TRUONG DAI HOC QUANG NAM KHOA NGOẠI NGỮ BÀI GIANG Học phần: CÚ PHÁP Mã học phần: Ngành đào tạo: NGÔN NGỮ ANH 1. Giảng viên biên soạn: Khoa Ngoại ngữ 2. Số tín chỉ/đơn vị học trình: 3. Tổ/Khoa quản lý học phần: Khoa Ngoại ngữ Quảng Nga, năm 2015 CON Chapter I.
An introduction to syntax Chapter IT. Word classes and properties of sentence structure 10 Chapter IT. Phrase structures 18 Chapter IV. Clauses in English 42 Part 1.
Elements of the English clause 42 Part 2. Clause pattems 57 Chapter V. Sentence structure 65 Appendix 73 Glossary 76 References 78 Chapter 1 AN INTRODUCTION TO SYNTAX Linguistics is a science which deals with humanistic and social phenomena. It is the scientific study of language including: Phoneties: the production and perception of linguistic sounds Phonology: the sound pattems of language Morphology: the structure of words Syntax: the structure of phrases and sentences Semantics: the meanings of words and sentences Pragmaties: context and language use 1.1 What is syntax? Syntax is the study how words are put together to make larger units such as phrases, clauses and sentences.
Syntax is the study of - how words are classified into the syntactic groups (parts of speech/ word classes or syntactic categories), - how words combine to form phrases (word groups), the syntactic structure types (the grammatical relations) in them, - how phrases combine into clauses, clauses into sentences (independent clauses and complex sentences) and sentences into texts, - the syntactic rules which govern the formation of sentences and texts.1 Syntax in Structuralism’s concept According to structuralism, morphology and syntax are two branches of grammar. Morphology studies and describes the patterns of words; syntax determines the arrangement of words into larger units. Syntax is the term used in linguistics for the study of the way in which words combine to form such units as phrases, clauses and sentences. The sequences that result from these combinations are referred to in linguistics as syntactic structures.2 Syntax in Transformational-Generative Grammar (T-G Grammar) According to Chomsky (1965), there are four main parts in T-G grammar: a.
The Base Component, which produces or generates basic syntactic structures, called DEEP STRUCTURES. The Transformational Component, which changes or transforms these basic structures into sentences called SURFACE STRUCTURES. The Phonological Component, which gives sentences a phonetic representation so that they can be pronounced. The Semantic Component, which deals with the meaning of sentences.
semantic base component component Examples Amn) + past+ injure +Ann) transformational Ann injured herself. component semantic interpretation phonological [en in’d33:.2 Five signals of syntactic structure 1.1 Word order Syntax involves the combination the words of a language. The most obvious aspect of word combination in a language is word order. When words are organized into utterances, a new kind of meaning emerges which is structural meaning due to the way words are combined, not associated with the individual morphemes at all.
For example: A basic word order in an English sentence is “subject + verb + object” (or "SVO") like in “The dog chased the cat”. If we change the word order, it changes the relation of the nouns to the verb like in “The cat chased the dog”, the meaning will be changed.2 Prosodic patterns Combinations of pitch, stress and juncture sequences are called prosodic pattems. Example: [the man! know __ is completely honest #/ (sentence modifier) =T know that the man is completely honest Jthe man tknow is completely honest #/ (relative clause modifying the noun man) = The man whom I know is completely honest. Another example can be found in the sentence “Pat / like, but Chris | can't stand”, which can be understandable as “J like Pat but I don’t like Chris” with the stress on the fronted nouns.3 Function words Function words have little or no lexical meaning but they can serve to vary the function of lexical words.
Function words signal the structural relationships that words have to one another and are the glue that holds sentences together. Thus, they serve as important elements to the structures of sentences. The winfy prunkilmonger from the glidgement mominkled and brangified all his levensers vederously. Glop angry investigator larm blonk government harassed gerfritz infuriated sutbor pumrog listeners thoroughly.
In the sentence (1), the content words have been changed into nonsense syllables but it is not difficult for one to posit that winfy is an adjective, prunkilmonger, glidgement, levensers as nouns, mominkled, brangified as verbs and vederously as an adverb based on clues like the derivational and inflectional morphemes. Hence, even without lexical meaning, the sentence can be said to be rather "meaningful". However, when the reverse is done and the function words are being changed to nonsense syllables as in sentence (2), the result is a totally incomprehensible sentence as the grammatical meaning which is signaled by the structure words is not present. Hence, function words provide the grammatical relationships between the open class words and helps create meaning in sentences.4 Inflections Inflection is a device to change the forms of words in the utterances by indication of morphemic changes in the addition of suffixes.
Example: The curious man stood by the window idly watching the busy people coming and going in the street. Tn the example, the words “stand”, “watch”, “come”, “go” have to adapt to perform certain structural functions without changing their lexical meaning.5 Derivational contrast Derivational change or derivational contrast plays a part in structural as well as in lexical meaning. Example: Educate - education — educational The differences in the words above results from the morphemes that each has. Beside the background lexical meaning, they are different in the meaning coming from their parts of speech marked by the derivational morphemes.
To sum up, there are five syntactic devices as follows: L. Word order is the linear or time sequence in which words appear in an utterance. Prosody is the overall musical pattern of stress, pitch and juncture in which the words of an utterance are spoken. Function words are words largely devoid of lexical meaning which are used to indicate various functional relationships among the lexical words of an utterance.
Inflections are morphemic changes — the addition of suffixes and concomitant morphophonemic adjustments — which adapt words to perform certain structural functions without changing their lexical meaning. Derivational Contrast is the contrast between words which have the same base but differ in the number and nature of their derivational affixes. Relation of syntax to other modules in T-G Grammar 4 In T-G linguistics, morphology and syntax are two modules among five the modules (phonology, morphology, syntax, lexicon, semantics) of grammar.1 Syntax-phonology interaction: Syntactic structures shape the intonation of a sentence. For example, a statement structure usually agrees with falling intonation or a yes-no question usually agrees with rising intonation.
A speaker may say a sentence in rising intonation if he wants to express a question. For example, ‘He likes coffee.” can become understood as a question if it is made with a rising intonation.2 Syntax-morphology interaction: the syntactic construction may affect the form of a word by determining the form of the word in the sentence. | practise playing the piano every day. My sister practises playing the piano every day.
Yesterday my sister practised playing the piano. The players will meet for a practice in the afternoon.3 Syntax-lexicon interaction: Syntax enables us to form new lexicons. Syntactically, the head is the dominant constituent of the entire compound word. The right-hand rule (RHR) influences word-formation and the head of the compound is on the right.4 Syntax-semantic interaction: According to many modem linguists, one function of the study of syntax is to provide a basis for the study of semantics.
In other words, form in language is one way of getting at the meaning in language or, “form underlies meaning”. Thus, “a horse race” and “a racehorse” are quite different in meaning.4 Syntactic analysis Yule (1985:74-5) introduces two methods of syntactic analysis: one in structuralism and one in transformational-generative grammar. 141 Structural analysis One type of descriptive approach is called structural analysis and its main concern is to investigate the distribution of forms (e. morphemes) in a language.
The method employed involves the use of ‘test-frames’ which can be sentences with empty slots in them. For example: The makes a lot ofnoise. There are a lot of forms which can fit into these slots to produce good grammatical sentences of English (e. donkey, car, dog, radio, child, etc.2 Immediate constituent analysis An approach with the same descriptive aims is called immediate constituent analysis with a technique designed to show how small constituents (or components) in sentences go together to form larger constituents by many ways: a, Domino box the mouse The cat ate b.
fmmediate constituent cut The child found the cat. Regardless of the number of words within a grammatical sentence, speakers of English generally have no problem dividing it nto two "natural" sub-parts, or immediate constituents (ICs). For example: ce. Labelled brackets Another way to represent speakers’ intuition about structures and categories is by means of labeled bracketing like in [S [NP [A colorless] [NP [A green] [N ideas]]] [VP [V sleep] [Adv furiously].
Arrows S +> NP VP The little boy iscrying e. Tree Diagram or Constituent Structure Tree A notationally equivalent way to represent these intuitions is to use a branching tree diagram. In tum, the NP constituent is divided into two constituents (Det and N). Finally, one word is selected which fits the label Det (the), and another which fits N (monkey).
The three aspects of syntactic knowledge of sentence structure which are revealed in the CONSTITUENT STRUCTURE TREE are: a. The linear order of the words in a sentence. The hierarchy or constituent structure of a sentence. The syntactic category of each structural constituent in a sentence.
SYMBOLS USED IN SYNTACTIC DESCRIPTION 1. VP: verb phrase. PN: proper noun 9. NP: noun phrase 11.
PP: prepositional phrase 6. What is syntax? 2. Tell five signals in syntactic structure. Give one or two examples for each signal.
Give one example to illustrate the interaction a. between syntax and morphology. between syntax and lexicon. between syntax and semantics.
Most modern attempts to characterize the structure of sentences are based on a particular approach. What is this approach called? EXERCISES I. _ 1s the description of the way words are put together to make larger units such as phrases, clauses and sentences. 5, _ is the linear or time sequence in which words appear in an utterance.
_ is the overall musical pattern of stress, pitch, and juncture in which the words of an utterance are spoken. _ words are words largely devoid of lexical meaning which are used to indicate various functional relationships among the lexical words of an utterance. Be _ are morphemic changes — the addition of suffixes and concomitant morphophonemic adjustments — which adapt words to perform certain structural functions without changing their lexical meaning. _ contrast is the contrast between words which have the same base but differ in the number and nature of their derivational affixes.
Study the following sentences and identify the logical possibilities allowed in English. John saw Bill. John Bill saw. Saw Bill John.
Saw John Bill. Bill saw John. Bill, John saw. (OSV) TIL True-false statements 1.
Syntax is related to semantics in that the language form determines the meaning of a word or a linguistic unit. The syntactic knowledge enables language users to form new words. Syntax has a relation to phonology in that syntactic structures shape the intonation of a sentence. The position and the related words in a syntactic unit determine the word class being used.
There is a constraint on word order in English. Study the following sentences and identify the possibilities. agray-haired student of physics ( Art + Compound adj + N +PP) 2. aphysics student with gray hair 3.
a gray-haired physics student 4. a student of physics with gray hair 5. a physics gray-haired student 6.