ACS 106 Study Guide - Quiz Guide: Linguistic Prescription, Deep Structure And Surface Structure, Iconicity
4 Dec 2017
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The(determiner) ladybug (subject) with six spots sees (verb) the (determiner) grasshopper (object) on the branch. Compositional semantics: the meaning a word, phrase or sentence had due to its place (relative to other words, phrases, or sentences) in a specific utterance or passage. Lexical semantics: the meaning a word gains over time due to its associations with a broad range of contexts and purposes and the relationships it comes to share with other words. No quantitative principle can account for the transformational leap needed to move from an identical surface structure to a mismatched deep structure. Fruit flies like a banana vs. time flies like an arrow. Pam is easy to please vs. pam is eager to please. No analytical principle can account for our ability to phrase ambiguous syntax. No generative rule can account for our ability to match up referents in discourse. If we invent grammatical sentences with no meaning, a (surreal) meaning still emerges.
