Introduction to English Syntax

1. Introduction to English Syntax 2nd semester 2011 By Fitri

2. Syntax in Linguistic Tree

3. What is syntax? Syntax is a branch of linguistics that studies the rules that govern the formation of sentences.

4. Analyzing 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 baby b. Sylvia slept soundly

5. 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.

6. 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.

7. 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.

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

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

10. 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

11. Example of Syntactic Categories Lexical categories: Noun (N) Verb (V) Adjective (A) Adverb (Adv) Examples: moisture, policy melt, remain good, intelligent slowly, now

12. Functional categories: Determiner (Det) Degree word (Deg) Qualifier (Qual) Auxiliary (Aux) Conjunction (Con) Examples: the, this very, more always, perhaps will, can and, or

13. 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.

14. 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.

15. 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

16. Phrasal categories The most commonly recognized categories: 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

17. Other examples [NP the pretty girl] [VP often dream] [AP very pessimistic] [PP mainly about]

18. 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) …

19. Symbols The list of common symbols in syntactic analysis:

20. Phrase structure rules (II) Det N Det N PP The bus P NP Det N The bus in the yard

21. Phrase structure rules (III) det N

22. 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

23. 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)

24. 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

25. The children put the toy in the box

26. Structural ambiguity (I)

27. 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?

28. Structural ambiguity(II) The boy saw the man with the telescope

29. Structural ambiguity (III)The boy saw the man with the telescope

30. 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.

31. 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.

32. For example: The boy is sleeping Is the boy sleeping? S NP Aux VP Det N V The boy is Sleeping

33. S Aux NP VP Det N V Is the boy --- sleeping

34. Example of same deep structure: Charlie broke the window It was Charlie who broke the window Was the window broken by Charlie?

35. 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

36. ‘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

37. Example of deep & surface Structures

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

39. 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

40. NP NP Conj NP Det N Det N The cat and the dog

41. Embedded sentence It includes another sentence within itself. e.g. the teacher believes the student knows the answer Complementizers It introduces a complement phrase

42. S NP Aux VP Det N present V S The teacher believe the student knows the answer

43. Example of complementizer S NP Aux VP Det N present V CP C S The teacher believes that the student knows the answer

44. The Wh-movement

45. 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