1. Syntax 2 Nov 11, 2015 – DAY 32 Brain & Language
LING
NSCI
Fall 2015

2. Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University
11/11/15
Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University
Course organization
Schedule:
Today's chapter:
Fun with
Quiz before Thanksgiving will be in class & on Blackboard.

3. Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University
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Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University
Grades Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q5 Q6 Q7
MIN 6 5 4 7 3
AVG
9.0
8.8
8.4
9.2
7.5
8.7
MAX 10

4. Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University
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Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University
Combinatorial net 2

5. Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University
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Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University
The lexical interface
t11-HickokPoeppelHoward2

6. The parts of speech/syntactic categories
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Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University
The parts of speech/syntactic categories
Major/content categories
noun
verb
adjective
adverb
preposition/postposition?
Minor/functional categories
determiner: article, quantifier, demonstrative
pronoun
negation
conjunction: coordinating, subordinating
auxiliary verb?
Interjection

7. A fragment of a grammar of English
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Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University
A fragment of a grammar of English
“A grammar is an explicit set of rules for distinguishing the well-formed sentences of a language from those that are ill-formed (ungrammatical).”
We have already seen a fragment of a grammar of English:
S → NP VP
VP → V NP

8. What is syntactic processing?
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Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University
What is syntactic processing?
“Narrowly defined, syntactic processing involves the assignment of syntactic structure to word strings that qualify as a ‘sentences’”, e.g. "Mary kissed John".
[S [NP Mary] [VP kissed [NP John]]] S NP
Mary VP V
kissed
John
Ingram (p. 244)

9. Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University
11/11/15
Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University
But …
… we very often utter incomplete sentences:
Who kissed John?
Mary.
What did Mary do?
Kiss John.
So the missing information can be filled in by the context:
[S Mary [VP Ø]]
[S [NP Ø] [VP kiss John]]

10. Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University
11/11/15
Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University
Compositionality
Compare these next two sentences:
Mary kicked the mule.
Mary kicked the bucket.
#2 has two readings
Mary applied force to the bucket with her foot.
Mary died.
In the (a) reading, the sentence means what the sum of its words mean; in the (b) reading, it means something special, not predictable from the individual words.
This happens in morphology, too:
the past tense of depart: departed
the past tense of go: *goed, went
We call the (a) readings compositional, while the (b) readings are non-compositional or lexical.

11. Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University
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Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University
syntax 2

12. Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University
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Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University
Another example
“A cat is on the couch.”
We need to augment our grammar:
NP → Det N, where Det is one of {a(n), the, some}
VP → V PP
PP → P NP, where P is one of {on, in, at, by, etc.}
Write down the syntactic structure for this example:
[S [NP a cat] [VP is [PP on [NP the couch]]]] S NP
a cat VP V is PP
on the couch

13. The problem of assigning syntactic structure in real time
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Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University
The problem of assigning syntactic structure in real time
So, how did you do that?
You assigned a syntactic (or structural) description to the sentence, following the rules of the grammar, presumably from left to right, which is a process known as performing a derivation.
It is also known as parsing the sentence:
"to state the parts of speech in a sentence”, 1550s,
verb use of M.E. pars (n.) "part of speech" (c.1300),
from O.Fr. pars, pl. of part "part”,
from L. pars (see part (n.)) in school question, Quae pars orationis? "What part of speech?"

14. Start with the first word “A cat is on the couch.”
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Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University
Start with the first word “A cat is on the couch.”
A – what do we know about it?
Determiner, indefinite, singular = Lexical Access and Feature Retrieval (LAFR)
What does our grammar tell us about a determiner (Det)?
It is followed by a noun, so let’s look for one to the right.
And by the way, it should be singular, to agree with the determiner.
Cat – what do we know about it?
Noun, singular (LAFR)
We also know a lot about the meaning of ‘cat’, but this theory of syntax assumes that meaning is not relevant to the parse.
What does our grammar tell us about Det+N?
That they form an NP, so let’s merge them into one:
[NP [Det a] [N cat]]
What does our grammar tell us about NP?
It is followed by a (tensed) verb, so let’s seek one to the right.
Do the rest of the derivation yourself.
Ingram p. 246, Fig. 12.1

15. Models of sentence processing
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Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University
Models of sentence processing
Traditional generative model
A separate mental module parses sentences just like we just did.
Lexical access happens first.
Then one syntactic hypothesis is considered at a time.
There is no influence of meaning.
More recent interactive model
There is no separate module for parsing
Lexical access, syntactic structure assignment, and meaning assignment happen at the same time (in parallel).
Several syntactic hypotheses can be considered at a time.
How to decide?
Agrammatism

16. Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University
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Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University
The lexical interface
t11-HickokPoeppelHoward2

17. But first, a review: Thematic roles
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Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University
But first, a review: Thematic roles
What is a thematic role?
List of roles
AGENT
EXPERIENCER
THEME
GOAL
SOURCE
LOCATION
RECIPIENT
INSTRUMENT

18. Review: Thematic roles
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Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University
Review: Thematic roles
John gave a tomato to Mary.
John gave Mary a tomato.
A brilliant idea occurred to Mary.
Mary hates tomatoes.
AGENT gave THEME to RECEIPIENT
AGENT gave RECEIPIENT THEME
THEME occurred to EXPERIENCER
EXPERIENCER hates THEME

19. Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University
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Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University
Syntax vs pragmatics
How about these?
The cop arrested the teenagers.
The teenagers arrested the cop.
How can we tell the difference?
Syntactic info:
Subject agrees with verb;
subject precedes verb;
subject tends to be AGENT.
Direct object follows verb;
direct object tends to be THEME.
Pragmatic info:
Police are typical arresters;
teenagers are typical arrestees.
Note that syntax overrides pragmatics in (2).
ingram (p. 251)

20. The two main aphasias Ingram p. 49
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Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University
The two main aphasias Ingram p. 49
Broca’s
Wernicke’s
C: What brought you to the hospital?
P: yes … ah … Monday … ah … Dad … Peter Hogan, and Dad … ah … hospital … and ah … Wednesday … Wednesday … nine o’clock and ah Thursday … ten o’clock … doctors two … two … an doctors and … ah … teeth … yah … and a doctor an girl … and gums, an I.
C: What brings you to the hospital?
Boy, I’m sweating, I’m awful nervous, you know, once in a while I get caught up, I can’t mention the tarripote, a month ago, quite a little, I’ve done a lot well, I impose a lot, while on the other hand, you know what I mean, I have to run around, look it over, trebbin and all that sort of stuff.

21. Agrammatic aphasia (agrammatism) One aspect of Broca’s aphasia
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Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University
Agrammatic aphasia (agrammatism) One aspect of Broca’s aphasia
Agrammatic aphasiacs may overlook agreement, but they are still sensitive to word order.
However, they often rely on pragmatics, so they may understand (2) to mean (1):
The cop arrested the teenagers.
The teenagers arrested the cop.

22. Public service announcement
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Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University
Public service announcement
What is a Ponzi scheme?
How is the passive voice formed?
(someone) ended the Ponzi scheme quickly.
AGENT THEME
The Ponzi scheme was ended quickly
Two sentences later, Madoff said, "When I began the Ponzi scheme, I believed it would end shortly, and I would be able to extricate myself, and my clients, from the scheme." As he read this, he betrayed no sense of how absurd it was to use the passive voice in regard to his scheme, as if it were a spell of bad weather that had descended on him In most of the rest of the statement, one not only heard the aggrieved passive voice, but felt the hand of a lawyer: "To the best of my recollection, my fraud began in the early nineteen-nineties."[9]

23. Active vs. passive sentences
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Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University
Active vs. passive sentences
Ask the patient to point to the picture in which
The dog bit the postman.
The dog was bitten by the postman.

24. Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University
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Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University
Reversible sentences
Agrammatic aphasiacs find the following reversible active sentences to be difficult to understand (75% accuracy):
The dancer applauded the actor.
The actor applauded the dancer.
Reversible passive sentences are even harder (50% accuracy):
The actor was applauded by the dancer.

25. Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University
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Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University
Conclusions
It may be that agrammatic aphasiacs rely on a rule of thumb (heuristic) based on the canonical word order of English or other frequent coincidences:
The NP which precedes the verb is assigned the thematic role of AGENT.
The NP which follows the preposition by is assigned the thematic role of AGENT.
How they help
(a) helps agrammatic aphasiacs understand reversible active sentences.
(a) and (b) conflict in reversible passive sentences, so agrammatic aphasiacs do worse (they guess).

26. Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University
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Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University
Final project
Improve a Wikipedia article about any of the topics mentioned in class or any other topic broadly related to neurolinguistics.
Write a short essay explaining what you did and why you did it.
Print the article before you improve it, highlighting any subtractions.
Print the article after you improve it, highlighting your additions.

27. Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University
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Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University
NEXT TIME
More syntax