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Lecture 11
Description vs explanation in grammar
Competence vs performance
Universal Grammar
Three types of grammar
1. Pedagogical grammar: grammar for teaching a foreign language or for developing awareness of the
native language
How is a grammatical category formed?
What does it mean?
When is it used?
Passive voice (Larsen-Freeman 2003 From Grammar to Grammaring)
Form: subject (patient) be + past participle (by before agent)
Meaning – defocuses agent
Use – agent is unknown, unimportant, new information
The car has been stolen.
Some of the Olympic athletes from the smaller countries, such as Korea and Romania, were truly
remarkable. In fact,
A. the Romanians won three gold medals in gymnastics.
B. three gold medals in gymnastics were won by the Romanians.
Present Perfect
Form: have + past participle
Meaning: recent actions in the past
Use: the action is connected to the present, no definite time is given
I have broken my leg.
I broke my leg.
Prescriptive grammar – gives rules that specify which usages to adopt or avoid
Don’t use double negation.
INCORRECT: I don’t have nothing.
CORRECT: I don’t have anything. I have nothing.
Descriptive grammar
b) The E-language approach: language is treated as a phenomenon external to the speaker; focus on
description and classification.
Rodney Huddleston, Randolph Quirk
b) The I-language approach: language is treated as an internal property of the human mind, as a system
represented in the mind / brain of a particular individual; focus on explanation
Noam Chomsky, Jacek Witkoś
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Question formation in the E-language approach
•
direct vs indirect questions
What do you want?
He asked what I wanted.
•
Yes/no vs wh-questions
Are you happy?
Who did you invite?
Who invited you?
Question formation in the I-language approach
What did Frank see?
What did Mary believe that Frank saw?
What did Jane say that Mary believed that Frank saw?
*What does Mary believe the claim that Frank saw?
*What did Mary wonder whether Frank had seen?
*What did you see a horse that kicked?
Key questions in the I-language approach:
1. What constitutes knowledge of language?
2. How is such knowledge acquired?
Competence vs Performance
Competence: linguistic abilities of native speakers of a language which enable them to speak and
understand their language.
Grammatical Competence:
1.Phonetics: knowledge of how speech sounds are produced and perceived
2.Phonology: knowledge of how speech sounds work together as a system
3.Morphology: knowledge of how morphemes are combined together into words
4.Syntax: knowledge of how to arrange words to form grammatical structures
5.Semantics: knowledge of the meaning patterns in a language
Pragmatic Competence: knowledge of how non-linguistic information (context, personal beliefs,
background knowledge) influences speech comprehension and production
Performance:
what people actually say or understand by what someone else says on a given occasion
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Universal Grammar (Witkoś 2004 Movement Rules)
The Principle of Embedding: a sentence can become a subordinate clause in a complex sentence
Syntax is easy.
The professor announced the syntax is easy.
Frank said that the professor announced that syntax is easy.
Leslie told me that Frank said that the professor announced that syntax is easy.
S → NP + VP
VP → V + S
The Structure Dependency Principle: syntactic operations affect phrases rather than individual words
The manager fired Frank.
Frank was fired by the manager.
On Tuesday the manager fired Frank.
*Manager was fired on Tuesday...
The manager fired the employee.
The employee was fired by the manager.
The manager will fire Frank.
Will the manager fire Frank?
[The manager [who will fire Frank]] will succeed.
Will [the manager [who will fire Frank]] succeed?
The lexicon and sentence structure
(Haegeman Introduction to Government & Binding Theory)
destroy vs destruction
They destroyed the garden.
their destruction of the garden
destroy: V, [ ___ NP] - transitive verb
destruction N, [ ___ (PP)]
Why are certain verbs transitive?
They
destroyed
the garden.
argument
predicate
argument
theta role
theta role
agent
patient
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More examples of theta roles
experiencer: an animate that experiences the action / state expressed by the predicate:
Piotrek loves Jola.
instrument: an object used in an action
The key opened the door.
benfactive: an animate that benefits from the action expressed by the predicate
I made it for her.
In most cases there is a tight one-to one correspondence between theta roles and arguments. There are
exceptions, though:
Jola left happy.
The paradigmatic theta positions are as follows:
a. the object position of a transitive verb or of a preposition
b. the subject position
Sentence structure is to a large extent determined by the information contained in the lexical entry of
particular predicates. So sentence structure is (at least to some extent) projected from the lexicon –
Projection Principle.
*They destroyed.
They destroyed Jola’s happiness.
*They destroyed [that Jola is happy].
We want more syntax.
*We want.
We want to have more syntax classes.
*We want that we have more syntax classes.
Arguments are realized as NPs and clauses.
[The burglary] surprised [Piotrek].
[That the book had been stolen] surprised Piotrek.
It surprised Piotrek [that the book had been stolen].
Three prisoners are escaping.
There are three prisoners escaping.
It and there are dummy subjects. They are obligatory – sentences must have subjects -
– the Extended Projection Principle.
The subject position of certain predicates is a non-theta position. Verbs in the passive voice absorb the
external theta role: the subject position of a passive is a non-theta position. This means expletive
elements can occupy these positions:
It seems that Jola has solved the problem.
It is believed that Jola has solved the problem.
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Parameters of Universal Grammar
The pro-drop parameter: subject pronouns may be dropped in some languages
I am happy.
*am happy.
The binding domain parameter: the size of the
binding domain differs in different languages
Marek kazał Jankowi przygotować obiad dla siebie.
Mark told John to prepare dinner for himself.
The head/complement order parameter: in some languages heads precede their complements; in others
heads follow complements
on the wall
John hit Bill.
kabe ni
John ga Bill o but-ta.
Lecture 12
Phrase structure
Case theory
Movement
Binding
Phrases
A string of words is a phrase if it behaves as a unit with respect to certain syntactic phenomena. A phrase
has a head (i.e. phrases are endocentric) which may be accompanied by dependents.
[this teacher [of English] [with long hair]]
These students [saw [their professor] [this morning]].
[This teacher of English] has arrived today
but that [one] arrives tomorrow.
Jola’s teacher of English is British and Zena’s is American.
the string that has been replaced and deleted is teacher of English
*I met teacher of English.
*Teacher of English arrived yesterday.
These students saw their professor this morning and those did so too.
These students saw their professor this morning and those did so last night.
The string that has been replaced is saw their professor
Head → intermediate phrase → complete phrase (=maximal projection of the head)
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a student of English with long hair
a student of high moral principles
Case theory and NP movement
It seems that Marek has solved the problem.
Marek seems to have solved the problem.
It is believed that Marek has solved the problem.
Marek is believed to have solved the problem.
D-structure: syntactic level that reflects thematic relations
S-structure – syntactic level after movement
D-structure
… seems [Marek to have solved the problem].
S-structure
Marek seems [t to have solved the problem].
The NP Marek moves in order to be assigned case.
The Case Filter: Noun phrases must be assigned (abstract) case.
Accusative case is assigned by transitive verbs and prepositions to their objects.
Marek saw him.
Marek went with him.
Nominative case is assigned by tense to the subject position.
I arranged [for him to leave].
I expect [that he will leave].
A moved element leaves a trace behind.
Who do you want to invite t to the party?
Who do you wanna invite t to the party?
Who do you want t to come to the party?
*Who do you wanna come to the party?
John says that [Bill hurt himself].
John says that [Bill hurt him].
He says that [Bill hurt John].
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Principles of Binding Theory:
Principle A: an anaphor must be linked to a preceding NP in the same clause
Principle B: a personal pronoun must not be linked to a preceding NP in the same clause
Principle C: a common / proper noun must not be linked to any other preceding NP anywhere
*He thinks that [Jola hurt himself].
*Jola thinks that [John hurt him].
*He knows that John is wrong.
The Matching Condition:
A reflexive pronoun must agree with its antecedent in terms of gender, number and person:
*Jolanta hurt himself.
*Jolanta hurt themselves.
*Jolanta hurt myself.
Wh movement is not always possible:
*[Who] did he make [the claim [that he has met t ]]?
The term island is used to refer to constructions that do not allow a wh phrase to 'escape' from them.
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noun complement clauses
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indirect questions
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relative clauses
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sentential subjects
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possessive noun phrases
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coordinate structures
They have forgotten [what they should do tomorrow].
*When have they forgotten [what they should do t]?
I met the man [that invented the wheel].
*Who did you meet the man [that invented t]?
[That he has met Jolanta] is extremely unlikely.
*Who is [that he has met t] extremely unlikely?
She bought [John's book].
*Whose did she buy [t book]?
They ordered [ice cream and coffee].
*Which dessert did they order [t and coffee]?