Chapter 4 Syntax

4.1 What is syntax?4.2 Categories 4.3 Phrase structure rule4.4 Phrase elements4.5 Sentences4.6 Transformations

4.1 What is syntax?

Syntax is a branch of linguistics that studies how words are combined to form sentences and the rules1 that govern the formation of sentences. Note: 1. Syntactic rules in a grammar

account for the grammaticality of sentences, and the ordering of words and morphemes.

Syntax

Syntax involves our knowledge of structural ambiguity, our knowledge that sentences may be paraphrases of each other, and our knowledge of the grammatical function of each part of a sentence, that is, of the grammatical relations.

Syntax

It is also concerned with speakers' ability to produce and understand an infinite set of possible sentences. The sentence is regarded the highest-ranking unit of grammar, and therefore that the purpose of a grammatical description is to define, making use of whatever descriptive apparatus that may be necessary (rules, categories, etc).

4.2 Categories

4.2.1 Word-level categories 4.2.2

Phrase categories and their structures

4.2.1 Word-level 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.

The most central categories to the syntactic study are the word-level categories (traditionally, parts of speech)

Table 4-1 Examples of some lexical categories

Major lexical categories Examples

Noun (N) book, boy, love, sheep

Verb (V) run, read, play

Adjective (A) happy, tall, clear

Preposition (P) about, over, on

Major lexical categories Examples

Determiner (Det) the, a, this, those

Degree word (Deg) quite, very, more, so

Qualifier (Qual) often, always, seldom, almost

Auxiliary (Aux) must, should, can, might

Conjunction (Con) and, but, or

The criteria on which categories are determined

Word categories are not so clear-cut. Three criteria to determine a word’s

category:Meaning InflectionDistributionNote: The most reliable criterion of

determining a word’s category is its distribution.

4.2.2 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 form

ed Specifier — the words on the left side of the hea

ds Complement — the words on the right side of th

e heads

4.3 Phrase structure rule

Phrase structure rule 4.3.1 XP rule 4.3.2 Xˉ Theory 4.3.3 Coordination rule

Phrase structure rules The grammatical mechanism that regulates the arrang

ement 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.

Specifier X Complement

Head

XP

4.3.1 XP rule

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.

4.3.2 Xˉ Theory

XP (Specifier)X’ X’ X(complement)

X(head) complement

specifier

XP(Phrase level)

X’

4.3.3 Coordination rule Coordination structures-----the structures that are

formed by joining two or more elements of the same type with the help of a conjunction such as and, or, etc.

----Coordination has four important properties: no limit on the number of coordinated categories

before the conjunction; a category at any level can be coordinated; the categories must be of the same type; the category type of the coordinate phrase is

identical to the category type of the elements being conjoined.

4.4. Phrase elements

4.4.1 Specifier 4.4.2 Complements 4.4.3 Modifiers

4.4.1 Specifier

---- Semantically, specifiers make more precise the meaning of the head; syntactically, they typically mark a phrase boundary. Specifiers can be determiners as in NP, qulifiers as in VP and degree words as in AP.

4.4.2 Complements

---- Complements themselves can be a phrase, they provide information abut entities and locations whose existence is implied by the meaning of the head, e.g. a story about a sentimental girl; There can be no complement, one complement, or more than one complement in a phrase, e.g. appear, break, put…; a sentence-like construction may also function as a complement such as in “I believed that she was innocent. I doubt if she will come. They are keen for you to show up.” That/if /for are complementizers, the clauses introduced by complementizers are complement clause.

4.4.3 Modifiers

---- Modifiers specify optionally expressible properties of heads.

4.5 Sentences (The S rule)

S NP VP

S

NPVP

NP

Det N V Det N

A boy found the evidence

S NP infl VP

Many linguists believe that sentences, like other phrases, also have their own heads. Infl is an abstract category inflection (dubbed ‘Infl’) as their heads, which indicates the sentence’s tense and agreement.

InflP(=S)

NP VPInfl

Sentences (the S rule)

Infl realized by a tense label

InflP （ =S）NP VP

NP

Det N Infl V Det N

A boy Pst found the evidence

Infl realized by an auxiliary

InflP （ =S） VPNP

NP

Det N Infl V Det N

A boy will find the evidence

4.6 Transformations

4.6.1 Auxiliary movement 4.6.2 Do insertion 4.6.3 Deep structure and surface structure 4.6.4 Wh movement 4.6.5 Move α and constraints on transform

ations

4.6.1 Auxiliary movement

Inversion Move Infl to the left of the subject NP. Inversion (revised) Move Infl to C.

C

CP

S

Det N Infl V

the train will arrive

NP

4.6.1 Auxiliary movement

CP

SC NP

Infl Det N Infl V

Will the train e arrive

4.6.2 Do insertion Do insertion---- Insert interrogative do into an empty In

fl position. CP

C

S

NP Infl VPBirds fly

CP CP

C C

SS

Infl NP Infl VPNP Infl VPBirds do fly Do birds e fly

Figure-1

Figure-2 Figure-3

4.6.3 Deep structure and 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.

Deep structure and surface structure

Consider one more sentence:

Flying planes can be dangerous.

It can mean either that if you fly planes you are engaged in a dangerous activity or Planes that are flying are dangerous.

Deep structure----formed by the XP rule in accordance with the head’s sub-categorization properties; it contains all the units and relationships that are necessary for interpreting the meaning of the sentence.

Surface structure----corresponding to the final syntactic form of the sentence which results from appropriate transformations; it is that of the sentence as it is pronounced or written.

Deep structure and surface structure

The organization of the syntactic component

The XP rule

Deep structure

transformations

Surface structure

Subcategorization restricts choice of complements

4.6.4 Wh movement

Consider the derivation of the following sentences:

What languages can you speak?

What can you talk about?

These sentences may originate as:

You can speak what languages.

You can talk about what.

Wh movement

Wh-movement---- Move a wh phrase to the beginning of the sentence.

What language can you speak ?

What can you talk about ?

Wh movement Wh-movement---- Move a wh phrase to the spe

cifier position under CP. (Revised)

CP

VP

V NP

won the game

S

NP Infl

e Pst

NP C

Who

4.6.5 Move α and constraints on transformations

Inversion can move an auxiliary from the Infl to the nearest C position, but not to a more distant C position.

No element may be removed from a coordinate structure.