Download Introduction to Linguistics - An

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
Mary ate a banana yesterday
Symbols used in Syntactic Description
S: Sentence
NP : Noun Phrase
VP : Verb Phrase
PP: Prepositional Phrase
AP: Adjective Phrase
AdvP: 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
AdvP 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 car carefully.
6. The small child saw an elephant.
7. The performance was very beautiful.
8. The old lady hit a man with an umbrella.