Syntax

1. Syntax

2. Definition of Syntax • Syntax is a branch of linguistics that studies the rules governing the way how words are combined to form sentences and studies the formation of sentences.

3. Syntax and Grammar • Since sentence is usually regarded as the largest grammatical unit of a language, syntax has long been the center of grammatical study. • Grammar: phonology morphology syntax semantics

4. Definition of Sentence • 1.Traditional grammar: Sentence is a sequence of words expressing a complete thought and is grammatically complete. • 2. Structuralism: It is a structurally independent linguistic form. (a maximum free form) • 3.TG grammar: S=NP+VP

5. Types of sentences • Grammatical: • Declarative • Interrogative • Imperative • Exclamatory • Functional: • Statement • Question • Command • Request

6. Representative Approaches to Syntax • The Traditional Approach • The Structuralist Approach (Saussure, Bloomfield) • The Generative Approach (Chomsky) • The Functional Approach (Firth, Malinowski, Halliday)

7. 1.The Traditional Approach • Traditionally, a sentence is seen as a sequence of words. • Sequence: sentence is in a linear structure. • Words: classificationof words (parts of speech: ) n. v. adj. adv. prep. conj. functions of words subject, predicate, object, attribute, adverbial E.g. Everyonelikesthis lovelyboyvery much.

8. Categories 范畴 • The term “category “is used for the defining properties of units ,e.g., parts of speech or functions. • The categories have subcategories(次范畴）: • Nouns ----------number, gender and case • Verbs---------tense, aspect and voice • Sequence of words/syntactic relations: Concord and government

9. Nouns singular e.g. noun, pronoun, verb number plural dual e.g. either, neither, both Male/Masculine e.g. physiological (English) grammatical (French) Gender Female/feminist Nominative Accusative Case (pronoun) Genitive /possessive

10. Verbs • Tense: Deictic (indicating time relative to the time of utterance): (根据动词的变位形式） past ：-ed present: ～ future: will/shall+ ～; is going to + ～ • Aspect: non-deictic (indicating time not relative to the time of utterance, but relative to the time of another event described): perfective (完成体） imperfective or progressive (未完成体或进行体）

11. Concord and government（一致性与支配关系） • Concord and government are in terms of the sequence of words or syntactic relations: • Concord/agreement: the forms of two or more words in a syntactic relationship should agree with each other in terms of categories such as number, gender, sub-pred. agreement. • Government: control over the forms of some words by other words in certain syntactic constructions .e.g. Governor + the governed v./prep. + pronoun (accusative case)

12. 2. The Structural Approach • A. Ferdinand de Saussure :(-1913) the Swiss linguist Father of modern linguistics Founder of structural linguistics Course in General Linguistics 《普通语言学教程》1916 marked the beginning of modern linguistics • B. Bloomfield: the American structuralist IC analysis (a model of sentence analysis) Language《语言论》1933

13. Binary Cutting/Opposition Dichotomy Langue vs. Parole Descriptive vs. Prescriptive Saussure Synchronic vs. Diachronic Signifier vs. Signified Syntagmatic vs. Paradigmatic

14. Saussaure’ Linguistic Theory • Language is a system of signs. • Sign = Signifier + Signified Sound image Concept Arbitrariness ? How to define the value of a sign

15. Saussaure’ Linguistic Theory • The value of a sign rely on its relation to other signs and its position in the system. • Saussure identified two principle types of relations: Syntagmatic relations (linear structure) Paradigmatic relations (vertical system)

16. The Syntagmatic relation • The Syntagmatic relation is the relation between one item and others in a sequence. • There are syntactic conditions and semantic conditions the words must meet. -a The boy kicked the ball. -b *Boy the ball kicked the. -c *The ball kicked the boy. Words in b and c violate syntactic rules. • The order of words is influenced by semantic consideration: -a The boy chased the dog. -b The dog chased the boy.

17. The paradigmatic relation • The paradigmatic relation (Associative) is a relation holding between elements replaceable with each other at a particular place in structure, or between one element present and the others absent. E.g. The ________ is smiling. (animate singular nouns like boy,girl, man, woman…) • Such words are to be in a paradigmatic relation here, and they can substitute for each other without violating syntactic rules.

18. In Saussure`s original theory, these two relations are applicable at every level of linguistic analysis. • At phonological level, the phoneme /p/ is in syntactic relation with the phonemes /i/and /t/; and it is in a paradigmatic relation with /b/, /s/ or /h/, as they are capable of replacing /p/ in the context /it/ to form an English word.

19. The sequence which a sign forms with those it is in a syntagmatic relation is sometimes called a STRUCTURE. • To use the word in a more restricted sense, and the class of signs which are in a paradigmatic relation are sometimes called a SYSTEM. • The syngamatic relation is nowadays also referred to as HORIZONAL RELATION or chain relation. • And the paradigmatic relation is also known as the VERTICAL relation or CHOICE relation.

20. Vertical Choice System Word substitution Word replacement Paradigmatic relations Syntagmatic relations Horizontal/Linear Chain Structure Word order Word sequence

21. Examples • The boy chased the dog • The man liked the rabbit. • The girl hated the monkey. • The boys kicked the cat. • …. … … • NP V NP

22. Immediate Constituent Analysis Cf. • The Traditional Approach: linear structure • The Structural Approach: linear structure hierarchical structure Sentences are not only composed of sequences of words in a linear structure, they are also composed of hierarchies of constructions. E.g.

23. The boy kicked the ball. • The words are not of the same degree of closeness to each other. • The relation between a sentence and its component elements, is referred to as the relation between a CONSTRUCTION and its CONSTITUENTS

24. IC Analysis直接成分分析法 • This notion( immediate constituent )was proposed by the American linguist Leonard Bloomfield(Language, 1933.) • The Principle is binary cutting. • IC analysis is the analysis of a sentence in terms of its immediate constituents— word groups or phrases, which are in turn analyzed into the immediate constituents of their own , and the process goes on until the ultimate constituents are reached (at the level of word)

25. The principle is that we take a construction ( e.g. sentence) and cut it into two and then cut these parts into two and continue with this segmentation until we reach the smallest grammatical unit, the morphemes • Immediate constituent refers to the two parts that are yielded after each cut. An immediate constituent can be further segmented until we obtain the smallest grammatical unit

26. Immediate constituent refers to the two parts that are yielded after each cut. An immediate constituent can be further segmented until we obtain the smallest grammatical unit • Ultimate constituent is the smallest grammatical unit obtained through segmentation.

27. Example: Poor John ran away. CONSTRUCTION A: sentence CONSTRUCTION B: word group Poor John ran away STENTENCE run away WORD GROUP Poor John poor John ran word away

28. CONSTRUCTION C: WORD • A word may be analyzed into its immediate constituents: morphemes. • e.g. Lovely talked Word {love} {ly} {talk} {ed} Morpheme Tree diagram 树形图

29. Two Ways of IC Analysis A. Tree diagram树形图 • 1. Poor John ran away. S 2. NP VP Adj. N. V. Adv. Poor John ran away

30. B. Bracketing （括弧法） (Poor John) (ran away) (Poor John ((ran) (away)) ((Poor) (John)) ((ran) (away)) • The criterion as towhere to make the cuts is substitutability.whether a sequence of words can be substituted for a single word and the structure remains the same. In the case of Poor John ran away, Poor John can be replaced by John; ran away can be replaced by ran in terms of structure. Both are about somebody doing something.

31. Traditional grammar : (linear structure) PoorJohn ranaway. Attr. Sub. Pred. Adverbial • IC analysis emphasizes the function of the intermediate level-----word group, seeing a hierarchical structure of the sentence as well. • My small cot for a child

32. The advantages of IC Analysis • The advantages of IC is that the internal structure of a sentence may be demonstrated clearly, and ambiguities, will be revealed. • e.g. my small child`s cot my small cot for a child my cot for a small child the cot of my small child

33. My small child’s cot • My small child’s cot • My small child’s cot

34. Examples • 1. The policeman saw the spy with binoculars. • 2. The son of Pharaoh’s daughter is the daughter of Pharaoh’s son

35. The problems with IC • 1.binary divisions. Any construction, at any level will be cut into two parts. But this is not always possible. • e.g. old men and women • old + men and women • old men + and women • old + men + and + old women

36. 2. Constructions with discontinuous constituents will pose technical problems for tree diagrams. E.g. Is John coming? make it up

37. 3. The most serious problem is that there are structural ambiguities which cannot be revealed by IC analysis • the love of God the love given by God the love for God the shooting of the hunters Chomsky can solve the problems in the TG grammar

38. Two Types of Construction • 1. Endocentric construction向心结构 There is a centre or head in the construction, also called headed construction. e. g. Subordinate construction (with one head) NP: the three small children the book on the desk VP: will have been doing run away quickly AP: really very beautiful beautiful beyond description Coordinate construction (with two or more heads) boys and girls coffee or tea the city New York

39. 2. Exocentric construction 离心结构 There is no centre or head in the construction. e.g. PP: on the desk Basic sentence: The girl smiled Subordinate clause: if I like it,

40. 3. The Generative Approach to Syntax • This particular type of linguistic theory originated with American linguist Norm Chomsky. • This theory has undergone a number of changes ever since its first appearance in 1957.

41. Developments of TG • 1.The Classical Theory 古典理论Syntactic Structure (1957) • 2.The Standard Theory 标准理论Aspects of the Theory of Syntax (1965) • 3.The Extended Standard Theory 扩展的标准理论（1972） • 4.The Revised Extended Standard Theory 修改的扩展的标准理论（1979） • 5.The Minimalist Program 最简方案

42. Deep and Surface Structures • Deep Structure may be defined as the abstract representation of the syntactic properties of a construction, i.e. the underlying level of structural relations between its different constituents. • Surface Structure is the final stage in the syntactic derivation of a construction, which closely corresponds to the structural organization of a construction people actually produce and receive.

43. The Classical Theory In Syntactic Structures(1957), Chomsky proposed a linguistic model consisting of three components deep surface Phrase structure component Transformational component Morpho-phonemic component structure structure • The phrase structure component has phrase structure rules as: • S: NP+VP • VP:V+NP • NP:Det+N

44. Examples (Phrase Structure Component) • Det: the, a , … • N: man. ball • V: hit, took, … • S • NP + VP • DetN VNP • the man hit Det N • a ball

45. The transformational component • The transformational component, has transformational rules, which change the deep structures generated by the phrase structure component into surface structures. • Chomsky thought at that time that the sentences like the active and the passive, the declarative and the interrogative, and the positive and the negative are each derived from the same deep structure.

46. The difference between them simply comes from the operation of relevant transformations. For example, the operation of the passive transformational rule to a deep structure John will finish the paper tomorrow is something like this: • NP1+ AUX +V+ NP2 • JOHN+ WILL+ FINISH+ THE PAPER (TOMORROW) • NP2 + AUX + BE +EN + V + NP1 • the paper+ will+ be+en+finish + by +John(tomorrow)

47. One surface structure may have different deep structures • E.g. the love of God • God loves somebody • Somebody loves God • John is easy to please • John is eager to please

48. Problems • Semantics is not involved, some unacceptable sentences may be generated. S=NP+VP e. g. Colorless green ideas sleep furiously. The ball kicked the boy.

49. 1. Transformational rules are too powerful: an ordinary sentence can be transformed at will, such as negated, passivized, with certain elements added or deleted without restrictions • 2. The rules S=NP+VP may generate ill-formed sentences不合格的句子, such as John drinks wine vs. Wine drinks John • 3. Transformational rules for the passive voice cannot be used at will, for some verbs do not have passive structures. Such as marry, take place, resemble

50. The Standard Theory • Chomsky In 1965 Aspects of the Theory of Syntax some modifications to his first model. • The most important of them is that at the suggestion of John Katz and others he added a semantic component to it.