Thanks so much! Yeah, syntax can be tough, but just identifying the right places to point at and how to change things can make it a lot clearer. If we've managed to do that, I'm really happy. ^_^
I think this is exactly where I dropped out of my Uni linguistics course, because I just couldn't get my head around it as easily as you've described in this video.
That's quite the compliment! Thanks so much. We try to present this stuff in a clearer way. But from my experience, the move between one model to the next isn't so clear a lot of the time, what the reasons are. But they're there and they're interesting! So we're happy to discuss them. ^_^
Thank you very much for making this video, Moti, Adèle-Elise and the others! Really interesting to hear that there is more to X-bar theory than noun phrase and verb phrase. I just have one question: why didn't you talk about dependent and independent clauses? Take the sentence ‘Steve though that there was a troll in the bathtub’, the dependent clause ‘Steven though’ can manage completely on it’s own but ‘that there was a troll in the bathtub’ cannot. In language like German, the difference between a dependent clause and an independent clause is much more important than in English because it changes the word order of the sentence. The same sentence would be ‘Steve glaubte, dass es ein Troll in der Badewanne gab’ (I think, not really sure.) with the verb going at the end of the sentence. So, isn’t dividing sentences into dependent and independent clauses important?
"because sentences can't stand on their own without tense" except that they can in some languages - like Mandarin. Incidentally, my favorite part of Inception was the references to the myth of Theseus and Minutauros.
Mandarin is isolating, no? Wouldn't that mean that the tense is sort of present in structure and in the words you choose, but not explicitly in the grammar? So it'd be that the underlying mechanics of how the sentence works and how it changes around is based on tense phrases but the tense isn't explicit. That's what I would expect, but I do not know.
Mandarin grammar is indeed isolating - which is exactly what makes it possible to have a meaningful sentence independent of any notion of time, because tense is conveyed through what amounts to an affix.
That is such a cool structure. I love the variety of language. I might have misunderstood the video (probable, having no formal linguistic teaching, or whatever) but I would expect it to sort of act like it has tense because the way a sentence is formed in our (human's) heads relies on time?? I don't know. What I took from the video is that sentences as a structure are headed by tense, even if obliquely.
Yeah, that is a good point. So, looking into this some more: Mandarin Chinese doesn't appear to have any overt tense morphology, but it seems to have plenty of aspectual morphology. So, one could say (and some do) that sentences in this language are still TPs, but that whatever constitutes the head of the TP is never overt in Mandarin. Alternatively, one could conclude (and some have) that sentences are AspPs (aspectual phrases). I'm sure there are other possibilities, too! Figuring out the best way to represent these things is a challenge people are grappling with still. And it's tough for me to pick a favourite part; I think I'd probably go for the first section, with Saito, just for the laying out of the framework and learning things, but there's a lot of good. ^_^
I'm going to try a couple of things for our next regular video; doing our outtakes showed how much louder we used to be. We reduced the volume to cut down on the echo, but it's just introduced other problems. I'll try again - thanks for the feedback.
This is an amazing channel.
This video clarified So much for me. Syntax has always bothered me and eluded my grasp until I saw this.
Thanks so much! Yeah, syntax can be tough, but just identifying the right places to point at and how to change things can make it a lot clearer. If we've managed to do that, I'm really happy. ^_^
I've never been happy with predicates as a concept. This makes me a little happier.
I think this is exactly where I dropped out of my Uni linguistics course, because I just couldn't get my head around it as easily as you've described in this video.
That's quite the compliment! Thanks so much. We try to present this stuff in a clearer way. But from my experience, the move between one model to the next isn't so clear a lot of the time, what the reasons are. But they're there and they're interesting! So we're happy to discuss them. ^_^
Thank you very much for making this video, Moti, Adèle-Elise and the others! Really interesting to hear that there is more to X-bar theory than noun phrase and verb phrase. I just have one question: why didn't you talk about dependent and independent clauses? Take the sentence ‘Steve though that there was a troll in the bathtub’, the dependent clause ‘Steven though’ can manage completely on it’s own but ‘that there was a troll in the bathtub’ cannot.
In language like German, the difference between a dependent clause and an independent clause is much more important than in English because it changes the word order of the sentence. The same sentence would be ‘Steve glaubte, dass es ein Troll in der Badewanne gab’ (I think, not really sure.) with the verb going at the end of the sentence. So, isn’t dividing sentences into dependent and independent clauses important?
I love that all the examples reference Inception
Yeah, it was pretty fun to come up with all that stuff. Thanks for noticing!
thank you lots for this and all the other episodes you have made so far.
Thanks for watching! ^_^
Where did you get that shirt?
This one's from Threadless! www.threadless.com/product/2736/Duck_in_Training/tab,guys
"because sentences can't stand on their own without tense" except that they can in some languages - like Mandarin.
Incidentally, my favorite part of Inception was the references to the myth of Theseus and Minutauros.
Mandarin is isolating, no? Wouldn't that mean that the tense is sort of present in structure and in the words you choose, but not explicitly in the grammar? So it'd be that the underlying mechanics of how the sentence works and how it changes around is based on tense phrases but the tense isn't explicit. That's what I would expect, but I do not know.
Mandarin grammar is indeed isolating - which is exactly what makes it possible to have a meaningful sentence independent of any notion of time, because tense is conveyed through what amounts to an affix.
That is such a cool structure. I love the variety of language. I might have misunderstood the video (probable, having no formal linguistic teaching, or whatever) but I would expect it to sort of act like it has tense because the way a sentence is formed in our (human's) heads relies on time?? I don't know. What I took from the video is that sentences as a structure are headed by tense, even if obliquely.
In Lojban, tenses normally aren't used at all - it's mostly based on context. Also, there are tenses for both space and time, which is interesting
Yeah, that is a good point. So, looking into this some more: Mandarin Chinese doesn't appear to have any overt tense morphology, but it seems to have plenty of aspectual morphology. So, one could say (and some do) that sentences in this language are still TPs, but that whatever constitutes the head of the TP is never overt in Mandarin. Alternatively, one could conclude (and some have) that sentences are AspPs (aspectual phrases). I'm sure there are other possibilities, too! Figuring out the best way to represent these things is a challenge people are grappling with still.
And it's tough for me to pick a favourite part; I think I'd probably go for the first section, with Saito, just for the laying out of the framework and learning things, but there's a lot of good. ^_^
Hi I was wondering if it is German-American accent?
I love your shirt
Thanks! I really like this one, too. It always makes me smile. ^_^
Clauseption!
Yep! We figured it was the most appropriate choice for referencing here. ^_^
please fix your mic volume, I can't hear you well, thanks.
I'm going to try a couple of things for our next regular video; doing our outtakes showed how much louder we used to be. We reduced the volume to cut down on the echo, but it's just introduced other problems. I'll try again - thanks for the feedback.
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