Syntax: The Sentence Patterns of Language

Richard Ortega

Grammatical vs. Ungrammatical

Well-formed or grammatical sentence: a sequence of words that conform to the rules of syntax.

Ill-formed or ungrammatical sentence: a sequence of words that violate the rules of syntax

Grammatical or Ungrammatical:

1. The boy found the ball

2. The boy found quickly

3. The boy found in the house

4. The boy found the ball in the house

5. Disa slept the baby

6. Disa slept soundly

Find: Transitive verb (with object)

Sleep: Intransitive verb (no object)

THE EIGHT PARTS OF SPEECH

noun: (abbrev. n.) names a person, place, thing, or idea

verb: (abbrev. v.) expresses action, condition, or state of being

adjective: (abbrev. adj.) describes, modifies, or limits nouns and pronounsadverb: (abbrev. adv.) describes, modifies, or limits a verb, adj. or other adv.

pronoun: (abbrev. prn.) substitutes for a noun and functions as one

preposition: (abbrev. p.) relates a noun or pronoun to another word in a sentenceconjunction: (abbrev. con.) links words, phrases and clauses

interjection: (abbrev. int.) expresses a strong emotion or commands attention

Vocabulary words

function words

Identify the part of speech for each of the following:

like

tired

but

I

dude,

really

dig

grammar

Wow!

prep.

adj.

n.

conj.

interject.

prn.

adv.

v.

n.

baby

A part of speech is always determined by its function in the sentence

Jim and Sara to play video games.love

The mother gave her infant food.

A dictionary can be a good friend, when in doubt

Syntactic Categories (1)

Lexical categories Noun (N) Verb (V) Adjective (A) Preposition (P) Adverb (Adv)

Examples moisture, policy melt, remain good, intelligent to, near slowly, now

Syntactic Categories (2)

Non-lexical categories Determiner (Det) Conjunction (Conj) Complementizer (Comp)

Examples the, this and, or that (clause)

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

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

Det / N / Adv / V / Adv / A

Phrases NP : Noun Phrase

The car, a clever student VP : Verb Phrase

study hard, play the guitar PP : Prepositional Phrase

in the class, above the earth AP : Adjective Phrase

very tall, quite certain

Phrase Structure Rules NP (Det) N (PP) PP P NP

The bus (NP)

The

NDet

bus

The bus in the yard

NP

The

NDet

bus

PP

in

NPP

the

Det N

yard

Phrase Structure Rules VP V (NP) (PP) S NP (Aux) VP

took the money (VP)

took

NPV

took the money from the bank

VP

took

NPV PP

from

NPP

the

Det N

bank

the

Det N

money

the

Det N

money

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) (CP)

4. PP P NP

5. AP Adj (PP) N

6. CP Comp S

Example (1)

The old tree swayed in the wind

old

V PP

in

NPP

the

Det N

windThe

N

swayed

S

NP VP

Det Adj

tree

Example (2)The children put the toy in the box

V PP

in

NPP

the

Det N

boxThe

N

put

S

NP VP

Det

children

NP

the

Det N

toy