Reading Log for Chapter 9

Chapter nine is about the syntax of language. Syntax deals with the structure and ordering of comonents within a sentence. Within syntax is generative grammar, which makes explicit rules about constructing sentences. The structures of syntax includes deep and also more superficial sentences. In the sentence: Jimmy kicked the ball, the sentence is called active because it focuses on Jimmy. However if the sentence is changed to the ball was kicked by Jimmy, it puts the attention on what happens to the ball. This is called a passive sentence.

The part I found interesting was the part on structural abiguity. These are sentences with two interpretations. An example of this would be: Ginger burned the man with a bowl of soup. Did Ginger actually use a bowl of soup to burn the man, or did the man have a bowl of soup when Ginger burned him?

To make it easier to explain and understand the organizational structure of a sentence, a tree diagram can be used. This diagram seperates the adjectives from the pronouns from the verbs and so on and so forth. It also seperates the phrases within the sentence. There are two ways to set up the tree. The first way is to set it up by way of dissecting the entire sentence. The second way is by using phrase structure rules and cunstruct the sentence by phrase with these rules in mind.

Recursion is cool too. You can save yourself some space and avoid saying "and then" "and then". Recursion is putting sentences inside of each other. John knew Paul. George asked if John knew Paul. Ringo was curious whether or not George asked if John knew Paul. It seems to me like this could get a little messy. Could these kinds of sentences easily turn into run ons?