Creativity of Language

“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.

Most Important Concept 1 1. “Any speaker of any human language can produce a

nd understand an infinite number of sentences.” (77) 2. “This system of rules explains how speakers can sto

re infinite knowledge in a finite space—our brains.” (78)

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.

Most Important Concept 24. “We can exploit the resources of our language and g

rammar to produce and understand a limitless number of sentences embodying a limitless ranges of ideas and emotions.” (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 lanugage, 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.

Most Important Concept 36. “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)

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.

Syntax

“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.

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

What Syntax Reveals

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

魚吃人

Word Order

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.

Why Native Speaker Grammaticality Judgments

are Basically the Same

Simple Answer:

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

Why Native Speaker Grammaticality Judgments are B

asically the SameMore 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

How can we judge what is grammatical?

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.

Grammaticality Judgments of Strange Sentences Meaningless

Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.Giant tomatoes danced at my party

last week.

Uninterpretable“Twas brillig, and the slithy toves

did gyre and gimble in the wabe.

UntrueToday 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.

Ambiguity

Words (Lexical Ambiguity)

He walked by the bank.

He got shot in the back.

Phrases (Structural Ambiguity)

synthetic buffalo hides

small 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.

Tree Diagram of Sentence Structure

The child found a puppy.

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

Grammatical Categories

Content Wordsnoun N NPverb V VPadjective Adjadverb Adv

Function Wordspreposition PrepPPconjunction Conjinterjection Interjauxiliary verb Auxmodal verb Modal determiner Detquantifier Quant

Phrase Structure Tree

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

Simplified Grammar of “English”Phrase Structure Rules

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

01) 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.

Simplified Grammar of “English”Phrase Structure Rules

N child, boy, man, men, telescope,

puppy, posse, baby, buffalo, hide

V 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.

Syntactic Rules Must Account for the Following

the grammaticality of sentences

word order

structural ambiguity

grammatical relations

different structures with the same meaning

the creative aspect of language.

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

Ambiguous Sentence But Unambiguous Structure

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.

Grammaticality Judgments