Review classQuiz 2

1. The boy found the ball.2. The boy found quickly.3. The boy found in the house.4. The boy found the ball in the house.5. Lisa slept the baby.6. Lisa slept soundly.

Sentences are not random strings of words. They must conform to specific patterns.

Grammaticality of sentences

What is the purpose of studying syntax? To investigate word order and sentence

structure.

To be able to consciously articulate our unconscious knowledge of English.

Why bother?

The knowledge of sentences and their structure.

Syntactic rules include:◦ The grammaticality of sentences◦ Word order◦ Hierarchical organization of sentences◦ Grammatical relations such as subject and

object◦ Whether different structures have different

meanings or the same meanings

What is syntax?

Grammaticality judgments do not depend on having heard the sentence before:

Enormous crickets in pink socks danced at the party.

Grammaticality judgments do not depend on meaning:

Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.

*Furiously sleep ideas green colorless

What grammaticality is not based on

Major word classes Nouns Verbs Adjectives Adverbs Sentence with only major word classes:

Word classes

Adjectives◦ Modify nouns

My favorite dog is hungry.

Adjectives can have a predicative function or an attributive function.

Major word classes

Adverbs Often considered the ‘garbage’ category

Unfortunately, some students drive very quickly and create extremely dangerous roads.

unfortunately: sentence adverb quickly: manner adverbs very: degree adverbs

Major word classes

Phrasal category Form Function

NP Headed by a noun Subject of sentence

VP Headed by a verb Predicate of sentence

Phrases

NP

det adj N

The friendly person

V

VP

det N

NP

asked a question

The man with the toupee shocked the woman at the bar.

Basic Constituents

Sentence (S)

Subject (NP) Predicate (VP)

The man with the toupee shocked the woman at the bar

Hierarchical constituent structure

Meaning (1)A big sale of stereos (2) a sale of big stereos

Big stereo sale Big stereo sale

Linear vs. Hierarchical structure

Determining and representing hierarchical structure

The tipsy man finished the drink in one minute det adj N V det N P det N

NPNP

NP

PP

S

NP

VP

Every NP has a grammatical relation to some other element in sentence.

NP: ‘the tipsy man’ relationship with ‘finished’= SUBJECT

NPs to left of verbs = subject (dominated by S) NP: ‘the drink’ = direct object NPs to right of verbs and dominated directly by

VP = direct object Other NP not related directly to verb but to

preposition (dominated directly by PP) = object of a preposition

Grammatical Relations of NPs

Test 1: “stand alone” test If a group can stand alone, they form a

constituent Set of word that can answer a question: What did you pass? “the Linguistics class” “passed the”

The student passed the Linguistics class.

Constituent tests

Test 2: “replacement by a pronoun” test◦ Pronouns can substitute for natural groups.

Pronoun that can answer a question:◦ When did you pass the Linguistic class?

“I passed it last trimester” Do can also substitute for the whole

predicate passed the Linguistics class. Som passed the Linguistics class and Boss

did too.

Constituent tests

Test 3: “move as a unit” test◦ If a group of words can be moved, they form a

constituent.

The student passed the Linguistics class It was the Linguistics class that the student

passed. The Linguistics class was passed by the

student.

Constituent tests

The professor said that the student passed the exam.

det N V C det N V det N

NP

VPNP

NP

S

CP

VP

S

1. S = NP + VP2. NP = Det + N3. VP = V + NP4. VP = V The woman laughed.5. VP = V + PP6. PP = P + NP7. VP = V + CP8. CP = C + S

Phrase structure rules

SemanticsThe meaning of language

Questions in Semantics Why does a certain set of words mean

something and a similar set mean something very different?

When do two different sentences mean the same thing?

How can one sentence mean more than one thing?

What is meaning?

Is a word’s meaning simply its dictionary definition? No! In our society, many people feel that the

dictionary definition of a word more accurately represents a word’s meaning than an individual speaker’s understanding of the word.

But descriptivists arrive at their definitions by studying the ways speakers of the language use different words.

The meaning of a word or expression is not just a definition composed of more words in the same language, since ultimately the meaning of some words would have to be known in order to understand the definitions.

Meaning is provided by a community of language speakers, not by some special authority like a dictionary or grammar book.

Concepts of determining meaning

Mental image Reference Sense

Concepts of determining meaning

Synonyms Antonyms Homonyms (homophones) Hyponyms

Lexical Relationships

These properties are overlapping:

MALE

ADULTPARENT

father

bachelor

mother

boy

woman

Semantic properties

Semantic Features and Syntax Incorrect “matching” of the semantic

features of different elements of a sentence can result in ungrammatical (but syntactically sound) sentences:

The man [-female] was pregnant [+female].I sawed [+solid] the water [-solid].

The ideas [-living] are sleeping [+living].

PragmaticsThe importance of context

is concerned with the interpretation of meaning in context.

2 contexts: Linguistic context (discourse) Situational context (anything non-linguistic)

Pragmatics…

What’s the concept of deixis?

Deixis

Cohesive devicesHolding texts together

Cohesion

Grammatical

Reference

Substitution Ellipsis

Lexical

Repetition

Synonyms

Superordinates

Cohesive devices

Reference Using referring

expressions to refer to referents in the context.

Commonly used reference: pronouns

Grammatical Cohesion

SubstitutionLittle boxes on the hillside,Little boxes made of ticky-tacky,Little boxes, little boxes,Little boxes, all the same.There’s a green one and a pink oneAnd a blue one and a yellow oneAnd they’re all made of ticky-tackyAnd they all just look the same.

(Reynolds, 1963)

Grammatical Cohesion

Substitution Similar function as pronouns Using a word to substitute for its referent Ellipsis Omitting words and phrases mentioned

earlier Purpose to avoid repetition Martin loves his wife, and so do I.

Grammatical Cohesion

Repetition Repeated words/phrases to exploit its

stylistic effect◦ “Little boxes”

Synonyms To avoid repetition another word with the

same meaning is used.

Lexical Cohesion

At 75 cm across and capable of cracking open a coconut with its claws, the land-dwelling coconut crab is your beach lounger’s worst nightmare. Fortunately for the sunbather, the world’s largest terrestrial arthropod has been confined to tropical islands across the Pacific and Indian oceans only.

(adapted from Cutting, 2002)

Quick Exercise: find the synonyms

Superordinates Similar to hyponomy

The great white shark can grow up to 8m long. It is one of the more dangerous predators in the sea.

Lexical Cohesion