What is Syntax. what does pragmatics study? How does it differ from traditional semantics?
Pragmatics studies how meaning is conveyed in the process of communication. The basic difference between pragmatics and traditional senmantics is that whether in the study of meaning the context of use is considered. Pragmatics considers meaning in context and traditionally senmantics studies meaning in isolation from the contexts of use.
4.How is the notion of context interpreted?
Context-----context is regarded as constituted by all kinds of knowledge assumed to be shared by the speaker and the hearer.
The notion of context is essential to the pragmatics study of language. It is generally considered as constituted by the knowledge shared by the speaker and hearer.
Syntax--句法，组句的一定规则。a branch of linguistics that studies how words are combined to form sentences and rules that govern the formation of sentences.
主要是用转换生成语法transfermational syntax
Categories 归类，范畴
1 Word-level categories
Major lexical categories：n，v，adj，prep
Minor lexical categories：Det （限定词 the this that等），Deg （程度词），Qual（修饰词）Auxi （助动词） Conj （连词）
The criteria on which categories are determined 如何判断词的范畴
按Meaning 划分
按Inflection划分
按distribution划分
phrase categories and their structures:
Phrase categories(词组类）名词词组，动词词组，形容词词组等，
The sructure:specifier+head +complement：什么词组由head 来决定，不管什么词组，都必须有head（词头） specifier（指示语、标志语-出现在词头的左边） complement（出现在词头右边的）
短语结构规则phrase structure rules:the grammatical mechanism that regulates arrangement of elements that make up a phrase is called a phrase strucure,那种词可以和那种词搭配such as:
NP 名词词组，VP动词词组，AP， PP等
抽象化一点就形成The XP Rule 词组规则 X（词头）P（写在左边或右边的）基本上是偏正词组。x stands for n v a or P
X'Theory 标杆理论，一些词组是介于词组和词中间，有些词组可以不限制地循环下去。词组的循环性。
如 always play games =always +play games =always+play+games
coordination rule---the strucure that a formed by joining two or more elements of the same type with the help of a conjunction such as and,or.并列词组
coordination has four important properties:
1)no limit on the number of cordinates categories befoe the conjunction 连词要连多少个成分是没有限制的。
2)任何层次的都可以并列
3）词类必须一致，前面是介词短语后面也必须是介词短语等等
4）合成词组的词类和其各个部分的类型一致。girls laying in the garden and boys reading in the room
Specifiers 句法功能是随着词头的变化而变化的
Complements 补语，可以是个词，从句，句子。
Modifiers 所有的词都可以有修饰语。大部分情况下修饰名词的都是形容词。修饰动词的大部分都是副词或者介词短语。修饰语可以放在句头，也可以放在后面。与 S和C是一样的。包含S或C。Grammaticality-----the grammatical well-formedness of a sentence. A sentence may be well-formed grammatically, i.e. it conforms to the grammatical rules of the language, but it is not necessarity semanticaly well-formed, ie. It may not make sense at all.
4. Try to analyze the following sentences in terms of predication analysis:
(1) The man sells ice-cream.------two place predication consisting of two arguments: MAN and ICE-CREAM, and the predicate (SELL)
(2) Is the baby sleeping?-----one-place predication BABY(SLEEP)
(3) It is snowing.-----no-place predication : (SNOW)
(4) The tree grows well.----one-place predication : TREE(GROW)
(5) The old man sells toys.-----Two-place predication: MAN and TOYS are predicate(SELL)
(6) It is raining.---No-place predication
(7) It is late.-----No-place predication.
(8) Is the baby crying? -----One-place predication: BABY(CRY)
(9) The flower smells sweet.----One-place predication :FLOWER(SMELL)
5. Sentence meaning is that there are two aspects to sentence meaning: grammatical meaning and semantic meaning.
The grammatical meaning of a sentence refers to its grammaticality, i.e. , its grammatical well-formedness.
Selectional restrictions------whether a sentence is senmantically meaningful is governed by rules, i.e., constraints on what lexical items can go with what others.
In semantic analysi of a sentence, ite basic unit is called predication, which is the abstraction of the meaning of a sentence. This applies to all forms of sentence, including statements, imperative and interrogative forms.
A predication consists of argument and predicate.
An argument is a logical participant in a predication, largely identical with the nominal elements in a sentence.
A predicate is something said about an argument or it states the logical relation linking the arguments in a sentence.
6. Accoding to J. Lyons, “A proposition is what is expressed by a declarative sentence when that sentence is uttered to make a statement.” In this sense, we may very loosely equate the proposition of a sentence with its meaning.根据J. Lyons，“命题是陈述句被用于陈述事件时所表达的意义。“在这一意义上，我们可以非常不严格地把句子的命题和它的意义等同起来。
7．A very important property of the proposition is that it has a truth value. It is either true of false. And the truth value of a composite proposition is said to be the function of , or is determined by, the truth values of its component propositions and the logical connectives used in it.命题的一个极为重要的性质是有真值，它要么真要么假。复合命题的真值据称是成分命题真值和所用逻辑连词的函数，通俗地说，其真值由成分命题真值和所用逻辑连词决定。