Language and mind

MENTAL GRAMMAR

How do speakers produce and understand sentences?

First half of 20th cent. What the main goal of linguistics should be?

Behaviorism Bloomfield: goal of linguistics is both description of the language as well as

psychological product-the learning; Others: simply focused on descriptions of language

1960s Chomsky (Psychological linguistics): linguistics is a branch of cognitive psychology

(goal: description of knowledge that people have about language)
Competence = knowledge of grammar: Linguistics describes competence
Psycholinguistics has 2 major goals:
1. to specify how people use competence to produce and understand
sentences (performance processes: Theory of performance should explain sentence
production and understanding)
2. to specify how people acquire competence (grammatical knowledge)

Chomskys grammatical conceptions

1957 Syntactic Structures
System of rules with which speakers produce and understand sentences
1965 Aspects of the Theory of Syntax - Standard Theory, 1970s Extended Standard
Theory grammar,1980s Government/ Binding grammar
Syntax of the grammar is primary, meaning (sound) is secondary
Meaning

Syntax
Sound
Colourless green ideas sleep furiously
Standard Theory syntactic, semantic and phonological set of rules
Linguistic description for every sentence on 4 levels (sound, meaning, Deep and Surface
structure)

 Phrase structure rules (Base rules) (provide Deep structure)

Transformational rules operating on Deep structure (provide Surface structure)
PS rules provide the basic constituent structure of a sentence
(1) The boy bought candy at the store.
S =NP (the boy)+ VP (bought candy at the store)
NP = D+N (the + boy)
VP = V + NP + PP (bought + candy + at the store)
(2) Open the door.
S = VP (V+ NP)
NP = D + N (the + door)
Deep Structure (NP+VP = (you) open the door) Transformation rules!
(3) John bought a coat at the store and so did Mary. S1+ CONJ+S2

Phonological rules and Phonetic Interpretation

Interpretation of the surface structure into a sequence of sound symbols

e.g. Mares eat oats. /merz/ /it/ /ots/
/merziydouts/ Phonological rule: the /i/ gets a y glide, /o/ gets a w
glide, the /t/ of eat changes to /d/ (between two vowels)
/merziydowts/
Pitch plays a role in the intonation pattern too.

Semantic rules and semantic interpretation

Semantic rules interpret surface structure into meaning elements and logical relations
e.g. 1 The shoe hurts (NP (D+N)+ VP (V))
-the shoe is causing pain to someone (implied cause-effect relationship):
-2 semantic propositions
Proposition 1: the shoe is in some predicate condition (unspecified)
Proposition 2: Someone (unspecified) is in pain.

A simple proposition is composed of a predicate and one or more arguments!

e.g. 2 The boy ran (1 predicate run and one argument boy)
e.g. 3 The girl hit the ball (1 predicate hit and 2 arguments girl and ball)

Chomsky: the semantic rules take a surface structure as input to provide semantic
interpretation

The Government-Binding (GB) theory of grammar

Lectures on Government and Binding, 1981
The relationship of syntax, meaning and sound remains the same
Syntax is generative (X-bar syntax), + Syntax integrates the Lexicon
Projection principle-projects the characteristics of lexical entries onto the syntax, connects Dto S-structure, connects the Lexicon to Logical form (LF) by specifying the context in which a
particular lexical item can occur.
The functional relationship between parts of a sentence is specified through theta roles e.g. The
boy gave the teacher an apple. (3 theta roles)
GB theory attempted to remedy the deficiencies of the Standard theory by specifying parameters
and restricting movement

Linguistic challenges to Chomskys grammar

(1) Disagreement with the organisation of his grammar: syntax has the primary role
(2) Disagreement with the adequacy of his structural characterization of the basic syntactic
relations and constituents (S, DO, IO, VP)
1

Generative Semantics Grammar, Semantic Case Grammar, Cognitive grammar

Relational Grammar, Lexical Functional Grammar

1970s Generative Semanticists: meaning (semantics) is the basis for grammatical theorizing

Chomsky prevailed: evolving grammatical theory (incorporated Katz semantic ideas in his
Standard theory, Fillmores ideas of semantic case grammar for the theta conceptions)
- Cognitive grammar and Functional grammar

Why Chomskys grammar is not a performance grammar?

Sentence production performance order
Meaning (LF)
[Syntax + ?]
Sound (PF)
Sentence understanding performance order
Sound (PF)
[Syntax + ?]
Meaning (LF)
Chomsky grammar order
Syntax
Sound (PF)
Meaning (LF)
=speaker must develop some sort of use rules: 2 basic performance conceptions are
possible
1. Resource grammar approach (grammar as a resource)
2. Process grammar approach (grammar is a process)

Resource grammar approach

We use resource knowledge (e.g. multiplication table) and rules that enable us to access
that knowledge

2 sets of Use rules are required : for production and for understanding

Process grammar approach

meaning of the sentence as input and the sound pattern of the sentence as output
Pragmatic aspects must be taken into consideration

no workable performance model based on Chomskys grammar has been formulated

Arguments against Chomskys grammar:

- Speed of conversations
- Some features of sentence production
Thought process (stimulated by various mental and environmental influences)
Purpose and Proposition (questioning, asserting, denying and warning: arguments and predicates)
Pragmatics and Semantic structure (politeness, persuasion influence meaning)
Basic strategies (Transformational rules and stored items)
Phonetic structure and acoustic signal

- Some features of sentence understanding

A fundamental syntactic strategy (NP+v+NP) Subject + Verb + Direct Object
A fundamental semantic strategy Agent +Action + Actions Object

Contradiction in Chomskys theorizing