Mango Languages

Language Theory: UTAH Bound!

In this blog I would like to take a closer look at one of the linguistic theories I began to explain in my most recent blogs, namely: the Uniformity Theta Assignment Hypothesis (UTAH).

Recall from my previous posts that certain words (we will call predicates) require additional material to complete their message. I used the examples of ate and the.  Ate requires at least two additional pieces of material to be complete. That is, someone ate something. And, the requires at least one additional piece of material, the what?

So, the argument behind this hypothesis is that all verbs have specific thematic, or semantic roles that must be assigned to their arguments in a sentence. Let’s look at a new example, the verb “drive.” Drive must have a subject to which it will assign the role of agent as in, “John drives.”  This agent role is an active one.  John is actively responsible for the driving of some vehicle. So drive needs at least one additional piece of material in order to convey a complete message. When a verb has only one “role” to assign we call these intransitive verbs.

When a verb can assign more than one role, as in, “John drives the car” we call these transitive verbs. In the second sentence we can see that drive assigns two thematic roles, one to the subject, “John,” and the other to the object, “the car.”  Since the subject here is playing an active role we already determined that “John” receives the role of agent.  However, “the car” (the object of the sentence) receives the thematic role of theme.   A theme is the element which undergoes physical movement because of the verb.  Therefore, with verbs such as “fell” or “disappeared,” which only require one thematic role to be assigned, this role would be a theme since  “to fall” or “to disappear” happens to someone and is not the result of the subject actively causing a change.

Other verbs can assign more than two thematic roles.  These verbs are referred to as ditransitives. Gave is an example of such a verb: “I gave the book to my son.”  In this sentence, “I” is the agent, “the book” is the theme, and “my son” is assigned the role of the goal.

Can you determine the thematic roles for this sentence:

When did she place the order of supplies for your department?

The What and Who of Headedness

Hello again! My last syntax blog left off in the middle of a discussion of how some words draw other words to them in order to form a more complete thought. Recall the verb ate.  Ate has to draw to it “the someone” who did the eating and “the something” that was eaten, in order to be a complete thought. You may wonder why ate is the element that draws the others to it.  Well, ate, as we discussed before, describes a relationship between something and someone, that is, something was eaten by someone.  Apple, on the other hand, does not describe a relationship or anything for that matter.  Apple is a just a noun.  We could say, “The apple is red” or “I ate the apple.” The same logic applies to any other noun.

We also briefly discussed the definite article the and how it also draws other elements to it in order to be complete. The begs the question, “The what?” Similar to how ate begs the question, “Who/What ate what?”  I hope this better clarifies why certain types of words do the drawing, or assigning of thematic roles, while others do not.  Remember, thematic roles are simple: the jobs that need to be filled by some word in order for the predicate, or word/phrase doing the assigning, to be a more complete thought.

In these syntax blogs, we have determined that some groups of words belong together, and we call these groups constituents. We have explored that within constituents there are even smaller groups referred to as phrases.  I mentioned the names of some phrases–determiner phrases, verb phrases, etc.–and I also briefly mentioned that phrases are given different titles depending on the “head” of the group. So, we now return to this question: How do we determine the head of a phrase?  The head of a phrase is the element that assigns thematic roles, or selects other words to complete it, and consequently causes movement of these words to merge with it. This is why in the phrase “ate the apple,” ate is the head.  Ate selected the argument “the apple.” Or, said in a different way, ate assigned a thematic role to “the apple.” Additionally, the is the head of the phrase “the apple” because it selected its argument,  apple.

Can you figure out which is the head of the following phrases: Cindy’s mother; blue house; small annoying child?

Thematic Roles of Predicates. Yay Grammar!

Hello again! My last blog left off with a brief introduction to different phrase types, e.g., determiner phase (DP), verb phrase (VP), etc.  So let’s take a closer look at these phrases.  For example, the phrase, “ate the apple.” This phrase is made of three components; ate (verb), the (article/determiner) and apple (noun).  We have already determined that I can’t simply string these words together in any order I wish and convey the same meaning, if any. These lexical items (words) alone do not consist of a complete proposition. Recall from my previous blog entry that a proposition is a complete thought, e.g., Jane ate the apple. In other words, each of these items needs to merge with another entity or entities in order to be well formed or have meaning in a sentence or phrase.  Now we are getting to the good stuff. Let’s start with the verb: ate. Ate alone doesn’t convey a complete thought or proposition. Rather we know that ate expresses a relationship between two other elements. That is, someone ate something.  So we can say that the verb ate needs to combine/merge with at least two other elements in order to form a complete proposition or thought. In linguistics we say that the predicate (e.g., ate, in this case) needs to combine with a theme.  The theme is merged with, or physically moved, to combine with the predicate.  That is, this predicate, ate, is in need of two themes (the some-one and the something) and therefore draws these other elements to it.  In linguistics we say that the predicate has thematic roles it must assign. The some-one of ate is given the thematic role of the agent because this is an active role.  The something of the predicate ate is referred to as, or given the thematic role of, Theme. However, the names or titles of these themes is not the most important part to remember here.  Rather, that different predicates select for, or require, different types and number of themes.  To contrast the predicate ate, there are other predicates such as, appeared, fell, etc., which only require one theme, or thematic role, that must be assigned in order to be a complete proposition, i.e., Jane appeared, Jane fell.  So we have determined that certain lexical items (words) have thematic roles that they must assign. The items and or constituents that are assigned to the predicate are referred to as its arguments.  The type and number of roles/arguments will differ depending on the predicate (lexical item/word assigning thematic roles).

The above paragraph refers mostly to verbs. However, other words require additional elements.  For example, the definite article the.   One cannot simply utter the and convey a complete thought.  The what? ‘The’ therefore requires the addition of a noun.  We can say it selects , or requires that a noun merge with it.  So, similar to how a verb/predicate selects certain thematic roles to merge with it, other elements, as we can see with ‘the’, do the same.

So in this blog we have embarked on the concept of thematic roles of predicates. We saw that different predicates select for different number and types of arguments, specifically, ate assigns (at least) two thematic roles; the eater (the Agent) and, the eaten (the Theme).  But, fell must assign (at least) one thematic role; the one who undergoes the fall (the Experiencer).

Can you think of predicates which assign more than two roles? That is, verbs that have more than two arguments?  Or, can you assign additional arguments to these predicates: ate and fell?

“Syntax – It’s not another tax on beer?” Continued…

In my last blog I began to delve in to the wonderful world of Syntax. I looked at the linguist definition of a sentence and more importantly the abstract idea of the proposition. I also briefly touched on word order as it is involved in sentence grammaticality. So from my previous blog we can now make two statements: 1) Sentences are abstract mental objects and, 2) word order is somehow involved in the “grammaticality” of sentences. However, we have not yet determined what role word-order plays in grammar. We will begin to look at that in this blog entry.

In her entry, Did you know languages have constituents?, my colleague briefly touched on an important component of Syntax: constituents. Constituents are a group of words which have an internal coherence. That is, they belong together. For example, the words in the phrase ‘that glass of milk‘ seem to belong to each other, as do, ‘the black wooden chair‘, ‘the big red odd shaped container’, etc. We know this because in a complete sentence all of these phrases can be replaced with one little word: it. However, compare those “constituents” to these segments: ‘the table over’, ‘wooden chair by’, and ‘big red odd‘. In contrast these segments don’t seem to belong together. They most certainly cannot be replaced in the sentences with any one word.

So now we have determined that some groups of words belong together and we call these groups constituents. Within constituents there are even smaller groups. These groups are given different titles depending on the “head” of the group. (I will explain headedness in a later blog). Some of these are: determiner phrases (DP) (sometimes referred to as noun phrases, NP), prepositional phrases (PP), adjective phrases (AdjP), adverb phrases (AP) and, verb phrases (VP). An example of a determiner phrase (DP) is ‘the container’. However, ‘the big red oddly shaped container‘ is also a DP, only a larger one also containing an adjective phrases (AdjP): big red oddly shaped container. Additionally, ‘the apple‘ is also a determiner phrase. However, ‘ate the apple‘, is a verb phrase (VP) that also contains a determiner phrase, ‘the apple‘.

Can you get creative and come up with a large phrase that contains more than one other additional phrase? What are the constituents in the phrase?

Curriculum Choice Review

Mango language is an online foreign language program offering twelve languages. The lessons are designed to teach you conversational skills and promises that the first lesson will show results. The program is completely web based and self directed. Language is taught in small step by step chunks to increase understanding and proper pronunciation. Each lesson can be reviewed as many times as needed. You completely control the lesson from being able to repeat the words and review the phrases by a click of the mouse. There are lesson notes provided for the purpose of understanding grammar and cultural differences in the language. Please check your local library to see if this program is offered before purchasing a subscription. Read more…

Guest Post: Learning Brazilian Portugese, The Switch to Basic

Guest blogger Marina has been with us sharing her experience in using Mango Languages to learn Brazilian Portuguese. Here is part four.

Several weeks into my Mango Languages experiment, shortly after completing my last blog post, I made an important change in my study routine.  No, I did not increase the number of lessons per week, as I had intended (for reasons explained below, this task remains to be accomplished).  The change was very simple, but it had such a profound effect on my learning experience, that it is worth describing in more detail.

What I did a few weeks ago was switch to a different version of the Mango Languages software.  This version, Mango Basic, focuses on building basic speaking ability, whereas the version I had been using previously, Mango Complete, addresses conversational and grammar skills. Yes, the grammar is there, although it is dealt with in a rather indirect–-and, therefore, less tedious–manner compared to most textbooks.

The reason for making the switch was the announcement that Mango is introducing Voice Comparison–an option that allows students to compare their recorded pronunciation to that of a native speaker.  I have always been a fan of the voice recording option in other language learning software packages, and so I was eager to try out this new feature. Since it was only available in the Basic version, I decided to “downgrade,” and this was a step that I never regretted.

The benefits of working with Mango Basic went beyond pronunciation practice, however.  I had initially assumed that Mango Basic was merely a scaled down version of Mango Complete, but the content of the Basic version is considerably different and, for a complete beginner, is certainly easier to master.  This version is also much more colorful, which can be a deciding factor for visual learners.  Furthermore, the lessons are broken down into very manageable bits, which provided a welcome respite from the lengthy dialogues of Mango Complete, which often made me wonder if I was biting off more than I could chew.

With this in mind, my strategy will be to work through the Basic version, making sure I thoroughly understand the material before I attempt to master the more complex vocabulary and grammar of Mango Complete.  In my last blog post I announced that I would try to complete several Portuguese lessons each week, but it did not work out quite as I had planned. I started a full-time teaching job in the meantime, and this had kept me very busy (and tired!), so the thrice-weekly Portuguese strategy had to be put on hold.  Knowing how detrimental extended gaps between lessons can be, I try to work little bits of Portuguese-related activities into my daily routines.  Conversations with my Brazilian flatmate (not in Portuguese, yet, but rather about the different aspects of the language) certainly help, as do my occasional encounters with other Brazilians–in real life and online.

Recently, for example, I received an email from a reader of a blog that I had started years ago when I was living in Kyrgyzstan and attempting to learn the Kyrgyz language.  The query was Kyrgyz-related, but its author turned out to be Brazilian, and so we ended up having a lively email interchange about regional differences in Brazilian Portuguese pronunciation.

On a slightly different note, my flatmate’s family is now visiting Turkey, so I may be in for a bit of speaking practice. Perhaps I should start drilling myself on basic Portuguese courtesies: “Olá. Como vai a senhora? Meu nome é Marina. Prazer em conhece-lo.“

Guest Post: Brazilian Portugese–Lesson 2

Guest Blogger Marina Khonina has taken on the task of using Mango Languages to learn Brazilian Portugese. She is providing monthly updates through our blog as she progresses through the course. Here is part two:

Several weeks into my Brazilian Portuguese learning adventure, I am more thrilled about this experiment than ever. I was able to stick to my (very laid-back) plan of one lesson per week, although the temptation is often strong to abandon my other activities and concentrate solely on my Portuguese. This urge goes hand-in-hand with my habitual impatience, which is regularly challenged by Mango Languages’ insistence on slow, deliberate practice.