Mental Grammar

1. Grammar and Psycholinguistics

a. How do speakers produce and understand sentences?

Linguists have long puzzled over what the main goal of linguistics should be. Is it to describe a language? Or, is it to describe what speakers know about a language? There is a distinction, one that has important implications for psycholinguists.

b. Linguistics as psychology
Bloomfield argued for the psychological validity of the descriptions they were writing. He held that what they wrote about was not only a description of language but it was also a description of what people had learned. However, Twaddell, rejected such a goal for linguistics. He considered the description of language, not the psychological aspects of people, to be his goal. Moreover, Chomskys staunchest linguistic critics are in accord on the goal of linguistics as involving the description of knowledge that people have about language.

2.

Chomskys Competence Performance Distinction

Chomsky uses the term competence to indicate a certain kind of language knowledge. Competence is the knowledge that people have of the grammar of their language and, as such, it is the goal of linguistics to describe this competence. In Chomskys view, psycholinguistics has two major goals: (1) to specify how people use competence so that they are able to produce and understand sentences; and (2) to specify how people acquire competence (grammatical knowledge).

 For Chomsky, the activities involved in producing and understanding sentences are performance processes. A theory of performance should explain sentence production and sentence comprehension. The relationship of competence to performance for Chomsky, therefore, is that of part to whole, with competence being a part or component of the whole, which is performance. Competence is the knowledge that persons have of their grammar while performance involves knowledge for using competence so that the processes of sentence production and understanding can be realized.

3. Chomskys Grammatical Conceptions

In 1957, Chomsky demonstrated how such a system could be used to explain how speakers can, in principle, produce and understand an infinite number of grammatical sentences. He also maintained one fundamental notion, which is that the syntax of the grammar is primary, with meaning (and sound) being secondary. It can be said that the meaning of a sentence is specified as a function of its syntactic form, and not vice versa. Chomsky claims this relationship to be innate and universal.

a. The Standard Theory

The Standard Theory (ST) essentially consists of various sets of rules: syntactic, semantic, and phonological. Each set of rules is systematically integrated and serves to provide, for every sentence, a linguistic description or representation at four different levels.

 There is a sound level (Phonetic Interpretation) where the phonetic sound pattern of a sentence is represented; there is a meaning level (Semantic Interpretation) where the meaning and logical relations in a sentence are represented; and, there are two syntactic levels (Deep Structure and Surface Structure) where various syntactic aspects of a sentence are represented. Deep Structure represents the underlying syntactic form of the sentence while Surface Structure represents its more overt form.

(i)

Transformational Rules and Surface Structure

Surface Structure is the outcome of Transformational rules operating on the Deep Structure. Transformation rules - rules which delete, add, and move material and which have been applied to the Deep Structure. Deep structures are transformed into Surface Structures by means of Transformation (T) rules.

(ii) Phonological Rules and Phonetic Interpretation

The function of Phonological rules is to change the Surface Structure into a Phonetic Interpretation, which is a sequence of wholly phonetic symbols that, in effect, represents the pronunciation of the sentence.

(iii) Semantic Rules and Semantic Interpretation

Returning to Chomskys ST grammar, it is the Semantic rules which take a Surface Structure as input, so as to provide the Semantic Interpretation of a sentence in something like its propositional form. In this regard, it is important to note that Deep Structure, despite its somewhat misleading Deep name, does not represent the meaning of a sentence. It is Semantic Interpretation that provides that specification. Deep Structure is a syntactic representation.

b. The Government/Binding (GB) Theory of Grammar

One principal function of government, in Chomskys theory, is to ensure that a word is assigned the proper case. How the nouns in such a sentence are related to each other and whether they refer to the same entities or other expressions is the function of Binding Theory. The relationship between Dstructure and S-structure is restricted in terms of what can be moved, where it can be moved from, where it can be moved to, and how far it can be moved (the distance is limited by Bounding Theory).

4. Linguistic Challenges to Chomskys Grammar

Challenges to Chomskys grammar have mainly stemmed from two sources; (1) disagreement with the organization of his grammar where syntax is given a primary role over semantics; and (2) disagreement with the adequacy of his structural characterization of such basic syntactic relations and constituents, particularly Subject, Direct Object, Indirect Object and Verb Phrase.

a. Meaning-based Grammars
Firstly, semantics is given the primary role. Syntax is given only a secondary role, which is to provide a realization of the semantic representation. Then there is only one type of syntactic rule, the Transformational; there are no Phrase Structure rules. Accordingly, there is only one level of syntactic representation, Surface Structure; there is no Deep or DStructure.

Sentence Processing and Psychological Reality

Levels of Analysis
language

Phonology Morphology Syntax Semantics Pragmatics

structure

pragmatics

use

medium of transmission

grammar

meaning (semantics) lexicon discourse

phonetics phonology morphology syntax

Phonology
The sounds of a language
Phonemes, allophones & phones
Phonemes - abstract (mental) representations of the sound units in a language
Minimal pairs: pie, buy, tie, die, sigh, lie, my, guy, why, shy Articulatory features

Allophones - different sounds that get categorized as the same phoneme Phones - a general term for the sounds used in languages

Rules about how to put the sounds together

Spill vs. Pill Rule: If /p/ is used in word initial position you add aspiration (a puff of air), if word internal dont aspirate

Morphology
Morpheme smallest unit that conveys meaning

Productivity Free morphemes: can stand alone as words Bound morphemes: can not stand alone as words Inflectional rules used to express grammatical contrasts in sentences Derivational rules Construction of new words, or change grammatical class Allomorphs: different variations of the same morpheme (e.g., plural morpheme in English) Language differences Isolating, Inflecting, Agglutinating languages

Psychological reality of Morphology

Speech errors

Stranding errors: The free morpheme typically moves, but the bound morpheme stays in the same location (they are Turking talkish) Morpheme substitutions: (Where's the fire distinguisher?) Morpheme shift: (I haven't satten down and writ__ it)

Wug test (Gleason, 1958)

Here is a wug.

Now there are two of them. There are two _______.

Syntax: the ordering of the words

The underlying structural position, rather than surface linear position matters.

Syntax: the ordering of the words

Not just the linear ordering It is the underlying set of syntactic rules

Psychological reality of syntax

Derivational theory of complexity
The more transformations, the more complex
The boy was bitten by the wolf The boy was bitten. (involves deletion) No evidence for more processing of the second sentence

Evidence for (trace)

Some recent evidence or reactivation of moved constituent at the trace position

Evidence for syntax

Syntactic priming

Semantics
The study of meaning
Arbitrariness
Whats in a name? that which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet.

Words are not the same as meaning Words are symbols linked to mental representations of meaning (concepts) Even if we changed the name of a rose, we wouldnt change the concept of what a rose is

Separation of word and meaning

Concepts and words are different things
Translation argument
Every language has words without meaning, and meanings without words
e.g., transmogrify, wheedle, scalawag

Imperfect mapping
Multiple meanings of words
e.g., ball, bank, bear

Elasticity of meaning
Meanings of words can change with context
e.g., newspaper

Semantics
Philosophy of meaning
Sense and reference
The worlds most famous athlete. The athlete making the most endorsement income. 2 distinct senses, 1 reference

Now

Over time the senses typically stay the same, while the references may change

In the 90s

Semantics
Two levels of analysis (and two traditions of
psycholinguistic research) Word level (lexical semantics)
How do we store words? How are they organized? What is meaning? How do words relate to meaning?

Sentence level (compositional semantics)

How do we construct higher order meaning? How do word meanings and syntax interact?

Lexical Semantics
Word level
The (mental) lexicon: the words we know
The average person knows ~60,000 words

How are these words represented and organized?

Dictionary definitions? Necessary and sufficient features? Lists of features? Networks?

Lexical Ambiguity
What happens when we use ambiguous words in our utterances?
Oh no, Lois has been hypnotized and is jumping off the bank!

Money bank

River bank

Lexical Ambiguity
Psycholinguistic evidence suggests that multiple meanings are considered
Debate: how do we decide which meaning is correct
Based on: frequency, context
Hmm bank usually means the financial institution, but Lois was going fishing with Jimmy today

Compositional Semantics
Phrase and sentence level
Some of the theories
Truth conditional semantics: meaning is a logical relationship between an utterance and a state of affairs in the world Jackendoffs semantics
Concepts are lists of features, images, and procedural knowledge Conceptual formation rules

Cognitive grammar
Mental models - mental simulations of the world

Pragmatics
Sentences do more than just state facts, instead they are uttered to perform actions
How to do things with words (J. L. Austin, 1955 lectures)

Using registers Conversational implicatures Speech acts

Pragmatics
Registers: How we modify conversation when addressing different listeners
Determine our choice of wording or interpretation based on different contexts and situations
Speech directed at babies, at friends, at bosses, at foreigners

Pragmatics
Conversational implicatures
Speakers are cooperative
Grices conversational maxims
Quantity: say only as much as is needed Quality: say only what you know is true Relation: say only relevant things Manner: Avoid ambiguity, be as clear as possible

Pragmatics
Speech acts: How language is used to accomplish various ends
Direct speech acts
Open the window please. Clean up your room!

Indirect speech acts

It is hot in here Your room is a complete mess!

Non-literal language use

e.g., Metaphors and idioms

Pyscholinguistics and pragmatics

Three-stage theory
Stage 1: compute the literal interpretation of the utterance Stage 2: evaluate the interpretation against assumptions
Grices conversational maxims

Stage 3: if interpretation doesnt seem correct, derive (or retrieve) non-literal interpretation

Pyscholinguistics and pragmatics

One stage approaches
Evaluate utterance at multiple levels simultaneously and select the appropriate one Use context to derive the single most-likely interpretation

Structure of Language
Phonology (sounds) Morphology (words) Syntax (sentence structure) Semantics (meaning) Pragmatics or grammar (rules)

Structure of Language - Phonology

The study of sounds of a language. No human language uses all the sounds humans can make. IPA International Phonetic Alphabet Phonemes and phones
/l/ and /r/ = phonemes (English has 40) /p/ and /ph/ = phones Ghoti = fish (tough, women, position)

Other sounds
Tones, nasals, clicks (Genesis in the !Kung language)

Structure of Language - Morphology

Morphemes are the smallest units of language.
Words (dog, cat) = free morphemes Prefixes (un-, sub-) Syllables (-s, -ly )
= Declining and conjugating bound morphemes

Verbs are conjugated (am, are, is) Nouns are declined in some languages
Latin, Greek, German, Russian, etc. Word form changes based on position in sentence.

Structure of Language - Syntax

Rules for how to put together sentences and phrases. Six possible arrangements, based on Subject, Verb, Object English is SVO = The girl will hit the boy. Forming questions: English = V1SV2O?

Structure of Language - Syntax

Example of syntax Lewis Carrolls Jabberwocky:
Twas brillig, and the slithy toves Did gyre and gimble in the wabe. All mimsy were the borogoves, And the mome raths outgrabe.

Verb

Noun

Adjective

Structure of Language - Semantics

The meaning of symbols, words, phrases, and sentences of a language. Ethnosemantics and kinship terms
Aunt/uncle versus non-gendered cousin

Evolution of Language
Old Theories:
bowwow and ding-dong Locke, B.F. Skinner, Descartes

New Theories:
Noam Chomsky
Universal and generative grammar Principles and parameters

Creoles, pidgins, and Ebonics Sapir-Whorf