NG1. Why Noam Chomsky should read this blog
56 years is a long time for doing something. Beethoven’s age at death. And Hitler’s. But modern linguistics, born of Chomsky’s Syntactic Structures, is now… Read more
NG2. What does sentence structure signify?
This is the first substantive piece for LanguidSlog. It’s quite short and should be easy for the reader. Books on syntax typically jump straight into… Read more
NG3. What would be in a sentence structure?
Last time we looked at how sentence structure could participate in production or comprehension. For that to happen it must exist somehow in the mental… Read more
NG4. How could a sentence structure be formed?
LanguidSlog 3 outlined the items needed in a sentence structure. It was rather long but not too difficult to follow, I hope. This one is… Read more
NG5. Mental architecture
Transient-items-with-pointers (from the analogy with computer software in the last piece) would be a blatant straw-man if it misrepresented existing theories. But no theory really… Read more
NG6. A transformation for grammar
Are any real syntacticians following Network Grammar? If so, most are about to become alienated. I hope that, for at least a few, the alienation… Read more
NG7. Language knowledge
I have no quarrel with the idea that a language user has a mental ‘lexicon’. But I am impatient that no linguist has satisfactorily defined… Read more
NG8. Cognitive effect
Last time we looked at how a word-word junction delivers an atom of meaning to cognition. This time we’ll see how the set of junctions… Read more
NG7x. Comments on NG7
This unscheduled post contains my responses to several points in a comment on NG7 by HK. I’ve also included responses to points about anaphor binding… Read more
NG9. The universal data structure
NG7 claimed that all knowledge is held in the mind as propositions, each linking three concepts. I can offer no supporting neuroscience. Instead this piece… Read more
NG10. Knowledge in the mind is both program and data
We’ve said that the sharing of a concept between multiple propositions means propositions exist in a network. After illustrating the idea, this piece shows that,… Read more
NG11. First principles of Network Grammar
At last we start deploying NG systematically to analyse sentences. In this piece we look at NG’s first big assumption. A sentence is processed in… Read more
NG12. Parsing sentences with ditransitive verbs
This week we analyse sentence (5) junction by junction, showing that the correct predicate-argument propositions are delivered in a single pass. Read more
NG13. Displaying a parse
This week a format is developed for analysing sentences using NG. Processing is shown step by step, highlighting where meaning is delivered. The approach is… Read more
NG14. Varying the sequence of theta roles
This piece looks at sequences in which the arguments of a three-place predicate can appear in an English sentence. This leads to an improvement in… Read more
NG15. Actives and passives
We finish off declaratives that use the present/continuous forms of give and also look at passives. Most of the possible sentences are listed. Not all… Read more
NG16. What is linguistics for?
The last several Network Grammar posts have looked microscopically at sentences. This time we widen the focus to show how use of NG should relate… Read more
NG17. Finite verbs
Network Grammar has shown that a workable analysis for active and passive declaratives with (auxiliary)__(give participle) is possible without assuming the mind is controlled by… Read more
NG18. Non-alternating ditransitives
We move away from give and analyse sentences with other ditransitives, ones that allow either the to-dative or the double-object form but not both. Read more
NG19. Interrogatives – polar and pro-adverb
NG analysis is now applied to yes/no questions and to questions with how, why, when, where etc – i.e. where the answer would be an… Read more
NG20. Interrogatives – pronoun (1)
Compared with those discussed in NG19, interrogatives with who or what are much more puzzling. The following analyses concentrate on the pronoun who, which can… Read more
NG21. Mechanisms
Network Grammar’s sentence analyses are quite subtle. A casual reader may feel that too much must be taken on trust. Completing the discussion of WHO-interrogatives… Read more
NG22. Interrogatives – pronoun (2)
We continue the NG analysis of WHO-interrogatives by discussing actives with a pre-verb noun. Read more
NG23. Interrogatives – pronoun (3)
This week completes the NG analysis of WHO-interrogatives by discussing passives with a pre-verb noun. Read more
NG24. Behaviour of ‘give up’
In the sentences already seen, a particle can follow the give form. Depending on the sentence, the particle can appear in one particular place, or… Read more
NG25. Semantics of ‘give up’
NG24 summarised the empirical behaviour of give up. This time we look for an explanation of the varied semantic effects. Lexicon-driven sentence processing could account… Read more
NG26. Syntax of ‘give up’ (1)
The interplay of particle up with verb give and its arguments and possibly an adjunct present a big challenge. NG’s solution must explain all the… Read more
NG27. Syntax of ‘give up’ (2)
This week we apply NG26’s extended model. Tabular analyses for typical declaratives are shown. Also included are some sentences that are similar but have up… Read more
NG28. Points on word-order
Even without inflection, English has some flexibility in the order of predicate and arguments. Recent Network Grammar pieces have shown that there is less than… Read more
NG29. Syntax of ‘give up’ (3)
We’ve already looked at give…up in declaratives. Now is the turn of who-interrogatives. To keep some momentum we’ll skip polar and pro-adverb interrogatives. You could… Read more
NG30. Disambiguating particle and preposition forms (1)
In the last several Network Grammar pieces we’ve simply assumed up to be a particle. It can of course be a preposition instead. Indeed in… Read more
NG31. Disambiguating particle and preposition forms (2)
This completes Network Grammar’s review of particle/preposition ambiguity. One conclusion is that, in some circumstances, NG must deliver alternative propositions and leave cognition to determine… Read more
NG32. No other theory can model sentence processing in the mind
An eminent prof has risen to the challenge of Network Grammar. Lots of emails have gone to and fro. I’m encouraged that the blog is… Read more
NG33. Coordination before the verb
This and several following posts look at sentences with coordination, most using explicit and. Incremental processing, as previously described, readily adapts to sentences with AGENT,… Read more
NG34. Coordination after the verb (1)
Coordination post-verb presents a different set of problems. Before starting to look at what is possible and what not, this post presents some final thoughts… Read more
NG35. Ellipsis in coordination
In previous posts we’ve looked at how AGENT, THEME and GOAL may encompass more than one noun and also at multiple pairings of THEME +… Read more
NG36. Re-use of argument structure
NG35 proposed that, after delivery of propositions from the first clause, the set of propositions for the verb is carried forward but with activation and… Read more
NG37. Ambiguity after the conjunction
More problems are thrown up by coordination. This time the tricky sentences are undeniably grammatical and an extension to NG’s range of mechanisms is needed. Read more
NG38. Coordination after the verb (2)
This post picks up where NG34 left off. The essential point is that sentences only need to be treated as multi-clause where subjects or verbs… Read more
NG39. Language acquisition (1)
This week we start looking at how language knowledge is acquired. Readers should revisit NG7 to NG10 to ensure they understand what the blog means… Read more
NG40. Language acquisition (2)
With its word count pushing beyond 1000, last week’s post had to finish with a question about how a word proposition gets the appropriate C… Read more
NG41. Identifying junctions (1)
Network Grammar has been showing how a sentence may be processed assuming that junctions within the sentence can be identified as it unfolds, left to… Read more
NG42. Identifying junctions (2)
At the end of last week’s post we asked ‘How can the sequence aaa-then-bbb be correctly identified as parent-then-dependent or as dependent-then-parent?’ The answer is… Read more
NG43. Centre embedding and cross-serial dependencies
Established syntacticians will dismiss NG unless it can be shown to deal with tricky phenomena found in some Germanic and other languages (but not in… Read more
NG44. Noun phrases (1)
Network Grammar has slogged for nearly 10 months analysing sentences with one-word arguments – Nero, apples etc. We now look at multi-word noun phrases and… Read more
NG45. Noun phrases (2)
NG44 showed how noun phrases must be fully analysed to find the head that forms a junction with a word elsewhere in the sentence. This… Read more
NG46. Ambiguity (1)
A correspondent has challenged NG for being apparently deterministic (see NG42), delivering a single meaning for a sentence, with one left-to-right pass and no memory… Read more
NG47. Ambiguity (2)
Network Grammar has been asked how it would deal with the following sentences. (173) An off-duty officer warned of a potential war between rival biker… Read more
NG48. Nouns and their referents
Yet another challenge for Network Grammar: (179) The claim was withdrawn (180) The claim that the moon is a pancake was withdrawn (181) The claim… Read more
NG49. Nesting relative clauses
We continue looking at the sentences: (179) The claim was withdrawn (180) The claim that the moon is a pancake was withdrawn (181) The claim… Read more
NG50. Network Grammar is not a finite state machine
It’s encouraging that none of those who have kindly commented on Network Grammar seem able to answer the objections to mainstream generative grammar set out… Read more
NG51. Attaching simple adverbs (1)
Attachment of adjuncts is a large and complex part of syntax. This piece applies NG analysis to show how simple sentences can incorporate simple adverbs. … Read more
NG52. Attaching simple adverbs (2)
We look at coordinated objects with different adverbs applying to each, and at adverbs before the verb. Read more
NG53. Attaching simple adverbs (3)
Differences in AGENT attitude may be expressed where the relevant nouns are coordinated. This piece discusses what is possible. Also yesterday and probably, which behave… Read more
NG54. Attaching preposition phrases
Recent Network Grammar pieces showed how attachment of simple adverbs can be explained by NG. A crucial point was that the C (category) concept for… Read more
NG55. Sentence production
So far Network Grammar has focused exclusively on comprehension. This piece looks briefly at production. It concludes that NG’s progression-through-network approach can represent not only… Read more
NG56. Blue skies
Among the teases of NG1 was ‘computable meaning’. On Google the phrase barely registers so there is little risk in giving it the following definition: … Read more
NG57. Network Grammar: so far, so good
Yes, this is number 57 of the 57 pieces promised in NG1. The number was arbitrary, chosen for rhetorical effect and because I needed a… Read more