MORPHOLOGY AND SYNTAX

UNIT 3
Syntax

Autor: Mgs. Edwin Pacheco

 ÍNDICE

1. Unit 3: Syntax ....................................................................................................3

Topic 2: Structure .......................................................................................................... 3
Objective: ...................................................................................................................... 3
Introduction: ................................................................................................................. 3

2. Subtopics information........................................................................................4
2.1 Subtopic 1: Structural ambiguity ....................................................................... 4
2.2 Subtopic 2: Tree diagram ................................................................................... 6

3. Analysis Unit questions ....................................................................................10

4. Further Reading ...............................................................................................11

5. Bibliography ....................................................................................................12

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1. Unit 3: Syntax
Topic 2: Structure
Objective:
To understand that ambiguity can occur in different scenarios in a language and also to
have a wider comprehension of tree diagrams.

Introduction:
Language is extremely important in our lives. Language is used by everyone to
communicate with one another. It's also utilized to reveal our ideas, thoughts,
sentiments, or emotions in response to a specific scenario. Language, according to
Horn (1995:662), is the system of sounds and words that humans use to describe their
thoughts and feelings.

As a social creature, humans utilize language to form relationships with others through
communication; thus, communication, both written and spoken, is vital in human life.

In our daily lives, communication can be difficult to manage if we do not express

ourselves clearly. It causes the listener or reader to understand our words in a
different way. In fact, understanding a written language is more difficult than
understanding a spoken language because the listener can immediately ask us what
we mean if he or she doesn't comprehend what we say. However, if a reader does not
comprehend what we have written in a book, novel, or other text medium, he or she
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cannot directly ask us. It leads to the reader's misinterpretation or misunderstanding

of the text's message. Ambiguity is the term for this type of misunderstanding.

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2. Subtopics information
2.1 Subtopic 1: Structural ambiguity
The According to Leech (1981:30), an expression is said to be ambiguous when it can
have many interpretations. A word, a phrase, or a sentence is ambiguous, according to
Rodman and Fromkin (1983:129), if it can be understood or construed in more than
one manner. We can deduce from the passages above that ambiguity occurs when a
word, phrase, or sentence has multiple meanings.

Ambiguity occurs when a word, phrase, or sentence can be understood or interpreted

in multiple ways, or, to put it another way, when a word, phrase, or sentence has an
uncertain meaning. Furthermore, Djajasudarma (1999:56) claims that a meaning might
be ambiguous for a variety of reasons, including:
a. The word or sentence is common (general); the term 'book,' for
example, has various meanings.
b. The interpreted word or sentence does not reflect the speaker's or
writer's intent; interpretation should be based on the context, even if
the context is obscure.
c. The meaning limit associated with language and non-language is
unclear; for example, saying someone is clever at something has no
limit.
d. We are unfamiliar with the word or sentence's usage.
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Types of Ambiguity
There are three types of ambiguity: lexical ambiguity, structural ambiguity, and
phonetic structure ambiguity.

Lexical Ambiguity
When a single term has multiple meanings, it is called lexical ambiguity.
Sentences may be ambiguous because they contain one or more ambiguous
words, according to Rodman and Fromkin (1983:169). It is evident from that

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remark that lexical ambiguity is ambiguity caused by the ambiguity of a word.

Consider the following scenario: She was unable to have children. This sentence
is unclear. The ambiguity stems from the term bear, which has two different
meanings. As a result, the sentence is either about someone who can't stand
children or about someone who can't have children.

Phonetic Structure Ambiguity

According to Ulmann (1972:156), ambiguity in spoken language might be
caused by the sentence's phonetic structure. In fact, it occurs because the
acoustic units of a linked utterance are a shift rather than a single unit. Because
of this, even though the words are different, numerous interpretations are
available. For instance:
a) 'The sun's rays meet' and
b) 'A near' and 'an ear'.

Structural ambiguity
Syntactic ambiguity or grammatical ambiguity are other terms for structural
ambiguity. Because of the arrangement of words or lexical units, structural
ambiguity occurs when a phrase, clause, or sentence might have two or more
alternative interpretations. According to Rodman and Fromkin (1983:172),
structural ambiguity refers to the structure of a statement that allows for many
interpretations rather than the words themselves. Hurford, et al. (1983:128) go
on to say:
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“A sentence which is ambiguous because its word related to each other

in different ways, even though none of the individual word are
ambiguous, is structurally (or grammatically) ambiguous.”

According to the quotations above, structural ambiguity is a type of ambiguity

that occurs when a phrase or statement contains multiple underlying
structures. Although the individual words that make up the sentence are clear,
their combination can be read in two or more ways. Consider the following
example for a more detailed explanation:

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‘Daniel met tall boys and girls’

The adjective tall can be applied to both boys and girls, or just the former
(boys).

2.2 Subtopic 2: Tree diagram

Linguists and other academic professionals choose the tree diagram as a more recent
way for diagramming sentences. While the Reed-Kellogg diagram was thought to be a
useful aid for students to visualize sentence structure, it had several flaws. It used a
variety of oftentimes perplexing symbols instead of regular word order, making the
finished diagram difficult to read for anyone inexperienced with the method.

Reed and Kellogg did introduce two key grammatical concepts: constituency and
dependency, which describe how a word interacts with the greater structure of a
phrase. The fundamental purpose of a tree diagram is to visually communicate these
concepts, even for individuals who have never seen a sentence diagram before.

A sentence is separated into two parts in a tree diagram: a subject and a predicate.
They are composed of noun or verb phrases. These are collections of words that
include a noun or verb as well as any modifiers. A noun phrase serves as the subject,
while a verb phrase serves as the predicate. The indefinite article 'a,' the adjective
'large,' and the noun 'dog' make up the noun phrase A big dog. The verb phrase leaped
over the fence is made up of the prepositional phrase 'over the fence' and the verb
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'jumped.'

These components are not divided by slashes or other symbols, as they are in a Reed-
Kellogg diagram. Instead, they descend in the shape of lines that behave as branches
from the subject and predicate. This process is repeated until each noun or verb
phrase has been reduced to its most basic components. Finally, a sentence drawn in
this way should resemble a large tree, with the subject and predicate serving as the
trunk and the sentence modifiers serving as the colorful and complex leaves that give
it character.

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Press, U. N. G. (2018). Tree Diagram. UNG University Press. UNG Press. Retrieved
September 23, 2022, from https://blog.ung.edu/press/a-linguists-tree-of-
knowledge/.

The sentence is divided down into a subject and a predicate as seen above. The subject
is a noun phrase made up of the indefinite article'the' and the noun'dog.' Because it
contains both a verb and a noun phrase, the predicate is more complicated. The verb is
'eat,' and the noun phrase is 'the' (indefinite article) and 'bone,' according to the
predicate (noun). As you can see, the tree diagram employs few symbols and little
verbiage, yet it clearly illustrates how each of these phrases interacts with and is
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dependent on one another.

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Press, U. N. G. (2018). Tree Diagram. UNG University Press. UNG Press. Retrieved
September 23, 2022, from https://blog.ung.edu/press/a-linguists-tree-of-
knowledge/.

Another tree diagram is seen below. This one is a little more complicated, as you can
see. Let's have a look at it and see how it works.

The sentence is separated into a subject and a predicate once more. The subject is
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made up of two nouns: the indefinite article 'the' and the noun 'teacher.' The
predicate is more complicated than it was previously. The verb 'gave', the noun
'homework,' and the prepositional phrase 'to his students' make up the verb phrase.

They're called tree diagrams because they have a lot of branches: each of the small
lines connecting the diagram's elements is a branch. We can discuss the relationships
between different segments of the tree in a tree diagram.

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A node is the point where two branches come together. Each node is a group of words
that work together to form a constituent.

Fromkin, V., 2010. Tree Diagram. [image] Available at: <chrome-

extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://www.konan-

u.ac.jp/hp/nakatani/js/R7> [Accessed 23 May 2022].

A phrase structure tree or a constituent structure tree is a tree diagram including

syntactic category information. A sentence is both a linear string of words and a
hierarchical structure with phrases nested in phrases, as seen by this tree. PS trees
(short for phrase structure trees) are clear graphic representations of a speaker's
knowledge of the structure of his language's sentences. Three parts of a speaker's
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syntactic knowledge are represented by PS trees:

1. The word order in the sentence is linear.
2. The classification of words and groups of words into syntactic categories
3. The syntactic categories' hierarchical structure (e.g., an S is com posed of an NP
followed by a VP, a VP is composed of a V that may be fol lowed by an NP, and
so on)

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3. Analysis Unit questions

When is an expression ambiguity?

When more than one interpretation may be attributed to an expression, it is said to be

ambiguous.

What is lexical ambiguity?

When a single term has multiple meanings, it is called lexical ambiguity.

How does structural ambiguity occur?

Because of the arrangement of words or lexical units, structural ambiguity occurs

when a phrase, clause, or sentence might have two or more alternative
interpretations.

What is Constituency?
It is the relationship between a word and the wider structure of a phrase.

What is dependency?
It's the way a word is influenced by the words that come before it.
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4. Further Reading
Los siguientes recursos complementarios son sugerencias para que se pueda ampliar la
información sobre el tema trabajado, como parte de su proceso de aprendizaje
autónomo:

Videos de apoyo:
Lexical and Structural Ambiguity
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3puW0ztL9RY

A simple syntactic Tree Diagram

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3W1PghsstfU

Bibliografía de apoyo:
Carstairs-McCarthy, A. (2017). An Introduction to English Morphology.

Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

Links de apoyo:
The analysis of ambiguous structures through the structural ambiguity concept

https://ojs.unikom.ac.id/index.php/apollo-project/article/view/139/140
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5. Bibliography
» Baker, A., & Hengeveld, K. (2012). Linguistics. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons.

» Burridge, K., & Stebbins, T. (2020). For the love of language (2nd ed.).
Cambridge.

» Carstairs-McCarthy, A. (2017). An Introduction to English Morphology.

Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

» Curzan, A., & Adams, M. (2011). How English works: A linguistic introduction.
Longman.

» In Genetti, C. (2014). How languages work: An introduction to language and

linguistics.

» Rahman, T. (2010). Linguistics for beginners. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

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