Studied by 6 people
The study of rules of sentence structure (words and elements for grammaticality), subcomponents of the lexicon and a computational system, syntactic structure-building operations move and merge, syntactic categories: lexical and functional and its criteria to determine it (meaning, inflection and distribution), the phrase structure, tests for phrase structure, deep and surface structure,
SYNTAX
Syntax is the subcomponent of grammar that studies rules whereby words or other elements of sentence structure are combined to form grammatical sentences.
grammaticality
An utterance is grammatical if native speakers judge it to be a possible sentence in their language. Not any combination of words will produce a well-formed sentence.
Transformational Grammar (and syntax) places an emphasis on Universal Grammar, which is the system of categories, operations and principles that are shared by all languages.
Syntactic subcomponents of any grammar
THE LEXICON is the mental dictionaty that includes the languages words, along with their pronunciation, their form (syntac. cat., inflectional properties and subcategorization info.), and meaning.
A COMPUTATIONAL SYSTEM which includes two types or operations to combine and arrange words in particular ways:
Merge, combines elements to create phrases and sentences, and
Move, transports an element to a new position within a particular sentence.
Syntactic Categories
There are lexical categ. (important role in sentence formation) and funcional cat. (meaning that are harder to define and paraphrase).
The classification reflects factors as the type of meaning that the word expresses, the type of affixes that can take and the types of structures in which they can occur.
CRITERIA TO DETERMINE IT
MEANING: (not always a straightforward relationship btw cat and meaning)
nouns → typically entities.
verbs → actions, sensations and states.
Adjectives → property or attribute of the entities.
Adverbs → property or attribute of actions, sensation or state.
INFLECTION: (not always provide the info needed to determine cat.)
most nouns can be pluralized
verbs can be inflected by tenses
(some) adjectives can be expresses in the comparative or superlative form
DISTRIBUTION: (most reliable criterion as involves the type of elements with which it can co-ocurr)
nouns typically occur with a determiner
verbs with an auxiliary
adjectives with a degree word
Phrase structure - X’ Schema
Sentences have a hierarchical design in which words are grouped together into successively larger units (phrases).
Typical phrase or X’ schema: can be broken into 3 parts: head, specifier and complement.
All phrases have a 3-level structure [XP, X’ and X]
All phrases contain a head (X) → obligatory
a complement is attached at the intermediate level (X’) in sister relation to the head
a specifier is attached at the XPhrase level
Head is the obligatory element around which a phrase is built. Categories that can be head of the phrase: Nouns, Verbs, ADJectives and PREPositions. The head determines the Syntactic Category of the Phrase.
Specifiers appear in a partic. phrase depending on the cat. of the head. DETerminers are specifiers of N, preverbal ADVerbs are specifiers of V and DEEGree words are specifiers of ADJ and some PREP. Syntactically, specifiers mark a phrase boundary. Semantically, they help make the meaning of the head more precisely.
Complements are in themselves phrases that provide info. about entities and locations whose existence is implied by the meaning of the head.
SENTENCE - BUILDING OPERATIONS
MERGE OPERATION combines words and phrases in a manner compatible with the X’ schema and the subcategorization properties of individual words. The continued application of the merge operation to additional words can lead to the formation of phrases and sentences of unlimited complexity.
⇒ Complemented with the Tests for Phrase Structure and Complement Options
MOVE OPERATION accomodates patterns that cannot be built through the merge operation with inversion/transformation, do-insertion and wh-movement.
All instances of the merge operation take place before any instances of the move operation. As a result, the derivation of a sentence typically yields two distinct levels of syntactic structure. (Deep and Surface Structure)
X’ Schema - SENTENCES
SENTENCES: The largest units of syntatic analysis. They have as the head an abstract category called dubbed I (inflection) that indicates the sentence’s tense.
→ The I category takes a VP as its complement and the sentence’s subject NP as its specifiers.
The tense feature in I must be compatible with the form of the verb:
The feature +Past must contain a verb marked for past tense, and -Past for present tense
I, like all heads, is obligatory, we also account for the fact that all sentences have tense. → This analysis gives sentences the same internal structure as other phrases.
Modals have an inherent tense and they occur between the subject and the VP in the position reserved for the head of the sentence.
Tests for Phrase Structure (Formalists)
The existence of the syntactic units, or constituents, found in tree structures can be independently verified with the help of special tests: ([NOTE]: Formalists came up with them)
SUBSTITUTION TEST: Phrases are syntactic units, so they can often be replaced by a pro form (an element, such as it, they, do so). The string of words can be replaced by a single word; the elements that do not form a constituent cannot be replaced in this way.
E.G: The girl found her dress in the kitchen → She found it there
⇒ The sentence is still grammatically correct and still makes sense.
MOVEMENT TEST: Phrases can be moved as a single unit to a different position within the sentence.
E.G: “in the kitchen” can be moved from a position after the verb to the beginning of the sentence: “in the kitchen, the girl found her dress”
COORDINATION TEST: Phrases can be joined to another group of words by a conjunction, such as and, or, but.
E.G: The girl found her dress in the kitchen and near the bedroom.
NOTE: the phrase must be one of the same status/ category
COMPLEMENT OPTIONS - Subcategorization
Information about the complements permitted by a particular head is included in its entry in a speaker’s lexicon
E.G.→ the lexicon for English includes an entry for the lexeme “CUT“ that indicates its syntactic category (V), its phonological representation /kʌt/, its meaning and the fact that it takes a NP complement.
⇒ This information must be stored in the lexicon, since it cannot be predicted from a word’s meaning. → The term subcategorization is used to refer to information about a word’s complement options.
Subcategorization information helps ensure that lexical items appear in the appropriate types of tree structures.
E.G: → “cut“ belongs to the subcategory of verbs that require a NP comp; therefore, we are permitting it to occur in patterns.
A word can belong to more than one subcategory - “eat“ can occur with or without NP comp.
COMPLEMENT CLAUSES: All human languages allow sentence-like constructions to function as complements.
That // Whether // If: Complementizers - They take an IP complement, forming the CP (Complementizer Phrase)
E.G: “the boss believes that our team will win”. → The complement clause is embedded in the matrix clause.
There is NO limit on the number of embedded clauses that can occur in a sentence, since any CP can contain a verb that itself takes a complement CP.
Move operation
Inversion/Transformation: moves the auxiliary from the I position to an empty C position in front of the subject NP.
This gives the correct word order for question structure and explains why inversion sounds unnatural when the C position is already taken by another element.
Under the transformational analysis, ALL auxiliaries originate inside the sentence: Auxiliaries that occur in front of the subject, simply undergo an extra process → the move operation that transports the I category in front of the subject in order to signal a question.
Move applies to structures such as “that girl should leave“ and moves the aux v. in I to a new position in front of the subject “Should that girl t leave“ ⇒ BOTH have the same basic structure. They differ only in that the move operation has applied to the I category in the interrogative structure.
Do-insertion: inserts the interrogative ‘Do’ into an empty I position. “Do“ is inserted into sentences that do not have an aux v. already, thereby making inversion possible
E.G: “Those birds sing“ → “Those birds do sing“ → “Do those birds t sing?”
Wh-movement: moves a wh-phrase to the specifier position under CP. The wh-word replaces the NP, VP, etc. that was removed, so it takes the position the NP, VP, etc. had before.
The Wh-movement cannot eliminate any part of the previously formed structure. The position initially occupied by the wh-phrase is therefore not lost. Rather, it remains a trace (an empty category) indicating that the moved element corresponds to the complement of the verb
E.G: “your father works where“ → “Where does your father t work t“
DEEP AND SURFACE STRUCTURE
All instances of the merge operation take place before any instances of the move operation. As a result, the derivation* of a sentence typically yields two distinct levels of syntactic structure:
Deep Structure or (D-S) is formed by the merge operation in accordance with subcategorization properties and the X’ schema.
Surface Structure or (S-S) corresponds to the final syntactic form of the sentence, and it results from applying whatever other operations are appropriate for the sentence in question.
*The merge operation creates tree structures by combining categories in a manner consistent with the subcategorization properties and the X’ schema, while the move operation can then modify these tree structures by moving an element from one position to another. ⇒ The process whereby a syntactic structure is formed by these operations is called DERIVATION
UNIVERSAL GRAMMAR & PARAMETRIC VARIATION
Recent work on Universal Grammar (UG) suggests that all languages are fundamentally alike with respect to the basics of syntax. For instance, all languages use the Merge operation to combine words on the basis of their syntactic category and subcategorization properties, creating phrases that comply with the X’ schema.
However, this doesn’t mean that all languages must be alike in all respects. UG leaves room for variation, allowing individual languages to differ with respect to certain parameters.
UG provides all languages with the same general type of syntactic mechanism, which includes a merge operation that combines words in accordance with their syntactic category and their subcategorization properties, creating a representation called DEEP STRUCTURE. This structure must comply with the X’ schema, which stipulates the place of heads, specifiers, and complements in phrase structure. Move operations (transformations) can modify deep structure by moving words and phrases in particular ways to produce the SURFACE STRUCTURE.
Although the form of sentences can vary considerably from language to language, such differences can, for the most part, be attributed to a small set of parameters, each of which makes available a variety of alternatives from which individual languages may choose.
Grammar and Syntax — Andrew Radford — THEORY
Grammar is the study of principles which govern the formation and interpretation of words, phrases and sentences.
In terms of the traditional division of grammar into morphology and syntax, we can say that morphology studies the formation and interpretation of words, whereas syntax is concerned with the formation and interpretation of phrases and sentences.
“Native speakers have grammatical competence in their native language” → they have tacit knowledge of the grammar of their language – i.e. of how to form and interpret words, phrases and sentences in the language. → This is a cognitive view of the nature of grammar as it is part of the more general study of cognition
Chomsky has drawn a distinction between:
Competence: the fluent native speaker’s tacit knowledge of his language → “the speaker-hearer’s knowledge of his language”
Performance: what people actually say or understand by what someone else says on a given occasion → “the actual use of language in concrete situations.”
Grammars traditionally set out to tell you what you need to know about a language in order to have native speaker competence in the language. Thus, grammar is more concerned with competence rather than performance.
According to Chomsky, we study language as a cognitive system internalized within the human brain and our goal is to characterize the nature of the internalized linguistic system (I-language) which enables humans to speak and understand their native language.
In devising a grammar, the attempt is to describe the grammatical knowledge possessed by the fluent native speaker. But it is inaccessible given the unconscious awareness of such processes; thus, comptence has to be studied indirectly.
SOURCES OF INTROSPECTIVE EVIDENCE ABOUT GRAMMAR: The nature of grammatical competence lies in the native speaker’s intuitions about the grammaticality and interpretation of words, phrases and sentences in their native language.
Intuitions are the richest source of readily available evidence about the nature of grammatical competence.
Any native speaker is capable of recognizing ungrammatical words, phrases and sentences in their native language, solely with their intuition which forms part of their grammatical competence.
They have the ability to make grammatical judgments about words, phrases and sentences in their native language → the ability to judge whether particular expressions are grammatical or ungrammatical within their native language.
A second source is related to native speaker’s intuitions about the interpretation of words, phrases and sentences in their native language.
E.G: Any native speaker of English can tell you that a sentence, such as “Sam loves you more than Jim” is ambiguous, and has two different interpretations:
a. Sam loves you more than Jim loves you
b. Sam loves you more than Sam loves Jim
It can be said that the native speaker’s grammatical competence is reflected nor only in intuitions about grammaticality but also in intuitions about interpretation of words, phrases and sentences in their native language.
DESCRIPTIVELY ADEQUATE GRAMMAR - Theory of Grammar
Each grammar of any language is DESCRIPTIVELY ADEQUATE if it correctly describes whether any given sequence of words in a language is or is not grammatical, and also correctly describes what interpretation(s) the relevant sequence has. This is the primary concern of a descriptive linguist.
The primary concern of a theoretical linguist is to devise a THEORY OF GRAMMAR (a set of hypotheses about the nature of possible and impossible grammars of natural languages); in other words, the common characteristics of all grammars.
There are a number of criteria that any adequate theory of grammar must satisfy:
Universality: A theory of grammar should provide us with the tools to describe the grammar of any natural language adequately.
Explanatory Adequacy: The theory should explain why grammars have the properties they do. There are levels of adequacy:
Descriptive: it should be able to show what is acceptable / unacceptable in one language
Explanatory: it can account for all the grammars and all the languages, and be able to explain what is possible in grammars of all languages.
Restrictive: The theory of language must be maximally restrictive: it should provide us with technical devices which are so constrained in their expressive power that they can only be used to describe natural languages, and are inappropriate for the description of other communication systems, like animals’ communication system or artificial language.
Learnability: It must provide grammars which are learnable by young children in a relatively short period of time. A related requirement is that linguistic theory should provide grammars which make use of minimal theoretical apparatus, i.e. grammars should be as simple as possible.
In sum, a theory of grammar is concerned with characterizing the general properties and organization of grammars of natural languages. Any adequate theory of language should be universal, explanatory and restrictive, and it should provide grammars which are minimally complex, and hence learnable.
Theory of Acquisition of Grammar
This theory is concerned with how children acquire grammars of their native language.
The most fundamental questions that an acquisition theory seeks to answer is: “How and when do children develop an initial grammar of the language they are acquiring, and what are the subsequent stages they go through in their grammatical development?“
CHOMSKY’S INNATENESS HYPOTHESIS OF LANGUAGE ACQUISITION posits that acquisition is determined by a biologically endowed innate language faculty within the brain, which provides children with a (genetically transmitted) algorithm for developing a grammar, on the basis of their linguistic experience (the speech input they receive.)
The child’s linguistic experience of the language is made up by the set of expressions that the child hears — and the contexts in which they are used. This experience serves as input to the child’s language faculty, which provides the child with a procedure for analyzing the experience in such a way to devise a grammar of the language being acquired. Thus, the input to the language faculty is the child’s experience, and the output of the language faculty is a grammar of the language being acquired.
Chomsky maintains that language acquisition is an activity unique to human beings, and different in kind from any other type of learning human beings experience, so that learning a language involves mental processes entirely distinct from those involved in, for instance, learning to play chess.
TO SUPPORT THE VALIDITY OF THIS HYPOTHESIS Chomsky evidences that:
Language acquisition is a species-specific ability possessed only by human beings;
it is an ability that all human beings possess, independently of their general intelligence;
the apparent uniforminy in the pattern of acquisition suggests that children have genetic guidance in the task of constructing a grammar of their native language;
the rapidity of acquisition also points to genetic guidance in grammar construction;
the fact that language acquisition is an entirely subconscious and involuntary activity (one cannot choose whether or not to acquire the native language) and it is a largely unguided activity (as it is not necessary to teach to talk)
What makes the uniformity and rapidity more remarkable is the fact that the child’s linguistic experience is often degenerate (imperfect) as it is based on linguistic performance of adult speakers.
The language faculty is partly endowed by nature in humans and it’s also partly acquired by the incorporated of a set of universal grammar principles.
The child’s language faculty incorporates a Theory of UG which includes: *Principles and Parameters Theory*
A set of principles of grammar structure
A set of structural parameters which impose severe constraints on the range of structural variation permitted in natural languages.
Principles and Parameters Theory
The language faculty is partly endowed by nature in humans and it’s also partly acquired by the incorporated of a set of universal grammar principles. In seeking to determine the nature of the language faculty, universal principles are looked for to determine the very structure of language.
Principles govern the kinds of grammatical operations which are (and are not) permissible in natural languages. → principles of such an abstract nature that they could not possible have been learnt on the basis of experience.
They will constrain the application of every grammatical operation in every language.
PRINCIPLES AND PARAMETERS THEORY: assumes that abstract grammatical principles which are universal are part of our biological endowment; they are wired into the language faculty, and thus, form part of the child’s genetic blueprint for a grammar.
PRINCIPLES are properties (abstract and invariant) shared by all human languages. These govern the formation of sencences as they are built-in in all minds, and they are universal as they do not vary from one person to another.
PARAMETERS are language specific properties that offer at least two options (binary choices). They can vary according to the particular language the person knows.
Structure dependence principle — All grammatical operations are structure-dependent: grammatical operations only apply to certain types of structures, not others.
this principle presupposes knowledge of the grammatical structure of a given sentence: the grammatical categories of the expressions in the sentence and what grammatical function they serve.
It specifies that all grammatical operations are sensitive to the grammatical structure of the sentence they apply to.
The innate language faculty incorporates a set of universal grammatical principles: EXPERIENCE OF LANG. → UG → GRAMMAR OF LANG.
➸ The child’s experience is processed by the UG module which is an integral part of the language faculty.
➸ Since UG principles do not have to be learnt by the child as they’re innately endowed, the theory of UG minimizes the burden of grammatical learning imposed on the child, and thereby maximizes the learnability of natural language grammars.
➸ Although there are universal principles which determine the broad outlines of the grammatical structure of words, phrases and sentences in every natural language, there are also language particular aspects of grammatical structure which children have to learn as part of the task of acquiring their native language. Therefore, language acquisition involves:
lexical learning (vocabulary)
structural learning
➸ Since universal principles of grammar structure do not have to be learnt by the child, the structural learning will be limited to those parameters of grammatical structure which are subject to language particular variation.
By examining structural learning, it tells us about the process of language acquisition which is subjected to parameters of grammatical structure, such as:
Null subject Parameter ⇒ It’s a binary parameter with only two possible settings: a language does or does not allow finite verbs to have null subject.
Wh-Parameter ⇒ The parameter which determines whether wh-expressions can be fronted or not. It’s binary in nature, since it allows for only 2 possibilities: a language does/does not allow wh-movement
Head (position) Parameter ⇒ It has to do with the relative positioning of heads with respect to their complements: a language can be head first (EN) or head-last (Korean).
IMPLICATIONS OF THIS THEORY:
Such a model would reduce the complexity of the acquisition task which children face
the child’s learning task will be further simplified if it turns out that the value which a parameter can have fall within a narrowly specified range (binary choices).
This theory accounts also for the fact that the acquisition of specific parameters appears to be a remarkably rapid and error-free process in young children.
!!!!! UG is in part innate and in part acquired → Principles are INNATE and Parameters are ACQUIRED. (Parameters are innate in the sense that these binary alternatives are part of the UG) but through exposure we SET THE PARAMETER to the right value.
Note 
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