Linguistics Study Set - Syntax to language acquisition
pidgin
A simple but rule-governed language developed for communication among speakers of mutually unintelligible languages, often based on one of those languages called the lexifier language. tend to have fewer grammatical words than other languages a sound that occurs in the superstrate but not the substrate tends to be dropped in the pidgin tend to be short-lived
aux
A syntactic category containing auxiliary verbs and abstract tense morphemes that function as the heads of sentences (S or TP or IP)
sentence
A syntactic category of expressions consisting minimally of a noun phrase (NP) followed by a verb phrase (VP) in d-structure. Also called a TP (tense phrase). The head of S is the category Aux, which may be empty except for tense.
x-bar theory
A universal schema specifying that the internal organization of all phrasal categories (i.e., NP, PP, VP, TP (S), AP, AdvP) can be broken down into three levels: e.g., NP, N̅, and N.
implicature
An inference based not only on an utterance, but also on assumptions about what the speaker is trying to achieve: e.g., Are you using the ketchup? to mean "Please pass the ketchup" while dining in a café.
maxim of manner: clarity
Avoid obscurity of expression. Avoid ambiguity. Avoid unnecessary wordiness. Be orderly.
Grice's maxims of conversation
Language users can calculate implicatures because they are all following some implicit principles (and each language user can therefore assume that others are following those principles). Grice called these principles "maxims" of discourse.
maxim of quantity: information
Make your contribution as informative as is required (for the current purposes of the exchange). Do not make your contribution more informative than is required.
reduction test
Noun Phrase (NP) -> Pronoun Verb Phrase (VP) -> "do" "be" "have" Prepositional Phrase (PP) -> "there" Adj. -> "such" if you can remove that part of the sentence and replace it with something else that is simpler it is a constituent
stories of languages in contact
Papua New Guinea terrain makes it difficult to travel + easy growing makes it unnecessary to travel → linguistic diversity throughout country pockets of people speak their own language people were enslaved by british to work on sugar farms in australia → pidgin was developed so that the english speakers in power could communicate (very rudimentarily) with people from PNG diversity of languages collapses into something very simplistic people eventually go back to PNG and bring pidgin with them → turns into the lingua franca and the complexity grows and it becomes a creole language
deictic
Refers to words or expressions whose reference relies on context and the orientation of the speaker in space and time: e.g., I, yesterday, there, this cat.
Tense Phrase (TP)
T is the head of TP and is obligatory in all clauses. Sometimes it involves lowering of the affix to the V. The subject DP occupies the specifier position: [TP DPsubject [T' T VP ]].
truth conditions
The circumstances that must be known to determine whether a sentence is true, which are therefore part of the meaning, or sense, of declarative sentences
S-selection
The classifying of verbs and other lexical items in terms of the semantic category of the head and complements that they accept, e.g., the verb assassinate S-selects for a human subject and a prestigious, human NP complement.
C-selection
The classifying of verbs and other lexical items in terms of the syntactic category of the complements that they accept (C stands for categorial), sometimes called subcategorization: e.g., the verb find C-selects, or is subcategorized for, a noun phrase complement.
complement
The constituent(s) in a phrase other than the head that complete(s) the meaning of the phrase and which is C-selected by the verb. The right sister to the head in the X-bar schema. In the verb phrase found a puppy, the noun phrase a puppy is a complement of the verb found. daughter to the bar level (x') sister of head
lexifier language
The dominant language of a pidgin (or creole) that provides the basis for the majority of the lexical items in the language.
complementizer
The head of a complementizer phrase (CP) in the X-bar schema. The complementizer has the effect of turning a sentence into a complement. includes 'that, if, wh-'
superstrate language
The language that provides most of the lexical items of a pidgin or creole, typically the language of the socially or economically dominant group. Also called lexifier language
substrate language
The language(s) of the indigenous people in a language contact situation that contribute(s) to the lexicon and grammar of a pidgin or creole but in a less obvious way than the superstrate language.
structural ambiguity
The phenomenon in which the same sequence of words has two or more meanings accounted for by different phrase structure analyses: e.g., He saw a boy with a telescope.
syntax
The rules of sentence formation; the component of the mental grammar that represents speakers' knowledge of the structure of phrases and sentences.
pragmatics
The study of how context and situation affect meaning; the study of extra truth-conditional meaning aspects arising from interaction/communication Beliefs and attitudes ex.) the judge denied the prisoner's request because he was cautious. Preposition ex.) have you stopped picking your nose?
verb phrase (VP)
The syntactic category of expressions that contain a verb as its head along with its complements such as noun phrases and prepositional phrases: e.g., gave the book to the child.
determiner (det)
The syntactic category, also functional category, of words and expressions, which when combined with a noun form a noun phrase. Includes the articles the and a, demonstratives such as this and that, quantifiers such as each and every, etc.
preposition
The syntactic category, also functional category, that heads a prepositional phrase: e.g., at, in, on, up.
verb (V)
The syntactic category, also lexical category, of words that can be the head of a verb phrase. Verbs denote actions, sensations, and states: e.g., climb, hear, understand.
noun (N)
The syntactic category, also lexical category, of words that can function as heads of noun phrases, such as book, Jean, sincerity. In many languages nouns have grammatical alternations for number, case, and gender and occur with determiners.
adjective (AdjP)
The syntactic category, also lexical category, of words that function as the head of an adjective phrase, and that have the semantic effect of qualifying or describing the referents of nouns: e.g., tall, bright, intelligent
adverb (AdvP)
The syntactic category, also lexical category, of words that qualify the verb such as manner adverbs like quickly and time adverbs like soon. The position of the adverb in the sentence depends on its semantic type: e.g., John will soon eat lunch, John eats lunch quickly
prepositional phrase (PP)
The syntactic category, also phrasal category, consisting of a prepositional head and a noun phrase complement: e.g., with a key, into the battle, over the top.
noun phrase (NP)
The syntactic category, also phrasal category, of expressions containing some form of a noun or pronoun as its head, and which functions as the subject or as various objects in a sentence.
goal
The thematic role of the noun phrase toward whose referent the action of the verb is directed: e.g., the theater in The kids went to the theater endpoint in change of location or possession
agent
The thematic role of the noun phrase whose referent does the action described by the verb: e.g., George in George hugged Martha. the doer of an action
instrument
The thematic role of the noun phrase whose referent is the means by which an action is performed: e.g., a paper clip in Houdini picked the lock with a paper clip. means used to accomplish the action
source
The thematic role of the noun phrase whose referent is the place from which an action originates: e.g., Mars in Mr. Wells just arrived from Mars. where action originates
location
The thematic role of the noun phrase whose referent is the place where the action of the verb occurs: e.g., Oslo in It snows in Oslo
experiencer
The thematic role of the noun phrase whose referent perceives something: e.g., Helen in Helen heard Robert playing the piano. one receiving sensory input
theme
The thematic role of the noun phrase whose referent undergoes the action of the verb: e.g., Martha in George hugged Martha. the undergoer of the action
homonyms (homophones)
Words pronounced, and possibly spelled, the same: e.g., to, too, two; or bat the animal, bat the stick, and bat meaning 'to flutter' as in "bat the eyelashes."
fuzzy concept
a concept of which the boundaries of application can vary considerably according to context or conditions ex.) sandwich: can mean hamburgers, hotdogs, panini, bahn mi etc
syntactic category
a family of expressions that can substitute for one another without loss of grammaticality
metaphone
a meaning of a word is transferred to another. Phrase structure "tree"
dialect
a particular form of a language that is peculiar to a specific region or social group.
reduplication
a syllable structure phonological process that involves the repetition of a syllable of a word
conceptual system
a system that is composed of non-physical objects, i.e. ideas or concepts. In this context a system is taken to mean "an interrelated, interworking set of objects".
standard dialect
a variety of a language spoken by people of relatively high status who have economic, political, social, and educational power
conventional implicature
a word carries another piece of information or meaning ex.) She admitted that she likes fast food.
polysemous
a word has multiple meanings that are related conceptually or historically. ex.) diamond, the rock and diamond the baseball field
complementary pairs (antonyms)
alive/dead, present/absent, awake/asleep. They are complementary in that alive = not dead and dead = not alive, and so on.
contradictions
always false regardless of circumstance, Describes a sentence that is false by virtue of its meaning alone, irrespective of context
non-standard dialect
any dialect not perceived as standard
maxim of relation: relevance
be relevant to the matter under discussion
gradable pairs (antonyms)
big/small hot/cold fast/slow happy/sad One is marked and the other unmarked(used in questions of degree).We ask, ordinarily, "How high is the mountain?" (not "How low is it?"). Thus high is the unmarked member of high/low. Similarly, tall is the unmarked member of tall/short, fast the unmarked member of fast/slow, and so on
sense
connotation. additional elements of meaning. ex.) 'unicorn' has a connotation but no denotation
adjunct
daughter to the bar level (x') sister of bar level
specifier
daughter to the phrase level (XP) sister to the bar level (x')
reference
denotation. The meaning of a word or expression is its 'reference', its association with the object it refers to. This real object is the 'referent'
entailment
one sentence entails another if whenever the first sentence is true the second one is also true in all conceivable circumstances. ex.) "Jack swims beautifully" is true, then you also know that the sentence "Jack swims" is true.
code-switching
people who have a nonstandard variety switching over to a standard variety whenever needed (see: registers) people who are bilingual combining words/phrases from multiple languages into a single utterance
c-selection
process of pairing heads with complements based on the syntactic category of the head
hyponymy
relationship between the more general term such as color and the more specific instances of it, such as red. 'Red' is hyponym of 'color' and 'colo'r has the hyponym red
bar level
second level of x-bar phrase structure
thematic roles
semantic roles, including agent, theme, goal, source, instrument, experiencer, that the verb assigns to its arguments
hierarchical properties of language
sentences follow a hierarchical structure words are grouped into natural units
tautologies
A sentence that is true in all situations; a sentence that is true from the meaning of its words alone
deictic expressions
words that receive part of their meaning via context and the orientation of the speaker ex.)pronouns (she, it, I), demonstratives (this, that), adverbs (here, there, now, today), prepositions (behind, before) and complex expressions involving such words (those towers over there).
antonyms
words with opposite meanings
lingua franca
A language common to speakers of diverse languages that can be used for communication and commerce: e.g., English is the lingua franca of international airline pilots.
creole
A language that begins as a pidgin and eventually becomes the native language of a speech community.
T (tense)
A categorial label sometimes used in place of Aux. The syntactic category that is the head of TP (tense phrase) or sentence (S). Also, for English, past or present, indicating the time frame of a sentence.
generative grammar
A grammar that accounts for linguistic knowledge by means of rules that generate all and only the grammatical sentences of the language.
recursive property of language
Can create an unlimited number of grammatical sentences from a finite amount of words
lexical category
Class of words grouped together based on morphological properties. Traditionally known as part of speech (noun, adjective, adverb, verb)
semantic features
Conceptual elements by which a person understands the meanings of words and sentences: e.g., "female" is a semantic feature of the nouns girl and filly; "cause" is a semantic feature of the verbs darken and kill.
relational opposites
display symmetry in their meanings, give/receive, buy/sell, teacher/pupil
maxim of quality: truth
do not say what you believe to be false do not say that for which you lack adequate evidence
registers
have to do with formality (moving into a more formal register by using a standard dialect)
tree diagram
hierarchical diagrams used to study sentence structure tree is upsidedown with the root at the top encompassing the sentence and the leaves being the individual words
movement "move as a unit" test
if a group of words can be moved around within a sentence, it indicates that the group of words is a constituent
stand alone test
if a group of words can stand alone in a response to a question, it is a constituent
coordination test
if you can use a coordinating conjunction to add a similar constituent and it still makes sense
conversational implicature
implication in response within conversation ex.) A:Would you like to hang out? B: I'm lousy
language
mutually intelligible
constituents
natural groupings or parts of a sentence
variety
often used to describe standard v. nonstandard, without a value judgment on "Good" or "bad" forms of a language
graded concept
some words have meanings closer to the concept than others ex.) concept: bird. Robin is closer than penguin ex.) concept: dwelling. Bedroom is closer than tent
semantics
study of meaning and how words have meaning, are attributed meaning, interpreted as having meaning
Colorless green ideas sleep furiously
syntactically well-formed but semantically meaningless/intelligible
constituency tests
tests that manipulate a sentence to find out what its smaller syntactic units are
phrasal category
the category of the phrase, determined by the category of the head of the phrase. Ex.: noun phrase, verb phrase, adjective phrase...
accent
the phonology or pronunciation of a specific regional dialect: e.g., Southern accent, the pronunciation of a language by a nonnative speaker: e.g., French accent.
lexical relations
the relationships of meaning, such as synonymy, between words
Metonymy
the use of the name of one thing for that of another of which it is an attribute or with which it is associated. ex.) crown=king, white house= government executives
paraphrases
two sentences are synonymous (or paraphrases) if they are both true or both false with respect to the same situations ex.)"Jack put off the meeting" and "Jack postponed the meeting" are synonymous, because when one is true the other must be true; and when one is false the other must also be false. Two sentences are synonymous if they entail each other
s-selection
verbs also select subjects and complements based on semantic properties
synonyms
words or expressions that have the same meaning in some or all contexts.
homographs
words that are spelled the same but have different meanings and/or pronunciations
