Linguistic Knowledge 9 great literature,but everybody who knows a language can and does create new sentences when speaking and understands new sentences created by others,a fact expressed more than 400 years ago by Huarte de San Juan (1530-1592): "Normal human minds are such that...without the help of anybody,they will produce 1,000(sentences)they never heard spoke of...inventing and saying such things as they never heard from their masters,nor any mouth." In pointing out the creative aspect of language,Chomsky made a powerful argument against the behaviorist view of language that prevailed in the first half of the twentieth century,which held that language is a set of learned responses to stimuli.While it is true that if someone steps on your toes you may automati- cally respond with a scream or a grunt,these sounds are not part of language. They are involuntary reactions to stimuli.After we reflexively cry out,we can then go on to say:"Thank you very much for stepping on my toe,because I was afraid I had elephantiasis and now that I can feel the pain I know I don't,"or any one of an infinite number of sentences,because the particular sentences we produce are not controlled by any stimulus. Even some involuntary cries like "ouch"are constrained by our own language system,as are the filled pauses that are sprinkled through conversational speech, such as er,uh,and you know in English.They contain only the sounds found in the language.French speakers,for example,often fill their pauses with the vowel sound that starts their word for egg-oeuf-a sound that does not occur in English. Our creative ability is reflected not only in what we say but also includes our understanding of new or novel sentences.Consider the following sentence: "Daniel Boone decided to become a pioneer because he dreamed of pigeon-toed giraffes and cross-eyed elephants dancing in pink skirts and green berets on the wind-swept plains of the Midwest."You may not believe the sentence;you may question its logic;but you can understand it,although you have probably never heard or read it before now. Knowledge of a language,then,makes it possible to understand and produce new sentences.If you counted the number of sentences in this book that you have seen or heard before,the number would be small.Next time you write an essay or a letter,see how many of your sentences are new.Few sentences are stored in your brain,to be pulled out to fit some situation or matched with some sentence that you hear.Novel sentences never spoken or heard before cannot be stored in your memory. Simple memorization of all the possible sentences in a language is impossi- ble in principle.If for every sentence in the language a longer sentence can be formed,then there is no limit to the number of sentences.In English you can say: This is the house. or This is the house that Jack built. or This is the malt that lay in the house that Jack built
Linguistic Knowledge 9 great literature, but everybody who knows a language can and does create new sentences when speaking and understands new sentences created by others, a fact expressed more than 400 years ago by Huarte de San Juan (1530–1592): “Normal human minds are such that . . . without the help of anybody, they will produce 1,000 (sentences) they never heard spoke of . . . inventing and saying such things as they never heard from their masters, nor any mouth.” In pointing out the creative aspect of language, Chomsky made a powerful argument against the behaviorist view of language that prevailed in the first half of the twentieth century, which held that language is a set of learned responses to stimuli. While it is true that if someone steps on your toes you may automatically respond with a scream or a grunt, these sounds are not part of language. They are involuntary reactions to stimuli. After we reflexively cry out, we can then go on to say: “Thank you very much for stepping on my toe, because I was afraid I had elephantiasis and now that I can feel the pain I know I don’t,” or any one of an infinite number of sentences, because the particular sentences we produce are not controlled by any stimulus. Even some involuntary cries like “ouch” are constrained by our own language system, as are the filled pauses that are sprinkled through conversational speech, such as er, uh, and you know in English. They contain only the sounds found in the language. French speakers, for example, often fill their pauses with the vowel sound that starts their word for egg—oeuf—a sound that does not occur in English. Our creative ability is reflected not only in what we say but also includes our understanding of new or novel sentences. Consider the following sentence: “Daniel Boone decided to become a pioneer because he dreamed of pigeon-toed giraffes and cross-eyed elephants dancing in pink skirts and green berets on the wind-swept plains of the Midwest.” You may not believe the sentence; you may question its logic; but you can understand it, although you have probably never heard or read it before now. Knowledge of a language, then, makes it possible to understand and produce new sentences. If you counted the number of sentences in this book that you have seen or heard before, the number would be small. Next time you write an essay or a letter, see how many of your sentences are new. Few sentences are stored in your brain, to be pulled out to fit some situation or matched with some sentence that you hear. Novel sentences never spoken or heard before cannot be stored in your memory. Simple memorization of all the possible sentences in a language is impossible in principle. If for every sentence in the language a longer sentence can be formed, then there is no limit to the number of sentences. In English you can say: This is the house. or This is the house that Jack built. or This is the malt that lay in the house that Jack built
10 CHAPTER 1 What Is Language? or This is the dog that worried the cat that killed the rat that ate the malt that lay in the house that Jack built. And you need not stop there.How long,then,is the longest sentence?A speaker of English can say: The old man came. or The old,old,old,old,old man came. How many "olds"are too many?Seven?Twenty-three? It is true that the longer these sentences become,the less likely we would be to hear or to say them.A sentence with 276 occurrences of "old"would be highly unusual in either speech or writing,even to describe Methuselah.But such a sen- tence is theoretically possible.If you know English,you have the knowledge to add any number of adjectives as modifiers to a noun and to form sentences with an indefinite number of clauses,as in "the house that Jack built." All human languages permit their speakers to increase the length and com- plexity of sentences in these ways;creativity is a universal property of human language. Knowledge of Sentences and Nonsentences To memorize and store an infinite set of sentences would require an infinite stor- age capacity.However,the brain is finite,and even if it were not,we could not store novel sentences,which are,well,novel.When you learn a language you must learn something finite-your vocabulary is finite (however large it may be)-and that can be stored.If sentences were formed simply by placing one word after another in any order,then a language could be defined simply as a set of words.But you can see that knowledge of words is not enough by examining the following strings of words: 1.a.John kissed the little old lady who owned the shaggy dog. b.Who owned the shaggy dog John kissed the little old lady. c.John is difficult to love. d.It is difficult to love John. e.John is anxious to go. f.It is anxious to go John. g.John,who was a student,flunked his exams. h.Exams his flunked student a was who John. If you were asked to put an asterisk or star before the examples that seemed ill formed or ungrammatical or "no good"to you,which ones would you mark? Our intuitive knowledge about what is or is not an allowable sentence in English convinces us to star b,f,and b.Which ones did you star?
10 CHAPTER 1 What Is Language? or This is the dog that worried the cat that killed the rat that ate the malt that lay in the house that Jack built. And you need not stop there. How long, then, is the longest sentence? A speaker of English can say: The old man came. or The old, old, old, old, old man came. How many “olds” are too many? Seven? Twenty-three? It is true that the longer these sentences become, the less likely we would be to hear or to say them. A sentence with 276 occurrences of “old” would be highly unusual in either speech or writing, even to describe Methuselah. But such a sentence is theoretically possible. If you know English, you have the knowledge to add any number of adjectives as modifiers to a noun and to form sentences with an indefinite number of clauses, as in “the house that Jack built.” All human languages permit their speakers to increase the length and complexity of sentences in these ways; creativity is a universal property of human language. Knowledge of Sentences and Nonsentences To memorize and store an infinite set of sentences would require an infinite storage capacity. However, the brain is finite, and even if it were not, we could not store novel sentences, which are, well, novel. When you learn a language you must learn something finite—your vocabulary is finite (however large it may be)—and that can be stored. If sentences were formed simply by placing one word after another in any order, then a language could be defined simply as a set of words. But you can see that knowledge of words is not enough by examining the following strings of words: 1. a. John kissed the little old lady who owned the shaggy dog. b. Who owned the shaggy dog John kissed the little old lady. c. John is difficult to love. d. It is difficult to love John. e. John is anxious to go. f. It is anxious to go John. g. John, who was a student, flunked his exams. h. Exams his flunked student a was who John. If you were asked to put an asterisk or star before the examples that seemed ill formed or ungrammatical or “no good” to you, which ones would you mark? Our intuitive knowledge about what is or is not an allowable sentence in English convinces us to star b, f, and h. Which ones did you star?
Linguistic Knowledge 11 Would you agree with the following judgments? 2.a.What he did was climb a tree. b.*What he thought was want a sports car.3 c.Drink your beer and go home! d.*What are drinking and go home? e.I expect them to arrive a week from next Thursday. f.*I expect a week from next Thursday to arrive them. g.Linus lost his security blanket. h.*Lost Linus security blanket his. If you find the starred sentences unacceptable,as we do,you see that not every string of words constitutes a well-formed sentence in a language.Our knowledge of a language determines which strings of words are well-formed sentences and which are not.Therefore,in addition to knowing the words of the language,linguistic knowledge includes rules for forming sentences and making the kinds of judgments you made about the examples in(1)and(2).These rules must be finite in length and finite in number so that they can be stored in our finite brains.Yet,they must permit us to form and understand an infinite set of new sentences.They are not rules determined by a judge or a legislature,or even rules taught in a grammar class.They are unconscious rules that we acquire as young children as we develop language. A language,then,consists of all the sounds,words,and infinitely many pos- sible sentences.When you know a language,you know the sounds,the words, and the rules for their combination. Linguistic Knowledge and Performance "What's one and one and one and one and one and one and one and one and one and one?""I don't know,"said Alice."I lost count.""She can't do Addition,"the Red Queen interrupted. LEWIS CARROLL,Through the Looking-Glass,1871 Our linguistic knowledge permits us to form longer and longer sentences by join- ing sentences and phrases together or adding modifiers to a noun.Whether we stop at three,five,or eighteen adjectives,it is impossible to limit the number we could add if desired.Very long sentences are theoretically possible,but they are highly improbable.Evidently,there is a difference between having the knowl- edge necessary to produce sentences of a language and applying this knowledge. It is a difference between what we know,which is our linguistic competence, and how we use this knowledge in actual speech production and comprehension, which is our linguistic performance. Speakers of all languages have the knowledge to understand or produce sen- tences of any length.Here is an example from the ruling of a federal judge: 3The asterisk is used before examples that speakers find ungrammatical.This notation will be used throughout the book
Linguistic Knowledge 11 Would you agree with the following judgments? 2. a. What he did was climb a tree. b. *What he thought was want a sports car.3 c. Drink your beer and go home! d. *What are drinking and go home? e. I expect them to arrive a week from next Thursday. f. *I expect a week from next Thursday to arrive them. g. Linus lost his security blanket. h. *Lost Linus security blanket his. If you find the starred sentences unacceptable, as we do, you see that not every string of words constitutes a well-formed sentence in a language. Our knowledge of a language determines which strings of words are well-formed sentences and which are not. Therefore, in addition to knowing the words of the language, linguistic knowledge includes rules for forming sentences and making the kinds of judgments you made about the examples in (1) and (2). These rules must be finite in length and finite in number so that they can be stored in our finite brains. Yet, they must permit us to form and understand an infinite set of new sentences. They are not rules determined by a judge or a legislature, or even rules taught in a grammar class. They are unconscious rules that we acquire as young children as we develop language. A language, then, consists of all the sounds, words, and infinitely many possible sentences. When you know a language, you know the sounds, the words, and the rules for their combination. Linguistic Knowledge and Performance “What’s one and one and one and one and one and one and one and one and one and one?” “I don’t know,” said Alice. “I lost count.” “She can’t do Addition,” the Red Queen interrupted. LEWIS CARROLL, Through the Looking-Glass, 1871 Our linguistic knowledge permits us to form longer and longer sentences by joining sentences and phrases together or adding modifiers to a noun. Whether we stop at three, five, or eighteen adjectives, it is impossible to limit the number we could add if desired. Very long sentences are theoretically possible, but they are highly improbable. Evidently, there is a difference between having the knowledge necessary to produce sentences of a language and applying this knowledge. It is a difference between what we know, which is our linguistic competence, and how we use this knowledge in actual speech production and comprehension, which is our linguistic performance. Speakers of all languages have the knowledge to understand or produce sentences of any length. Here is an example from the ruling of a federal judge: 3The asterisk is used before examples that speakers find ungrammatical. This notation will be used throughout the book
12 CHAPTER 1 What Is Language? We invalidate the challenged lifetime ban because we hold as a matter of federal constitutional law that a state initiative measure cannot impose a severe limitation on the people's fundamental rights when the issue of whether to impose such a limitation on these rights is put to the voters in a measure that is ambiguous on its face and that fails to mention in its text, the proponent's ballot argument,or the state's official description,the severe limitation to be imposed. However,there are physiological and psychological reasons that limit the number of adjectives,adverbs,clauses,and so on that we actually produce and understand.Speakers may run out of breath,lose track of what they have said, or die of old age before they are finished.Listeners may become confused,tired, bored,or disgusted. When we speak,we usually wish to convey some message.At some stage in the act of producing speech,we must organize our thoughts into strings of words.Sometimes the message is garbled.We may stammer,or pause,or pro- duce slips of the tongue.We may even sound like Hattie in the cartoon,who illustrates the difference between linguistic knowledge and the way we use that knowledge in performance. A THE BORN LOSER HATTIE OHARA PHAVE YOU FINISHED YOUR PLEASE COME ASSIGNWENT FOR DISRUPTING TO THE FRONT 7 OUR PRESIDENTS OF THE CLASS! DAY LESSON? YUP by Art Chip Sansom P PLEASE READ YOUR OO- OKEY DOKE.GEORGE HE WAS A VERY,VERY, WORD ESSAY ON GEORGE WASHINGTON COULD VERY,VERY,VERY,VERY HASHINGTON AND 27 NOT TEUL NERY,VERY VERY,VERY THE CHERRY TREE 3 AUE… VERY,VERY VERY,VERY VERY,VERY,VERY,VERY VERY VERY,VERY,VERY,VERY,VERY VERY,VERY,VERY,VERY,VERY VERY,VERY,VERY,VERY,VERY VERY,VERY,VERY,VERY VERY VERY VERY,VERY,VERY VERY.. VERY,VERY,VERY,VERY. WHATS THE MATTER VERY,VERY,VERY,VERY YOUNG LADY, WASNT THAT VERY,VERY,VERY,VERY YOU ARE IN io0N0RD5了 VERY,VERY,VERY,VERY BIG TROUBLE! VERY,VERY,VERY,VERY,VERY VERY,VERY,VERY,VERY,VERY VERY,VERY,VERY,VERY,VERY VERY,VERY,VERY,VERY,VERY, VERY,VERY,VERY,VERY,VERY VERY VERY,VERY HONEST MAN! "The Born Loser"Newspaper Enterprise Association,Inc
12 CHAPTER 1 What Is Language? We invalidate the challenged lifetime ban because we hold as a matter of federal constitutional law that a state initiative measure cannot impose a severe limitation on the people’s fundamental rights when the issue of whether to impose such a limitation on these rights is put to the voters in a measure that is ambiguous on its face and that fails to mention in its text, the proponent’s ballot argument, or the state’s official description, the severe limitation to be imposed. However, there are physiological and psychological reasons that limit the number of adjectives, adverbs, clauses, and so on that we actually produce and understand. Speakers may run out of breath, lose track of what they have said, or die of old age before they are finished. Listeners may become confused, tired, bored, or disgusted. When we speak, we usually wish to convey some message. At some stage in the act of producing speech, we must organize our thoughts into strings of words. Sometimes the message is garbled. We may stammer, or pause, or produce slips of the tongue. We may even sound like Hattie in the cartoon, who illustrates the difference between linguistic knowledge and the way we use that knowledge in performance. “The Born Loser” © Newspaper Enterprise Association, Inc
What Is Grammar?13 For the most part,linguistic knowledge is unconscious knowledge.The lin- guistic system-the sounds,structures,meanings,words,and rules for putting them all together-is acquired with no conscious awareness.Just as we may not be conscious of the principles that allow us to stand or walk,we are unaware of the rules of language.Our ability to speak,to understand,and to make judg- ments about the grammaticality of sentences reveals our knowledge of the rules of our language.This knowledge represents a complex cognitive system.The nature of this system is what this book is all about. What Is Grammar? We use the term"grammar"with a systematic ambiguity.On the one hand,the term refers to the explicit theory constructed by the linguist and proposed as a description of the speaker's competence.On the other hand,it refers to this competence itself. NOAM CHOMSKY AND MORRIS HALLE,The Sound Pattern of English,1968 Descriptive Grammars There are no primitive languages.The great and abstract ideas of Christianity can be discussed even by the wretched Greenlanders. JOHANN PETER SUESSMILCH,in a paper delivered before the Prussian Academy,1756 The way we are using the word grammar differs from most common usages.In our sense,the grammar is the knowledge speakers have about the units and rules of their language-rules for combining sounds into words(called phonology), rules of word formation (called morphology),rules for combining words into phrases and phrases into sentences(called syntax),as well as the rules for assign- ing meaning(called semantics).The grammar,together with a mental dictionary (called a lexicon)that lists the words of the language,represents our linguis- tic competence.To understand the nature of language we must understand the nature of grammar. Every human being who speaks a language knows its grammar.When lin- guists wish to describe a language,they make explicit the rules of the grammar of the language that exist in the minds of its speakers.There will be some dif- ferences among speakers,but there must be shared knowledge too.The shared knowledge-the common parts of the grammar-makes it possible to commu- nicate through language.To the extent that the linguist's description is a true model of the speakers'linguistic capacity,it is a successful description of the grammar and of the language itself.Such a model is called a descriptive gram- mar.It does not tell you how you should speak;it describes your basic linguistic knowledge.It explains how it is possible for you to speak and understand and make judgments about well-formedness,and it tells what you know about the sounds,words,phrases,and sentences of your language. When we say in later chapters that a sentence is grammatical we mean that it conforms to the rules of the mental grammar(as described by the linguist);when
What Is Grammar? 13 For the most part, linguistic knowledge is unconscious knowledge. The linguistic system—the sounds, structures, meanings, words, and rules for putting them all together—is acquired with no conscious awareness. Just as we may not be conscious of the principles that allow us to stand or walk, we are unaware of the rules of language. Our ability to speak, to understand, and to make judgments about the grammaticality of sentences reveals our knowledge of the rules of our language. This knowledge represents a complex cognitive system. The nature of this system is what this book is all about. What Is Grammar? We use the term “grammar” with a systematic ambiguity. On the one hand, the term refers to the explicit theory constructed by the linguist and proposed as a description of the speaker’s competence. On the other hand, it refers to this competence itself. NOAM CHOMSKY AND MORRIS HALLE, The Sound Pattern of English, 1968 Descriptive Grammars There are no primitive languages. The great and abstract ideas of Christianity can be discussed even by the wretched Greenlanders. JOHANN PETER SUESSMILCH, in a paper delivered before the Prussian Academy, 1756 The way we are using the word grammar differs from most common usages. In our sense, the grammar is the knowledge speakers have about the units and rules of their language—rules for combining sounds into words (called phonology), rules of word formation (called morphology), rules for combining words into phrases and phrases into sentences (called syntax), as well as the rules for assigning meaning (called semantics). The grammar, together with a mental dictionary (called a lexicon) that lists the words of the language, represents our linguistic competence. To understand the nature of language we must understand the nature of grammar. Every human being who speaks a language knows its grammar. When linguists wish to describe a language, they make explicit the rules of the grammar of the language that exist in the minds of its speakers. There will be some differences among speakers, but there must be shared knowledge too. The shared knowledge—the common parts of the grammar—makes it possible to communicate through language. To the extent that the linguist’s description is a true model of the speakers’ linguistic capacity, it is a successful description of the grammar and of the language itself. Such a model is called a descriptive grammar. It does not tell you how you should speak; it describes your basic linguistic knowledge. It explains how it is possible for you to speak and understand and make judgments about well-formedness, and it tells what you know about the sounds, words, phrases, and sentences of your language. When we say in later chapters that a sentence is grammatical we mean that it conforms to the rules of the mental grammar (as described by the linguist); when