ENG509 — Midterm Summary (Lectures 1–22)

📘 Lecture 1 — What is Morphology?

📖 Overview: This lecture introduces the field of morphology, the branch of linguistics concerned with the internal structure of words and how they are formed. It establishes foundational concepts such as the morpheme, types of words, and the key distinction between inflection and derivation, setting the stage for understanding how languages build and organize their vocabularies.

🗂️ Topics Covered

The lecture begins with an introduction to morphology and its central questions, defining the morpheme and related terms like morph, stem, root, and affix. It then explores morphology in action through novel words and abstract morphological facts across languages. The discussion moves to different types of words (phonological, grammatical, lexemes), empirical tests for wordhood, and the crucial distinction between inflection and derivation. Finally, it introduces two major approaches to morphology (Item-and-Arrangement and Item-and-Process) and the concept of the lexicon.

📝 Lecture Summary

Topic 01: Introduction

Morphology is the study of form or forms. In linguistics, it refers to "the mental system involved in word formation" or "the branch of linguistics that deals with words, their internal structure, and how they are formed." According to Fabregas & Scalise, morphology studies the grammatical properties of words and how words relate to each other in a language. The chief task of morphology is to understand relationships between words like deep and deepen or dog and dogs, where pieces like -en (forms a verb meaning 'cause to become x') and -s (makes a plural) are identified. The central question in morphology is: how are words related to each other?

Topic 02: Morpheme

A morpheme is 'the smallest linguistic piece with a grammatical function.' It can be a word like hand or a meaningful piece of a word like the -ed in looked. Another definition is 'a pairing between sound and meaning,' though some morphemes have no concrete form or no conventional meaning. The term morph refers specifically to the phonological realization of a morpheme. For example, the past tense morpheme -ed has various morphs: [t] as in jumped, [d] as in repelled, and [ed] as in rooted. A stem is a base unit to which another morphological piece is attached (e.g., disagree is the stem of disagreement). A root is like a stem but refers only to morphologically simple units (e.g., agree is both the stem and root of disagree). Affixes are pieces like re- and -ation. Besides prefixes and suffixes, there are infixes (inserted inside a root, like -um- in Tagalog s-um-ulat 'one who wrote') and circumfixes (attached around a stem, like ke-...-an in Indonesian ke-besar-an 'bigness').

Topic 03: Morphology in Action

Morphology is active in everyday life through novel words and word play, as in the Toni Braxton lyric "Unbreak my heart, uncry these tears." Humans have a capacity for generating and understanding new words, often building them from pre-existing pieces (e.g., hobbitish from hobbit + -ish). While entirely new words like J. R. R. Tolkien's hobbit are rare, novel words formed from existing parts are common.

Topic 04: Abstract Morphological Facts

Languages display abstract morphological rules. For example, English requires a plural morpheme on nouns after numbers greater than one ("two melons a day"), while languages like Indonesian or Japanese do not use a plural suffix in such contexts. English has irregular past tense forms (say → said, not say + -ed). Ancient Greek and Manam distinguish singular, dual, and plural (and even trial in Manam), showing that number distinctions are not universal.

Topic 05: Background & Beliefs

Foundational beliefs in morphology include: 1) languages (small-l) differ from one another; 2) individual languages are different from Language (capital-L, the universal human capacity); 3) morphology is a distinct component of grammars. Methodological beliefs include skeptical realism and a motto of "anything goes" – a no-holds-barred, not strictly theory-based approach to linguistics.

Topic 06: Intro to Morphological Analysis

Two basic approaches are Analysis (breaking words down) and Synthesis (building words up). Four principles guide morphological analysis:

• Principle 1: Forms with the same meaning and sound shape in all their occurrences are instances of the same morpheme.
• Principle 2: Forms with the same meaning but different sound shapes may be instances of the same morpheme if their distributions do not overlap (i.e., they are allomorphs).
• Principle 3: Not all morphemes are segmental (they can be processes like stress change).
• Principle 4: A morpheme may have zero as one of its allomorphs provided it has a non-zero allomorph (e.g., sheep has a zero plural allomorph alongside the non-zero plural -s).

Topic 07: What is a Word?

Defining a "word" is challenging. Syntactically, a word is a minimal unit that can stand alone (like Tomorrow), unlike affixes (My is not a valid stand-alone answer). Phonologically, words are the domain of stress assignment. The term grammatical word (or morphosyntactic word) refers to different forms of a single word that occur depending on syntactic context (e.g., coughs is a grammatical word form of the lexeme cough).

Topic 08: Types of Words

Linguists distinguish:

• Phonological word: A string of sounds that behaves as a unit for stress/ accent. Items like the and for are not phonological words; they are clitics (phonologically dependent on adjacent words). Proclitics precede their host (e.g., 's in Mary's here), and enclitics follow it.
• Content words (nouns, verbs, adjectives, most adverbs) vs. Function words (pronouns, auxiliary verbs, determiners, prepositions): Function words carry grammatical meaning.
• Lexeme: A theoretical construct corresponding to one sense of the word "word." For example, dog1 (canine) and dog2 (U-shaped device) are separate lexemes.

Topic 09: Empirical Tests for Wordhood

Several tests identify words:

• Fixed order of elements: Morphemes within a word have a fixed order (unbreakable, not breakableun), unlike sentences where word order can change.
• Non-separability and integrity: Words cannot be broken up by inserting other material (a white shirt is a phrase, but a shirt is a word; you cannot say a white doghouse by inserting white into the word doghouse). Syntactic processes cannot apply to parts of words (Which school did you see bus? is ungrammatical, showing school bus is one word).
• Stress: Stress patterns can distinguish compounds from phrases (e.g., hot dog as a compound has a single stress pattern).

Topic 10: Inflection vs. Derivation

Inflection forms grammatical variants of a single lexeme (e.g., is, are, being from be; select, selects, selected, selecting). It is dictated by sentence structure and does not change lexical meaning or category. Derivation creates a new lexeme from an existing one (e.g., bookshop from book + shop; un+ do* from do; sadly from sad). Derivation typically changes meaning or lexical category, while compounding (a special type of derivation) creates one lexeme from two or more.

Topic 11: Two Approaches to Morphology

Hockett identified two approaches:

• Item-and-Arrangement (I&A) : Sees morphology as a set of elements (items) and the patterns in which they are arranged. Books results from concatenating book and -s.
• Item-and-Process (I&P) : Sees complex words as resulting from operations (processes) on simpler words. Books results from the function "make plural" applied to book. I&A and I&P are mathematically almost equivalent. However, non-affixal phenomena (like vowel change in sing, sang, sung) are more naturally represented in I&P than in strict I&A-based frameworks.

Topic 12: The Lexicon

The lexicon is the mental dictionary. Two views: 1) a list of morphemes (indivisible units); 2) a list of irregular or arbitrary forms (Bloomfield). Evidence suggests complex forms like representative and even inflected forms like says (which has an irregular pronunciation [sεz]) are stored. The lexicon contains more than words: affixes, compounds, fixed phrases (with respect to), names, and proverbs. The most accurate conception is that the lexicon is a list of forms you know – your linguistic memory – including irregular and unpredictable elements.

⭐ Key Takeaways

A morpheme is the smallest meaningful linguistic unit, and its phonological realizations are called morphs. The fundamental distinction is between inflection (grammatical forms of the same lexeme) and derivation (creating new lexemes), which has implications for meaning and category change. Words can be identified through tests like non-separability and stress, and they are categorized as phonological words, grammatical words, or lexemes. Two major approaches, Item-and-Arrangement and Item-and-Process, offer complementary ways of analyzing complex words, and the lexicon is best understood as a speaker's mental store of irregular and unpredictable forms, not just a list of simple morphemes.

🧠 Quick Revision Questions

1. What is the difference between a morpheme and a morph? Give an example for each from the English past tense.
2. Explain the distinction between inflection and derivation using the words walks and walker as examples.
3. What three empirical tests can be used to determine whether a sequence like school bus is a single word or a phrase?
4. According to the lecture, what is the most accurate conception of the lexicon, and why must it include complex forms like says or representative?
5. How do Item-and-Arrangement and Item-and-Process approaches differ in their analysis of the word unthinkable?

📘 Lecture 5 — Words & its Forms: Inflections

📖 Overview: This lecture introduces the fundamental distinction between word forms and lexemes, explaining how inflections create grammatically conditioned variants of words. It covers regular and irregular inflection across nouns, pronouns, determiners, verbs, and adjectives, establishing the foundational concepts needed to understand English morphology.

🗂️ Topics Covered

The lecture covers words and grammar, distinguishing between lexemes and word forms. It then explores regular and irregular inflection, examining the forms of nouns, pronouns and determiners, verbs, and adjectives. Each section details the specific inflectional patterns and irregularities within English morphology.

📝 Lecture Summary

Topic: 25: Words and grammar

Some complex words have predictable meanings and need not be listed as separate lexical items—they are merely grammatically conditioned variants of a more basic word. For example, performs, performed, and perform are all inflectional variants of the same abstract word, called a lexeme. A lexeme is the abstract kind of word of which word forms are inflectional variants. Being abstract, a lexeme cannot be uttered or pronounced—only its word forms can be. We refer to lexemes by their bare, unaffixed forms. The same word form can belong to two different lexemes (e.g., rows meaning "lines of seats" vs. "propels a boat"), and one lexeme may be represented by multiple word forms. What links a word form with a lexeme in a given context is the grammatical word that the word form expresses there.

🔑 Definition — Lexeme: An abstract word of which individual word forms (e.g., performs, performed, perform) are inflectional variants; it is not something that can be uttered directly. 🔑 Definition — Word form: The actual, pronounceable variant of a lexeme that appears in a sentence. 📌 Example: In "This pianist performs every week" and "This pianist performed last week," performs and performed are word forms of the lexeme perform.

Topic: 26: Regular and irregular inflection

Words like performs and pianists do not need dictionary listing because they are grammatically conditioned variants of one lexeme. Two independent reasons explain this: first, any countable noun (like pianist or cat) will predictably have a plural form meaning 'more than one X'; second, unless otherwise specified, the plural is formed by adding the suffix -s (or its allomorphs). This is the regular method of forming plurals. However, some nouns form plurals irregularly: child > children, tooth > teeth, man > men. Dictionaries must list these irregular plurals (e.g., tooth noun (plural teeth)). The different plural suffixes (-s, -en, -ae, -i) and vowel changes (like in men, teeth) can all be considered allomorphs of a single 'plural' morpheme. The key question is how much phonological divergence is acceptable for something to count as one morpheme. To avoid confusion, it is often better to use terms like 'root,' 'suffix,' and 'prefix' rather than 'morpheme.'

🔑 Definition — Regular inflection: A predictable pattern of forming inflected words (e.g., adding -s for plurals) that applies to most words in a class. 🔑 Definition — Irregular inflection: An unpredictable pattern of forming inflected words (e.g., vowel change in tooth/teeth) that must be listed in dictionaries. 📌 Example: Pianist → pianists (regular, predictable); Child → children (irregular, must be listed in a dictionary).

Topic: 27: Forms of nouns

Most countable nouns in English have two word forms: a singular and a plural. For any noun lexeme, there are two grammatical words—'singular of X' and 'plural of X'—contrasting in number. The regular plural suffix is -s. Irregular plural suffixes include -i, -ae, -a (from Latin/Greek), -(r)en (in oxen, children), and Hebrew -im (in cherubim). Some nouns express plurality with a vowel change (e.g., teeth, men)—a different allomorph of the root. Others, called zero-plural nouns, show no change at all (e.g., sheep, fish, deer, trout). Whether these are singular or plural is determined by syntactic context. A few nouns, like scissors and pants, exist only in a plural form (pluralia tantum), creating problems for contexts requiring a singular form (e.g., we cannot say a scissors—instead, we use the periphrastic form pair of scissors).

🔑 Definition — Number: The grammatical distinction between singular and plural forms of a noun. 🔑 Definition — Zero-plural: A noun whose singular and plural forms are identical (e.g., sheep, deer). 📌 Example: The noun cat has two forms: singular cat and plural cats. The noun deer is zero-plural: "A deer was visible" (singular) vs. "Two deer were visible" (plural).

Topic: 28: Forms of pronouns and determiners

Morphology is mainly concerned with open classes (nouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs) whose membership can grow. Determiners are a closed class, but some display a singular–plural contrast: this/these and that/those. This shows that number contrasts can affect grammar within noun phrases and between subjects and verbs. Personal pronouns exhibit case inflection: he/him, she/her, we/us—where he and him contrast in case (nominative vs. accusative), not number. This is a suppletive relationship (phonologically unrelated forms). Possessive forms like his, our, my may be analyzed as a third case (the genitive or possessive) or as determiners. These words cannot combine with other determiners (e.g., the my hat is ungrammatical).

🔑 Definition — Case: An inflectional category (e.g., nominative, accusative, genitive) that marks the grammatical function of a noun or pronoun in a sentence. 🔑 Definition — Suppletion: The use of phonologically unrelated forms to express grammatical contrasts within a paradigm (e.g., good/better, go/went). 📌 Example: "He loves her" vs. "She loves him." He and she are nominative forms; him and her are accusative forms. The lexeme we has forms we (nominative) and us (accusative).

Topic: 29: Forms of Verbs

An English verb lexeme has at most five distinct forms, illustrated by give:

1. Third person singular present tense: gives (e.g., Mary gives a lecture.)
2. Past tense: gave (e.g., Mary gave a lecture.)
3. Progressive participle: giving (e.g., Mary is giving a lecture.)
4. Perfect or passive participle: given (e.g., Mary has given a lecture. The lecture is always given by Mary.)
5. Basic form: give (e.g., Mary may give a lecture.)

The present/past contrast is tense. The third person singular also marks person and number. Most verbs have only four forms because the past tense and perfect participle are identical (e.g., performed). This is called syncretism. Irregular verbs (about 150) do not use the -ed suffix. The verb be is highly irregular, distinguishing eight forms, while modals like must have only one.

🔑 Definition — Syncretism: When two distinct grammatical words are expressed by the same word form (e.g., past tense and perfect participle in performed). 📐 Formula: Verb lexeme forms = basic form, -s form (3sg present), -ing form (progressive participle), past tense form, perfect/passive participle form. 📌 Example: The verb perform has four forms: perform (basic), performs (3sg present), performing (progressive participle), performed (past tense AND perfect/passive participle).

Topic: 30: Forms of adjectives

Many English adjectives exhibit three forms for comparison: positive (green), comparative (greener), and superlative (greenest). This is expressed by the regular suffixes -er and -est, except for suppletive forms like better and best. This belongs to inflectional morphology because in certain grammatical contexts, the comparative or superlative form is required (e.g., This field is greener than that one—green would be ungrammatical). However, not all adjectives can take these suffixes. Longer adjectives require periphrastic forms using more or most (e.g., more fertile, most fertile). Broadly, -er/-est appear on one-syllable adjectives and some two-syllable adjectives ending in a vowel (e.g., tidy, yellow); longer adjectives require periphrasis.

🔑 Definition — Comparative: The form of an adjective used to compare two entities, typically marked by the suffix -er. 🔑 Definition — Periphrastic forms: Multi-word phrases used to express grammatical categories that could otherwise be expressed by inflectional suffixes (e.g., more interesting instead of interestinger). 📌 Example: Positive: "Grass is green." Comparative: "The grass is greener now." Superlative: "The grass is greenest in early summer." For fertile, we use periphrasis: "more fertile," "most fertile."

⭐ Key Takeaways

The most critical concept from this lecture is the distinction between lexemes (abstract word units) and their word forms (actual utterances). Inflectional morphology creates grammatically conditioned variants of lexemes—these are predictable and systematic, not arbitrary. Students must memorize the five possible verb forms and recognize that syncretism (where past tense and perfect participle are identical) is the norm for regular verbs. For nouns, the key is understanding the difference between regular -s plurals, irregular plurals (vowel change, -en, etc.), and zero-plural nouns. Adjective inflection involves a three-way contrast (positive/comparative/superlative) that requires periphrasis for longer words. Finally, the lecture establishes that pronouns are unique: they show case inflection via suppletion, unlike other word classes.

🧠 Quick Revision Questions

1. What is the difference between a lexeme and a word form? Provide an example using the verb run.
2. List three types of irregular noun plurals in English and give an example of each.
3. What is syncretism in verb morphology? Which two grammatical words are syncretized for regular English verbs?
4. When must a speaker use periphrastic forms (more/most) instead of the comparative/superlative suffixes -er/-est for adjectives?
5. Which word class in English uses case inflection? Give an example of a nominative/accusative pair.

📘 Lecture 12 — Morphological Productivity and the Mental Lexicon

📖 Overview: This lecture introduces the concept of morphological productivity, which describes how certain word-formation patterns are more likely to generate acceptable new words than others. It explores how productivity relates to language structure, the constraints that limit it, and how it is tested experimentally. The lecture also connects these ideas to the mental lexicon, psycholinguistics, and the ongoing debate about how complex words are stored and processed in the human mind.

🗂️ Topics Covered

The lecture begins with the definition of morphological productivity and the concept of potential words, using examples of English plurals and negative prefixes like non-, un-, and in- to illustrate the relationship between productivity and semantic transparency. It then discusses degrees of productivity and the various phonological, morphological, syntactic, and semantic constraints that limit it. The summary of experimental methods for testing productivity, particularly the study of the suffixes -ness and -ity, is followed by an introduction to the mental lexicon, psycholinguistics, and neurolinguistics. Later sections cover the relationship between morphology and syntax, including the difference between morphological and syntactic inflection, structural constraints on inflection, and grammatical-function-changing phenomena like passive, causative, and applicative constructions. The final part addresses the acquisition of morphology, sources of experimental and naturalistic evidence, models of morphological knowledge (including dual-system and analogy-based models), and the processing of complex words via direct and indirect routes.

📝 Lecture Summary

Topic: 67: What is Morphological Productivity?

Morphological productivity refers to the probability that a potential word formed by a given morphological pattern will be accepted as a valid word in a language. For example, English has several plural forms (cats, oxen, deer, mice), but when encountering a novel word like argaz (a Hebrew crate) or smick (a cracker), a speaker is most likely to add the suffix /-z/ (e.g., argazes, smicks). Only a word like ceratopus might be pluralized as ceratopi on the Latin pattern. This illustrates that while a potential word could exist, it may or may not be accepted. Studying productivity involves investigating why some patterns (like -ness) are more productive than others (like -th). A key debate is whether productivity is part of linguistic competence (Chomsky's term for a speaker's internal knowledge of language). Some argue it is not, as productivity is probabilistic rather than an "all or none" structural rule.

🔑 Definition — Potential word: A word that could exist in a language (it is formed by a rule or pattern) but is not yet an actual, established word. 📌 Example: Mugglehood ‘the state of being a non-wizard’ is a potential word created from Muggle and -hood, which was not in common use but could become an actual word over time.

Topic: 68: Productivity and Structure – Negative Prefixes in English

Productivity can reveal information about language structure. A more productive derivational process tends to have a compositional meaning that is transparently predictable from its parts. In contrast, a less productive process is more likely to result in non-compositional, idiosyncratic meanings. This is illustrated by the English negative prefixes non-, un-, and in-. Zimmer (1964) found non- to be the most productive and semantically transparent. For instance, non-Christian simply means ‘not Christian’, while unchristian can mean ‘not behaving in a Christian manner’ or ‘barbaric’. Similarly, non-human means ‘not human’, but inhuman means ‘lacking human qualities like pity’. Non- is a logical or contrary negator (represented as ¬ Christian), whereas un- and in- are contradictory negators, meaning ‘opposite of X’. This pattern extends to other affixes: the more productive -ness has more transparent semantics than the less productive -ity, as seen in the pair collectiveness vs. collectivity.

🔑 Definition — Compositional meaning: A meaning that is predictable from the meanings of the individual parts of a word or phrase. 📌 Example: Collectiveness (from -ness) has a transparent meaning ('the quality of being collective'), while collectivity (from -ity) also has an additional, less transparent meaning ('the people considered as a body').

Topic: 69: Degrees of Productivity

Morphological processes are not simply productive or unproductive; they exist on a scale of productivity. Many constraints limit productivity:

• Phonological constraints: The Modern Hebrew pet-name suffix -le attaches only to bases ending in a vowel. The English suffix -al attaches only to verbs stressed on the final syllable (e.g., arrival, denial). The suffix -ish attaches mostly to monosyllabic adjectives (e.g., greenish).
• Morphological constraints: A process may require a base to have a certain structure. The suffix -ish often attaches only to unsuffixed bases.
• Syntactic constraints: The base must belong to a specific lexical category. The English prefix re- attaches only to verbs.
• Semantic constraints: Barker (1998) found that the English suffix -ee (advisee, employee) is constrained by three factors: (1) the referent of the -ee noun must be sentient; (2) the referent is typically characterized by a lack of volitional control; and (3) the -ee noun and its stem must be episodically linked (e.g., a lessee must have a specific leasing event). The less productive rule often serves a linguistic purpose, creating words that sound more technical or stand out.

🔑 Definition — Episodic link: A relationship where a specific event (e.g., a leasing) must qualify an individual (e.g., a lessee) for the derived noun to be used correctly.

Topic: 70: Testing Productivity

Researchers use various tools to test productivity, including dictionaries, corpora, and advanced techniques like PET scans. Aronoff and Schvaneveldt (1978) conducted an experiment to verify if productivity is part of linguistic competence. They tested the suffixes -ness (native English) and -ity (Latin-Romance) because -ness is more productive. Subjects were presented with three sets of words: (i) actual words (listed in the dictionary), (ii) possible words (where the stem existed but not the suffixed form), and (iii) non-words (where neither stem nor suffix existed). Over 141 subjects judged words from randomized lists. The results showed that speakers preferred actual words in -ity (balanced for frequency), showed no preference for non-words, and preferred -ness words for potential words. This demonstrates that speakers can distinguish between a more productive and a less productive rule.

💡 Why this matters: This experiment shows that productivity is not just an abstract linguistic notion; it reflects a psychological reality in the minds of speakers.

Topic: 71: The Mental Lexicon

Psycholinguistics and neurolinguistics (or cognitive neuroscience) study the mental lexicon—the dictionary of words stored in a language user's brain. A key distinction is between the lexicon itself (storage) and how it is used in word recognition (associating a speech/writing signal with a lexical entry) and word production (selecting the right words to speak). Most early research focused on written word recognition, but spoken word recognition is now seen as more fundamental. Most psycholinguists assume there is a single mental lexicon accessed by both recognition and production, but it is studied indirectly through these processes.

🔑 Definition — Psycholinguistics: The study of the psychological and neurobiological factors that enable humans to acquire, use, and understand language.

Topic: 72: Psycholinguistics and Neurolinguistics

A key challenge is understanding how morphological information is represented in the brain. For example, in Kujamaat Jóola, vowel harmony requires all vowels in a word to be either tense or lax. Morphemes that only have tense vowels likely have one stored form, but morphemes that alternate might be stored as two allomorphs or processed by a mental rule that changes lax vowels to tense. Psycholinguists devise experiments to determine which is the case. A broad consensus has emerged that morphological structure is present in the mental lexicon, regardless of whether individual words are stored as whole units or decomposed. This leads to the debate between single-route and dual-route models of lexical access. A related finding is the frequency effect: more frequent words are recognized faster. For example, clean is recognized faster than glean because it is about thirty times more common.

📌 Example: An English speaker will recognize the common word clean more quickly than the less common word glean.

Topic: 73: Morphology and Syntax

Morphosyntax studies the interaction between morphology and syntax. According to the traditional view, morphology builds word forms (by combining roots and affixes), and syntax takes these fully inflected words as input to build phrases and sentences. This suggests a strict division of labor where morphology operates below the word level and syntax above it, with syntax taking over after morphology is complete.

Topic: 74: Morphological vs. Syntactic Inflection

There is a key difference between how morphologists and syntacticians define inflection.

• For a morphologist, inflection requires the existence of multiple forms of a lexeme. If a lexeme has only one form, there is no morphological inflection. For example, Chinese and Vietnamese have no morphological inflection because lexemes are invariant.
• For a syntactician, inflection can be abstract, even if not overtly realized. A syntactician may say a verb in Chinese abstractly agrees with its subject, even though the verb form never changes.

Key Differences:

📌 Example: English modals (may, could, will) are considered syntactic inflection by syntacticians but are not morphological inflection because they are separate words, not bound forms.

Topic: 75: Structural Constraints on Morphological Inflection

The realization of inflectional morphology can be constrained by syntactic context. Examples include:

• Russian: Verbs show gender agreement with their subject only in the past tense.
• Hebrew: Verbs agree in gender with their subjects only in the present tense.
• Kujamaat Jóola: Subject agreement is obligatory except in past subordinate and positive imperative verb forms.
• Balanta: Verbs agree with their subjects only when no subject noun phrase is present, or the subject is focused.
• Arabic: Verbs agree with their subjects in number only when the word order is Subject-Verb (SV), not when it is Verb-Subject (VS). In VS order, a default 3rd-person singular form is used.

Topic: 76: Inflection and Universal Grammar

Universal Grammar (Chomsky) proposes that all languages are identical at some level of analysis. A key question is whether inflectional categories themselves are universal. While categories like tense, aspect, mood, voice, agreement, number, gender, and case appear frequently across languages, their realizations are highly variable. For example, the number of noun classes (genders) in languages of the Atlantic family varies from 7 (Balanta) to 25 (Gombe Fula). Despite this variation, universal principles likely govern what is inflectionally possible. For instance, nouns are regularly inflected for case, number, and gender, while verbs are inflected for tense, aspect, mood, voice, or agreement.

🔑 Definition — Universal Grammar: A theory developed by Noam Chomsky that all human languages share a fundamental, innate structure at some abstract level of analysis.

Topic: 77: Grammatical Function Change

Grammatical function change refers to alternations in the grammatical encoding of a verb’s arguments (e.g., subject, object). Examples include:

• Passive: The subject of the verb is the patient (e.g., The law was broken). The agent can be expressed as an adjunct (e.g., by the governor).
• Antipassive: The object of a transitive verb is either omitted or expressed in an oblique case. The verb becomes intransitive.
• Causative: The subject causes an event. This can be expressed by a separate verb (make), an affix, or a verb that inherently means ‘cause to X’ (kill means ‘cause to die’).
• Applicative: A morpheme is added to a verb, allowing it to take an additional object, often a beneficiary. English lacks a dedicated applicative affix but uses verb-preposition compounds (outran).
• Noun Incorporation: A noun stem is compounded with a verb stem to form a new, derived verb (e.g., babysit).

Topic: 78: Productivity in Grammatical Function Change

Grammatical-function-changing phenomena like passive and causative demonstrate the productivity of syntax, as they can be applied to a wide range of verbs. They represent a very close interaction between morphology and syntax.

Topic: 79: Morphology and Mind

This section focuses on how morphological knowledge is represented in the human mind, a key topic in the debate on the nature of linguistic rules. A central theme is the balance between storage and computation. For example, to use the word books, we can either retrieve the entire form from memory or compute it by adding -s to book. Understanding this choice helps reveal the nature of human cognition. Empirical research uses both naturalistic data (e.g., corpora, speech errors) and experimental data (e.g., lexical decision tasks). Statistical and probabilistic data are crucial for modeling morphological knowledge.

Topic: 80: The Use of Mental Lexicon

A speaker's mental lexicon differs from a dictionary in three key ways:

1. Vocabulary size: A mental lexicon contains far fewer words than a dictionary. It includes a large passive vocabulary (words you understand) and a smaller active vocabulary (words you use). It is also more dynamic, containing neologisms (new words) not yet in dictionaries.
2. Word relationships: Words in the mental lexicon are linked in a web of semantic (e.g., symphony for sympathy), phonological, and morphological similarities.
3. Frequency information: The mental lexicon stores frequency information for each word. High-frequency words have higher activation levels and are recognized faster. This leads to the cumulative frequency effect and the base frequency effect, where the frequency of a root word (e.g., book) contributes to the activation of its inflected forms (e.g., books).

📌 Example: The high-frequency word nice is recognized more quickly than the low-frequency word opaque.

Topic: 81: Acquisition of Morphology

Children acquire morphological rules in stages. Research by Berko (1958) on English past tense forms identified a three-stage U-shaped learning curve:

1. Stage I: Children learn past tense forms by rote, producing correct forms for both regular (asked) and irregular (went) verbs.
2. Stage II: Children discover the regular rule (add -ed) but overgeneralize it, producing incorrect forms like goed instead of went.
3. Stage III: Children have acquired both the rule and the set of exceptions (irregular verbs), once again producing correct forms like asked and went.

In other domains, children discover case marking early and coin new words from a very young age, though they may violate the principle of conventionality (which gives priority to established words).

Topic: 82: Sources of Evidence

Evidence for how morphology is represented in the mind comes from:

• Experimental data: Lexical decision tasks (judging if a string of letters is a real word) are often combined with priming. In morphological priming, a morphologically related word (e.g., calculate) is presented before the target word (e.g., calculation) to see if it speeds up recognition.
• Naturalistic data: This includes speech errors (e.g., the freezes out of the steaker shows that the morphological structure of freezer is accessible) and language deficits like aphasia (e.g., Broca's aphasics may struggle with regular plurals but retain high-frequency irregular ones), which provide evidence for different processing modules.

Topic: 83: Models of Morphological Knowledge

Several models explain how morphological knowledge is organized:

1. Dual System Model: Proposes two separate systems: a rule-based system for regular forms (e.g., past tense -ed) and a memory-based system for irregular forms (e.g., sing-sang). In this model, the rule for the regular past tense is always applied; irregular forms are stored and linked associatively. This explains why patterns like -ing/-ang/-ung can be extended to new verbs (e.g., bring-brang). Neurological evidence (PET scans) suggests these two systems may be processed in different parts of the brain.
2. Single System Model (Bybee): All word forms (both regular and irregular) are listed in the lexicon. Regularities are captured by abstract schemas built from sets of words, rather than by strict rules.
3. Analogy-based Model: New forms are created by analogy with existing words, without an abstract rule. For example, the word seascape was coined by analogy with landscape (land : sea = landscape : seascape).

Topic: 84: Morphological Processing

Complex words can be processed via two routes:

1. Direct Route: The whole word is retrieved directly from the mental lexicon. This is faster for high-frequency words.
2. Indirect Route: The word is parsed into its constituent morphemes (e.g., book + -s), and the meaning is computed. This is necessary for novel or low-frequency words.

The morphological race model proposes that both routes race against each other, and the fastest one determines the result. The relative frequency of the complex word compared to its base also affects which route is more efficient. For instance, dazzlement (lower frequency than dazzle) is more likely to be parsed, while government (higher frequency than govern) is more likely to be accessed directly. This model also explains why high-frequency irregular forms (like went) are maintained, as their direct-route access is faster than computing the rule (goed).

⭐ Key Takeaways

Morphological productivity is a gradient, not a binary, property, meaning some word-formation patterns are more likely than others to create acceptable new words. This productivity is closely tied to semantic transparency; more productive processes like -ness and non- yield more predictable meanings than less productive ones like -ity and un-. Productivity is constrained by phonological, morphological, syntactic, and semantic factors, and speakers can intuitively distinguish between more and less productive rules. The mental lexicon is a dynamic, frequency-sensitive, and interconnected network where morphological structure is present, and models of its representation range from dual-system (rule vs. memory) to single-system (analogy). Finally, complex words can be processed either by direct retrieval from the lexicon or by parsing them into morphemes, with the choice depending on factors like word frequency.

🧠 Quick Revision Questions

1. What is the difference between a morphological contrary negator (like non-) and a contradictory negator (like un- or in-), and how does this relate to productivity?
2. Name and briefly explain the four types of constraints that limit morphological productivity.
3. According to the three-stage model of acquisition, what is overgeneralization, and why does it create a U-shaped learning curve?
4. Describe the key difference between morphological inflection and syntactic inflection, using the English modals as an example.
5. What is the "morphological race model," and what factors determine whether the direct or indirect route is faster for processing a complex word?

📘 Lecture 15 — Morphology and Language Change

📖 Overview: This lecture examines how and why languages change over time, focusing on morphological change. It explores both internal causes (speaker-driven innovation and reanalysis) and external causes (language contact), and investigates how morphological systems can erode, emerge, and be restructured through processes like grammaticalization, univerbation, and reanalysis.

🗂️ Topics Covered

The lecture covers the nature of language change from internal and external perspectives, including lexical innovation and reanalysis, borrowing and deflection, historical sources of morphology such as univerbation and grammaticalization, changes in morphological rules including erosion and category extension, changes in word structure through reanalysis and affix telescoping, and foundational notions about grammar including descriptive versus prescriptive approaches.

📝 Lecture Summary

Topic 85: The nature of language change: Internal

Languages change over time, as illustrated by Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (Middle English) being different from Modern English. The statement that "languages change" is metaphorical, presupposing a language is an organism that grows, changes, and dies. A language primarily exists in the minds of its speakers; it dies when its last speaker dies. Thus, speakers change their language while using it. "Change" is better described as construction or innovation of language. What changes is the lexical norm (established words and meanings), not the underlying system. The main reason for changing the lexical norm is the need for expressions for new concepts or things. This can be met by extending meaning of existing words (mouse, hard disk, anti-virus-program) or through borrowings (printer in Dutch from English). Change of the lexical norm involves two steps: (1) an individual user coins a new lexical unit, borrows one, or reinterprets an existing word; (2) the innovation becomes accepted by many users (the supra-individual lexical norm). A second source of innovation is reanalysis — language users reconstruct the system underlying perceived outputs differently from previous users (e.g., children saying goed and bringed). Language change has psychological and social dimensions.

🔑 Definition — Lexical norm: the established set of words and meanings accepted by a language community 🔑 Definition — Reanalysis: the process by which language users reconstruct the system behind perceived language outputs in a different way than previous users 🔑 Definition — Supra-individual lexical norm: a lexical innovation that has been accepted by many users of the language

Topic 86: The nature of language change: External

External change is effected by language contact, which can lead to borrowing. Most Germanic languages borrowed many words from French for culture, science, and diplomacy. English was influenced more strongly by French due to the Norman Conquest of 1066. Borrowing impacted morphology: in Dutch, French affixes are used productively (e.g., flauw-iteit "silly joke" from native flauw "silly"). Borrowing of inflectional forms also occurs — English has Greek and Latin plurals like criteria, schemata, data, though these may be replaced by regular plurals (schemas, museums). Pidgins and creoles, once thought to lack morphology, actually have both inflection and word-formation. Language contact can cause loss of inflectional morphology, as seen in Afrikaans (from Dutch), which has an extremely simple inflectional system with a present tense form identical to the stem, no person/number marking. Deflection is the erosion of inflectional systems in Germanic and Romance languages; English has the poorest inflectional system. Language change also includes phonological, syntactic, and semantic changes: Chaucer's roote became root (phonological loss of final vowel), shoures soote (noun-adjective order) became sweet showers (adjective-noun order), and liquor changed meaning from "liquid" to "alcoholic liquid only."

🔑 Definition — External change: language change caused by external factors, particularly language contact 🔑 Definition — Deflection: the erosion of inflectional systems in Germanic and Romance languages

Topic 87: Historical sources of morphology

Morphological systems can arise, not just erode. Nominal compounding emerged in Germanic languages from noun phrases like [N-GEN N]NP (e.g., Harry's book), where the pre-nominal noun with genitive case functioned as a modifier. These phrases were reinterpreted as compound nouns. Univerbation is the diachronic process of combining a fixed expression of several words into a new single word (e.g., always from all [the] way, onto from on to, albeit from all be it, gonna from going to). While univerbation adds lexemes to the lexicon, it may not affect the morphological system — a multi-morphemic word is not necessarily created by a morphological process. Grammaticalization is defined as "the process by which a frequently used sequence of words or morphemes become automated as a single processing unit" (Bybee 2003: 603) or "that subset of linguistic changes through which a lexical item in certain uses becomes a grammatical item, or through which a grammatical item becomes more grammatical" (Hopper and Closs Traugott 1993: 2). An example is the development of verbs into auxiliaries: to have functions as both main verb ("possess") and perfect auxiliary; can has lost its lexical verb status entirely, functioning only as a modal auxiliary. Grammaticalization creates morphology when a lexical or grammatical morpheme becomes an affix. Degrammaticalization is a restricted phenomenon — whether a grammatical morpheme can become less grammatical or lexical depends on definition. The reinterpretation of the English genitive suffix -s as a clitic is a restricted form of degrammaticalization. In Early Modern English, it was also interpreted as the weak form of the possessive pronoun his (Shakespeare: the count his galleys "the count's galleys"). This reanalysis was necessary because English lost its case system. Grammaticalization is pervasive in natural languages, while degrammaticalization is restricted.

🔑 Definition — Univerbation: the diachronic process of combining a fixed expression of several words into a new single word 🔑 Definition — Grammaticalization: the process by which a lexical item becomes a grammatical item, or a grammatical item becomes more grammatical, often involving automation as a single processing unit due to frequency 🔑 Definition — Degrammaticalization: a restricted process where a grammatical morpheme becomes less grammatical, but not a full lexical word 💡 Why this matters: Grammaticalization explains how many grammatical elements (like auxiliary verbs, affixes, and case markers) evolve from originally lexical words, showing that grammar is not static but continuously developing from language use.

📌 Example — Grammaticalization of have: The verb to have functions both as a main verb meaning "to possess" and as an auxiliary in perfect tense forms (I have eaten). This illustrates the shift from lexical to grammatical function.

📌 Example — Degrammaticalization of genitive -s: In Early Modern English, the genitive suffix -s was reanalyzed as the weak form of the possessive pronoun his (Shakespeare: the count his galleys, meaning "the count's galleys"). This is a restricted degrammaticalization because the suffix did not become a full word.

Topic 88: Changes in morphological rules

Erosion of inflectional morphology has occurred in most Germanic and Romance languages. Dutch has lost its morphological case system, surviving only in fixed expressions like te-gelijker-tijd ("at the same time"), met dien verstande ("with that understanding"), and in dier voege ("in such a manner"). These are frozen forms where prepositions govern a particular case. A notable change in inflectional morphology is adjectival inflection in Afrikaans. In Dutch, adjectives in attributive position are inflected by adding the suffix -e [ə] unless the NP has features [indefinite], [neuter], and [singular]. This complex system broke down in Afrikaans (a creolized variant of Dutch). In the new system, adjectives are divided into two classes: those that always carry the inflectional schwa in attributive position, and those that never do. Adjectives taking schwa are morphologically complex adjectives and simplex adjectives with stem allomorphy (e.g., sag "soft" has stem allomorph sagt, yielding sagte in attributive position). This shows that "historical junk" (Lass 1990) might be kept and re-used differently. Another type of change in derivational rules is a change in the category of base words to which they apply. Productive rules tend to extend their domain. The Dutch diminutive suffix -tje now attaches not only to nouns but also to adjectives, verbs, and adverbs (strijk-je "small string orchestra," blond-je "blond girl," uit-je "outing"). The French suffix -age also illustrates category change: in English, it extended to native Germanic nominal and verbal stems (footage, frontage, breakage, coverage) and even adjectival bases (shortage). In Dutch, -age forms both denominal and deverbal nouns and attaches to native stems.

🔑 Definition — Stem allomorphy: a variation in the form of a word stem under different morphological conditions (e.g., sag / sagt in Afrikaans) 📌 Example — Dutch adjectival inflection: een groot-ø paard "a big horse" (indefinite, neuter, singular — no suffix) vs. een grot-e koe "a big cow" (suffix -e added); het grot-e paard "the big horse" (definite — suffix -e added)

Topic 89: Changes in word structure

Complex words may undergo reanalysis and reduction. Reanalysis gives words a different structural interpretation. The classic example is hamburger: originally [[hamburg]er] (from the city Hamburg), it was reanalyzed as [[ham][burger]]. Reanalysis is observable when the new structure serves as a model for new words (e.g., beefburger, cheeseburger, fishburger; turkeyfurter on the model of frankfurter). The piece burger itself was reinterpreted as a noun (witness Burger King), so no new suffix -burger developed — it is a noun used as the head of nominal compounds. Semantic reinterpretation also leads to new words: -gate from Watergate received the new interpretation "political scandal," leading to Monicagate, Irangate, and later the more general meaning "scandal." Reanalysis can also turn a sequence of affixes into a single affix through affix telescoping: the structure [[[x]A]B] is reinterpreted as [[x]AB]. An example from Dutch is -erij, originally a combination of -er and -ij: bak "to bake" → bakk-er "baker" → bakk-er-ij "bakery" > bakk-erij. Prefixes may lose morphological status, as seen in English borrowings from Latin like abortion (prefix ab-) and adoption (prefix ad-), now syllabified as a.bor.tion and a.dop.tion. The Dutch prefix ge- (as in geloof "to believe") is no longer productive as a verbal prefix. In Afrikaans, geloof became a simplex verb glo with deletion of the schwa.

🔑 Definition — Affix telescoping: a process whereby a sequence of two affixes is reinterpreted as a single affix 📌 Example — Reanalysis of hamburger: [[hamburg]er] → [[ham][burger]]. This reanalysis led to new words like cheeseburger, fishburger, and the noun burger in Burger King.

Topic 90: Some notions about grammar

The word grammar derives from Greek gramma ("letter"), from graphein ("to draw, to write"). In linguistics, grammar is the set of structural rules governing the composition of clauses, phrases, and words in any natural language. The field includes phonology, morphology, and syntax, often complemented by phonetics, semantics, and pragmatics. Speakers have a set of internalized rules for using language, constituting that language's grammar. The native language is acquired by observing other speakers, mostly during early childhood. Grammar is the cognitive information underlying language use. "English grammar" may refer to the whole of English grammar (grammars of all speakers), what is common to most English speakers (e.g., subject-verb-object word order), or the rules of a particular variety (e.g., Standard English). A descriptive grammar is a fully explicit description of the grammatical constructions of a language. This contrasts with linguistic prescription, which attempts to discourage or suppress some constructions while promoting others (e.g., John Dryden's objection to certain constructions). Outside linguistics, "grammar" may be used more broadly (including spelling and punctuation — which linguists consider orthography) or more narrowly (referring only to prescriptive grammar). Jeremy Butterfield noted that for non-linguists, "Grammar is often a generic way of referring to any aspect of English that people object to."

🔑 Definition — Descriptive grammar: a fully explicit description that exhaustively describes the grammatical constructions of a language 🔑 Definition — Linguistic prescription: an attempt to discourage or suppress some grammatical constructions while promoting others

⭐ Key Takeaways

This lecture emphasizes that language change is driven both internally (by speakers innovating new words, reanalyzing structures, and reconstructing systems) and externally (through language contact and borrowing). Morphological systems can both erode (as in deflection, where inflectional systems are lost or simplified) and arise (through grammaticalization, univerbation, and the reinterpretation of phrases as compounds). Processes like reanalysis can create new morphemes (as with burger and -gate), while affix telescoping merges sequences of affixes into single ones. Crucially, grammaticalization is a pervasive, directional process where lexical items become grammatical, but degrammaticalization (where grammatical elements become less grammatical) is restricted and rare. Understanding these mechanisms reveals that grammar is not a fixed system but a dynamic product of language use and cognitive processing over time.

🧠 Quick Revision Questions

1. What is the difference between internal and external causes of language change, and provide one example of each from the lecture?
2. Define grammaticalization and explain how the development of have from a main verb to an auxiliary illustrates this process.
3. What is univerbation, and give three examples of English words that resulted from this process?
4. How did the reanalysis of hamburger lead to new words, and why is burger not considered a new suffix in English?
5. What is the difference between a descriptive grammar and a prescriptive grammar, and how does this distinction relate to the study of language change?

📘 Lecture 16 — Traditional Grammar: Categories & Functions

📖 Overview: This lecture traces the historical development of grammatical tradition from ancient civilizations to modern linguistics, examining how parts of speech categories evolved. It also critically analyzes prescriptive grammar, its rules, and the problems with defining fundamental linguistic concepts like sentences and word classes across languages.

🗂️ Topics Covered

The lecture covers the historical authorities of grammatical tradition from Babylonians to 19th century linguists, the concept of parts of speech in both Eastern (Sanskrit, Tamil) and Western traditions, the eight-part system of Dionysius Thrax and Priscian's modifications, modern English parts of speech including open and closed classes, prescriptive grammar rules and their Latin-based origins, problems with prescriptive grammar including definitional issues with "sentence," structural ambiguity, and cross-linguistic variation in grammatical categories.

📝 Lecture Summary

Topic 91: Some authorities of grammatical tradition

The earliest systematic grammars originated in Iron Age India with Sanskrit scholars including Yaska (6th century BC), Pāṇini (6-5th century BC), Pingala, Katyayana, and Patanjali. The Tolkāppiyam, the earliest Tamil grammar, is dated to before the 5th century AD. In the West, grammar emerged in Hellenism from the 3rd century BC. The oldest known grammar handbook is the Art of Grammar by Dionysius Thrax (c. 170–c. 90 BC), which remained the primary Greek grammar textbook until the 12th century AD. The Romans based their Latin grammars on Greek models from the 1st century BC. Arabic grammar emerged with Abu al-Aswad al-Du'ali in the 7th century, Hebrew grammar appeared in the High Middle Ages, and vernacular grammars became influential during the Renaissance and Baroque periods. Antonio de Nebrija published the first Spanish grammar in 1492. From the 16th century, grammars of non-European languages were compiled for evangelization and Bible translation. From the late 18th century, grammar became a subfield of modern linguistics, with Jacob Grimm's Deutsche Grammatik (1810s) and Franz Bopp's Comparative Grammar (1833) marking key milestones.

Topic 92: Concept of Parts of speech

In traditional grammar, a part of speech is a category of words (lexical items) sharing similar grammatical properties. Words in the same part of speech display similar behavior in syntax and sometimes morphology through inflection. Almost all languages have noun and verb classes, but beyond these two, variations exist. For example, Japanese has three adjective classes where English has one; Chinese, Korean, Japanese, and Vietnamese have nominal classifiers; many languages do not distinguish between adjectives and adverbs or between adjectives and verbs.

In the Nirukta (5th or 6th century BC), Sanskrit grammarian Yāska defined these categories: नाम nāma (noun including adjective), आख्यात ākhyāta (verb), and ननपाात nipāta (particle, invariant word). The Tamil Tolkāppiyam classifies words into peyar (noun), vinai (verb), idai (part of speech modifying relationships between verbs and nouns), and uri (word qualifying a noun or verb).

In the Western tradition, Plato wrote that sentences combine verbs (rhêma) and nouns (ónoma). Aristotle added conjunction (sýndesmos). By the end of the 2nd century BC, grammarians had expanded this into eight categories in the Art of Grammar attributed to Dionysius Thrax:

🔑 Definition — Noun (ónoma): a part of speech inflected for case, signifying a concrete or abstract entity

🔑 Definition — Verb (rhêma): a part of speech without case inflection, but inflected for tense, person and number, signifying an activity or process performed or undergone

🔑 Definition — Participle (metokhḗ): a part of speech sharing features of the verb and the noun

🔑 Definition — Article (árthron): a declinable part of speech, taken to include the definite article and the basic relative pronoun

🔑 Definition — Pronoun (antōnymíā): a part of speech substitutable for a noun and marked for a person

🔑 Definition — Preposition (próthesis): a part of speech placed before other words in composition and in syntax

🔑 Definition — Adverb (epírrhēma): a part of speech without inflection, in modification of or in addition to a verb, adjective, clause, sentence, or other adverb

🔑 Definition — Conjunction (sýndesmos): a part of speech binding together the discourse and filling gaps in its interpretation

The Latin grammarian Priscian (fl. 500 AD) modified this system by excluding "article" (Latin has no articles) and adding "interjection." In older English terminology, there were noun substantive, noun adjective, and noun numeral. Later, adjective became a separate class, and the word "noun" came to apply to substantives only.

Topic 93: Parts of Speech in English

English grammar follows the European tradition except that participles are now regarded as forms of verbs rather than a separate part of speech. The traditional English parts of speech are: noun, verb, adjective, adverb, pronoun, preposition, conjunction, interjection, article (or determiner). Modern linguists recognize this list is drastically simplified and have proposed more specific categories and subcategories.

🔑 Definition — Open class: the category of content words that readily accept new members. In English, open classes are nouns, lexical verbs, adjectives, and adverbs.

🔑 Definition — Closed class: the category of function words that do not readily accept new members. Contrast with open class.

The open or closed status of word classes varies between languages. In Japanese, verbs and adjectives are closed classes (though large), while pronouns are open class. Japanese nouns become used as pronouns with some frequency.

Topic 94: Prescriptive grammar

🔑 Definition — Prescriptive grammar: a set of norms or rules governing how a language should or should not be used, rather than describing how language is actually used. Also called normative grammar and prescriptivism.

In prescriptive grammar, there is right and wrong language. Examples of prescriptive rules include:

• Case of pronoun: never use object case after verb 'to be' → "It is I" (not "It is me")
• "Mary runs faster than I" (not "faster than me")
• "Whom are you talking to?" (not "Who are you talking to?")
• Never end a sentence with a preposition → "To whom are you talking?"
• Don't use "ain't"
• Don't use "seen" as past tense of "see"
• Don't use contractions
• Don't use sentence fragments
• Don't use dangling participles: ❌ "Coming to college, there were many tall trees."

Many of these rules are taken from Latin, the classical language regarded as a model for all languages. However, English has no case endings for nouns (except genitive), so there is no reason to follow Latin rules.

Topic 95: Problems of Prescriptive Grammar

The terms "word" and "sentence" defy exact definition. The sentence as a linguistic concept has been defined in over 200 different ways. Traditional definition: a sentence is a group of words that expresses a thought. Problems: "an egg" expresses a thought but is not a sentence; "I closed the door because it was cold" expresses two thoughts but is one sentence. The topic-comment definition says a sentence expresses a topic (old information) and comment (new information), but many sentences like "It's raining" have no clear topic-comment structure.

Some sentence types make no internal syntactic structure with no distinction between subject and predicate: a) Emotive sentences: Gee! Wow. Darn! Yes! No! b) Imperatives: Go! Leave! Taxi! All aboard! c) Elliptic sentences: "Who took the car?" "John." d) Small talk phrases: Hello. Good-bye. Good morning.

In polysynthetic languages, a single word can serve as a complete sentence, with morphology rather than syntax expressing subject-predicate distinction.

🔑 Definition — Structural ambiguity: when a sentence can be interpreted in more than one way due to its grammatical structure. Examples: "Flying planes can be dangerous" (either planes that fly are dangerous, or the act of flying planes is dangerous); "The king is eager to please" vs. "The king is easy to please."

Not all languages have the same parts of speech. Many languages have postpositions rather than prepositions. While all languages convey information as concept or event, what a noun or verb is differs across languages. In Salishan languages of Puget Sound, a single word can translate as both "village" and "a village exists." Parts of speech, even nouns and verbs, are at best fuzzy categories across languages.

Topic 96: Concept of Sentence in Prescriptive Grammar

A sentence is a group of words put together to mean something; the basic unit of language expressing a complete thought by following grammatical rules of syntax. A complete sentence has at least a subject and a main verb to state a complete thought. Example: "Sana is the most intelligent girl in the class." Short example: "Walkers walk."

In English and many other languages, the first word of a written sentence has a capital letter, and at the end there is a full stop (period in American English). A sentence typically contains a subject and predicate, conveying a statement, question, exclamation, or command, consisting of a main clause and sometimes one or more subordinate clauses. A phrase or clause is part of a sentence. Example of a sentence: "The dog is happy" (subject: 'The dog'; verb: 'is'). Example of a phrase: "The happy dog" (no verb, so not a sentence). A simple sentence has only one clause: "The cat is sleeping."

⭐ Key Takeaways

The most critical points from this lecture are: (1) grammatical tradition spans from ancient Sanskrit grammarians like Yāska and Pāṇini through Greek scholars like Dionysius Thrax who established the eight-part speech system, to Latin grammarians like Priscian who modified it for Latin, and this tradition continues to influence modern grammar teaching. (2) Parts of speech categories are not universal across languages — while almost all languages have nouns and verbs, the specific categories and their properties vary significantly, and even these basic categories are fuzzy cross-linguistically. (3) Prescriptive grammar imposes rules of "correct" usage often based on Latin models that may not suit English, while descriptive grammar simply describes how language is actually used. (4) The concept of "sentence" defies exact definition, with over 200 definitions proposed, and many sentence types (emotives, imperatives, elliptic sentences) lack clear subject-predicate structure. (5) Open and closed word classes vary across languages — in English, nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs are open classes, while in Japanese, verbs and adjectives are closed classes but pronouns are open.

🧠 Quick Revision Questions

1. What were the eight parts of speech in Dionysius Thrax's system, and how did Priscian modify this system for Latin?
2. How does Yāska's classification of words in the Nirukta differ from the Greek tradition of Plato and Aristotle?
3. What is the difference between open class and closed class words in English, and what are examples of each?
4. What are three specific problems with defining the linguistic concept of "sentence" mentioned in the lecture?
5. Give three examples of prescriptive grammar rules that are based on Latin models, and explain why they may not be appropriate for English.

📘 Lecture 17 — What is Syntax?

📖 Overview: This lecture introduces the fundamental concepts of syntax, the grammatical hierarchy of sentences, and the distinction between descriptive and prescriptive grammar. It explains the structure of different sentence types, noun phrases, verb phrases, and adjective phrases, providing a foundational understanding of how words combine to form meaningful units in English.

🗂️ Topics Covered

This lecture covers the grammatical hierarchy of sentence organization, the definition and contrast between descriptive and prescriptive grammar, the four main sentence types (simple, compound, complex, compound-complex), the structure and components of noun phrases including premodifiers and postmodifiers, the structure of verb phrases with auxiliary and modal verbs, and the structure of adjective phrases including their major functions.

📝 Lecture Summary

Topic: 97: Hierarchy of Sentence

Words, phrases, clauses, and sentences constitute what is called the GRAMMATICAL HIERARCHY of a sentence. Sentences are at the top of the hierarchy, making them the largest unit, while words are at the lowest level, though some grammars go below the word to consider morphology. At the clause level and phrase level, it is important to note that clauses can occur within phrases, such as a relative clause within a noun phrase, and clauses can occur within clauses, just as phrases can occur within phrases.

🔑 Definition — Grammatical Hierarchy: The layered structure of a sentence where sentences consist of one or more clauses, clauses consist of one or more phrases, phrases consist of one or more words, and words are separated by space.

📌 Example: In the sentence "The man who lives beside us is ill," the relative clause who lives beside us occurs within the noun phrase the man who lives beside us.

Topic: 98: Descriptive Grammar

The term descriptive grammar refers to an objective, nonjudgmental description of the grammatical constructions in a language, examining how a language is actually used in writing and speech. Specialists in descriptive grammar examine the principles and patterns that underlie the use of words, phrases, clauses, and sentences. Kirk Hazen notes, "Descriptive grammars do not give advice: They detail the ways in which native speakers use their language." Descriptive grammar provides analysis and explanation of the language's grammar, not just description of it. This is contrasted with prescriptive grammar, which notes how something should or should not be used, what is right and wrong, and attempts to enforce rules concerning "correct" or "incorrect" usage. Descriptive grammar consists of rules that all speakers of a speech community adhere to, barring speech errors, and linguists are usually more interested in such rules as they reflect the properties of actual language, not ideal language.

🔑 Definition — Descriptive Grammar: An objective, nonjudgmental examination of how a language is actually being used by native speakers, focusing on the principles and patterns underlying grammatical constructions.

🔑 Definition — Prescriptive Grammar: A type of grammar that attempts to enforce rules concerning "correct" or "incorrect" usage, telling speakers how language should or should not be used.

📌 Example: Prescriptive grammar would reject "I ain't going" and "Who did you arrest?" in favor of "Whom did you arrest?" and reject "I saw several octopuses" in favor of "I saw several octopi."

Topic: 99: Sentence structure

A simple sentence contains a subject and a verb, and it may also have an object and modifiers, containing only one independent clause. A compound sentence contains at least two independent clauses, which can be combined with a comma and a coordinating conjunction (FAN BOYS: For, And, Nor, But, Or, Yet, So) or with a semicolon. A complex sentence contains at least one independent clause and at least one dependent clause, where dependent clauses can refer to the subject, sequence/time, or causal elements of the independent clause. A compound-complex sentence contains at least two independent clauses and at least one dependent clause.

🔑 Definition — Coordinating Conjunctions (FAN BOYS): Seven coordinators—For, And, Nor, But, Or, Yet, So—used to connect independent clauses in compound sentences.

📌 Example (Simple): "She reads." / "She completed her literature review." 📌 Example (Compound): "Our team did not play well, for they did not practiced hard." / "He organized his sources by theme, so he did not face any problem." 📌 Example (Complex): "Although she completed her literature review, she still needed to work on her method section." / "They studied APA rules for many hours as they were so interesting." 📌 Example (Compound-Complex): "She completed her literature review, but she still needs to work on her method section even though she finished her course last semester."

Topic: 100: Noun Phrases

Often a noun phrase is just a noun or a pronoun, or it can include a determiner and a noun, perhaps with an adjective. Sometimes the noun phrase begins with a quantifier. Quantifiers come before determiners, but numbers come after determiners. The noun phrase is built up progressively: noun, determiner + noun, quantifier + noun, determiner + adjective + noun, quantifier + determiner + noun, and quantifier + determiner + adjective + noun. The noun phrase can be quite complicated and may include postmodifiers—words and phrases that come after the noun. A noun phrase can be postmodified with a prepositional phrase, an -ing phrase, a relative clause, a that-clause (common with reporting or summarising nouns like idea, fact, belief, suggestion), or a to-infinitive (common after indefinite pronouns and adverbs). There may be more than one postmodifier.

🔑 Definition — Postmodifier: Words and phrases that come after the noun in a noun phrase, used to provide additional information about the noun.

📌 Example: "A loaf of nice fresh brown bread" / "The eight-year-old boy who attempted to drive a car" 📌 Example (Postmodifier with prepositional phrase): "a man with a gun" / "the boy in the blue shirt" 📌 Example (Postmodifier with relative clause): "the man we met yesterday" / "the house that Jack built" 📌 Example (Multiple postmodifiers): "an eight-year old boy with a gun who tried to rob a sweet shop"

Topic: 101: Structure of verb phrase

Verbs have distinctive word-shapes (morphologies). The verb heads a verb phrase. The verb can be preceded within the verb phrase by auxiliary and modal verbs and the negation word not. English verbs have two distinctive morphological characteristics: (i) the shape of the verb can encode the tense of the sentence (present and past is coded by the morphology of the verb), and (ii) an English verb can agree with its subject if the verb is present and the subject is third person singular. The first grammatical form that can appear in a verb phrase in English is the auxiliary verb. In English, the twelve auxiliary verbs are have, be, do, and the nine modal verbs (can, could, may, might, must, shall, should, will, and would). Auxiliary verbs perform the functions of progressive, perfect, passive, operator, and modal within verb phrases. Progressive, perfect, passive, and modal auxiliary verbs may appear together, and the order is Modal-Perfect-Passive-Progressive.

🔑 Definition — Auxiliary Verb: Verbs (have, be, do, and nine modals) that perform the functions of progressive, perfect, passive, operator, and modal within verb phrases.

📐 Formula: Modal - Perfect - Passive - Progressive (Order of auxiliary verbs) 📌 Example (Progressive): "The dog was barking." 📌 Example (Perfect): "The boys have completed their work." 📌 Example (Passive): "The letter has been written." 📌 Example (Modal | Perfect | Passive | Progressive): "should | have | been | being | watched"

💡 Why this matters: Understanding the specific order of auxiliary verbs is crucial for constructing grammatically correct verb phrases in English, especially in complex tenses.

Topic: 102: Structure of Adjectives Phrase

An adjective describes or modifies nouns and pronouns in a sentence, normally indicating quality, size, shape, duration, feelings, contents, and more about a noun or pronoun. The form of a word does not necessarily indicate its syntactic function; some suffixes like -ous are found only with adjectives, but many common adjectives have no distinctive shape. The major functions of adjectives are: (1) Attributive — premodifies a noun phrase; (2) Predicative — can be a subject complement or objective complement; (3) Postposition — follows the item they modify, especially with indefinite pronouns ending in -body, -one, -thing, -where; and (4) Head of a noun phrase — does not inflect for number or genitive case and must take a definite determiner. In an adjective phrase, the head is an adjective which may be simple, comparative, or superlative. The premodifiers of adjectives are always adverbs, and postmodifiers can be either adverbs or preposition phrases.

🔑 Definition — Adjective: A word that describes or modifies nouns and pronouns, indicating quality, size, shape, duration, feelings, contents, and more.

📌 Example (Attributive): "A beautiful painting" / "His main argument" 📌 Example (Predicative - subject complement): "Your son is intelligent." 📌 Example (Predicative - objective complement): "He made his family proud." 📌 Example (Postposition): "I want to try on something larger" / "The president elect" 📌 Example (Head of noun phrase): "The extremely old need a great deal of attention."

⭐ Key Takeaways

The grammatical hierarchy of English sentences progresses from words to phrases to clauses to sentences, and this lecture establishes that understanding this structure is foundational for syntactic analysis. The critical distinction between descriptive grammar, which objectively describes how language is actually used, and prescriptive grammar, which enforces rules about correct usage, is essential for linguistic study. Students must master the four sentence types—simple, compound, complex, and compound-complex—along with their structural requirements, particularly the FAN BOYS coordinating conjunctions for compound sentences. The internal structure of noun phrases, including premodifiers and postmodifiers, and the strict ordering of auxiliary verbs in verb phrases (Modal-Perfect-Passive-Progressive) are key areas for exam focus. Finally, the four major functions of adjectives (attributive, predicative, postposition, and head of noun phrase) and the structure of adjective phrases must be thoroughly understood.

🧠 Quick Revision Questions

1. What is the grammatical hierarchy of a sentence, and what are the four levels from largest to smallest?
2. How does descriptive grammar differ from prescriptive grammar, and which do linguists typically prefer?
3. What are the four sentence types, and what are the minimum requirements for each type?
4. What is the correct order for multiple auxiliary verbs in a verb phrase, and give an example with four auxiliaries.
5. What are the four major functions of adjectives, and provide one example for each function?

📘 Lecture 18 — Universal Grammar

📖 Overview: This lecture explores the structure of adverb phrases, how meaning and phrase structure interact through structural ambiguity, and the methods of immediate constituent (IC) analysis. It then introduces phrase structure rules and their limitations, critiques the behaviorist view of language acquisition, and presents evidence for innate language capacity, ultimately leading to Chomsky's theory of transformational grammar and the distinction between deep and surface structure.

🗂️ Topics Covered

The lecture begins by defining the adverb phrase and its syntactic functions as an adverbial and modifier, then examines structural ambiguity through “minimal noun phrases” and phrase structure tests. It explains tree structure diagrams for sentences, followed by a detailed look at Immediate Constituent (IC) analysis, its methods of display, and its flaws (including endocentric vs. exocentric constructions). The lecture then introduces phrase structure rules (PS rules) and their disadvantages, contrasts the behavioristic view (Skinner’s operant conditioning) with arguments for innate language capacity (biological evidence, preordained programs), and concludes with an overview of transformational grammar (TG) and the deep/surface structure distinction.

📝 Lecture Summary

Topic 103: Structure of Adverb Phrase

An adverb is a word used to modify verbs, adjectives, other adverbs, clauses, or phrases (except determiners modifying nouns). Adverbs provide context by describing how, where, when, in what manner, and to what extent something occurs. While many end in -ly (e.g., quickly), others do not (e.g., fast, well).

🔑 Definition — Adverb: A word that changes, modifies, or qualifies an adjective, verb, clause, another adverb, or any other type of word or phrase (except determiners that directly modify nouns).

• When? She always arrives early.
• How? He drives carefully.
• Where? They go everywhere together.
• In what manner? She eats slowly.
• To what extent? It is terribly hot.

An adverb phrase (AdvP) contrasts with an adjective phrase (AP) because it cannot be contained within a noun phrase:

• ✅ (5) The [AP quite quick] swimmer
• ❌ (6) *The [AdvP quite quickly] swimmer

Unlike APs, AdvPs can roam freely within a sentence without major effect on meaning.

• Quite quickly I saw the swimmer.
• I quite quickly saw the swimmer.
• I saw quite quickly the swimmer.
• ❌ I saw the quite quickly swimmer. (cannot roam into NP)
• I saw the swimmer quite quickly.

💡 Why this matters: The mobility of AdvPs helps us identify their syntactic function and differentiate them from adjective phrases.

Two Syntactic Functions of Adverbs

(1) Adverbial: An adverb functioning as an adverbial can be an adjunct (integrated into the clause), a disjunct (expressing an evaluation, not integrated), or a conjunct (connective function).

🔑 Definition — Adjunct: An adverb integrated with the structure of the clause to some extent.

• They are waiting outside.
• He spoke about it briefly.

🔑 Definition — Disjunct: An adverb not integrated within the clause, semantically expressing an evaluation of what is said.

• Frankly, I am tired.
• Fortunately, no one complained.
• They are probably at home.

🔑 Definition — Conjunct: An adverb with a connective function, indicating the connection between what is said and what was said before.

• If you open all the windows, then I am leaving.
• I have not looked into his qualification. He seems very intelligent, though.

(2) Modifier: Adverbs can modify other parts of speech:

• Modifier of an adjective: That was a very funny film.
• Modifier of an adverb: I have seen so very many letters like that one.
• Modifier of a prepositional phrase: The nail went right through the wall. / His parents are dead against the trip.
• Modifier of a noun phrase (premodifying pronoun/determiner): Nearly everybody came. / Over two hundred survivors. / I paid more than ten pounds for it.
• Intensifiers (e.g., quite, rather), predeterminers (e.g., such), and exclamatory words (e.g., what): It was rather a mess. / I never heard such wickedness. / He was quite some player. / What a fool he is!

Topic 104: Minimal Noun Phrase

A single sequence of words can yield two different sentence structures, each with a different meaning. This is called structural ambiguity.

🔑 Definition — Structural Ambiguity: A situation where one sequence of words can be organized into two different phrase structures, delivering two different meanings.

🔑 Definition — Phrase: A ‘box’ or group of words that functions as a unit in a sentence.

Example: I was reading the letter to John.

Two interpretations (alternative groupings):

1. I was reading [the letter to John] (the letter is addressed to John)
2. I was reading [the letter] [to John] (I was reading the letter aloud for John)

Replacement Test by ‘it’: If a sequence of words can be replaced by it without significantly changing the meaning, it is a phrase.

• I was reading [the letter to John] → I was reading it ✅
• I was reading [the letter] [to John] → I was reading it [to John] ✅ (The NP the letter is a phrase)
• I was reading [the letter to John] → I was reading (cannot replace the whole verb phrase with it alone)

Movement Test: A phrase can often be moved as a unit.

• I was reading [the letter to John] → [The letter to John] was being read.
• I was reading [the letter] [to John] → [The letter] was being read [to John].

The word it is a pronoun, but more accurately a pro-noun-phrase because it substitutes for a full noun phrase.

💡 Why this matters: These tests reveal the hidden syntactic structure of sentences and explain how ambiguity arises.

Topic 105: Tree Structure for a Sentence

A sentence represents an eventuality — an action, event, or state of affairs.

🔑 Definition — Eventuality: An action, event, or state of affairs; something that happens or something that is.

The sentence separates the type of eventuality (usually represented by the verb) from the abstract or concrete things involved (represented by noun phrases), and the circumstances (often expressed by adverb phrases).

Example: (1) The man in the hat casually gave a slimy fish to Toby.

• Eventuality type: an action of giving (verb: gave)
• Things involved: the man in the hat (giver), a slimy fish (thing given), Toby (recipient)
• Circumstances: casually (adverb phrase)

A tree diagram clearly identifies each component (S → NP VP; VP → V NP PP; NP → DET N ADJ, etc.), showing the hierarchical and linear structure of the sentence.

Topic 106: IC Analysis

The structuralists (American, 1950s) needed to establish grammatical units beyond the morpheme. Their approach was to divide the sentence into immediate constituents (ICs).

🔑 Definition — Immediate Constituent (IC) Analysis: A method of dividing a sentence into two parts (binary), then cutting those parts into two, continuing until the smallest indivisible unit (the morpheme) is reached.

Example: The young man followed a girl.

• First cut: The young man + followed a girl
• Second cut: followed + a girl ; a + girl ; The + young man ; young + man
• Final morphemes: follow + ed

Notation: The || young ||| man | follow ||| ed || a ||| girl. Or: ((The (((young) (man))) ((followed) ((a) (girl))).

Topic 107: Method of Display

The best method of display is a tree diagram where branching shows the division.

Where to make the first cut? The answer lies in expansion.

🔑 Definition — Expansion: A sequence of elements is an expansion of another if it can be substituted for it (the basic procedure in structuralist analysis).

Example: The young man with a paper and followed the girl with blue dress.

• The young man with a paper is an expansion of John: John followed the girl with blue dress.
• followed the girl with blue dress is an expansion of arrived: The young man with a paper arrived.
• Therefore, the first ICs are [The young man with a paper] and [followed the girl with blue dress].

Types of Expansions

• Endocentric Construction: Contains a head — a word for which the whole construction can be substituted. Example: Children (head) can be expanded to American children, three American children, three American children with a dog, those three American children with a dog.

🔑 Definition — Endocentric Construction: A construction that contains an element (the head) for which it can be substituted.

• Exocentric Construction: Cannot be substituted for any of its elements and has no head. Example: with a paper is not an expansion of with, a, or paper.

🔑 Definition — Exocentric Construction: A construction that cannot be substituted for any of its elements and thus has no head.

💡 Why this matters: Endocentricity allows us to talk of noun phrases (with nouns as heads) and verb phrases (with verbs as heads).

Topic 108: Flaws in the ICs

IC analysis has several major flaws:

1. Does not identify constituent types: It does not indicate what kind of elements the parts are (e.g., noun phrase, verb phrase) except by implication.
2. Does not show headedness: It fails to show that noun phrases are built on nouns, verb phrases on verbs, etc.
3. Not generative: It does not tell us how to form new sentences not already attested.
4. Ambiguity & Conjunction Problems: Binary cuts are difficult for conjunctions (e.g., men and women — cannot justify a cut between men and and).
5. Structural Ambiguities: For The Egyptian cotton shirt, two analyses are possible: (a) [Egyptian cotton] shirt (shirt made of Egyptian cotton) vs. (b) Egyptian [cotton shirt] (a cotton shirt made in Egypt).
6. Ambiguity of Scope: The old men and the women can mean either [the old men] and [the women] or [the old men] and [the old women]. These yield different tree structures.

Despite being illuminating for some types of ambiguity, IC analysis is ultimately unsatisfactory because it lacks grammatical labeling and generative power.

Lesson 19: Sentence Presenting

Topic 109: Phrase Structure Rules

What is needed is a generative model that:

• Identifies constituents in grammatical terms
• Changes emphasis from mere description to the specification of possible sentences

🔑 Definition — Labelled Bracketing: A method of bracketing a sentence where each constituent is given a grammatical identification (e.g., DET, N, NP, VP, S).

Example: The man followed a girl.

• Symbol set: DET (determiner), N (noun), V (verb), NP (noun phrase), VP (verb phrase), S (sentence)
• Labelled bracketing: [S [NP [DET The] N. man]] [VP [V followed] [NP [DET a] N. girl]]]]

Tree Diagram Concepts:

• Nodes: Points joined by the lines
• Terminal Nodes: Nodes on the bottom line
• Dominate: One node is higher in the tree than another
• Immediately Dominates: Joined by a single line
• Dominance: A larger constituent may consist of one or more smaller kinds.
• Precedence: Linear order (e.g., the first NP precedes the VP, the determiner precedes the noun)

Phrase Structure Rules (PS Rules):

(1) S → NP - VP
(2) VP → V - NP
(3) NP → DET - N
(4) V → followed
(5) DET → the, a
(6) N → man, girl

These rules can generate more than one sentence:

• A girl followed the man.
• The girl followed a man.
• A man followed a man.

PS rules differ from traditional grammar in that they are generative, not merely descriptive.

Topic 110: Disadvantages of Phrase Structure Grammar

A phrase structure grammar is essentially a taxonomic model — a grammar of lists and inventories. It is strong in giving structural descriptions but deficient in generative capacity. It fails to account for all the intentions of native speakers.

Processes that pose problems to PS grammar:

1. Ambiguities
2. Synonymies
3. Permutations
4. Discontinuous constituents (e.g., particles)
5. Remote relationships (e.g., those of cases)
6. Concord phenomena
7. Co-ordination

Specific failures:

• Passive sentences: The police diverted the traffic. vs. The traffic was diverted by the police. PS rules show by the police and by a country road as identical prepositional phrases, ignoring semantic and case relations.
• Deep meaning: PS grammar cannot capture crucial notions or prevent false, ungrammatical structures.
• Superficially identical structures:
  • John is eager to please. (John pleases someone)
  • John is easy to please. (Someone pleases John)
  • PS rules treat these as identical.

PS grammar lacks the precision, simplicity, elegance, power, insight, and competence of transformational generative (TG) grammar.

Topic 111: Automatic Grammatizator

Every normal human can talk, yet no one has simulated the full language ability of a human. This raises the nature-nurture controversy: is language due to nature (innate) or nurture (learning)?

Noam Chomsky (1959) wrote a devastating review of B.F. Skinner’s Verbal Behavior, which claimed language is a set of habits built up through operant conditioning (training by voluntary responses). Skinner believed language could be explained by identifying “controlling variables” in the external world.

Chomsky made two major criticisms:

1. Irrelevance of rat behavior: The behavior of rats in boxes is irrelevant to human language.
2. Fundamental misunderstanding: Skinner fundamentally misunderstood the nature of language.

Topic 113: Behavioristic View: The Irrelevance of Rats

Chomsky argued that the simple sequence of events in rat experiments cannot be applied to human language without becoming hopelessly vague.

Example: What controls “Oh what a beautiful picture”? Skinner would say the beauty of the picture “controls” it. But the person might say “It clashes with the wallpaper” or “It’s hideous.” This makes “control” meaningless — you only know what controlled it after hearing the utterance. This is unlike the predictable rat behavior with a fixed response to a stimulus (e.g., a flashing light).

Reinforcement Problem:

• Rats were repeatedly rewarded with food pellets.
• Children do not receive food pellets for correct utterances. Skinner stretched “reinforcement” to include approval, self-reinforcement, and imagined rewards, making the notion “woolly” and incomparable to rat experiments.

Evidence from Roger Brown’s Studies: Parents tend to approve true statements rather than grammatically correct ones.

• A child saying “Teddy sock on” (ungrammatical but true) → approval.
• A child saying “Look, Teddy is wearing a sock” (grammatical but false) → disapproval. If reinforcement worked as Skinner suggested, children would grow up telling the truth but speaking ungrammatically — the opposite happens.

Chomsky used these arguments to show the irrelevance of Skinner’s experiments, though Chomsky’s own ideas may also be outdated.

Topic 114: Is Language Restricted to Humans?

Animals can “talk” in two senses:

1. “To utter words” (e.g., talking parrots)
2. “To use language in a meaningful way”

Psycholinguists ask: Are humans the only species that possesses language? Are we biologically “articulate mammals”?

Two theories:

• Continuity theory: Human language evolved gradually from primitive animal communication.
• Discontinuity theory: Human language is something quite different from animal heritage.

Charles Hockett’s Design Features: Vocal-auditory channel, arbitrariness, semanticity, cultural transmission, spontaneous usage, turn-taking, duality, displacement, structure-dependence, creativity, and ability to read intentions.

Birdsong: Birds combine notes in indefinite ways but only deal with two aspects: courting a mate and marking territory. They show no creativity.

Crucial Feature: Intention-reading (or mind-reading). Humans are the best at this skill. Some limited awareness exists among apes (e.g., Washoe and Nim in sign language experiments).

Chomsky’s Claim: Language is specific to humans because only humans possess a language acquisition device (LAD) — the universal grammar. Higher apes lack the capacity for the computational structure of human language.

Lesson 20: Constituency Tests

Topic 115: Biological Evidence for Innate Language Capacity

If an animal is innately programmed, there are likely to be biological clues. Humans have several physical differences from other animals that are partial adaptations for language:

1. Teeth: Unusual in form (even in height, unbroken barrier)
2. Larynx (voice box): Simpler structure than other primates, allowing air to move freely through the nose and mouth
3. Brain: Heavier, with more surface folding of the cortex (grey matter). The brains of chimps and humans have superficial similarities.
4. Lateralization: Speech centers in the left hemisphere are linked to right-handedness. Most humans are right-handed, and most people’s speech is controlled by the left hemisphere.

Human vocal organs, lungs, and brains are “preset” to cope with speech intricacies, just as monkeys are preset to climb trees.

Topic 116: A Preordained Language Programme

Language emerges at about the same time in children worldwide (between 18th–28th month), suggesting a biological clock sets it in motion.

Characteristics of Biologically Triggered Behaviour (Lenneberg):

1. The behaviour emerges before it is necessary.
2. Its appearance is not the result of a conscious decision.
3. Its emergence is not triggered by external events (though the environment must be sufficiently rich).
4. Direct teaching and intensive practice have relatively little effect.
5. There is a regular sequence of ‘milestones’ correlated with age.
6. There may be a ‘critical period’ for acquisition.
7. Language proficiency varies much less than other skills (e.g., knitting, violin).

Child’s Likely Progress Chart:

• Birth: Crying
• 6 weeks: Cooing
• 6 months: Babbling
• 8 months: Intonation patterns
• 1 year: One-word utterances
• 18 months: Two-word utterances
• 2 years: Word inflection
• 2 1/4 years: Questions, negatives
• 5 years: Rare or complex constructions
• 10 years: Mature speech

Children do not manufacture new brain cells after birth. From birth to around 2 years, many more cells interconnect, and brain weight increases from ~300g to ~1000g.

Topic 117: Conceivable Innate Grammatical Information

It is easy to show humans are innately predisposed to acquire language; the hard part is finding out exactly what is innate.

Historical Experiment: Egyptian king Psammetichus theorized language was innate. He isolated children to see what language they would speak. (Not taken seriously today; found children had no speech.)

Chomsky’s View: Children must be endowed with a “rich internal structure” for language acquisition. This contrasts with the “blank sheet” view.

Chomsky’s Assumptions (Aspects of the Theory of Syntax, 1965): Children are endowed with an innate hypothesis-making device guided by language universals — a “blueprint” for language. This includes:

1. Semantic rules
2. Syntactic rules
3. Phonological rules

Children automatically know:

• Language involves two levels of syntax (deep and surface) linked by transformations.
• There are innately inbuilt constraints on the form sentences can take.

Reason: The “primary linguistic data” children are exposed to is likely to be “deficient in various respects.”

Michael Tomasello’s Alternative (Usage-Based Approach): “How children learn language is not a logical problem but an empirical problem.” Language capacity is a conspiracy of cognitive, social-cognitive, information-processing, and learning skills.

Topic 118: Transformational Grammar

Transformational Grammar (TG) or Transformational-Generative Grammar (TGG): A system of rules that generate exactly those combinations of words that form grammatical sentences, involving defined operations called transformations to produce new sentences from existing ones. Largely developed by Noam Chomsky.

Key Development Timeline:

• 1957: Syntactic Structures (first published work)
• 1965: Aspects of the Theory of Syntax (introduced Deep Structure; “Standard Theory”)
• 1970s: Extended Standard Theory (EST)
• 1980s: Lectures on Government and Binding
• Later: Minimalist Program (Deep Structure and Surface Structure no longer featured; only LF — Logical Form and PF — Phonetic Form remain)

Topic 119: The Founder and the Theory

Avram Noam Chomsky (b. Dec 7, 1928) is an American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, and social critic. He is called “the father of modern linguistics” and is a founder of cognitive science.

• Born to middle-class Jewish immigrants in Philadelphia
• Studied linguistics, mathematics, and philosophy at University of Pennsylvania (age 16)
• Harvard Society of Fellows (1951–1955) — developed transformational grammar
• Doctorate in 1955; began teaching at MIT in 1957
• Published Syntactic Structures (1957), which remodeled the scientific study of language
• Created/co-created: Universal Grammar Theory, Generative Grammar Theory, Chomsky Hierarchy
• Played a pivotal role in the decline of behaviorism
• One of the most cited scholars in history

Topic 120: Deep and Surface Structure

The structuralist approach was corpus-bound and broke down because it could not account for ambiguities or inter-relatedness of sentences. An adequate grammar must be productive, complex, and arbitrary.

Key Distinction in TG Grammar:

• Deep Structure: The underlying syntactic structure that determines meaning. It is the kernel sentence (simple, assertive, active).
• Surface Structure: The final syntactic form of a sentence after applying transformations. It may be active/passive, affirmative/negative, declarative/interrogative.

🔑 Definition — Kernel Sentence: A simple, assertive, active sentence that serves as the deep structure from which other sentences are derived.

Examples of Kernel Sentences:

• John is playing football.
• I wrote a letter.
• You spoke the truth.

Non-Kernel Sentences (derived by transformations):

• Is John playing football? (Interrogative)
• John is not playing football. (Negative)
• A letter was written by me. (Passive)
• Who wrote the letter? (Question form)
• Why did you speak the truth? (Question form)
• You spoke the truth when you were forced. (Complex)
• You did not speak the truth. (Negative)
• You spoke the truth but told a new story. (Compound)

Transformational analysis shows inter-relatedness and resolves ambiguities:

*Example: Structural Ambiguity Flying planes can be dangerous. *

• Deep Structure 1: Some people fly planes. This can be dangerous. (deep: someone flies planes)
• Deep Structure 2: Planes fly. They can be dangerous. (deep: planes fly)

*Example: I expected John to hit a six. * vs. I asked John to hit a six.

• Deep: I expected (something). John hits a six.
• Deep: I asked John (something). He hits a six.

*Example: John is eager to please. * vs. John is easy to please.

• Deep: John is eager (for something). He pleases (someone).
• Deep: It is easy. Someone please John.

A kernel sentence (deep structure) has a string of transformation rules applied to it to generate the surface structure.

⭐ Key Takeaways

The lecture establishes that adverb phrases are mobile modifiers that cannot appear within noun phrases, and that meaning depends on invisible phrase structure organization revealed by replacement and movement tests. Structural ambiguity arises when one word string can be grouped into different phrases. Immediate Constituent (IC) analysis provides binary segmentation but is flawed because it lacks grammatical labeling and generative power — it cannot explain how new sentences are formed or resolve deep ambiguities. This leads to Phrase Structure Rules, which are stronger descriptively but still fail to capture relationships between passive/active, question/declarative, or semantically identical but structurally distinct sentences (e.g., John is eager/easy to please). The lecture then contrasts Skinner’s behaviorist view (language as operant conditioning) with Chomsky’s evidence for innate capacity: biological adaptations (brain lateralization, vocal tract), a regular developmental sequence (6 weeks to 10 years), and the failure of simple reinforcement to explain grammatical truth. Finally, Transformational Grammar resolves PS grammar’s deficiencies by positing Deep Structure (kernel sentences) and Surface Structure, with transformations linking them to account for synonymy (active/passive) and structural ambiguity.

🧠 Quick Revision Questions

1. What is the key syntactic difference between an adjective phrase (AP) and an adverb phrase (AdvP) in terms of noun phrase insertion? Give an example of a violation.
2. Using the sentence “I was reading the letter to John,” explain how the replacement test (by it) and the movement test reveal two different phrase structures and thus structural ambiguity.
3. What are the three major limitations of Immediate Constituent (

📘 Lecture 21 — Constituents I: Words Order

📖 Overview: This lecture introduces the foundational concepts of syntax within traditional grammar, focusing on how sentences are structured from constituents. It explores the classification of words into grammatical categories (lexical and functional), the properties of each category, and the basic grammatical functions and clause types. Understanding this framework is essential for analyzing sentence structure and lays the groundwork for more advanced syntactic study.

🗂️ Topics Covered

The lecture begins by defining syntax as the study of sentence structure and introduces the key concept of constituents. It then delves into grammatical categories, subdividing words into lexical/substantive categories (nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions) and functional categories (determiners, quantifiers, pronouns, auxiliaries, complementisers). Finally, it covers grammatical functions like subjects, predicates, complements, and adjuncts, and concludes with a discussion of different clause types based on finiteness, mood, and force.

📝 Lecture Summary

Topic 121: Introduction

Grammar is traditionally divided into morphology and syntax. Morphology studies word formation (e.g., antidisestablishment-arianism), while syntax studies how words are structured into phrases and sentences. Traditional grammar uses a taxonomy (classificatory list) to describe syntactic structures. A central assumption is that sentences are built from constituents (syntactic units), each belonging to a specific grammatical category and serving a specific grammatical function. For example, in the sentence Students protested, "Students" is a plural noun functioning as the subject, and "protested" is a past tense verb functioning as the predicate. The overall sentence is a finite declarative clause, stating a fact.

💡 Why this matters: The idea of constituents is the foundation of all syntactic analysis; we must be able to identify these building blocks before we can understand how they combine.

Topic 122: Grammatical Categories

In traditional grammar, words are assigned to grammatical categories (parts of speech) based on their:

• Semantic properties (meaning)
• Morphological properties (different forms)
• Syntactic properties (word-order positions)

Words are divided into two types:

• Content words: Have substantive lexical content (e.g., car, tall, increase). They often have antonyms.
• Function words (functors): Serve to mark grammatical properties and have little or no descriptive content (e.g., they, me). They have no obvious antonyms.

Corresponding to these are two kinds of grammatical categories: lexical/substantive categories (for content words) and functional categories (for function words).

Topic 123: Lexical/substantive categories

The main lexical categories are Noun (N), Verb (V), Adjective (A), Adverb (ADV), and Preposition (P).

🔑 Definition — Noun (N): A word that denotes an entity (e.g., bottle, water, John).

• Count nouns (e.g., chair) have singular and plural forms.
• Mass nouns (e.g., furniture) are uncountable.
• Common nouns (e.g., boy) can be modified by a determiner (the boy), whereas proper nouns (e.g., Andrew) generally cannot (the Andrew).
• Syntactic property: Only a noun can complete the sentence They have no... (e.g., car).

🔑 Definition — Verb (V): A word that denotes an action or event (e.g., eat, sing, resign).

• Syntactic property: Only a verb (in its infinitive form) can complete They/It can... (e.g., stay).
• Morphological property: Regular verbs have four forms: bare (cry), present tense (cries), past/participle (cried), and progressive participle (crying).

🔑 Definition — Adjective (A): A word that denotes a state or attribute (e.g., ill, happy, big).

• Syntactic property: Can complete They may be... (e.g., tired).
• Can be modified by a degree word like very (e.g., very happy).
• Morphological property: Many have comparative (-er) and superlative (-est) forms (e.g., big, bigger, biggest).

🔑 Definition — Adverb (ADV): A word that denotes the manner of an action (e.g., well in She sings well).

• Morphological property: Often formed by adding -ly to an adjective (e.g., sad → sadly).
• Syntactic property: Only an adverb can end a sentence like She behaved... (e.g., badly).

🔑 Definition — Preposition (P): A word that marks location (e.g., in, on, under).

• Syntactic property: Can be modified by right or straight (e.g., right down the stairs).
• Morphological property: Invariable/uninflected (e.g., no past tense offed).

Topic 124: Functional category

Functional categories include items like determiners, quantifiers, pronouns, and auxiliaries.

🔑 Definition — Determiner (D): Includes the definite article the and demonstratives (this/that/these/those).

• Semantic property: They determine specific semantic properties of the noun expression, often marking it as a definite referring expression (e.g., the car refers to a specific, known car).

🔑 Definition — Quantifier (Q): Denotes expressions of quantity (e.g., some, all, every, many). The indefinite article a is also a quantifier.

🔑 Definition — Pronoun (PRN): An item that 'stands in place of' a noun expression (e.g., he/him, one).

• The word one (e.g., a blue one) is a pronominal noun (N-pronoun).
• Other pronouns can function as Q-pronouns (some) or D-pronouns (those).
• Personal pronouns (I/me/we/us/you/he/him/she/her/it/they/them) can function as D-pronouns (e.g., We republicans).

🔑 Definition — Auxiliary (verb): Marks grammatical properties like tense, aspect, voice, or mood.

• Syntactic property: Unlike main verbs, auxiliaries can be inverted with their subject in questions (e.g., It is raining → Is it raining?).
• Types include perfect/progressive auxiliaries (have/be), passive voice auxiliary (be), dummy auxiliary (do), and modal auxiliaries (can/could/may/might/will/would/shall/should).
• Auxiliaries belong to the category T (tense-marked auxiliary). The infinitive particle to (e.g., to be impeached) is also a T constituent, specifically a nonfinite, infinitival tense marker.

Topic 125: Complementisers

Complementisers (= C) are functors that introduce complement clauses.

• 🔑 That introduces a finite declarative clause.
• 🔑 If introduces a finite interrogative clause.
• 🔑 For introduces an infinitival irrealis clause (relating to a hypothetical event).

💡 Why this matters: Complementisers tell us crucial information about the clause they introduce: if it is finite or not, and what its force (statement, question, hypothetical) is.

Using these categories, we can label words in a sentence:

• [D The] [N president] [T is] [ADV clearly] [V feeling] [A angry] [C that] [N Congress] [T has] [V refused] [T to] [V negotiate] [P with] [PRN him]

Grammatical features describe differences within a category (e.g., she = [3rd person, singular, feminine, nominative]; us = [1st person, plural, accusative]).

The main grammatical functions are subject (S) and predicate (which can contain a verb and its complements). A complement is an entity directly involved in the action (e.g., a direct object). A verb with a direct object is transitive.

• Subjects and complements are arguments of the predicate.
• A predicate with one argument is one-place (e.g., resign), with two is two-place (feel + remorse), and with three is three-place (send + Mary + flowers).
• Adjuncts are optional elements that provide additional information (e.g., after dinner).
• Sentences can be complex, containing more than one clause.

Topic 126: Types of clauses

Clauses can be finite or non-finite.

• Finite clauses contain a verb that shows tense (e.g., She writes/wrote).
• Non-finite clauses contain a verb that does not show tense, like infinitives (to write), present participles (writing), and past participles (written).
• Finite clauses can have a nominative subject (he), while non-finite clauses cannot (they may have an accusative subject like him or a silent subject).

Grammatical mood is a verb feature that signals modality (the speaker's attitude).

• Indicative mood: Denotes a real event (e.g., he apologised).
• Subjunctive mood: Denotes a hypothetical or unreal event (e.g., he apologise in She demanded that he apologise).

Each clause also has a specific force:

• Declarative: Makes a statement (e.g., He went home).
• Interrogative: Asks a question (e.g., Are you feeling OK?).
• Imperative: Issues a command (e.g., You be quiet!).
• Exclamative: Expresses surprise (e.g., What a great idea that is!).

In a complex sentence, each clause has its own force (e.g., main clause declarative, complement clause interrogative). The primary goal of traditional grammar is description, not explanation.

⭐ Key Takeaways

This lecture establishes the descriptive vocabulary of traditional syntax. You must be able to identify the two main word types (content and function) and assign words to their correct lexical or functional categories (N, V, A, ADV, P, D, Q, PRN, T, C) based on their semantic, morphological, and syntactic properties. Understanding the difference between subjects, predicates, complements (arguments), and adjuncts is crucial for analyzing sentence structure. Finally, you need to distinguish between finite and non-finite clauses, and between different moods and clause forces (declarative, interrogative, imperative, exclamative).

🧠 Quick Revision Questions

1. What are the two main types of words in traditional grammar, and what is the primary difference between them?
2. List four different functional categories and give one example of a word for each.
3. What is the key syntactic property of an auxiliary verb that distinguishes it from a main verb?
4. Explain the difference between a complement and an adjunct, using an example sentence to illustrate each.
5. What does it mean for a clause to be "finite," and what kind of subject can it have?