Language and Cognition Colombo, June 2011 Day 1 Introduction to Linguistic Theory, Part 1

Plan Structure in Language Phonology, morphology, semantics, syntax Pragmatics and the interface of the language system with other systems of knowledge Competence and performance

Language There is structure in language – just like structure in (the rest of) nature

Components of Language Different kinds of structure & knowledge within language Phonology (sounds) Morphology (word structure) Semantics (aspects of meaning) Syntax (phrase structure) Pragmatics (language in use)

Linguistic structure features  phonemes  morphemes  words  phrases  discourse Structure at every level – and there may be many commonalities between the structures Theories of the nature of linguistic structures are theories of mental representations

The structure of sounds Phonology

Articulation, phonetics and phonology Articulation: the act or manner of producing a speech sound; bringing articulatory organs together so as to shape the sounds of speech Phonetics: how the sounds of language are articulated and perceived Phonology: the mental representation of sounds and their structures; operations across these representations

Knowledge about the properties of sounds physical - mental events & sequences representing representing physical interactions properties & processes like a lexicon like grammar Articulation Phonetics Phonology Articulation is physical – a process determined by muscles, nerves, physiology Phonetics and phonology are to do with mental representation : phonetics is concerned with (the mental representation of) acoustic, articulatory and perceptual properties of sounds, and phonology is concerned with the system of sounds within a language

Phonological theories 1: distinctive feature theory Chomsky & Halle’s system classifies sounds according to five sets of features: - major classes: sonorant, syllabic, consonantal - manner: continuant, lateral, nasal - cavity: anterior, coronal, high, low, back, round - tongue root: tense/lax - laryngeal: voiced/voiceless

Phonological theories 1: distinctive feature theory Attempt to delineate the properties of sounds used contrastively in a particular language Features are ‘atomic’ and binary Looking at similarities and differences between sounds E.g. /k/ /g/ /s/ /n/ /i/ consonantal + + + + - vocalic - - - - + stop + + - - - voicing - + - + + nasal - - - + - anterior - - + + +

Phonological theories 2: nonlinear phonology Time is the critical unit Sounds are made up of features Features which are realized together at a particular time will be realized as a sound (a ‘segment’) Features are always present (though may not be realized) and are hierarchically organized

Feature Geometry A way of indicating the interdependence of features involved in sound structure representation Root sonorant consonantal laryngeal lateral nasal continuant voice spread glottis constricted glottis place labial coronal dorsal round labiodental anterior distributed grooved high back low

time Root sonorant consonantal laryngeal lateral nasal continuant voice spread glottis constricted glottis place labial coronal dorsal round labiodental anterior distributed grooved high back low

/p/ time Root sonorant consonantal laryngeal lateral nasal continuant voice spread glottis constricted glottis place labial coronal dorsal round labiodental anterior distributed grooved high back low

/z/ time Root sonorant consonantal laryngeal lateral nasal continuant voice spread glottis constricted glottis place labial coronal dorsal round labiodental anterior distributed grooved high back low

/i/ time Root sonorant consonantal laryngeal lateral nasal continuant voice spread glottis constricted glottis place labial coronal dorsal round labiodental anterior distributed grooved high back low

The structure of words morphology

Internal structure of a syllable σ rime onset peak coda c a t

Syllables joined together = feet Feet joined together = words

Morphology Inflectional morphology: variations in the forms of words for grammatical purposes Derivational morphology: word formation, changing word class, changing meaning

Morphology affix example prefix undo prefix-root suffix looking root-suffix infix (Tagalog Root: dugo blood) dinugo ro<infix>ot circumfix Kabyle θissliθ "bride" (compare to issli "groom") circumfix>root<circumfix suprafix produce (noun) produce (verb) (changing stress)

Derivational Morphology adjective-to-noun: -ness (slow → slowness) adjective-to-verb: -ise (modern → modernize) noun-to-adjective: -al (recreation → recreational) noun-to-verb: -fy (glory → glorify) verb-to-adjective: -able (drink → drinkable) verb-to-noun: -ance (deliver → deliverance)

Inflectional morphology To apply an inflection is to change the form of a word for a grammatical function: Number Tense Person Mood Case Aspect Gender Voice English is relatively poor in inflectional morphology. Other Indo-European languages have a richer system of inflection morphology – cf. Latin (word order vs morphology) Number: I have an apple. I have six apples. ALLOMORPHS: dog-z, cat-s, dish-EZ Person: I walk vs he walks (1st vs 3rd person marking on the verb) Case: not realized much in English, except on pronouns which we’ll mention in a bit Gender: ditto; but cf Spanish: nino vs nina Tense: we walk vs we walked Mood: relation of a verb with its intention or reality. E.g. imperative (Walk!) vs Conditional or declarative or subjunctive or counterfactual… Aspect: related to tense, but refers to the flow of time (or not) being expressed. E.g. I swam all morning vs I was swimming all morning. Completed vs uncompleted actions, bth past tense. Voice: active vs passive is the major distinction: The man ate the fish vs The man was eaten by the fish.

Bound and free morphemes Bound morphemes are morphemes that can occur only when attached to root morphemes. Affixes are bound morphemes. Common English bound morphemes include: -ing, -ed, -er, and pre-. Morphemes that are not bound morphemes are free morphemes

Word classes “A grammatical category is a class of expressions which share a common set of grammatical properties.” (Radford 1997:37) How do we decide what class a certain word belongs to? What you were taught in school may not be much help. Noun = person, place, thing - but what about isolation? complexity? intuition? Verb = a doing word - but what about being? meaning? having? Preposition = space and time - but what about by? of? about? Adverb = a word that ends in –ly - but what about fast? well? often? Sentential context is crucial He can lift that. I have opened this can. These definitions may help you to keep things clear in your head, and that’s fine. But you will find that there are many times when they break down, and cannot help you decide. We are going to discuss some more reliable ways of telling the difference between the various grammatical categories; and we shall also be introducing some grammatical categories you may not have heard of before. What class does can belong to? We cannot answer this question without looking at the context in which the word appears. Words are slippery; many of them can belong to different classes on different occasions. So when we identify a word class, we do so for a particular sentential context.

Morphosyntactic evidence morphological (derivational / inflectional) and syntactic (structural, distributional) Inflectional morphology: variations in the forms of words for grammatical purposes Derivational morphology: word formation: adding affixes to existing words or stems (prefixes; infixes; suffixes) Why do we need morphological and syntactic evidence to identify word classes? Morphological evidence can be very helpful. But note that the morphological system of English is impoverished – lots of words don’t get inflected. And if you think about it carefully, you will be able to come up with exceptions for most of the morphological evidence we discuss below. So although morphological evidence is useful, sometimes it’s not conclusive – and therefore we have to use syntactic evidence too. Syntactic evidence includes information about the distribution of word classes; the other kinds of words they can appear with; and the kinds of structures we can use the words in. Such criteria naturally vary cross-linguistically, and may even vary across different dialects of the same language. So, all of this evidence should be used with caution, and sometimes we resort to semantic and phonological knowledge to help us out.

Morphology exercise Split the following words into their constituent morphemes. For each morpheme you identify, state whether it is free or bound, AND derivational or inflectional. pleasurable dematerialization redefinition hopelessness disturbances immortalizing realistically surrealist impassivity extraterrestrials

Lexical vs functional categories Descriptive content Lexical categories: entities, actions, properties Antonym test The closed / open class distinction One way to decide whether a word belongs to a lexical or a functional category is to see if it has descriptive content. Lexical categories can typically pick out an entity (nouns), a property (adjectives and adverbs), or an action (verbs). One test to see if something has descriptive content is to try thinking of its opposite (its antonym): if it has an opposite, then it has descriptive content and is therefore a lexical category. But remember that this is not a 100% reliable test. Open classes typically have a large membership and can easily accept new members. Closed classes, on the other hand, have a much smaller membership, and do not readily accept new members. This distinction tends to correlate with the lexical vs functional distinction.

The structure of phrases syntax

Clauses and sentence structure A CLAUSE is a string of words which expresses a proposition Typically consists of at least a SUBJECT and a verb David sings Yesterday we visited Dambulla A SENTENCE contains one or more clauses Each clause contains ONE lexical verb (one verb = one clause) She retired early because she was ill MATRIX clause SUBORDINATE clause

Compound sentences Main clauses and subordinate clauses Harry put the phone down and he stood up. I gave him my address, but he didn’t contact me. We could go to the cinema or we could stay at home. Each of the main clauses (those without the connecting words and, but and or) can stand on its own as an acceptable sentence Clauses which can stand on their own in this way and have equal importance are referred to as main clauses (includes simple sentences, which contain only one clause). Sentences which are constructed using conjunctions (and, but, or…) = compound sentences

Compound sentences Main clauses and Subordinate clauses Harry put the phone down (and) he stood up. I gave him my address, (but) he didn’t contact me. We could go to the cinema (or) we could stay at home. Each of the main clauses (those without the connecting words and, but and or) can stand on its own as an acceptable sentence Clauses which can stand on their own in this way and have equal importance are referred to as main clauses (includes simple sentences, which contain only one clause). Sentences which are constructed using conjunctions (and, but, or…) = compound sentences

Subordinate clauses After he left work, he headed straight for the hotel. We’re going to have to take the train because the car’s broken down. If you heat water, it boils. Although she’s the best in the class, she did badly in the exams. While I’m out, could you tidy up a bit? Identify the main and subordinate clauses in each of these compound sentences.

The structure of meanings semantics

Semantics Semantic entities tend to be structurally realized in quite transparent ways E.g. objects  nouns, actions  verbs, spatial relations  prepositions, etc Children innately have access to some semantically transparent notions: person, action, object, agent, patient Given a sentence and a co-occurring event, children build a semantic representation of the sentence Semantic representations encode the relations between the arguments and the verb

Semantics Arguments have thematic information associated with them e.g. cat chase dog AGENT THEME (doing the chasing) (getting chased) Semantic functions map onto grammatical functions AGENT = subject THEME = object

Semantic Roles

Sherlock saw the man with binoculars. Semantics and syntax Sherlock saw the man with binoculars.

IP DP I’ I VP V DP D NP N PP P DP Sherlock Ø saw the man with the binoculars

IP DP I’ I VP V’ PP V DP P DP D N Sherlock Ø saw with the binoculars man

Pragmatics A rule-governed system Use of language in social situations Context of the utterance Situation Relationship with speaker Function of the utterance Providing adequate information without redundancy Using coherent and logical sequences Maintaining a topic Repairing communication breakdowns

Pragmatics Interface between language and other kinds of cognitive process Memory, attention, planning, executive function, emotional and psychological factors Interface between competence and performance

Competence vs Performance What we know about language (implicitly) vs what we do with language Competence is core linguistic knowledge Performance involves the interaction of language and other kinds of knowledge too Psychological and environmental factors

Competence vs Performance