Language Structure PP#7 - SYNTAX
2. Adjuncts
**Expressions that are purely optional, can have multiple occurrences of them, & they can be ordered freely. **multiple, freely order, optional, as many as you want (sometimes whole phrases can be adjuncts) *adjuncts - CAN BE THERE BUT DON'T HAVE TO BE - they are NOT necessary -expressions that are purely optional, can have multiple occurrences of them, and they can be ordered freely -tend to modify -when you take the adjuncts out, you still have a perfectly functioning sentence *arguments are necessary, adjuncts are not Ex. 1. Attributive Adjectives (Modifiers) Sally likes small brown fluffy dogs. Ex. 2. Other types of Modifiers Sally went to France last year in July with some friends. Expression can be an argument in 1 sentence but an adjunct in another: 1. Sally urged Bob to study French. Argument of urged 2. Sally went to France to study French. Adjunct (You need to be careful because it can be different dependeing on the sentence Ex- sent. 1 "to study French" is an argument and in the 2nd sentence, it's an adjunct)
1. Arguments
**If the occurrence of expression X in a sentence requires the occurrence of expression Y, then Y is the argument of X -If something in a sentence requires something else, then you have an ARGUMENT **they are required, you have to have as many as needed no more no less, tend to wrap themselves around verbs** Sally devoured an apple. *Sally devoured. *Devoured an apple. Devoured requires 2 arguments: Non-subject arguments called Compliments: *Sally wondered an apple. Sally wondered about Bob. *Sally devoured about Bob. Sally devoured an apple. If something in a sentence requires something else, then you have an ARGUMENT (ex. You can't just say Sally devoured) - you need 2 ARGUMENTS - need to say who is doing it and what is being devoured Any non-subject argument is called a ****COMPLIMENT*** Sally can't wonder an apple (need 2 arguments and they need to make sense) -arguments don't just have to be noun phrases (you can say 'about bob')
Syntactic Constituent
**are the smaller expressions out of which the phrase was constructed that are tightly bound. Ex: "an apple" in Sally ate an apple. Things that hold tightly together - syntactic constituency Constituents: Chunks in a sentence that hang together pretty tightly, they can be long or short, can be any number of words in a sentence that you intuitively know go together
3. Agreements
*distinct expressions in a sentence may be required to have the same value for a grammatical feature, they agree pretty much just number/amount that matches in English... examples below Ex: Demonstratives agree in number with nouns in number This girl came. These girls came. *This girls came. *These girl came. Ex: 3rd Person Singular Verb agreement Sandy likes Bob. *Sandy like Bob. {I/you/we/they} like Bob. *{I/you/we/they} likes Bob. - these don't work Of number agreement - demonstrative has to agree with the noun (my toys, these toys instead of this toy) Person - subjective/verb Ex. Sandy LIKES bob (not sandy like bob) *****Agreement in Other Languages: [Grammatical Gender doesn't have to do with physical gender (some Languages don't even have gender in grammar)] -Gender agreements in Spanish & Italian
Syntax
*the process of forming sentences and phrases, : the study of language structure
2. Independent Relation
1. "colorless green ideas sleep furiously'.... -Grammatically correct but does NOT make sense (Meaningless) 2. "me bought dog" ......... grammatically INCORRECT but DOES make sense (has meaning) Example #3) Sally ate an apple vs Sally devoured an apple (some commonality) Sally ate. (can stand on it's own) Sally devoured. (cannot stand on its own) THIS SHOWS THAT THERE ARE DIFFERENT KINDS OF VERBS
How to Determine What is a Constituent:
1. Answers to the Questions Ex: The Cat was sleeping on the desk. Where was the cat sleeping? On the desk. What was the cat doing? Sleeping on the desk. Who was sleeping on the desk? The cat. 2. Clefting (displacing a constituent to the left, It was X that Y) The cat was sleeping on the desk. It was on the desk that the cat was sleeping. It was the cat that was sleeping on the desk. 3. Coordination (any syntactic constituent can be an argument of a coordinating conjunction) Ex: The cat was sleeping on the desk. The cat was sleeping on the desk and snoring. (adding and or but and continuing the sentence)
Co-occurrence
1. Arguments 2. Adjuncts 3. Agreements
SYNTAX: RELATIONT TO SEMANTICS
1. Intimate Relation 2. Independent Relation **Relationship between grammaticality, syntax, and semantics : IT'S INDEPENDENT (b/c you can have a well formed meaningless sentence, and a well formed sentence that is meaningful) -IN EVERYDAY LIFE, THE RELATIONSHIP IS INTIMATE AND THESE THINGS OVERLAP sometimes they relate well, sometimes they are independent
Comparing Arguments vs Adjuncts: ADJUNCTS
ADJUNCTS: 1. Optional The cat was sleeping on the table. The fluffy cat was sleeping. The cat was sleeping. 2. Can Have as Many as You Like: Sally left. Sally left yesterday. Sally left yesterday at noon. 3. Can Be Freely Ordered re Each Other: Sally left yesterday at noon. Sally left at noon yesterday. *MUST BE ABLE TO DISTINGUISH THESE 2 AND KNOW WHAT COMPLIMENTS ARE
Comparing Arguments vs Adjuncts: ARGUMENTS
ARGUMENTS: 1. Obligatory: Sally seemed happy. *seemed happy. *Sally seemed. 2. Cannot Have More Than Required: Sally seemed happy. *Sally Bob seemed happy. *Sally seemed happy cute. 3. Cannot Be Freely Ordered: Sally put the book on the table. *Sally put on the table the book.
Word order
ENGLISH: SUBJECT VERB OBJECT (about 35% of languages follow this) -but there are exceptions (ex. Passives) Sally walked. Sally ate an apple. these are fine! But you can't have "Walked Sally" and "Ate Sally an apple". When you violate word order, you have to do something to alert your listeners that you're doing something different (switching order, out of ordinary) change in pitch, voice goes up in asking a question. Word order in English helps us to understand the underlying meaning of the syntax -when we violate the SVO order, the message can get confused -questions violate word order! (we change intonation to indicate these changes to our audience) -passives *word order can be the glue most times between semantics and syntax -a determiner can only go before a noun -an adj can only go before a noun too
More examples of determining constituents
EXAMPLE: ZELDA LIKED ZEKE. Who liked Zeke? Zelda. What did Zelda do? Really liked Zeke. The cat that they dog chased was fat. Constituents : the cat, was fat, chased, the dog, that the dog chased
Grammaticality
Native speakers can decide when a string of linguistic expressions is grammatical and well formed and which are not. A reflection of a speakers' mental grammar "We are going to quickly wrap up this paragraph and move onto the next file." -there is a difference between what we think is a grammatically okay sentence vs what society tell us is (prescriptive rules vs descriptive grammar rules) -when we talk about grammar, we are not necessarily talking about prescriptive rules Linguistic grammaticality (what we understand as grammatical because of our linguistic competance) and prescriptive grammaticality (what is suppose to be grammatical)
Another example
The big fat fluffy dog ate the cat. Arguments : dog and cat Adjunct: big, fat, fluffy
1. Intimate Relation
When the sentence/phrase is grammatically correct and makes sense semantically ***Principle of Compositionality : meaning of a sentence depends on the meaning of the expressions and the way they are combined. As a result, even though the lexicon is finite, you can construct an infinite # of sentences. Sally likes Bob. Bob likes Sally. - in this case, semantics and syntax are intimately related
Linguistic Expressions
Words and Phrases having form (sound), meaning, and syntactic properties. Sally, likes, & Bob all expressions Sally likes Bob. --> - it's a well formed sentence because it follows all the grammatical rules in English *Likes Bob Sally. -> does not have syntactic properties *linguistic expressions - it can be a whole phrase or 1 word
Multiple Arguments
You can have more than 1 argument in an utterance Arguments are chunks that we know go together Well formed sentences = all the expressions it contains have to be provided with all and only the arguments they need. (For a sentence to be well formed, it must contain an expression with all and only the arguments they need but need to have the minimum needed) Examples: a. Sally told Bob she's leaving. (2) b. Sally put the book on the desk. (2) c. Sally persuaded Bob to go on vacation. (3) Sentence A needs 3 arguments in order to be a well formed sentence without context. Needs 2 compliments Sentence B - can't say 'put the book on the desk'. Put Needs 2 compliments (a non argument), and 3 arguments
Grammmatical Judgement
a reflection of speaker's mental grammar and not a test of conscious knowledge (english: we know what's grammatical and what's not, which is apart of your linguistic competence in your native language)
Compliments
non-subject arguments NEEDED* in a sentence
Syntactic Properties
rules that allow us to make sentences and utterances that are grammatically correct 1. Word order 2. Co-occurence
