PHRASE STRUCTURE RULES

Created by 9th group:

1. Dian Rizqi L (2813123012)

2. Eka sutarmi (2813123013)

3. Nurul Laili (2813123024)

TBI 4-A
 Phrase Structure Rules
• Phrase structure rules specify the well-formed
structures of a sentence.
• How phrases are formed is governed by rules
“phrase structure rules”
• A tree must match the phrase structure
rules to be grammatical
• In ordinary sentences: S  NP VP
NPs  N
VPs  V
PPs  P NP
For example: A Noun Phrase can be an Article followed by Noun
NP

Ar N NP  Art N
t

The bus
1. A noun Phrase can be an article followed by a Noun
2. An Article followed by a Noun is a Noun Phrase

A Verb Phrase may be a Verb followed by Noun Phrase, which

may be followed by a Prepositional Phrase. The Prepositional Phrase may
or may not be there
• VP  V NP
VP  V NP (PP)
• VP  V PP

*where ‘()’ indicates optionality

In fact the NP is also optional, as shown in the following trees.

1 S

NP VP

Art N V PP

P NP

Art N

The man fled from the

posse
 2 S

NP VP

Art N

The baby slept

In (I) A Verb Phrase consisting of Verb plus a Prepositional phrase ( VP 

V PP )

(2) Verb Phrase consistVsPof a VVer(bNaPlo) ne ( VP  V )

(PP)
Other rules of English that are evident are: S  NP VP
PP


Growing Trees : The relationship between Phrase
Structure
Rules and Phrase Structure Trees
S  NP VP NP  Art N

S NP

NP VP Art N

VP  V (NP) (PP) PP  P NP

VP PP

V NP PP P NP
There are four rules of VP that abbreviated by parentheses:

VP  V VP  V NP

VP VP

V V NP

VP  V PP VP  V NP PP
VP VP

V PP V NP PP
In the phrase structure rules, there are two immediate constituents

1. Phrasal Categories : The categories that occur to the left of the arro
in a phrase structure rule
2. Lexical Categories : The categories that never occur on the left side
of
any rule

Phrase structure trees always have lexical

categories at the bottom since the rules must apply until no
phrasal categories remain unexpended. The
lexical categories are traditionally called “Parts of
Speech”, include Articles, Nouns, Verbs,
Prepositions, etc
 Trees that won’t grow

The following word sequences and their

corresponding structures could not constitute English
Sentences.
1 2

E.g. The man Saw a buffalo

S S
NP VP

Ar N V NP
t
The man
saw a buffalo
Lacks of VP Lacks of NP
 3 Saw a buffalo the man
S

VP NP

saw a buffalo the man

NP and VP in wrong order

These sentence would not accept as well-formed English sentence

except where some context allowed them; e. g: this sentence might be in
answer to the question. “Who saw a buffalo?” Answer: “The man (saw
a buffalo).” But, the basic pattern underlying all these is NP VP
 More Phrase Structure Rules
There are sentence of English whose structure is not
accounted by the phrase structure rules given so far, including:

a. The man with the hat s

smiled
NP VP

Art N PP

P NP

Art

The man with the hat smiled

NP is more than just an article followed by a noun; the NP rule stated

 b. A large fierce black dog looked out the
window
S
NP VP

Art Adj Adj Adj N V PP

P NP

Art N

The large fierce black dog looked windo

out the

This tree indicates the need to change the NP rule to contain

optional
adjectives.
An infinite number Noun phrase rules, including
the following:
⚫ NP  Art N The cat
⚫ NP  Art Adj N The big cat
⚫ NP  Art Adj Adj N The big black cat
⚫ NP  Art Adj Adj Adj N The big black shaggy

cat
Head of phrases

The summarize of all the phrase Structure Rules for

the
⚫ S  NP VP
grammar of English:
⚫ NP  Art (Adj)* N
(PP)
⚫ VP  V (NP) (PP)
⚫ PP  P
NP
Many generalization about English are
contained in these rules. Put more
succinctly, X phrase always contain of X,
where X stands for Noun. Preposition, or Verb.
The X of an X phrase is called the head of
that phrase
THANK
YOU