Intoduction To Linguistics " SYNTAX "

INTRODUCTION TO LINGUISTICS

“SYNTAX”

The structure of sentences, as well as the study of such structure, is called syntax. In linguistics, syntax is the study of the principles and rules for constructing sentences in natural languages. All languages have ways of reffering to entities – to people,places, things, ideas,events, so on. Reffering expressions are noun phrases.

All languages also have ways of saying something about entities they make reference to. In other words, all languages can make pedications about the things reffered to by the reffering expressions.

SENTENCE TYPES

Simple Sentences

A simple sentence has the form of a single clause that stands alone as its own sentences. A clause contains a single verb (or predicate).

Example : Sara cooked the sausages.

Compound Sentences

In a compound sentence (sometimes callaed ‘coordinate’), two or more clauses are joined by a coordinator in a coordinate relationship. A compound sentences has the form of two or more clauses joined by a word such as and, but or or. Two clauses can be joined to make a compound sentences, as in the examples :

– Denise bought a new coat, but she didn’t wear it often.

Complex Sentences

A complex sentence combines two (or more) clauses in such a way that one clause functions as a grammatical part of the other one.

Subordinate clauses

Subordinators, when a clause is embedded into another clause

The form of subordinate clauses

CONSTITUENCY AND TREE DIAGRAMS

v Tree Diagrams

This tree diagram can also represent other clauses such as Sally said it.

S

N V N

Sally said it

v Constituency

In analysing the structure of sentences, one pivotal tool is the simple notion that sentences consist not of word but of structural units called constituency. The immediate constituents of a compound sentence are the clauses constituting it and the coordinator joining them, as in this example :

Sarah bought Sam a new car but he did’nt wear it often.

Clause 1 (S1) Clause 2 (S2)

MAJOR CONSTITUENTS OF SENTENCES :

NOUN PHRASES AND VERB PHRASES

Noun Phrase is either a single noun or pronoun or a group of words containing a noun or a pronoun that function together as a noun or pronoun, as the subject or object of a verb. Each NP contains a noun (or pronoun). Example :

Some of the mangoes were rotten

Noun Adj

Noun Phrase

In linguitics, a verb phrase or VP is a syntactic structure composed of the predicate elements of a sentence and functions in providing information about the subject of the sentence. Each VP contains a verb. Example :

Arif become a doctor

S Verb Comple

Verb Phrase

ü Active / Passive Sentences

Active : Bob mailed the package.

Passive : The package was mailed by Bob.

a and b have the same meaning.

c. S V O

Bob mailed the package.

S V “by-phrase”

The package was mailed by Bob.

In (c): the object of an active sentence becomes the subject of a passive sentence.

d. S V O

Bob mailed the package

S V “by-phrase”

The peckage was mailed by Bob

In (d): the subject of an active sentence is the object of by in the “by-phrase” in a passive sentence.

Active : The teacher corrects our homework.

Passive : Our homework is corrected by the teacher.

Active : Mr. Lee will teach this class.

Passive : This class will be taught by Mr. Lee.

Form of all passive verbs:

BE + PAST PARTICIPLE.

BE can be in any of its forms: am, is, are, was, were, has been, have been, well be, etc.

THE PAST PARTICIPLE follows BE. For regular verbs, the past participle ends in –ed (e.g., mailed, corrected). Some past participle are irregular (e.g., taught).

PHRASE-STRUCTURE RULES

Rules For Rewriting Noun Phrases

We can now characterize and exemplify certain types of NP:

Noun (N) : Karen, spoons, justice, swimming

Determiner (DET) + Noun: that spoon, a judge, some gnomes

Determiner + Adjective (ADJ) + Noun: an old farmer, her aged instructor, the flying saucer

Determiner + Adjective + Noun + Prepositional Phrase (PP) : the oldest weather of the year, the first woman on the moon, that loud clap of thunder

One way of representing these various NP patterns is by the use of phrase-structure rules (also called rewrite rules) like the following :

NP → N (NP consists of N)

NP → DET N (NP consists of DET +N)

NP → DET ADJ N (NP consists of DET +ADJ + N)

NP → DET ADJ N PP (NP consists of DET +ADJ +N +PP)

English does indeed permit NPs that consist of ADJ and N, as in extraterrestrial life and great imaginatuion, as ewl as NPs consisting of DET and N and PP, as in those dishes on the table, the whake on the beach, and a cloud in the sky.

Prepositional Phrase

The notation PP stands for prepositional phrase, examples of which include in the car, from Ethiopia, in the attic, to his brither, with the earring and bythe judge. Because every PP consists of a prepositional (PREP0 and a noun phrase (NP), the phrase-structure rule for PP is this :

PP PREP NP

Rules For Rewriting Sentences and Verb Phrases

Every phrase-structure rule can generate a tree diagram, and this phrase-structure rule (rewrite S as NP and VP) would generate the following tree :

S

NP VP

Phrase-Structure Rules and Tree Diagrams

We have now formulated four phrase-structure rules :

S NP VP

NP (DET) (AJD) N (PP)

VP V (NP) (PP)

PP PREF (NP)

These rules represent the fact that every sentence has an NP and a VP; that every NP has an N; that every VP has a V; and that every PP has a PREP.

Refining The Phrase-Structure Rules

Now we examine certain other sentences to see whether they can be generated by the four phrase-structure rules above. Consider the following :

______ VP ____ ______________ VP _______________

The prosecutor changed [that Tom had embezzled]

V S

Other well-formed English sentences indicate that a VP can also consist of V NP PP S, as here :

_NP_ __________________________ VP _______________________________

Julia warned [the cook] [on Monday] [that he must wash the celery]

V NP PP S

this rule can be expanded into all the following, with an example of each given in parenthesis.

V (won)

V NP (won the race)

V NP S (warned the cook [that the must wash the celery])

V NP PP S (told the cook on Monday [that he must wash the celery])

VP

V S (charged [that Tom had embezzled funds])

V PP (flew to Tamworth)

V NP PP (won the bike in a contest)

V PP S (denied in court [that Pat flew to Tamworth])

GRAMATICAL FUNCTIONS :

SUBJECT, DIRECT OBJECT AND OTHERS

Using phrase-structure rules, it is possible to define subject and direct object precisely for English. In defining them, two rules are important :

S → NP VP

VP → V (NP) (PP) (S)

S

SUBJECT

VP

DIRECT OBJECT

NP

V

Subject is defined as the NP that is immediately dominated by S.

Direct object (again, in English and many other languages) is defined as an NP that is immediately by VP.

Grammatical Functions

Grammatical function is a term used to capture the syntactic relationship that exists in a clause between NPs or between an NP and its predicate-to indicate, in other words, the syntactic role that an NP plays in its clause.

Besides subject and direct object, sentences can have other grammatical function, such as indirect object (Tom sold his brother a car), and oblique (in Wnglish, object of a preposition, as in We spoke about the ghost).

SURFACE STRUCTURE AND DEEP STRUCTURES

The level that is represented by the linear string of morphemes and words as uttered or written is called a surface structure. The other level of structure is an abstract level underlying the surface structure. Structure at this level are called deep structures or underlying structure.

TRANSFORMATIONS

ü Subject-auxiliary Inversion

And wh-movement Transformations

In this section we explore two movement transformation, both of which are involved in forming interrogatives; we will then note the implications of these transformations for the underlying structure of every English sentence.

Closed Interogatives

Two principal kinds of interrogatives exist in English : ‘closed’ (used to ask questions for which there is a closed set of answers) and ‘open’ (used to ask questions for which there is an open-ended set of answers). Example :

Jhon was winning the race when he stumbled.

Was Jhon winning the race when he stumbled ?

Open Interrogatives

Open interrogative contain a wh-word (who, why, where, which, what, or how), which represents the information that is sought. Example :

(She was looking for Sigmund Freud today.)

Sha was looking for who today ?

ü Relative Clause Transformation

A relative clause is formed when one clause is embedded into an NP of another clause to produce structures like the following (relative clauses are underlined) :

The Academic Board dismissed [the lecturer who failed me].

TYPES OF TRANSFORMATIONS

Constraints on Transformations

One question that continues to challenge grammarians is whether and to what extent limitations exist on the kinds of transformational rules that operate in human language. We can illustrate the kinds of constraints that may exist by analyzing constraints on movement transformations.

Coordinated NP Constraint

In each of the two sets sentences below, the first example is a declarative, the second the corresponding open interrogative, the third a declarative in which the wh-word represents one of two coordinated noun phrases, and the fourth the ill-formed structure that would result if thewh-word were moved to the front of its clause.

a) John invited someone.

b) Who did jhon invite____?

c) John invited Grendel and someone

d) *Who did John invite Grendel and____?

Relative Clause Constraint

Extraction of wh-word from relative clauses is also blocked in English, as the sentences below indicate. As above, the first sentences in eavh set is a declarative containing an indefinite pronoun (hee something) corresponding to the wh-word in the interrogative. As you can see, when the wh-word is extracted from a relative clause (onclosed in brackets), an ungrammatical sentence is produced.

That was the book [that taught you abaut something].

*What was that the book [that taught you about_____]?