THE STRUCTURE OF SENTENCES

Syntax

Learning objectives

Explain the notions “language organ” and “Universal Grammar”

Explain the similarities and differences between languages (principles and parameters)

Explain how sentences are constructed

Evidence for an independent language faculty:

People display a knowledge of grammar that is deeper than what they could get from the linguistic input they receive – the poverty-of-the stimulus argument

Language impairment (aphasia/Down syndrome): language independent from intelligence

Universal Grammar: Principles & parameters

People – “pre-programmed” with principles of grammar – Universal Grammar (UG)

Universal grammar has a biological basis– a language organ

Principles of UG are common across all languagesOne of these principles, which is considered as an

essential property of human language, is recursion: allows individuals to understand an unlimited number of sentences without memorizing each one of them (cf. poverty of stimulus)

Principle of recursion

Grammars are finite but they nonetheless enable individuals to produce and understand an infinite number of sentences

This is made possible through the principle of recursion

Recursion means that grammatical processes can apply more than once, which enables speakers to produce sentences of indefinite length and complexity

Mechanisms of recursion

Embedding: One can always add additional subordinate clauses within a frame of the sentence

e.g. This is the house that Jack built<This is the cheese that lay in the house that Jack built< This is the mouse that nibbled the cheese that lay in the house that Jack built etc.

Coordination: We can use coordinating conjunctions (and, but, or etc.) to link an indefinite number of sentences

e.g. Mary went to the airport and John went to the bus station but Joanna cancelled her trip and went to the mall.

Parameters of UG

Some of the principles of UG are underspecified, which means that they can be realized through different parameters in different languages

Once all the parameters have been correctly set for a particular language, then we have a grammar for this language

Example: every language must have a subject – principle (underspecified); subject can be expressed in different ways – parameter values (pronouns in English and Italian)

Modularity of language

Principles and parameters – part of a syntactic computational mechanism

This mechanism feeds both the articulatory (phonetic) component and the interpretative (semantic) component

Each of these components functions independently - modularity

Various modules can feed each other through interfaces

Phonetic form (PF) interface with articulatory module; Logical form (LF) – interface with the interpretative module

Y-model: centrality of syntax

Syntax draws information from the lexicon and “feeds” both PF and LF

PF LF

Lexicon

Syntax

Table of grammatical categories

Type Word category Examples Phrasal category

Lexical Noun (N) Puppy, park Noun Phrase (NP)

Lexical Verb (V) Take, run, be Verbal Phrase (VP)

Lexical Adjective (A) Good, red, big Adjective Phrase (AP)

Lexical Adverb (Adv) Happily, fast Adverb Phrase (AdvP)

Functional Determiner (D) This, the, a, his Determiner Phrase (DP)

Functional Preposition (P) In, on, between Prepositional Phrase (PP)

Functional Complementizer (C)

that Complementizer Phrase (CP

Lexical vs. Functional categories

Words that belong to lexical categories are semantically rich and contribute primarily to the meaning of the sentence (nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions) – open category

Words in functional categories – semantically weak, and contribute more to the grammar of sentences than to the meaning (e.g. determiners) – closed category

Compositionality

Grammar of every language – compositional and hierarchical

Sentences are made of smaller constituents (phrases), which in turn are made up of even smaller constituents (words)

Compositionality: Constituency tests

1) noun replacement (A girl with a golden earring ate an apple > She ate an apple vs. *She with a golden earring ate an apple)- only an entire nominal constituent can be replaced with a pronoun

2) verb replacement (She ate an apple and so did I vs. *She ate an apple and so did I a pear)- only an entire verbal constituent can be replaced with do

Certain groups of words form close units: constituents, e.g. Nominal constituent (1) (NP=noun phrase), (2) verbal constituent (VP=verb phrase)

Hierarchy

Even though sentences are linear on the surface, their constituents are organized in a hierarchical way

Projection

Composing the structure of a sentence begins with words that belong to categories such as noun, verb, preposition, adjective, or determiner

These words – heads of phrasesPhrases are constructed bottom-up: words are

drawn from a lexicon – a mental dictionary stored in people’s brain - and merged into structures

Once they are inserted into structures they project phrases (XPs) of the same category (e.g. NP, VP, DP) which form larger constituents that compose a sentence

Complementizer phrase (CP)

The basic function of complementizers is to turn an independent sentence into a complement

Therefore each subordinate clause is headed by an additional phrase projected by the complementizer (CP)

Different types of complementizers depending on the type of subordinate clause: in declaratives, complementizers like that (I heard that those children want a puppy); in interrogatives, complementizers like if (He wondered if it would rain)

A CP selects a TP in this context

CP in simple sentences

Matrix clauses can also be divided in different types (e.g. declarative, interrogative, exclamative)

In subordinate contexts, different types of clauses are associated with different complementizers,

Adjunction

Heads, complements, and specifiers make up the core meaning of a phrase, while adjuncts add extra description (Those little children in the park want a puppy badly)

Movement

Besides building phrase structures, syntax can also move parts of phrase structures around, by detaching them from the position in which they were originally inserted in the structure, and moving them somewhere else

Movement and deletion

Movement functions by copying an item into a new location, leaving a copy in the original position (sometimes described as a trace (t).

This copy must later be deleted, because both copies cannot be pronounced at the same time

Syntax distinguishes between two types of movements: head movement (e.g. auxiliary movement in questions) and phrasal movement (e.g. wh-movement in questions)

Summary

Much of grammatical structure does not have to be “learned”

People “know” a lot about what is or isn’t a possible grammatical structure without having been taught, or even having had the right kind of experience to have learned it: they know it because principles of UG are innate

The principle of recursion enables individuals to produce and understand an infinite number of sentences based on a limited input (cf. Poverty of stimulus)

Summary

One principle of the structure of sentences – compositionality: sentences are composed of clauses and phrases, which in turn are made up of smaller clauses and phrases or words

Compositionality - achieved by projection of simple phrases from words from the mental lexicon

The phrases projected take on the lexical and functional categories of the words that project them

Summary

Some phrases have complement and/or specifier branches which merge with phrases that have been projected from other words

A special kind of merge – adjunction, which allows modifiers (e.g. adjectives and adverbs) to be included in a phrase

Once phrases are constructed by projection and merge, they can be further modified by various types of movement (e.g. head movement and phrasal movement)

Summary

Formal syntax - based on deducing abstract grammatical principles from observing what sentences are possible and not possible, without regard to how they are used

Formal approaches insist on the centrality of syntax whithin the human language faculty; other types of approaches (e.g. functional perspectives) put greater emphasis on semantics or language usage