Syntax Flashcards
What is syntax
the study of how we combine words to form sentences
tacit knowledge
things we know about our language that we were never taught
learning vs. acquisition
acquisition- unconscious knowledge
learning- conscious knowledge
Noam Chomsky
language is an instinct
Universal Grammar
the innate human facility for language
i-language
the cognitive system that allows humans to speak (internal)
e-language
particular instantiations of the ability to speak (external)
do we study i-language or e-language?
we use e-language to study the properties of i-language
Corpora
A large, structured set of texts
Limitations of corpora
can be ungrammatical, rare sentences
grammaticality judgments
a mini psychological experiment performer with a native speaker of the language you are studying
theory of syntax
should generate all of the grammatical sentences of a language and make falsifiable predictions
generative grammar
theory of syntax developed by Noam Chomsky: sentences are generated by an unconscious set of procedures (part of our cognitive abilities)
Grammatical vs. Meaningful
a sentence can be grammatical without being meaningful
Prescriptive vs. Descriptive
prescriptive: how people should speak
descriptive: how people do speak
Competence vs. Performance
competence: what we say in a perfect world (i-language)
performative: what we actually do say (e-language)
Syntactic Distribution
Where the word can appear with respect to other words
Morphological Distribution
What affixes can appear on the word
Lexical Category
expresses the content of the sentence, easy to add new words to this category
Functional Category
Grammatical information of the sentence, hard to add new words to this category
Lexical categories examples
nouns verbs adjectives prepositions adverbs
Functional categories examples
determiner degree word auxiliary conjunction complementizer
Preposition
expressing a relation to another word or element in the clause, as in “the man on the platform,”
Determiner
a modifying word that determines the kind of reference a noun or noun group has, for example: a, the, every.
Degree word
words with meanings like ‘very’, ‘more’, or ‘a little’ that modifies the adjective to indicate the degree
Auxiliary
a helping element, typically a verb, that adds meaning to the basic meaning of the main verb in a clause. Auxiliaries can convey information about tense, mood, person, and number.
Conjunction
Conjunctions are linguistic elements that link two or more words, phrases, clauses, or sentences within a larger unit And As Because But For Just as Or Neither Nor Not only So Whether Yet
Complementizer
Mark an embedded clause as functioning as a complement
ex. that
*
a sentence is judged as ungrammatical by speakers
%
a sentence is judged as ungrammatical to some speakers, but grammatical to others
Constituents
Groups of words that form units
Sentences
Words are organized into hierarchical units
Noun Phrases
Groups of constituents that act as nouns
Verb Phrases
Groups of constituents that act like verbs
Tense Phrases
All sentences must have a tense specification in English
Constituency Tests
Substitution
Fragment/ stand-alone
Movement
Substitution Test
Some constituents can be replaced or substituted by other words without radically changing the meaning
Fragment/Stand Alone
If words can stand alone in response to a question, they are probably a constituent
Movement
Some constituents can move as units to another place in the sentence
Clefting
it was… that
Preposing/ Psuedo-clefting
is/ are what/ where/ who
Coordination
Sticking phrases together with a conjunction
Heads
The obligatory nucleus of a phrase that determines the category of the phrase
Complements
The phrase the head combines with
Subcategorization
The selection of the head a phrase combines with
Where do complements appear in English
To the right of their head
Verb heads select ___
NPs
Noun heads select ___
PPs
Preposition heads select ___
NPs
Adjective heads select ___
PPs
X-Bar Theory
Developed by Noam Chomsky. Noticed that all our phrases seem to have the same basic structure even though the categories differ.
Specifiers
Daughters of XP represented by N’
Where do specifiers appear in English
To the left of their head
Determiners are the specifiers of ___
NPs
X-Bar Schema
- The head is the (obligatory) nucleus of the phrase
- The head may select a complement to merge with—complements are always phrases (XPs)
- The category of the head is “projected” to the next node, here an intermediate projection, X’
- A specifier may merge; the category of the head continues to be projected
Adjuncts
Optional iterative elements which can modify our phrases
T OR F: we can keep merging adjuncts without changing the category
true
Structural ambiguities
Sentences with ambiguity have different structures. each meaning corresponds to a different structure, which can be represented with trees
Dominates
above another node
Directly dominates
directly above a given node
Sisters
nodes beside each other
Mother
directly above another “daughter node”
Principle of Modification
If a YP modifies some head X, then YP must be a sister to X or to a projection of X (X’)
Endocentricity
The category of the head projects up to the phrase
T OR F: all our phrases are endocentric
true
CPs and recursion
With the structures we have developed, we have the power to generate an infinite number of grammatical sentences
Deictic Words
Meaning is different based on the time, place, or situation in which a speaker is speaking
Tests for complements vs. adjuncts
Obligation test, stacking, coordination, do so replacement test, one-replacement test, ordering test
Obligation test
If it’s obligatory it’s a complement. If it’s optional, it’s not necessarily an adjunct
Stacking
Adjuncts can be stacked, but not complements
Coordination
Complements can usually be coordinated with complements, adjuncts can usually be coordinated with adjuncts
Do so replacement test
Do so must replace the verb and all of its complements
Ordering Test
The order of complements is fixed. The order of adjuncts with respect to each other is free.
The structure of adjuncts
Adjuncts are merged above the complement and appear outside of it
Ordering of complements and adjuncts
Complements must be ordered before adjuncts. We can keep merging adjuncts without changing the category. they can also be reordered with respect to each other
Two levels of representation
Deep structure & surface structure
Deep structure
Core semantic relations of a sentence
Surface structure
actual pronunciation
Theta roles
the number and type of noun phrases required syntactically by a particular verb
Agent theta role
The entity that intentionally carries out the action of the verb
Experiencer theta role
The entity that undergoes an emotion, a state of being, or a perception expressed by the verb
Theme theta role
The entity that directly receives the action of the verb
