Chapter 8 - Syntax (Part 1) PDF

ENGL 312 General Linguistics Dr Abdulqader Alyasin Chapter 8 Syntax (part 1) Overview By the end of the chapter, you should be able to: ❑ Understand syntactic rules. ❑ Identify differences between deep and surface structures. ❑ Recognize structural ambiguity (at sentence level). ❑ Demonstrat...

ENGL 312 General Linguistics Dr Abdulqader Alyasin Chapter 8 Syntax (part 1) Overview By the end of the chapter, you should be able to: ❑ Understand syntactic rules. ❑ Identify differences between deep and surface structures. ❑ Recognize structural ambiguity (at sentence level). ❑ Demonstrate understanding of syntactic analysis, phrase structure rules, lexical rules and tree diagrams. Discuss: 1. What do you know about syntax? 2. How is syntax related to English language teaching?  Intro When we concentrate on the structure & ordering of components within a sentence = studying the syntax of a language. Syntax (originally Greek) = ‘putting together’/ ‘arrangement’ Syntactic Rules  When we set out to provide an analysis of the syntax of a language, we try to adhere to the “all and only” criterion. This means that our analysis must account for: all the grammatically correct phrases and sentences and only those grammatically correct phrases and sentences in whatever language we are analyzing. In other words, if we write rules for the creation of well-formed structures, we have to check that those rules won’t also lead to ill-formed structures.  Grammar will generate all the well-formed structures of the language Grammar will not generate any ill-formed structures. Example: We might say informally that, in English, a preposition (e.g. near) + a noun (e.g. London) = a prepositional phrase (near London). If we follow this rule, we will produce phrases like *near tree or *with dog. We clearly need to be more careful in forming this rule. a preposition + a noun phrase (not just a noun) = a prepositional phrase. NP {Art (Adj) N, Pro, PN} The revised rule can produce these well-formed structures: near London, with you, near a tree, with the dog 1. A Generative Grammar When we have an effective rule such as “a prepositional phrase in English consists of a preposition followed by a noun phrase,” we can imagine an extremely large number of English phrases that could be produced using this rule. Example: In the garden ….. In fact, the potential number is unlimited. to have a small and finite (limited) set of rules that This reflects another goal of syntactic will be capable of producing a large and infinite analysis, which is: (unlimited) number of well-formed structures. This small and finite set of rules is sometimes described as generative grammar because it can be used to “generate” or produce sentence structures and not just describe them.  This type of grammar helps us reveal the basis of two phenomena: 1. How some superficially different phrases/sentences are closely related 2. How some superficially similar phrases/sentences are in fact different. Deep & Surface Structure  Charlie broke the window. The window was broken by Charlie. Different in their surface structure = the different syntactic forms they have as individual English sentences. BUT they have the same ‘deep’ or underlying structure = same basic components (Noun Phrase + Verb + Noun Phrase) (NP + V + NP). The deep structure is an abstract level of structural organization in which all the elements determining structural interpretation are represented. That same deep structure can be the source of many other surface structures such as It was Charlie who broke the window and Was the window broken by Charlie?. In short, the grammar must be capable of showing how a single underlying abstract representation can become different surface structures. 1. Structural Ambiguity Annie bumped into a man with an umbrella. Same surface structure BUT different deep structure What are the two possible meanings/ the two distinct deep structures/ two distinct underlying interpretations here? A. "Annie had an umbrella and she bumped into a man with it." B. "Annie bumped into a man and the man happened to be carrying an umbrella." This sentence provides an example of structural ambiguity. It has two distinct underlying interpretations that have to be represented differently in deep structure. Structural ambiguity: a situation in which a single phrase or sentence has two (or more) different underlying structures and interpretations. What are the two possible meanings/the two distinct deep structures/two distinct underlying interpretations here? The boy saw the man with the telescope. Note: Structural ambiguity is different from lexical ambiguity. The lexical ambiguity of a word or phrase pertains to its having more than one meaning in the language to which the word belongs. "Meaning" hereby refers to whatever should be captured by a good dictionary. Examples: ✓ The word "bank" has several distinct lexical definitions, including "financial institution" and "edge of a river". ✓ The word “foot” has two distinct lexical definitions: Their child has grown another foot. Here ‘foot’ illustrates lexical ambiguity mainly because it has more than one meaning. 2. Syntactic Analysis In syntactic analysis, we use some conventional abbreviations for parts of speech. However, there’re more abbreviations for this purpose:  In English, the verb phrase (VP) consists of the verb (V) plus the following noun phrase (NP). This presents a static analysis of a single sentence. We would like to be able to represent the same syntactic information in a more dynamic format.  Symbols Used in Syntactic Analysis (= consists of) Example: NP Art N NP The dog It is a shorthand way of saying that a noun phrase consists of an article and a noun. This simple formula is the underlying structure of millions of different English phrases. Round brackets ( ) (= an optional constituent) Example: The dog = NP The small dog = NP Whe n we want to use a NP in English, we can include an (Adj), but we do not have to. It is optional. NP Art (Adj) N It is a shorthand way of saying that a noun phrase consists of an article (Art) and a noun (N), with the option of including an adjective (Adj) in a specific position between them. We can use this notation to generate the dog, the small dog, a cat, a big cat, the book, a boring book, etc. Curly brackets { } (= only one of the elements enclosed within the curly brackets must be selected.) Example: NP Art N (the dog) NP Pro (it) NP PN (Annie) It is succinct to write one rule. Phrase Structure Rules  What we have started to create is a set of syntactic rules called phrase structure rules. Phrase structure rules state that the structure of a phrase of a specific type will consist of one or more constituents in a particular order. S NP VP states that “a sentence rewrites as a noun phrase and a verb phrase.” states that "a noun phrase rewrites as either an NP {Art (Adj) N, Pro, PN} article plus an optional adjective plus a noun, or a pronoun, or a proper noun." states that “a verb phrase rewrites as a verb plus VP V NP a noun phrase.” Questions