Creativity of Language Any speaker of any human

Creativity of Language “Any speaker of any human language can produce and understand an infinite number of sentences. ” Fromkin, Victoria, Robert Rodman & Nina Hyams. 2011. An Introduction to Language, 9 th edition. Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, p. 77.

Most Important Concept 1 1. “Any speaker of any human language can produce and understand an infinite number of sentences. ” (77) 2. “This system of rules explains how speakers can store infinite knowledge in a finite space—our brains. ” (78) Fromkin, Victoria, Robert Rodman & Nina Hyams. 2011. An Introduction to Language, 9 th edition. Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, pp. 77, 78, 82.

Most Important Concept 2 3. “The rules of the syntax permit speakers to produce and understand a limitless number of sentences never produced or heard before—the creative aspect of linguistic knowledge. ” (82) Fromkin, Victoria, Robert Rodman & Nina Hyams. 2011. An Introduction to Language, 9 th edition. Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, pp. 77, 78, 82.

Most Important Concept 3 4. “We can exploit the resources of our language and grammar to produce and understand a limitless number of sentences embodying a limitless range of ideas and emotions. ” (82) Fromkin, Victoria, Robert Rodman & Nina Hyams. 2011. An Introduction to Language, 9 th edition. Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, pp. 77, 78, 82.

Most Important Concept 4 5. “Because the number of possible sentences in every language is infinite, there also an infinite number of trees. However, all trees are built out of the finite set of substructures allowed by the grammar of the language, and these substructures are specified by the finite set of phrase structure rules. (95) Fromkin, Victoria, Robert Rodman & Nina Hyams. 2011. An Introduction to Language, 9 th edition. Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, pp. 82, 95.

Most Important Concept 5 6. “The number of sentences in a language is infinite and [ ] languages have various means of creating longer and longer sentences. ” (95) 7. “Our brain capacity is finite, able to store only a finite number of categories and rules for their combination. Yet this finite system places an infinite set of sentences at our disposal. (101) Fromkin, Victoria, Robert Rodman & Nina Hyams. 2011. An Introduction to Language, 9 th edition. Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, pp. 95, 101, 128.

Most Important Concept 6 8. “All speakers are capable of producing and understanding an unlimited number of new sentences that have never before been spoken or heard. ” (128) Fromkin, Victoria, Robert Rodman & Nina Hyams. 2011. An Introduction to Language, 9 th edition. Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, pp. 95, 101, 128.

The House that Jack Built (Numbers indicate the number of embedded clauses) 0 This is the house. 1 This is the house that Jack built. 2 This is the malt that lay in the house that Jack built. The Real Mother Goose. (1994). New York: Scholastic Inc. , pp. 69 -70.

The House that Jack Built 3 This is the rat that ate the malt that lay in the house that Jack built. 4 This is the cat that killed the rat that ate the malt that lay in the house that Jack built. The Real Mother Goose. (1994). New York: Scholastic Inc. , pp. 69 -70.

The House that Jack Built 5 This is the dog that worried the cat that killed the rat that ate the malt that lay in the house that Jack built. The Real Mother Goose. (1994). New York: Scholastic Inc. , pp. 69 -70.

The House that Jack Built 6 This is the cow with the crumpled horn that tossed the dog that worried the cat that killed the rat that ate the malt that lay in the house that Jack built. The Real Mother Goose. (1994). New York: Scholastic Inc. , pp. 69 -70.

The House that Jack Built 7 This is the maiden all forlorn that milked the cow with the crumpled horn that tossed the dog that worried the cat that killed the rat that ate the malt that lay in the house that Jack built. The Real Mother Goose. (1994). New York: Scholastic Inc. , pp. 69 -70.

The House that Jack Built 8 This is the man all tattered and torn that kissed the maiden all forlorn that milked the cow with the crumpled horn that tossed the dog that worried the cat that killed the rat that ate the malt that lay in the house that Jack built. The Real Mother Goose. (1994). New York: Scholastic Inc. , pp. 69 -70.

The House that Jack Built 9 This is the priest all shaven and shorn that married the man all tattered and torn that kissed the maiden all forlorn that milked the cow with the crumpled horn that tossed the dog that worried the cat that killed the rat that ate the malt that lay in the house that Jack built. The Real Mother Goose. (1994). New York: Scholastic Inc. , pp. 69 -70.

The House that Jack Built 10 This is the cock that crowed in the morn that waked the priest all shaven and shorn that married the man all tattered and torn that kissed the maiden all forlorn that milked the cow with the crumpled horn that tossed the dog that worried the cat that killed the rat that ate the malt that lay in the house that Jack built. The Real Mother Goose. (1994). New York: Scholastic Inc. , pp. 69 -70.

The House that Jack Built 11 This is the farmer sowing the corn that kept the cock that crowed in the morn that waked the priest all shaven and shorn that married the man all tattered and torn that kissed the maiden all forlorn that milked the cow with the crumpled horn that tossed the dog that worried the cat that killed the rat that ate the malt that lay in the house that Jack built. The Real Mother Goose. (1994). New York: Scholastic Inc. , pp. 69 -70.

Syntax “The part of the grammar that represents a speaker’s knowledge of sentences and their structures is called syntax. ” Fromkin, Victoria, Robert Rodman & Nina Hyams. 2011. An Introduction to Language, 9 th edition. Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, p. 78.

Grammar The RULES of Syntax The RULES of Morphology The RULES of Phonology (next semester)

Grammar The RULES of Syntax BUILDING BLOCKS: words, phrases OUTPUT: grammatical sentences The RULES of Morphology BUILDING BLOCKS: morphemes (free / bound) OUTPUT: words The RULES of Phonology (next semester) BUILDING BLOCKS: phonemes / phones OUTPUT: properly pronounced words / sentences

What Syntax Reveals Word order Relationship between meaning and the arrangement of the words Grammatical relations—Subject and Object Grammatical constraints—Verb subcategoriation Hierarchy of grammatical constituents Grammaticality judgments Structural ambiguity Fromkin, Victoria, Robert Rodman & Nina Hyams. 2011. An Introduction to Language, 9 th edition. Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, pp. 78 -81.

Word Order 1. Harold hit Ivan. 2. Ivan hit Harold. 3. The student picked up the book. 4. The student picked the book up. 5. Sally kissed John. 6. John was kissed by Sally. 7. John kissed Sally.

We say that native speakers of a language share the same knowledge of SYNTACTIC RULES. What does this mean?

Why native speaker grammaticality judgments are basically the same Simple Answer: Because native speakers of a language share the same set of syntactic rules their grammaticality judgments will be the same.

Why native speaker grammaticality judgments are basically the same More Complex Answer: Because Native Speakers of a (variety of a) language SHARE the same (or nearly the same) set (group) of SYNTACTIC RULES their Grammaticality Judgments will be (approximately) the same. Their MENTAL GRAMMAR is MORE OR LESS THE SAME In other words, they have the same (nearly the same) linguistic competence because they grew up speaking the same language

How can we judge what is grammatical? 1. Does NOT depend on whether you have heard it before 2. Does NOT depend on whether it is meaningful 3. Does NOT depend on whether you can interpret it 4. Does NOT depend on whether it is true 5. It DOES depend on our “unconscious knowledge of the syntactic rules of grammar” Fromkin, Victoria, Robert Rodman & Nina Hyams. 2011. An Introduction to Language, 9 th edition. Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, pp. 82 -83.

Grammaticality Judgments of Strange Sentences 1 Meaningless Colorless green ideas sleep furiously. Giant tomatoes danced at my party last week. Fromkin, Victoria, Robert Rodman & Nina Hyams. 2011. An Introduction to Language, 9 th edition. Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, pp. 82 -83.

Grammaticality Judgments of Strange Sentences 2 Uninterpretable “Twas brillig, and the slithy toves did gyre and gimble in the wabe. Fromkin, Victoria, Robert Rodman & Nina Hyams. 2011. An Introduction to Language, 9 th edition. Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, pp. 82 -83.

Grammaticality Judgments of Strange Sentences 3 Untrue Today is Wednesday. My brother had a baby last week. Fromkin, Victoria, Robert Rodman & Nina Hyams. 2011. An Introduction to Language, 9 th edition. Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, pp. 82 -83.

Ambiguity Words (Lexical Ambiguity) He walked by the bank. He got shot in the back. Phrases (Structural Ambiguity) synthetic buffalo hides small car factory Sentences (Structural Ambiguity) The boy saw the man with the telescope. For sale: an antique desk suitable for lady with thick legs and large drawers.

Why use tree diagrams? CONVENIENT way to show: Word Order Syntactic Categories Hierarchical Structure They show the syntactic structure CLEARLY / UNAMBIGUOUSLY Fromkin, Victoria, Robert Rodman & Nina Hyams. 2011. An Introduction to Language, 9 th edition. Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, p. 90.

Tree Diagram of Sentence Structure The child found a puppy. Fromkin, Victoria, Robert Rodman & Nina Hyams. 2011. An Introduction to Language, 9 th edition. Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, pp. 84, 90.

Grammatical Categories Content Words noun verb adjective adverb N V Adj Adv Function Words preposition conjunction interjection auxiliary verb modal verb determiner quantifier NP VP Prep PP Conj Interj Aux Modal Det Quant

Phrase Structure Tree Fromkin, Victoria, Robert Rodman & Nina Hyams. 2007. An Introduction to Language, 8 th edition. Boston, MA: Thomson Wadsworth, p. 124.

Simplified Grammar of “English” Phrase Structure Rules 1. 2. S NP 101) 3. 4. 5. 6. PP 7. VP 8. CP 9. NP 10. VP NP VP Det N (revised 100 - VP VP VP P V C NP Aux V V V NP CP S PP VP NP (revised 96) PP (added 97) (added 107) Fromkin, Victoria, Robert Rodman & Nina Hyams. 2011. An Introduction to Language, 9 th edition. Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, pp. 93, 96, 97, 100, 101, 107.

Simplified Grammar of “English” Phrase Structure Rules N V P Adj Det child, boy, man, men, telescope, puppy, posse, baby, buffalo, hide find, see, flee, sleep with, from, in, on small, synthetic the, a Fromkin, Victoria, Robert Rodman & Nina Hyams. 2007. An Introduction to Language, 8 th edition. Boston, MA: Thomson Wadsworth, p. 131, adapted.

Syntactic Rules Must Account for the Following the grammaticality of sentences word order structural ambiguity (Ex 1 a) grammatical relations different structures with the same meaning (Ex 1 b) how / why two sentences are related (Ex 1 c) the creative aspect of language Fromkin & Rodman (1998), pp. 110 -111

What does a (Mini-) Grammar tell us? 1 IF our MINI-GRAMMAR is correct, THEN every sentence that follows that grammar is ____. IF our MINI-GRAMMAR is correct, THEN every sentence that does not follow that grammar is ____.

What does a (Mini-) Grammar tell us? 2 IF we find a sentence that we KNOW is grammatical, BUT our MINI-GRAMMAR says it is NOT grammatical, then we know the mini-grammar is ________ .

Ambiguous Sentence But Unambiguous Structure The boy saw the man with the telescope. ? The boy saw the man with a stick. The boy hit the man with the telescope.

Grammaticality Judgments