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Chapter 3: The structure of sentences

Chapter 3: The structure of sentences

pp. 105-148

Authors

Edited by , Georgetown University, Washington DC, , Georgetown University, Washington DC
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Summary

Chapter preview

In order to understand the subtleties of sentence structure, it is necessary to understand how phrases are built from the words they contain and how phrases are combined into larger phrases and sentences. It is also necessary to understand what can happen to phrases and sentences after they are built – namely, parts of them can be moved and deleted. Movement and deletion take place under particular restrictions, and speakers “know” these restrictions, apparently without being taught. All languages share these fundamental structural properties, but the principles that underlie them are broad enough to allow considerable differences among languages. The chapter includes a sampling of these differences.

GOALS

The goals of this chapter are to:

  • explain how to conduct an analysis of the sentence structure of English

  • explain how the structure of sentences is represented in modern syntactic theory

  • explain the concept “poverty of the stimulus”

  • explain the notions “language organ” and “Universal Grammar”

  • present examples of subtle restrictions that limit the ways in which sentences can be constructed and interpreted

  • present a few examples of differences in sentence structure in languages from around the world

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