Syntax in Language

Rules (Syntax) of Language (Generative Grammar):

By combining the words in specific ways, we can express meanings.

• A sentence ($S$) is made up of Noun Phrases ($NP$) and Verb Phrases ($VP$).
• $NP$s are made up of a determinant ($det$ or $D$) and noun ($N$), where $VP$s are made up (at least) of Verbs ($V$) and $NP$s.
• Prepositional Phrases ($PP$) are made up of Prepositions ($P$) and $NP$s
• These rules can scale up to googolplex amount of sentences. Occasionally, the words at the bottom (x2 and $rose$) are both called terminals. The internal nodes are called Non-terminals.
• The following is a Parse Tree or Syntax Tree or Constituent Tree

Note:

Can also work for programming languages, specifically, this refers to a Context-Free Language.

Ambiguity In Language:

“She ate the pizza on the floor”.

Was she on the floor, eating a pizza? Or was her pizza on the floor? Alternatively, the telescope example above could be written with a different tree, thus having a different meaning, but still be syntactically valid. In the below case, the girl has the telescope. In the above case, you were a weirdo:

• Lexical: Words have different meanings
  • “I went to the bank”
• Syntactic: When the sentence can be parsed in multiple ways
  • “I saw a girl with a telescope”
• Semantic / Structural: When a sentence can only be parsed in one way, but results in multiple potential meanings.
  • “The chicken is ready to eat” - is it about to have its dinner or is it my dinner?
• Pragmatic: Arises when context infers meaning
  • “Can you pass the salt”; it’s not likely a question of ability, but instead a command.
• Referential: When it’s unclear which entity a pronoun refers to
  • “John told Alex he needed help.” - who needed the help?