Syntax 1.1-1.2
demonstrative word
'pointing' word from the set: this, that, these (dem.pl), those
ex. 1: double neg.
'two negatives make a positive' is wrong: speaker doesn't intend it to mean a positive nor would ppl understand it as positive
ex. 3: I aren't going
*I are not - impossible sentence but contracted form "I aren't" accepted
ex. 28-29
-Jp/Eng "(the) teacher" initial in sentence - important feature in common, 80% of all lang start their ver of the sen with the 'teacher' phrase, but JP uses opposite word order for 'gakusei ni = student to', no equiv. to Eng "the" or "a" -exception incl. Welsh: start sen. w verb 'wrote', pattern of 12% of world's lang, similar to Eng w same order in phrase 'to the student', no equiv. to Eng "a"
ex. 15 'do-support rule'
-Middle English from Chaucer 14th cen., sey nat = do not say, bat nat = did not bid, Chaucer's English any verb negated by 'not/ney' after it, also allowed 'do-support' -Modern English verbs not negated directly, give neg. a form of 'do' w/o meaning on own but purely to support 'not'
number
-gramm. category: singular vs non-singular, Eng once had distinction e.g. 'thou' = you singular equiv. to French 'tu' -some varieties of modern Eng have 2nd person plural forms 'you all' and 'yous (northeast & northwest England) -some lang subdivide non-singular: dual, trial, an additional plural for 3+ ppl e.g. Polynesian lang Kwamera
ex. 22 they/their
-modern standard Eng: always plural to refer to plural noun phrase, reflected in older speakers - require singular pronoun (s)he -use to refer to singular noun phrase - occured even in Middle English, gender-neutral singular pronoun, also can be used when sex of person already known, developed indepen. of desire for non-sexist lang (e.g. not 'waitperson')
ex. 17a-b
-positive statement like "it is" gets neg. tag "isn't it" -aux. used in statement must be in tag e.g. "I can", "can't I" -pronoun in statement also in tag e.g. it, I, we
syntax
-sentence construction: how words group together to make phrases and sentences -only 1 part of grammar -all languages have syntax
syntax as a study
-study of syntactic properties of languages: how languages organize their syntax -classfication of words, order & structure of words in phrases/sen., sen. constructions -absolutely univeral principles, what types of contruction are (im)possible, recurring patterns
ongoing changes in Eng
1. tag questions - invariant tags 2. widespread non-standard usage of 'less' before any noun incl. plural count nouns 3. they/their
ex. 6-7 What is he eating (eggs and ___)
6b ok but 7 has gap, most mental grammar rules never dealt with by prescriptive/teaching grammars, rules that make 7 impossible are so immutable/fundamental that it's not discussed
ex. 2: double neg.
French/Breton use double neg as most formal & prestigious variety & standard (non dialectal) form vs colloquial French dropping initial neg. - also Middle English 1100-1500
ex. 9-10
Indo/Eng same word order "sent the letter to" and "sent X the letter", except foreign feature "surat itu" = "letter the", 9b promotes X (name) in sentence, -kan ending on 'send' in Indo indicates promotion but Eng has no equivalent to -kan
PERSON distinctions: in/exclusive
Kwamera 1st person divides into inclusive (me & you, speaker & addressee) and exclusive (speaker & other party excl. the addressee)
ex. 32
Kwamera source contains 1 word for Eng equiv. 4 separate words: incorporates several distinct lexical/gramm. info -verb stem "akw", ha- form = plural, sa- form = 1st pers. incl. -separate affixes for pers/# (Eng 'we' represents both person/# simultaneously), pronominal prefix ia- represents only 1st person, becomes 'we' when ha- plural prefix follows
tag questions
Q tagged onto end of statement formed by rules in standard Eng to match tag to statement
ex. 30
Rapa Nui: nonpast & progressive indicator words, word order - verb (almost) at beginning of sen. as in Welsh
writing systems
Roman alphabet, Cyrillic alphabet, Chinese/JP chara writing sys have conventions for writing in Roman alphabet, some lang w/o writing sys - linguists give phonetic representation
ex. 11
can promote X further in sentece, X was sent the letter, change from 'sent' to 'was sent' signals further promo, needs to indicate further promo b/c "X sent" and "X was sent" are diff in meaning
bound pronominals
can't be separated from verb, don't occur on own
ex. 12-14
can't directly promote X from 'not promo' position to very highest position in sen., promo must occur in stages rather than single jump to begin of sen, although nothing distinguishing 1st promo in Eng in 9b it's the distinguishing factor b/w grammatical or not
descriptive grammar
catalogue regularities/peculiarities of 1 language rather than organizing principles of language in general
innate language faculty
conclude humans born with it b/c certain organizing rules/principles in lang are universal, unique to humans, all normal children learn at least 1 lang but no other animals have lang as natural commun. sys. nor able to learn human lang even under intense instruction
ex. 5 truly ungrammatical
contravene mental rules of all dialects of Eng, ppl haven't been taught that particular sentence is bad so judgements must be part of shared mental grammar of Eng
definite vs indefinite article
def.art - a word meaning 'the', indef.art - word meaning 'a'
non-standard English
dialectal forms of a language don't equate to bad grammar, socially stigmatized forms of lang potentially just as logical as standard - following set of mental rules, various dialects of lang share majority of rules but extent of diff exaggerated b/c arouse such strong feelings
free pronoun
distinct independent word on its own, not part of verb, Eng differs crucially from Kwamera here
homogeneity: common properties
don't vary from each other at random but are very alike in important ways, certain features in all lang: word classes: noun distinguished from verbs (some lang have no other major word class), lexicon/words --> phrases/sen --> manipulate order of phrases e.g. ask Q, emphasize, etc.
pro-drop language
e.g. Spanish, drops subject pronoun "es nuevo" = "is new"
morphemes
elements of meaning, not all represent independent words
ex. 8
equivalents to 7 are generally ungrammatical in the world's languages, many unconsciously 'known' rules of indiv. langs are universal - common to all lang, corrected form: "they are eating eggs and WHAT?"
person
gramm. category: 1st (speaker or group incl. speaker, I/we), 2nd (addressee, 'you' forms), 3rd (other than speaker/addressee, he/she/it and they forms)
affixes
gramm. elem. attached to begin/end of word or other pieces of gramm. info: suffixes e.g. -s plural, -ing progressive, -ed past tense prefixes e.g. un-, re-
dash (-)
grammatical element attached to the word or another gramm. elem., can't be separate word, genearlly indicate an affix e.g. -PL, -PAST
ex. 20
less students/sheep/ppl/difficulties instead of "fewer", very common but technically non-standard variant replacing
gloss
literal translation of original language, each meaningful part of the original translated whether it corresponds exactly to a word in Eng or not, allow comparison of word orders (not all lang have same sentence structure)
ex. 17c
no aux. so main verbs like "lose" can't occur in tags (*lost we?) so do-support occurs (didn't we?)
auxiliary
only verb-like words that can be directly negated by 'not', if no auxiliary in sen. then 'do' used as dummy auxiliary, aux. ex.: may, might, must, can, could, will, would, shall, should OR have/be with "have left", "am leaving"
grammar
organizing principles: info about sound system, form of words, how we adjust lang according to context, etc.
ex. 19 invariant "isn't it" tags
other varieties of Eng e.g. Indian Eng, standard in some lang e.g. French "n'est-ce pas"
count nouns
plural form e.g. students, sheep, ppl, difficulties (can be mass noun), use 'fewer' in standard Eng
prescriptive grammar
prescribes how author thinks you should speak, social not linguistic matters
lexical info
printed in normal type, ordinary words as translations or paraphrases of original lang
grammatical info
printed in small capitals, e.g. "nonpast" and "progressive" items glossed in Rapa Nui ex. 30, no separate words in Eng (members of Eng lexicon/vocab) can translate this so it's glossed w technical terms describing source lang function
linguistic diversity
range of constructions/features, diff geographical areas, diff lang families
ex. 18
some Brit Eng dialects use single tag question "innit", reduced form of "isn't it" which in standard Eng is only possible if statement has "is", in dialects - as invariant tag
language change
speakers of established lang often dislike changes, believe change equates declining standards, grammar of all lang change over time, no amount of intervention can prevent
morphology
study of word forms, morphosyntax interface b/w m&syntax
paradigms
tables display set of related forms that a particular lexical word has in a given grammatical context
INF and syntax
to understand INF we look at output - structures of natural langs, find common properties b/w lang syntax (similar constructions in unrelated lang), learn workings of brain
colon/dot use
unclear boundaries OR don't wish to show boundaries e.g. "ask-ed" glossed as "ask-PAST" to indicate morpheme boundary ---> or "asked" in source line glossed as "ask.PAST" b/c detailed morphosyntax emphasis not needed
mass or non-count nouns
uses 'less', e.g. difficulty, wheat, boredom, milk, inherently singular (*3 boredoms)
ex. 4: I'm not going, Aren't I going
usual Eng grammar rules form question by inverting word order "I can't" to "can't I", logically expected form should be "amn't I" (actually in some dialects) or reverse "I aren't", standard Eng fails to follow usual rules so can't criticize ex. 3 for lack of logic, standard dialect has irregularity
main verbs
verbs that aren't auxiliaries, 2 ways Middle Eng changes over several 100yrs: negation, question formation
no discernible boundaries
word has more than 1 piece of info (more than 1 morpheme), e.g. "took" past tense but irregular w/o -ed suffix --> indicate in gloss as "take:PAST" or "take.PAST", single source word contains 1+ morpheme but no clear boundaries
lexicon
word list which speakers share w words from diff classes
polar questions
yes/no, ordinary non-aux verb can't be used in question formation, uses 'do' to form where no other auxiliary, "Do you say no" vs "Sey you no" in Middle English
