Introduction
 *Syntax is the study of sentence structure in a language.
Scope- Types of sentences, phrases, clause, agreement and word
order etc.
 Syntax is the set of rules, principles, and processes that govern
the structure of sentences in a given language specifically word
order.
 The goal of many syntacticians is to discover the syntactic
rules common to all languages.
 Works on grammar were written long before
modern syntax came about.
 Aṣṭādhyāyī of Pāṇini (c. 4th century BC) is a
pre-modern work that approaches the
sophistication of a modern syntactic theory.
 A basic feature of a language's syntax is the sequence in which
the subject (S), verb (V), and object (O) usually appear in
sentences.
 Over 85% of languages usually place the subject first, either in
the sequence SVO or the sequence SOV.
 The other possible sequences are VSO, VOS, OVS, and OSV,
the last three of which are rare.
 *A phrase is a collection of words that may have nouns,
but it does not have a subject doing a verb.
 Phrases are considered as the second level of classification
as they tend to be larger than individual words, but are
smaller than sentences.
 We refer to the central element in a phrase as the head of
the phrase. If the head is a noun then the phrase is called a
noun phrase.
Example
1. Noun -----My coach is happy. (noun phrase as subject)
2. Verb -------Henry made my coach very proud. (verb phrase as
predicate)
3. Adjectival------Dad bought [(a blue and green) sweater]
4. Adverbial------ He scored the goal very quickly.
5. Prepositional -------The man in the house rented it.
(prepositional phrase modifies a noun adjectivally)
6. Gerundive-------- Dad talked about winning the game.
7. Participial-------- Racing around the corner, he slipped and fell.
8. Infinitive------- My duty as a coach is to teach skills. (infinitive
phrase functions as a noun) My sister wanted a cat to love.
(infinitive phrase functions as an adjective)
A sentence is:
‘a sequence of words whose first word starts with
a capital letter and whose last word is followed
by an end punctuation mark (period/full stop,
question mark or exclamation mark)'
• All sentences are about something or someone.
• The something or someone that the sentence is
about is called the subject of the sentence.
• The predicate contains information about the
someone or something that is the subject.
• Examples.
John often comes late to class.
My friend and I both have a dog named Spot.
Construction refers to the overall process organization of
grammatical unit.
Example:
The old dog lay in the corner.
The above sentence contains two composite forms i.e.,
The Old dog and lay in the corner.
 Constituent is a combination of morphemes it is also
said that words which we use in construction.
 a constituent of a linguistic construction at the
first step in an analysis; for example, the
immediate constituents of a sentence are the subject
and the predicate.
Immediate constituent analysis or IC
analysis is a method of sentence analysis that
was first mentioned by Leonard Bloomfield.
Introduction to syntax

Introduction to syntax

  • 1.
  • 2.
     *Syntax isthe study of sentence structure in a language. Scope- Types of sentences, phrases, clause, agreement and word order etc.  Syntax is the set of rules, principles, and processes that govern the structure of sentences in a given language specifically word order.  The goal of many syntacticians is to discover the syntactic rules common to all languages.
  • 3.
     Works ongrammar were written long before modern syntax came about.  Aṣṭādhyāyī of Pāṇini (c. 4th century BC) is a pre-modern work that approaches the sophistication of a modern syntactic theory.
  • 4.
     A basicfeature of a language's syntax is the sequence in which the subject (S), verb (V), and object (O) usually appear in sentences.  Over 85% of languages usually place the subject first, either in the sequence SVO or the sequence SOV.  The other possible sequences are VSO, VOS, OVS, and OSV, the last three of which are rare.
  • 5.
     *A phraseis a collection of words that may have nouns, but it does not have a subject doing a verb.  Phrases are considered as the second level of classification as they tend to be larger than individual words, but are smaller than sentences.  We refer to the central element in a phrase as the head of the phrase. If the head is a noun then the phrase is called a noun phrase.
  • 6.
    Example 1. Noun -----Mycoach is happy. (noun phrase as subject) 2. Verb -------Henry made my coach very proud. (verb phrase as predicate) 3. Adjectival------Dad bought [(a blue and green) sweater] 4. Adverbial------ He scored the goal very quickly. 5. Prepositional -------The man in the house rented it. (prepositional phrase modifies a noun adjectivally) 6. Gerundive-------- Dad talked about winning the game. 7. Participial-------- Racing around the corner, he slipped and fell. 8. Infinitive------- My duty as a coach is to teach skills. (infinitive phrase functions as a noun) My sister wanted a cat to love. (infinitive phrase functions as an adjective)
  • 7.
    A sentence is: ‘asequence of words whose first word starts with a capital letter and whose last word is followed by an end punctuation mark (period/full stop, question mark or exclamation mark)'
  • 8.
    • All sentencesare about something or someone. • The something or someone that the sentence is about is called the subject of the sentence. • The predicate contains information about the someone or something that is the subject. • Examples. John often comes late to class. My friend and I both have a dog named Spot.
  • 11.
    Construction refers tothe overall process organization of grammatical unit. Example: The old dog lay in the corner. The above sentence contains two composite forms i.e., The Old dog and lay in the corner.
  • 12.
     Constituent isa combination of morphemes it is also said that words which we use in construction.  a constituent of a linguistic construction at the first step in an analysis; for example, the immediate constituents of a sentence are the subject and the predicate.
  • 13.
    Immediate constituent analysisor IC analysis is a method of sentence analysis that was first mentioned by Leonard Bloomfield.