Syntax

Psy315h - Class 24

(This page last updated 25 November, 2005.)
  

Syntax: Our ability to combine words into sentences.

There is a set of syntactic rules that determine whether a sequence of words is a grammatical sentence.

Chomsky's example of a sentence with correct syntax, but no semantics (meaning):

"Colorless green ideas sleep furiously."

Rules of Syntax

• One set of syntactic rules can be described as "rewrite rules".
• Using the rewrite rules, we can create phrase structure trees describing the structure of sentences.
  • See the textbook (pp. 316-320) for a description of rewrite rules and phrase structure trees.
• Some important properties of rewrite rules.
  • Some components can be used in different parts of a sentence.
    • Their structure remains the same, regardless of their role.
    • For instance, a noun phrase follows the same rules, whether it's at the beginning of a sentence or part of a verb phrase.
  • Recursion
    • An element can be part of its own definition.
    • Recursion makes possible the construction of very complex sentences, with smaller sentences embedded inside them.
• Phrase structure ambiguity
  • Sometimes a sentence can be described by more than one phrase structure tree.
  • The two trees correspond to different interpretations.
  • See Fig. 10.9 in textbook.
• Garden path sentences
  • When you read the first few words, you assume one interpretation.
  • When you get to "fell", that interpretation doesn't work any more, and you have to find a new one.
  • At first you are "led down the garden path".
• Movement rules
  • Movement rules capture aspects of English syntax that cannot be described with phrase structure rules.
  • They transform one type of sentence structure into another.
  • Example: Transforming a statement into a question.
• Rules of syntax can be difficult to describe, but in some sense, everyone knows the rules of their native language implicitly.

Universal Grammar

• "Universal Grammar" is the name given to similarities in the form of syntactic rules across all languages.
• Perhaps as children try to learn the syntactic rules of their language, they only consider rules that are consistent with universal grammar.

   

next class: Language and the Brain

Psych 315H: Cognitive Psychology Kyle Cave Psychology Dept. U. Mass.