THIS MAY GET
COMPLICATED
The Sentence Patterns of Language
Before you get confused…
⚫Grammar
⚫mental representation of a speaker’s
linguistical competence
⚫what a speaker knows about the
language, including its phonology,
morphology, syntax, semantics and
lexicon
Before you get confused…
⚫Syntax
⚫the rules of sentence formation
⚫the component of the mental
grammar that represents speakers’
knowledge of the structure of
phrases and sentence
Syntax
⚫ σύν syn, "together", and τάξις táxis, "an ordering“
⚫ arrangement
⚫ refer directly to the rules and principles that govern
the sentence structure of any individual language
⚫ structure (word order)
Chief swore president
the Justice the in new
Chief swore president
the Justice the in new
⚫ Sequence is made up of meaningful words
Chief swore president
the Justice the in new
⚫ Sequence is made up of meaningful words
⚫ DOES IT MAKE SENSE?
Chief swore president
the Justice the in new
⚫ Every sentence is a sequence of words
⚫ But not every sequence of words is a sentence
⚫ Sequence of words that conform to the rules of syntax
are said to be …
well formed
Sequence of words that conform to the rules of syntax
are said to be …
well formed
GRAMMATICAL
Sequence of words that conform to the rules of syntax
are said to be …
Those that violate the syntactic rules are therefore …
ill formed
Those that violate the syntactic rules are therefore …
ill formed
UNGRAMMATICAL
Those that violate the syntactic rules are therefore …
well formed
GRAMMATICAL
Sequence of words that conform to the rules of syntax
are said to be …
ill formed
UNGRAMMATICAL
Those that violate the syntactic rules are therefore …
What Grammaticality is Based On
⚫ Determined by rules shared by the speakers of a
language
⚫ Example:
What Grammaticality is Based On
⚫ Determined by rules shared by the speakers of a
language
⚫ Example:
Jack and Jill ran the hill up.
What Grammaticality is Based On
I am proud to be my mother
What Grammaticality is Based On
Vicente believes to be a gentleman
What Grammaticality is Based On
Joana ate the baby
What Grammaticality is Not Based On
⚫ Not based on what is taught in school but on the rules
constructed unconsciously as children
⚫ Children acquire most of the syntactic rules of their
language even before learning to read.
⚫ Does not depend on having heard the sentence
before.
What Grammaticality is Not Based On
⚫ Not based on what is taught in school but on the rules
constructed unconsciously as children
⚫ Children acquire most of the syntactic rules of their
language even before learning to read.
⚫ Does not depend on having heard the sentence
before.
⚫ Example:
Enormous crickets in pink
socks danced at the prom.
What Grammaticality is Not Based On
⚫ Does not depend on the truth of the sentence
⚫ If it did, lying would be impossible.
⚫ Example:
What Grammaticality is Not Based On
⚫ Does not depend on the truth of the sentence
⚫ If it did, lying would be impossible.
⚫ Example:
I look like Piolo Pascual.
Syntactic Rules Accounts for:
⚫ Grammaticality of the sentence
⚫ Word order
⚫ Structural ambiguity
⚫ Grammatical relations
⚫ Whether different structures have different meanings
⚫ The creative aspect of language
What else do you know about syntax?
⚫ Ambiguity (Double Meaning)
Ex. synthetic buffalo hides
synthetic (buffalo hides)
(synthetic buffalo)
hides
⚫ Grammatical Relations and how they are understood
Ex. Mary hired Bill.
Bill hired Mary.
Bill was hired by Mary.
Sentence Structure
⚫ The TREE
DIAGRAM
the child found the puppy
⚫ Root (entire
sentence)
⚫ Leaves (individual the child found the puppy
words)
⚫ Hierarchical the child found the puppy
structure
(groupings) the puppy
⚫ Constituent
structures
Sentence Structure
⚫ Constituent Structure (every sentence has one or
more)
Synthetic buffalo hides Synthetic buffalo hides
synthetic buffalo hides synthetic buffalo hides
buffalo hides synthetic buffalo
Syntactic Categories
⚫ A family of expressions that can substitute for one
another without loss of grammaticality
Ex. The child found the puppy.
Your neighbor found the puppy.
This yellow cat found the puppy.
He found the puppy.
Syntactic Categories
⚫ Noun Phrase (NP) – subject or object in the sentence
⚫ Verb Phrase (VP) – verb by NP or PP
⚫ Sentence (S)
⚫ Determiner (Det)
⚫ Adjective (Adj)
⚫ Adverb (Adv)
⚫ Noun (N)
Syntactic Categories
⚫ Pronoun (Pro)
⚫ Preposition (P)
⚫ Prepositional Phrase (PP)
⚫ Auxiliary Verb (Aux) –have, be, will, must, etc.
⚫ Verb (V)
Phrase Structure Trees
⚫ A tree diagram with syntactic category information
provided (syntactic labels)
⚫ Constituent structure tree
Phrase Structure Tree
the child found the puppy
S
the child found the puppy
NP VP
the child the puppy
found Det NP
N
V the puppy
Det N
Sentence Structure
⚫ The TREE
DIAGRAM
the child found the puppy
⚫ Root (entire
sentence)
⚫ Leaves (individual the child found the puppy
words)
⚫ Hierarchical the child found the puppy
structure
(groupings) the puppy
⚫ Constituent
structures
Phrase Structure Tree
the child found the puppy
S
the child found the puppy
NP VP
the child the puppy
found Det NP
N
V the puppy
Det N
Phrase Structure Tree
S
NP VP
Det N V NP
the child found Det N
the puppy
Phrase Structure Tree
S
NP VP Syntactic Categories
Det N V NP
the child found Det N Lexical Categories-lowest
categories in the tree.
the puppy
Node
Phrase Structure Tree
S “ALL” is
important
NP VP Syntactic Categories
Det N V NP
the child found Det N Lexical Categories-lowest
categories in the tree.
the puppy
Node
More Phrase Structure Trees
S
NP VP
Det N V NP PP
the boy saw Det N P NP
the man with Det N
the telescope
Three different structural positions representing three grammatical relations.
More Phrase Structure Trees
S
NP VP
Det N V NP
the PP
boy saw Det N P NP
the man with
Det N
Reveal ambiguities
the telescope
More Phrase Structure Trees
S
NP VP
Det N V
the
NP
boy saw Det N NP
NP
the
man P
N
Reveal ambiguities
with the
Det telescope
The Infinitude of Language
⚫ There is no longest sentence in any language
⚫ Speakers can lengthen any sentence by various means
⚫ Adding adjectives, clauses, etc.
The Infinitude of Language
⚫ Example: House that Jack built (nursery rhyme)
This is the farmer sowing the corn,
that kept the clock 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 Infinitude of Language
NP
Limitless aspect of language Is
Det N PP
reflected in phrase structure
P NP Trees.
Det N PP
P NP
Det N PP
P NP
Det N
the with the feather on the ribbon on the brim
girl
The Infinitude of Language
NP
But as the structures grow longer They
become more increasingly Difficult to
Det N PP
produce and understand.
P NP -due to short term memory
limitations
Det N PP -muscular fatigue*
-breathlessness, etc.*
P NP
Det N PP
P NP
Det N
the with the feather on the ribbon on the brim
girl
Phrase Structure Rule
S NP VP
l NP (Det) (Adj) N (PP)
P NP that S
P NP Pro
P VP V (NP) (PP) (Adv)
v PP P NP
Phrase Structure Rule
1. S NP VP
the boy found the ball
2. NP (Det) (Adj) N (PP)
the beautiful girl on the piano
Phrase Structure Rule
3. NP that S
NP
that S
I love Jenny
Phrase Structure Rule
S
NP VP
NP NP NP NP
the suitor knows that S
“Embedded”
I love Jenny
Phrase Structure Rule
4. NP Pro
I, You, We
5. VP V (NP) (PP) (Adv)
blew the boat into the water suddenly
Phrase Structure Rule
6. PP P NP
of the people
for the people
by the
people
Rules in other language
⚫ Sweden
⚫ NP N Det
⚫ Mann en
⚫ Japan
⚫ PP NP P
⚫ Tokyo kara
Any question?
S
NP VP
Pro V Pro
I thank you
