--- # Syntax 3: Syntax is a Life Sentence ### Will Styler - LIGN 101 --- ### Today's Plan - A bit more tree growth - All that we're leaving behind --- ### Syntactic Ambiguity is Everywhere!
--- ### Grab some scratch paper - That's right, we're killing trees to make trees! ---
--- ### OK, let's start off with something easy! --- ### Jessica dislikes that her silly husband cooked a big squishy tofurkey for their romantic dinner --- - Let's take it piece by piece :) - Work through each chunk - Click in with 'B' when you start a chunk, and 'A' when you finish, and 'E' if you're lost --- ### Jessica
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--- ### Her silly husband
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--- ### A big, squishy tofurkey
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--- ### For their romantic dinner
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--- ### Cooked a big squishy tofurkey for their romantic dinner
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--- ### That her silly husband cooked a big squishy tofurkey for their romantic dinner
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--- ### Jessica dislikes that her silly husband cooked a big squishy tofurkey for their romantic dinner
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--- ### For the record, Tofurkeys are gross - Great for comedy, poor for eating ---
(Thanks to Cae, Fall 2022) --- Here's another one! --- ### The prescriptivist English Professor glared at the rebellious linguist --- Spoiler alert. --- ### The prescriptivist English Professor glared at the rebellious linguist ---
--- ### OK, OK, enough with the trees! - Yeah, I know. --- ### This is the problem with LIGN 101 - There's too much awesomeness to Syntax for me to cover in three classes - We need to focus on what's crucial - (You all understanding syntactic hierarchy) - ... over what's awesome - Cross-linguistic patterns and advanced syntactic questions --- ### ... and a whole lot has been dismissed as "Here there be dragons" --- # Introducing some Dragons
--- ## English Syntax is *way* more complicated --- ### We're looking at relatively simple sentences - (It may not feel that way, but we are!) --- ### "Truly, my dismay that three dragons were slain by the fame-craving knight couldn't be greater." - Your phrase structure rules will shatter against such pain. --- ### "Robert who came last weekend when you threw that party where Marvin saw Bob is kind of a jerk." - That's right, that's two S's inside an NP --- ### Also, sentences will do weird things - Weird things will be done by sentences. - Weird things will be the things that sentences do. - What will sentences do? - Will sentences do weird things? --- ### Passive Voice - Miguel threw Rajesh the ball. - Rajesh was thrown the ball. - **Passive voice turns the object of a sentence into the subject** --- ### This is a 200 foot pole
- The passive voice will not be touched with it --- ### This makes us think about 'movement' and 'transformation' - Phrase structure rules don't account for changes --- ### Jessica can buy Cheerios - Can Jessica buy Cheerios? - It was Jessica who bought the Cheerios - Cheerios are what Jessica bought - Who can buy Cheerios? - What can Jessica buy? - Jessica can buy what? ---
(Thanks Jaron from W22!) --- ### The movement... it's everywhere - Your book gets a bit deeper into this than we have time to - ... but it's cooooooool. --- ## Here's a fun dragon --- ### Garden Path Sentences Sentences which are easy to incorrectly parse at first --- ### Example Garden Paths - The old man the boat. - The complex houses married soldiers and their families. - The girl told the story cried. - The man who whistles tunes pianos. - The war on plastic faces setback as cost of recycled material soars - This is from [the Guardian](https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/oct/13/war-on-plastic-waste-faces-setback-as-cost-of-recycled-material-soars), and was fixed with 'plastic waste' after publication --- ### The horse raced past the barn fell ---
Source:
--- ### These occur in human language
--- ## Let's look at some other sentences ---
### A is 'Perfectly Grammatical', E is 'Completely Ungrammatical' ---
## More three dogs bit than eight humans. ---
## More cats are on my bed than I can cuddle them. ---
## More sales are expected this year relative to last year. ---
## More tourists have been to England than to Kazakhstan. ---
## More people have been to Russia than I have. ---
## More politicians self-finance their campaigns in the USA than elsewhere. ---
## More undergrads text their friends during the week than I text my friends. --- ### Wait a second... - More people have been to Russia than I have. - More undergrads text their friends during the week than I text my friends. - **What do these actually mean?!?** --- ### These are called 'Comparative Illusions' - ... and they show that we can have instincts which make something 'seem' grammatical and sensical which actually isn't! - The factors which make these feel more or less acceptable are a subject of syntactic research - They can even happen in natural speech - 'I think there are more candidates on stage who speak Spanish more fluently than our president speaks English.' - [Dan Rather](https://twitter.com/danrather/status/1144076809182408704?lang=en) --- ### How about some center embedding gore? --- > An apparently new speech disorder a linguistics department our correspondent visited was affected by has appeared. - An apparently new speech disorder - a linguistics department - our correspondent - visited - was affected by - has appeared. --- > The cause experts the LSA sent investigate remains elusive. - The cause - experts - the LSA - sent - investigate - remains elusive. --- > Physicians neurologists psychologists other linguists called for help called for help called for help didn’t help either. - Physicians - neurologists - psychologists - other linguists - called for help - called for help - called for help - didn’t help either. --- > The patient the nurse the doctor consulted was sick. - The patient - the nurse - the doctor - consulted - was sick. -
wtf?!?!
--- ### Thanks to Emily for some of these syntactic troubles - Also here's the center embedding [source](https://specgram.com/CLI.2/03.bakery.disorder.html) --- ### Modifier Scope issues - “Crispy Ahi Tuna Tacos” - Crispy tuna, or Crispy Tacos --- ## There are other approaches to Syntax too! --- ### V', S', IP, and more! - There are many theories and approaches, each with pros and cons - This is the case in anything in Linguistics, but especially here! --- ## Other Languages exist! --- ### Different languages do sentences differently - Not all languages put the Subject (do-er) before the verb, which is followed by the object (which is being affected) ('SVO') - Lakota is SOV, with postpositions - ASL is OSV - Spanish adjectives are after the noun - Russian can move the arguments around to help make your point --- ### Phrase structure rules are language specific, too! - We'll play with other languages' phrase structure rules in this class! --- ### We're just trying to get you understanding the basics - What syntax is - How sentences are composed hierarchically - ... and how grammar works for sentences --- ### For everything else, LIGN 121
--- ## One last oddity --- ### Our rules can act weirdly Rule 8: VP -> V Rule 9: VP -> V NP --- ### To sleep * VP -> V: Will slept * VP -> V NP: Will slept Jessica --- ### To dream * VP -> V: Will dreamed * VP -> V NP: Will dreamed Jessica --- ### To walk * VP -> V: Will walked * VP -> V NP: Will walked Jessica --- ### These are called 'Intransitive verbs' Verbs that only take a single argument, the 'subject' --- ### To hug * VP -> V NP: Will hugged Jessica * VP -> V: Will hugged --- ### To move * VP -> V: Will moved * VP -> V NP: Will moved Jessica --- ### To see * VP -> V: Will saw * VP -> V NP: Will saw Jessica --- ### These are called 'Transitive verbs' Verbs that can take two arguments, a subject and an object --- ### To bake * VP -> V: Will baked * VP -> V NP: Will baked a cake * VP -> V NP NP: Will baked Jessica a cake * VP -> V NP NP: ?Will baked a cake Jessica --- ### To find * VP -> V: Will found. * VP -> V NP: Will found a cake * VP -> V NP NP: Will found Jessica a cake * VP -> V NP NP: ?Will found a cake Jessica * VP -> V NP NP: Will found a cake some candles --- ### Ditransitive Constructions Verbs that take a Subject and two objects --- ### To see * VP -> V: ?Will saw * VP -> V NP: Will saw a cake * VP -> V NP NP: ?Will saw Jessica a cake * VP -> V NP NP: *Will saw a cake Jessica --- ## Whoa!! - That was a phrase structure rule with three branches! - That happens sometimes, although there are usually other ways! --- ### To make * VP -> V: Will made * VP -> V NP: Will made a judge * VP -> V NP NP: Will made Jessica a judge * VP -> V NP NP: Will made a judge Jessica --- ### To make, continued * VP -> V NP: Will made a judge (with his modelling clay) * VP -> V NP NP: Will made Jessica a robot * VP -> V NP NP: Will made a robot, Jessica --- ### Are you vibing me? - "I'm vibing." - "I'm vibing you." - "I'm vibing with this new album" - "I'm vibing this new album" - "I'm vibing her a new album" --- ### Wait a second... - Our phrase structure rules don't universally apply - A valid phrase structure rule for one verb might not work for another - ... and it seems to be *lexically specific* - It depends on the particular word - ## Is there no hope?! ---
--- ### (Nah, it's cool, we've got semantics) - See you next time! ---
Thank you!