Generative Semantics
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On the Irrelevance of Transformational Grammar to Second Language Pedagogy
ON THE IRRELEVANCE OF TRANSFORMATIONAL GRAMMAR TO SECOND LANGUAGE PEDAGOGY John T. Lamendella The University of Michigan Many scholars view transformational grammar as an attempt to represent the structure of linguistic knowledge in the mind and seek to apply transformational descriptions of languages to the de- velopment of second language teaching materials. It will be claimed in this paper that it is a mistake to look to transformational gram- mar or any other theory of linguistic description to provide the theoretical basis for either second language pedagogy or a theory of language acquisition. One may well wish to describe the ab- stract or logical structure of a language by constructing a trans- formational grammar which generates the set of sentences identi- fied with that language. However, this attempt should not be con- fused with an attempt to understand the cognitive structures and processes involved in knowing or using a language. It is a cogni- tive theory of language within the field of psycholinguistics rather than a theory of linguistic description which should underlie lan- guage teaching materials. A great deal of effort has been expended in the attempt to demonstrate the potential contributions of the field of descriptive linguistics to the teaching of second languages and, since the theory of transformational grammar has become the dominant theory in the field of linguistics, it is not surprising that applied linguists have sought to apply transformational grammar to gain new in- sights into the teaching of second languages. It will be claimed in this paper that it is a mistake to look to transformational grammar or any other theory of linguistic description to provide the theoretical basis for either second language pedagogy or a theory of language acquisition. -
Scaffolding Learning of Language Structures with Visual‐Syntactic Text
UC Irvine UC Irvine Previously Published Works Title Scaffolding learning of language structures with visual-syntactic text formatting Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6235t25b Journal British Journal of Educational Technology, 50(4) ISSN 0007-1013 Authors Park, Y Xu, Y Collins, P et al. Publication Date 2018 DOI 10.1111/bjet.12689 Peer reviewed eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California British Journal of Educational Technology Vol 0 No 0 2018 1–17 doi:10.1111/bjet.12689 Scaffolding learning of language structures with visual-syntactic text formatting Youngmin Park, Ying Xu , Penelope Collins, George Farkas and Mark Warschauer Youngmin Park is a Lecturer at Pusan National University, Korea. She received her Ph.D. degree from the University of California, Irvine, specializing in Language, Literacy and Technology. Ying Xu is a Ph.D. student at the University of California, Irvine, with a specialization in specializing in Language, Literacy and Technology. Penelope Collins is an associate professor at the University of California, Irvine. Her research examines the development of language and literacy skills for children from linguistically diverse backgrounds. George Farkas is a professor at the University of California, Irvine. He has employed a range of statistical approaches and databases to examine the causes and consequences of reading achievement gap across varying age groups and educational settings. Mark Warschauer is a professor at the University of California, Irvine. He works on a range of research projects related to digital media in education. Address for correspondence: Ying Xu, University of California Irvine, 3200 Education Bldg, Irvine, CA 92697, USA. -
Acquaintance Inferences As Evidential Effects
The acquaintance inference as an evidential effect Abstract. Predications containing a special restricted class of predicates, like English tasty, tend to trigger an inference when asserted, to the effect that the speaker has had a spe- cific kind of `direct contact' with the subject of predication. This `acquaintance inference' has typically been treated as a hard-coded default effect, derived from the nature of the predicate together with the commitments incurred by assertion. This paper reevaluates the nature of this inference by examining its behavior in `Standard' Tibetan, a language that grammatically encodes perceptual evidentiality. In Tibetan, the acquaintance inference trig- gers not as a default, but rather when, and only when, marked by a perceptual evidential. The acquaintance inference is thus a grammaticized evidential effect in Tibetan, and so it cannot be a default effect in general cross-linguistically. An account is provided of how the semantics of the predicate and the commitment to perceptual evidentiality derive the in- ference in Tibetan, and it is suggested that the inference ought to be seen as an evidential effect generally, even in evidential-less languages, which invoke evidential notions without grammaticizing them. 1 Introduction: the acquaintance inference A certain restricted class of predicates, like English tasty, exhibit a special sort of behavior when used in predicative assertions. In particular, they require as a robust default that the speaker of the assertion has had direct contact of a specific sort with the subject of predication, as in (1). (1) This food is tasty. ,! The speaker has tasted the food. ,! The speaker liked the food's taste. -
The Art and Science of Framing an Issue
MAPThe Art and Science of Framing an Issue Authors Contributing Editors © January 2008, Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) and the Movement Advancement Project (MAP). All rights reserved. “Ideas are a medium of exchange and a mode of influence even more powerful than money, votes and guns. … Ideas are at the center of all political conflict.” —Deborah Stone, Policy Process Scholar, 2002 The Art and Science of 1 Framing an Issue an Issue and Science of Framing Art The The Battle Over Ideas 2 Understanding How People Think 2 What Is Framing? 4 Levels of Framing 5 Tying to Values 6 Why Should I Spend Resources on Framing? 6 How Do I Frame My Issue? 7 Step 1. Understand the Mindset of Your Target Audience 7 Step 2. Know When Your Current Frames Aren’t Working 7 Step 3. Know the Elements of a Frame 7 Step 4. Speak to People’s Core Values 9 Step 5. Avoid Using Opponents’ Frames, Even to Dispute Them 9 Step 6. Keep Your Tone Reasonable 10 Step 7. Avoid Partisan Cues 10 Step 8. Build a New Frame 10 Step 9. Stick With Your Message 11 “Ideas are a medium of exchange and a mode of influence even more powerful than money, votes and guns. … Ideas are at the center of all political conflict.” —Deborah Stone, Policy Process Scholar, 2002 2 The Battle Over Ideas Are we exploring for oil that’s desperately needed to drive our economy and sustain our nation? Or are we Think back to when you were 10 years old, staring at destroying delicate ecological systems and natural your dinner plate, empty except for a pile of soggy– lands that are a legacy to our grandchildren? These looking green vegetables. -
Compositional and Lexical Semantics • Compositional Semantics: The
Compositional and lexical semantics Compositional semantics: the construction • of meaning (generally expressed as logic) based on syntax. This lecture: – Semantics with FS grammars Lexical semantics: the meaning of • individual words. This lecture: – lexical semantic relations and WordNet – one technique for word sense disambiguation 1 Simple compositional semantics in feature structures Semantics is built up along with syntax • Subcategorization `slot' filling instantiates • syntax Formally equivalent to logical • representations (below: predicate calculus with no quantifiers) Alternative FS encodings possible • 2 Objective: obtain the following semantics for they like fish: pron(x) (like v(x; y) fish n(y)) ^ ^ Feature structure encoding: 2 PRED and 3 6 7 6 7 6 7 6 2 PRED 3 7 6 pron 7 6 ARG1 7 6 6 7 7 6 6 ARG1 1 7 7 6 6 7 7 6 6 7 7 6 6 7 7 6 4 5 7 6 7 6 7 6 2 3 7 6 PRED and 7 6 7 6 6 7 7 6 6 7 7 6 6 7 7 6 6 2 3 7 7 6 6 PRED like v 7 7 6 6 7 7 6 6 6 7 7 7 6 6 ARG1 6 ARG1 1 7 7 7 6 6 6 7 7 7 6 6 6 7 7 7 6 6 6 7 7 7 6 ARG2 6 6 ARG2 2 7 7 7 6 6 6 7 7 7 6 6 6 7 7 7 6 6 6 7 7 7 6 6 4 5 7 7 6 6 7 7 6 6 7 7 6 6 2 3 7 7 6 6 PRED fish n 7 7 6 6 ARG2 7 7 6 6 6 7 7 7 6 6 6 ARG 2 7 7 7 6 6 6 1 7 7 7 6 6 6 7 7 7 6 6 6 7 7 7 6 6 4 5 7 7 6 6 7 7 6 4 5 7 6 7 4 5 3 Noun entry 2 3 2 CAT noun 3 6 HEAD 7 6 7 6 6 AGR 7 7 6 6 7 7 6 6 7 7 6 4 5 7 6 7 6 COMP 7 6 filled 7 6 7 fish 6 7 6 SPR filled 7 6 7 6 7 6 7 6 INDEX 1 7 6 2 3 7 6 7 6 SEM 7 6 6 PRED fish n 7 7 6 6 7 7 6 6 7 7 6 6 ARG 1 7 7 6 6 1 7 7 6 6 7 7 6 6 7 7 6 4 5 7 4 5 Corresponds to fish(x) where the INDEX • points to the characteristic variable of the noun (that is x). -
Lakoff's Theory of Moral Reasoning in Presidential Campaign
University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln Papers in Communication Studies Communication Studies, Department of 11-2013 Lakoff’s Theory of Moral Reasoning in Presidential Campaign Advertisements, 1952–2012 Damien S. Pfister University of Nebraska-Lincoln, [email protected] Jessy J. Ohl University of Mary Washington, [email protected] Marty Nader Nebraska Wesleyan University, [email protected] Dana Griffin Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/commstudiespapers Part of the American Politics Commons, and the Rhetoric Commons Pfister, Damien S.; Ohl, Jessy J.; Nader, Marty; and Griffin,a D na, "Lakoff’s Theory of Moral Reasoning in Presidential Campaign Advertisements, 1952–2012" (2013). Papers in Communication Studies. 53. http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/commstudiespapers/53 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Communication Studies, Department of at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Papers in Communication Studies by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. Published in Communication Studies 64:5 (November-December 2013; Special Issue: Consistency and Change in Political Campaign Communication: Ana- lyzing the 2012 Elections), pages 488-507; doi: 10.1080/10510974.2013.832340 Copyright © 2013 Central States Communication Association; published by Tay- digitalcommons.unl.edu lor & Francis Group. Used by permission. Published online October 18, 2013. Lakoff’s Theory of Moral Reasoning in Presidential Campaign Advertisements, 1952–2012 Jessy J. Ohl,1 Damien S. Pfister,1 Martin Nader,2 and Dana Griffin 1 Department of Communication Studies, University of Nebraska-Lincoln 2 Department of Political Science, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Corresponding author — Jessy J. -
Sentential Negation and Negative Concord
Sentential Negation and Negative Concord Published by LOT phone: +31.30.2536006 Trans 10 fax: +31.30.2536000 3512 JK Utrecht email: [email protected] The Netherlands http://wwwlot.let.uu.nl/ Cover illustration: Kasimir Malevitch: Black Square. State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia. ISBN 90-76864-68-3 NUR 632 Copyright © 2004 by Hedde Zeijlstra. All rights reserved. Sentential Negation and Negative Concord ACADEMISCH PROEFSCHRIFT ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor aan de Universiteit van Amsterdam op gezag van de Rector Magnificus Prof. Mr P.F. van der Heijden ten overstaan van een door het College voor Promoties ingestelde commissie, in het openbaar te verdedigen in de Aula der Universiteit op woensdag 15 december 2004, te 10:00 uur door HEDZER HUGO ZEIJLSTRA geboren te Rotterdam Promotiecommissie: Promotores: Prof. Dr H.J. Bennis Prof. Dr J.A.G. Groenendijk Copromotor: Dr J.B. den Besten Leden: Dr L.C.J. Barbiers (Meertens Instituut, Amsterdam) Dr P.J.E. Dekker Prof. Dr A.C.J. Hulk Prof. Dr A. von Stechow (Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen) Prof. Dr F.P. Weerman Faculteit der Geesteswetenschappen Voor Petra Table of Contents TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................ I ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .......................................................................................V 1 INTRODUCTION................................................................................................1 1.1 FOUR ISSUES IN THE STUDY OF NEGATION.......................................................1 -
Chapter 7 Linguistics As a Science of Structure Ryan M
Chapter 7 Linguistics as a science of structure Ryan M. Nefdt University of the Western Cape Generative linguistics has rapidly changed during the course of a relatively short period. This has caused many to question its scientific status as a realist scientific theory (Stokhof & van Lambalgen 2011; Lappin et al. 2000). In this chapter, I argue against this conclusion. Specifically, I claim that the mathematical foundations of the science present a different story below the surface. I agree with critics that due to the major shifts in theory over the past 80 years, linguistics is indeed opened up to the problem of pessimistic meta-induction or radical theory change. However, I further argue that a structural realist approach (Ladyman 1998; French 2006) can save the field from this problem and at the same time capture its structural nature. I discuss particular historical instances of theory change in generative grammar as evidence for this interpretation and finally attempt to extend it beyond the gener- ative tradition to encompass previous frameworks in linguistics. 1 Introduction The generativist revolution in linguistics started in the mid-1950s, inspired in large part by insights from mathematical logic and in particular proof theory. Since then, generative linguistics has become a dominant paradigm, with many connections to both the formal and natural sciences. At the centre of the newly established discipline was the syntactic or formal engine, the structures of which were revealed through modelling grammatical form. The generativist paradigm in linguistics initially relied heavily upon the proof-theoretic techniques intro- duced by Emil Post and other formal logicians to model the form language takes (Tomalin 2006; Pullum 2011; 2013).1 Yet despite these aforementioned formal be- ginnings, the generative theory of linguistics has changed its commitments quite 1Here my focus will largely be on the formal history of generative syntax but I will make some comments on other aspects of linguistics along the way. -
Syntax III Assignment I (Team B): Transformations Julie Winkler
Syntax III Assignment I (Team B): Transformations Julie Winkler, Andrew Pedelty, Kelsey Kraus, Travis Heller, Josue Torres, Nicholas Primrose, Philip King A layout of this paper: I. Transformations! An Introduction a. What b. Why c. What Not II. A-Syntax: Operations on Arguments Pre-Surface Structure III. Morphology: Form and Function a. Lexical assumptions: b. VP Internal Subject Raising Hypothesis c. Form Rules d. Morpho-Syntactic Rules: e. Further Questions IV. A-Bar Syntax a. Not A-Syntax: Movement on the Surface. b. Islands c. Features & Percolation: Not Just for Subcats d. Successive Cyclic Movement V. Where Do We Go From Here? a. Summary 1 I. Introduction Before going into the specifics of transformational syntax as we've learned it, it behooves us to consider transformations on a high level. What are they, how do they operate, and, very importantly, why do we have them? We should also make a distinction regarding the purpose of this paper, which is not to provide a complete or authoritative enumeration of all transformational operations (likely an impossible endeavour), but rather to investigate those operations and affirm our understanding of the framework in which they exist. I. a. What What are transformations? A transformation (Xn) takes an existing syntactic structure and renders a new construction by performing one or more of the following three operations upon it: movement, deletion, or insertion. These operations are constrained by a number of rules and traditionally adhered-to constraints. Furthermore, it has been mentioned that semi- legitimate syntactic theories have eschewed certain of these operations while retaining sufficient descriptive power. -
Synchronous Dependency Insertion Grammars a Grammar Formalism for Syntax Based Statistical MT
Synchronous Dependency Insertion Grammars A Grammar Formalism for Syntax Based Statistical MT Yuan Ding and Martha Palmer Department of Computer and Information Science University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA {yding, mpalmer}@linc.cis.upenn.edu Abstract In the early 1990s, (Brown et. al. 1993) intro- duced the idea of statistical machine translation, This paper introduces a grammar formalism where the word to word translation probabilities and specifically designed for syntax-based sta- sentence reordering probabilities are estimated from tistical machine translation. The synchro- a large set of parallel sentence pairs. By having the nous grammar formalism we propose in advantage of leveraging large parallel corpora, the this paper takes into consideration the per- statistical MT approach outperforms the traditional vasive structure divergence between lan- transfer based approaches in tasks for which ade- guages, which many other synchronous quate parallel corpora is available (Och, 2003). grammars are unable to model. A Depend- However, a major criticism of this approach is that it ency Insertion Grammars (DIG) is a gen- is void of any internal representation for syntax or erative grammar formalism that captures semantics. word order phenomena within the depend- In recent years, hybrid approaches, which aim at ency representation. Synchronous Depend- applying statistical learning to structured data, began ency Insertion Grammars (SDIG) is the to emerge. Syntax based statistical MT approaches synchronous version of DIG which aims at began with (Wu 1997), who introduced a polyno- capturing structural divergences across the mial-time solution for the alignment problem based languages. While both DIG and SDIG have on synchronous binary trees. -
Introduction to Transformational Grammar
Introduction to Transformational Grammar Kyle Johnson University of Massachusetts at Amherst Fall 2004 Contents Preface iii 1 The Subject Matter 1 1.1 Linguisticsaslearningtheory . 1 1.2 The evidential basis of syntactic theory . 7 2 Phrase Structure 15 2.1 SubstitutionClasses............................. 16 2.2 Phrases .................................... 20 2.3 Xphrases................................... 29 2.4 ArgumentsandModifiers ......................... 41 3 Positioning Arguments 57 3.1 Expletives and the Extended Projection Principle . ..... 58 3.2 Case Theory and ordering complements . 61 3.3 Small Clauses and the Derived Subjects Hypothesis . ... 68 3.4 PROandControlInfinitives . .. .. .. .. .. .. 79 3.5 Evidence for Argument Movement from Quantifier Float . 83 3.6 Towards a typology of infinitive types . 92 3.7 Constraints on Argument Movement and the typology of verbs . 97 4 Verb Movement 105 4.1 The “Classic” Verb Movement account . 106 4.2 Head Movement’s role in “Verb Second” word order . 115 4.3 The Pollockian revolution: exploded IPs . 123 4.4 Features and covert movement . 136 5 Determiner Phrases and Noun Movement 149 5.1 TheDPHypothesis ............................. 151 5.2 NounMovement............................... 155 Contents 6 Complement Structure 179 6.1 Nouns and the θ-rolestheyassign .................... 180 6.2 Double Object constructions and Larsonian shells . 195 6.3 Complement structure and Object Shift . 207 7 Subjects and Complex Predicates 229 7.1 Gettingintotherightposition . 229 7.2 SubjectArguments ............................. 233 7.2.1 ArgumentStructure ........................ 235 7.2.2 The syntactic benefits of ν .................... 245 7.3 The relative positions of µP and νP: Evidence from ‘again’ . 246 7.4 The Minimal Link Condition and Romance causatives . 254 7.5 RemainingProblems ............................ 271 7.5.1 The main verb in English is too high . -
Functional Unification Grammar: a Formalism for Machine Translation
FUNCTIONAL UNIFICATION GRAMMAR: A FORMALISM FOR MACHINE TRANSLATION Martin Kay Xerox Palo Alto Research Center 3333 Coyote Hill Road Palo Alto California 94304 and CSLI, Stanford Abstract language--morphological, syntactic, semantic, or whatever--could be stated. A formalism powerful enough to accommodate the Functional Unification Grammar provides an opportunity various different kinds of linguistic phenomena with equal facility to encompass within one formalism and computational system might be unappealing to theoretical linguists because powerful the parts of machine translation systems that have usually been formal systems do not make powerful claims. But the engineering treated separately, natably analysis, transfer, and synthesis. advantages are clear to see. A single formalism would straightfor- Many of the advantages of this formalism come from the fact wardly reduce the number of interpreters to two, one for analysis that it is monotonic allowing data structures to grow differently and one for synthesis. Furthermore, the explanatory value of a as different nondeterministic alternatives in a computation are theory clearly rests on a great deal more than the restriciveness of pursued, but never to be modified in any way. A striking feature its formal base. In particular, the possiblity of encompassing what of this system is that it is fundamental reversible, allowing a to had hitherto been thought to require altogether different kinds of translate as b only if b could translate as a. treatment within a single framework could be theoretically inter- esting. I Overview Another clear improvement on the classical design would A. Machine Translation "result from merging 'the two interpreters associated with a for- malism.