Chapter 4 Syntax

1. Chapter 4 Syntax 4.1 Introduction Syntax: study of the internal structures of sentence and the rules for the combination of words (1)a.The hunter fears the cries of the blackbirds. b. The blackbirds fear the cries of the hunter. (2)a. Jack looked up the word.. b. Jack looked the word up. (3)*Cries fear the the of hunter blackbirds the. Conclusion: structure of the sentence such as word order can change the meaning. Every sentence is a sequence of words but not vice versa. Sentence formation has rules, so that we have well/ill formed or (un)grammatical sentences.

2. 4.2 Word Classes Nouns are words used to refer to people, objects, creatures, places, events, qualities, phenomena and abstract ideas. Adjectives are words that describe the thing, quality, state or action which a noun refers to. Verbs are words used to refer to various actions and states involving the “things” in events. Adverbs are words that describe or add to the meaning of a verb, an adjective, another adverb, or a sentence, and which answers the questions introduced by how, where, when, etc. Prepositions are words used with nouns in phrases providing information about time, place and other connections involving actions and things. Conjunctions are words used to connect and indicate relationships between events and things. (3) The hunter fears the cries of the blackbirds Art+N+ V+ Art+ N+ Prep+Art+N The rules which govern the structure of phrases are known as phrase structure rules or rewrite rules.

3. 4.3 The Prescriptive Approach: An approach taken by some grammarians, mainly in eighteenth-century England, who lay down rules for the correct or “proper” use of English by following Latin. (a)You must not split infinitives (b) You must not end a sentence with a preposition. To boldly go. Preposition is not a word you can end a sentence with. Who do you see? 4.4 The Descriptive Approach: an approach taken throughout the 20th century which attempts to describe the regular structures of the language as it is used by collecting samples. 4.4.1 Structural Analysis: a descriptive approach studying the distribution of linguistic forms in a language by means of test frames. (4) The ----- makes a lot of noise. (5) I heard a ----- yesterday. (6) ----- makes a lot of noise. (7) I hear ----- yesterday.

4. Categories and basic clause types in English: NP,VP,PP… • 1. SV • 2. SVC • 3. SVO • 4. SVA • 5. SVOA • 6. SVOC • 7. SVOiOd • Or rather, • 1. SV(A) • 2. SVC • 3. SVO(A) • 4. SVOC • 5. SVOiOd

5. Phrase categories and their structures • Phrase categories----the syntactic units that are built around a certain word category are called phrase categories, such as NP(N), VP(V), AP(A), PP(P). • The structure: specifier + head + complement • Head---- the word around which a phrase is formed • Specifier---- the words on the left side of the heads • Complement---- the words on the right side of the heads

6. Phrase structure rules • The grammatical mechanism that regulates the arrangement of elements that make up a phrase is called a phrase structure rule, such as: • NP  (Det) + N +(PP)……e.g. those people, the fish on the plate, pretty girls. • VP  (Qual) + V + (NP)……e.g. always play games, finish assignments. • AP  (Deg) + A + (PP)……very handsome, very pessimistic, familiar with, very close to • PP  (Deg) + P + (NP)……on the shelf, in the boat, quite near the station.

7. The X Bar Theory X" Note: The phrase structure rules can be summed up as XP rule shown in the diagram, in which X stands for N, V, A or P. specifierX' X (head) complement

8. 4.4.2 Immediate constituent analysis Language is linear and hierarchical. We can analyze language from its largest level to the smallest level, that is from its construction to its constituents by means of substitutability and expansion. The first divisions or cuts of a construction are called immediate constituents and the final cuts as the ultimate constituents. The approach to divide the sentence up into its immediate constituents by using binary cutting until obtaining its ultimate constituents is called immediate constituent analysis(IC). 9) [[[the] [man]] [[bought] [[a] [car]]]]

9. Cutting sentences into their constituents can show up and distinguish ambiguities, as in the case of the ambiguous phraseold men and women, which may either refer toold menandwomen of any ageor toold menandold women. The two different interpretations can be represented by two different tree structures:

10. 4.5 Constituent Structure Grammar: A grammar which analyzes sentences using only the idea of constituency, which reveals a hierarchy of structural levels. The main principle is labeling and bracketing based on the idea that linguistic units can be parts of larger constructions or can themselves be made up of smaller parts. (binary and verb-centered) Inverted tree diagram:

11. Generative Rules S→NP＋VP VP→Vtr. ＋NP NP→Art＋N Vtr.→buy, sell, build, repair, wash, etc. N→man, woman, car, house, bicycle, etc. Art→a, an, the (12)a. The man bought a car. b. The man sold a car. c. The woman repaired the bicycle. there is a large number of sentences in English that such rules cannot produce. This set of rules has very limited generative power. The above rules only deal with simple noun phrases and transitive verbs. They do not allow us to deal with any part of the verb structure such as tense, modals or aspect.

12. (13) a. The man sells the car in the garage. b. The woman washes the bicycle in the street. c. The boy repairs the bicycle in the house.

13. Disambiguate

14. Recursion John said Cathy thought Mary helped George. This is the farmer sowing his cornThat kept the cock that crowed in the mornThat waked the priest all shaven and shornThat married the man all tattered and tornThat kissed the maiden all forlornThat milked the cow with the crumpled hornThat tossed the dogThat worried the catThat killed the ratThat ate the maltThat lay in the house that Jack built. Lexical selection restriction and TG grammar (17) *The belief washed an apple. The boy cleaned the room up. (discontinuous) Brian hit George→George was hit by Brian.

15. 4.6 TG grammar: a grammar including phonology and semantics. Classical theory: phrase structure rules, transformational rules and morphophonemic rules.S→NP+VP; simple active declarative kernel sentences; negative, passive or interrogative sentences (17) NP1＋Aux＋V＋NP2→NP2 ＋Aux＋be＋en＋V＋by＋NP1 The boy has repaired the bicycle→The bicycle has been repaired by the boy. features: generation and context-free Standard theory: deep structure and surface structure

16. Infl Phrase InflP（=S） VP NP NP Det N Infl V Det N A boy Pst find the evidence

17. Deep structure & surface structure • Consider the following pair of sentences: John is easy to please. John is eager to please. • Structurally similar sentences might be very different in their meanings, for they have quite different deep structures.

18. Deep structure & surface structure • Consider the following pair of sentences: John is easy to please. John is eager to please. • Structurally similar sentences might be very different in their meanings, for they have quite different deep structures.

19. Deep structure & surface structure • Consider the following pair of sentences: John is easy to please. John is eager to please. • Climbing plants can be terrible.

20. Transformations • Auxiliary movement (inversion) • Do insertion • Wh-movement • Move α and constraints on transformations

21. Auxiliary movement CP S NP C Infl Det N Infl V Will the train e arrive

22. CP • Do insertion S C NP Infl VP Birds fly Figure-1 CP CP S S C C NP Infl VP Infl NP Infl VP Do birds e fly Birds do fly Figure-2 Figure-3

23. Wh-movement---- Move a wh phrase to the specifier position under CP. (Revised) CP S NP C Who VP NP Infl e Pst V NP win the game

24. 4.7 Functional Grammar: Linguists who adopt this view are interested in relating the various kinds of structures and patterns that language shows to the functions that language fulfills and to the social settings in which it is used. Difference from TG: function and contextual, purposeful Halliday’s three meta-functions: ideational, (19) The boy kicked the post. (the post was kicked by the boy) (20) The man liked the new house. (21) The child is homeless. (22) The girl laughed. (23) The visitor said “hello”. (24) There is a girl over there. Interpersonal: declarative, interrogative and imperative; mood; politeness (27)a. Pass the salt. b. Please pass the salt. c. Can you pass the salt? d. Could you possibly pass the salt? e. You couldn’t possibly pass the salt, could you? Textual: thematic and information structure

25. Ideational Function: transitivity Metafunctions

26. Interpersonal Function: Mood Textual Function: Theme and Information

27. Field refers to the nature of the social action: what it is the interactants are about. Tenor refers to the statuses and role relationships: who is taking part in the interaction. Mode refers to the rhetorical channel and function of the discourse: what part the text is playing. Silver In this job, Anne, we’re working with silver. Now silver needs to have love. Yea, You know---the people that buy silver love it. Yea---guess they would Yes, mm-well naturally, I mean to say that it’s got a lovely gleam about it, you know; and if they come in, they’re usually people who love beautiful things. So you have to be beautiful with it; and you sell it with beauty. You-I’m sure you know how to do that. Oh but you must! Let’s hear-let’s hear-look: you say ‘Madam! Isn’t that beautiful!” If you suggest it’s beautiful, they see it as beautiful.

28. Field (a) General. Retail selling in department store: silver department. Task: selling silverware. (b) Specific. Instruction of new member. Task: teaching how to sell silverware. Means of achievement : [premise 1] virtues of silver, [premise 2] customers’ appreciation thereof, [action] encouragement of this appreciation. Tenor Manageress and new salesgirl; a complex status relationship embodying (a) senior-junior, (b) expert-novice, (c) teacher-apprentice, with a fourth, personal relationship at a metaphorical level, (d) mother-daughter. Mode Natural, spontaneous speech. One-sided dialogue (monologue with acknowledgement). Part 1, expository: exposition-doubt-explanation. Part 2, exhortatory: injunction-doubt-illustration and reassurance. (Halliday, 2000:390)