Linguistics 1 Syntax Week 2 Lectures 3 & 4

Topics for Syntax The concept of Universal Grammar (UG) Non-viable models for UG Hierarchical grouping of words into phrases Grammatical categories Phrase Structure Grammar Recursion Meaningfulness vs. Grammaticality Word order typology: using S, O, V to categorize “Head of a Phrase” and HEAD INITIAL vs. HEAD FINAL Free word order languages and function marking

I ate and-peas and-carrots and-broccoli. Expressing lists: ‘I ate peas, carrots, and broccoli’. Which of the following would probably be excluded from ALL languages by a principle of UG as a way to express a list like this? I ate and-peas and-carrots and-broccoli. I ate and and and peas carrots broccoli. I ate peas-and carrots-and broccoli-and. I ate peas carrots broccoli. List of topics

Which of the following could NOT be generated by this word-chain grammar? The herds are stampeding. The herds is stampeding. The herd of cows is stampeding. The herd of cows are stampeding. List of topics

Hierarchical structure (1): Which of the trees represents the complaint of the woman? List of topics

Hierarchical structure (2): Which tree repre-sents the understanding of the executive? List of topics

Grammatical categories (1): What grammatical category did Joe have in mind? Joe was in court fighting a ticket for parking in a restricted area. The judge asked him if he had anything to say in his defense. “They should not put up such misleading notices,” said Joe. Noun Verb Adjective List of topics

Grammatical categories (2): What grammatical category did the server have in mind? Customer: I would like to have two lambchops, and make them lean, please. Server: To which side, sir? Noun Verb Adjective List of topics

Phrase Structure grammar: Which sentences would this grammar NOT generate? State why. My dog snored loudly. My dog fiercely growled at my cat. My cute dog eats pretzels. My dog in the car in the garage started the engine accidentally. List of topics

Recursion: Which rule would handle the recursion in this cartoon? S  NP VP (S) VP  V if S VP  V (if S) VP  V (if S) (if S) (if S) List of topics

Trees for 3 and 4 3 4 There is no recursion. The VP rule just keeps adding “if” clauses linearly (though one could stay “inside” the first (if S) to generate a structure like 3). We can return recursively to the S rule, which gives us another VP. List of topics

Categorize the language in each video clip or picture as A, B, C, or D. Meaningful and grammatical Meaningless but grammatical Meaningful but ungrammatical Meaningless and ungrammatical List of topics

What is your your "home" language, basically, the language you grew up speaking with your parents? English Spanish Korean Mandarin Chinese Cantonese Vietnamese Japanese Farsi/Persian Arabic Other List of topics

What is the word order type of your “home” language? SOV SVO VSO VOS Free word order I have no idea List of topics

What is are we referring to by saying that a word is the “head of a phrase”? The first word in a sentence The first word in a phrase The last word in a phrase The type of word that a phrase is named for The most important word in a phrase I don’t know List of topics

Consistency and inconsistency in head placement: Select an answer that is true for your home language (some languages might have more than one). My home language is … a 100% consistent head final language. a 100% consistent head initial language. SVO or VSO but puts numbers before nouns. SOV but puts adjectives after nouns. SVO or VSO but puts adjectives before nouns. SOV but has prepositions. SVO or VSO but has postpositions. List of topics

Cantonese Word Order Cantonese and other Chinese languages are problematic for our general word order correlations. Here are some sentences in Cantonese with questions on the next slide. List of topics

What is the word order type of Cantonese? Head initial Head final Inconsistent head initial Inconsistent head final Free word order List of topics