SYNTAX

SENTENCE PATTERNS
Introduction
• Syntax is the study of how words are linked together to
form sentences.

• How languages link words together to form sentences ?

• Languages use different devices for showing the
relationship of one word to another. Most languages have
one or two favourite devices.
How languages link words together
to form sentences ?
• The devices:
• 1. word order:
• English language uses word order as the most frequently
device.
1. Mary annoyed her little brother.
2. Her little brother annoyed Mary.
(the words are identical, but the word order changed the
meaning)
Languages that use word- order device are called
Configurational languages.
How languages link words together
to form sentences ?
• 2. Inflections
• Latin is one of the examples that uses word endings or
inflections to indicate the relationship between words in a
sentence.
e.g:
Magna aranea perterruit Matildam amitam.
= the large spider frightened Matilda aunt.
‘ The large spider frightened Aunt Matilda’
How languages link words together
to form sentences ?
• The word order is irrelevant, the sentence would still
mean the same if the words were arranged quite
differently.

• Magna Matildam perterruit amitam aranea.

• = Large Matilda frightened aunt spider.
• (the endings of the words show that the spider terrified
Aunt Matilda)
• Such languages that use inflections to show the relations
between words are called non-configurtional languages.
Latin is the best example.
How languages link words together
to form sentences ?
• 3. Function words
• Another device that is used to some extent in both English
and Latin is the use of Function words.
• For example: of, by, that …
• They indicate relationships between parts of the sentence:
How languages link words together
to form sentences ?
• Aunt Matilda was terrified by a spider.
• the Queen of Sheba.
• I know that Penelope will come.

• In English there are some disagreements as what to

regard as function words. for example:
• To : can be a function word
• can be a content word
How languages link words together
to form sentences ?
• Paul wants to go home.(function word)
• Paul went to the river. (content word: toward ‘as far as’)
• Andrew’s suit was made to order.
• it seems to me a good idea.
• (to in these two examples do not fit well into wither case)
Constituent Analysis
• English ( like every other language ) has a limited number
of recurring patterns. A technique of syntactic analysis is
to identify these patterns by a process of successive
substitution.

• The duck bit the burglar. ( we reduced the five

• components into three.)
• Donald bit Adam .
• It bit him.

• The duck slept.

•
Constituent Analysis
• What is constituent analysis?
• it is the linguistic procedure that divided sentences into
their component parts o constituents.

• The test of substitution is basic to constituent analysis,

though the process is not always a straightforward as the
example above.
Constituent Analysis
• For example:
• The man left the dirty room .
• He left it.
• Can you do these examples?
• A clever student of class A entered the house.
• The girl has washed all the dirty dishes.
• A small child in the corner of the hall gazed at a little
puffy cat .
Tree Diagrams
• A tree diagram is the successive layers of constituents
that make up a sentence known as tree diagram, its
branches resemble the branches of an upside-down tree.

• In a tree diagram, a basic sentence type at the top

branches downwards in ever-increasing complexity.
Tree Diagrams
•

The duck bit the burglar

The duck The burglar

Bit

The burglar
Tree Diagrams
• S (sentence)

• NP VP

• D N V NP

• D N

• The duck hit the

burglar
Tree Diagrams
• The tree is metaphorically regarded like a family tree. The
higher node is a mother and the branches beneath are
her daughters.

• Can you provide other examples?

Rewrite rules
• You can express information found on a tree diagram is
by means of rewrite rules.
• A rewrite rule is a replacement rule, in which the symbol
of the left of an arrow is replaced by an expanded form
written to the right of the arrow.
•S NP VP
• means ‘replace the symbol S by NP VP
• VP V NP
• NP D N
• …..
•
• S
•
• NP VP
•

D N V NP

D N

The duck bit the burglar

Rewrite rules
• The re-write rules is that they are perfectly explicit, not
left for imagination.
• With re-write rules you can produce a perfect number of
English sentences.
• With rewrite rules you can also have:
• The burglar bit the duck.
• Though the meaning is different.
• The re-write rules are there to tell us what is a well-formed
English sentence, not to give us information about the
probable behaviour of burglars.
• ‘ a tree diagram can show how the various constituents
(components) of a sentence are linked. This information
can be presented on a ‘tree diagram’.
Identifying constituents
• Is it always easy to identify the constituents just like ‘ the
duck bit the burglar’?
• The duck bit the burglar.
• it bit him.

• Every sentence can be broken down into successive

layers of constituents. But not all sentences can be
analysed easily.
• The mouse ran up the clock.
• Should we :
• 1. analyse ‘ran up’ together , be replaced by ‘climbed’?
• 2. analyse ‘up the clock’ together, replaced by upwards?
Identifying constituents
• If we say:
• Up the clock ran the mouse.(possible)
• * The mouse ran the clock up. (impossible)
• So from this test , we divide the sentence into these
constituents:
• The mouse ran up the cock.
• So : up the clock is a prepositional phrase
• S NP VP
• VP V PP
• the tree diagram is going to be :
Identifying constituents
• S

• NP VP

• D N V PP

• P NP

• D N

• The mouse ran up the clock

Identifying constituents
• What is the sentence was: The mouse ate up the cheese.

• Test it :
• * Up the cheese ate the mouse.(impossible)
• ( comparing it with: up the clock ran the mouse)

• But : The mouse ate the cheese up .(possible)

• So: ate up ( verb +particle ) that can go together
• so this sentence can be analysed as:
• The mouse ate up the cheese.
•S NP VP
• VP V particle NP
Identifying constituents
• S

• NP VP

•D N VB NP

• V PRT D N

• The mouse ate up the cheese

Identifying constituents
• So the rule is this : if you have a verb + preposition + NP
• if the preposition +NP is put at the beginning of the
sentence as PP , the verb is alone + PP
• ( see the example of : the mouse ran up the clock)

• But if the P+ NP ( when you put it at the beginning ) it is

not possible, then this P is particle and part of the verb.
So it is under VP. ( the example of the mouse ate up the
cheese).

• Can you provide other examples?

NP TESTS
• English NPs occur in different positions:
• 1. at the beginning of a sentence, before the verb
(subject):
• The cat ate the canary.

• 2. at the end of a sentence , after the verb (object):

• The canary feared the cat.

• 3. After by in a passive construction (agent):

• The canary was eaten by the cat.
•
• 4. After an auxiliary verb in questions:
• Did the cat eat the canary?
Adding in extra patterns
• So far we have had one structure: S NP VP
• WHAT about other structures?
• The duck bit the burglar.
• S NP VP
• VP V NP

• What about:
• The duck slept in the bath.
•S NP VP
• VP V (PP)
• PP P NP
In this example, the PP is not an essential part and can be
dropped. So we can put the PP in brackets. (PP)
the
Adding in extra patterns
• S

• NP VP
•
•D N V PP

• P NP

• D N

• The duck slept in the bath

Adding in extra patterns
• WHAT about :
• The burglar put the duck in a sack.
•S NP VP
• VP V NP PP
Adding in extra patterns
• S

• NP VP

D N V NP PP

• D N P NP

• D N

The burglar put the duck in the

bath.
Adding in extra patterns
• After the V , we have an NP and a PP . IF we omit any of
the elements after V, the sentence would be ill-formed,

• So far we have three separate rules.

• VP V1 NP
• V2 (PP)
• V3 NP PP

• BUT ONE rewrite rule suffices:

• VP V (NP) (PP)
Adding in extra patterns
• So let us summarize the rewrite rules and the lexical
entries for :
• The duck bit the burglar.
• The duck slept.
• The duck slept in the bath.
• The duck put the duck in a sack.
• The re-write rules :
•S NP VP
• VP V (NP) (PP)
• NP D N
• PP P NP
Adding in extra patterns
•S NP VP
• VP V (NP) (PP)
• NP D N
• PP P NP

• THE END