Language Universals: Child Errors & Implicit Knowledge in Transformational Grammar - Prof., Exams of Linguistics

Download Language Universals: Child Errors & Implicit Knowledge in Transformational Grammar - Prof. and more Exams Linguistics in PDF only on Docsity! Introduction to Transformational Grammar, LINGUIST 601 September 10, 2004 Knowledge of Language Required reading: Chs. 1 of Aspects 1 Some Central Questions How are we able to comprehend a potentially infinite number of novel sentences? The problem of discrete infinity.  What does linguistic knowledge consist of? We know things that we were never taught. How did this knowledge arise? Specifically, how do children succeed in acquiring language on the basis of an input that is underspecified and impoverished? How do we account for ‘language universals’? 2 Implicit Knowledge 2.1 Errors and Non-errors in Child Language Yes-No Question Formation (1) a. Has John eaten a cake? (John has eaten a cake.) b. Will Lila come to the party? (Lila will come to the party.) Any number of rules can be devised to derive the interrogative Y/N questions from their declar- ative counterparts. (2) a. Swap the first two words around b. Swap the first verb with the first noun phrase c. Swap the subject and the verbal element after it Test Cases: (3) a. The man has eaten a cake. b. The woman who is singing is happy. c. The book that John is reading is on sale. While child language differs in interesting ways from the target adult language, errors of the sort predicted by (2a, b) are never made by children. This suggests that children are predisposed towards postulating rules of a particular kind. 2.2 Pronominal Reference: a case of implicit knowledge (4) a. John likes him. b. He likes John. c. He likes him. (5) a. Liina introduced John to him. b. Liina introduced him to John. c. Liina introduced him to him. (6) a. 1. John likes his brother. 2. He likes John’s brother. 3. He likes his brother. b. 1. John’s brother likes him. 2. His brother likes John. 3. His brother likes him. (7) a. 1. Liina introduced John’s (long lost) sister to him. 2. Liina introduced his (long lost) sister to John. 3. Liina introduced his (long lost) sister to him. b. 1. Liina introduced John to his (long lost) sister. 2. Liina introduced him to John’s (long lost) sister. 3. Liina introduced him to his (long lost) sister. (8) a. John thinks that he is smart. b. He thinks that John is smart. c. He thinks that he is smart. (9) a. 1. John thinks that Hafdis believes that he is smart. 2. He thinks that Hafdis believes that John is smart. 3. He thinks that Hafdis believes that he is smart. b. 1. John thinks that he believes that Hafdis is smart. 2. He thinks that John believes that Hafdis is smart. 3. He thinks that he believes that Hafdis is smart. c. 1. Hafdis thinks that John believes that he is smart. 2. Hafdis thinks that he believes that John is smart. 3. Hafdis thinks that he believes that he is smart. (10) a. 1. The fact that Liina admires John pleases him. 2. The fact that Liina admires him pleases John. 3. The fact that Liina admires him pleases him. b. 1. John is pleased by the fact that Chunghye admires him. 2. He is pleased by the fact that Chunghye admires John. 3. He is pleased by the fact that Chunghye admires him. (11) a. 1. Liina gave a book to the boy who admires her. 2. She gave a book to the boy who admires Liina. 3. She gave a book to the boy who admires her. b. 1. The boy who admires Liina gave a book to her. 2. The boy who admires her gave a book to Liina. 3. The boy who admires her gave a book to her. (12) a. 1. When John left the room, he was smiling. 2. When he left the room, John was smiling. 3. When he left the room, he was smiling. b. 1. John was smiling when he left the room. 2. He was smiling when John left the room. 3. He was smiling when he left the room. 2 5 Sentence fragments Only phrasal constituents i.e. full phrases can serve as serve as sentence fragments (in an appro- priate context). (22) a. A: Where did he go? B1: Up the hill B2: *Up hill B3: He went up the hill b. A: Where are you going to? B1: To the cinema B2: The cinema B3: I am going to the cinema c. A: Who were you ringing up? B1: My sister B2: *Up my sister B3: I was ringing up my sister. Up my sister in (22c) is not a possible sentence fragment because up and my sister do not form a constituent in ‘I was ringing up my sister’. This is in contrast with ‘I am going to the cinema’ where to and the cinema do form a constituent. 6 Coordination Only constituents can be coordinated. (23) a. He has [NP a cat] and [NP a dog]. b. I met your [N mother] and [N father]. c. Is she [PP in the kitchen] or [PP in the bathroom]? d. He speaks [AdvP very slowly] but [AdvP very articulately]. e. [S Wynona likes Maui] and [S Kelly likes Cancun]. f. * John rang up his mother and up his sister. Only identical constituents can be coordinated. (24) a. John wrote to Mary and to Fred. (= PP and PP) b. John wrote a letter and a postcard. (= NP and NP) c. * John wrote to Mary and a letter. (= PP and NP) d. * John wrote a letter and to Fred. (= NP and PP) 6.1 Shared Constituent Coordination Another kind of coordination is exemplified below. (25) a. John walked and Bill ran [up the hill]. b. Tamara denied but Fred admitted [complicity in the crime]. c. Kelly must, and Jason may, [go to the party]. 5 The italicized sequence in the sentences in (25) is shared between the two conjuncts. Only con- stituents can be shared. (26) *Martha rang and Paul picked up Martin’s sister. 6.2 Ellipsis Under certain discourse conditions, it is possible to omit certain parts of a sentence. This phe- nomenon is known as Ellipsis. (27) A: Jay won’t wash the dishes. B: I bet he will (wash the dishes) if you’re nice to him. (the bracketed words need not be pronounced) Typically, in English, only VPs can undergo Ellipsis (i.e. be omitted) (28) a. Vivian won’t put soda water into scotch, but her brother will put soda water into scotch. b. * Vivian won’t put soda water into scotch, but her brother will put soda water into (scotch). c. * Vivian won’t put soda water into scotch, but her brother will put soda water (into scotch). d. * Vivian won’t put soda water into scotch, but her brother will put (soda water into scotch). e. Vivian won’t put soda water into scotch, but her brother will (put soda water into scotch). 7 Replaceability If a sequence of words can be replaced by another sequence of words which you know forms a constituent, then the original sequence also forms a constituent. So suppose you know that eat the apple is a Verb Phrase, then you can show that drink scotch is also a verb phrase by a simple replacement test. (29) Mimi didn’t [drink scotch] ! Mimi didn’t [eat the apple]. 7.1 Proforms The replacement test can be used more generally with help of words which can stand for full phrases. These are words like him, it, so, as, which etc. These words are called proforms - to generalize over pronouns (actually pro-NPs), pro-VPs, pro-APs etc. If we can replace a sequence of words by a pro-XP, then we can claim that the sequence is an XP. Pronouns, (him, her, it), replace NPs and not Ns. (30) a. A: What do you think of woman who wrote that incredibly pretentious book on shaman- istic chants? B: I can’t stand her. b. * What do you think of the her who wrote that incredibly pretentious it on shamanistic it? there functions as pro-PP. 6 (31) A: Have you ever been to Paris? B: No, I have never been there. so, as, which function as pro-VPs. (32) a. John might [V P go home], and so might Bill. b. John might [V P resign his post], as might Bill. c. If John can [V P speak French fluently] - which we all know he can - why is he so shy with the French? do so is another pro-VP. (33) a. Bill [read the book] in the library, and Mary did so (in the museum). b. Bill [fixed the faucet] with a screwdriver in fifteen minutes with great difficulty, and Mary did so (with a hammer) (in twenty minutes) (with no problem at all). (34) the boldfaced sequence is the (intended) antecedent for do so. a. Maia [gave a present to me] yesterday and Sally did so the day before yesterday. b. *Maia [gave a present to me], and Mary did so to my brother. c. Maia [put some money on the table] yesterday and Sally did so the day before yester- day. d. *Maia [put some money on the table], and Mary did so on the shelf. e. Maia [gave Mary a book] yesterday, and Sally did so the day before yesterday. f. *Maia [gave Mary a book], and Sally did so a magazine. so can also replace APs i.e. it is a pro-AP also. (35) Many people consider John [AP extremely rude], but I’ve never found him so. Similarly it can be a pro-S also. However it can only occur in NP positions. (36) a. A: Mary has finished her assignment. B: I don’t believe it. (I don’t believe that Mary has finished her assignment) b. A: I believe that John will won. B: * I hope it. (I hope that John will win) Note that all the proforms that we have discussed so far replace phrases and not word-level constituent. 7.2 Words used as phrases Consider the following sentence: (37) Cats can be useful. Is Cats in (37) an NP or an N or both? We know that cats is a Noun. Is it also an NP? Similarly is useful just an A or is it an AP also? We can show that cats is also an NP and that useful is also an AP. For one thing, they can be replaced by the relevant proforms. 7