Introduction and Foundations
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Introduction and Foundations Ling 322 Read Syntax, Ch. 1 (Lecture notes based on Andrew Carnie’s notes) 1
Transcript of Introduction and Foundations
1
What is Syntax?
• A sentence is not just string of words. It has a structure (=syntax).
• Syntax is a scientific study of sentence structures.
• Syntax is a subdiscipline of cognitive science, a study of the human being’s ability to think.
• The goal of syntactic theory is to model the psychological (or cognitive) organization of sentence structure in the mind.
2
What is a Sentence?
• A hierarchically organized structure of words that maps sound to meaning and vice versa.
Sentence
• It uses scientific method.
Make some generalizations
Develop a hypothesis
Observation:
(2) a. Peter believes that John likes Mary.
b. Who does Peter believe that John likes?
(3) a. Peter believes that Sue said that John likes Mary.
b.
Observation:
5
(4) a. Bill believes the rumor that John likes Mary.
b.
(5) a. John liked the movie that he saw yesterday.
b.
(6) a. John will wake you up if Mary calls.
b.
d.
Observation:
6
• Trial 4:
(7) a. Peter wonders who fixed the bike with a wrench.
b.
(8) a. Peter wonders who fixed the bike with a wrench.
b.
Observation:
7
b.
b.
b.
Observation:
8
• We will encode our hypotheses about sentence structure using rules.
• Prescriptive vs. descriptive rules: Which is more scientific?
Prescriptive rules prescribe how we should speak.
Descriptive rules describe how we actually speak.
• The rules we will use are said to generate the sentences of the languages we are looking at. They are sentence-building rules.
• A group of rules is called a Grammar.
A grammar in the linguistic sense is a cognitive structure. It is the part of the mind that generates and understands language.
• The kind of grammar we are looking at is called Generative Grammar, a group of rules that generate the sentences of a language.
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– Telephone recordings
– How do you know this is ungrammatical?
– Have you ever heard this sentence before?
– Will the fact that this sentence is ungrammatical appear in any corpus?
• In order to get at what we know about our languages, we have to know what sentences are not well-formed.
Corpora are not sufficient. They don’t contain negative information, and can never contain all the possible sentences of a language.
10
Source of Data (cont.)
• We have to rely on our mental knowledge (competence) of our native language, or on the knowledge of a native speaker for languages that we don’t speak natively. We need to access and describe this subconscious knowledge.
• Performance vs. Competence
Competence: what speakers know about language
We will be interested in both of these, but will focus primarily on Competence.
• How do we get at the competence of a native speaker?
Through a special psychological experiment called Grammaticality (Acceptability) Judgment Task.
11
Grammaticality Judgment Task
• Ask a native speaker to read a sentence, and judge whether it is well-formed (grammatical, acceptable), marginally well-formed, or ill-formed (ungrammatical, unacceptable).
• We have to be careful in teasing apart syntactic ill-formedness (grammaticality) from semantic ill-formedness or processing difficulty.
(12) Ungrammatical a. * John put the book on. b. * Mary ate often the potato.
(13) Grammatical but doesn’t make sense
a. # Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.
b. # I plan to travel there last year.
(14) Grammatical but difficult to process
a. The mouse [that the cat chased] escaped.
b. The mouse [that the cat [that the dog scared] chased] escaped.
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• Grammaticality is always determined with respect to an interpretation.
(15) Sue Tom hired. Grammatical under OSV interpretation Ungrammatical under SOV interpretation
(16) Johni talked to him∗i/k. Grammatical if himk
Ungrammatical if himi
• Learning involves conscious gaining of knowledge.
Reading and writing are learned.
• Acquisition involves subconscious gaining of knowledge.
The ability to visually identify discrete objects are acquired.
Language is acquired.
• Are we instructed by our parents?
Parents tend to correct content, not form. (from Marcus et al. 1992)
(17) ADULT: Where is that big piece of paper I gave you yesterday? CHILD: Remember? I writed on it. ADULT: Oh that’s right, don’t you have any paper down here, buddy?
Children do not know what they are doing wrong, and are unable to make corrections when pointed out. (from Pinker 1994, pp. 281)
(18) CHILD: Want other one spoon, Daddy. FATHER: You mean, you want “the other spoon”. CHILD: Yes, I want other one spoon, please, Daddy. FATHER: Can you say “the other spoon?” CHILD: Other...one...spoon. FATHER: Say... “other”. CHILD: Other. FATHER: Spoon. CHILD: Spoon. FATHER: Other...spoon. CHILD: Other...spoon. Now give me other one spoon?
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• Do we mimic our parents?
Children know things about language that they could not have been taught.
(19) Yes-no question formation a. A unicorn is in the garden ⇒ Is a unicorn in the garden? b. [A unicorn that is eating a flower] is in the garden ⇒ Is a unicorn
that is eating a flower in the garden? c. [A unicorn that is eating a flower] is in the garden ⇒ *Is a unicorn
that eating a flower is in the garden?
Children sometimes say things that their parents could not ever have uttered.
(20) Overgeneralization a. When she be’s in the kindergarten .... b. She do’s what her mother tells her.
Language is infinite. We produce sentences we’ve never heard before.
QUESTION: What property of grammar is most responsible for this?
16
• Language is an instinct, just like walking is.
The ability of humans to acquire and use language is innate, built-in, and hard-wired in our genes.
(A proposal by Noam Chomsky that revolutionized modern linguistics)
• A particular language is not innate, but the basic building blocks that any given language uses are built in.
=⇒ Universal Grammar (UG)
• Logic behind Innateness Hypothesis
Premise 1: It is impossible to learn the rules governing a system until you have ALL the data.
Premise 2: Language is infinite and creative. You can never hear all the relevant data.
Conclusion: Language should be unlearnable, which is contrary to fact. Therefore, the basic building blocks of language cannot be learned or acquired. Instead they must be innate (an instinct).
17
• Distinct area of the brain linked to specific linguistic functions
• Crosslinguistic similarities in language acquisition (despite cultural differences)
• Language Universals
18
Variations across languages?
Principles and Parameters: UG principles provide an algorithm for acquiring a particular grammar of any language. But they can be instantiated differently across languages, through different parameter settings.
• Null-subject parameter
b. Korean
b. Korean Mary-ka
b. Korean John-i
20
• To identify the innate principles that govern sentence structure (UG Principles).
• To characterize the different ways in which languages implement these innate principles (Parameter settings).
• We will do this by formulating grammars (a set of syntactic rules) that meet the following criteria.
– Observational adequacy: to account for all the observed (corpus/performance) data.
– Descriptive adequacy: to account for all observed data and all acceptability judgments (competence).
– Explanatory adequacy: to account for all observed data, acceptability judgments, and also explain how the system arose (language acquisition).
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What is Syntax?
• A sentence is not just string of words. It has a structure (=syntax).
• Syntax is a scientific study of sentence structures.
• Syntax is a subdiscipline of cognitive science, a study of the human being’s ability to think.
• The goal of syntactic theory is to model the psychological (or cognitive) organization of sentence structure in the mind.
2
What is a Sentence?
• A hierarchically organized structure of words that maps sound to meaning and vice versa.
Sentence
• It uses scientific method.
Make some generalizations
Develop a hypothesis
Observation:
(2) a. Peter believes that John likes Mary.
b. Who does Peter believe that John likes?
(3) a. Peter believes that Sue said that John likes Mary.
b.
Observation:
5
(4) a. Bill believes the rumor that John likes Mary.
b.
(5) a. John liked the movie that he saw yesterday.
b.
(6) a. John will wake you up if Mary calls.
b.
d.
Observation:
6
• Trial 4:
(7) a. Peter wonders who fixed the bike with a wrench.
b.
(8) a. Peter wonders who fixed the bike with a wrench.
b.
Observation:
7
b.
b.
b.
Observation:
8
• We will encode our hypotheses about sentence structure using rules.
• Prescriptive vs. descriptive rules: Which is more scientific?
Prescriptive rules prescribe how we should speak.
Descriptive rules describe how we actually speak.
• The rules we will use are said to generate the sentences of the languages we are looking at. They are sentence-building rules.
• A group of rules is called a Grammar.
A grammar in the linguistic sense is a cognitive structure. It is the part of the mind that generates and understands language.
• The kind of grammar we are looking at is called Generative Grammar, a group of rules that generate the sentences of a language.
9
– Telephone recordings
– How do you know this is ungrammatical?
– Have you ever heard this sentence before?
– Will the fact that this sentence is ungrammatical appear in any corpus?
• In order to get at what we know about our languages, we have to know what sentences are not well-formed.
Corpora are not sufficient. They don’t contain negative information, and can never contain all the possible sentences of a language.
10
Source of Data (cont.)
• We have to rely on our mental knowledge (competence) of our native language, or on the knowledge of a native speaker for languages that we don’t speak natively. We need to access and describe this subconscious knowledge.
• Performance vs. Competence
Competence: what speakers know about language
We will be interested in both of these, but will focus primarily on Competence.
• How do we get at the competence of a native speaker?
Through a special psychological experiment called Grammaticality (Acceptability) Judgment Task.
11
Grammaticality Judgment Task
• Ask a native speaker to read a sentence, and judge whether it is well-formed (grammatical, acceptable), marginally well-formed, or ill-formed (ungrammatical, unacceptable).
• We have to be careful in teasing apart syntactic ill-formedness (grammaticality) from semantic ill-formedness or processing difficulty.
(12) Ungrammatical a. * John put the book on. b. * Mary ate often the potato.
(13) Grammatical but doesn’t make sense
a. # Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.
b. # I plan to travel there last year.
(14) Grammatical but difficult to process
a. The mouse [that the cat chased] escaped.
b. The mouse [that the cat [that the dog scared] chased] escaped.
12
• Grammaticality is always determined with respect to an interpretation.
(15) Sue Tom hired. Grammatical under OSV interpretation Ungrammatical under SOV interpretation
(16) Johni talked to him∗i/k. Grammatical if himk
Ungrammatical if himi
• Learning involves conscious gaining of knowledge.
Reading and writing are learned.
• Acquisition involves subconscious gaining of knowledge.
The ability to visually identify discrete objects are acquired.
Language is acquired.
• Are we instructed by our parents?
Parents tend to correct content, not form. (from Marcus et al. 1992)
(17) ADULT: Where is that big piece of paper I gave you yesterday? CHILD: Remember? I writed on it. ADULT: Oh that’s right, don’t you have any paper down here, buddy?
Children do not know what they are doing wrong, and are unable to make corrections when pointed out. (from Pinker 1994, pp. 281)
(18) CHILD: Want other one spoon, Daddy. FATHER: You mean, you want “the other spoon”. CHILD: Yes, I want other one spoon, please, Daddy. FATHER: Can you say “the other spoon?” CHILD: Other...one...spoon. FATHER: Say... “other”. CHILD: Other. FATHER: Spoon. CHILD: Spoon. FATHER: Other...spoon. CHILD: Other...spoon. Now give me other one spoon?
15
• Do we mimic our parents?
Children know things about language that they could not have been taught.
(19) Yes-no question formation a. A unicorn is in the garden ⇒ Is a unicorn in the garden? b. [A unicorn that is eating a flower] is in the garden ⇒ Is a unicorn
that is eating a flower in the garden? c. [A unicorn that is eating a flower] is in the garden ⇒ *Is a unicorn
that eating a flower is in the garden?
Children sometimes say things that their parents could not ever have uttered.
(20) Overgeneralization a. When she be’s in the kindergarten .... b. She do’s what her mother tells her.
Language is infinite. We produce sentences we’ve never heard before.
QUESTION: What property of grammar is most responsible for this?
16
• Language is an instinct, just like walking is.
The ability of humans to acquire and use language is innate, built-in, and hard-wired in our genes.
(A proposal by Noam Chomsky that revolutionized modern linguistics)
• A particular language is not innate, but the basic building blocks that any given language uses are built in.
=⇒ Universal Grammar (UG)
• Logic behind Innateness Hypothesis
Premise 1: It is impossible to learn the rules governing a system until you have ALL the data.
Premise 2: Language is infinite and creative. You can never hear all the relevant data.
Conclusion: Language should be unlearnable, which is contrary to fact. Therefore, the basic building blocks of language cannot be learned or acquired. Instead they must be innate (an instinct).
17
• Distinct area of the brain linked to specific linguistic functions
• Crosslinguistic similarities in language acquisition (despite cultural differences)
• Language Universals
18
Variations across languages?
Principles and Parameters: UG principles provide an algorithm for acquiring a particular grammar of any language. But they can be instantiated differently across languages, through different parameter settings.
• Null-subject parameter
b. Korean
b. Korean Mary-ka
b. Korean John-i
20
• To identify the innate principles that govern sentence structure (UG Principles).
• To characterize the different ways in which languages implement these innate principles (Parameter settings).
• We will do this by formulating grammars (a set of syntactic rules) that meet the following criteria.
– Observational adequacy: to account for all the observed (corpus/performance) data.
– Descriptive adequacy: to account for all observed data and all acceptability judgments (competence).
– Explanatory adequacy: to account for all observed data, acceptability judgments, and also explain how the system arose (language acquisition).
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