LING 200 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Syntactic Category
Wednesday, October 11th, 2017
Hidden Syntactic Structure:
• We saw last week that sentences are not just a linear string of words
• Sentences an internal structure beyond their linear order
• They are made up of constituents – groups of words that act together as a unit
Hidden syntactic structure • Constituents nest inside one another
Hidden syntactic structure • Constituents nest inside one another
(1) That man with the hat likes the painting on the wall
Hidden syntactic structure
• Constituents nest inside one another
(1) [ That [ man [ with the hat ]]] likes the painting on the wall
• It is this property that gives sentences their (hidden) hierarchical structure
Hidden syntactic structure
• Constituents nest inside one another
(1) That man with the hat [ likes [ the [ painting [ on the wall ]]]]
• It is this property that gives sentences their (hidden) hierarchical structure
Hidden syntactic structure
• We can represent constituency structure with tree diagrams • Each black dot in the tree below
represents a constituent
Hidden syntactic structure
• Okay, but why do we care that sentences have hierarchical structure?
Ø Because constituents can embed within one another, this makes human
language recursive
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Ø This property gives human language its infinite nature
Hidden syntactic structure
• We can go on embedded constituents within one another... (2) I know [ that Beth likes ice
cream ]
Hidden syntactic structure
• We can go on embedded constituents within one another... (2) I know [ that Amrita said [ that
Beth likes ice cream ]]
Hidden syntactic structure
• We can go on embedded constituents within one another...
(2) I know [ that Gunther thinks [ that Amrita said [ that Beth likes ice cream ]]]
Hidden syntactic structure
• We can go on embedded constituents within one another...(2) I know [ that you know [ that
Gunther thinks [ that Amrita said [
that Beth likes ice cream ]]]]
• .... until we run out of breath
• Re-cursiveness allows humans to create an infinite number of sentences with a finite number
of words
Hidden syntactic structure
• On a more amusing note, syntactic structure allows us to understand certain types of ambiguity
Person A: John saw an elephant in his pajamas.Person What was John doing in his pajamas
around an elephant?
Reading: John saw an elephant while John was wearing pajamas.
Structural ambiguity
• On a more amusing note, syntactic structure allows us to understand certain types of ambiguity
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Hidden syntactic structure constituents nest inside one another. Hidden syntactic structure constituents nest inside one another (1) that man with the hat likes the painting on the wall. Hidden syntactic structure: constituents nest inside one another (1) [ that [ man [ with the hat ]]] likes the painting on the wall, it is this property that gives sentences their (hidden) hierarchical structure. Hidden syntactic structure: constituents nest inside one another (1) that man with the hat [ likes [ the [ painting [ on the wall ]]], it is this property that gives sentences their (hidden) hierarchical structure. Hidden syntactic structure: we can represent constituency structure with tree diagrams each black dot in the tree below represents a constituent. Because constituents can embed within one another, this makes human language recursive. This property gives human language its infinite nature.
