LING 220 Lecture Notes - Lecture 17: Phrase Structure Rules, William Faulkner, Explanatory Power
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Q: why should we care about phrase structure rules (psrs) A: psrs have both descriptive and explanatory power. Psrs capture linear order constraints e. g. adjectives come before the noun in english. Psrs provide a flexible framework to describe cross-linguistic differences. Psrs explain what sentences are valid/invalid and why. Easy learning (vs. learning specific rules for each lexical item) Today: how the infinite application of psrs captures recursion. Sentences are, in principle, unbounded, due too combinatorial power of psrs. In this way, language exhibits certain mathematical properties. But of course, someone had to come up with the longest sentence. Guinness book of world records - william faulkner in absalom, absalom. What"s interesting about psrs is not that they capture the unbounded nature of language. Recursion: a rule can be applied to the result of the application of the same rule ("self-similar") We have a few more rules to introduce to capture sentence structure.
