Download Language and Cognition Colombo, June 2011

Language and Cognition
Colombo, June 2011
Day 2
Introduction to Linguistic Theory, Part 4
Plan
• Syntactic movement
• Theta theory (syntax meets semantics)
Transformational grammar
• Chomsky (1957, 1965)
– Two stages phrase structures for a sentence
• Build Deep Structure
– Build from phrase structure rules
– One constituent at a time
S --> NP VP
VP --> V (NP)
NP --> (A) (ADJ) N
• Convert to Surface Structure
– Built from transformations that operate on the deep
structure
» Adding, deleting, moving
– Operate on entire strings of constituents
Transformational grammar
• 1 deep structure, 2 surface
structures:
– Active/passive sentences:
• The man bit the dog.
• The dog was bitten by the man.
Passive transformation rule:
NP1 + V + NP2 ---> NP2 + be + V + -en + by + NP1
• 2 deep structures, 1 surface
structure:
• Sherlock saw the man with binoculars
Syntactic movement
• The sailor is kissing the girl
• Who is the sailor kissing?
• The sailor is kissing who
• Who is the sailor tis kissing tthe girl/who?
Psycholinguistic evidence for trace
• evidence for reactivation of moved constituent at
the trace position
Deep structure
S
NP
Surface structure
S
VP
NP
VP
The car
VP
NP
PP
was put the car in the
garage
NP
PP
was put (trace) in the garage
probe
Movement transformation
VP
Some
“activation”
of car
Cross modal priming experiments
I to C movement
Bruce can play the didgeridoo.
Can Bruce play the didgeridoo?
He might annoy the neighbours.
Might he annoy the neighbours?
He has lost his mind.
Has he lost his mind?
The earplugs are helping.
Are the earplugs helping?
• In each of the derived questions above, the auxiliary verb {can,
might, has, are}has moved from its original position to the front of
the sentence
• This kind of movement, previously referred to as ‘Subject-Auxiliary
Inversion’, is now described as I to C movement
I to C movement
• Notice that S = IP
• C is a functional
head that has a
projection higher
than the level of
the sentence
• The moved
element is shown
with an arrow
attached, linking it
to its original
position
• The trace of
movement is
marked with a t
Under the old system…
What about empty Infl?
• Insertion of a dummy auxiliary – a placeholder
Multiple movements
Let’s do one together….
• Using either PS rules or the X-bar style trees,
draw diagrams for the following sentences,
showing the movement:
– The boy ate the apple
– Did the boy eat the apple?
– What did the boy eat?
Introduction to theta theory
• Sentence = predicate (an expression denoting an event or a
state) and a set of arguments (the participants in the event)
• The arguments of a verb = the subject and object
• Complements of verbs = objects: they are positioned inside
the first projection of the V, so they are called internal
arguments
• Subjects are positioned outside the verb’s first projection,
so they are called external arguments
• But arguments can be understood in different ways – they
play different roles in the events denoted by the predicate
•  a typology of thematic roles
Thematic roles
• Theme or Patient:
• Agent or Causer:
• Experiencer:
• Recipient or Possessor:
• Goal:
entity undergoing the effect of
some action
Mary fell over
the instigator of some action
John kissed Mary
entity experiencing some
psychological state
Bill felt sad
entity receiving or possessing
something
Mary got John a gift
entity towards which something
moves
John went home
Mapping
• It’s not enough to “know” (implicitly) what the structure
of a sentence is
• We also have to know how to interpret the structure
• So we need knowledge of thematic roles
• Thematic roles are assigned in structural relations – e.g.
the Verb assigns a thematic role (usually Theme) to its
complement
• Items in other positions get other thematic roles – Agent
is usually in specifier position near the verb (sister to a
higher projection)
• Some lexical items assign specific thematic roles – e.g.
prepositions like by
Mapping
• This all becomes very important when we look at grammatical knowledge
in aphasia
• Theta-roles: assignment of interpretive roles to syntactic objects
subject verb
object
Grammatical roles
John kissed Mary
Theta roles
Agent
Patient
• Non-canonical word order  reliance on grammatical structure
object
verb
subject
John was kissed by Mary
Agent??
• To be continued…..
Patient??