Applied Linguistics

syntax

•Chawin Maninun

•Pitipong Senchoo

5.3 Sentential Semantics

•Apart from parts of speech ( eg. N, V, Adj, Adv ) that are used to syntactically categorized a particular element of a clause or sentence, a certain element in a sentence can also be described semantically in terms of semantic categories, called “ thematic roles”

Thematic Roles• The relations of noun phrase subject of the sentence depend

on the meaning of particular verb.

• For example

• The boy found a red brick

• NP “ the boy “ called “agent”

• The boy is a “ doer” of the action of finding

•The boy found a red brick

•The NP “a red brick” is the “theme” and undergoes the action

• Part of the meaning “ find” is that its subject and direct object

• Subject of find is called “ agent”

•Direct object of find is called “ theme”

Goal

• The noun phrases within a verb phrase whose head is the verb PUT have a relation of theme and GOAL.

• In the VP “ put the red brick on the wall”

• The red brick is a theme and on the wall is GOAL

Other thematic rolesThematic role description example

Agent The one who performs an action Joyce ran

Theme The one or thing that undergoes an action Mary called Bill

Location The place where an action takes place It rains in Spain

Goal The place where an action is directed Put the cat on the porch

Source The place from which an action originates He flew from Iowa to Idaho

Instrument The meaning by which an action is performed Jo cuts hair with razor

Experiencer One who perceives something Helen heard Robert play thepiano

Causative A natural force that causes a change The wind damage the roof

Possessor One who has something The tail of the dog got caught in the door.

• Thematic roles are the same in sentence that are paraphrases. In these both sentences

• The dog bit the stick

• The stick was bitten by the dog

The dog is the agent and the stick is the theme

The examples illustrate the fact that English allows many different thematic roles.

•The hotel forbids dogs.The hotel has the thematic role of location

The Theta-Criterion

• A universal principle has been proposed call the Theta-criterion, a particular thematic role may occur only once in a sentence.

• For example ;

• The boy opened the door with the key with lock-pick.

Sentential Meaning

• The meaning of the sentences is built. In part, from meaning of noun phrases and verb phrases. Adverbs may add to or qualify the meaning.

• For example;

• The boy found the ball yesterday “ adv. Of time”

• It specify a time component to the meaning of the sentence.

The truth of sentences• The sense of a declarative sentence permits you to know

under what circumstances that sentence is true. Those “circumstance” are called the TRUTH condition of the sentence.

For example

In the world as we know it, the sentence;

The declaration of Independence was signed in 1776 “ true”

The declaration of Independence was signed in 1976 “ false”

We compare the with the real world or historical fact

Paraphrase

• Two sentences are phrases if they have the same truth conditions.

• For example

• The horse threw the rider

• The rider was thrown by the horse

Entailment

• Sometimes knowing the truth of one sentence entails or necessarily implies the truth of another sentence. For example;

• Corday assassinated Marat

• Then we know that it is true that Marat is dead.

Contradiction

Contradiction is negative entailment, that is, where the truth of one sematic necessarily implies the falseness of another sentence.

Elizabeth II is Queen of England.

Elizabeth II is a man.

If the first sentence is true, the second is necessarily false. This relationship is called CONTRADICTION because the truth of one sentence contradicts the truth of the other.

When semantics and syntax meet

• Syntax is concerned with how words are combined to form phrases and sentences; semantics is concerned with what these combinations mean. The theta-criterion. The semantic constraint that no thematic role may occur more than once has the effect of restricting the NPs and PPs that may follow the verb in a verb phrase.

When Passive Do Not Work

• The relationship between actives and passives is based on syntax structure. However, some active sentences do not have a well-formed passive counterpart.

For example;

• John resembles Bill

• The book cost ten dollars

• Cannot undergo the passive transformation to give

• “ Bill was resembled by John “

• “Ten dollars was cost by the book”

Pronouns and Coreferentiality

• Another example of how syntax and semantic interact has to

do with reflexive pronouns, such as herself or themselves. The meaning of a reflexive pronouns always refers back to some antecedent. In Jane bit herself, herself refers to Jane. Syntactically, reflexive pronouns and their antecedents must occur within the same S in the phrase structure tree.

Compare the phrase structure tree of

Jane bit herself with that ofJane said that herself slept.

• S S

NP VP NP VP

Jane V NP Jane V NP

bit pronoun said that S

herself NP VP

pronoun V

herself slept

When rules are broken

• The rules of language are not laws of nature. Only by a “miracle” can the law of nature be broken, but the rules of language are broken every day by everybody.

3 kinds of rule violation

•Anomaly

•Metaphor

•idioms

Anomaly: No sense and Nonsense

•Don’t tell me of a man’s being able to talk sense; everyone can talk sense.

Can he talk nonsense?

William Pitt

For example;

•My brother is an only child.

• You might think that he was making a joke or that he did not know the meaning of the words he was using. It is strange or anomalous, but it is certainly an English sentence. It conforms to all the grammatical rules of the language.

Uninterpretable

• Other English sentences make no sense at all because they include words that have no meaning.

• Jabberwocky is probably the most famous poem in which most content words have no meaning. They do not exist in the lexicon of the grammar.

Metaphor

• Sometimes the breaking of semantic rules can be used convey a particular idea.

• Wall have ears

• It is a certainly anomalous, but it can interpreted as meaning

• “ you can be overheard even when you think nobody is listening.

Idioms

• Knowing a language includes knowing the morphemes, simple words, compound words, and their meanings. In addition it means knowing fixed phrases, consisting of more than one word, with meaning that cannot be inferred from the meanings of the individual words. The usual semantic rules for combining meanings do not apply. Such expressions

are called “IDIOMS”

Idioms

• For example

• Sell down the river

• Eat my hat

• Let their hair down

• Cut it out

• Many Idioms may have originated as metaphorical expressions that established themselves in the language and became frozen in their form and meaning.

Thank you for your attention.