Introduction to English Syntax

2nd semester 2011By Yusep & Fitri

Syntax in Linguistic Tree

Linguistics

Grammar Meaning

Sounds of language

Phonetics Phonology

Morphology

Syntax Semantics

Pragmatics

What is syntax?

Syntax is a branch of linguistics that studies the rules that govern the formation of sentences.

Analyzing

1. a. The boy found the ball.b. The boy found quickly.c. The boy found in the house.d. The boy found the ball in the house.

2. a. Sylvia slept the babyb. Sylvia slept soundly

Grammaticality judgments

It’s determined by rules that are shared by the speakers of language.

Words must conform to specific patterns determined by syntactic rules of the language.

Categories

Category refers to a group of linguistic items which fulfill the same or similar functions in a particular language such as a sentence, a noun phrase or a verb.

Word-level categories

Words can be grouped together into a relatively small number of classes, called syntactic categories, which can generally substitute for one another without loss of grammaticality.

Word-level categories are divided into:1.lexical words (open class words)2.Functional words (closed class words)

Lexical words

It is called “open” (lexical) because languages can freely add new words to the set.e.g. Noun, Verb, Adjective, and

Adverb

Functional words

It’s called “functional” words because they carry little meaning (have no synonyms) and typically “help” another word.e.g. Determiner, Degree words, Qualifier, Auxiliary, Conjunction, Pronoun, Preposition

Example of Syntactic Categories

Lexical categories:

Noun (N) Verb (V) Adjective (A) Adverb (Adv)

Examples: moisture, policy melt, remain good, intelligent slowly, now

Functional categories:

Determiner (Det) Degree word

(Deg) Qualifier (Qual) Auxiliary (Aux) Conjunction (Con)

Examples: the, this very, more always, perhaps will, can and, or

Indicate the category of each word in the following sentences.

a. The glass suddenly broke.

b. A jogger ran towards the end of the lane.

c. The peaches never appear quite ripe.

d. Gillian will play the trumpet and the drums in the orchestra.

Det / N / Adv / V

Det / N / V / P / Det / N / P / Det / N

Det / N / Qual / V / Deg / Adj

N / Aux / V / Det / N / Conj / Det / N / P / Det / N

Phrase categories and their structures

Syntactic units that are built around a certain word category are called phrases, the category of which is determined by the word category around which the phrase is built.

E.g. if the word around which the phrase is built is a noun, then the phrase is a noun phrase.e.g.the car, a clever student

Phrasal categories

The most commonly recognized categories:NP : Noun Phrase

The car, a clever studentVP : Verb Phrase

study hard, play the guitarPP : Prepositional Phrase

in the class, above the earthAP : Adjective Phrase

very tall, quite certain

Other examples

[NP the pretty girl] [VP often dream] [AP very pessimistic] [PP mainly about]

Phrase Structure Rules(I)

The phrase structure rule for NP, VP, AP and PP (example):NP(Det) N (PP) …VP(Qual) V (NP) …AP(Deg) A (PP) …PP(Deg) P (NP) …

Symbols

The list of common symbols in syntactic analysis:

SNVArtNPVPAdj

SentenceNounVerbArticleNoun phraseVerb phraseadjective

ProAdvPrepPPDetPN

PronounAdverbPrepositionPrep phraseDeterminerProper noun

Phrase structure rules (II)

Det N Det N PP

The bus P NP

Det N

The bus in the yard

NP (Det) N (PP) PP P NP

The bus (NP)The bus in the yard

NP

Phrase structure rules (III)

det N

VP V (NP) (PP)

V NP V

took the money (VP)

took the money from the bank

(VP)

NP PP

Det N P NP

Det Ntook the money

took the money from the bank

Draw the tree diagram!

1. repaired the telephone

2. the success of the program

3. a film about pollution

4. move towards the window

5. cast a spell on the broomstick

The main structure rules

1. S NP (Aux) VP

2. NP (Det) (AP) N (PP)

3. VP V (NP) (PP) (Adv)

4. PP P NP

5. AP A (PP)

S

NP Aux VP

Det Adj N V PP

P NP

Det N

The old tree past swayed in the wind

e.g. The old tree swayed in the wind

The children put the toy in the box

S

NP VP

Det N

V NP PP

Det N P NP

Det N

The children put the toy in the box

Structural ambiguity (I)

Synthetic buffalo hides (NP) Synthetic buffalo hides (NP)

Synthetic buffalo hides Synthetic buffalo hides

Buffalo hides that are synthetic. Hides of synthetic buffalo.

Ambiguities often lead to humorous results:Ambiguities often lead to humorous results:For sale: an antique desk suitable for lady with thick legs and large drawers.

what does “thick legs and large drawers” refer to?

The desk or the lady?

Structural ambiguity(II) The boy saw the man with the

telescope

V PP

with

NPP

the

Det N

telescopeThe

N

saw

S

NP VP

Det

boy

NP

the

Det N

man

Aux

past

Structural ambiguity (III)The boy saw the man with the

telescope

V

PP

with

NPP

the

Det N

telescopeThe

N

saw

S

NP VP

Det

boy

NP

the

Det N

man

Aux

past

Draw two phrase structure trees representing the two meanings of the sentence:

The magician touched the child with the wand.

Be sure you indicate which meaning goes with which tree.

Deep structure

The basic structure of sentences which specified by phrase structure rules.

e.g. NP + V + NP Same deep structure can be the

source of many other surface structures.

For example:The boy is sleeping Is the boy sleeping? S

NP Aux VP

Det N V

The boy is Sleeping

S

Aux NP VP

Det N V

Is the boy --- sleeping

Example of same deep structure:Charlie broke the window

It was Charlie who broke the window

Was the window broken by Charlie?

Surface structure

The variant of basic sentence structures. The structures that result from the

application of transformational rules.Other sentence types that are

transformationally related are:Passive sentences The cat chased the mouse The

mouse was chased by the cat

‘there’ sentences A man was on the roof there was a

man on the roof

PP preposing The astronomer saw a meteor with his

telescope with his telescope the astronomer saw a meteor

Example of deep & surface Structures

The boy will leave

S

VPNP

Det

Aux

N

The boy will leave

Will the boy leave?

S

VPNP

Det

Aux

N

the boyWill leave

The deep structure The surface structure

V V

Draw the deep & surface structure of the following sentences:1.Will the boss hire Hillary?2.Is that player leaving the team?3.Who should the director call?4.What is Joanne eating?

More phrase structure rules

Coordinate structure A coordinate structure results when

two constituents of the same category are joined with a conjunction, such as and or or.

e.g

NP

NP Conj NP

Det N Det N

The cat and the dog

Embedded sentence It includes another sentence within

itself. e.g.the teacher believes the student knows the answer

Complementizers It introduces a complement phrase

S

NP Aux VP

Det N present V S

The teacher believe the student knows the answer

Example of complementizer

S

NP Aux VP

Det N present V CP

C S

The teacher believes that the student knows the answer

The Wh-movement

V

N

carThe

N

repair

S

NP VP

Det

man

NP

which

Det

Aux

should

References

Yule, J. (2010). The study of language: 4th edition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Fromkin, V., Rodman, R., Hyams, N., Collins, P. & Amberber, M. (2005). An introduction to language: 5th edition. Merlbourne: Nelson Thomson Learning Pty

Steinberg, D.D. (1993). An introduction to psycholinguistics. New York: Longman