented.

Structural Ambiguity
2 deep structures
I. Annie had an umbrella and she whacked a man with it. (surface
structure)
II. Annie whacked a man and the man happened to be carrying an
umbrella.

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