SAR SH 524 Lecture 8: Lecture 8-9
20 Feb 2019
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Document Summary
The development of syntax and morphology: learning the structure of language. The productivity of language (aka generativity) we do not memorize all of the sentences in a language. We can comprehend and produce an in nite number of sentences we have never heard before. Syntax: grammatical rules determining how words can be combined and ordered. Syntax vs semantics: colorless green ideas sleep furiously is completely grammatical but it doesn"t make any sense. This was an early example of having syntax (syntactically correct) without meaning anything. Syntactic rules: rules are a way to describe the knowledge about combination and ordering. Example rule 1: sentence > john + kissed + mary. This is not productive, as it can only produce a single sentence. A more productive rule: example rule 2: sentence > agent of action + action + recipient of action. Outcomes are many, but are still somewhat restrictive only encompasses actions.
