BS English Literature morning

Submitted by:

Group 4

Sr. Student Name Roll #

1 Sadia Aslam 1012

2 M. Faizan Alvi 1036

3 Asma Aziz 5038

4 Amna Shoukat 1051

5 Umme Humaira 1055

6 Adnan Alam 1065

Submitted to:

Mam Nelofir

Project Name:

Syntax

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What is Syntax:
Syntax is a branch of linguistics that studies the rules that govern the formation of
sentences.The term “Syntax” comes from the Greek, meaning “arrange together”.

 Syntax is the proper order of words in a phrase or sentences.

 Syntax is a tool used in writing proper grammatical sentences.
 Native speakers of a language learn correct syntax without realizing it.
 The complexity of a writer’s or speaker’s sentences create a formal or informal level of
diction that is presented to its audience.

Examples:
Girl and boy studying together as syntax examples. Correct syntax examples include word
choice, matching number and tense, and placing words and phrases in the right order.

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Hearing and speaking Syntax:
Syntax is one of the major component of the grammer.It is the concept that enables people to
know how to start a question with a question word (“What is that”?) .

For native speakers, using correct syntax is something that comes naturally,as word order is
learned as soon as an infant start absorbing the language. Native speakerz can tell something
isn’t said quite right because it “Sounds Weird” even if they can’t detail the exact grammer rule
that makes something sound “off” to the ear.

”It is syntax that gives the word the power to relate to each other in a sequence to carry meaning
of whatever kind as well as glow individually in just the right place”

Grammaticalty Judgment:

 It is determined by rules that are shared by speaker of language.

 Word must conform to specific patterns determined by syntactic rules of the language.

Syntactic Rule:
 English parts of speech often follow patterns in sentences and clauses, such as
compound sentences are joined by conjuctions or that multiple adjectives modifying the
same noun follow a particular order according to their class. The rules of how to order
words helps the language parts to make sense.
 Sentences often start with a subject, followed by a predicate and contain an object or a
complement (or both) which shows, for example,what’s being acted upon .Take the
sentence “Both slowly ran in wild, multicolored flip-flops”. The sentence follws a
subject-verb-object pattern.Adverbs and adjectives take their places in font of what
they’re modifying.The object follows the verb “ran” and the prepositional phrase start
with preposition “in”.

Categories:
Category refers to a group of linguistic items which fulfil the same or similar functions in a
particular such as sentence, a noun phrase or a verb.

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Word-level categories:
Word can be grouped together in to a relatively small number of classes called syntactic
categories, which can generally substitute for one another without loss of grammatically.

Word- level categories are divided in to:

1. Lexical words (Open class words)

2. Functional words (Closed class words)

Lexical Words:
It is called “open” (lexical ) because language can freely add new words to the set.

Examples:
Noun , verb, adjective and adverb

Fuctional Words:
It is called “functional” because they carry little meaning (have no synonyms) and typically
“help” another word.

Examples:
Determiner, Degree words, Qualifier, Auxiliary, Conjucion, Pronoun, Preposition

Example of Syntactic Categories:

Lexical Categories: Examples:

 Noun (N)  Moisture, policy

Functional Categories:
 Verb (V) 
Examples:
Melt, remain
 Determinr (Det)  The, this
 Adverb (Adv)  Good , intelligent
 Degree Word (Deg)  Very, more
 Adjective (A)  Slowly, Now
 Qualifier (Qual)  Always, perhaps

 Auxiliary (Aux)  Will, Can

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 Conjuction (Con)  And, Or
Indicate the category of each word in the following sentences:
1.The glass suddenly broke.

Det / N / Adv / V

2.A jogger rans towards the end of the lane.

Det / N / V / P / Det / N / P / Det / N

3.The peaches never appear quite ripe.

Det / N / Qual / V / Det / Adj

4.Gillian will play the trumpet and the drums in the orchestra.

N / Aux / V / Det / N / Conj / Det / N / P / Det / N

Phrase Categories and their Structures:

Syntactic units that are build around a certain word categories are called phrases, the category of
which is determined by the word category aroud which the phrase is built.

Examples:
If the word around which the phrase is built is a noun, then the phrase is a noun phrase.e.g the
car, a clever student.

Phrasal Categories:
The most commonly recognized categories:

 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

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Phrase Structure Rule:
The phase structure rule for NP, VP, PP, and AP is

NP 😍(Det) N (PP)

VP 😍(Qual) V (NP)

AP😍(Deg) A (PP)

PP 😍(Deg) P (NP)

Symbols:

S Sentence Adj Adjective

N Noun Pro Pronoun

V Verb Adv Adverb

Art Article Prep Preposition

NP Noun Phrase PP Prep Phrase

VP Verb Phrase Det Determiner

PN Proper Noun

Phrase Rule:

Took the money [VP] Took the money from the bank

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VNP V NP PP

Det N Det N P NP

Took The Money Det N

Took the money

The Bank
The main structural Rule:
1. S 😍 NP (Aux) VP

2. NP 😍(Det) (NP) (PP) (Adv)

3. VP 😍V( NP) (PP) (Adv)

4. PP 😍 P NP

Example: The old tree Swayed in the wind

S
VP

NP Aux
V PP
Det Adj N P NP
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 N
The Old Tree Past Swayed in the Wind

Structural Ambiguity:

Synthetic buffalo hides ( NP) Synthetic buffalo hides ( NP]

Synthetic buffalo hides Synthetic buffalo hides

Deep Structure:
The basic structure of sentence which specified by phrase structure rules.

E.g. Np +V + Np

Same deep structure can be the source of many others surface structure.

For Example:
The boy is sleeping ...................... is the boy sleeping?

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 S

NP Aux VP

Det N V

The Boy is Sleeping

S
Aux NP VP

Det N V

Is the boy Sleeping

Deep structure is the basic structure of sentences. It is specified by the “Phrase structure
rules".Phrse structure rules crete initial syntactic trees.

PS : S N VP

VP V NP

NP Det N

E.g of Deep Structur:

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 NP VP

V NP

John

Loves Marry

Transformational Rule:
It is an syntactive rule that applies to an underlying phrase structure tree of a sentence.It
derives a new structure by moving or inserting elements.It is a way to capture the relationship
between a declaration and a question

Exmple:

“ Passive” transformation

Surface Structure:
Surface structure is actual form of a sentences.It is forms of sentence resulted from modification
or transformation.Surface structure is a form of language that is based from deep structure.

Examples:

1. Same deep structure and different surface structure

 You push the chair ( Active sentence)

 The chair is pushed by you ( Passive sentence)
 Push the chair! ( Imperative sentence)

Three sentences have the same abstract representation ( Deep structure) which is you as a person
push the chair..
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 2. Same surface structure and different deep structure

 John saw the man with a telescope

The example of surface structure of simple declaration sentence is

 The plane is leaving.

Tree diagram of Surface & Deep Structure:

S S

NP Aux VP Aux NP VP

Det N V Det N V

The boy will leave Will the boy Leave

The Deep Structure The Surface Structure

Complementizer:
It introduces a complement phrase.

S
NP VP
Aux
CP
Det N Present V
C S

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 The teachers believes that the students knows
the answer
The Wh-movement:

NP Aux VP

Det N V NP

Det Nhe

The man should repair which car

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