Introduction to Linguistics Ms Suha Jawabreh Lecture 20

Introduction to Linguistics Ms. Suha Jawabreh Lecture 20

Review: Syntax What is syntax? -Syntax is the study of how sentences and phrases are ordered. -It is the study of the structure of phrases and sentences. - More recent work in syntax has taken a different approach in analyzing the structure of phrases and sentences.

Review: Generative Grammar What is Generative Grammar? - A set of rules that would generate well-formed sentences. -It was developed from the work of the American linguist Noam Chomsky.

Review: Properties of Generative Grammar 1. ‘All and only’ criterion The grammar will generate all the well-formed sentences and fail to generate ill-formed sentences. 2. Productivity a. The grammar will have a finite(limited) number of rules but will generate an infinite number of wellformed sentences. b. The ability to create new grammatical sentences.

3. Recursion The same structure may be applied more than once.

Example: One deep structure (The meaning of the sentence) Two Surface structures Charlie broke The window was the window broken by Charlie

Ambiguity - What are ambiguous sentences? Sentences that have two different interpretations (meanings). (Two deep structures) -There are two types of ambiguity 1. Structural 2. Lexical

Structural Ambiguity Examples : Annie hit a man with an umbrella. The policeman saw a child in the car. I shot an elephant in my pyjamas. Old men and women. The tourist saw the woman with a telescope.

Lexical Ambiguity Examples: The astronomer married a star. That feather is light.

Exercise Decide if the following sentences have lexical or structural ambiguity: 1. Visiting strangers can be dangerous. 2. Take your mother-in-law back there and shoot her.

Transformational- Generative Grammar

Examples of Movement Rules 1. Passive Transformation Charlie Broke the window. The window was broken by Charlie. 2. Adv- movement Yesterday Mary ate a banana yesterday

Symbols used in Syntactic Description S: Sentence NP : Noun Phrase VP : Verb Phrase PP: Prepositional Phrase AP: Adjective Phrase Adv. P: Adevrb Phrase Art : Article Det : Determiner PN: Proper Noun Pro. : Pronoun Prep: Preposition Adj : adjective Adv: adverb

* : ungrammatical sentence : consists of ( ) : optional constituent { } : one and only one of these constituents must be selected

Phrase Structure Rules S consists of : NP+ VP NP consists of: PN : Mary , Cathy , Ahmed Pro. : He , she , him , her , me Det + (Adj) + N : This large building , the car , his book , that desk , a table

VP consists of : V + NP+ (PP) + (Adv) 1. John died. 2. John ate an apple. 3. John ate an apple in the kitchen. 4. John ate an apple in the kitchen slowly.

PP consists of : P+ NP In the city , on the table , near the desk. AP consists of : (adv) + adj Unbelievably difficult Amazingly beautiful Very good Too serious Really big

Adv. P consists of: (adv) + adv Very slowly Carefully

Labelled Tree diagrams We can describe the structure of sentences in the form of tree diagrams. Question: Provide a labelled tree diagram for the following sentences: 1. Mary ate an apple. 2. The dog followed the boy. 3. I left the book on the table. 4. Her father brought a shotgun to the wedding. 5. John drove the carefully. 6. The small child saw an elephant. 7. The performance was very beautiful. 8. The old lady hit a man with an umbrella.