Transcript Language and Cognition Colombo, June 2011

Language and Cognition
Colombo, June 2011
Day 1
Introduction to Linguistic Theory, Part 1
Plan
• Structure in Language
• Phonology, morphology, semantics, syntax
• Pragmatics and the interface of the language
system with other systems of knowledge
• Competence and performance
Language
• There is structure in language – just like
structure in (the rest of) nature
Components of Language
• Different kinds of structure & knowledge
within language
– Phonology (sounds)
– Morphology (word structure)
– Semantics (aspects of meaning)
– Syntax (phrase structure)
– Pragmatics (language in use)
Linguistic structure
• features  phonemes  morphemes 
words  phrases  discourse
• Structure at every level – and there may be
many commonalities between the structures
• Theories of the nature of linguistic structures
are theories of mental representations
The structure of sounds
PHONOLOGY
Articulation, phonetics and phonology
• Articulation: the act or manner of producing a
speech sound; bringing articulatory organs
together so as to shape the sounds of speech
• Phonetics: how the sounds of language are
articulated and perceived
• Phonology: the mental representation of
sounds and their structures; operations across
these representations
Knowledge about the properties of sounds
physical events &
sequences
Articulation
mental
representing
physical
properties
representing
interactions
& processes
like a lexicon
like grammar
Phonetics
Phonology
Phonological theories 1: distinctive feature
theory
• Chomsky & Halle’s system classifies sounds according
to five sets of features:
- major classes: sonorant, syllabic,
consonantal
- manner: continuant, lateral, nasal
- cavity: anterior, coronal, high, low, back,
round
- tongue root: tense/lax
- laryngeal: voiced/voiceless
Phonological theories 1: distinctive feature
theory
• Attempt to delineate the properties of sounds used
contrastively in a particular language
• Features are ‘atomic’ and binary
• Looking at similarities and differences between sounds
• E.g.
/k/
consonantal
vocalic
stop
+
voicing
nasal
anterior
/g/
+
+
-
/s/
+
+
-
/n/
+
+
/i/
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
Phonological theories 2: nonlinear
phonology
• Time is the critical unit
• Sounds are made up of features
• Features which are realized together at a
particular time will be realized as a sound (a
‘segment’)
• Features are always present (though may not
be realized) and are hierarchically organized
Feature Geometry
• A way of indicating the interdependence of features involved in
sound structure representation
Root
sonorant
consonantal
laryngeal
voice spread glottis
lateral
nasal
continuant
constricted glottis
place
labial
round labiodental
coronal
anterior distributed grooved
dorsal
high
back
low
time
Root
sonorant
consonantal
laryngeal
voice spread glottis
lateral
nasal
continuant
constricted glottis
place
labial
round labiodental
coronal
anterior distributed grooved
dorsal
high
back
low
time
/p/
Root
sonorant
consonantal
laryngeal
voice spread glottis
lateral
nasal
continuant
constricted glottis
place
labial
round labiodental
coronal
anterior distributed grooved
dorsal
high
back
low
time
/z/
Root
sonorant
consonantal
laryngeal
voice spread glottis
lateral
nasal
continuant
constricted glottis
place
labial
round labiodental
coronal
anterior distributed grooved
dorsal
high
back
low
time
/i/
Root
sonorant
consonantal
laryngeal
voice spread glottis
lateral
nasal
continuant
constricted glottis
place
labial
round labiodental
coronal
anterior distributed grooved
dorsal
high
back
low
The structure of words
MORPHOLOGY
Internal structure of a syllable
σ
rime
onset
c
peak
coda
a
t
Syllables joined together = feet
Feet joined together = words
Morphology
• Inflectional morphology:
variations in
the forms of words for grammatical purposes
• Derivational morphology:
word
formation, changing word class, changing
meaning
Morphology
affix
example
prefix
undo
prefix-root
suffix
looking
root-suffix
infix
(Tagalog Root: dugo blood) dinugo
ro<infix>ot
circumfix
Kabyle θissliθ "bride"
(compare to issli "groom")
circumfix>root<circumfix
suprafix
produce (noun)
produce (verb)
(changing stress)
Derivational Morphology
•
•
•
•
•
•
adjective-to-noun: -ness (slow → slowness)
adjective-to-verb: -ise (modern → modernize)
noun-to-adjective: -al (recreation → recreational)
noun-to-verb: -fy (glory → glorify)
verb-to-adjective: -able (drink → drinkable)
verb-to-noun: -ance (deliver → deliverance)
Inflectional morphology
• To apply an inflection is to change the form of a word
for a grammatical function:
Number
Tense
Person
Mood
Case
Aspect
Gender
Voice
• English is relatively poor in inflectional morphology.
Other Indo-European languages have a richer system
of inflection morphology – cf. Latin (word order vs
morphology)
Bound and free morphemes
• Bound morphemes are morphemes that can
occur only when attached to root morphemes.
• Affixes are bound morphemes. Common
English bound morphemes include: -ing, -ed, er, and pre-.
• Morphemes that are not bound morphemes
are free morphemes
Word classes
• “A grammatical category is a class of expressions which share a
common set of grammatical properties.”
(Radford 1997:37)
• How do we decide what class a certain word belongs to?
• What you were taught in school may not be much help.
– Noun = person, place, thing
– Verb = a doing word
– Preposition = space and time
– Adverb = a word that ends in –ly
• Sentential context is crucial
He can lift that.
I have opened this can.
- but what about isolation?
complexity? intuition?
- but what about being? meaning?
having?
- but what about by? of? about?
- but what about fast? well? often?
Morphosyntactic evidence
• Morphosyntactic evidence
• morphological (derivational / inflectional) and
syntactic (structural, distributional)
• Inflectional morphology: variations in the
forms of words for grammatical purposes
• Derivational morphology: word formation:
adding affixes to existing words or stems
(prefixes; infixes; suffixes)
Morphology exercise
Split the following words into their constituent
morphemes. For each morpheme you identify,
state whether it is free or bound, AND
derivational or inflectional.
pleasurable
dematerialization
redefinition
hopelessness
disturbances
immortalizing
realistically
surrealist
impassivity
extraterrestrials
Lexical vs functional categories
• Descriptive content
• Lexical categories: entities, actions, properties
• Antonym test
• The closed / open class distinction
The structure of phrases
SYNTAX
Clauses and sentence structure
• A CLAUSE is a string of words which expresses a
proposition
• Typically consists of at least a SUBJECT and a verb
David sings
Yesterday we visited Dambulla
• A SENTENCE contains one or more clauses
• Each clause contains ONE lexical verb (one verb =
one clause)
She retired early because she was ill
• MATRIX clause
• SUBORDINATE clause
Compound sentences
• Main clauses and subordinate clauses
Harry put the phone down and he stood up.
I gave him my address, but he didn’t contact me.
We could go to the cinema or we could stay at home.
• Each of the main clauses (those without the connecting words
and, but and or) can stand on its own as an acceptable
sentence
• Clauses which can stand on their own in this way and have
equal importance are referred to as main clauses (includes
simple sentences, which contain only one clause).
• Sentences which are constructed using conjunctions (and,
but, or…) = compound sentences
Compound sentences
• Main clauses and Subordinate clauses
Harry put the phone down (and) he stood up.
I gave him my address, (but) he didn’t contact me.
We could go to the cinema (or) we could stay at home.
• Each of the main clauses (those without the connecting words
and, but and or) can stand on its own as an acceptable
sentence
• Clauses which can stand on their own in this way and have
equal importance are referred to as main clauses (includes
simple sentences, which contain only one clause).
• Sentences which are constructed using conjunctions (and,
but, or…) = compound sentences
Subordinate clauses
• After he left work, he headed straight for the
hotel.
• We’re going to have to take the train because
the car’s broken down.
• If you heat water, it boils.
• Although she’s the best in the class, she did
badly in the exams.
• While I’m out, could you tidy up a bit?
The structure of meanings
SEMANTICS
Semantics
• Semantic entities tend to be structurally realized in
quite transparent ways
• E.g. objects  nouns, actions  verbs, spatial
relations  prepositions, etc
• Children innately have access to some semantically
transparent notions: person, action, object, agent,
patient
• Given a sentence and a co-occurring event, children
build a semantic representation of the sentence
• Semantic representations encode the relations
between the arguments and the verb
Semantics
• Arguments have thematic information
associated with them
e.g. cat
chase
dog
AGENT
(doing the chasing)
THEME
(getting chased)
• Semantic functions map onto grammatical
functions
AGENT = subject
THEME = object
Semantic Roles
Semantics and syntax
Sherlock saw the man with binoculars.
IP
DP
I’
Sherlock
I
VP
Ø
V
saw
DP
D
NP
the
N
PP
man
P
with
DP
the binoculars
IP
DP
I’
Sherlock
I
VP
Ø
V’
V
PP
P
DP
saw
with
D
N
the
man
DP
the binoculars
Pragmatics
• A rule-governed system
• Use of language in social situations
• Context of the utterance
– Situation
– Relationship with speaker
• Function of the utterance
–
–
–
–
Providing adequate information without redundancy
Using coherent and logical sequences
Maintaining a topic
Repairing communication breakdowns
Pragmatics
• Interface between language and other kinds
of cognitive process
• Memory, attention, planning, executive
function, emotional and psychological factors
• Interface between competence and
performance
Competence vs Performance
• Competence vs Performance
– What we know about language
(implicitly) vs what we do with language
• Competence is core linguistic knowledge
• Performance involves the interaction of
language and other kinds of knowledge too
• Psychological and environmental factors
Competence vs Performance