The study of the rules that govern the arrangement of words to create well-formed sentences in a given language.
3
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1answer
40 views
What is the relationship between syntax and semantics?
There are a number of positions you can take on what the relationship between syntax and semantics.
You could think that syntax is prior and so think that an expression's syntactic function ...
3
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0answers
44 views
Term for the modified part of a prepositional complement
A prepositional complement is the noun phrase that follows a preposition. So, given sentences like
John saw the woman with an umbrella.
and
John saw the moon with a telescope.
The ...
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1answer
40 views
Several Questions Please Help with Answers [closed]
a. Some English words have more letters in their spelling than they have sounds in their pronunciation, but none have more sounds than they have letters.
b. If an English word has 3 vowels sounds, ...
3
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0answers
27 views
Aside from coordination, subordination, and clause-chaining, how else do natural languages create multi-clause sentences?
Most of us know that sentences and clauses can be coordinated, and that subordinating clauses can modify nouns (see restrictive relative clauses), modify verbs (see adverbial clauses) and serve as ...
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0answers
34 views
Why semantics can't be the input to syntax
so I have a Syntax II final Friday and am really confused about one of the study guide questions: "Why can't semantics be the input to Syntax? Illustrate with examples". Could anyone please shed some ...
4
votes
2answers
131 views
Conjunctive NPs in Montague Grammars
I'm considering the sentence
Some man and some woman visited a garden
Obviously it's not 100% unambiguous how many gardens there are, but I think most people would agree there is just one common ...
1
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0answers
43 views
The sentence as a case frame or a semantic model
I am now studying Deep and Surface Grammar and I can't understand any particular differences in representation of the sentence as a case frame (Ch. Fillmore's theory) or a semantic model (W. Chafe). ...
2
votes
0answers
30 views
Resources/papers on Portuguese nominal syntax and determiners?
I'm vaguely aware that the (definite) determiner has a much freer distribution in Portuguese than in other languages, e.g. it can come before personal names:
A Maria lê um livro.
The Maria ...
0
votes
2answers
49 views
Phonological ambiguity that changes the syntactic structure
I'm looking for two sentences that have phonological/phonetic ambiguity (like John's feat, and John's feet), but with different syntactic structures.
For example, "John's feat was a big deal" and ...
3
votes
2answers
143 views
What's the difference between syntax and grammar?
From what I've read, both terms have to do with the rules of formation of sentences. I've seen grammar used in mathematical contexts, in computability theory, where it has a precise definition. But ...
4
votes
2answers
125 views
Are we witnessing the death of stative “think”?
For those who came in late: From what I understand, English stative verbs don't take the progressive. We can use progressive in utterances with dynamic verbs. Witness "I'm eating," "She's ...
1
vote
0answers
46 views
What's the future of linguistics? Will it be ever…complete? [closed]
Let's restrict the question to syntax. Will be there a point when all the governing rules behind grammar have been discovered and all phenomena is explained?
4
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0answers
55 views
Have generative grammarians abandoned the notion of transformations?
When I peruse this site and others, I find references to apparent operations that change either one surface structure to another (as with passivization) or a deep structure to a surface structure (as ...
0
votes
0answers
32 views
What are the chief advantages & disadvantages of describing sentences with dependency vs. phrase structure trees?
What are the chief advantages & disadvantages of describing sentences with dependency vs. phrase structure trees?
From what I've read, dependency grammar trees lack phrase nodes and mark ...
5
votes
1answer
88 views
Why does the term “raising” suggest directionality?
Why does the term "raising" suggest directionality? Consider the sentence
We want him to buy the groceries.
People who describe such sentences often speak of the subject of "he to buy ...
3
votes
1answer
92 views
Raising to subject or Subject control?
I'm trying to figure out whether the verb in bold below is a Raising to Subject or Subject control verb.
The boys were rumored to have done so.
If it were was rumored, I could see more clearly ...
2
votes
1answer
78 views
Where to find examples of unique/uncommon syntax?
I've been immersed in the magic of languages since childhood (LOTR, Myst, Eragon) - and now that I'm dreaming up a world of my own, I'm interested in developing a unique and interesting language for ...
1
vote
6answers
141 views
Textbook suggestions for syntax, semantics/pragmatics and phonetics/phonology
I am coming to linguistics from a completely non-linguistic background; I was a mathematician. Next year I will start taking some serious (Master's level) linguistics courses and I would like to have ...
2
votes
1answer
92 views
What is syntactically wrong with these sentences?
I am currently analysing a poem, and I have come across two sentences that are obviously grammatically incorrect, but I can't figure out how to describe what is wrong with them.
"Beside him, the ...
2
votes
1answer
109 views
Are there any languages with verbs that require more than three arguments?
Are there any languages some of whose verbs require more than three arguments? I was thinking of causative constructions, such that "Mike had John give Sally the ring" could be expressed with one ...
0
votes
0answers
27 views
Are there any languages in which all or almost all verbs take only one argument?
Are there any languages in which all or almost all verbs take only one argument? For example, is there a language in which the patient is expressed with an adjunct whose omission results in, say, a ...
5
votes
1answer
89 views
How do languages with imperfect aspect typically convey distinctions between habitual, iterative, and progressive aspects?
How does languages with imperfect aspects typically convey distinctions between habitual, iterative, and progressive aspects?
In English, which does not mark its verbs for imperfect aspect, we have ...
2
votes
1answer
63 views
Is there a syntactic term for finite verb + infinitive constructions such as “wants to paint”?
In the sentence "Pete wants to paint," "wants" is of course the finite verb, and "to paint" is of course the infinitive. But is there are syntactic term for a construction such as "wants to paint"? ...
6
votes
3answers
155 views
Mathematical preparation for postgraduate studies in Linguistics
I posted this question in http://math.stackexchange.com/ and it was suggested to me that it would be a good idea to submit the question here, too, as there might be more specialists on the matter.
I ...
5
votes
1answer
150 views
What is this feature of British English called?
In British English you'll often hear them post-fixing expressions that American English tends to keep up front.
For example, I've heard British English speakers (golf commentators in particular) say ...
1
vote
2answers
71 views
Does speech transcription change syntax/grammar?
Just a question out of curiosity. Before typing became commonplace, many writing communications must have been transcribed from dictation. My hypothesis is that certain syntax and grammar must change ...
1
vote
1answer
365 views
Having trouble drawing a tree diagram
I'm having trouble drawing a tree diagram for the following sentence:
Chrissy believed that the earrings she bought for Sue were real silver.
In the task we have to divide the sentence into its ...
4
votes
2answers
108 views
Basic syntax notation
I'm a first-semester student in linguistics and I was wondering what the differences are between the following trees:
(1) and (2)
My course notes seem to stick with the first kind of notation but ...
3
votes
1answer
134 views
Syntax: How can this tree be built?
I am working through "Contemporary Linguistics" on my own. It's been going pretty well, but I have a question about building syntax trees.
I understand the tree here for "The dog might bite that ...
5
votes
1answer
88 views
What does it mean for a control verb to semantically select its arguments?
I'm attempting to better understand what a control verb is. The Wikipedia definition seems clear enough. But the definition in this other Wikipedia article, about Control, was harder for me to ...
7
votes
1answer
91 views
Can anyone point me toward articles/theory that syntax and morphology operate on the same principles?
Looking for articles and or theories that explore the idea that morphology and syntax are not separate but operate on the same principles; for example, that the sentence is just an extended ...
6
votes
0answers
165 views
What is the name of this grammatical construct: a sentence has two endings?
Consider the following sentence:
Local Man Loses Pants, Life; Beaver Rescue Falls Short
I've seen this named before where a sentence has two endings but I've been unable to find it on any ...
3
votes
0answers
112 views
What's confusing about this sentence?
Consider the following sentence:
Clean up the design database to initialize costing.
I find the sentence to be confusing but I'm a native English speaker. I asked my wife about it and she ...
0
votes
0answers
191 views
How are syntax trees drawn for these sentences? [closed]
I have drawn some syntax trees but I'm not sure they are correct. Is there any mistake? And if so, where?
For the first sentence "The design has big squares and circles" I made two tries:
The ...
2
votes
1answer
55 views
Diagnostic tests for basic word order of subject-verb-object in a topic-comment language?
I'm trying to grok ASL's grammar. There seems to be a lot of folk grammar and the professional liguists haven't been studying it for very long so there is a lot of contradictory statments about what ...
5
votes
1answer
129 views
History of the verb positioning in German
In German, the word order is SVO (or V2, to be precise) in main clauses, while in subordinate clauses have the finite verb in final position; there is some discussion of the word order in "German is ...
2
votes
1answer
74 views
A syntactic approach to possessives
I am currently writing an essay in linguistic typology on possessives. I got stuck in the last part, in which I am supposed to present a syntactic approach to the structure of possessives. I should ...
0
votes
0answers
53 views
Which layers of the language is dealing with co-reference resolution and how to solve it computationaly?
Which layers of the language is dealing with co-reference resolution and what are the steps to solve this problem in NLP?
4
votes
0answers
131 views
Word order typology in Germanic
I am not a native speaker of English, but I study English and Dutch. I have noticed that the two languages differ in their degree of flexibility. The following sentence, for example, is not acceptable ...
13
votes
2answers
327 views
How are mathematical operators like “plus” and “cos” analyzed?
Consider the mathematical statement
1 + 2 = 3
It is read in English as
One plus two equals three.
One plus two is equal to three.
In English at least, equals is obviously an ordinary ...
3
votes
2answers
176 views
How are these diagrams read?
I naively picked up a book in which the author assumes that the reader has a background in linguistics, so she often uses abbreviations without first explaining what they mean. I don't have such a ...
0
votes
1answer
75 views
Analysis of “go there”, “turn left”, “move back”, etc
How are phrases such as go there, turn left, move back etc. analysed syntactically?
are they copula + predicate, verb + object, or something else?
Neither of these solutions seem correct to me, so ...
4
votes
1answer
227 views
Main types of contrast involved in contrastive analysis of syntax?
What are the main types of contrast involved in contrastive analysis of syntax? I would appreciate a few examples.
I tried to find an answer, but unfortunately I found nothing.
12
votes
5answers
249 views
What divides semantics from pragmatics?
To my understanding... Semantics is the raw meaning and connotations a word carries on it's own and pragmatics is the context-dependent meaning a word holds.
Is this accurate? Can anyone explain it ...
4
votes
0answers
109 views
Indo-European prepositions: why prepositions?
In a related but different question to Indo-European prepositions: from whence did they come?, why do just about all modern Indo-European languages have prepositions rather than postpositions?
PIE ...
1
vote
0answers
45 views
Gerund as a PP complement
What would be the structure for a phrase like, 'before speaking to him' ? Will 'before' take a CP as the complement and treat 'speaking' like a PRO-ing or is it something else?
Somebody please help ...
2
votes
1answer
70 views
“Enumerators” and Approximate Inversion
There's a term that, as far as I know, goes back to traditional Celtic grammar called "enumerators". These are essentially words that inflect for number in weird ways when preceded by a numeral, that ...
30
votes
7answers
986 views
What characteristics are unique to English (or at least rare among language as a whole)?
After wondering about this today at work, I turned to the Internet.
A short piece that focuses on pronunciation points toward "none". I've scoured ELU and Google (perhaps not as thoroughly or ...
4
votes
0answers
57 views
Could we apply Neo-Whorfianism to parameters in the P&P sense?
I am no expert on Sapir-Whorf lore. But I understand it usually concerns itself with semantics and the lexicon.
Would it be possible, do you think, to look at languages with similar and different ...
5
votes
5answers
395 views
Why is English so much more simplified than other, similar languages?
English seems to have rules that are much more simple than its cousin German and its influencer French, as well as most of the languages that those are related to. What caused this? I suspect it's ...
