Sentences (Syntax) Lecture

Question 1

What is meant by syntactic analysis?

Answer 1

The process that we do constantly to extract meaning and context from the grammar of a sentence

Question 2

How is syntactic analysis often conveyed during linguistics? What name is given to this process

Answer 2

Through tree diagrams which convey the role of each constituent of the sentence both at the level of the word (noun, adjective) and the role each of the individual words play within the sentence e.g the noun phrase- the subject/ object of the sentence and everything that belongs to it (The aggressive elephant). This is called Parsing

Question 3

What is contained in almost every grammatical tree structure? (4)

Give an example

Answer 3

A noun phrase (NP) and a
Verb phrase (VP) within a
Sentence (S)

Also often a relative clause- has a subject and verb, but can’t stand alone as a sentence. It functions like an adjective—it gives more information about a noun

{(Tarik’s good friend), (that Ilke is dating,)} {(makes memes about) (racist lecturers)}

(s)
{NP} {VP}
(NP) (RC) (VP) (NP)
Then words can be labeled V,P, Adj

Question 4

Describe three principles of parsing

Answer 4

Immediacy principle- we integrate each words into the grammatical structure that we build while it is coming in, i.e the subject and object can change (While susan was dressing/ the baby/ was playing on the floor)

Minimal attachment strategy- Do not postulate ‘unnecessary’ syntactic nodes (cop with the binoculars vs revolver)

Late closure: Keep working on/ adding to the node you’re working on for as long as possible; even when no new nodes are added to your parsing tree parsers still prefer adding oncoming words to the current node than to earlier nodes

Question 5

What does the immediacy principle demonstrate about grammar?

Answer 5

This demonstrates that grammatical structure is built incrementally: each word is immediately integrated into the syntactical structure even when there is potential ambiguity. Sometimes when it goes wrong you have to go back and reintegrate

Question 6

What concept does the immediacy principle lead to?

Answer 6

Garden path sentences

Sentences which make you look back to check the structure of the sentence (usually because it does not use the preferred grammatical method)

E.g: the horse raced past the barn fell
The horse (that was) raced past the barn fell

Question 7

Use minimal attachment strategy to explain which sentence takes longer to read and why
“The spy saw the cop (with the binoculars)”
“The spy saw the cop (with the revolver)”

Also what element in parsing is in brackets

Answer 7

Despite the first sentence being ambiguous, it has simpler parsing with less grammatical nodes:
{}=VP
[]= NP
()= PP: propositional phrase
||= V
[The spy] {|saw| [the cop] (with the binoculars)}

However the second sentence injects another node into the mix (NP between PP and NP) and cause annoyance by making us look back

[The spy] {|saw| [[the cop] (with the binoculars)}]

Question 8

Describe a simple influential model of parsing

Answer 8

Stage 1: syntactic category of each incoming word is established (noun, verb, adjective etc)
Stage 2: Based on the category labels, a syntactic structure in constructed taking into account Immediacy principle, minimal attachment and late closure

Question 9

What is left out of this model, therefore apparently does not play a part in the initial syntactic structure?

Answer 9

Semantics

Question 10

What type of model is this two step model as discussed previously?

Answer 10

A modular approach: does not integrate other aspects of language, grammatical processing is independent from other language comprehension processes

Question 11

Name a another competing grammar model that is different to the two step model in this aspect

Answer 11

Constraint-based model

Interactive model: To parse a sentence readers/ listeners use all information (constraints) they have at their disposal from the start. Grammatical processing is not independent from semantics

Question 12

Use the concepts of constraint to explain why the sentences
“The man swung around a pole fell” and
“The rhubarb planted around a pole grew”
Are not both garden path sentences

Answer 12

The rhubarb does not have the ability to plant something itself, this means that there is a constraint in the semantics of rhubarb and only one interpretation; leads to rapid re-analysis

Whether the man can swing a pole around or be swung around a pole. This leaves two interpretations and since only the last noun changes the interpretation it causes a long reading time; long analysis at the end of the sentence.

Question 13

Describe the methods of a study which investigated the two competing theories of syntax

Answer 13

Minimal attachment parsing was manipulated so that either sentences with MAS were used or non-MAS. People prefer minimal attachment nodes so therefore in the sentence
There I see the professors that..
the professors are assumed to be the subject of a relative clause: (threw a party) is syntactically preferred to (he met at a party.)

This was manipulated in a German study using plurals and singular words at the end of a sentence to violate the expectation of the sentence. Therefore there is a preferred grammatical structure condition and an non-preferred grammatical condition. Additionally semantic constraints were manipulated; i.e students give professors exams.

EEG measurements were taken. The ERP component P600 was examined which is an ERP component associated with a grammatical violation (can be incorrect grammar or a sentence which makes people reassess the grammatical structure at the end.)

Question 14

Describe the predictions and results of the study which investigated the two competing theories of syntax

Answer 14

The two stage model (modular processing) would predict that minimal attachment strategy is automatically preferred.

The constraint based model would predict that the students would adjust their grammatical structure in sentences with non-MAS but semantic constraints (professers teaching students.) It predicts that MAS is overruled by semantic context

A larger P600 component was found when the grammar had a violation of expectation and no semantic constraint, as expected. This P600 effect for singular “hat” is still present in the semantic bias condition: The singular version of the word is still perceived as syntactically incongruous as you would expect based on purely syntactic rules, even tho the object relative cause of hat is more logical that the subject relative clause of the plural.

Therefore semantics does not change the application of syntactic rules. This gives evidence for a modular approach.

Question 15

What limitations are there to this study on semantic constraints and

Answer 15

The sentence is quite long and participants are given quite some time to commit to the subject relative clause before reaching a word which has information that is semantically inconsistent with the minimal attachment strategy, they have already committed to the subject relative clause.

The semantic constraint is not that strong- it is not physically impossible for students to give an exam to a professor.

Question 16

Describe a study which attempted to correct for these limitations

Answer 16

It manipulated animacy for a semantic constraint- ie computers stealing burglars; much stronger than students giving exams to professors Also the semantic word is given much earlier in the sentence so that people have the possibility to integrate this information into their semantic model. So there were four conditions: animate and inanimate objects and subject (MAS) and object relative clauses (non-MAS), again indicated by whether the word was plural or not.

This study tracked eye movements and first-pass reading time: the time a reader spends in a region before leaving the region either to the left or right. They measured the amount of time the participant read the disambiguation auxiliary: the word at the end of the sentence solving the potential for ambiguity.

If semantic constraint has no effect (two stage model) the sentences which violate minimal attachment would lead to slower reading times due to them expecting a non-plural word at the end. If semantic constraint is always taken into account then they will have adjusted their expectations and will expect a plural word, therefore this will lead to to no differences in reading times. If semantic constraint is only taken into account when the constraint is strong, then only the sentence with an animate (occupant) subject will have a longer reading time.

Question 17

Describe the results of the study which attempted to correct for these limitations of the initial modular vs constraint based model

Answer 17

In the animate (weakly constrained) condition, the subject clause condition had a quicker reading time (230ms) than the object clause reading time (259ms)

In the inanimate (constrained) condition, the subject clause condition had about the same reading time (239ms) as the object clause reading time (243ms)

This provides evidence that animacy provides a strong semantic constraint. This semantic constraint overrules minimal attachment, therefore semantic information does have a direct effect on parsing. This gives evidence for the constraint based model.

Question 18

How can an ambiguous statement such as those used in the studies, be made unambiguous (no slow down)?

Answer 18

With constraints from wider discourse and pragmatic knowledge

Prosody (speech pattern) e.g when roger leaves the house: the prosodic pattern when this sentence is pronounced indicated that “the house” is not part of the VP for “leaves. For this reason most of these ambiguous sentences are only applicable in written form.

Question 19

Give an example of how constraints from a wider discourse and pragmatic knowledge can help

Answer 19

Example:
He proceeded to beat up the woman with the handbag
vs
When the fight broke out between the couple, the man had been bringing the woman the handbag. He proceeded to beat up the woman with the handbag
vs
He stood before a woman with a coat and a woman with a handbag and asked what colour the dress was. “Blue and black obviously”, responded the woman with the handbag. He proceeded to beat up the woman with the handbag

Question 20

Describe a study which investigated the role of prosody and parsing.

Answer 20

Silences were manipulated in a german study to indicate the parsing of a sentence (e.g promises to support anna/ promises anna to work.)

They then had participants read these two sentences out loud with the correct prosody and then they took half the first sentence (where Anna is promised something) and splices it with the second sentence (where Anna is part of the promise) so that there is no break where they would have been in the new spliced sentence. Therefore the stimuli looks like:
Peter verspricht [pause] Anna zu entlasten und das Buru zu putzen

Peter verspricht [no pause] Anna zu entlasten und das Buru zu putzen

Because the sentence is spliced, the syntactic and semantic content of B and C are identical, only the prosody is different.

Question 21

Describe the results of the study which investigated the role of prosody and parsing. Explain this

Answer 21

EEG measures were taken and ERPs were constructed. There was a huge difference in processing observed for the word “entlasten”, (N400 followed by a P600) presumably because the lack of a pause caused them to build up the grammatical structure of the sentence which this word then violated.

This indicates that the prosody of a sentence indicates a specific syntactic structure, people start constructing that syntactic structure. If subsequently, the sentence continues with a word that conflicts with the prosodically indicated syntactic path, that word evokes an increased N400, followed by a larger P600.

This gives further evidence for the constraint based model.

Question 22

In summary, what kind of constraints can influence parsing?

Answer 22

Semantic
Discourse/ pragmatic
Prosodic

Question 23

Contrast the constraint based model and the race-parsing model in their approach to the selection of grammatical structures?

Answer 23

In the interactive model, multiple syntactical structures are constructed at the same time; there is competition between structures. If a syntactic tree gets a lot of activation then it inhibits the other structures.

In race-based parsing: modular model, multiple syntactic structures are constructed at the same time. Each structure receives more activation as the input matches. One structure wins the ‘race’ however there is no competition between structures.

Both say that multiple structures are built in parallel however the race based model claims that there is no competition between structures while the constraint based model does.

Question 24

Describe a study which contrasted the constraint based model with the race-based model

Answer 24

The study manipulated sentences in which one structure can be generated vs sentences in which there are potential structures.

Example:
Structure- I read quite recently that the governor ‘retiring after the troubles’ in very rich vs
I read quite recently that the bodyguard of the governor ‘retiring after the troubles’ is very rich.

The processing speed was measured and assumed to reflect the extra time needed for deciding between the two possible grammatical structures.

Question 25

Describe the results of the study which contrasted the constraint based model with the race-based model

Answer 25

there was no difference in processing time (reading times) between one or two possible structures. This indicates no competition, and gives evidence for a race based model.

Question 26

Based on this collective data drawn, which model fits the data out of the three?

Answer 26

Not one model fits all the data: models are just an approximation of reality and a tool to understand the mind and generate testable hypotheses.