“Any speaker of any human language can produce and understand an infinite number of sentences.”

Fromkin, Victoria, Robert Rodman & Nina Hyams. 2011. An Introduction to Language, 9th edition. Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, p. 77.

1. “Any speaker of any human language can produce and understand an infinite number of sentences.” (77)

2. “This system of rules explains how speakers can store infinite knowledge in a finite space—our brains.” (78)

Fromkin, Victoria, Robert Rodman & Nina Hyams. 2011. An Introduction to Language, 9th edition. Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, pp. 77, 78, 82.

3. “The rules of the syntax permit speakers to produce and understand a limitless number of sentences never produced or heard before—the creative aspect of linguistic knowledge.” (82)

Fromkin, Victoria, Robert Rodman & Nina Hyams. 2011. An Introduction to Language, 9th edition. Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, pp. 77, 78, 82.

4. “We can exploit the resources of our language and grammar to produce and understand a limitless number of sentences embodying a limitless range of ideas and emotions.” (82)

Fromkin, Victoria, Robert Rodman & Nina Hyams. 2011. An Introduction to Language, 9th edition. Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, pp. 77, 78, 82.

5. “Because the number of possible sentences in every language is infinite, there are also an infinite number of trees. However, all trees are built out of the finite set of substructures allowed by the grammar of the language, and these substructures are specified by the finite set of phrase structure rules. (95)

Fromkin, Victoria, Robert Rodman & Nina Hyams. 2011. An Introduction to Language, 9th edition. Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, pp. 82, 95.

6. “The number of sentences in a language is infinite and [ ] languages have various means of creating longer and longer sentences.” (95)

7. “Our brain capacity is finite, able to store only a finite number of categories and rules for their combination. Yet this finite system places an infinite set of sentences at our disposal. (101)

Fromkin, Victoria, Robert Rodman & Nina Hyams. 2011. An Introduction to Language, 9th edition. Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, pp. 95, 101, 128.

8. “All speakers are capable of producing and understanding an unlimited number of new sentences that have never before been spoken or heard.” (128)

Fromkin, Victoria, Robert Rodman & Nina Hyams. 2011. An Introduction to Language, 9th edition. Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, pp. 95, 101, 128.

(Numbers indicate the number of embedded clauses)

0 This is the house.

1 This is the house that Jack built.

2 This is the malt that lay in the house that Jack built.

The Real Mother Goose. (1994). New York: Scholastic Inc., pp. 69-70.

3 This is the rat that ate the malt that lay in the house

that Jack built.

4 This is the cat that killed the rat that ate the malt

that lay in the house that Jack built.

The Real Mother Goose. (1994). New York: Scholastic Inc., pp. 69-70.

5 This is the dog that worried the cat

that killed the rat that ate the malt that lay in the house

that Jack built.

The Real Mother Goose. (1994). New York: Scholastic Inc., pp. 69-70.

6 This is the cow with the crumpled horn that tossed the dog that worried the cat that killed the rat that ate the malt

that lay in the house that Jack built.

The Real Mother Goose. (1994). New York: Scholastic Inc., pp. 69-70.

7 This is the maiden all forlorn that milked the cow with the crumpled horn

that tossed the dog that worried the cat

that killed the rat that ate the malt

that lay in the house that Jack built.

The Real Mother Goose. (1994). New York: Scholastic Inc., pp. 69-70.

8 This is the man all tattered and torn that kissed the maiden all forlorn that milked the cow with the crumpled horn that tossed the dog that worried the cat

that killed the rat that ate the malt

that lay in the house that Jack built.

The Real Mother Goose. (1994). New York: Scholastic Inc., pp. 69-70.

9 This is the priest all shaven and shorn that married the man all tattered and torn that kissed the maiden all forlorn

that milked the cow with the crumpled horn that tossed the dog

that worried the cat that killed the rat

that ate the malt that lay in the house

that Jack built.

The Real Mother Goose. (1994). New York: Scholastic Inc., pp. 69-70.

10 This is the cock that crowed in the morn that waked the priest all shaven and shorn

that married the man all tattered and torn that kissed the maiden all forlorn

that milked the cow with the crumpled horn that tossed the dog

that worried the cat that killed the rat

that ate the malt that lay in the house

that Jack built.

The Real Mother Goose. (1994). New York: Scholastic Inc., pp. 69-70.

11 This is the farmer sowing the corn that kept the cock that crowed in the morn

that waked the priest all shaven and shorn that married the man all tattered and torn that kissed the maiden all forlorn

that milked the cow with the crumpled horn that tossed the dog

that worried the cat that killed the rat

that ate the malt that lay in the house

that Jack built.

The Real Mother Goose. (1994). New York: Scholastic Inc., pp. 69-70.

“The part of the grammar that represents a speaker’s knowledge of sentences and their structures is called syntax.”

Fromkin, Victoria, Robert Rodman & Nina Hyams. 2011. An Introduction to Language, 9th edition. Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, p. 78.

The RULES of Syntax

The RULES of Morphology

The RULES of Phonology (next semester)

The RULES of Syntax BUILDING BLOCKS: words, phrases OUTPUT: grammatical sentences

The RULES of MorphologyBUILDING BLOCKS: morphemes (free / bound) OUTPUT: words  

The RULES of Phonology (next semester)BUILDING BLOCKS: phonemes / phones OUTPUT: properly pronounced words /

sentences

Word order Relationship between meaning and the

arrangement of the words Grammatical relations—Subject and Object Grammatical constraints—Verb

subcategoriation Hierarchy of grammatical constituents Grammaticality judgments Structural ambiguity

Fromkin, Victoria, Robert Rodman & Nina Hyams. 2011. An Introduction to Language, 9th edition. Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, pp. 78-81.

魚吃人

1. Harold hit Ivan.2. Ivan hit Harold.

3. The student picked up the book.4. The student picked the book up.

5. Sally kissed John. 6. John was kissed by Sally. 7. John kissed Sally.

We say that native speakers of a language share the same knowledge of SYNTACTIC RULES.

What does this mean?

Simple Answer:

Because native speakers of a language share the same set of syntactic rules their grammaticality judgments will be the same.

More Complex Answer: Because Native Speakers of a (variety of a)

language SHARE the same (or nearly the same) set (group) of SYNTACTIC RULES their Grammaticality Judgments will be (approximately) the same.

Their MENTAL GRAMMAR is MORE OR LESS THE SAME

In other words, they have the same (nearly the same) linguistic competence because they grew up speaking the same language

1. Does NOT depend on whether you have heard it before

2. Does NOT depend on whether it is meaningful 3. Does NOT depend on whether you can interpret

it 4. Does NOT depend on whether it is true 5. It DOES depend on our “unconscious knowledge

of the syntactic rules of grammar”

Fromkin, Victoria, Robert Rodman & Nina Hyams. 2011. An Introduction to Language, 9th edition. Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, pp. 82-83.

Meaningless

Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.

Giant tomatoes danced at my party last week.

Fromkin, Victoria, Robert Rodman & Nina Hyams. 2011. An Introduction to Language, 9th edition. Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, pp. 82-83.

Uninterpretable

“Twas brillig, and the slithy tovesdid gyre and gimble in the

wabe.

Fromkin, Victoria, Robert Rodman & Nina Hyams. 2011. An Introduction to Language, 9th edition. Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, pp. 82-83.

Untrue

Today is Wednesday.

My brother had a baby last week.

Fromkin, Victoria, Robert Rodman & Nina Hyams. 2011. An Introduction to Language, 9th edition. Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, pp. 82-83.

Words (Lexical Ambiguity)He walked by the bank.He got shot in the back.

Phrases (Structural Ambiguity)synthetic buffalo hidessmall car factory

Sentences (Structural Ambiguity)The boy saw the man with the telescope.For sale: an antique desk suitable for lady

with thick legs and large drawers.

CONVENIENT way to show: Word Order Syntactic Categories Hierarchical Structure

They show the syntactic structure CLEARLY / UNAMBIGUOUSLY

Fromkin, Victoria, Robert Rodman & Nina Hyams. 2011. An Introduction to Language, 9th edition. Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, p. 90.

The child found a puppy.

Fromkin, Victoria, Robert Rodman & Nina Hyams. 2011. An Introduction to Language, 9th edition. Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, pp. 84, 90.

Content Wordsnoun N NPverb V VPadjective Adjadverb Adv

Function Wordspreposition Prep PPconjunction Conjinterjection Interjauxiliary verb Auxmodal verb Modal determiner Detquantifier Quant

Fromkin, Victoria, Robert Rodman & Nina Hyams. 2007. An Introduction to Language, 8th edition. Boston, MA: Thomson Wadsworth, p. 124.

1. S NP VP 2. NP Det N (revised 100-

101) 3. VP V NP 4. VP V (revised 96) 5. VP V PP 6. PP P NP 7. VP V CP 8. CP C S 9. NP NP PP (added 97) 10. VP Aux VP (added 107)

Fromkin, Victoria, Robert Rodman & Nina Hyams. 2011. An Introduction to Language, 9th edition. Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, pp. 93, 96, 97, 100, 101, 107.

N child, boy, man, men, telescope, puppy, posse, baby, buffalo,

hideV find, see, flee, sleep P with, from, in, on Adj small, synthetic Det the, a

Fromkin, Victoria, Robert Rodman & Nina Hyams. 2007. An Introduction to Language, 8th edition. Boston, MA: Thomson Wadsworth, p. 131, adapted.

the grammaticality of sentences word order structural ambiguity (Ex 1a) grammatical relations different structures with the same meaning

(Ex 1b) how / why two sentences are related (Ex

1c) the creative aspect of language

Fromkin & Rodman (1998), pp. 110-111

IF our MINI-GRAMMAR is correct, THEN every sentence that follows that grammar is ________ .

IF our MINI-GRAMMAR is correct, THEN every sentence that does not follow that grammar is ________ .

IF we find a sentence that we KNOW is grammatical, BUT our MINI-GRAMMAR says it is NOT grammatical, then we know the mini-grammar is _______________ .

The boy saw the man with the telescope.

? The boy saw the man with a stick.

The boy hit the man with a stick.

The boy hit the man with the telescope.