3. Three points are discussed in this
chapter:
1-The ways in which words may be linked
together to form larger units.
2-How sentences are analysed into their
component parts.
3-Ways of representing an analysis.
4. The ways in which words are linked together:
Different languages use different devices for showing the
relationship of one word to another and linking one word to
another. The following are the common devices:
1-Word order:
This is a syntactic device that shows the sequential (linear)
arrangement of words within a sentence and shows the
relationship of one word to another. English relies heavily on
word order to indicate grammatical relations.
David defends Laura.
Laura defends David.
5. Two important points about these two sentences:
1-What shows the difference in meaning between these two
sentences is not the number or the form of the words rather
it is the order of the words. So, the word order is critical.
Because the word order shows ‘who defended whom’.
2-The order of the words shows which one is the subject
and which one is the object not the form of the words. The
subject of an English sentence typically precedes the verb
and the object typically follows it.
6. Although some languages display considerable freedom of
word order (standard examples being Latin and
Russian), in no human language may the words of a
sentence occur in any random order.
7. Configurational languages:
It includes those languages which rely heavily on word
order to show the relationship of one word to another such
as English. That is, they have fixed word order and
hierarchical constituent structure.
2-Inflections
It is an other device through which grammatical
relationships between a word and another is indicated.
Russian and Latin depend on inflections to indicate
grammatical relationships.
8. Maxim zashishajet Victora.
Maxim Victora zashishajet.
Victora Maxim zashishajet.
Victora zashishajet Maxim. (Examples from Russian).
All these sentences mean Maxim defends Victor. The
inflectional suffix -a shows Victor is defended and that –a is
an accusative (object) case marker.
So, Russian is a non-configurational language in that word
order is not critical, though some word order preferences are
found.
9. 3-Function words
Another device through which relationships among words
are established is the use of function words such as
of, by, that, or, …
I know that he will come.
The Queen of England.
She was terrified by a spider.
10. Key points about function words:
1-Function words are used to some extent in English and
Latin.
2-Fucntion words have a grammatical role because they
connect the content words into larger grammatical units.
3-A function word can, in some cases, be used in two
ways: as a function word and as a content word.
Paul wants to go home. (Function word)
Peter went to the river. (content word)
11. Constituent analysis
It is a linguistic procedure which divides sentences into
their component parts or constituents.
Q-How are sentences divided into their component parts?
Sentences can be divided into their component parts by a
fundamental technique of syntactic analysis called
successive substitution.
The duck bit the burglar. Five original components
It bit him Three basic components
The duck slept Two basic components
Note: Read the details in the book.
12. Ways of representing an analysis
There are two important ways to represent a constituent
analysis:
1-Tree diagram: A particular type of graphical
representation of the structure of a sentence in which there
is a central node which branches on to other nodes, which
themselves have branches. It is so-called because its
branches resemble an upside-down tree.
Example:
13. The duck bit the burglar
S (sentence)
NP (noun phrase) VP (verb phrase)
D (determiner) N (noun) V (verb) NP
D N
The duck bit the burglar
14. 2-Rewrite rule (Phrase Structure Rule): It is a replacement
rule, in which the symbol to the left of an arrow is replaced
by an expanded form written to the right of an arrow.
The sentence ‘The duck bit the burglar’ can be summarized
in three rules:
Example:
S NP VP
VP V NP
NP D N
Means ‘replace’
15. The advantage of rewrite rules:
1-They are perfectly explicit.
2-They don’t leave anything to the imagination without
analysis.
3-By following them, you can produce a perfect English
sentence and these rules will tell us what is a well-formed
English sentence
16. Identifying constituents:
A constituent is a word or a group of words that functions
as a single unit within a hierarchical structure.
The constituent structure of sentences is identified
using constituency tests.
What are the constituency tests used to identify the
constituent structure of sentences?
1-Movement (topicalization, fronting)
Constituents can be preposed to beginning or postposed to
the end.
Example: The mouse ran up the clock.
Up the clock ran the mouse.
Example: The mouse ate up the cheese.
Up the cheese ate the mouse.
17. The first sentence can be analysed as having three
constituents: [The mouse] [ran] [up the clock].
And the tree diagram for this sentence can be as follows:
S
NP VP
D N V PP
P NP
D N
The mouse ran up the clock
18. The second sentence can be analysed as having three
constituents: [The mouse] [ate up] [the cheese].
And the tree diagram for this sentence can be as follows:
S
NP VP
D N VB NP
V PRT D N
The mouse ate up the cheese
VB= Phrasal verb
PRT= Particle
19. 2-Substitution:
Constituents can be replaced by pro-forms
(pronouns, one, ones, here, there, so, ….).
Example: The duck bit the burglar
It bit him.
3-Clefting:
Constituents can be the focus of it-cleft sentences. The
following is the pattern of it-cleft sentences:
It + (be) + (the focus constituent) + relative clause.
Tom broke the window last night.
It was Tom who broke the window last night.
20. 4-Passivization:
The elements that can be moved when changing an active
sentence to a passive one or vice-versa can be regarded as
constituents.
Example: Mark Zuckerberg founded Facebook.
Facebook was founded by Mark Zuckerberg.
5-Omission:
Sometimes a sequence of words (mostly temporal and local
adverbials) may be omitted without influencing the
grammaticality of the sentence, such sequences are regarded
as constituents.
Example: He died in Africa two years later.
He died in Africa.
He died two years later.
21. In addition to these tests to identify whether a string of
words is regarded as a constituent or not, It is also
possible to build specific tests for the presence of a
particular constituent. The following are some tests to
identify particular constituents:
1-Preposition phrases: one test for a preposition phrase is
that its preposition cannot immediately follow its NP.
The mouse ran the clock up.
Jane went the woods into.
Linda swam the bridge under.
22. 2-NPs: English NPs recur in certain specifiable positions:
A) At the beginning of a sentence before the verb:
The cat ate the canary.
B) At the end of a sentence after the verb:
The canary feared the cat.
C) After ‘by’ in a passive sentence:
The canary was eaten by the cat.
D) After an auxiliary verb in questions:
Did the cat eat the canary?
So, the above tests can be applied to know whether a
string of words is an NP or not.
23. A) At the beginning of a sentence before the verb:
Uncle Harry kicked the cat. Suddenly Harry kicked the cat.
B) At the end of a sentence after a verb:
The cat scratched Uncle Harry. The cat scratched suddenly Harry.
C) After ‘by’ in a passive sentence:
The cat was kicked by Uncle Harry. The cat was kicked by suddenly Harry
D) After an auxiliary verb in questions:
Did Uncle Harry kick the cat? Did suddenly Harry kick the cat?
(Suddenly Harry) cannot be an NP because the above tests cannot
be applied to it but (Uncle Harry) can be because the tests can be
applied to it.
24. Adding in extra patterns:
-The duck bit the burglar. (See above for the rewrite rules
and tree diagram, this seems to be a simple structure).
-The duck slept in the bath: This sentence has a more
complicated structure than the above sentence:
The rewrite rules for this sentence:
S NP VP
VP V PP
PP P NP
NP D N
The extra rewrite rules are: VP V PP PP P NP
25. The duck slept in the bath
S
NP VP
D N V PP
P NP
D N
The duck slept in the bath
In the rewrite rule the PP is optional (the duck slept), this
can be shown by putting brackets round the PP:
VP V (PP)
26. Another example:
The burglar put the duck in a sack
Here in this sentence, having the NP and the PP is essential.
The rewrite rule is: VP V NP PP
So, there are different rewrite rules for English VPs:
1-VP V NP The duck bit the burglar.
2-VP V (PP) The duck slept, The duck slept in the bath
3-VP V NP PP The burglar put the duck in a sack.
27. The burglar put the duck in a sack
S
NP VP
D N V NP PP
D N P NP
D N
The burglar put the duck in the sack
28. All the three rules above can be combined together in one
rule for English VPs in the following way:
V1 NP
VP V2 (PP)
V3 NP PP
These three rules can be summed up in only one rule:
VP (NP) (PP)
Which means: ‘A VP consists of a V optionally followed by
an NP and/or a PP’.
Put V [-NP PP]
Slept V [-(PP)]
Bit V [-NP]
29. Layers of branches:
Till now we have considered tree diagrams with few layers.
There are sometimes complicated tree diagrams.
When there are nodes in tree diagrams which are neither
the simple unit (N, A, P, ….) nor the whole unit
(NP, AP, PP, ….), these are given the label bar. Thus, they are
recognized as: (N, A, P, ….).
Consider the following example:
30. Maurice took a photograph of a platypus
S
NP VP
V NP or N
D N
N PP
P NP
D N
Maurice took a photograph of a platypus
31. A standard procedure which avoids wasting time and space
is to draw a triangle ( ) in place of the details of the PP.
That is, the tree can be as follows:
NP or N
D N
N PP
a photograph of a platypus
32. Tree diagrams reveal that there are similarities between
NPs, APs, VPs and PPs, how?
The head in one type of phrase is in a very similar position to
the head in another. For example, a noun in an NP is likely to
be in a parallel location to an adjective in an AP, a verb in a
VP, and a preposition in a PP.
Consider the following: (‘Very proud of the platypus’ is
similar in structure to ‘a photograph of a platypus’)
AP or A NP or N
DEG A D N
A PP N PP
very proud of the platypus a photograph of a platypus
33. X-bar theory:
X-bar is a system of syntactic description based on the
notion that every constituent has a head element.
Key points about x-bar system:
1-It states that all phrases have heads.
2-The phrase type is related to the type of the head.
3-One of the rules of X-bar theory is that an X-bar
consists of an X (a head) plus any number of
complements.
4-An X-Phrase consists of an optional specifier and an X-
bar.
34. Lexical phrases: Those phrases whose head is a lexical
word, e.g. this read book, right in the centre, very fast.
Lexical phrases include NPs, APs, PPs, ….
Functional phrases: Those phrases which are introduced
by function elements like tense, agreement, infinitive
marker (to).
Functional phrases include: Inflectional phrases
(IP), complementizer phrases (CP), …..
35. Examples: Lexical phrases
-He is a nice French student of English
-An old man with a wooden leg.
-This beautiful expensive red carpet
-He is very proud of his country
-The bullet hit him right through the heart
-She was very fond of the sea.
36. Examples: Functional phrases
-He kicked the dog
-He will find the book
-I wonder whether she will pass
-He can find the letters.
37. Complex sentences:
Conjoining: It is a process by which two or more sub-
sentences which are of equal importance can be joined
together by using conjuncts, such as and, or,..etc..
e.g. Rose played tennis.
Peter went fishing.
Rose played tennis, and Peter went fishing.
38. Embedding: It is a process by which one or more
subsidiary sentences are inserted into the main
sentence.
e.g. The fact is not surprising.
(that) the rumour worried the public
(that) the dinosaur had escaped
The fact that the rumour that the dinosaur had escaped
worried the public is not surprising.
39. Recursion: It is the possibility of repeatedly re-using the
same construction so that there is no fixed limit to the
length of sentences or phrases.
e.g. John saw the picture of the baby on the table in the
attic.
e.g. John believes the burglar took the duck.
40. Verbs: the syntax-meaning overlap:
Thematic relations:
Thematic relations are the semantic roles of the
participants involved in an action. This includes the
semantic roles of nouns and noun phrases in relation to a
verb in a sentence.
Linguists recognize a number of roles:
1-Agent: It is used to denote someone (NP) who
deliberately performs the action.
e.g. John smashed the bottle.
41. 2-Theme: It is the semantic role of the NP that undergoes
the change of location or it is the entity which moves or is
in a state.
e.g. The snowball rolled down the hill.
e.g. Mike gave her a pencil.
e.g. John received a letter.
3-Patient: It is to denote something which undergoes the
consequences of an action or affected by the action.
e.g. Mike killed John.
e.g. I have repaired the roof. The dog chewed a bone.
42. 4-Recipient: It is the semantic role of the noun phrase that
receives something. Here, there is a change in ownership.
e.g. Paul sent a letter to Jane.
5-Goal: It is a place to which an entity is moved or at
which movement terminates.
e.g. I am flying to London.
e.g. He reached a conclusion.
Thematic roles are important in relating semantics to
syntax.
