Edward Gibson

And so cat is a full form in English and it has a meaning associated with whatever a cat is. And then the combinations of words, that's what I'll call grammar or syntax. And that's like when I have a combination like the cat or two cats, okay? So where I take two different words there and put them together and I get a compositional meaning from putting those two different words together.

And so that's the syntax. And in any sentence or utterance, whatever I'm talking to you, you're talking to me, we have a bunch of words and we're putting together in a sequence. It turns out they are... connected so that every word is connected to just one other word in that sentence. And so you end up with what's called technically a tree.

And so that's the syntax. And in any sentence or utterance, whatever I'm talking to you, you're talking to me, we have a bunch of words and we're putting together in a sequence. It turns out they are... connected so that every word is connected to just one other word in that sentence. And so you end up with what's called technically a tree.

And so that's the syntax. And in any sentence or utterance, whatever I'm talking to you, you're talking to me, we have a bunch of words and we're putting together in a sequence. It turns out they are... connected so that every word is connected to just one other word in that sentence. And so you end up with what's called technically a tree.

It's a tree structure where there's a root of that utterance of that sentence. And then there's a bunch of dependents, like branches from that root that go down to the words. The words are the leaves in this metaphor for a tree.

It's a tree structure where there's a root of that utterance of that sentence. And then there's a bunch of dependents, like branches from that root that go down to the words. The words are the leaves in this metaphor for a tree.

It's a tree structure where there's a root of that utterance of that sentence. And then there's a bunch of dependents, like branches from that root that go down to the words. The words are the leaves in this metaphor for a tree.

Yeah, yeah. It's a graph theoretical thing. It's a graph theory thing.

Yeah, yeah. It's a graph theoretical thing. It's a graph theory thing.

Yeah, yeah. It's a graph theoretical thing. It's a graph theory thing.

That's right. And everyone agrees on that. So all linguists will agree with that. Oh, so this is not a controversial thing? That is not controversial.

That's right. And everyone agrees on that. So all linguists will agree with that. Oh, so this is not a controversial thing? That is not controversial.

That's right. And everyone agrees on that. So all linguists will agree with that. Oh, so this is not a controversial thing? That is not controversial.

No, I think in every language, I think everyone agrees that all sentences are trees at some level. Can I pause on that? Sure.

No, I think in every language, I think everyone agrees that all sentences are trees at some level. Can I pause on that? Sure.

No, I think in every language, I think everyone agrees that all sentences are trees at some level. Can I pause on that? Sure.

I think so. I've never heard of anyone disagreeing with that. That's weird. The details of the trees are what people disagree about.

I think so. I've never heard of anyone disagreeing with that. That's weird. The details of the trees are what people disagree about.

I think so. I've never heard of anyone disagreeing with that. That's weird. The details of the trees are what people disagree about.

Well, this is where, you know, depending on what your... There's different theoretical notions. I'm going to say the simplest thing, dependency grammar. It's like a bunch of people invented this. Tenier was the first French guy back in... I mean, the paper was published in 1959, but he was working on the 30s and stuff.