Long-distance dependencies
Long-distance dependencies are sentences that have words or phrases that are far away from each other, but still need to be connected to understand the full meaning of the sentence. Imagine you are building a tower of blocks, but some of the blocks are really far away from each other. You need to connect them with a long stick to keep the tower from falling down.
Similarly, in a sentence, if you have to connect words or phrases that are really far apart, you need to use special connectors or words to make sure the sentence makes sense. This is because our brains need to understand the relationship between these words or phrases to fully understand the sentence.
For example, consider the sentence "After I finish my homework, I will go out with my friends who are visiting from out of town." The phrase "who are visiting from out of town" is really far away from the word "homework" and without the word "after," the sentence would not make sense.
In some languages, like English, these long-distance dependencies can sometimes be complicated and hard to understand, but with practice, we can understand these sentences more easily.
Similarly, in a sentence, if you have to connect words or phrases that are really far apart, you need to use special connectors or words to make sure the sentence makes sense. This is because our brains need to understand the relationship between these words or phrases to fully understand the sentence.
For example, consider the sentence "After I finish my homework, I will go out with my friends who are visiting from out of town." The phrase "who are visiting from out of town" is really far away from the word "homework" and without the word "after," the sentence would not make sense.
In some languages, like English, these long-distance dependencies can sometimes be complicated and hard to understand, but with practice, we can understand these sentences more easily.