Productivity or generativity
We can produce – or generate – sentences that we have never heard before
Syntax
The part of the grammar that tells you how words can be combined and ordered.
Hierarchical structure
Rules organize words into a hierarchical structure
> Sentence –> Noun phrase + Verb phrase
Open class (content) words
Nouns, Verbs, Adjectives
Closed class (function) words
Auxiliaries: can, do, will
Prepositions: in, below, of
Determiners: the, those, an
Complementizers: that, which, who
Morpheme
smallest meaningful unit in a language
Derivational morphemes
bound morphemes that change the meaning or class of a word.
> e.g.: run+ER –> runner changing the verb run into the noun runner.
Inflectional morphemes
Bound morphemes that serve grammatical functions (changes in meaning are minimal).
> e.g. plurals, tense (catS, workED)
Vertical constructions
sequence of one word sentences
Telegraphic speech
speech sounds like a telegraph message. (composed almost exclusively of open-class content words).
Negation
serves a crucial semantic function
Yes/No questions
Is Suzy home?
WH- questions
What, when, where, why, who, how.
Where’s Suzy?
Passives
-Emphasis on the object of the verb.
-De-emphasize the agent of action
“My can got run over”
Complex sentences
more than one clause.
> Mary came and John left.
MLU
Mean Length of Utterance (MLU) : Measured in terms of words or morphemes.
Response strategies
guess the intended meaning of a sentence
