Creativity of Language
“Any speaker of any human language
can produce and understand an infinite
number of sentences.”
Fromkin, Victoria, Robert Rodman & Nina Hyams. 2011. An Introduction to
Language, 9th edition. Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, p. 77.
Most Important Concept 1
1. “Any speaker of any human language can produce
and understand an infinite number of sentences.”
(77)
2. “This system of rules explains how speakers can
store infinite knowledge in a finite space—our
brains.” (78)
3. “The rules of the syntax permit speakers to produce
and understand a limitless number of sentences
never produced or heard before—the creative aspect
of linguistic knowledge.” (82)
Fromkin, Victoria, Robert Rodman & Nina Hyams. 2011. An Introduction to
Language, 9th edition. Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, pp. 77, 78, 82.
Most Important Concept 2
4. “We can exploit the resources of our language and
grammar to produce and understand a limitless
number of sentences embodying a limitless ranges
of ideas and emotions.” (82)
5. “Because the number of possible sentences in every
language is infinite, there are also an infinite number
of trees. However, all trees are built out of the finite
set of substructures allowed by the grammar of the
lanugage, and these substructures are specified by
the finite set of phrase structure rules. (95)
Fromkin, Victoria, Robert Rodman & Nina Hyams. 2011. An Introduction to
Language, 9th edition. Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, pp. 82, 95.
Most Important Concept 3
6. “The number of sentences in a language is infinite
and [ ] languages have various means of creating
longer and longer sentences.” (95)
7. “Our brain capacity is finite, able to store only a finite
number of categories and rules for their combination.
Yet this finite system places an infinite set of
sentences at our disposal. (101)
8. “All speakers are capable of producing and
understanding an unlimited number of new
sentences that have never before been spoken or
heard.” (128)
Fromkin, Victoria, Robert Rodman & Nina Hyams. 2011. An Introduction to
Language, 9th edition. Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, pp. 95, 101, 128.
Syntax
“The part of the grammar that
represents a speaker’s knowledge of
sentences and their structures is called
syntax.”
Fromkin, Victoria, Robert Rodman & Nina Hyams. 2011. An Introduction to
Language, 9th edition. Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, p. 78.
What Syntax Reveals
 Word order
 Relationship between meaning and the arrangement
of the words
 Grammatical relations—Subject and Object
 Grammatical constraints—Verb subcategoriation
 Hierarchy of grammatical constituents
 Grammaticality judgments
 Structural ambiguity
Fromkin, Victoria, Robert Rodman & Nina Hyams. 2011. An Introduction to
Language, 9th edition. Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, pp. 78-81.
魚吃人
Word Order
1. Harold hit Ivan.
2. Ivan hit Harold.
3. The student picked up the book.
4. The student picked the book up.
5. Sally kissed John.
6. John was kissed by Sally.
Why Native Speaker
Grammaticality Judgments
are Basically the Same
Simple Answer:
 Because native speakers of a language share the
same set of syntactic rules their grammaticality
judgments will be the same.
Why Native Speaker
Grammaticality Judgments
are Basically the Same
More Complex Answer:
 Because Native Speakers of a (variety of a) language
SHARE the same (or nearly the same) set (group) of
SYNTACTIC RULES their Grammaticality
Judgments will be (approximately) the same.
 Their MENTAL GRAMMAR is MORE OR LESS THE
SAME
 In other words, they have the same (nearly the same)
linguistic competence because they grew up
speaking the same language
How can we judge
what is grammatical?
1. Does NOT depend on whether you have heard it
before
2. Does NOT depend on whether it is meaningful
3. Does NOT depend on whether you can interpret it
4. Does NOT depend on whether it is true
5. It DOES depend on our “unconscious knowledge
of the syntactic rules of grammar”
Fromkin, Victoria, Robert Rodman & Nina Hyams. 2011. An Introduction to
Language, 9th edition. Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, pp. 82-83.
Grammaticality Judgments
of Strange Sentences
 Meaningless
Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.
Giant tomatoes danced at my party
last week.
 Uninterpretable
“Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
did gyre and gimble in the wabe.
 Untrue
Today is Wednesday.
My brother had a baby last week.
Fromkin, Victoria, Robert Rodman & Nina Hyams. 2011. An Introduction to
Language, 9th edition. Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, pp. 82-83.
Ambiguity
Words
(Lexical Ambiguity)
He walked by the bank.
He got shot in the back.
Phrases
(Structural Ambiguity)
synthetic buffalo hides
small car factory
Sentences
(Structural Ambiguity)
The boy saw the man with the telescope.
For sale: an antique desk suitable for lady
with thick legs and large drawers.
Tree Diagram
of Sentence Structure
The child found a puppy.
Fromkin, Victoria, Robert Rodman & Nina Hyams. 2011. An Introduction to
Language, 9th edition. Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, pp. 84, 90.
Grammatical Categories
Content Words
noun
verb
adjective
adverb
N
V
Adj
Adv
NP
VP
Function Words
preposition
Prep
PP
conjunction
Conj
interjection
Interj
auxiliary verb Aux
modal verb
Modal
determiner
Det
quantifier
Quant
Phrase Structure Tree
Fromkin, Victoria, Robert Rodman & Nina Hyams. 2007. An Introduction to
Language, 8th edition. Boston, MA: Thomson Wadsworth, p. 124.
Simplified Grammar of “English”
Phrase Structure Rules
S 
NP
101)
3.
VP
4.
VP
5.
VP
6.
PP
7.
VP
8.
CP
9.
NP
10.
VP
1.
2.
NP

VP
Det








V
V
V
P
V
C
NP
Aux
N
(revised 100-
NP
(revised 96)
PP
NP
CP
S
PP
VP
(added 97)
(added 107)
Fromkin, Victoria, Robert Rodman & Nina Hyams. 2011. An Introduction to
Language, 9th edition. Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, pp. 93, 96, 97, 100,
101, 107.
Simplified Grammar of “English”
Phrase Structure Rules
N

V
P
Adj
Det




child, boy, man, men, telescope,
puppy, posse, baby, buffalo, hide
find, see, flee, sleep
with, from, in, on
small, synthetic
the, a
Fromkin, Victoria, Robert Rodman & Nina Hyams. 2007. An Introduction to
Language, 8th edition. Boston, MA: Thomson Wadsworth, p. 131, adapted.
Syntactic Rules Must
Account for the Following
 the grammaticality of sentences
 word order
 structural ambiguity
 grammatical relations
 different structures with the same
meaning
 the creative aspect of language.
Fromkin & Rodman (1998), pp. 110-111
Ambiguous Sentence But
Unambiguous Structure
The boy saw the man with the telescope.
The boy saw the man with a stick.
The boy hit the man with a stick.
The boy hit the man with the telescope.
Grammaticality Judgments