Syntax (3) Dr. Ansa Hameed. Previously…. Syntax: Paradigmatic study Sentence Phrases Clauses.

Syntax (3)

Dr. Ansa Hameed

Previously….

Syntax: Paradigmatic studySentencePhrasesClauses

Today’s Lecture

Syntax: Syntactic StudySyntactic???Syntactic Processes: Some major

typesSyntactic AnalysisImmediate Constituent AnalysisUltimate Constituent Analysis

Syntax: Syntactic

Syntactic is about horizontal relationship inside and between the sentences.

The syntactic literature dealing with the study of how sentences are structured throws us a hint that syntactic research should not only concern on how sentences are merged out of their parts, units, or constituents, but also on how constituents are moved according to certain rules

Syntactic ProcessesMajor syntactic processes are:1. Discontinuous Constituents

Type of sentences where continuation is broken by an interruptionJohn pulled the thief down.

He pulled down the thief.

2. ConjoiningIt occurs when elements are added or joined to other similar elements.John, Juli and Mary will present a play.

John will sing, Juli will dance and Mary will play.

Syntactic Processes

3. EmbeddingIt is embedding of a clause inside another one .Conjoining occurs in co-ordinate clauses where as in sub-ordinate clauses there is embedding.The boy is naughty.

The boy, who came here yesterday, is naughty.

Syntactic analysis

Syntactic analysis is a science of structure which deals with the different structural elements of a language. There are different types of analysis procedures:

1. Immediate Constituent Analysis (ICA)2. Ultimate Constituent Analysis (UCA)3. Phrase Structure Grammar (PSG)4. Transformational Generative Grammar (TGG)5. Modular Approaches in TGG6. Systemic (Functional) Grammar

Immediate Constituent Analysis (ICA)

It deals with the immediate binary division of a sentence.

Then, these two divisions are further divided in to two

This division of componential parts of the sentence is continued to the immediate constituents

This system was introduced by Bloomfield in 1939


The fundamental aim of immediate constituents analysis is to segment a set of lexical units into two maximally Independent sequences - immediate constituents .

The further segmentation of immediate constituents results in ultimate constituents:

“a” ,”black” ,“dress” , “ in” , “severe” , “style” .


An immediate constituent - is a word or a group of words that functions as a single unit within a hierarchical structure.

The linguistics procedure which divides sentences into their component parts or constituents in this way is known as constituent analysis.

The segmentation of the sentence up into its immediate constituents by using binary cuttings units its ultimate constituents are obtained is an important approach to the realization of the nature of language called Immediate Constituent Analysis (IC Analysis).


Poor John ran away.

S

Subject Predicate

Adjective Noun Verb Particle

Poor John ran away

ICA: Derivational Tree

{The + [small + lady]} + {[listened + (to + me)] + attentively}.

Immediate Constituent Analysis (ICA): Structure & Function

In ICs the relationship is analyzed and identified after each cut is made. The first cut yields structures that function as subject and predicate.

The boys shyly touched the puppy.

Structures: (NP) noun phrase (VP) verb phrase

Functions: Subject Predicate

The second cut yields structures that function as verbal element and complement (or object) within the predicate


Structures: VP NPFunctions: Verbal Element

Complement (Object)

Immediate Constituent Analysis (ICA): Structure & Function

Final Cut:


S. Det. Noun Adverb Verb Det. NounF. Mod. Head Modifier Head Mod. Head

Among other things, this type of analysis gives rise to the practice of referring to noun-headed and verb-headed structures when speaking of phrases. (1999, Herndon)


Use of Tree Diagrams in ICA

Tree structures express a fundamental insight of syntactic analysis. That insight is that sentences do not simply consist of strings of lexical categories. Rather, within any sentence, words are grouped together to form phrases, which then combine with each other to form still larger phrases and so on. (However this is only one way to present analysis there are others as well…. Next slides)


Several Models of IC AnalysisTo begin with, unlabelled

bracketing was used with parentheses or box diagrams.

He is a famous singer


Use of Chinese Brackets to show constituents

a. [the man bought a car] b. [[the man] [bought a car]] c. [[[the] [man]] [[bought] [a

car]]] d. [[[the] [man]] [[bought] [[a]

[car]]]]


Then labels like ‘modifier’, ‘head’, ‘qualifier’, were used to show the relationships among the constituents; this to some extent enriched IC analysis since a mere cutting into ICs did not provide very many insights. The labels show the positionally defined functions of ICs.

The man who lives near my house is a famous singer

HeadHead

Modifier H

H H

H QM H

M HM H

M H

H M

M H


Some linguistics used only category labels like noun phrases, verb phrases, prepositional phrases, etc. (NP, VP, Prep Ph, etc.).

This can also be shown in the form of the tree diagram. (The popular form… discussed previously)


Limitations of ICAImmediate constituent analysis

has its limitations. It is not possible to analyze such structures, for example, some sentences that are structurally similar but semantically they are different.

1. {Robert + [is easy + to flatter]}.2. {Robert + [is eager + to

flatter]}.


Limitations of ICAWhen the same string of words can be

associated with more than one tree structure, it is said to be structurally ambiguous.

“I bring new pens and pencil”I + (bring + {new + [pens and pencil]})I + (bring + {[new pens] + [and

pencil]}


Limitations of ICAIC analysis does not clarify the nature

and function of constituents words.

Solution:To meet the last limitation, further IC

analysis procedure was elaborated to clarify the class, type and function of constituent words. *


S.

NP Pred. Phr.

Marisa VG NP Adv.

Aux. V. for several years (Prep. Phr.)

play tennis

Tense Perf. Prog. Prep. NP

Adj N.

(Press.) (have-en) (be-ing) for several years

Marisa have been playing tennis for several years.

Immediate Constituent Analysis (ICA): Assumptions

1. The biggest linguistic unit or construction is sentence.

2. A sentence is constructed by phrases, and thus, can be analyzed into phrases.

3. A phrase is constructed by words, and thus, can be analyzed into words.

Ultimate Constituents Analysis

The ultimate constituent analysis of a sentence considers morpheme rather than a word (as in case of ICA) as ultimate constituent.

According to Hocket*, ‘morphemes are the elementary building blocks of the language in its grammatical aspects’


The ultimate constituents - are the smallest meaningful units which any given construction can be broken down to, consisting of, a morpheme at the morphological level and a word at the syntactic level.


The boys played with the footballs.

s

NP VP

Art N plural verb past prep art N plural

The boy -s play -ed with the football -s


For ultimate constituent analysis, the end of a word can be a prefix or a suffix, beyond which further division of a constituent is not possible.

Assignment

Please show the following sentences in form of Tree diagrams with respect to Immediate Constituent Analysis and Ultimate constituent Analysis.

(1) Leave the book on the shelf.(2) It has been raining since

morning.

Recap

Syntax: Syntactic StudySyntactic???Syntactic Processes: Some major

typesSyntactic AnalysisImmediate Constituent AnalysisUltimate Constituent Analysis

References Herndon, J.H. (1999). A Survey of modern grammars (2nd

Facsim ed.). Forth Worth, TX.: Hartcourt College Publishers. Verspoor, M., Sauter, K. (2000). English sentence analysis:

an introductory course. Philadelphia, PA. John Benjamins Publishing Co.

Falk, Julia. Linguistics and Language. 1978. Hocket, F. C. A Course in Modern Linguistics. New Delhi:

Oxford. 1958 Parsad, Tarni, A Course in Linguistics, 2012, New Dehli: PHI Strang, Barbara. Modern English Structure. Edward Arnold.

1968. Tallerman. Understanding Syntax. Valin, R. D. V. An Introduction to Syntax. Cambridge Press.

2001 Yule, George. The Study of Language. 1996.

Syntax (3) Dr. Ansa Hameed. Previously…. Syntax: Paradigmatic study Sentence Phrases Clauses.

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