Transcript SYNTAX 4 DAY 33 – NOV 13, 2013 Brain & Language LING 4110-4890-5110-7960 NSCI 4110-4891-6110 Harry Howard Tulane University.

SYNTAX 4
DAY 33 – NOV 13, 2013
Brain & Language
LING 4110-4890-5110-7960
NSCI 4110-4891-6110
Harry Howard
Tulane University
11/16/11
Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University
2
Course organization
• The syllabus, these slides and my recordings are
available at http://www.tulane.edu/~howard/LING4110/.
• If you want to learn more about EEG and neurolinguistics,
you are welcome to participate in my lab. This is also a
good way to get started on an honor's thesis.
• The grades are posted to Blackboard.
11/16/11
REVIEW
Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University
3
11/16/11
Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University
Linguistic model, Fig. 2.1 p. 37
Discourse model
Sentence level
Word level
Syntax
S
E
M
A
N
T
I
C
S
Sentence prosody
Morphology
Word prosody
Segmental phonology
production
Segmental phonology
perception
Articulatory phonetics
Speech motor control
Acoustic phonetics
Feature extraction
INPUT
4
11/11/13
Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University
Ambiguity
• What does ambiguous mean?
• In linguistics, it means having more than one meaning.
• This is different from vague or not clear.
• We have already mentioned lexical ambiguity.
• bank
5
11/16/11
Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University
6
SENTENCE
COMPREHENSION AND
SYNTACTIC PARSING
Ingram I, §13 On-line processing, working memory and
modularity
11/11/13
Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University
7
A part-of-speech or morphological ambiguity
• (22) Flying planes can be dangerous.
a. [NP [Adj flying] [N planes]] can be dangerous
b. Flying planes are dangerous.
c. [NP [VP [V flying] [NP planes]]] can be dangerous
d. Flying planes is dangerous.
11/11/13
Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University
8
My favorite attachment or syntactic ambiguity
[note that this is the 2nd example on the recording]
• One morning I shot an
elephant in my
pajamas.
• What an elephant was
doing in my pajamas,
I'll never know.
• I [[shot an elephant] in
my pajamas]
• I shot an [[elephant] in
my pajamas]
11/11/13
Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University
9
A diagram of the difference
S
NP
I
V
shot
S
VP
NP
an elephant
NP
I
PP
in my pajamas
VP
V
shot
Det
an
NP
N
elephant
PP
in my pajamas
11/11/13
Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University
10
Minimal attachment principle
• Avoid unnecessary embedding (i.e. attach an element as
high in the tree as possible).
• Now let's look at a lot more examples.
11/11/13
Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University
Another attachment ambiguity
• Ingram's first example
• (21) the house on the hill by the sea
• What is by the sea?
a. the house on the [[hill] by the sea]
b. <the house is on the hill and the hill is by the sea>
c. the [[house on the hill] by the sea]
d. <the house is on the hill and the house is by the sea>
• Which reading did you get first?
11
11/11/13
Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University
12
A diagram of the difference
NP
NP
NP
Det
the
N
house
PP
by the sea
PP
on the hill
Det
the
N
house
PP
P
on
NP
Det
the
NP
N
hill
PP
by the sea
11/11/13
Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University
13
More examples of ambiguous sentences
• Paraphrase how you understand this sentence:
• (25) John told the girl that Bill liked the story.
• (26) John told the girl something – namely, that Bill liked the story.
• = sentential complement reading
• John told the girl [S that Bill liked the story]
• (27) John told the story to the girl that Bill liked.
• = relative clause reading
• John told the girl [S that Bill liked] the story
11/11/13
Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University
14
A diagram of the difference
S
NP
John
V
told
S
VP
NP
the girl
VP
NP
John
S
that Bill
liked
the story
V
told
NP
Det
the
N
girl
NP
the story
S
that Bill
liked
11/11/13
Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University
Testing minimal attachment
• Paraphrase how you understand these sentences:
• (28) Joe carried the package for Susan.
a. Joe carried [the package for Susan]
b. Joe carried [the package] [for Susan]
• (29) Joe included the package for Susan.
a. Joe included [the package for Susan]
b. Joe included [the package] [for Susan]
• Which of these obey minimal attachment?
15
11/11/13
Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University
16
Attachment of for Susan
S
NP
Joe
V
carried
/
included
S
VP
NP
the
package
NP
Joe
PP
for
Susan
V
carried
/
included
VP
NP
Det
the
N
package
PP
for
Susan
11/11/13
Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University
17
A different kind of problem
1. The old man the boat.
2. The man whistling tunes pianos.
3. The cotton clothing is made of grows in Mississippi.
4. The complex houses married and single soldiers and
their families.
5. The author wrote the novel was likely to be a bestseller.
6. The tomcat curled up on the cushion seemed friendly.
11/11/13
Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University
18
What does it mean to lead someone
down the garden path?
• The Cambridge
Dictionary of American
Idioms says that the
negative connotation of
‘leading someone down
the garden path’ is
“based on the idea that a
path in a garden is very
pleasant, so someone
who is brought along it
can be deceived without
noticing it.”
11/11/13
Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University
19
The second most famous sentence in linguistics
• The horse raced past the barn fell.
• Ingram pp. 261-4 has an extensive discussion of this
sentence. Please read and mull over it.
• Unfortunately, he does not relate all the details that he discusses to
the neuroscience of sentence processing.
• So let’s consider this chapter/section? finished and go on.
11/16/11
Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University
20
NEXT TIME
Continue with Ingram §13, On-line processing, working
memory and modularity