PS260 Chapter Notes - Chapter 10: Phrase Structure Rules, Garden Path Sentence, Parsing
Document Summary
Morpheme: a meaningful until of language that cannot be further divided: in, come, -ing forming incoming. Generativity of language that is, the capacity to create an endless series of new combinations, all built from the same set of fundamental units. Syntax: rules governing the sequence of words in a phrase or sentence. We need principles of syntax that are separate from considerations of semantics or sensibility. Phrase structure rules: a constraint that governs the pattern of branching in a phrase structure. These are stipulations that list the elements that must appear in a phrase and specify the sequence of those elements. Prescriptive rules: rules describing how language is supposed to be. Descriptive rules characterizing the language as it is ordinarily used by fluent speakers and listeners. Rules that describe the regularities in a pattern of observations, without comments of how the pattern is proper, correct or desirable. The function of phrase structure: we have all internalized these rules somehow.
