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Syntax&Morphology

Whatissyntax?

•  Syntax:combiningwordsinasystemaAc,[seemingly]rule-governedfashion

•  Itallowsyoutocommunicateaboutevents,notjustsinglethings

Whatissyntax?•  Conveyingevents:LionAgereatfightfood(jumbleofwords)

–  ThelionandAgerfoughtoverfood(??)–  ThelionandAgerfought,andthenthelionatetheAger(??)–  ThelionatetheAgerandthenfoughtforfood(??)

•  SomeAmesthisisenoughtotellwhat’sgoingon…•  ButoTenyouneedsomethingtotellyouwhatrolesthese

elementshavewithrespecttoeachother!•  Syntax:wordorderconveysthisinformaAon

–  Thefarmerlooksatthegirl≠Thegirllooksatthefarmer•  Morphology:affixesconveythisinformaAon

–  E.gcasemarkingsonnouns–  Agricolapuellamspectat=puellamagricolaspectat–  Agricolapuellamspectat≠agricolampuellaspectat–  Butevenifyourlangcanuseaffixes,thereissAllatypicalwordorder

Moreonmorphology

•  Inflec3onalmorphology–  Change(inflect)meaningslightly,like“inflectforcase”–  Pluralize(cat+s)–  Verbmeaning(cry+ing)–  Nouncase(puell-+am,cat+‘s)–agent,paAent,possessor…

•  Deriva3onalmorphology–  Changethepartofspeech(V,N,Adj)—”deriveanewword”–  “Torock”-->rocker(VtoN)–  “Rocker”-->rockery(NtoAdj)

Syntax

•  OTenthoughtofasasystemofrulesforcombiningwords

•  BigplayingfieldfornaAvismvs.empiricism– Chomsky,others:maybegrammarispartlybuiltin– Empiricist:maybeyoulearngrammarfromtheinput(andalso,themoreimportantthingislearningtocommunicate)

NaAvismvs.empiricism•  NaAvistviewsofsyntax•  Chomsky,e.g.•  Allhumanlanguageexplainedbyset

ofrules•  Thoserulesuniquetolanguage(and

humans)–  Visualsystemdoesn’tworklike

language•  Languageismodular

–  Dedicatedbrainregions–  OthercogniAvefactorscan’ttouch

•  Empiricistviewsofsyntax•  Syntaxisoneofseveralpiecesof

informaAonthatpeopleusetofigureoutwhatsomeoneistryingtocommunicate

•  OthercogniAvefactorsinteractwithsyntaxinrealAme–  WhatyouknowaboutparAcular

words–  Theworldaroundyou–  Whatyouknowaboutthe

persontalking

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Chomsky:AparAallist•  SyntacCcStructures.TheHague:Mouton,1957.•  AspectsoftheTheoryofSyntax.Cambridge:TheMITPress,1965.•  RulesandRepresentaCons.NewYork:ColumbiaUniversityPressand

Oxford:BasilBlackwellPublisher,1980.•  LecturesonGovernmentandBinding:ThePisaLectures.Holland:Foris

PublicaAons,1981.•  TheMinimalistProgram.Cambridge,MA:TheMITPress,1995.

EvoluAonofdevelopmentalsyntax

•  Chomsky(1957etc.)•  Languageisasetofrules:universalgrammar–  withparameterseNngsvaryingbylanguage

•  Capturedcomplexityoflanguagebehavior•  Suggestedthatpeoplearespeciallyequippedtoacquirelanguage

•  SentpsycholinguistsonaquesttofindoutwhenvarioussyntacAcrulesacquired–  CanuseittodescribesyntaxwithoutthinkingnaAvismiscorrect–  (Don’thavetousethisasadescripAvesystem)

StructureofGBBasicdata:JohnlovesMary.DoesJohnloveMary?MaryislovedbyJohn.

d-structure

s-structure

TransformaAonalrules

Phrasestructurerules

S->NPVP

NP->DetNNP->N

VP->VVP->VNPVP->VCompP

CompP->CompS

Lexicon(words,arguments)

*argumentvs.adjunct

PhoneAcform Logicalform(meaning)

cogniAon

AssignsemanAcroles

Someexamples

S->NPVP

NP->DetNNP->N

VP->VVP->VNPVP->VCompP

CompP->CompS

Thefarmerlovesthegirl.

Thegirlwilllovethefarmer.

Thefarmergaveheraflower.

Thegirlhopesthatthefarmerwillgoaway.

StudyingsyntaxacquisiAon

•  Whatdoyouthinkthekidsarelearning?–  Chomskiangrammar?–  AssociaAons?

•  DowestudyproducAonorcomprehension?–  Bestapproach:–  NaturalisAcobservaAonAND–  Controlledlaboratorystudies

NaturalisAcobservaAon

•  Doyourown•  Useonethatalreadyexists– CHILDESdataarchive•  Adam,Eve,Sarah;andmanymanyothers

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CharacterizingproducAon

•  Brown(1973):MeanLengthofU?erance(MLU)•  Howmanymorphemesdoeskidproduceperspeechevent?

•  Examples–  Squeezekixy=2morphemes–  Squeezingkiyes=4morphemes– MustshowevidenceofproducCvity

•  Childsays:Misterrogers•  ArethereotherMisters?“Mistersmith”thenMister+rogers=2•  NootherMisters:Misterrogers=1

CharacterizingproducAon

•  Brown(1973):MeanLengthofU?erance(MLU)

•  Stages

CharacterizingproducAon

•  Brown(1973):MeanLengthofU?erance(MLU)

•  Stages–  I:MLUbetween1and2–  II:2-2.5–  III:2.5-3–  IV:3-3.5– V:3.5-4–  [toocomplicated]

SomeAmes,“two-word”stage

ProblemswithMLU:Doesn’tworkpast~4morphemesVerysyntheAc*languages

Alterna3ve:Scarborough’sIndexofProducAveSyntax(IPSyn)Workstoolderage

StageIproducAon•  “Telegraphicspeech”

–  Sortofliketxtmsg•  Noveluxerances

–  Notexactmimicofadultform•  Builtaroundschemas(alixleliketemplates,butforsyntax)

–  Fixedorder,butonewordchanges(“GimmeX”)•  Moreopen-classthanclosed-class*

–  C-csoonerinmoremorphologicallycomplexlanguages•  Smallrangeof“semanAcrelaAons”(Bloom,1970)•  Braine(1976):“limited-scopeformulae”

Anaside…

•  Openclass(aka“contentwords”)– Nouns,verbs,adjecAves,adverbs– Typesofwordsthatare“open”tointroducAonofnewwords

•  Closedclass(aka“funcAonwords”)– ArAcles,preposiAons,auxiliaryverbs(was/were)– Typesofwordsthatare“closed”tointroducAonofnewmembers(when’sthelastAmeyoulearnedapreposiAon?Apronoun?)

StageIproducAon

•  Bloom’ssemanAcrelaAons–  Agent+acAon–  AcAon+object–  Agent+object–  AcAon+locaAon–  EnAty+locaAon–  Possessor+possession–  EnAty+axribute–  DemonstraAve+enAty

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StageIproducAon•  Brown’sfirst14morphemes

–  -ing–  PreposiAons(in,on)–  Plural-s–  Irregularpasttense(likewent)–  Possessive‘s–  …

•  Why?–  Notfrequencyinkids’input–  Complexity,bothsyntacAcandsemanAc

•  Numberofmeanings•  Numberofrulesrequired

StageIproducAon

•  HowproducAveisaparAcularmorpheme?•  SomearAclesusedw/parAcularwords•  Cankidsgeneralizetheuseofamorpheme?•  Berko’s(1958)wugtest–  “Thisisawug.Thesearetwo____.”[plurals]–  “Thismanlikestorick.Heis______.”[prog.ing]

•  OverregularizaAon(blowedup,mouses)–  Extendmorphemetounheardcontexts

•  OverregularizaAonevidentinmanylanguages•  TheGreatIrregularVerbDebate

Irregularverbs

•  Isoverregulariza3onevidencefortheprimacyofrulelearning?(vs.staAsAcs-tracking?)

•  Ullman‘01,Pinker:yes–  Ullman’s“declaraAve-proceduralmodel”

•  Regulars:formbyrule(walk+-ed,don’tstorewalked)•  Irregulars:muststorepasttenseindividually(run&ran)

•  Rumelhart&McClelland‘86:no*–  connecAonistmodel(basiclearningmodel)canlearnbothrulesandirregularsfrominput

–  noneedtopostulateseparatemechanisms

*GoUCSD!

Stage1comprehension

•  Hirsh-Pasek&Golinkoff,1993•  Twomoviesplaying–  BigBirdisAcklingCookieMonster–  CookieMonsterisAcklingBigBird

•  Hear“B.B.isAcklingC.M.!”•  Kidsofage17moslookatcorrectpicture–  Canusewordordertodetermineroles–  Beforetheybegin2-wordspeech!

(YetanotherinstanceofcomprehensionprecedingproducCon!)

Followingstages

•  StageII:grammaAcalmorphemesstartappearing

•  Laterstages:varioustypesofsentences(sentencemodali3es)– Beforethis,kidsuseintonaAonto(e.g.)indicatequesAons•  “ThathurtMommy’sfeelings?”•  Later,“DidthathurtMommy’sfeelings?”

Newerapproaches

•  Kids(2-3years)arebexeratreproducingmulA-wordphrasesiftheyarehigh-probability(Bannard&Maxhews,2008)– Sitinyourchair(frequent)– Sitinyourtruck(less-frequent)*

•  Verysimilartobexermemoryofdollandballthanofdihandbih

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SentencemodaliAes

•  NegaAves•  Single-clausequesAons•  NegaAvequesAons•  Long-distancequesAons

•  ResearchershavefocusedonwhenkidsachieveadultlikegrammarintheseconstrucCons,notjustbeingabletocommunicatetheunderlyingidea.

NegaAves•  Childsays“nosock”or“noIeat.”Whatdotheymean?

•  Bellugi’s(1967)3periodsofnegaAvedevelopment–  Marker“no”outsideclause–  Then,insidesentencebutnoaux.verbs–  Finally(≈StageV)differentaux’s--adult!

•  Bloomcharacterizedfirststagedifferently–  Firststage--subjectless,sonegaAveplacedokay–  Whennotsubjectless,‘no’wasanaphoric*(referredtopreceding

material)•  DeVilliers&DeVilliers:earlyon,bothsentenceandinternal

–  No+sentence=rejecAon;no+predicate=denial–  Probablymodeledonparents

QuesAons•  Yes/noquesAon(requiresy/nanswer)–  Rulerequired:subject-auxiliaryinversion–  Didyouenjoyclasstoday?– Wasthatayummyworm?– MasterystartsaroundStageIII--onerule

•  Wh-quesAons(whowhatwhen…)–  Rulerequired:subject-auxiliaryinversionANDwh-movement–  Acquirelaterthany/nbecausemorerules?No—suggesAngthat“numberofrules”isnottherelevantfactor

– Mostfrequenterror:“non-inversionerror”•  *Whosheisfriendswith?

–  Someevidencethatcertainwh-wordscomeearlier(What)•  Whichisinconsistentwithlearningarule

Passives•  DevelopprexylateinEnglish•  Themanbitthedogsameas•  Thedogwasbi?enbytheman•  Samed-structure•  Butifyou’rejustusingwordorder,oops!•  Bever(1970):2-4-y-o’sactout

–  Reversiblepassives(Thedogwasbixenbythecat)•  InterpretasacAves

–  Irreversiblepassives(Therockwasthrownbytheman)•  CanusesemanAcssodookay

•  Acquirepassivearound4-5forac#onalverbs•  Forpsychologicalverbs(see,think)evenlater

Sentenceprocessingintherealworld

“Gardenpath”effects

•  Thehorseracedpastthebarnfell.•  (Theplaneflownpastthetowercrashed.)

•  ThecoxonshirtsaremadefromcomesfromArizona.

SomeCmesyoumakethewrongsyntacCcinterpretaConandgetstuckthere.

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Axachmentambiguity

•  Posterwarnsofthedangersofcrystalmethonthesideofaphonebooth.

•  TheofficerhitthethiefwiththesAck.•  Theofficerhitthethiefwiththescar.

Couldinterpretintwodifferentways--2syntac#cstructures!

Sentenceprocessing

“Puttheappleonthetowelinthebox.”

DesAnaAon? DesAnaAon

Tanenhausetal.,1995,Science

Sentenceprocessing

“Puttheappleonthetowelinthebox.”

HowoMendotheylookatwrongdesAnaAon?DoestherealworldinfluencesyntacAcinterpretaAon?

Scene1 Scene2

Realworldinfo

Tanenhausetal.,1995,Science

Onlyoneapple Twopossibleapples

Adultsknowyouhavetospecifywhichapple

Sentenceprocessing

•  Realworldinfo(visualscene)influencessyntacAcinterpretaAon!

•  Languagedevelopment– Dokidsdowhatadultsdo?–  Ifnot,why?

Kids,towels,apples

“Puttheappleonthetowelinthebox.”

Scene1 Scene2

Realworldinfo

Trueswelletal.1999,The“kindergarten-patheffect”

desAnaAon

Onlyoneapple Twopossibleapples

Thishasbeenlinkedtocogni3vecontroldifficulty

seeninchildren.

Weirdthingskidsdo

COLORSHAPE

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Weirdthingskidsdo

•  AffecAveprosody(Morton&Trehub01)– “Mydogranawayfromhome!”:-D– “Igoticecreamforbeinggood.”:`-(

•  BiasedtoaxendtolinguisAcinfounAlage7+(gradualdecline)

Weirdthingskidsdo

•  PayaxenAontoonedimensionandignoreanothercompletely

•  “CogniAvecontrol”

SyntacAcprocessing

•  Affectedby– Real-worldinformaAon– CogniAvedevelopmentalstage

•  Notverymodular!

Syntax=construcAngeventrepresentaAons

Syntax=construc3ngeventrepresenta3ons

•  Borovskyetal.,2012:Thepiratewillholdthesword

•  WordsgetintegratedintoeventrepresentaCon•  Borovsky&Creel,2014:– PIRATE:Iwanttoholdthesword!

•  VoiceinformaCongetsintegratedintoeventrepresentaCon