1. Introduction to Syntax
Linear structure
Hierarchical structure
Ambiguity

2. Syntax is: The study of sentence formation
Subconscious grammatical knowledge
Word order

3. Grammaticality Judgments:
We went to my grandmother’s house.
Visiting relatives can be a nuisance.
The children might being sing.
We fed her snail poison.
Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.
Me and Beth are watching a movie.
Swedes like fish more than Italians.
She ain’t got nothing to hide.

4. Grammaticality Judgments:
We went to my grandmother’s house.
Visiting relatives can be a nuisance.
The children might being sing.
We fed her snail poison.
Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.
Me and Beth are watching a movie.
Swedes like fish more than Italians.
She ain’t got nothing to hide.
AMB: ambiguous, *: ungrammatical,
#: grammatical but nonsensical,
%: grammatical in a non-standard v.

5. Ambiguous? I scratched the dog with a stick I’m a dog (I think!)
I love linguistics!!!
I’m a stick
I’m a dog (I think!)

6. Do I mean this?
I scratched (the dog with a stick)
Nice doggie!

7. Or do I mean this?
I scratched (the dog) with a stick.
scratch
scratch

8. The two meanings are a result of:
HIERARCHICAL STRUCTURE
Sentences are more than just ordered sequences of words.
They have internal hierarchical structure as well.
scratched the dog with a stick scratched the dog with a stick
dog has stick I have stick

9. Unavoidable Ambiguity
Why can’t we convey these internal hierarchical structures and avoid ambiguity?
LINEAR ORDER
Human verbal communication is limited by linear production. Consequently, sentences are organized linearly.

10. Two kinds of ambiguity:
She called her boyfriend from Australia.
STRUCTURAL AMBIGUITY
We went down to the bank yesterday
LEXICAL AMBIGUITY

11. Basic Word Order SVO (English, Chinese)
The boy saw the man
SOV (Russian, Turkish, Japanese)
Pensive poets painful vigils keep (Pope)
VSO (Irish, Arabic, Welsh)
Govern thou my song (Milton)

12. Basic Word Order OSV (Jamamadi) OVS (Apalai - Amazon basin)
When nine hundred years you reach, look as good you will not. (Yoda)
OVS (Apalai - Amazon basin)
VOS (Malagasy (Madagascar)

13. How would you say… English (SVO) Japanese (SOV) Malagasy (VOS)
Susie brings coffee
Japanese (SOV)
sushi-ga co:hi:-o mottekuru
Susie coffee bring
Malagasy (VOS)
Entin’ kafe Susie
bring coffee Susie

14. Two principles of sentence organization
1. LINEAR ORDER
not only a limitation, we actually make use of the linearity of the language
In English, limited morphology forces us to use word order to distinguish subject from object.
Tom chased Jerry.
Jerry chased Tom.

15. Two principles of sentence organization
2. HIERARCHICAL STRUCTURE
As we saw with the ambiguous sentence, this structure is ‘invisible’ upon first glance.
However, there are tests we can perform to discover the hierarchical structure of sentences.

16. Constituency CONSTITUENT
a group of words in a sentence that behave syntactically and semantically as a unit.
I have stick
dog has stick
scratched the dog with a stick scratched the dog with a stick

17. How to determine constituency
Semantic intuitions
sometimes, we just know that certain strings of words go together as a unit.
Constituency Tests (more reliable)
tests that can be applied to string of words in a given sentence to determine if the string is a constituent or not.

18. Next Time
Constituency tests
Phrase Structure Rules