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Syntax
- 1. University of thePunjab Department of English Language & Literature Lahore, Pakistan
- 2. Syntax The study of: •Grammatical relations between words and other units within the sentence • Word order • Sentence formation
- 3. Syntax • Languages differnot only in sounds, but also the ways in which words can be put together into larger units this is Syntax • Rules about how words can be put together differ according to language , dialect, social group, time frame etc • “They know not what they do” – does not follow the rules we use – for modern English, but was totally normal in the 17th Century • Even though the word meanings haven’t changed, the syntax has
- 4. Syntactic Theory • Syntactictheory is about the rules and principles that determine: – how people combine words to make meaningful sentences • Sentences are not just strings of words – in the same way that words are not just strings of morphemes • There are strict syntactic rules about the structure of sentences – how to combine words in specific way to reach a certain meaning • Structure at a phrasal and sentence level
- 5. Bag of words •Consider these words: Bit A The Dog Cat –A cat bit the dog –The cat bit a dog –A dog bit the cat –The dog bit a cat • All of these have specific, and different meanings • These different meanings come about solely from our combinations of words
- 6. Syntactic Categories Lexical categories •Noun (N) • Verb (V) • Adjective (A) • Preposition (P) • Adverb (Adv) Examples • moisture, policy • melt, remain • good, intelligent • to, near • slowly, now
- 7. Syntactic Categories Non-lexical categories Determiner (Det) Degree word (Deg) Qualifier (Qual) Auxiliary (Aux) Conjunction (Con) Examples the, this very, more always, perhaps will, can and, or
- 8. Phrase Structure • Wehave rules in syntax about what word classes can pattern together in phrases • NP -> (Det) N • This means that Noun Phrases can be made up of Determiners and Nouns. Determiners are optional The girl Ayesha • Both of these are NPs - they each contain a N, • and the first also has a determiner
- 9. NP Rule • First,DET means determiner – Function words like the, a, this, several • NP (DET) N – That means a noun phrase can have a determiner, and it must have a noun – S NP VP – VP V NP – NP (DET) (ADJ) N
- 10. Phrases • NP :Noun Phrase The car, a clever student • VP : Verb Phrase study hard, play the guitar • PP : Prepositional Phrase in the class, above the earth • AP : Adjective Phrase very tall, quite certain • AdvP: quite happily
- 11. Noun Phrase StructureRules • NP (Det) N (PP) • PP P NP The bus (NP) The NDet bus The bus in the yard NP The NDet bus PP in NPP the Det N yard
- 12. Verb Phrase StructureRules • VP V (NP) (PP) • S NP (Aux) VP took the money (VP) took NPV took the money from the bank VP took NPV PP from NPP the Det N bank the Det N money the Det N money
- 13. PP P NP from DetN PP a boy P NP in Det N a bubble Prepositional Phrase Structure Rules
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- 15. Sentence structure • Thisallows us to build up sentences from phrases • If we want to analyze the sentence “the cat sat on the mat”, we look at the internal phrases • The cat sat on the mat • Det N V P Det N • NP VP PP NP • However, there are rules in syntax (as is morphology) about what order these interact in • It’s not just a bag of words!
- 16. Constituency • A sentenceis divided into groups of words • The connections between words in one group is closer than between words belonging to different groups • A group of words that cling together is called a constituent – To test whether a group of words is a constituent, we have 3 tests: • Replacement/Substitution: – a constituent can be replaced by a single word • Movement: – a constituent as a whole, can be placed in a different • position in a sentence – Clefting: Change sentences to “it was...”
- 17. All languages haveconstituents • Sentences are not just strings of words, have a more complex structure • which linguists call: CONSTITUENT STRUCTURE • We can call the sentence S, and label the syntactic categories N and V S N Johnny V danced
- 18. The Main StructureRules 1. S NP (Aux) VP 2. NP (Det) (AP) N (PP) 3. VP V (NP) (PP) (Adv) 4. PP P NP 5. AP A (PP)
- 19. The Analysis ofSentence Structure
- 20. Example The old treeswayed in the wind old V PP in NPP the Det N windThe N swayed S NP VP Det Adj tree Aux past
- 21. Example The children putthe toy in the box V PP in NPP the Det N boxThe N put S NP VP Det children NP the Det N toy
- 22. Ambiguity: a word,phrase or sentence with multiple meanings Synthetic buffalo hides (NP) Synthetic buffalo hides (NP) Synthetic buffalo hides Synthetic buffalo hides Buffalo hides that are synthetic. Hides of synthetic buffalo.
- 23. Ambiguities often leadto humorous results • For sale: an antique desk suitable for lady with thick legs and large drawers what does “thick legs and large drawers” refer to? The desk or the lady?
- 24. Structural Ambiguity The boysaw the man with the telescope V PP with NPP the Det N telescopeThe N saw S NP VP Det boy NP the Det N man Aux past
- 25. Structural Ambiguity The boysaw the man with the telescope V PP with NPP the Det N telescopeThe N saw S NP VP Det boy NP the Det N man Aux past
- 26. Declarative – Interrogative •Move the auxiliary to the left of the subject. The boy will leave. S VPNP Det Aux N The boy will leave Will the boy leave? S VPNP Det Aux N the boyWill leave The deep structure The surface structure V V
- 27. Reasons for studyingsyntax • Our knowledge of a language consists of: – A finite number of words – Rules (the grammar of the language) • Infinity of expressions: – an infinite number of possible utterances in every language – all these utterances cannot be stored in our brains • It is the job of the syntactician to find out what these rules are
- 28. Language Acquisition • Understandingsyntax helps to understand: – how young children learn their native language – how to use the rules • But nobody can really state exactly what the rules are! – it is amazing that children can do it so fast
- 29. Universal Grammar Theory ofChomsky UG has Principles + Parameters: • Principles, true of all languages – All languages have the same underlying structure • e.g. all languages have nouns and verbs • Parameters, whose setting varies from language to language – English and Chinese SVO; Japanese SOV
- 30. Basic Word Order WORDORDER ENGLISH EXAMPLE PORPORTION OF LANGUAGE (%) SOV I YOU LOVE 45 SVO I LOVE YOU 42 VSO LOVE I YOU 9 VOS LOVE YOU I 3 OVS YOU LOVE I 1 OSV YOU I LOVE 0
- 31. Basic Sentences Patterns SentencePattern Example SV JOHN SLEEPS. JILL IS EATTING SVO I LIKE RICE. SHE LOVES HER JOB. SV Adj HE IS FUNNY . THE WORKERS ARE LAZY. SV Ad JIM IS HERE. FLOWERS ARE EVERYWHERE. SVN SHE IS MY MOM. THE MEN ARE DOCTORS