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Linguistics 001 Syntax Linguistics Structures Syntax I 2009 Plagiarism at Harvard Last year, a Harvard student accused of plagiarism of a teen novel Sabrina was the brainy Angel Yet another example of how every girl had to be one or the other Pretty or smart Moneypenny was the brainy female character Yet another example of how every girl had to be one or the other Smart or pretty The infinity of syntax gives a strong hint Infinity of syntax Try typing in Google (in quotes) the first one, two, th.
Linguistics: Structures Syntax I 2009 Plagiarism at Harvard • Last year, a Harvard student accused of plagiarism of a teen novel – Sabrina was the brainy Angel Yet another example of how every girl had to be one or the other: Pretty or smart – Moneypenny was the brainy female character Yet another example of how every girl had to be one or the other: Smart or pretty • The infinity of syntax gives a strong hint Infinity of syntax • Try typing in Google (in quotes) the first one, two, three, four … words in today’s paper – A movement hopes to save from demolition hundreds of buildings built by the Works Progress Administration (from NYTimes.com) • Virtually every sentence you hear is new! Syntax: Combinatorics • Source of infinity: “infinite use of finite means” – Syntax as compression (ZIP files) – Recursion • Source of structures – Phrases, constituents, ambiguity – Cf Features, consonants, vowels, onsets, syllables, words, morphemes, … Words and Categories • Syntax is putting words together? – “The cat meows” – “The dog barks” – Cannot memorize all the word combinations (see Google search) • Different combinations of words but same combinations of different words – “Article Noun Verb” – Structures again… Structure Review • As we saw in our discussion of phonology and morphology, the structure is crucially involved in the function un lock able /k/ /ae/ /t/ What kind of structures • AB, ABAB, ABABAB, ABABABAB … • AB, AABB, AAABBB, AAAABBBB … • Which group of patterns is more complex? • Cognitive science was pretty much launched by this kind of studies! (AB as linguistic units) (AB)n vs AnBn: syntax is not flat Syntax • Structure is critical in syntax; we will examine two major points this week – The notion of phrase; why some sequences of words “go together” more than others? – Movement (Wed): how we understand the object of the verb in the following sentences: John ate several apples What did John eat _? Structure of Questions • At a first glance, question formation in English appears to involve a rule like ‘move the auxiliary to the front of the sentence’: The cat is on the balcony Is the cat on the balcony? When in doubt … • • • • Vertigo(NP) The third man (NP) Kill Bill (VP) On golden pond (PP) Bend it like Beckham (VP) Mr Smith goes to Washington (S(entence)) • One flew over (*PP) • When Harry met (*VP) • It’s a wonderful (*NP) Even toddlers know that! for cookies all gone that truck like sleeping Possible truncations The warm milk is for cookies The apple juice is all gone This one is crappy I want that truck Kitties like sleeping Impossible truncations cookies for gone all truck that sleeping like Cookie Monster has cookies for supp Daddy’s gone all the time I don’t want a truck that small You are sleeping like a pig Secrets of baby talk The milk [is [for cookies]] The juice [is [all gone]] I [want [that truck]] Kitties [like sleeping] Cookie Monster [has cookies [for supper]] (why can’t I?) Daddy’s [gone [all the time]] I don’t want [a truck [that small]] You are [sleeping [like a pig] Tests for adults • The organization of words and phrases into larger units involves the notion of constituent (a unit) • There are reasons for grouping some units together but not others – Let’s look at some of these reasons Test 1: Substitution • The substitution test can be used for other cases as well; take the prepositional phrases: • Ok: – He put it on the table – He put it there • Not Ok: – He put it on the table that’s by the door – *He put it there that’s by the door • The PP in the second example is [on the table that’s by the door] Thus there cannot be substituted for the subpart on the table Test 2: Movement • In the next lecture we will look at movement in detail For right now, note that movement is another way of diagnosing constituent structure: • Ok: – I like these apples – These apples, I like • Not Ok: – I like the apples that John bought – *The apples I like that John bought • Ok: – The apples that John bought, I like Putting it together • To this point, we have concentrated on establishing that words are assembled into phrases • Larger units like clauses and sentences involve hierarchical structures as well • They involve the arrangement of these phrases with respect to one another A simple sentence • Consider: The boy kicked the ball • We have three lexical categories here; the nouns boy, ball, and the verb kick • This gives us three phrases • Determining how these phrases are organized into the sentence involves the same reasoning we applied above Possible structures • In principle, the three phrases could be arranged in two ways; this is exactly parallel to what we did with words before (I’m using ‘S’ here as the label for ‘sentence’): Structure S VP NP NP the boy V kicked Structure S VP NP the ball NP V the boy kicked the The options • The different structures take different positions on the status of the VP; is it – The object and verb that form a VP, or – The subject and verb that form a VP? • We can use the diagnostics above to give us an answer • Recall the Dear Old Queen vs Queer Old Dean example Tests Substitution: – John ate an apple – Mary did too – Did = – ??? an apple? Verb + Object behaves like a constituent Movement: Mary said she would fix the car with a wrench …and [fix the car with a wrench] she did Tests indicate that Verb + Object behave like a constituent (structure 1) Recursion • A concept from math: selfreproducing/defining – in an even number – If X is an even number, so is X-2 • A phrase can include another phrase of the same type (or the very same phrase) – “the cat in the hat from the store beside the street at the heart of the city Recursion: Toddlers vs Teens • “This is the dog that worried the cat that chased the rat that ate the cheese that lay in the house that Jack built” • “There is a rumor going around that she told me that you told her that I saw you kissing Jim that he told you not to.” Recursion in Harry Potter http://youtube.com/watch?v =jsiF_G78aLs Ronald would like me to tell you [ that Seamus told him [ that Dean was told by Parvati [ that Hagrid ís looking for you ] ] ] Confused? • This is the cheese that lay in the house • This is the cheese that the rat ate that lay in the house • This is the cheese that the rat that the cat chased ate that lay in the house • This is the cheese that the rat that the cat that the dog worried chased ate that lay in the house • (more when we talk about language processing in the brain) ... every sentence you hear is new! Syntax: Combinatorics • Source of infinity: “infinite use of finite means” – Syntax as compression (ZIP files) – Recursion • Source of structures – Phrases, constituents,... launched by this kind of studies! (AB as linguistic units) (AB)n vs AnBn: syntax is not flat Syntax • Structure is critical in syntax; we will examine two major points this week – The notion of phrase;... Verb” – Structures again… Structure Review • As we saw in our discussion of phonology and morphology, the structure is crucially involved in the function un lock able /k/ /ae/ /t/ What kind of structures