Notes (Berndsen)

(Additional materials to Fromkin & Rodman Ch. 3 part I)

Syntax = Sentence Syntax

• ``Sentences are by definition grammatical (i.e. grammatically well-formed) ... they may be regarded are well-formed word-strings (i.e. sequences of word-forms)...'' (Lyons, 1981:104)

• He got up late this morning
• *Late got this morning up he
• Colourless green ideas sleep furiously

Competence vs. Performance

• ``Linguistic theory is concerned primarily with an ideal speaker-listener, in a completely homogenous speech-community, who knows its language perfectly and is unaffected by such grammatically irrelevant conditions as memory limitations, distractions, shifts of attention and interest, and errors (random or characteristic) in applying his knowledge of the language in actual performance.'' (Chomsky. 1965:3)

• ``We thus make a fundamental distinction between competence (the speaker-hearer's knowledge of his language and performance (the actual use of language in concrete situations).'' (Chomsky, 1965:4)

• ``When we speak of a grammar as generating sentences with a certain structural description, we mean simply that the grammar assigns this structural description to a sentence.'' (Chomsky, 1965:9)

Some examples

• All the students might have been sitting together.
• The students all might have been sitting together.
• The students might all have been sitting together.
• The students might have all been sitting together.
• The students might have been all sitting together.
• The students might have been sitting all together.
• *The students might have been sitting together all.

• I like Indians without reservations.

• This is an exam you must not fail to miss.

• The pretty girl borrowed the silk dress.

• Step 1:

  

• Step 2:

  

• Step 3:

  

• Step 4:

  

• The magician touched the child with the wand.

• Alternative 1:

  

• Alternative 2:

  

Student Group Report

Student Group Report: Kathrin Holtmann, Silvia Stieneker