Handout Syntax - Introduction to Linguistics PDF

INTRODUCTION TO LINGUISTICS EN 201 HANDOUT AND REVIEWER SYNTAX: FORMING PHRASES, CLAUSES, AND SENTENCES TOPICS: SYNTACTIC DEVICES; SENTENCES; SYNTACTIC CONSTITUENCY; and SYNTACTIC CATEGORIES The...

INTRODUCTION TO LINGUISTICS EN 201 HANDOUT AND REVIEWER SYNTAX: FORMING PHRASES, CLAUSES, AND SENTENCES TOPICS: SYNTACTIC DEVICES; SENTENCES; SYNTACTIC CONSTITUENCY; and SYNTACTIC CATEGORIES The word syntax derives from the Greek word ‘syntaxis’, which means arrangement. According to Noam Chomsky, “syntax is the study of the principles and processes by which sentences are constructed in a particular language. Syntactic investigation of a given language has as its goal, the construction of a grammar that can be viewed as a device of some sort for producing the sentences of the language under analysis.” There are sets of rules for constructing full sentences out of words and phrases for there are different kinds of sentences based on structures and functions. Every language has a different set of syntactic rules but all languages have some form of syntax. In English, the smallest form of a sentence is a noun phrase (which might just be a noun or a pronoun) and a verb phrase (which may be a single verb). Adjectives and adverbs can be added to the sentence to provide further meaning. The essential basis of syntax is that words cannot be put together in just any order. Syntax refers to the rules that govern the ways in which words combine to forms phrases, clauses, and sentences. It simply means, we form or construct sentences. ANALYZE THIS… Man, who is the only rational being in earth, naturally seeks to know the reasons, causes, principles and explanations of visible phenomena, and delves into the ultimate whys and wherefores of all things, particularly those concerning his own life and destiny. Guide Questions: 1. What is the subject of the sentence? How many predicates are there? 2. What are the phrases? What kind of phrases are they? 3. What is the clause? What kind of clause is it? 4. Does the sentence express a complete thought? Explain. Topic 1: SYNTACTIC PROPERTIES & DEVICES Properties of linguistic expressions that dictate how they can syntactically combine with other expressions are word order and co-occurrence properties. CO-OCCURRENCE It must be considered to determine syntactic well-formedness. One lexical expression can dictate the structure of the rest of the sentence. There are three components of co-occurrence: arguments, adjuncts, and agreement. ❖ ARGUMENT ✓ are obligatory ✓ must occur only the number of times specifically required ✓ cannot be ordered freely (with exceptions…) An argument is a linguistic expression whose occurrence in a sentence is necessitated by the occurrence of some other expression. Examples: We watched. We watched a video. → a video is an argument of watch → The verb ‘watch’ requires a noun phrase argument. ❖ ADJUNCTS ✓ are optional ✓ can occur any number of times ✓ can be ordered freely with respect to one another (with exceptions…) An adjunct is a linguistic expression whose occurrence in a sentence with another expression is entirely optional. There may be several adjuncts for one expression while still maintaining grammaticality but the sentence works without them, too. Adjuncts are also called modifiers. The same expression can be an argument in one sentence and an adjunct in another one. It depends on how the expressions are syntactically combined. Examples: 1. Anna urged Andy to study Spanish. (Andy is an argument of urged) 2. Andy went to Spain to study. (adjunct) 3. Anna’s friend seemed nice. (argument of seemed) 4. Anna has a nice friend. (adjunct) 5. Andy ate the cake. ‘Ate’ requires an object (the cake) and the → Andy ate subject (Andy). The use of ‘ate’ triggers the → ate the cake need for an object and a subject to be grammatical, so ‘the cake’ and ‘Andy” are both arguments of ‘ate.’ Note: The non-subject arguments are also called complements. ‘The cake’ would be a complement of ‘ate,’ but not ‘Andy.’ ❖ AGREEMENT In English grammar, concord is another term for grammatical agreement between two words in a sentence, while government is that function which one word has over another, to cause it to assume some specific modification. *[This will be thoroughly discussed in Concord and Government.] WORD ORDER Word order is the linear order of words in a phrasal expression or sentence. Certain languages follow certain patterns of word order. Generally, changes in the pattern result ungrammaticality. Word order in linguistics normally refers to the order of subject (S), verb (V) and object (O) in a sentence. For example, in English the word order of a typical sentence is Subject-Verb-Object (S-V-O pattern). Examples: The dog bit the child. S V O The child bit the dog. The meaning of the sentence is changed. S V O The meaning of the sentence is not changed The child was bitten by the dog. though the word order is changed. O V S (passive) (prep. Phr.) English is an S-V-O language. Word order restrictions apply to more than subjects, verbs, and objects. Though languages are classified according to word order in this way, there are always exceptions. English word order is strict, but certain contexts can change it. What are the different word order patterns? Basic Sentence Patterns S-V-DO S-V S-V-DO-OC S-V-IO-DO S-V-DO-OP S-LV-C Yes-No Questions Patterns Do you know the answer? Yes, I know the answer. Is she the representative? Yes, she is the representative. Have you not seen her lately? I haven’t seen her lately?  Wh-Questions Patterns What is your name? My name is Anna. Whose flowers are these? These are mine. Negative Patterns Andy is not here. Andy is here. Do you not know the answer? Do you know the answer? "[A] characteristic of modern English, as of other modern languages, is the use of word-order as a means of grammatical expression. If in an English sentence, such as 'The wolf ate the lamb,' we transpose the positions of the nouns, we entirely change the meaning of the sentence; the subject and object are not denoted by any terminations to the words, as they would be in Greek or Latin or in modern German, but by their position before or after the verb." —(Logan Pearsall Smith, The English Language) FUNCTION WORDS AND CONTENT WORDS ❖ Content words are words that have meaning. They are words we would look up in a dictionary, such as ‘lamp,’ ‘computer,’ ‘drove.’ New content words are constantly added to the English language; old content words constantly leave the language as they become obsolete. Therefore, we refer to content words as an "open" class. Nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs are content parts of speech. ❖ Function words are words that exist to explain or create grammatical or structural relationships into which the content words may fit. Words like ‘of,’ ‘the,’ ‘to,’ ‘he,’ they have little meaning on their own (they are not defined, their functions are given in the dictionary). They are much fewer in number and generally do not change as English adds and omits content words. Therefore, we refer to function words as a "closed" class. Pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions, determiners, qualifiers/intensifiers, and interrogatives are some function parts of speech. SUBSTITUTION In English grammar, substitution is the replacement of a word or phrase with a ‘filler’ word (such as one, so, or do) to avoid repetition. Substitution is one of the methods of cohesion examined by M. A. K. Halliday and Ruqaiya Hasan in their influential text Cohesion in English (Longman, 1976). In substitution, there are two expressions [A]... [B] in the text: [A] could be repeated (as in [A]... [A]) but instead we ‘replace’ it with a substitute word or phrase [B]. Example: I bet you get married [A] before I get married [A]. → repetition  I bet you get married [A] before I do [B]. → substitution – using do as a substitute for get married Three Types of Substitution: ❖ One or Ones are the terms most commonly used for nominal substitution in English. Example: “Any people anywhere, being inclined and having the power, have the right to rise up, and shake off the existing government, and form a new one that suits them better.” (Abraham Lincoln, speech in the House of Representatives on the Mexican War, 1848) ❖ Verbal substitution is realized through an auxiliary verb (do, be, have), sometimes together with another substitute term such as so or the same. Examples: a) “Don't you ever read the Times, Watson? I've often advised you to do so if you want to know something.” (Christopher Lee as Sherlock Holmes in Sherlock Holmes and the Deadly Necklace, 1962) b) Niles: I'll have a decaf latte, and please be sure to use skim milk. Frasier: I'll have the same. (David Hyde Pierce and Kelsey Grammer in “You Can't Tell a Crook by His Cover.” Frazier, 1994) ❖ The clausal substitution is done by using so and not to substitute the previous clause. Example: Alan Garner: Hey guys, when's the next Haley’s comet? Stu Price: I don't think it's for like another sixty years or something. Alan Garner: But it's not tonight, right? Stu Price: No, I don't think so. (Zach Galifianakis and Ed Helms in The Hangover, 2009) Substitution is the replacement of one item by another and ellipsis is the omission of the item. If speakers wish to avoid repeating a word, they can use substitution or ellipsis. Example of Ellipsis: “The laws he formulated are now known as Newton's Laws of Motion. There are three laws. The first is that every body – a body is a material object of any sort in this term – everybody continues in a state of rest, or of uniform motion in a straight line, unless it is acted upon by a force.” Example of Reference: “Now, the concepts and ideas which we get from a study of Mechanics – things like force, work, energy and so on – are things that keep occurring when we try to  interpret physical phenomena, and therefore some understanding of them is essential if we're going to make headway in any study of Physics.” “It is important to point out differences between reference and ellipsis-substitution. One difference is that reference can reach a long way back in the text whereas ellipsis and substitution are largely limited to the immediately preceding clause. Another key difference is that with reference there is a typical meaning of co-reference. That is, both items typically refer to the same thing. With ellipsis and substitution, this is not the case. There is always some difference between the second instance and the first. If a speaker or writer wants to refer to the same thing, they use reference. If they want to refer to something different, they use ellipsis-substitution (Halliday 1985).” CONCORD AND GOVERNMENT In English grammar, concord is another term for grammatical agreement between two words in a sentence, while government is that function which one word has over another, to cause it to assume some particular modification. ❖ Negative Concord is popularly known as double negatives, a phenomenon in which more than one negative element occurs in a sentence, but the sentence is interpreted as only being negated once. Examples: “I ain’t never been drunk.” “I’ve never been drunk.” (Alabama English; Feagin 1979) “Nobody ain’t doin’ nothing’ wrong.” “Nobody is doing anything wrong.” (West Texas English; Foreman 1999) “I don’t never have no problems.” “I don’t ever have any problems.” (African American English; Green 2002) Negative concord can appear in a number of configurations. The configurations involve two types of negation: ✓ Sentential Negation refers to negation of the entire sentence achieved by negating the auxiliary or modal, such as by turning can to can’t or turning would to wouldn’t. ✓ Neg-words are negative words such as never, no, and nobody. The first type of negative concord is the co-occurrence of sentential negation with neg-words after the negated auxiliary or modal. Examples: “I don’t eat no biscuit.” (Alabama White English: Feagin 1979) “I ain’t never lost a fight.” (African American English; Labov 1972)  Secondly, it is also possible to have neg-words in the subject position co-occurring with sentential negation. Examples: “Nobody couldn’t handle him.” (Appalachian English: Wolfram & Christian 1976) “And neither of the boys can’t play a lick of it.” (Alabama White English: Feagin 1979) Thirdly, there can be co-occurrence of neg-words in an embedded clause with sentential negation in the main clause (with the possibility of neg-words in the main clause as well). Examples: “I don’ ‘spect I ever kin reckomember much no more.” (African Nova Scotian English: Schneider 1989) “I don’t feel like nobody pets me.” (Alabama White English: Feagin 1979) Finally, there can be sentential negation in both the main clause and the embedded clause (with the possibility of neg-words in either or both clauses). Examples: “We ain’t never really had no tornadoes in this area here that I don’t remember.” (Alabama White English: Feagin 1979) “It ain’t no cat can’t get in no coop.” (African American English; Labov 1972) ❖ Notional Agreement is logical agreement or semantic agreement (meaning of the sentence). In English grammar, it refers to agreement (or concord) of verbs with their subjects and of pronouns with their antecedent nouns on the basis of meaning rather than grammatical form. Some common cases of notional agreement involve: Collective Nouns (for example, ‘family’), Plural expressions of quantity (‘five years’), Plural proper nouns (‘United States’), and Compound units with and (‘bread and butter’) Examples: “I know that our Government are letting our troops down, big time.” (Jacqui Janes to Prime Minister Gordon Brown, quoted by Philip Webster, The Times, 2009) “Correctly, we suspect that the system is rigged, our government has become coin- operated and that we’ve been sidelined.” (Wendell Potter and Nick Penniman, Nation on the Take. Bloomsbury Press, 2016) “None of them were in court to hear the judges uphold their appeal.” (Steven Erlanger, “Terror Convictions Overturned in France.” The New York Times, 2009) “Eric Idle, Michael Palin and Terry Jones gave evidence in court while the other two surviving members, Gilliam and John Cleese, gave written evidence. None of them was in court to hear the ruling.” (Haroon Siddique, “Monty Python Film Producer Wins Royalties Case Against Comedy Team.” The Guardian [UK], 2013) ❖ Pronoun Agreement is the correspondence of a pronoun with its antecedent in number (singular, plural), person (first, second, third), and gender (masculine, feminine, neuter). Example: “Andy saw Anna on the street so he asked her about the assignment.” ❖ Proximity Agreement is the practice of relying on the noun that is closest to the verb to determine whether the verb is singular or plural (a.k.a. principle proximity, agreement by proximity, attraction, and bind agreement). Example: “You or I am wrong.” As stated in A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language (1985), “Conflict between grammatical concord and attraction through proximity tends to increase with the distance between noun phrase head of the subject and the verb” (proximity, attraction, and bind agreement). Example: “Either John or his sisters are bringing the dessert.” “Either girls or John is bringing the dessert.” Sometimes syntax itself makes it impossible to follow the agreement rule. (Observe the given sentence.) The verb cannot agree with both parts of the subject. Some believe that the verb should agree with the closer of the two subjects (The American Book of English Usage. Houghton Mifflin, 1996). ❖ Quantifier is a type of determiner (such as all, some, or much) that expresses a relative or indefinite indication of quantity. We use quantifiers when we want to give someone information about the number of something: how much or how many. Sometimes we use a quantifier in the place of a determiner. Examples: “Most children start school at the age of five.” “Some of us have eaten bread and butter.” “There were hundreds of people at the protest.” ❖ Subject-Verb Agreement is the correspondence of a verb with its subject in person (first, second, or third) and number (singular or plural). The principle of S – V agreement applies to finite verbs in the present tense, and in a limited way, to the past forms of the verb to be (was and were). Note: Singular subject needs a singular verb, and a plural subject needs a plural verb. Examples: “The girl reads mystery stories.” “The girls read mystery stories.” ❖ Synesis is a conventional grammatical term derived from a Greek word that means unification, sense, meeting, or realization. It is rhetorical device in which the traditional agreement of syntax is replaced by an agreement in its sense. In other words, synesis is a grammatical construction that in agreement with the sense instead of the strict syntax. It is used to highlight the words’ construction according to the sense not its morphosyntactic form. Example: “Fat, drunk, and stupid is no way to go through life, son.” (Animal House by Harold RAmis, Douglas Kenney and Chris Miller) “If anyone calls, tell them I am out.” Types of Synesis: ✓ Notional concord or notional agreement [which was discussed previously] ✓ Situational agreement involves the singular and the plural forms of a word being the same. Its singularity or plurality depends upon the interpretation or intentional emphasis of the writer or speaker. Example of Synesis in Literature: “What’s the use you learning to do right, when it’s troublesome to do right and it ain’t no trouble to do wrong, and the wages is just the same?” (The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain) “For, after all, how do we know that two and two make four? Or that the force of gravity works? Or that the past is unchangeable? If both the past and the external world exist only in the mind, and if the mind itself is controllable—what then?” (1984 by George Orwell)  In the lines in the first example, the writer uses plural form of “wage,” with the auxiliary verb “is,” which is syntactically wrong. However, the agreement of the words is made in accordance with the sense, which is to say it is singular in a sense, but plural in form. In the excerpt in the second example, the grammatical construction of the words “two and two make four,” which should be “makes” instead of “make,” the arrangement is not made in morphosyntactic form. Instead, the words are arranged according to their logic. COORDINATION OR CONJOINING Coordination is a syntactic phenomenon in which two or more elements, known as conjuncts, are linked together, often with a conjunction (also known traditionally as a coordinating conjunction). Coordination gives equal emphasis to words and ideas as well as clauses. Use a coordinating conjunction when you want to give equal emphasis to two main clauses. It is too wordy to say: “John takes cream and John takes sugar”. It is better to say: “John takes cream and sugar.” Examples: 1. Covid19 is an infectious disease. Covid19 is a new kind of disease. → Covid19 is a new kind of infectious disease. 2. Thomas will be late to work. He has a dental appointment. → Thomas will be late to work for he has a dental appointment. 3. Beth wanted to eat another piece of cake. She was on a diet. → Beth was on a diet but she wanted to eat another piece of cake. → Beth wanted to eat another piece of cake but she was on a diet. SUBORDINATION OR EMBEDDING Subordination establishes the dependence of one idea on another by shifting emphasis away from supporting elements so that major statements emerge clearly. You can subordinate single words, phrases, and clauses by using subordinating conjunctions (like after, because, if, since, when, although, unless, etc.) or by embedding words and ideas. Embedding compresses a great deal of information into a few words by establishing subordination. In some sentences, one idea depends on another. One condition or event may cause another; one event may come before another; one observation may explain another. Example: 1. John and Mary exercised. After John and Mary had ridden their bikes and swum in the pool for exercise, they were tired at the end of the day. 2. They have bikes. 3. They rode them. John and Mary were tired at the end of the day because they 4. They swam in the pool. had ridden their bikes and swum in the pool for exercise. 5. They got tired. John and Mary, after riding their bikes and swimming in the 6. The day ended. pool for exercise, were tired at the end of the day. This is in opposition to the function of coordination or conjoining. It gives additional and attachment function to the sentence. It can be seen by its English relatives and subordinating conjunctions. Both clauses ✓ “John who likes sugar” (attribute/modifier) need the head of ✓ “When John drinks coffee” (attribute/modifier) the construction. ENDOCENTRIC AND EXOCENTRIC An endocentric compound is one that has a head. The head expresses the core meaning of the compound, and it belongs to the same lexical category as the compound ‘as a whole’ (Aronoff and Fudeman, 2011). The term endocentric means that the semantic head is ‘inside’ (endo-) the compound. Examples: textbook mail-carrier caveman white house three little pigs ladies and gentlemen An exocentric compound is headless and its meaning often cannot be transparently guessed from its constituent parts. Examples: pickpocket bedroom bunny dog-tired white collar hogwash sweet tooth In endocentric compound, the whole meaning can be figured out by an analysis of its parts or ‘morphemes’ (semantically transparent), whereas in exocentric compound, the whole meaning cannot be established by an analysis of parts (semantically opaque). Topic 2: SYNTACTIC CONSTITUENCY A constituent is a word or a group of words that form a unit built around a head, and function as a single unit within a hierarchical structure. They can be made up of words, phrases, and even entire clauses. The constituent structure of sentences is identified using tests for constituents. Although language seems to be spoken linearly, since the only way we can do language is by having one wordAlthough language follow another, seems toand sentences be spoken linearly, phrases since the are formed only way we by attaching can do language constituents to eachis other in by having one word a hierarchical followConsider construct. another,the sentences andsentences. following phrases are formed by attaching constituents to each other in a hierarchical construct. Consider the following sentence. We know intuitively who did what. Furthermore, we know that ‘Margo’ can stand alone as a simple subject. We know that ‘mistakenly’ modifies the verb ‘went’ but not the noun ‘Margo.’ “Margo mistakenly Since this is the case, then we know that ‘mistakenly went home’ went home with her is a unit since the verb ‘went’ must be accompanied by a place. cousin’s jacket.” We also know that ‘with her cousin’s jacket’ acts as a unit since leaving out any of its components renders it ungrammatical. So now we have a sentence parsed into its constituencies. [Margo] [mistakenly went home] [with her cousin’s jacket.] We also know that these constituents are arranged in a hierarchical order that cannot be altered. * [mistakenly went home] [Harriet] [with her cousin’s jacket.] * [with her cousin’s jacket] [Harriet] [mistakenly went home.] Note: Note:Constituents Constituentscan cancontain contain constituents. constituents. [Margo, who just purchased a Jaguar,] [mistakenly went home] [with her cousin’s jacket]. So now within the constituent ‘Margo’ we have the constituent ‘who just purchased a Jaguar.’ Again, we know that ‘who just purchased a Jaguar’ is found in the constituent ‘Margo’ because if it is moved to another position in the sentence, we have an ungrammatical structure. *[Margo] [mistakenly went home, who just purchased a Jaguar] [with her cousin’s jacket]. The fact that sentences are constructed of constituents that are arranged in a hierarchical order is supported by the fact that when brackets are moved showing a different grouping of words, meaning is altered. Examine my examples below. A. [Jack and Jill]’s grandmother left the party. B. [Jack] and [Jill’s grandmother] left the party. Description: “In sentence A, ‘Jack and Jill’ have the same grandmother, whereas in sentence B ‘Jack’ and ‘Jill’s grandmother’ are two different entities.” PHRASAL HEADS The ‘head’ or the word around which the constituent is built determines the grammatical properties of its constituent. In the example phrase ‘the cheese bread’, ‘bread’ is the word around which the phrase is built. It is the head of the phrase. Since bread is a noun, ‘the cheese bread’ is a noun phrase, or NP. A head can be one word such as ‘Margo’. Take Note: Study the tree diagrams below. NP In this tree, the head is the final node ‘N’ which contains the Spec N1 noun ‘Margo’. A constituent can contain other words that N modify the head. Margo  NP Det N1 In this tree, the head ‘boots’ is found in the final N node. Each Her AP N1 of the other nodes contains words that modify ‘boots.’ Polished boots Constituency vs Dependency Grammars Not all syntacticians agree about how to understand and describe the internal structure of sentences. The two schools of thought are the phrase structure (or Constituency) grammar tradition (PSG), and the dependency grammar tradition. We will focus here on phrase structure grammars (hereafter PSGs), as most post-Chomskyan grammars fall into this category, and because phrase structure rules are only relevant under PSGs. The primary difference between the two traditions is how they conceive the initial division of a sentence. PSGs begin hierarchical analysis by dividing the subject (NP) from the predicate (VP). Dependency grammars see this division as artificial, and understand sentences to be built around their root verb and its valance, or requisite number of NP arguments. CONSTITUENCY TESTS Most often a speaker has an intuition as to which strings of word form a constituent. However, when this information is not clear, various ‘tests’ can be applied to identify the constituent structure of a sentence. In this lesson, we will discuss an explanation of the constituency tests most often used. A string of words need pass only test as evidence of a constituent. Furthermore, not every test will work in every situation. The tests included here have been selected for their broad applicability. 1. The Question Test – Can the candidate constituent be used to answer a question? If a group of words can answer a question, it most likely is a constituent. Let us look at this… Example: [The French cooks] [love to bake] [chocolate eclairs]. Question: Who loves to bake chocolate eclairs? Answer: ‘The French cooks’ (but not by ‘The French’, or ‘The French cooks love’). 2. The Movement Test – Can the candidate constituent be moved elsewhere in the sentence while maintaining grammaticality? The ability to move, or topicalize a string of words, resulting grammatical sentence is evidence of a constituent. Examples: A. No one would ride in the car with Henry [because he had not showered.] B. [Because he had not showered], no one would ride in the car with Henry.  Analysis: We can topicalize ‘because he hadn’t showered’ and maintain grammaticality. C. [Because he had not] no one would ride in the car with Henry showered. Analysis: However, if only a subset of this constituent is moved, an ungrammatical sentence result. 3. The Substitution/Replacement Test – Can the candidate constituent be replaced with a pro- form? The ability to replace a string of words with an NP or VP pro-form is evidence of a constituent. Examples: [Ted and his classmates] help Ms. Vergara. Substitution: [They] help Ms. Vergara. 4. The Ellipsis Test – Can the candidate constituent be deleted? A constituent may be, in certain structures, elided or deleted. If the entire constituent is not included in the deletion, the result is ungrammatical structure. Example: ✓ After the hosts taste the wine, then we will. (taste the wine) X After the hosts taste the wine, then we will taste. (the wine) 5. The Passivization Test – Can the candidate constituent change places with a different argument in the sentence? If the subject and object can be reversed, or found in differing locations in a passive construction, and result in a grammatical sentence, we can reliably say that each argument is a constituent. In passivization, the object moves to the subject position and the subject is lowered to an optional ‘by phrase’. Example: [The foolish five-year old] teased [Susan’s remarkably short brother.] [Susan’s remarkably short brother] was teased by [the foolish five-year old.] 6. The Coordination Test – Can the sentence be modified so that the candidate constituent appears coordinated with a structurally similar constituent? If a phrase can be paired with another of the same syntactic category using a coordinating conjunction, then it forms a constituent. Example: A. The farmer tilled the soil. Analysis: We can test the VP [‘tilled the soil’] by adding another VP. B. The farmer [tilled the soil] and [planted some seeds]. VP VP  C. The farmer [tilled the soil] and [some seeds]. → ungrammatical Analysis: We can say that sentence B is an indication that [tilled the soil] is a constituent. So, you now have a better understanding of the term ‘constituency.’ Drawing syntactic trees can be quite challenging. However, being able to identify constituents simplifies the process. Understanding the concept of constituents is also the key in examining issues in speech perception and speech pathology. Topic 3: SYNTACTIC CATEGORIES A syntactic category is a set of words and/or phrases in a language which share a significant number of common characteristics. The classification is based on similar structure and sameness of distribution (the structural relationships between these elements and other items in a larger grammatical structure), and not on meaning. In generative grammar, a syntactic category is symbolized by a node label in a constituent structure tree. A syntactic category is a kind of syntactic unit that theories of syntax assume. Word classes, largely corresponding to traditional parts of speech (e.g. noun, verb, preposition, etc.), are syntactic categories. In phrase structure grammars, the phrasal categories (e.g. noun phrase, verb phrase, prepositional phrase, etc.) are also syntactic categories. Dependency grammars, however, do not acknowledge phrasal categories (at least not in the traditional sense). Word classes considered as syntactic categories may be called lexical categories, as distinct from phrasal categories. The terminology here is by no means consistent, however. Many grammars also draw a distinction between lexical categories (which tend to consist of content words, or phrases headed by them) and functional categories (which tend to consist of function words or abstract functional elements, or phrases headed by them). The term lexical category therefore has two distinct meanings. Moreover, syntactic categories should not be confused with grammatical categories (also known as grammatical features), which are properties such as tense, gender, etc. Three Criteria Used in Defining Syntactic Categories: 1. The type of meaning it expresses 2. The type of affixes it takes 3. The structure in which it occurs For example, many nouns in English denote concrete entities, they are pluralized with the suffix -s, and they occur as subjects and objects in clauses. Many verbs denote actions or states, and they are conjugated with agreement suffixes (e.g. -s of the third person singular in English), and in English they tend to show up in medial positions of the clauses in which they appear. The third criterion is also known as distribution. The distribution of a given syntactic unit determines the syntactic category to which it belongs. The distributional behavior of syntactic units is identified by substitution. Like syntactic units can be substituted for each other. Additionally, there are also informal criteria one can use to determine syntactic categories. For example, one informal means of determining if an item is lexical, as opposed to functional, is to see if it is left behind in ‘telegraphic speech’ (that is, the way a telegram would be written; for instance, “Pants fire. Bring water, need help.”) LEXICAL CATEGORIES VS. PHRASAL CATEGORIES The traditional parts of speech are lexical categories, in one meaning of that term. Traditional grammars tend to acknowledge approximately eight to twelve lexical categories. Examples of Lexical Categories: ✓ adjective (A) ✓ adposition (preposition, postposition, circumposition) (P) ✓ adverb (Adv) ✓ coordinate conjunction (C) ✓ determiner (D) ✓ interjection (I) ✓ noun (N) ✓ particle (Par) ✓ pronoun (Pr) ✓ subordinate conjunction (Sub) ✓ verb (V) The lexical categories that a given grammar assumes will likely vary from this list. Certainly, numerous subcategories can be acknowledged. For instance, one can view pronouns as a subtype of noun, and verbs can be divided into finite verbs and non-finite verbs (e.g. gerund, infinitive, participle, etc.). The central lexical categories give rise to corresponding phrasal categories. Examples of Phrasal categories: ✓ adjective phrase (AP) ✓ adverb phrase (AdvP) ✓ adposition phrase (PP) ✓ noun phrase (NP) ✓ verb phrase (VP) In terms of phrase structure rules, phrasal categories can occur to the left of the arrow while lexical categories cannot, for instance, NP → D - N. Traditionally, a phrasal category should consist of two or more words, although conventions vary in this area. X-bar theory, for instance, often sees individual words corresponding to phrasal categories. Phrasal categories are illustrated with the following trees: The lexical and phrasal categories are identified according to the node labels, phrasal categories receiving the ‘P’ designation. Lexical Categories are illustrated with the following trees: Dependency grammars do not acknowledge phrasal categories in the way that phrase structure grammars do. What this means is that the distinction between lexical and phrasal categories disappears, the result being that only lexical categories are acknowledged. The tree representations are simpler because the number of nodes and categories is reduced. The distinction between lexical and phrasal categories is absent here. The number of nodes is reduced by removing all nodes marked with ‘P’. Notice, however, that phrases can still be acknowledged as any subtree that contains two or more words will qualify as a phrase. For the Chomskyan grammars (Transformational Grammar, Government and Binding Theory, Minimalist Program), the distinction between lexical and functional categories plays a big role, where the role of the functional categories is large, whereas for the Dependency grammars, the distinction between lexical and phrasal categories disappears, the result is that only lexical categories are acknowledged. LEXICAL CATEGORIES VS. FUNCTIONAL CATEGORIES Many grammars describe a distinction between lexical categories and functional categories. This distinction is orthogonal to the distinction between lexical categories and phrasal categories. In this context, the term lexical category applies only to those parts of speech and their phrasal counterparts that form open classes and have full semantic content. Functional categories are the parts of speech that form closed classes and have mainly just functional content. Examples of Lexical Categories: ✓ adjective (A) and adjective phrase (AP) ✓ adverb (Adv) and adverb phrase (AdvP) ✓ noun (N) and noun phrase (NP) ✓ verb and verb phrase (VP) ✓ preposition and prepositional phrase (PP) Examples of Functional Categories: ✓ coordinate conjunction (C) ✓ determiner (D) ✓ negation (Neg) ✓ particle (Par) ✓ preposition (P) and prepositional phrase (PP) ✓ subordinate conjunction (Sub) There is disagreement in certain areas, for example, concerning the status of prepositions. The distinction between lexical and functional categories performs a big role in Chomskyan grammars (Transformational Grammar, Government and Binding Theory, Minimalist Program), where the role of the functional categories is large. Many phrasal categories are assumed that do not agree directly to a specific part of speech, for instance, inflection phrase (IP), tense phrase (TP), agreement phrase (AgrP), focus phrase (FP). To recognize such functional categories, one must assume that the pattern is a primitive of the theory and that it exists separately from the words that appear. Therefore, many grammar frameworks do not acknowledge such functional categories, like the Head Driven Phrase Structure Grammar, and Dependency Grammar. Topic 4: SENTENCES “A sentence is a set of words that is complete in itself, typically containing a subject and predicate, conveying a statement, question, exclamation, or command, and consisting of a main clause and sometimes one or more subordinate clauses.” (Oxford Dictionary) “A sentence is a group of words, usually containing a verb, that expresses a thought in the form of a statement, question, instruction, or exclamation and starts with a capital letter when written.” (Cambridge English Dictionary)  “A sentence is a word, clause, or phrase or a group of clauses or phrases forming a syntactic unit which expresses an assertion, a question, a command, a wish, an exclamation, or the performance of an action, that in writing usually begins with a capital letter and concludes with appropriate end punctuation, and that in speaking is distinguished by characteristic patterns of stress, pitch, and pauses.” (Merriam-Webster Dictionary) FAVORITE SENTENCE TYPES Sentences relate through order, position, and within a sentence, are distinguished by modulation, paratactic arrangement, and features of selection. Languages have two great sentence-types which we may call full sentences and minor sentences. Favorite forms are usually full; commonly distinguished are actor-action (statement and question) and commands. Bipartite favorites are commonly called predications, with an object-like subject and predicate. ❖ Actor–action phrases: phrases whose structure is that of the actor-action construction. Example: John ran away. Who ran away? Did John run away? ❖ Command: an infinitive verb with or without modifiers. It is always spoken with exclamatory sentence-pitch; the infinitive may be accompanied by the word you as an actor. Example: Come. Be good. You be good. Minor sentences tend to be completive or exclamatory. Selective features eliminate bound forms as sentences; forms which occur as sentences are free, a free form, consisting entirely of two or more lesser free forms is a phrase. A free form which is not a phrase is a word. The meaning of the full sentence-type is something like ‘complete and novel utterance’—that is, the speaker implies that what he says is a full-sized occurrence or instruction, and that it somehow alters the hearer’s situation. The more deliberate the speech, the more likely are the sentences to be of the full type. ARRANGEMENT IN ENGLISH SENTENCES AND SELECTION CLASSES Sentences may be arranged in four basic ways, each creating a different emphasis. ▪ The loose sentence places the main point at the beginning and then adds the explanatory material. It is a sentence structure in which a main clause is followed by one or more coordinate  or subordinate phrases and clauses. As Felicity Nussbaum points out, a writer may use loose sentences to give “the impression of spontaneity and vernacular immediacy” (The Autobiographical Subject, 1995). Examples: 1. Open office windows can create many problems, including higher heating and cooling costs, distracting street noise or pollution, and some potentially dangerous situations. 2. “We observe today not a victory of party but a celebration of freedom, symbolizing an end as well as a beginning, signifying renewal as well as change.” (John F. Kennedy) ▪ The cumulative sentence presents the main idea somewhere in the middle, with explanatory material before and after. It is an independent clause followed by a series of subordinate constructions (phrases or clauses) that gather details about a person, place, event, or idea. Contrast with periodic sentence. Also called cumulative style or right-branching. Example: 1. While it may seem a harmless situation, open office windows can create problems, not the least of which is the potential for birds and other animals to enter the building. In “Notes Toward a New Rhetoric,” Francis and Bonniejean Christensen observe that after the main clause (which is often stated in general or abstract terms), “the forward movement of the [cumulative] sentence stops, the writer shifts down to the lower level of generalization or abstraction or to singular terms, and goes back over the same ground at this lower level.” In short, they conclude that “the mere form of the sentence generates ideas.” Example: 1. "He dipped his hands in the bichloride solution and shook them--a quick shake, fingers down, like the fingers of a pianist above the keys." (Sinclair Lewis, Arrowsmith, 1925) ▪ The periodic sentence presents supporting details first, saving the main idea for the end. It is a long and frequently involved sentence, marked by suspended syntax, in which the sense is not completed until the final word—often with an emphatic climax. Also called a period or a suspended sentence. Contrast with loose sentence and cumulative sentence. Examples: 1. Renewable energy resources, like wind, solar, and geothermal, will be the answers to Earth’s energy problems. 2. “And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.” (The King James Bible, I Corinthians 13) ▪ The balanced sentence is a sentence made up of two parts that are roughly equal in length, importance, and grammatical structure. In contrast with a loose sentence, a balanced sentence is composed of a paired construction on the level of the clause. It is one that consists of two or more clauses or phrases that are parallel in structure. Examples: 1. “Buy a bucket of chicken and have a barrel of fun.” (KFC) 2. John borrowed a book from the library; took it to his house; read it thoroughly; and returned it the following day. Balanced sentences can come in a variety of forms. For instance, a balanced sentence that makes a contrast is called antithesis. Additionally, balanced sentences are considered rhetorical devices because they often sound unnatural to the ear, elevating the perceived intellect of the speaker. Examples: 1. “We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.” (Martin Luther King, Jr.) 2. “Love is an ideal thing, marriage a real thing.” (Goethe) SELECTION CLASSES Selection Classes Based on Inflections: There are eight regular morphological inflections, or grammatically marked forms, that English words can take: 1. Plural 5. Present participle 2. Possessive 6. Past participle 3. Third-person singular present tense 7. Comparative degree 4. Past tense 8. Superlative degree Irregular Inflectional Morphology: The so-called irregular inflectional morphology or morphological processes (such as internal vowel change or ablaut, like sing – sang – sung) today represent limited historical remnants of former grammatical inflectional systems which were probably semantically based and are now acquired lexically for frequently used lexical items rather than as grammatical systems (Tobin 1993: Ch. 12). Selection Classes based on Usage ✓ Open class (Content words) ✓ Closed class (Function words) EXPANSION OF SIMPLE SENTENCES How to expand a simple sentence? The job of grammar is to organize words into sentences, and there are many ways to do that. Simple Sentence: The designers produced a display. A. Subjects, Verbs, and Objects: The basic parts of a sentence are the subject, the verb, and (often, but not always) the object. The subject is usually a noun—a word that names a person, place, or thing. The verb (or predicate) usually follows the subject and identifies an action or a state of being. An object receives the action and usually follows the verb. B. Compounding: It means adding additional information to the sentence. The designers worked and produced a display. C. Adjectives and Adverbs: A common way of expanding the basic sentence is with modifiers— words that add to the meanings of other words. The simplest modifiers are adjectives and adverbs. The designers worked hard and produced an excellent display. D. Prepositional Phrases: Like adjectives and adverbs, prepositional phrases add meaning to the nouns and verbs in sentences. A prepositional phrase has two basic parts: a preposition plus a noun or a pronoun that serves as the object of the preposition. The designers have worked hard for one week and produced an excellent display of wedding gown designs at the convention. E. Coordination: A common way to connect related words, phrases, and even entire clauses is to coordinate them—that is, connect them with basic coordinating conjunctions. The designers have worked hard for one week and produced an excellent display of wedding gown designs at the convention, but only a few attended the program. F. Adjective Clause: To show that one idea in a sentence is more important than another, we rely on subordination—that is, treating one-word group as secondary (or subordinate) to another. One common form of subordination is the adjective clause—a word group that modifies a noun. The most common adjective clauses begin with one of these relative pronouns: who, which, and that. The designers who planned the event have worked hard for one week and produced an excellent display of wedding gown designs at the convention, but only a few attended the program. G. Adverb Clauses: Like an adjective clause, an adverb clause is always dependent on (or subordinate to) an independent clause. Like an ordinary adverb, an adverb clause usually modifies a verb, though it can also modify an adjective, an adverb, or even the rest of the sentence in which it appears. An adverb clause begins with a subordinating conjunction—an adverb that connects the subordinate clause to the main clause. The designers who planned the event have worked hard for one week and produced an excellent display of wedding gown designs at the convention, but only a few attended the program because it was done in Marawi City. H. Participial Phrase: A participle is a verb form used as an adjective to modify nouns and pronouns. All present participles end in -ing. The past participles of all regular verbs end in - ed. Irregular verbs, however, have various past participle endings. Participles and participial phrases can add vigor to our writing as they add information to our sentences. Excited to showcase their talents, the designers who planned the event have worked hard for one week and produced an excellent display of wedding gown designs at the convention, but only a few attended the program because it was done in Marawi City. I. Absolute Phrases: They are optional in sentences, i.e., they can be removed without damaging the grammatical integrity of the sentence. Since absolute phrases are optional in the sentence, they are often set off from the sentence with commas or, less often, with dashes. We normally explain absolute phrases by saying that they modify entire sentences, rather than one word. This is an important concept, since many similar phrases that we work with modify other words. Their determination stronger than ever, the designers who planned the event have worked hard for one week and produced an excellent display of wedding gown designs at the convention, but only a few attended the program because it was done in Marawi City. J. Appositive: It is a word or group of words that identifies or renames another word in a sentence—most often a noun that immediately precedes it. Appositive constructions offer concise ways of describing or defining a person, place, or thing. Excited to showcase their talents, the designers who planned the event have worked hard for one week and produced an excellent display of wedding gown designs at the convention, Annual Designers Guild, but only a few attended the program because it was done in Marawi City. ALTERATION OF SIMPLE SENTENCES A. Simple Tenses Present Tense: President Duterte declares Martial Law. Past Tense: President Duterte declared Martial Law two months ago. Future Tense: President Duterte will declare Martial Law. B. Progressive Tenses Present Progressive Tense: President Duterte is now declaring Martial Law. Past Progressive Tense: President Duterte was declaring Martial Law when two explosion occurred in Marawi City. Future Progressive Tense: President Duterte will be declaring Martial Law when the court agrees on its terms. C. Perfect Tenses Present Perfect Tense: President Duterte has declared Martial Law recently. Past Perfect Tense: President Duterte had declared Martial Law before Maute group occupied all areas of Marawi province. Future Perfect Tense: President Duterte will have declared Martial Law by next month. FOUR FUNCTIONAL TYPES OF SENTENCES A. A declarative sentence makes a statement. President Duterte declared Martial Law two months ago. B. An interrogative sentence poses a question. 1. Did President Duterte declare Martial Law two months ago? 2. Who declared Martial Law on May 2017? 3. Why did President Duterte declare Martial Law? C. An imperative sentence gives instructions or expresses a request or demand. 1. Arrest the members of the Maute group. 2. Soldiers, follow my instruction, and be ready to fight for Marawi City. D. An exclamatory sentence expresses strong feelings by making an exclamation: 1. To my critics, if you don’t have something good to say… shut up! 2. What a nice comment! FOUR BASIC SENTENCE STRUCTURES A. A simple sentence is a sentence with just one independent clause (also called a main clause). President Duterte declared Martial Law two months ago. B. A compound sentence contains at least two independent clauses. President Duterte declared Martial Law so the soldiers were able to apprehend some members of the Maute group. C. A complex sentence contains an independent clause and one or two dependent clauses. 1. President Duterte had declared Martial Law before Maute group occupied all areas of Marawi province. 2. President Duterte, who wished to have a lasting peace in Mindanao, declared Martial Law. D. A compound-complex sentence contains two or more independent clauses and at least one dependent clause. 1. President Duterte, who wished to have a lasting peace in Mindanao, declared Martial Law and the soldiers were able to apprehend some members of the Maute group. 2. President Duterte declared Martial Law so the soldiers were able to apprehend some members of the Maute group although they experienced some difficulty in locating them. VOICE OF THE VERB A. It is used when the subject is the doer of the action and it is emphasized in the sentence. 1. President Duterte declared Martial Law two months ago. 2. President Duterte has declared Martial Law recently. B. It is used when the receiver of the action is emphasized. The direct object is placed in the position of the subject. 1. Martial Law was declared by President Duterte two months ago. 2. Martial Law has been declared by President Duterte recently. COMPOUND SENTENCES A compound sentence contains two or more independent clauses joined together with coordinating conjunctions such as for, and, or, nor, but, yet and so. It is distinct from a complex sentence, which is an independent clause that is joined with a dependent clause. Note: An independent clause is a clause that contains three things: 1. A subject (something or someone that the sentence is about) 2. An action (a verb - something that is being done)  3. A complete thought (there are no questions as to meaning at the end of the sentence) MINOR SENTENCE TYPES A fragmented, elliptical, or incomplete sentence or clause that still conveys meaning is called a minor clause, an abbreviated clause, or a sentence fragment. There are several types of minor sentences and clauses in English. 1. Exclamations and interjections (Emotive sentences) Examples: Gee! Wow. Darn! Yes! No! 2. Aphoristic expressions (Short phrase that expresses a wise idea) Examples: “Like father, like son” 3. Answers to questions (Elliptic sentences) Examples: “Not right now.” “Yeah, sure.” 4. Self-identification Examples: “Mary here.” “Yep over here.” 5. Imperatives Examples: “Go!” “Stop!” 6. Vocatives Examples: “You over there!”  Minor sentences are used more often in speech and tweets than in formal written English. The use of the term minor to describe this sentence pattern in English has been attributed to both Leonard Bloomfield (Language, 1933) and Eugene Nida (dissertation, 1943; Synopsis of English Syntax, 1966). The problem with grammatical, or syntactic, definitions of the sentence is that not all sentences— even in English—are divisible into subject and predicate. Some sentence types make no internal syntactic structure; there is no distinction between subject and predicate: Small talk phrases: Hello. Good-bye. Good morning. Examples and observations: “That's the grub signal. All out for breakfast. First come, first served.” “Fire! Fire!” Minor Sentences at the Market: Often purchases may be made entirely with the use of minor sentence types Buyer: How much for these? Vendor: Fifty cents a dozen. Buyer: Too much. How about these over here? Well, how much for them? Vendor: Forty cents per. Buyer: All right. Vendor: A few sprigs of parsley too, then? Buyer: Okay. Vendor: Thanks. Good-bye. Stylistic Advice: Not all sentences contain verbs; completeness is not dependent on the presence of a finite verb. Grammarians do, however, put sentences without finite verbs in a special category of their own. “To return to the matter in hand” “What an absolutely perfect day!” Minor Sentences and Illocutionary Force: Minor clauses which function independently may have illocutionary force (being the communicative effect of an utterance) “Leave.” “Forward.”  Minor Sentences in Tweets: A decision also has to be made about how to handle minor sentences (yeah, wow, hey, haha, etc.), which are a noticeable feature of Twitter data. Presumably elements such as lol, omg, btw, smh, and emoticons should be categorized as minor sentences, even though some etymologically represent something more complex (laughing out loud, scratching my head). These appear in 25 tweets (17 percent) and are a major feature of the style of some tweeters, who can introduce three or four in a single message. “Haha, yeah that's the best language to speak lol.” SENTENCE: TREE DIAGRAM Tree diagrams are the notation that most syntacticians use to describe how sentences are organized in the mental grammar. The tree diagram is a newer method for diagraming sentences. It is most used by linguists and other academic professionals. In a tree diagram, a sentence is divided into two parts: a subject [noun phrase (NP)] and a predicate [verb phrase (VP)]. The NP and VP are groups of words that include a noun or verb and any words that add as modifiers. Examples: Sentence: A big dog jumped over the fence. Words: [A] [big] [dog] [jumped] [over] [the] [fence] Phrases: [[A] [big] [dog]] [[jumped] [[over] [[the] [fence]]]] NP NP PP VP Subject Predicate ✓ a big dog ✓ jumped over the fence NP VP Det Adj N V PP a big dog jumped P NP over Det N the fence  The noun phrase ‘a big dog’ is comprised of the indefinite article ‘a’, the adjective ‘big’ and the noun ‘dog’. The verb phrase ‘jumped over the fence’ consists of the verb ‘jumped’ and the prepositional phrase ‘over the fence.’ To better understand Tree Diagram, watch the “Crash Course Linguistics: Syntax 2 (Trees)” video on YouTube. The link is given in the Messenger Group. STUDY THE FOLLOWING EXAMPLES OF TREE DIAGRAM ❖ Rita buys the dress. S NP VP Rita V NP buys Det N the dress ❖ The old man is in his room. S NP VP Det Adj N V PP The old man is P NP in Det N his room ❖ This record contains an important information. S NP VP Det N V NP This record contains Det ADJ N an important information ❖ The family has seen the house with a spacious garden recently. S NP VP Det N VP NP Adv The family Aux V Det N PP recently has seen the house Prep NP with Det Adj N a spacious garden ❖ The famer tilled the soil and he planted some seeds. S1 S2 Conj S3 NP1 VP1 and NP3 VP2 Det1 N1 V1 NP2 Pron V2 NP4 The farmer tilled Det2 N2 he planted Det3 N3 the soil some seeds ❖ Last year, the family bought the house because it was really beautiful. S1 AdvP S2 Conj S3 Last year NP1 VP1 because NP3 VP2 Det1 N1 V1 NP2 Pron V2 AdjP the family bought Det2 N2 it was Adv Adj the house really beautiful  Notice that within each sentence, words are group into phrases. Phrases can be group together to form other phrases, and to form sentences. We use tree diagrams to depict this organization. They are called tree diagrams because they have lots of branches: each of these little lines that join things in the diagram is a branch. And every place where branches come together is a node. Nodes indicate a set of words that act together as a unit: each node corresponds to a group of words called a constituent. If a node has no other word, we call it terminal node. TREE DIAGRAM AS COMPARED TO REED-KELLOGG DIAGRAM The Reed-Kellogg diagram was considered an effective tool for students to visualize sentence structure, it had many limitations. It dispensed with traditional word order and used a variety of occasionally confusing symbols, meaning the resulting diagram was difficult to understand for anyone unfamiliar with the method. Sentence: The employees are pleased with the good news. REED-KELLOGG DIAGRAM Reed and Kellogg introduced girls are happy two core grammatical concepts: Constituency, how a word relates to the larger structure of a sentence, and news dependency, how a word is dependent upon each one that precedes it. TREE DIAGRAM The primary goal of a tree diagram is to illustrate these concepts in a that is S visibly apparent, even for those NP VP previously unfamiliar with sentence diagrams. Unlike a Reed-Kellogg Det N V AdjP diagram, the components are not The girls are Adj PP separated by slashes and other symbols. Instead, they descend from happy Prep NP the subject and predicate in the form of with Det Adj N lines acting as branches. This continues the good news until each noun or verb phrase is broken down into its simplest parts. Prepared by: MS. MAGI SORILLANO Asst. Professor