Syntax

1. Syntax • Definition of Syntax • Types of Grammar • Hierarchical Structure • Tree diagram • Phrase structure rules • Recursiveness • Deep/surface structure • Universal Grammar • Principles • Parameters Yun-Pi Yuan

2. Definition of Syntax (1) • “syntaxis” (Greek) = “arrangement” • The rules of sentence formation; the study of the structure of sentences. Language Structure Phonology Grammar Semantics morphology syntax (more traditional) Yun-Pi Yuan

3. Definition of Syntax (2) Popularized by Chomsky (the general sense) Grammar Phonology (Morphology) Syntax Semantics Yun-Pi Yuan

4. II.Types of Grammar • Mental Grammar:Internal linguistic knowledge (in the mind) • Developmental Grammar:a learner’s grammar • Prescriptive Grammar:a set of prescribed rules which tells people how to speak/write • Descriptive Grammar:how people do speak in actual utterances. • Pedagogical Grammar:teaching grammar widely used in schools Yun-Pi Yuan

5. A. Mental Grammar: Internal linguistic knowledge Grammar Phonology (Morphology) Syntax Semantics • Linguistic knowledge in the mind • Here, we’ll just consider grammatical knowledge as structural knowledge; but NOTE you also must know how to USE the structural knowledge. Yun-Pi Yuan

6. Grammar mental grammar ling. etiquette the nature of lang. (psycholing. view) (sociologist’s view) (ling. view in general) Internal ling. knowledge social attitudes a description of the grammar (what goes on in lang. and values (study and analysis of the user’s mind; sub- (proper or best structures found in a lang.) conscious, not result structures to be of any teaching) used in a lang.) prescriptive descriptive Yun-Pi Yuan

7. B. Developmental Grammar: a learner’s grammar • The mental grammar in the developmental stage • Type of lang. produced by learners who are in the process of learning a language. • “errors” in the language use of a L1 or L2 learner; which is the result of a normal pattern of development, and is common among language learners. e.g. “comed,” “goed,” “breaked” • Overgeneralizations: a natural or developmental stage in lang. learning. Yun-Pi Yuan

8. C. Prescriptive Grammar: a set of prescribed rules which tells people how to speak/write; socially corrected use of lang. • A set of “rules” about how you SHOULD speak or write; gives judgments on which structures are CORRECT and which are INCORRECT • Their influence lives on in the handbook of usage widely found today. e.g. double negative(=affirmative), *ain’t *it’s me, ending sentences with preposition (*Who are you talking to?) Yun-Pi Yuan

9. D. Descriptive Grammar: how people do speak in actual utterances • Linguistic description of the structures of a language as they are observed to be used, with no evaluation (non-judgmental) of social correctness. • Collins Cobuild dictionary example—huge corpus analyzed and described e.g.Either of the dictionaries are/is good. (but should be “is” according to prescriptive view) e.g. Neither of the books were/was a good buy. Yun-Pi Yuan

10. E. Pedagogical Grammar: teaching grammars widely used in schools • A “teaching grammar”—designed for developing NS students’ awareness of their mother tongue, or for teaching a language as a foreign language. • Selection from mental grammar to present to learners • Often a combination of descriptive & prescriptive grammars; more contemporary pedagogical grammars moving away from prescriptive. e.g. M. Swam. Practical English Usage or a textbook ; a grammar book. Yun-Pi Yuan

11. III. Hierarchical Structure (1) • Concepts of hierarchy e.g.1: John is easy to please John is eager to please Q: Do the two sentences have the same sentence structure (the same syntax)? Paraphrase: It’s easy for somebody to please John. John is eager to please somebody. Yun-Pi Yuan

12. III. Hierarchical Structure (2) • Analogy: A. “university” school board, principle, vice presidents, dean of academic affairs, dean of student affairs, dean of general affairs, dean of research and development, dean of each college, dept. chairs…. B. “country” president, vice- president, legistrative yuan (立法院), executive yuan (行政院), control yuan (監察院), judicial yuan (司法院). Yun-Pi Yuan

13. University School board President, Vice presidents 教務長學務長總務長 研發長 外語 理工 文 法 民生 醫 管理 藝 社科 院長 院長 院長 院長 院長 院長 院長 院長 院長 : : : : : : : : : 系主任 系主任 系主任 系主任 系主任 系主任 系主任 系主任 系主任 Yun-Pi Yuan

14. country president vice- president legistrative yuan executive yuan control yuan judicial yuan (立法院) (行政院) (監察院) (司法院) : : : : Yun-Pi Yuan

15. Hierarchy • Hilary couldn’t open the windows. VPNP sentence phrases words morphemes • Constituent: part that makes up something; a linguistic unit which is part of a larger construction. • e.g. Can you identify the construction and constituents in the sentence, “the boy jumped”? Yun-Pi Yuan

16. III. Hierarchical Structure (3) Modal of syntactic investigation: Five-rank hierarchy (Crystal 95) Sentences Sentences are analyzed into are used to build Clauses Clauses are analyzed into are used to build Phrases Phrases are analyzed into are used to build Words Words are analyzed into are used to build Morphemes Morphemes Yun-Pi Yuan

17. Upward Expansion • Phrases • e.g. cars  the cars  the big cars  all the big cars all the bigcarsin the garage (premodification) (head) (postmodification) • Upward expansion: Tom couldn’t find his notes, and Davie couldn’t find his textbook, and (repeat the structure) . . . but he still lectured for three hours. Several units of the same type  then we have clauses Yun-Pi Yuan

18. Hierarchy • Another way to look at “hierarchies”: construction and constituents • The young must respect the old people. (A) the young (B) must respect the old people (C)the (D) young (E) must respect (F)the old people (G) must (H) respect (I) the (J) old people (K) old (L) people Yun-Pi Yuan

19. Clauses Clause Types: • S+V (The dog + is running) • S+V+O (The dog + bites + him) • S+V+C (The car + is + ready) • S+V+A (The picture + lays +on the ground) • S+V+O+O (I + give + him + a pen) • S+V+O+C (He + calls + John a fool) • S+V+O+A (Mary + saw + John +yesterday) • Note: subject (S), verb (V), complement (C), object (O), adverbial (A). Yun-Pi Yuan

20. Formats of the Hierarchy • Tree Diagrams: different levels in analysis • Phrase Structure (in tree diagrams) • Recursiveness (Recursion) • Deep and Surface Structure Yun-Pi Yuan

21. 1.Tree Diagrams (1) “The girl chased the dog.” (Crystal 96) Thegirlchasedthedog • Identify the 2 major constituents (The girl + chased the dog) • Divide the next-biggest constituent into 2: chased + the dog • Continue dividing constituents into 2 until we can go no further. e.g. the + girl, the + dog, chase + -ed • At each level, a structure is divided into its major constituents (and the process continues) . . . Yun-Pi Yuan

22. 1.Tree Diagrams (2) • Tree Diagrams:Different levels in analysis • The tree diagram format may be viewed as: • A static representation of the structure of the sentence at the bottom of the diagram. • A dynamic format, representing a way of “generating” a very large number of sentences with similar structures (by the use of phrase structure rules). Yun-Pi Yuan

23. 2. Phrase Structure S NP VP ART N V NP (DET) ART N the girl chased the dog Yun-Pi Yuan

24. Phrase Structure Rules (1) • Phrase structure rules(Nash 75-77):present the information of the tree diagram in an alternative format S S NP + VP or NP VP VP V + (NP) + (PP) + (ADV) NP (ART) + (ADJ)* N PRO PP P + NP • Note: see (Yule 105) for symbols and abbreviations definition. Yun-Pi Yuan

25. Phrase Structure Rules (2) • They are descriptions, not prescriptive rules. • They show how a sentence can be broken up into its various parts, and how each part can be expanded. • The structure of a sentence can be illustrated by a tree diagram. Yun-Pi Yuan

26. 3. Recursiveness (Recursion) • Recursive rule: VP VS (Yule 107; 108 for diagram) e.g.: John said [ Cathy thought (Mary helped George)]. • Another e.g. of recursiveness The Rose in My Garden http://www.eng.fju.edu.tw/yun-pi/2004_2005/linguistics/index.html This is the rose in my garden. This is the bee thatsleeps onthe rose in my garden. These are the holly hocks high above ground, that give shade to the beethat sleeps onthe rose in my garden. Yun-Pi Yuan

27. 4. Deep and Surface Structure (1) • Deep and surface structure: “the form of a sentence we produce and understand is very often not the same as the basic form which shows its meaning” (Nash 79) (also see Yule 102) A. Deep Structure: the abstract, underlying level, but basic form of the sentence B. Surface Structure: the superficial, syntactic form that we produce in reality e.g. old men and women e.g. Annie whacked a man with an umbrella.(Yule 103) same surface structure form, two underlying interpretations (deep structures) Other examples: • Look! (What’s the subject? How do you know?) • *Help herself. (What’s wrong? How do you know?) Yun-Pi Yuan

28. Deep and Surface Structure (2) • The runner broke the world record.// The world record was broken by the runner. • Constituents relations remain the same. How do we know? • To begin to answer questions like these, we first have to go to another idea: • “the form of a sentence we produce and understand is very often not the same as the basic form which shows its meaning” (Nash 79). Yun-Pi Yuan

29. Deep and Surface Structure (2) • The form we produce is called the surface structure. The basic form is called the deep structure. We need the next step in TGG (Transformational-generative Grammar)to describe how the deep structure is changed into the surface structure. • Transformational rules: rules which describe these changes (see Yule 108 e.g.) Yun-Pi Yuan

30. Transformational-generative Grammar Transformational Generative Grammar: (used to explain how deep structure  surface structure) e.g.1. Imperative Transformation e.g.2. Reflexive Transformation and Imperative Transformation e.g.3. Passive Transformation e.g.4. Particle Movement Yun-Pi Yuan

31. Transformational-generative grammar • Transformations: processes that change the deep structure into surface structure. • Generative: using phrase structure rules, we can produce (generate) infinite sentences. • E.g. 1: Surface Structure: S NP VP V NP eat ART N the chou tofu Yun-Pi Yuan

32. Imperative Transformation • Deep Structure: S imperative NP VP transformation pro V NP ART N surface structure (see slide #32) you eat the chou tofu Yun-Pi Yuan

33. Reflective Transformation • E.g. 2: surface structure: Help yourself! • Deep Structure: S S NP VP reflexive NP VP pro V NP transformation pro V NP pro (reflexive pro) you help you you help yourself (When two NPs in the same simple sentence are identical, convert the 2nd of the identical NPs into the corresponding reflexive pronoun; I.e., you yourself) Yun-Pi Yuan

34. Imperative Transformation S NP VP imperative Pro V NPtransformation (reflexive pro) Help yourself You help yourself Yun-Pi Yuan

35. Important Criteria • Transformation: important criteria A. Some transformations are required; some are optional. e.g. “Help yourself!” reflexive transformation is required. imperative transformation is optional. B. Transformation is in a certain order (when more than one is applied). 1. Reflective 2. imperative Yun-Pi Yuan

36. Passive Transformation • E.g., 3: • Passive transformation NP1 V NP2  (changes it into) NP2 BE V-EN BY NP1 e.g. The runner broke the world record.  The world record was broken by the runner. (Nash 82) Yun-Pi Yuan

37. Particle Movement • E.g. 4: Particle movement • NP Verb Particle NP  NP Verb NP Particle • Phrase structure tree diagram (see Yule 109) • S • NP VP • V NP • Vb part Art N • Doobie picked up the magazine Yun-Pi Yuan

38. Transformational Process (1) • In this process: won’t change the relationship and the meaning of the sentence 1. Combination e.g.: You have You’ve 2. Substitution e.g.: You Yourself 3. Deletion e.g.: You X (in imperatives) 4. Movement e.g.: Put…on Put on… 5. Addition e.g.: relative clause (skip this since too complicated) Yun-Pi Yuan

39. Transformational Process (2) • Transformations never change the relations among elements/constituents (e.g., agent, receiver) in the deep structure, and they NEVER change (semantic) meaning. • They are processes by which deep structures are converted into surface structures. Yun-Pi Yuan

40. Important Contribution of TGG • The deep—surface structure idea = a very important contribution. • Not everything we know about a sentence is revealed in the actual form we produce—the surface structure. We must look for deeper structural information. • The farmer planted the rice. The rice was planted by the farmer.  same meaning, though different structures. Yun-Pi Yuan

41. Problems of TGG 1. Theory is unwieldy.(too cumbersome, too clumsy—too many transformations) 2. Not universal(It’s language specific, not conform to all languages). 3. Psychologically unreal(Semantics should be applied first, then comes the syntax) (Nash 83, summary) Yun-Pi Yuan

42. Language Ambiguity 1. Sentence/structural Ambiguity: e.g.: Visiting relatives can be a nuisance. 2. Word Ambiguity: e.g.: The man put his straw on the floor. Yun-Pi Yuan

43. Ambiguity • Children are nice to understand. • 1. It’s nice for someone to understand children. • 2. It’s nice for children to understand something. • D-structure: • Children are nice [ Ø to understand Ø ] • D-structure: • Children are nice [ Ø to understand Ø ] Yun-Pi Yuan

44. D-Structure and S-Structure (1) • Definition: D-structure—in which the basic order of phrases is represented. S-structure—in which the actual linear order of phrases is observed; deep structure positions of phrases are represented by empty categories. • What will Frances drink [Ø] ? • Drano, he drank [Ø] ! Yun-Pi Yuan

45. D-Structure and S-Structure (2) • Drano, he drank! • This kind of sentence deviate from the normal order of sentences, but the invisible position is still there. • In the surface structure, there’re invisible positions, but they must be filled up in deep structure. • Sentences that deviate from the basic word order are understood by reference to a more abstract structure in which the basic word order is represented  D-structure Yun-Pi Yuan

46. D-Structure and S-Structure (3) • The “derivation” of a sentence involves changing D-structure into S-structure, by moving elements from their D-structure positions; the relationship between moved elements and their underlying position is represented by placing an identical index on the two. (e.g., NPi – ti) Yun-Pi Yuan

47. D-structure S S NP VP N V NP N he drank Drano S-structure S NPi S NP VP N N V NP Drano he drank ti T= trace “an inaudible copy of the moved NP is left in the D-structure position of the moved phrase” i =identical index Yun-Pi Yuan

48. D-structure S S NP I VP N V NP N Frances will drink what (Movement) S-structure S NPj S Willi S N NP I VP V NP What Frances ti drink tj I = inflection node; a syntactic position associated with some morphological features (e.g., tense) and some auxiliary verbs, such as modals Yun-Pi Yuan

49. TGG vs. UG • TGG (Transformational Generative Grammar): • The formulation of individual rules of grammar • A great many transformational rules to convert (link) deep to surface structures • UG (Universal Grammar) • The formulation of general principles from which the properties of particular grammatical phenomena will follow • Difference between D- and S-structure levels reduced to the results of a single general operation: movement (what can move, and where to, are motivated and restricted by the principles of grammar). Yun-Pi Yuan

50. IV.Universal Grammar • Definition: • “a set of limits” on the form of mental grammars. • The limits on the form that human grammar can take • Two kinds of limits: 1. Principles: invariant principles which dictate the form grammars can take. (will apply to every lang. in the same way, but details vary) 2. Parameters: strictly defined possibilities of variation across languages. (There is limited number in choices) Yun-Pi Yuan