John Stuart Mill
Every language contains sentences of varyinf pharse structure. The following pharse structure tree differs from the previous tree not only in the words that terminate it but also in its syntactic categories and structure.
This tree shows that a verb phrase may also consist of a verb followed by a noun phrase followed by a prepositional phrase (PP). A prepositional phrase is noun phrase followed by a prepositional phrase (PP). A prepositional phrase is shown to consist of a preposition (P) followed by a noun phrase. This tree also illustrated that noun phrases may occur in three different structural positions representing three different grammatical relations: immediately below the S as the subject, immediately below the VP as the direct object immediately below the PP as a prepositional object.
just as tree structures reveal ambiguities in phrases such as synthetic buffalo hides, they also account for sentance ambiguities such ac The boy saw the man with the telescope. One meaning of this sentence ' the boy used a telescope to see the man' is revealed by the phrase structure tree above. The key element is the position of the PP directlky under the VP, where it has an adverbial function and modifies the verb saw.
In its other meaning, 'the boy saw a man who had a telescope', the PP with the telescope is positioned directly under the NP direct object, where it modifies the noun man. Two different interpretations are possible because the rules of syntax permit different structurings of the same linear order of words, as revealed by the two phrase structure trees.
