Download Introduction to Linguistics - An

Introduction to Linguistics
Ms. Suha Jawabreh
Lecture 19
The Components of Language
1. Sounds – Phonetics and Phonology
2. Words – Morphology
3. Phrases and sentences- Syntax
4. Meaning- Semantics and Pragmatics
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.
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.
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.
Deep and surface structure
Examples
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.