generative grammar - daniel harris | assistant professor...
TRANSCRIPT
![Page 1: Generative Grammar - Daniel Harris | Assistant Professor ...danielwharris.com/teaching/268/slides/GenerativeGrammarSlides.pdf · particular generative grammar, ... and fellow students](https://reader035.vdocuments.net/reader035/viewer/2022062413/5aee84d37f8b9ac2468b73e4/html5/thumbnails/1.jpg)
Generative Grammar •Linguistics is a branch of cognitive psychology.
•It is the study of a psychological system—a “mental organ” called the “language faculty”.
•This is the system that allows us to produce and understand complex and precise evidence of what we want to say.
•It is also the system that allows us to acquire language in the first place.
Noam Chomsky Barbara Partee Lila Gleitmann Janet Fodor
![Page 2: Generative Grammar - Daniel Harris | Assistant Professor ...danielwharris.com/teaching/268/slides/GenerativeGrammarSlides.pdf · particular generative grammar, ... and fellow students](https://reader035.vdocuments.net/reader035/viewer/2022062413/5aee84d37f8b9ac2468b73e4/html5/thumbnails/2.jpg)
“…the shift in focus [represented by generative grammar] was from from behavior or the products of behavior to states of the mind/brain that enter into behavior…”
(i) What constitutes knowledge of language?
(ii)How is knowledge of language acquired?
(iii)How is knowledge of language put to use?
Chomsky, Knowledge of Language (1986)
![Page 3: Generative Grammar - Daniel Harris | Assistant Professor ...danielwharris.com/teaching/268/slides/GenerativeGrammarSlides.pdf · particular generative grammar, ... and fellow students](https://reader035.vdocuments.net/reader035/viewer/2022062413/5aee84d37f8b9ac2468b73e4/html5/thumbnails/3.jpg)
(i)What constitutes knowledge of language?
(ii)How is knowledge of language acquired?
(iii)How is knowledge of language put to use?
“The answer to the first question is given by a particular generative grammar, a theory concerned with the state of the person who knows a particular language.”
Chomsky, Knowledge of Language (1986)
![Page 4: Generative Grammar - Daniel Harris | Assistant Professor ...danielwharris.com/teaching/268/slides/GenerativeGrammarSlides.pdf · particular generative grammar, ... and fellow students](https://reader035.vdocuments.net/reader035/viewer/2022062413/5aee84d37f8b9ac2468b73e4/html5/thumbnails/4.jpg)
(i)What constitutes knowledge of language?
(ii)How is knowledge of language acquired?
(iii)How is knowledge of language put to use?
“The answer to the second is given by a specification of a UG [Universal Grammar] along with an account of the ways in which its principles interact with experience to yield a particular langauge; UG is a theory of the ‘initial state’ of the language faculty, prior to any linguistic experience.”
Chomsky, Knowledge of Language (1986)
![Page 5: Generative Grammar - Daniel Harris | Assistant Professor ...danielwharris.com/teaching/268/slides/GenerativeGrammarSlides.pdf · particular generative grammar, ... and fellow students](https://reader035.vdocuments.net/reader035/viewer/2022062413/5aee84d37f8b9ac2468b73e4/html5/thumbnails/5.jpg)
(i)What constitutes knowledge of language?
(ii)How is knowledge of language acquired?
(iii)How is knowledge of language put to use?
“The answer to the third question would be a theory of how the knowledge of language attained enters into the expression of thought and the understanding of presented specimens of language, and derivatively, into communication and other special uses of language.”
Chomsky, Knowledge of Language (1986)
![Page 6: Generative Grammar - Daniel Harris | Assistant Professor ...danielwharris.com/teaching/268/slides/GenerativeGrammarSlides.pdf · particular generative grammar, ... and fellow students](https://reader035.vdocuments.net/reader035/viewer/2022062413/5aee84d37f8b9ac2468b73e4/html5/thumbnails/6.jpg)
Language of Thought vs. Generative Grammar
•Crucially important: generative grammar is a theory of our ability to acquire and use language of the kind that we speak out loud.
•Jerry Fodor’s language of thought hypothesis is a theory about something else—namely, the language in which we think.
•Don’t confuse the two!
![Page 7: Generative Grammar - Daniel Harris | Assistant Professor ...danielwharris.com/teaching/268/slides/GenerativeGrammarSlides.pdf · particular generative grammar, ... and fellow students](https://reader035.vdocuments.net/reader035/viewer/2022062413/5aee84d37f8b9ac2468b73e4/html5/thumbnails/7.jpg)
Intention to send a message σ
decodes the evidence of S’s message from σ
encodes a evidence of this message in a sentence σ
infers that S meant p
COMMUNICATION & COGNITION
Speaker’s language faculty Hearer’s language faculty
![Page 8: Generative Grammar - Daniel Harris | Assistant Professor ...danielwharris.com/teaching/268/slides/GenerativeGrammarSlides.pdf · particular generative grammar, ... and fellow students](https://reader035.vdocuments.net/reader035/viewer/2022062413/5aee84d37f8b9ac2468b73e4/html5/thumbnails/8.jpg)
SEMANTIC COMPETENCE
SYNTACTIC COMPETENCE
PHON. COMPETENCE
PARSER SEMANTIC COMPOSITION PRAGMATIC INFERENCE
FACULTY OF LANGUAGE CENTRAL SYSTEMS
Computes the structure of
linguistic input
Uses the structure to compute the
meaning.
Uses the meaning to infer
speaker’s message.
BELIEFS, MEMORY, ETC.
SPEECH COMPREHENSION
![Page 9: Generative Grammar - Daniel Harris | Assistant Professor ...danielwharris.com/teaching/268/slides/GenerativeGrammarSlides.pdf · particular generative grammar, ... and fellow students](https://reader035.vdocuments.net/reader035/viewer/2022062413/5aee84d37f8b9ac2468b73e4/html5/thumbnails/9.jpg)
John flew to paris and Mary x to Chicago
![Page 10: Generative Grammar - Daniel Harris | Assistant Professor ...danielwharris.com/teaching/268/slides/GenerativeGrammarSlides.pdf · particular generative grammar, ... and fellow students](https://reader035.vdocuments.net/reader035/viewer/2022062413/5aee84d37f8b9ac2468b73e4/html5/thumbnails/10.jpg)
This is the book that Walter was reading t to his friends and fellow students on Friday.
This is the book that Walter was reading to his friends and fellow students about t on Friday.
![Page 11: Generative Grammar - Daniel Harris | Assistant Professor ...danielwharris.com/teaching/268/slides/GenerativeGrammarSlides.pdf · particular generative grammar, ... and fellow students](https://reader035.vdocuments.net/reader035/viewer/2022062413/5aee84d37f8b9ac2468b73e4/html5/thumbnails/11.jpg)
It’s raining x.
Everyone x was at the party x last night.
![Page 12: Generative Grammar - Daniel Harris | Assistant Professor ...danielwharris.com/teaching/268/slides/GenerativeGrammarSlides.pdf · particular generative grammar, ... and fellow students](https://reader035.vdocuments.net/reader035/viewer/2022062413/5aee84d37f8b9ac2468b73e4/html5/thumbnails/12.jpg)
As the parents left their child played the guitar nicely.
![Page 13: Generative Grammar - Daniel Harris | Assistant Professor ...danielwharris.com/teaching/268/slides/GenerativeGrammarSlides.pdf · particular generative grammar, ... and fellow students](https://reader035.vdocuments.net/reader035/viewer/2022062413/5aee84d37f8b9ac2468b73e4/html5/thumbnails/13.jpg)
As the parents left their child played the guitar nicely. ??
![Page 14: Generative Grammar - Daniel Harris | Assistant Professor ...danielwharris.com/teaching/268/slides/GenerativeGrammarSlides.pdf · particular generative grammar, ... and fellow students](https://reader035.vdocuments.net/reader035/viewer/2022062413/5aee84d37f8b9ac2468b73e4/html5/thumbnails/14.jpg)
[As the parents left their child] played the guitar nicely.
[As the parents left] their child played the guitar nicely.
![Page 15: Generative Grammar - Daniel Harris | Assistant Professor ...danielwharris.com/teaching/268/slides/GenerativeGrammarSlides.pdf · particular generative grammar, ... and fellow students](https://reader035.vdocuments.net/reader035/viewer/2022062413/5aee84d37f8b9ac2468b73e4/html5/thumbnails/15.jpg)
The rat the cat the dog worried chased the malt.
![Page 16: Generative Grammar - Daniel Harris | Assistant Professor ...danielwharris.com/teaching/268/slides/GenerativeGrammarSlides.pdf · particular generative grammar, ... and fellow students](https://reader035.vdocuments.net/reader035/viewer/2022062413/5aee84d37f8b9ac2468b73e4/html5/thumbnails/16.jpg)
The rat the cat the dog worried chased the malt.
The rat [the cat the dog worried] chased ate the malt.
The rat Socks chased ate the malt.
![Page 17: Generative Grammar - Daniel Harris | Assistant Professor ...danielwharris.com/teaching/268/slides/GenerativeGrammarSlides.pdf · particular generative grammar, ... and fellow students](https://reader035.vdocuments.net/reader035/viewer/2022062413/5aee84d37f8b9ac2468b73e4/html5/thumbnails/17.jpg)
The rat the cat the dog worried chased the malt.