Syntax Part 1 Quiz 10

Syntax (Part 1)

• Syntax describes the rules languages use to combine words, phrases, clauses, and sentences. It also describes the relationships between the parts of a sentence.
• Syntax involves analyzing the structure/components of language.
• The key principle of syntax is recursion: phrases can contain phrases, clauses can contain clauses, meaning the structures of sentences can become complex in theory.

Three Syntactic Relations

• Constituency: A structure (y) is contained within a larger structure (x). For example, "The nights will turn very cold this week." The nights, will, turn, very cold and this week are all constituents of the sentence "The nights will turn very cold this week." The 'immediate constituents' are only the ones in the immediate level, not its constituents.
• Complementation: Two or more structures (x and y) need each other to form a larger structure (z). For example, "this week" - both 'this' and 'week' need each other to form the phrase.
• Modification: A structure (x) is accompanied by another structure (y) that clarifies the scope or content without changing the core structure. For example, "very cold" modifies the word 'cold' to add more detail, but the word 'cold' still functions as an adjective in the sentence.

The Single Most Important Concept in Syntax

• Syntactic constructions are defined by a limited number of functional slots that can be filled by a virtually unlimited number of formal realisations.
• Crucial to be able to distinguish what the function (how something works in a sentence) and form (appearance of word) of a constituent is.

Form vs. Function

• Form and function are not a one-to-one relationship. A single form can have multiple functions and a single function can have multiple forms within language.
• Distinguish between these elements when analyzing the structure of words in sentences.

The Forms of English Syntax: Words

• Words are traditionally grouped by meaning or notional word classes, but this is not a satisfactory approach, as different parts of speech can work in similar ways.
• Structural/distributional approaches are better: parts of speech are defined by how they appear in phrases.

The Forms of English Syntax: Phrases

• English does not divide into words, but rather phrases, clauses and sentences.
• Sentences contain clauses, which in turn contain phrases (which contain words), for greater complexity
• Phrases can be discontinuous
• Examples of phrases include: Verb phrase, Noun phrase, Adjective phrase, Adverb phrase, and Prepositional phrase

The Forms of English Syntax: Clauses

• A clause consists of a verb phrase plus its components and modifiers.
• The form of the verb determines whether the clause is finite or non-finite.
• Parts of clauses may be absent functionally despite having structure.

The Forms of English Syntax: Sentences

• A sentence is a syntactically independent structure made up of at least one finite clause.
• Many different constituents (phrases, and clauses) can form part of a sentence.

Verb Phrase

• The first element of a verb phrase determines if the phrase (and thus the clause) is finite or non-finite.
• Lexical, primary, and modal verbs are subdivided further.

Noun Phrase

• Determiners, premodification, head, and postmodification make up the noun phrase's components

Adjective Phrase

• Consists of premodification, head, and postmodification elements

Adverb Phrase

• Consists of premodification, head, and postmodification elements

Prepositional Phrase

• The preposition is the head component. It is followed by a complement.