Lecture notes, PBET 1101 TESL Program Department of Language & Literacy Education, Faculty of Education, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, MY.

1. SYNTAX NOTES 1
Dr. Jessie Grace U. Rubrico
PBET 1101 , TESL Program
University of Malaya

2. Syntax
• ordering of words in phrases, clauses
and sentences.
– ordering can be diagrammed using
syntactic trees.
11/16/2011 syntax notes: dr jessie grace u. rubrico/2011

3. Components of Syntax:
1. Lexicon : mental dictionary
2. Computational system
Merge –combines elements
to create phrases & sentences
Move –transports elements to
new positions in a structure
11/16/2011 syntax notes: dr jessie grace u. rubrico/2011

4. categories and structure
1. syntactic categories
lexical – N, V, A, P
functional – Det, Aux, Conj, Deg
2. Determining word category
meaning * inflection * distribution
11/16/2011 syntax notes: dr jessie grace u. rubrico/2011

5. Phrases identification
1. the child
2. the poor child
3. the poor and hungry child
4. a scented candle
5. an earnest plea for peace
6. those dresses inside the cabinet
7. that red jaguar by the seashore
8. this very interesting story
9. some problems with their studies
11/16/2011 syntax notes: dr jessie grace u. rubrico/2011

6. Phrases identification
1. almost inside the building
2. perhaps earn some money
3. too large for my friend
4. the very beautiful and witty professor
5. brightly beams from his house
6. calmly accepted the news
7. this man and that child
8. some stories about the Queen
9. often eat lunch near the library
11/16/2011 syntax notes: dr jessie grace u. rubrico/2011

7. blueprint for mapping phrases into trees
XP
Spec X’ (read X-bar)
X Complement
XP stands for syntactic categories like Noun Phrase (NP), Verb Phrase (VP),
Adjective Phrase (AP), and Prepositional Phrase (PP).
11/16/2011 syntax notes: dr jessie grace u. rubrico/2011

8. head
• Head (X) - obligatory:
–the word a phrase cannot do without
–determines the kind/name of phrase
–head is noun : NP
Lexical Heads : Noun, Verb, Adjective,
Preposition
11/16/2011 syntax notes: dr jessie grace u. rubrico/2011

9. specifier
• Specifier: (Spec) – optional
–marks the head
–comes before the head or
modifiers of the head.
11/16/2011 syntax notes: dr jessie grace u. rubrico/2011

10. specifiers
Lexical Head Specifiers Examples
Nouns articles a, an, the
qualifiers some, certain, our, my, etc.
demonstratives that, this, these, those
Verbs adverbs slowly, brightly
auxiliaries
•modals can, will, should, would, could,
may, might
•aux verbs is, are, has, have, etc
Adjectives adverbs/degrees too, so, much, etc
Prepositions adverbs/degrees almost, so, too, etc
11/16/2011 syntax notes: dr jessie grace u. rubrico/2011

11. NP VP AP PP
a woman slowly crawl too large almost at the
peak
his lovely wife should much simpler so near yet so
carefully write far
that very pretty hotly contest very smart and just under the
professor lovely bed
our cheap but can truthfully more tiny but
beautiful car tell stronger
brightly shines so crowded for directly under
from the ship some visitors the sunlight
11/16/2011 syntax notes: dr jessie grace u. rubrico/2011

12. complements
• NPs can co-occur with a PP complement
– the rumor about his wife
• PPs take NP complement
– almost at the peak
• APs take PP complement
–quite sure of the facts
11/16/2011 syntax notes: dr jessie grace u. rubrico/2011

13. • VPs can take
– an NP complement
- never trust your competitor
– a PP complement
– got inside the building
- a sentence for a complement
using Complementizer Phrase (CP)
- thinks that her students pass the test.
11/16/2011 syntax notes: dr jessie grace u. rubrico/2011

14. Exercise on phrase mapping
1. the child 11. calmly accepted the news
2. the poor child 12. this man and that child
3. the poor and hungry child 13. often eat lunch near the library
4. a scented candle 14. so crowded for some visitors
5. that red jaguar by the seashore 15. just under the bed
6. this very interesting story 16. more tiny but stronger
7. almost inside the building 17. our cheap but beautiful car
8. too large for my friend 18. never trust your competitor
9. brightly beams from his house 19. got inside the building
10. the very beautiful and witty 20. quite sure of the facts
professor
11/16/2011 syntax notes: dr jessie grace u. rubrico/2011

15. Reference
• O'Grady, W.D., Archibald, J. (eds.). (2009).
Contemporary Linguistic Analysis: An
Introduction, 6th edition. Ontario: Pearson
Education Canada.
11/16/2011 syntax notes: dr jessie grace u. rubrico/2011