Syntax:

The Sentence Patterns of Language

Deny A. Kwary
http://www.kwary.net
Airlangga University

Grammatical vs. Ungrammatical

Well-formed or grammatical sentence: a
sequence of words that conform to the
rules of syntax.
Ill-formed or ungrammatical sentence:
a sequence of words that violate the
rules of syntax

Grammatical or Ungrammatical:
1. The boy found the ball
2. The boy found quickly
3. The boy found in the house
4. The boy found the ball in the house
5. Disa slept the baby
6. Disa slept soundly
Find: Transitive verb (with object)
Sleep: Intransitive verb (no object)

pp. 119 - 120

Syntactic Categories (1)

Lexical categories
Noun (N)
Verb (V)
Adjective (A)
Preposition (P)
Adverb (Adv)

Examples
moisture, policy
melt, remain
good, intelligent
to, near
slowly, now

Syntactic Categories (2)

Non-lexical categories
Determiner (Det)
Degree word (Deg)
Qualifier (Qual)
Auxiliary (Aux)
Conjunction (Conj)
Complementizer (Comp)

Examples
the, this
very, more
always, perhaps
will, can
and, or
that (clause)

Indicate the category of each word in the

following sentences.
a. The glass suddenly broke.
Det / N / Adv / V
b. A jogger ran towards the end of the lane.
Det / N / V / P / Det / N / P / Det / N
c. The peaches never appear quite ripe.
Det / N / Qual / V / Deg / A
d. Gillian will play the trumpet and the drums in the orchestra.
N / Aux / V / Det / N / Conj / Det / N / P / Det / N

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

Phrase Structure Rules

NP (Det) N (PP)
PP P NP
The bus (NP)
Det

The

bus

The bus in the yard

NP
Det

PP
P

NP
Det

The

bus

in the

N
yard

Phrase Structure Rules

VP V (NP) (PP)
S NP (Aux) VP

took the money (VP)

V

NP
Det

took

the

took the money from the bank

VP
V

NP
Det

money

PP
N

NP
Det

took

the money from the

N
bank

Draw the tree diagram.

1. repaired the telephone
2. the success of the program
3. a film about pollution
4. move towards the window
5. cast a spell on the broomstick

The main structure rules

1. S NP (Aux) VP
2. NP (Det) (AP) N (PP)
3. VP V (NP) (PP) (Adv) (CP)
4. PP P NP
5. AP Adj (PP)
6. CP Comp S

Example (1)
The old tree swayed in the wind
S
Aux

NP
Det

Adj

VP
V

PP
P

NP
Det

The

old

tree

past

swayed

in the

N
wind

Example (2)
The children put the toy in the box
S
NP
Det

VP
N

NP
Det

PP
N

NP
Det

The

children

put

the

toy

in the

N
box

Exercise # 7 a e
p.167