Exam 2 Practice

Grammar

The analysis of the structure of phrases and sentences

Grammatical categories

Parts of speech/word class: Noun, verb, adjective, adverb, article, and conjunction

The prescriptive approach to grammar

A set of rules for the “proper” use of English

→ Thou shall not split an infinitive (“to” + “verb”)

→ Thou shall not end a sentence with a preposition

• Who did you go (with) ?

The descriptive approach to grammar

• Describes how the grammar of a language

• Structural Analysis

  • The distribution of forms in language using test-frames: “I saw ___ this morning.”

• Constituent (Component) Analysis

  • Labeled and bracketed sentences

  • Hierarchical organization

Constituent Analysis

Also known as component analysis.

• Labeled and bracketed sentences

• Hierarchical organization

What semantic feature must a noun have in order to be used in this sentence?

• The __ were eating dinner

[+animate]

Using semantic features, how would you explain the oddness of these sentences?

• The television drank my coffee

• His lizard paints houses

• Verb drink requires a subject with the feature [+animate]

• lizards aren’t human or capable of painting houses

Semantic Role: Noun Phrases

• Ways to describe words based on the “role” they play in a situation or sentence

• Also known as “Thematic Roles”

Agent

The thematic role that is the volitional causer of an event/action (verb).

Ex. The [girl] kicked the soccer ball

Experiencer

The person who has a feeling, perception, or state (copular verb can be a clue)

Ex. [Maurice] is elated; [Angie] heard a plane

Theme

The thematic role that shows that the entity most directly affected by/involved in an event/action.

Ex. Mary took [the candy] from the pantry

Instrument

If an agent uses another entity to perform an action, that entity fills the role of instrument. (preposition like ‘with’ is a clue)

Ex. She painted the picture with [a toothbrush pick]

Identify the roles of the seven noun phrases.

“With her new gold club, Anee Marshall whacked the ball from the woods to the grassy area near the hole and she suddenly felt invincible.”

• her new gold club = instrument

• Anne Marshall = agent

• The ball = theme

• the woods = source

• the grassy area = goal

• she = experiencer

Lexical relations

exploring words in terms of their “relationship” with other words

Synonymy (Synonyms)

• Two or more words with very closely related meanings

• Could potentially be substituted for one another in a sentence

• Can represent regional differences of a word’s meaning [soda/Coke/pop]May be a result of a formal v. informal use (automobile/car)

Antonymy (Antonyms)

• Two words with opposite meanings.

• Gradable

  • comparative constructions (small, smaller, smallest)

  • the negative use of one does not imply the opposite (not old is not the same as new)

• Non-gradable

  • complementary pairs

  • The negative use of one does imply the opposite (not true = false; not married = single) Direct opposites

• Reversives

  • Words which imply the reverse of the other (dress/undress, enter/exit)

Hyponymy

• Words in which the meaning of one is included in the other

• Examining word meaning as a hierarchy

• Superordinate

A word’s relationship to other words

• Synonymy (not total Sameness)

• Hyponymy

Which of the following opposite (antonyms) are gradable, non-gradable, or reversive?

1. absent/present

2. appear/disappear

3. fail/pass

4. fair/unfair

5. fill it/empty it

6. high/low

1. non-gradable

2. reversive

3. non-gradable

4. gradable

5. reversive

6. gradable

Prototypes

• characteristic instance of a category

• A sparrow is a prototypical bird

• A carrot is a prototypical vegetable

Homophones

• different meanings, sound the same, spelled differently

• Two or more different words that sound the same but have different written forms (flour/flower)

Homonyms

• different meanings, sound the same, spelled the same

• When one word form (spoken or written) has 2 or more different meanings, separate dictionary entries, separate histories

Polysemy

• similar meanings, spelled the same

• Two or more words with the same form, but have related meaning; one dictionary entry, multiple meanings

• Date on a calendar, date as in appointment

• run; people do, water does, colors do

Metonymy

• close connection between words in everyday experience: may use one to refer to the other; a figure of speech = think “metaphor”

• representative symbol: white house/president; king/crown; whole part; car/wheels

• Container contents; bottle/water; bag/chips

Collocation

• words that frequently occur together

What is the basic lexical relation between each pair of words?

• assemble/disassemble

• damp/moist

• deep/shallow

• dog/labrador

• furniture/table

• married/single

• exercise/run

• peace/piece

• pen/pen

• antonymy (reversives)

• synonymy

• antonymy (gradable)

• hyponymy

• hyponymy

• antonymy (non-gradable)

• hyponymy

• homophony (homophones)

• homonymy (homonyms)

The original word game

demonstration of relationship between comprehension and production

The original word game: demonstration of relationship between comprehension and production

Adult labels object “ball” → Child forms hypothesis about its nature (conceptualizes ball) → Child test hypothesis by applying label “ball” to other objects → Adult monitors child’s accuracy between adult and child version of “ball” → Adult improves child’s accuracy for providing evaluative feedback → Child’s comprehension and production are fine tune

Word-Learning

• Auditory cure → Phonological Representation → Word Representation

Joint Attention

is triadic and involves:

1. Self-referenced information processing

2. Other referenced information processing

3. Object or Event information processing

Semantic Development

• 1 to 1 ½: Toddlers develop around a 20 word vocabulary during this time

• 2: By the time a child is 2 years old, he/she will have a 200-300 word vocabulary

• 3: Vocabulary grows to be about 900-1,000 words by the time a child is 3 years old

• 4: The typical 4 year old child will have about a 1,5000-1,600 word vocabulary

• 5: By the time a child reaches school age and heads to kindergarten, he/she will have between a 2,100 and 2,300 word vocabulary

Yule Grammar and Syntax

Yule Chapter 7 pp. 92-101

Antonyms (Gradable or Non-Gradable)

• Hot/Cold

• Loud/Quiet

• Happy/Sad

• Innocent/Guilty

• True/False

• Unique/Ordinary

• Wet/Dry

Gradable: Hot/Cold, Loud/Quiet, Happy/Sad, Wet/Dry

Not gradable: Innocent/Guilty, True/False, Unique/Ordinary

What is grammar?

It is the analysis of the structure of phrases and sentences.

Yule language typology

pg 106 Table 7.3

something important yule

page 21

What are grammatical categories?

grammatical categories are parts of speech/word class. This includes Nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, articles and conjunctions

What is the difference between prescriptive and descriptive approach grammar?

• The prescriptive approach to grammar is a set of rules for the “proper” use of English such as “Thou shalt not split an infinitive (“to” + “verb”) “ and “thou shalt not end a sentence with a preposition (Who did you go (with) )?”

• On the other hand, the descriptive approach to grammar describes how the grammar of a language is actually used. Examples of this include structural analysis (The distribution of forms in a language using test-frames: “I saw __ this morning”) and constituent (component) analysis (labeled and bracketed sentences and hierarchical organization).

Which of the following words are co-hyponyms?

A. Ant

B. Cabbage

C. Insect

D. Plant

E. Turnip

F. Vegetable

E. Turnip and B. Cabbage

Module 5.3 Video

Chomsky and the Lad

What are Parts of Speech?

Parts of speech are lexical categories. This includes nouns, pronouns, verbs, adverbs, adjectives, conjunctions, prepositions. and interjections

What is grammar comprised of?

Grammar is comprised of parts of speech (lexical categories)

Nouns refers to

a person, object, place, qualities, phenomena, and abstract idea

Verbs refer to

actions and states of being

Adverbs modify

a verb, adjective, and adverb

Conjunctions are

words used to make connections

Pronouns are

words used in place of noun phrases

Adjectives describe

a noun or pronoun

prepositions are used with

nouns to give information about time, place or other connections

Determiners/articles are used with

nouns to form noun phrases

Schoolhouse rock adverb video

Lolly Lolly Lolly Get Your Adverbs Here

Adverbs modify

• Verbs

  • Can end in -ly: I ate my ice cream slowly

  • Can tell where: I will run there

  • Can tell when: I will run tonight

  • Can tell how: I will run fast

  • Can tell all three: Tonight, I will run there quickly

• Adjectives (how much)

  • The really small cat climbed the tree

• Other adverbs (how much)

  • The cat almost never climbed the tree

How do adverbs modify adjectives?

They describe how much there is. (Ex. The (really) small cat climbed the tree)

How do adverbs modify other adverbs?

They describe (how much) (Ex. The cat almost never climbed the tree)

What are nouns?

subjects/objects. person, place, thing or an abstract

Pronouns serve as

a subject or object and takes the place of a noun

Verbs include

action words, state words (have, do, and be family copulas)

Adjectives include

words preceding and modifying nouns

Adverbs include

words that describe a verb, an adjective or another adverb. Where? When? How?

What do prepositions express?

It expresses a relation to another word or element in the clause. it can tell us where or when something is in relation to something else.

Prepositions are used with

nouns or pronouns in phrases to provide information about time, place, connections involving actions and things

What do conjunctions do?

Conjunctions male connections and demonstrate links between events. They connect two clauses or phrases.

When are determiners used?

Determiners are used prior to a noun to form the noun phrase

What do determiners include?

It includes articles (A, An, The), demonstratives (This, These, That, Those) and possessive pronouns (his, her, their)

What does a definitive article tell us?

It tells us something is specific. (Ex. “the pirate” is a specific pirate. The writer and readers know about him)

What does the indefinitive article?

It tells us something is non-specific. (Ex. “A pirate” refers to any pirate. He’s not known to the writer or the readers)

What are direct objects?

They answer the questions “what” or “who” the action happened to. They can be nouns, pronouns, phrases or clauses.

Direct objects can be

nouns, pronouns. phrases or clauses

What is the direct object in the following sentence? : “Brian baked a cake for Simone".”

a cake

What is the direct object in the following sentence? : “Sylina locked her keys in her car.”

her keys

What is the direct object in the following sentence? “Jerome kicked Mr.Smith in the chin.”

Mr.Smith

What is the direct object in the following sentence? : “The girl liked Davis after he brought her a rose.”

Davis

The direct object is the

recipient of an action in a clause or sentence. It is the thing being acted upon (i.e., the receiver of the action)

How can you find the direct object?

You can find the direct object by finding the verb and asking “what?” or “whom?”

What is the direct object in the following sentence? : “Tommy hit the ball.”

the ball

What is the indirect object?

The recipient of the direct object

How can you find the indirect object?

By finding the direct object and then asking who or what received it

Noun agreement

aingular= is, plural= are

What is the noun number agreement in the following sentence? : “The owls are colorful.”

owls are

Point of view

first person, second person, third person

First person

I, me, my, mine, we, us, our (narrator)

Second person

you, your, yours (listener)

Third person

he, she, it

Tense Agreement

Verbs, Present, Past

What is the tense in the following sentence? : "I want cake.”

Present

What is the tense in the following sentence?: “I wanted cake.”

Past tense

Voice agreement

active and passive voice

Active voice

The subject is doing the action.

Passive voice

The target of the action goes to the subject position

Which voice is present in the following sentence? : “She loves cake.”

Active voice

Which voice is present in the following sentence? : “The cake is loved by her.”

Passive voice

Gender agreement

male, female, masculine, feminine

What is the syntax breakdown for the following sentence? “Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.”

• Noun phrase: “Colorless green ideas”

• Noun phrase: “green ideas”

• Verb phrase: “sleep furiously”

• Adjective: Colorless

• Adjective: green

• Noun: ideas

• Verb: sleep

• Adverb: furiously

The Ling Space Syntax

General: Word Crimes and Misdemeanors

Yule Chapter 8

pp. 112-119

Where does syntax fall on the Bloom and Lahey (1978) Model of Interrelated Language Skills?

It falls under form, which deals with word order, word endings and speech

The “All” and “Only” criterion

Analysis must account for ALL the grammatically correct possibilities an only those in a given language. The rules must apply to all possible creations.

Generative Grammar

The small and finite set of rules in a language that allow for “infinite” creations of well-formed structures (e.g., phrases, sentences)

Break down the syntactic structure of the following sentence: “A fat man saw the timid dog.”

Noun Phrase: “A fat man”

Verb: “saw”

Noun Phrase: “the timid dog.”

Article: A

Adjective: fat

Noun: man

Article: the

Adjective: timid

Noun: dog

Constituent Analysis

Noun Phrases, Verbs, Verb Phrases, Prepositional Phrases