Transcript Class 23 Notes

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CLASS 23, March 30, 2007
LIN 1310B
Introduction to Linguistics
Prof: Nikolay Slavkov
TA: Qinghua Tang
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FINAL Exam Schedule
INTRO LING I: WORDS
UTTERANCES
LIN1310 B
Prof: Slavkov, Nikolay
2007-04-26
Thursday
14:00 17:00
Technology &
Room:
Engineering
H0104
SITE
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Today
• Announcements and Reminders:
-Continue reading chapter 6 (read at least up to
p.195)
Today’s Lecture:
-Continue Semantics
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Review from last time
• fuzzy concepts, graded membership,
metaphor
• lexicalization and conflation patterns of
motion verbs.
• grammaticization
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Hidatsa Evidentials
• p. 188, table 6.13
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Syntax and Sentence Interpretation
• So far we’ve discussed mostly the meaning of individual
words and phrases. But how do we analyse the meaning of
a sentence?
• The positioning of words and phrases in syntactic structure
contributes to the meaning of the entire sentence.
The Principle of Compositionality
The meaning of a sentence is determined by the meaning of its
component parts and the manner in which they are
arranged in syntactic structure
=> So, syntax plays a role in the interpretation of sentences.
We’ll see how in the following slides.
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Constructional Meaning
• Under the constructionist approach
structural patterns themselves are capable
of carrying meaning above and beyond
their component parts. E.g. the causedmotion construction (see next slide)
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Consider the following:
• Seymour pushed the truck off the table.
• Mabel moved the car into the garage.
• Perry pulled the dog into the swimming pool.
What is the structural pattern in these data?
NP V NP PP
Can we describe the meaning of this structural
pattern?
X causes Y to go somewhere
So what???
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The caused-motion construction
Form/Structure: NP V NP PP
Meaning:
X causes Y to go somewhere.
under a constructionist approach, we would
expect that the structure NP V NP PP
somehow carries the meaning “X causes Y
to go somewhere”
let’s see if this is true.
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The caused-motion construction
Form/Structure: NP V NP PP
Meaning:
X causes Y to go somewhere.
-Let’s test our hypothesis with the following verbs: sneeze,
laugh, squeeze.
What are some typical meanings of these verbs?
1. When I have a cold I sneeze.
2. I laughed a lot when I heard the joke.
3. I squeezed a lemon to make a salad dressing.
Do these verbs express caused-motion???
No.
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The caused-motion construction
Form/Structure: NP V NP PP
Meaning: X causes Y to go somewhere.
-So we conclude that verbs like sneeze, laugh, squeeze DO NOT
typically express caused motion.
-Now let’s plug these verbs into the structure of the caused-motion
construction and come up with some examples.
1. John sneezed the handkerchief right across the room.
2. The judges laughed the poor guy right out of the room.
3. Morley squeezed the shirt into the suitcase.
Even though we determined that these verbs do not typically express
caused motion, now they do. That is, when we put them in the
structure of the cause-motion construction, the caused-motion
meaning is somehow “forced” out of them. Thus, we have
evidence that the structure itself imposes the meaning, which is
what a constructionist approach would predict.
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The Ditransitive Construction
Another example that can be used for evidence for a
constructionist approach is the so called ditransitive
construction.
Consider the following:
1. Ivan sent Maria a letter
2. The company gave the workers their cheques.
3. Billy threw Marvin the ball
What is the structural pattern of the ditransitive
construction?
NP V NP NP
What is the meaning of the ditransitive construction?
‘X causes Y to have Z’
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The Ditransitive Construction
Form/Structure: NP V NP NP
Meaning: ‘X causes Y to have Z’
Consider the verb bake. Does bake itself mean ‘cause to
have’???
No.
Now let’s plug in bake in the structure of the ditransitive
construction and see if it will have a ‘cause to have’
meaning:
John baked Jill a cake => ‘John caused Jill to have a cake”
Therefore, once again, the structure seems to ‘construct’ the
meaning. I.e. we have evidence for a constructionist
approach.
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Lexical vs. Structural Ambiguity
• We already spoke about sentences like:
Mary bought a pen. Let’s draw a tree.
 This sentence is an illustration of lexical ambiguity because the lexical
item pen is the source of the ambiguity, not the structure of the
sentence.
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Lexical vs. Structural Ambiguity
• However, consider another sentence:
She wrote reports on poverty in Argentina. Let’s draw a tree.
=>This sentence is an illustration of structural ambiguity. What are its
two interpretations?
A. The reports on poverty are written in Argentina (the writer is in
Argentina and the poverty may be elsewhere)
B. The reports are on poverty in Argentina (the poverty is in Argentina
but the writer may be elsewhere)
There is no particular lexical item that creates the ambiguity, therefore
this is not lexical ambiguity.
This ambiguity is created by the way you attach the PP ‘in Argentina’ in
the syntactic structure.
If the PP ‘in Argentina’ is attached to the verb ‘write’, then it would
mean that the ‘writing’ took place in Argentina.
If the PP ‘in Argentina’ is attached to the NP ‘poverty’, then it would
mean that the ‘poverty’ is in Argentina.
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Lexical vs. Structural Ambiguity
Consider the following:
wealthy men and women
1. only the men are wealthy
2. both the men and women are wealthy
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• p. 190 fig 6.4
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Lexical vs. Structural Ambiguity
Consider the following:
Nicole saw people with binoculars
=>1. She used binoculars to see the people.
=>2. She didn’t use binoculars; the people had
binoculars.
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• p. 191
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Thematic roles
• Another aspect of semantic interpretation is
the role of the referents of NPs in the
sentence. We’ve already discussed briefly
some thematic roles such as agent and
patient: e.g. John hit Mary. But there are
quite a few more roles.
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Thematic roles
Some common thematic/theta roles (θ-roles):
Agent - the entity that performs an action
Causer – the entity that causes an action (could be
involuntary)
Patient - the entity (usu. human) that ‘suffers’ from the
action
Theme – the entity undergoing an action or a movement
Goal – the end point for a movement
Source – the starting point for a movement
Location – the place where an action occurs
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Thematic roles
Identify the thematic roles in the following sentences:
John petted the dog.
The chef cooked the food in the kitchen.
I sent the letter to my mother/ to China.
The books were carried from Ottawa to Toronto by the volunteers
The wind opened the window.
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How are theta roles assigned?
• Can they be contained inherently in the NPs
themselves?
No, because an NP can be an agent, a patient, a
source, etc.
• Can they be assigned by syntactic positions?
Not necessarily. Subjects are often agents. But in
passives, the subject is not the agent. So syntax
itself does not assign the theta-roles
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How are theta roles assigned?
• It is commonly assumed that theta-roles are assigned by
certain words that require/allow a particular theta-role to
appear with it. For example, the preposition at assigns a
location role to an NP. The preposition from assigns a
source role, etc.
• So we are assuming that theta roles are contained in lexical
items. I.e the lexicon has the information that at assigns a
location to an NP, from assigns a source to an NP, etc. This
information contained in the lexicon is called a thematic
grid or theta-grid.
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Some words and their theta grids
at <location>
from <source>
to <goal>
walk <agent>
purchase <agent, theme>
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Theta role assignment
• p. 193 6.6
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Theta role assignment
• p. 194 6.7
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Theta role assignment
• p 194 6.8
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Theta role assignment
• Does theta-role assignment apply at deep structure
or at surface structure?
• To answer this we would have to look at a
sentence where the operation move applies. If the
theta role is assigned before movement, then it
happens at deep structure. If theta role is assigned
after movement, then it happens at surface
structure.
• Look at the next slide:
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• p. 195