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SYNTAX SYLLABUS PREFACE One important aspect of teaching English syntax (to native and nonnative undergraduate students alike) involves the balance in the overall approach between facts and theory We understand that one important goal of teaching English syntax to undergraduate students is to help students enhance their understanding of the structure of English in a systematic and scientific way Basic knowledge of this kind is essential for students to move on the next stages, in which they will be able to perform linguistic analyses for simple as well as complex English phenomena This new introductory textbook has been developed with this goal in mind The book focuses primarily on the descriptive facts of English syntax, presented in a way that encourages students to develop keen insights into the English data It then proceeds with the basic, theoretical concepts of generative grammar from which students can develop abilities to think, reason, and analyze English sentences from linguistic points of view Compiled and edited by Nguyen Thi Le Hang, M.A SYNTAX SYLLABUS TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER INTRODUCTION TO SYNTAX CHAPTER SYNTACTIC ELEMENTS AND STRUCTURES OF THE CLAUSE CHAPTER SUBJECT AND PREDICATOR 12 CHAPTER DIRECT, INDIRECT AND PREPOSITIONAL OBJECTS 14 CHAPTER PHRASE STRUCTURES: NP, VP, ADJP, ADVP, PP D-STRUCTURE AND SURFACE STRUCTURES 17 CHAPTER TYPES OF ENGLISH SENTENCES 21 CHAPTER THE GRAMMATICAL STRUCTURES OF ENGLISH SENTENCES 25 CHAPTER METHODS OF SENTENCE ANALYSIS 28 CHAPTER ANALYZING THE STRUCTURES OF ENGLISH SENTENCES USING TREE DIAGRAM 31 CHAPTER 10 AMBIGUITY 34 REFERENCES Compiled and edited by Nguyen Thi Le Hang, M.A SYNTAX SYLLABUS CHAPTER INTRODUCTION TO SYNTAX I LIGUISTICS AND SYNTAX SYNTAX is the central component of human language Language has often been characterized as the systematic correlation between certain types of oral/graphic forms for spoken/written language; and, for signed language, they are manual It is not the case that every possible meaning that can be expressed is correlated with a unique, unanalyzable form Rather, each language has a stock of meaning-bearing elements and differentways of combining them to express different meanings, and these ways of combining them are themselves meaningful The two English sentences Chris gave the notebook to Dana and Dana gave the notebook to Chris contain exactly the same meaning-bearing elements, i.e words, but they have different meanings because the words are combined differently in them These different combinations fall into the realm of syntax; the two sentences differ not in terms of the words in them but rather in terms of their syntax II SYNTAX AND GRAMMAR The Difference Grammar is the study of rules governing the use of language In linguistics, grammar is the set of structural rules that governs the composition of clauses, phrases, and words in any given natural language The set of rules governing a particular language is the grammar of that language; thus, each language can be said to have its own distinct grammar Grammar is part of the general study of language called linguistics Grammar is a way of thinking about language Grammar consists of set rules regarding language and sentence structure, such as no splitting infinitives and no hanging prepositions Syntax is how a sentence is worded and structured In Linguistics syntax is “the study of the principles and processes by which sentences are constructed in particular languages” It consists of the type of sentence (Declarative, Interrogative, Exclamatory, and Imperative) and word order (passive vs active voice) It also refers to length of sentences (short vs long) Syntax can be used as a literary device to add extra meaning to your sentences, whereas grammar adds no greater meaning to your sentences Example: “His long-held wish was to walk slowly through the tortuous mountain paths that his grandfather had carved out of the earth many years ago” Syntax would refer to the sentence being declarative: stating a wish that the boy had It would also refer to the length of the sentence mimicking the long twisted paths in the mountain and the long time the boy had been wishing to walk them Grammar would refer to not splitting the infinitive: “to walk slowly” rather than “to slowly walk” and subject-verb agreement Syntax has literary meaning and use, while Grammar just shows good form They are two different things that can be easily confused “Syntax is the study of the principles and processes by which sentences are constructed in particular languages Syntactic investigation of a given language has as its goal the construction of a grammar that can be viewed as a device of some sort for producing the sentences of the language under analysis.” (Noam Chomsky, Syntactic Structures, 1971) Syntax? Grammar? Compiled and edited by Nguyen Thi Le Hang, M.A SYNTAX SYLLABUS Syntax is simply the way words are organized structurally This can be either grammatically correct or incorrect, it is still syntax Sometimes, in a grammatical analysis, linguists might refer to an ‘underlying syntax’, which would be a normalized structure of the words in a sentence, and not necessarily the actual structure used The word order ‘noun (subject)- verb- noun (object)’ would be a simple example of syntax The order “Come here!” would be analyzed as having the explicit syntax ‘verb- adverb’, but might be analyzed as having the underlying syntax of ‘noun (subject)verb- adverb’, as in “(‘You’- implied) come here” Grammar refers to the sets of rules that are used regarding HOW syntax should be structured This is typically divided into proscriptive grammar (dictating/enforcing arbitrary rules for how to ‘correctly’ organize a sentence) or descriptive grammar (an analysis of how speakers ACTUALLY structure the language) Some examples of grammar would be the rule “the verb should always follow the subject”, or ” the ‘to’ in an infinitive verb construction must always be followed immediately by the verb” Grammar might also have a relatively larger scope, since it would include the rules for any lexical variations (differences in spelling of the same base word), as well as rules for capitalization, punctuation, etc Syntax usually involves only the structure of various TYPES of words in relation to one another (although some semantic analyses might be more specific than others) Syntax: The way in which words are put together to form phrases, clauses, or sentences Grammar: the set of rules that explain how words are used in a language ( ex Tenses in English) Grammar also is the framework of a language It is a study or science that has two parts: morphology (the forms of words) and syntax (the combination of words into sentences) Syntax deals with their functions in sentences – subjects, objects, attributes etc Example: “To know you is to love you.” To know, to love are both verbs (infinitives) – (morphology) But they have different functions: to know is the subject, to love is part of the predicate – (syntax) In short, syntax is HOW words are structured; grammar is WHY they are structured that way The Similarity While the term “grammar” is often used in the context of speaking about syntax, the two are not coterminous Syntax is the study of the rules and structures of a language or languages as a branch of linguistics Grammar is a set of rules in a given language So, to begin with syntax is descriptive (that is, it only observes the rules) whereas grammar is prescriptive (that is, it sets the rules) Additionally, syntax refers to the structure of how linguistic utterances (a sentence, for example) are ordered which grammar might actually include Grammar could also include things like conjugations (different forms of verbs) and declensions (different forms of nouns) which would be outside of the realm of syntax Grammar is a little more encompassing that syntax with respect to language Grammar also takes into account the way in which sentences should be read For example, recursive grammar is the application of an explanatory clause within a matrix clause in a sentence It is also interesting to note that syntax only refers to organization about the horizontal axis; that is, how words are strung together to form sentences Organization about the vertical axis, or paradigmatic organization, refers to the way in which words can be interchanged in a sentence In English, which is a word order language, one could say, “I love you.” It is also correct to say, “I love him.” This is an example of paradigmatic organization Both grammar and syntax are usually focused at the level of words-in-sentences (a level above pronunciation, a level below prose-style) but can spill over into these and other subfields Grammar Compiled and edited by Nguyen Thi Le Hang, M.A SYNTAX SYLLABUS and syntax are the knowledge of making a good phrase, clause, and absolutely in making a correct sentence Both of them are very closely related They are bound tightly in making a correct sentence Both “grammar” and “syntax” are used in a abstract way, and also to refer to the structure of a single language, and in either case “syntax” is a subset of “grammar” In addition “grammar” is used in a different way, to mean the prescriptive grammar of a language” III DEFINITIONS TO SYNTAX Syntax is the study of the structure of phrases, clauses and sentences In other words, syntax is the study of how words are combined to produce sentences Syntax can thus be given the following characterization, taken from Matthews (1982:1): The term ‘syntax’ is from the Ancient Greek syn - taxis, a verbal noun which literally means ‘arrangement’ or ‘setting out together’ Traditionally, it refers to the branch of grammar dealing with the ways in which words, with or without appropriate inflections, are arranged to show connections of meaning within the sentence First and foremost, syntax deals with how sentences are constructed, and users of human languages employ a striking variety of possible arrangements of the elements in sentences One of the most obvious yet important ways in which languages differ is the order of the main elements in a sentence In English, for example, the subject comes before the verb and the direct object follows the verb In Lakhota (a Siouan language of North America), on the other hand, the subject and direct object both precede the verb, while in Toba Batak (an Austronesian language of Indonesia; (Schachter 1984b), they both follow the verb In Lakhota, the subject comes first followed by the direct object, whereas in Toba Batak the subject comes last in the sentence, with the direct object following the verb and preceding the subject The basic word order in Toba Batak is thus the opposite of that in Lakhota There are also languages in which the order of words is normally irrelevant to the interpretation of which element is subject and which is object To make clear the meaning, of syntax, let us clarify three aspects involved Categories Words in a language are organised into different categories, or in traditional terms, parts of speech Categories may be lexical e.g Nouns (N), Verbs (V), Adjective (A), Prepositions (P), Adverbs (Adv) or non-lexical e.g Determiners (Det.), Auxiliaries (Aux.), Conjunctions (Conj), Degree words (Deg) or Phrasals e.g Noun phrases, Verb phrases, Adjective phrases, Preposition (al) phrases, Adverb phrases The theory is that every phrasal category contains at least one lexical category of the same basic type For example, every NP contains at least a N; every VP contains at least a V and so on Conversely, every lexical category belongs to a phrasal category of the same basic type: every N belong to a NP, and so on Phrase structure Phrase structure is the division of a sentence into part, or constituents, and the division of those constituents into subparts For instance, the sentence The bear went over the mountain is made up of two main constituents: The bear and went over the mountain The second constituent is, in turn divided into two parts, went and over the mountain, which is divided even further, into over and the mountain All sentences have such hierarchical structure, even a very simple two-word sentence like Carol giggled The elements (constituents) in a phrase structure are governed by phrase structure (PS) rules Compiled and edited by Nguyen Thi Le Hang, M.A SYNTAX SYLLABUS which specify the left - to - right ordering of elements, whether the elements ate optional or obligatory We have some P.S rules: S  NP + VP VP  V + NP V + PP V + NP + NP NP  Art + N + (PP) Det + N Adj + N PP  Pre + N Elements in the sentences ate governed not only by categories and constituent structure but also by subcategorization Subcategorization means the classification of words in terms of their complements option Subcategorization interacts with the PS rules to ensure that lexical items appear in the appropriate types of structures For example: The verb “arrive” requites no complements E.g He’s arrived The verb “become” needs an adjective or a noun as complements E.g He’s become an engineer The adjective “tall” does not need a complement E.g He is tall The adjective “interested” requires a PP E.g He is interested in music There are four ways to determine phrase structures: One approach to determining phrase structure is substitution test: Whatever you can substitute a single word for, preserving grammaticality is a constituent or phrase, that is, a “chunk” and whatever cannot be substituted for is not In The bear went over the mountain, we can easily find one-word substitutions for the bear As a result, we can have new sentences like Max went over the mountain, He went over the mountain, Tigers went over the mountain The substitution need not preserve meaning, just grammatical sentence The new sentences created by the substitution for The bear meet the test, so we can conclude that in the original sentence The bear is a constituent Now let's look at some other word sequences in the bear went over the mountain How about bear went? There don't seem to be any single-word substitutions for it The results of substitutions such as smoke, green, it for bear went aren't grammatical sentences; and since no substitution seems possible for bear went, we can conclude that it isn't a constituent in the bear went over the mountain Constituents can he longer than two words For went over the mountain in The bear went over the mountain we can substitute any single intransitive verb or any transitive verb whose direct object can be optionally omitted: The bear slept, The bear awoke, The bear ate A second criterion for finding constituents is the ability of constituents to “move” For example, “The bear went over the mountain” we can move “over the mountain” to the front position in the sentence: Over the mountain the bear went We can move a word sequence in a different place Note that the movement criterion, since it relies in paraphrase, requires keeping the meaning the same, unlike the substitution criterion A third test for “constituency” is whether the word sequence in question can be conjoined with Compiled and edited by Nguyen Thi Le Hang, M.A SYNTAX SYLLABUS a similar sequence In The bear went over the mountain, all constituency” can be: a The bear and the mouse went over the mountain b The bear went over the mountain and came back again c The bear went over the mountain and cross the lake d The bear went over the mountain and the pass A final criterion for “constituency” is whether the sequence in question can be the antecedent for a pro-word (i.e., a pronoun or a word with a similar function), it seems to be generally true that pro-forms can only use constituents for their antecedents, never non-constituents The technical term for the relation between a pro-word (or more generally, pro-expression) and its antecedent is anaphora All the constituents in The bear went over the mountain can be justified under the anaphora test: a The bear went over the mountain He was hungry b The bear went over the mountain He did so in order to see what was on the other side c The bear went over the mountain He went there because he had a strong drive to conquer new challenges d The bear went over the mountain In fact, he went back and forth over it several times before he got tired of the scenery Transformation According to many linguists, a complete account of the syntactic structure of sentences must include the concepts of transformation A transformation is an operation that moves a phrasal category (e.g NP, VP, PP) from one location to another within a structure For example, the formation of question structure requires a transformation - that is inversion E.g The cat can climb the tree Can the cat climb the tree? The transformational analysis is claiming that there are levels of syntactic structure The first, called Deep structure is formed by the PS rules in accordance with the head’s subcategorization properties Deep structure plays a special role in the interpretation of sentences Deep structure or base component produces / generates basic syntactic structures The second, called Surface structure, results from applying whatever transformation are appropriate for the sentence in questions Surface structure/ transformational component changes/ transform basic structures into sentences We can illustrate the above mentioned concept with the diagram: Phrase structure rules Deep structure  (Subcategorization restricts choice of complement) Transformations Surface structure For example, the sentence: What did the boy see? Has two syntactic structures; Compiled and edited by Nguyen Thi Le Hang, M.A SYNTAX SYLLABUS (Deep structure) NP Aux VP Did Det the N V NP boy see Pro What (Surface structure) N Aux Pro What did NP Det N the boy VP see It should be noticed that only constituents can be questioned and moved E.g, (a) Did he climb {up the ladder}? PP (b) Where did he climb { }? (c) Did he {fold up} {the ladder}? NP In (c) “up the ladder” is not a constituent and thus cannot be questioned or moved? (d) Where did he {fold} { }? wrong NP Compiled and edited by Nguyen Thi Le Hang, M.A SYNTAX SYLLABUS CHAPTER SYNTACTIC ELEMENTS AND STRUCTURES OF THE CLAUSE Key Concepts in this Chapter Subject Predicate Predicator Direct Object Indirect Object Adjunct I Subject, Predicator, Object, Complement and Adjunct Subject and Predicate Consider the pair of sentences below (1) The cat devoured the rat (2) The rat devoured the cat The structure of these sentences can be represented as in (3) and (4) below using brackets: (3) [The cat] [devoured [the rat]] (4) [The rat] [devoured [the cat]] As we have already seen, these sentences contain exactly the same words, but differ quite radically in meaning This meaning difference comes about as a result of the different roles played by the various constituents In (3) and (4)distinct entities, namely the cat and the rat respectively, carry out the action denoted by the word devoured We will call words that denote actions verbs Also, notice that we could say that (3) is concerned with telling us more about the cat, while (4) is concerned with telling us more about the rat We can now define the Subject of a sentence as the constituent that on the one hand tells us who performs the action denoted by the verb (i.e who is the Agent), and on the other hand tells us who or what the sentence is about So to find out what is the Subject of a particular sentence we can ask ‘Who or what carried out the action denoted by the verb?’ and also ‘Who or what is this sentence about?’ The answers to these questions will pinpoint the Subject The second bracketed units in the sentences in (3) and (4) are devoured the rat and devoured the cat, respectively These constituents tell us more about the Subject of the sentence, namely what it was engaged in doing (or, to be more precise, what its referent was engaged in doing) In (3) the Subject (the cat) was engaged in eating a rat, whereas in (4) the Subject (the rat) was engaged in eating a cat We will use the term Predicate for the unit in a sentence whose function is to specify what the Subject is engaged in doing The notion Predicate is therefore a second type of grammatical function In any given sentence the Predicate is everything in the sentence except the Subject Predicator So far we have looked at the way in which the bracketed strings in (5) and (6) function: (5) [The cat] [devoured the rat] = (1) Subject Predicate (6) [The rat] [devoured the cat] = (2) Subject Predicate Compiled and edited by Nguyen Thi Le Hang, M.A SYNTAX SYLLABUS We should now take a closer look at the elements inside the Predicate Can we assign further functions to them? Yes, we can In each of the Predicates above there is a verb, devoured, and a Noun Phrase, namely the rat and the cat, respectively Here we will concentrate on the function of the verb We will say that devoured in (5) and (6) functions as Predicator Predicators are pivotal elements which specify what we could call the bare-bone content of the sentences in which they occur, that is, the main action or process denoted by the verb As their name suggests, Predicates are in the business of predicating something, i.e saying something of something else Thus, the bare-bone content of (5) and (6) is ‘devouring’ This devouring activity is predicated of the Subjects of these sentences, which specify who was engaged in the activity of devouring Be careful to distinguish Predicates from Predicators We can now refine (5) and (6) as follows: (5’) (6’) Direct Object After our discussion of Subjects, Predicates and Predicators we now turn to a fourth type of grammatical function: the Direct Object(DO) Consider the following sentences: (7) His girlfriend bought this computer (8) That silly fool broke the teapot (9) Our linguistics lecturer took this photograph (10) My sister found this book The Subjects of these sentences are the first NPs in each case: his girlfriend, that silly fool, our linguistics lecturer and my sister The Predicates are bought this computer, broke the teapot, took this photograph and found this book The Predicators are bought, broke, took and found We now assign the function of Direct Object to the NPs this computer, the teapot, this photograph and this book How can we characterize the notion Direct Object? In semantic terms Direct Objects are said to be constituents that refer to entities that undergo the activity or process denoted by the verb In (7) the referent of the NP this computer undergoes a buying activity, in (8) the referent of the NP the teapot undergoes a breaking process, in (9) the referent of this photograph undergoes a picture-taking process, and, finally, in (10) the referent of this book undergoes a process of being found Indirect Object In this section we will be looking at a further type of verbal Complement: Indirect Objects (IOs) In the sentences below the IOs have been italicized: (11) We gave the boys the CDs (12) The publisher sent her a review copy of the book (13) She lent the student a diskette (14) My father always told us stories When we discussed Subjects and Direct Objects in the previous sections we saw that Subjects typically have the role of Agent, and that Direct Objects typically have the role of Compiled and edited by Nguyen Thi Le Hang, M.A SYNTAX SYLLABUS Thematic Roles for Non-argument Noun Phrases Noun phrases which are not arguments of predicates also have thematic roles What can be said about, the roles of the boldface noun phrases in the following sentences? The doctor's car was a Mercedes Moses waited for them on the mountain A truce will be declared for two weeks Last year the government divided the huge estates among the peasants They have the thematic roles of location and time Prepositions are similar semantically to predicates Like many predicates they take object arguments, but unlike those predicates, they take no subject arguments The relation of the verb approach to the hut in the first example phrase following is very like the relation of the preposition to to the hut in the second: approach the hut to the hut In both cases, the hut is the goal argument (R A Jacobs 1995: 23-26) II SOME SPECIAL CASES NOTES ON TRANSITIVE VERB PATTERNS: The action expressed by a transitive verb "carries across" to a receiver The receiver of the action is called the direct object Transitive verbs require a direct object to complete their meaning A good test for recognizing a direct object is to ask the question "what?" after the verb The answer is the direct object The indirect object comes between a transitive verb and the direct object of that verb The I.O receives the result of the action; in other words, the I.O receives the D.O A good way to identify the indirect object is to ask the question "to whom?" or "for whom?" after the direct object The answer is the indirect object An object complement completes the meaning of the direct object with a noun that renames it or an adjective that describes it In the active voice transitive verb patterns shown on page 2, the subject of the sentence performs the action of the verb Only transitive verb patterns can be changed to the passive voice In the passive voice, the subject of the sentence does not perform the action of the verb The subject is usually the receiver of the action (a direct or indirect object) Form the passive verb using "to be" as an auxiliary plus the past participle of the main verb Examples: Active voice: The dog catches the ball Passive voice: The ball is caught (by the dog) Active voice: The scientist performed an experiment Passive voice: An experiment was performed (by the scientist) Active voice: Pearl sent Tom a book Passive voice: A book was sent to Tom (by Pearl) or Tom was sent a book (by Pearl) Active voice: He called the teacher a genius Passive voice: The teacher was called a genius Compiled and edited by Nguyen Thi Le Hang, M.A SYNTAX SYLLABUS CHAPTER METHODS OF SENTENCE ANALYSIS I The sentence: definition of this grammatical concept with its main and general characteristics from different points of view Analysis of sentences is the breaking up of a sentence into its parts, with a view to show their mutual relations There are two conventional methods of sentence analysis: Descriptive Linguistic Analysis: (Traditional Grammar) I not know whether the woman who was asking so many questions was really interested in the subject, or whether she wanted to attract the attention of the speaker towards herself, but whatever her motive was, she succeeded in making him feel so much confused that he eventually sat down, blushed and remained silent M1: ‘I not know': Main clause S1: 'Whether the woman was really interested in the subject' Noun clause, object of 'know' S1.1: 'Who was asking so many questions': Relative clause, modifying 'woman' S2: 'Or whether she wanted to attract the attention of the speaker towards herself: coordinate Noun clause, object of 'know' M2: 'But she succeeded in making him feel so much confused' S3: 'Whatever her motive was': Adverb clause of concession, modifying 'succeeded' S4: 'That he eventually sat down, blushed and remained silent' Adverb clause of result, modifying 'confused' Characteristics of Sentences What is the internal organization of sentences? (How are units distributed within a sentence?) To understand the internal organization of sentences and the distribution of the units forming them, we must consider three major properties of sentence structure: Linearity: Sentences are produced and received in a linear sequence SV SVO SVOA SVCA SVA SVOC S V O.i O.d Or Subject - Predicate Note: Auxiliary verbs precede main verbs (will talk, not *talk will) 2.There are prepositions rather than postpositions (in Jakarta,not * Jakarta in) Adjectives, relative clauses, and other modifiers of nouns follow their head nouns Compiled and edited by Nguyen Thi Le Hang, M.A SYNTAX SYLLABUS Hierarchy Sentences are hierarchically structured, that is, they are not simply sequences of individual words but are made up of word groupings, which themselves may consist of lesser groupings Words are not necessarily the only constituents of sentences; there are also higher-level constituents that form sentences This kind of hierarchical organization, like linearity, represents a more general strategy the mind uses to organize experience In sentences, lesser elements are parts of larger wholes, which are in turn parts of yet larger wholes A hierarchical structure in syntax is a multilevel structure in which each individual constituent at the lowest level belongs - either on its own or together with adjacent constituents - to a constituent at the next higher level, and further to the highest level, which, in sentence grammar, is the category sentence Categoriality Sentences are made up of parts which belong to a set of distinct categories, each with its special characteristics Let’s have another look at the sentence The government expelled the officers from Thailand The constituent structure trees studied so far represent (1) the linear ordering of the sentence and (2) native-speaker intuitions as to the hierarchical organization of the parts But the trees fail to express crucial generalizations about sameness and difference Certain constituents are of the same kind, and they are different from others Without conscious effort, native speakers exploit the samenesses and differences by using constituents of the same kind in the same positions within a sentence; that is, the constituents share the same distribution A descriptive grammar must differentiate between items that are the same and those that are different Words, and the larger constituents they make up, belong to a set of distinct categories, each with its special characteristics This is the third general property of sentence structures, categoriality II Conventions to be used in the analysis of a sentence, the constituents and its levels To show categorial distinctions on constituent structure trees, the words must be labeled appropriately The bottom part of the trees could look like this (DET stands for determiner, words like the, this, a, while N stands for noun, V for verb, and P for preposition): Let's see the diagram of the sentence The government expelled the officers from Thailand Constituent structures for the two interpretations of the sentence can now reflect categoriality as well as linearity and hierarchy Just one of the alternative structures is shown here: Compiled and edited by Nguyen Thi Le Hang, M.A SYNTAX SYLLABUS The constituent structure above shows the determiner the has as its sister constituent a unit consisting of the noun officer sand the prepositional phrase from Thailand In the diagram we have shown this unit as N' All of these units together form a single, higher-level noun phrase This higher-level noun phrase functions as the object (R A Jacobs, 1995: 41-43) III PRACTICE Ex1: Answer the following questions What is sentence? (How is sentence defined?) What are the characteristics of English sentences? How does the hierarchical structure help explain the meaning of the sentence The man bit the monkey with a stick? What are the syntactic relations of (English) sentences? Give examples to illustrate How are English sentences classified according to mood category? I Analyse the following sentences according to descriptive analysis: Buying clothes is a very time-consuming practice because those clothes that a person likes are rarely the ones that the ones that fit him or her At the moment husbands in all industrialized countries contribute very little to domestic work and recent research shows that this contribution doesn’t increase when the wife goes out to work When mother works economic advantages accrue, but children lose something of great value if mother’s employment prevents her from being home to greet them when they return from school In recent years, it has been observed that in those societies where women work outside their home in the company of men, there exist many serious social problems The man who does not see that the good of every living creature is his good is a fool Compiled and edited by Nguyen Thi Le Hang, M.A SYNTAX SYLLABUS CHAPTER ANALYZING THE STRUCTURES OF ENGLISH SENTENCES USING TREE DIAGRAM I Rules to build a Tree diagram To build a tree, it is easy to work form the bottom- up and from right to left (A Grammar of Contemporary English) The words of each sentence can be divided into two or more groups and within each group the words can be divided into sub-groups, and so one, until only simple words remain In tree-diagram method, the sentence is called a constituent structure The 'tree' is upside down with the 'root' at the top and the 'leaves' at the bottom At each point where the tree ' branches', there is a group of words that form a part or structural constituent of the sentence At the bottom of the tree are individual words or morphemes In addition to revealing linear order, a constituent structure tree has hierarchical structure Three aspects of the syntactic knowledge of sentence structure revealed in the constituent structure tree are : a Linearity : the linear older of the word E.g the subject preceded the verb while the object follows the verb b Hierarchy: the grouping of the words into structure constituents In sentences, lesser elements are parts of larger whole, which are in turns parts of larger wholes c Categoriality : the syntactic category of each structural constituents Words and the larger constituents they make up belong to a set of distinct categories, each with its special characteristics (E.g Noun, Adjective Noun phrase, Verb phrase etc) E.g S The young boy has bought a new camera VP NP The young boy The young boy has bought a new camera has bought a new camera has bought a new camera The tree diagram shows that sentence ‘the young boy has bought a camera’ consists of two structural constituents: a noun phrase 'the young boy’ and a verb phrase ‘has bought a new camera’ The verb phrase ‘has bought a new camera’ consists of two structural constituents: the verb “has bought’ and the noun phrase ‘a new camera’ and so on The article ‘a’, the adjective “new’ and the noun ‘camera’ are constituents in a large constituent noun phrase ‘a new camera’ A Compiled and edited by Nguyen Thi Le Hang, M.A SYNTAX SYLLABUS constituent includes all the smaller constituents beneath it in the tree Each branching point in the tree is called a ‘node’, and sometimes the syntactic category associated will the node is called its ‘label’ The constituent structure of sentence also reveals which constituents can be substituted for other constituents without affecting the grammaticality of the sentence (although the meaning may change) Constituents that can be substituted for one another without loss of grammaticality belong to the same syntactic category some model examples of tree diagrams:  Sentences S NP VP S Det N V C NP Det The psychic know that the VP N contestant Aux V will win II PRACTICE EXERCISES:  Ex 1: Draw tree diagram for the following noun phrases: The girl with a smile… The pretty girl with a smile… A man like John… Action in case of fire… The table which remained… A little boy who seems to be lost Several farmers waiting for the Prime Minister… The boy resembling my son The question debated in the Parliament yesterday… 10 The train to arrive… 11 The question to be debated in the Parliament… 12.an experience you’ll always remember… 13.Those big tree planted when my grandfather was still alive… 14.That distinguished man in a black suit made by a famous tailor… Ex 2: Draw trees for the following VPs: cancelled the project Compiled and edited by Nguyen Thi Le Hang, M.A SYNTAX SYLLABUS pointed out the man hidden in the crowd banned the cat scratching furniture from the living room put the car on the porch later sent me a postcard on my birthday give whoever comes to the shop on the opening day a gift threw up a hairball on the carpet throw away money on gambling will eat the rice in that saucepan 10 was quite sure about what his father had told him Ex 3: Draw tree diagrams for the following adjective phrases: Kim is angry at Bill’s sister We are proud of the invention She was interested in what we have proposed Naomi is anxious about Jim’s health He is aware of what might happen as a result of too much air pollution Ex 4: Which of the following expressions would be generated by this phrase structure rule? NP  Det (ADJ.) N ? a A radio b A new student c The rusty car d A screwdriver Ex 5: Analyse the following sentence by PSRs ( Phrase structure Rules) The farmer was eating his lunch in the cornfield I have forgotten who gave us this present He looked after his mother She placed the dish on the table The patient in bed was realizing with mild surprise that he was getting weaker The police caught the thief red-handed He punched the man in the face He punched the man in the blue shirt He put the book on the table in the living room on the shelf 10 The ripe apples from the tree which is near the house might hit the people on the head 11 He will know the result when he returns 12 Timothy sold his car when his mother was seriously ill 13 Those people moved the desk into the hall because they needed more space 14 They considered what he proposed unworkable 15 Many people are wondering when inter-planetary travel will become possible 16 He told the secret so that I should help him 17 He went by car because it was raining 18 He went by car which had been bought 19 He went to school in Walton Street in his city 20 He went to school in Walton Street in the evening 21 That Sharon’s car had broken down astonished the mechanic 22 You can tell me whether the train has left 23 He drove carefully because the road was slippery 24 She gave him a look which betokened trouble 25 I have forgotten who gave us the gift Compiled and edited by Nguyen Thi Le Hang, M.A SYNTAX SYLLABUS CHAPTER 10 AMBIGUITY I LEXICAL AMBIGUITY Lexical ambiguity occurs when a sentence contains a word or words that has or have more than one meaning For example, the sentence Jane broke the glasses is ambiguous because the word glasses may be interpreted as drinking vessels made of glass or a pair of lenses in a frame that rest on the nose and ears More examples: Mary thinks the present is nice a Mary thinks the gift is nice b Mary thinks the present time is nice She is standing near the bank a She is standing near the bank of the river b She is standing near the bank where people deposit and withdraw money the bank building An old friend of mine teaches at that school a A friend of mine (whom) I have known for a long time teaches at that school b A friend of mine who is old teaches at that school (not young) Children may feed animals a It is possible for children to feed animals b Children have permission to feed animals It must be a new record a It must be a new written or printed account of facts or events b It must be a new gramophone record disc c It must be the best performance of a particular feat II STRUCTURAL AMBIGUITY Structural ambiguity is the different underlying meanings or different implications of a sentence due to the fact that the sentence components can be arranged into phrases in more than one way An ambiguous sentence is a sentence which may have two or more meanings Some sentences are structurally ambiguous They are surface For example, the sentence, “Annie whacked a man with an umbrella” is structurally ambiguous It has two distinct deep structures expressing, on the one hand, the fact that “Annie had an umbrella and she whacked the man with it”; and on the other hand that “Annie whacked a man and he happened to be carrying an umbrella” (Yule, G, 1985:82) So this sentence has two different underlying interpretations which would be represented differently in the deep structure Syntactic knowledge combined with semantic knowledge can help us see which sentences are paraphrases of chosen original sentence and which are not When a string of words can be semantically associated with more than one tree structures, it is said to be structurally ambiguous Compiled and edited by Nguyen Thi Le Hang, M.A SYNTAX SYLLABUS Some Other Examples of Ambiguity “Fast cars and motorcycles are dangerous'' Two underlying interpretation of this sentence is as follows: a “Fast cars and fast motorcycles are dangerous” b “Fast cars and any type of motorcycle are dangerous” The tree diagram: “The policeman killed the woman with a gun.” Two underlying interpretations of this sentence are as follows: a) The policeman shot the woman b) The policeman killed the woman who held a gun in her hand “You can call her Mary” Two underlying interpretations of this sentence are as follows: a) You can address her as Mary b) You can ask Mary to come to help her “George likes amusing girls” Two underlying interpretations of this sentence are as follows: a) George likes enjoyable girls b) George likes making girls laugh or smile The tree diagram: a) b) Compiled and edited by Nguyen Thi Le Hang, M.A SYNTAX SYLLABUS “Smoking grass can be nauseating” Two underlying interpretation of this sentence are as follows: a) Putting grass in a pipe and smoking it can make you sick b) Fumes from smoldering  Grass can make you sick  Burning slowly without flame III PRACTICE EXERCISES:  I The following sentence is structurally ambiguous, analyze the two different sentence structures (SVOCA) to show both possible meanings The girl scratched the boy with the sharp fingernails We called him a porter They took her money He looked after dinner II Draw tree diagrams to illustrate the different meanings of the following ambiguous sentences: The woman hit the man with the wooden leg The mother of the girl and the boy will arrive I am looking for someone to teach French Max was ogling a girl with brazen audacity The girl scratched the boy with the sharp fingernails They have wounded men there I bought an old French dictionary III Are the following sentences ambiguous? If yes, explain the two possible meanings of the ambiguous sentences: The koala consumed the leaves with boredom He buried the knife he found in the garden I looked at the letter Max was reading with unfeigned astonishment He couldn’t find the key to the jewel case which he had left on the table We must ask the farmer who owns the fields where we can camp Children who stay out all night sometimes should be punished The woman with the children who were complaining was told to move along He lived on a street near the post office which was always full of people We proudly watched them march away 10 The men with dogs that were barking were told to move along 11 He arrived accompanied by a Russian wolfhound with a big smile on his face 14 Cows that eat corn flakes frequently have stomach trouble 15 Cows that eat corn flakes frequently rarely have stomach trouble 16 Cows that eat corn flakes never have stomach trouble 17 We suddenly noticed a man in a space suit which should have been sent to the cleaners 18 The police have trouble with the people who occupy these cottages all the time 19 Children who stay out all night sometimes should be punished 20 Children who stay out all night should seldom be punished Compiled and edited by Nguyen Thi Le Hang, M.A SYNTAX SYLLABUS REFERENCES [1] Alexander, L.G (1992), Longman English Grammar, Essex, England: Longman Group Limited [2] Alexander, L.G (1992), Longman Advanced Grammar: Reference and practice, Essex, England: Longman Group Limited [3] Azar, Betty Schrampfer (1989), Understanding and Using English Grammar (Second Edition), Englewood Cliffs, Newjersey: Prentice Hall Regents [4] Collins Cobuild (1994), Collins Cobuild English Grammar, London: William Collins Sons & Co Ltd Collins Publishers [5] Howard Jackson (1999), Analysing English, Pergamon Institute of English [6] Huddleston, Rodney (1993), An introduction to the grammar, Oxford, England: Oxford University Press [7] Leech, G & Svartvik, J (1975), A communicative grammar of English, Essex, England: Longman Group Limited [8] Quirk, Randolph & Grenbaum, Sydney (1993), A university Grammar of English, Longman Group Limited [9] Roberts, Noel Burton (1997), Analysing sentences, Longman [10] Schmidt, Hemlen Hoyt (1995), Advance English Grammar, Upper Saddle River, Newjersey: Prentice Hall Regents [11] Swan, Michael (1994), Basic English Usage, Walton Strreet, Oxford: Oxford University Press Compiled and edited by Nguyen Thi Le Hang, M.A SYNTAX SYLLABUS D SYNTHESIS OF SENTENCES Synthesis is the combination of a number of simple sentences into one new sentence - simple, compound or complex A Combination of two or more simple sentences into a single simple sentence Chief ways of combination By choosing a non - finite clause A crow stole a piece of cheese She flew to her nest to enjoy the tasty ' meal  Having stolen a piece of cheese, a crow flew to her nest to enjoy the tasty meal By using a prepositional phrase He has failed many times He still hopes to succeed  In spite of many failures, he hopes to succeed By using a noun phrase in apposition This town was once a prosperous sea – port It is now a heap of ruins  This town, once prosperous sea - port, is now a heap of ruins By using an adverb phrase He deserved to success He failed  He failed undeservedly B Combination of two or more simple sentences into a single compound sentence Simple sentences may be combined to form compound sentences By the use of coordinating conjunctions It was annoyed, I kept quite  I was annoyed, still I kept quite or I was annoyed, but I kept quite The wind blew The lain fell The lighting flashed  The wind blew, the rain fell, and the lighting flashed We can travel by land We can travelled by water  We can travel either by land or by water He was obstinate He was punished  He was obstinate; therefore he was punished C Combination of two or more simple sentences into a single complex sentence Subordinate clause a noun clause a He may be innocent, I not know  I not know whether he is innocent b She said something I did not hear it  I did not hear what he said Subordinate clause an adjective clause a A farmer had a hen The hen laid an egg everyday The egg was golden  A farmer had a hen which laid a golden egg everyday b That is a school I was taught there  That is a school where I was taught Subordinate clause an adverb clause Compiled and edited by Nguyen Thi Le Hang, M.A SYNTAX SYLLABUS a It was very stuffy last night I could not sleep  I could not sleep last night because it was very stuffy b He is superstitious He is equally wicked  He is as superstitious as he wicked PRACTICE EXERCISES:  I Combine each set of sentences into simple sentence He devoted himself to public affairs, he never took a holiday This continued for thirty years The boy was drowning He shouted for help A workman heard the boy's shouts He plunged into the river, he risked his own life The traveler was toiling slowly over the desert, he suddenly turned round He heard his companion's voice His companion was crying for help He paid all of his father's debts This was a very honest proceeding Its was very creditable to him The thieves poisoned the dog He had brought it from England He had trained it carefully to protect his property He receives much gratitude He performs kindly actions He is not harsh in the execution of his study He does not oppress the poor He had not sufficient courage He could not face the opposition of his castle fellows He could not go away from his native place to begin a fresh life He could not finish his work He had no opportunity, he could not much of it in fact He was very often ill He was frequently absent II Combine each set of simple sentences into one compound sentence He does well He is nervous as the start Bruce was lying on his bed He looked up lo the roof He saw the spider He was my school-fellow He has become a great man He has grown proud, he forgets his old friends I did not see you I should have spoken to you I had important news Delay was dangerous I lost my way I asked the policeman to direct me He was new to his work He could not help me He called the gentleman passing by to my assistance Generally your conduct is good You have been guilty of an act of folly You will not be punished I advise you to be more prudent in future The rain fell steadily for several days The river overflowed its banks; the terrified villagers abandoned their homes They fled to the higher ground Soon the floods retired The villagers were able to return Make haste You will be late There is no other train till midnight That train is a slow one III Combine each set of simple sentences into one complex sentence The German army was no longer to be considered as invincible This was apparent to the entire world We wished to know We were going somewhere Who wrote Shanuntala? Can you tell me that? I am very sorry I cannot adequately express my sorrow Compiled and edited by Nguyen Thi Le Hang, M.A SYNTAX SYLLABUS The theft was committed last night The man has been caught The time was six o'clock The accidents happened then He has many plans for earning money quickly All of them have failed You put it somewhere Show me the place I wound my watch this morning It has stopped 10 He spoke in a very low voice Nobody could hear him 11 He saw me coming He immediately took his heels 12 It is very simple Even the child can understand it 13 I may help you I may not help you You are sure to lose the game 14 You must hurry You will miss the train otherwise 15 He finished the work Just then the clock struck five 16 He is a rich man No other man in our community is equally rich 17 It doesn't matter what I say He always does something different 18 I will leave the message for yon with my secretary It is possible that I will be out when yon telephone 19 In view of the drought, there is only enough water for two days That is our conclusion 20 You could have the best binoculars in the world But still you wouldn’t be able to see anything 21 He has very bad health He lives very carefully It is inexplicable to the doctor The doctor has attended him for years He told me this 22 He wrote a letter He wrote it for a certain reason to his superior He told me about this 23 He played exceedingly well in the match His team won is consequence The match was played yesterday 24 He forsook his dishonest ways No one would give him work His dishonest ways had brought him to the depths of poverty Compiled and edited by Nguyen Thi Le Hang, M.A SYNTAX SYLLABUS REFERENCES [1] Angela.D & Philip.L (2006), English Grammar – A University Course 2nd Edition, Routledge Taylor & Francis Group [2] Bas.A (2001), English Syntax and Argumentation 2nd, Palgrave Macmillan [3] Jong Bok.K and Peter.S (2007), English Syntax: An introduction, Centre for the Study of Language and Information [4] Tô Minh Thanh (2007), English Syntax, NXB Đại học Quốc Gia Thành Phố Hồ Chí Minh [5] Howard Jackson (1999), Analysing English, Pergamon Institute of English [6] Swan, Michael (1994), Basic English Usage, Walton Strreet, Oxford: Oxford University Press Compiled and edited by Nguyen Thi Le Hang, M.A ... viewed as a device of some sort for producing the sentences of the language under analysis.” (Noam Chomsky, Syntactic Structures, 1971) Syntax? Grammar? Compiled and edited by Nguyen Thi Le Hang,... concept with the diagram: Phrase structure rules Deep structure  (Subcategorization restricts choice of complement) Transformations Surface structure For example, the sentence: What did the... But if the Object is a pronoun, the particle is placed after it, as in The motivation for this choice has to with the distribution of information We focus on the new information by placing it