Psych 56L/ Ling 51: Acquisition of LanguageAnnouncementsAdult Knowledge: The Target State SyntaxCreativity of Human LanguageAn Account That Won’t WorkSyntax is More than MeaningSlide 7Slide 8Slide 9Slide 10PowerPoint PresentationSlide 12Slide 13Slide 14So…what does determine how you string words together?A TemplateSlide 17Slide 18Slide 19Slide 20A Tiny Little GrammarSlide 22Embedded SentencesComplementizerA Slightly Bigger GrammarSlide 26Slide 27Slide 28Slide 29Slide 30Slide 31Slide 32Slide 33Slide 34Slide 35Slide 36Slide 37Slide 38Slide 39Slide 40Slide 41Slide 42Syntax RecapAdult Knowledge: The Target State MorphologyWords and word partsSlide 46Slide 47Types of MorphologySlide 49Slide 50Slide 51Slide 52Slide 53Slide 54Crosslinguistic ComparisonSlide 56Slide 57Morphology RecapQuestions?Psych 56L/ Ling 51:Acquisition of LanguageLecture 11Development of Syntax & Morphology IAnnouncementsNo office hours on 11/18/08 - sorry! Please email if you need to discuss anything with me or Jacquece.Reminder: Homework 2 due in class on Wednesday 11/12/08.Adult Knowledge: The Target State SyntaxQuickTime™ and a decompressorare needed to see this picture.QuickTime™ and a decompressorare needed to see this picture.QuickTime™ and a decompressorare needed to see this picture.Creativity of Human LanguageAbility to combine signs with simple meanings to create (1) Utterances with complex meanings(2) Novel expressions(3) Infinitely manySentences never heard before...“Some tulips are starting to samba on the chessboard.”Sentences of prodigious length...“Hoggle said that he thought that the odiferous leader of the goblins had it in mind to tell the unfortunate princess that the cries that she made during her kidnapping from the nearby kingdom of Dirindwell that the goblins themselves thought was a general waste of countryside ...”QuickTime™ and a decompressorare needed to see this picture.QuickTime™ and a decompressorare needed to see this picture.An Account That Won’t Work“You just string words together in an order that makes sense”In other words...“Syntax is determined by Meaning”(The way words are put together is determined solely by what they mean)QuickTime™ and a decompressorare needed to see this picture.Syntax is More than MeaningNonsense sentences with clear syntaxColorless green ideas sleep furiously. (Chomsky)A verb crumpled the ocean.I gave the question a goblin-shimmying egg.…which are incomprehensible when the syntax is nonsense*Furiously sleep ideas green colorless.Ocean the crumpled verb a.*The question I an egg goblin-shimmying gave.Famous nonsense sentences with clear syntax‘Twas brillig and the slithy tovesDid gyre and gimble in the wabe;All mimsy were the borogroves,And the mome raths outgrabeBeware the Jabberwock, my son!The jaws that bite, the claws that catch! Beware the Jujub bird, and shunThe frumious Bandersnatch!”Lewis Carroll, JabberwockySyntax is More than MeaningSyntax is More than Meaning'It seems very pretty,' she said when she had finished it, 'but it's RATHER hard to understand!' (You see she didn't like to confess, ever to herself, that she couldn't make it out at all.) 'Somehow it seems to fill my head with ideas -- only I don't exactly know what they are! However, SOMEBODY killed SOMETHING: that's clear, at any rate -- 'QuickTime™ and aTIFF (LZW) decompressorare needed to see this picture.And these same nonsense sentences with nonsense syntax are incomprehensible…‘Toves slithy the and brillig ‘twaswabe the in gimble and gyre did...QuickTime™ and aTIFF (LZW) decompressorare needed to see this picture.Syntax is More than MeaningUngrammatical sentences that make perfect senseJareth put the cape on.Jareth put on the cape.Jareth put it on.*Jareth put on it.QuickTime™ and aTIFF (LZW) decompressorare needed to see this picture.Syntax is More than MeaningUngrammatical sentences that make perfect senseSarah gave a ring to the Wiseman.Sarah gave him a ring.Sarah donated a ring to the Wiseman.*Sarah donated him a ring.QuickTime™ and aTIFF (LZW) decompressorare needed to see this picture.QuickTime™ and aTIFF (LZW) decompressorare needed to see this picture.Syntax is More than MeaningQuickTime™ and a decompressorare needed to see this picture.Ungrammatical sentences that make perfect senseJareth made Hoggle leave.Jareth let Hoggle leave.Jareth saw Hoggle leave.*Jareth wanted Hoggle leave.*Jareth made Hoggle to leave.*Jareth let Hoggle to leave.*Jareth saw Hoggle to leave.Jareth wanted Hoggle to leave.QuickTime™ and aTIFF (LZW) decompressorare needed to see this picture.QuickTime™ and aTIFF (LZW) decompressorare needed to see this picture.Syntax is More than MeaningCross-language VariationIf syntax was entirely determined by meaning, then we should not expect to find syntactic differences between languages of the world….but we do see variation.English: Sarah sees that book.Korean: Sarah ku chayk poata. Sarah that book seeSyntax is More than MeaningCross-language VariationIf syntax was entirely determined by meaning, then we should not expect to find syntactic differences between languages of the world….but we do see variation.English: Baso put the money in the cupboard.Selayarese (spoken in Indonesia): Lataroi doe injo ri lamari injo i Baso.put money the in cupboard the BasoSyntax is More than MeaningSo…what does determine how you string words together?Answer: Syntax!(That is, our knowledge of the possible forms of sentences in our language.)“Syntax is determined by Meaning”(The way words are put together is determined solely by what they mean)QuickTime™ and a decompressorare needed to see this picture.A TemplateA sentence consists of a Noun Phrase followed by a Verb PhraseSNPVPPhrase Structure RulePhrase Structure RulePhrase Structure TreePhrase Structure TreeS --> NP VPNoun PhraseVerb PhraseA TemplateHoggleThe chickenSeven goblinsSarahA feelingThe strangest story that you ever did hearslepttricked the guardsleftsaid that Hoggle thought that pixies were nastykicked the bucketgot drunk on dwarf wineNoun PhraseVerb Phrase6 SentencesA TemplateHoggleThe chickenSeven goblinsSarahA feelingThe strangest story that you ever did hearslepttricked the guardsleftsaid that Hoggle thought that pixies were nastykicked the bucketgot drunk on dwarf wineNoun PhraseVerb Phrase36 SentencesA TemplateHoggleThe chickenSeven goblinsSarahA feelingThe strangest story that you ever did hearslepttricked the