INTRODUCTION TO

ENGLISH SYNTAX
(LECTURE 1)
 GRAMMAR
• Do we acquire grammar or learn it?

• The word grammar came from old French ‘gramaire’, French

took it from Latin ‘grammatice’ and Latin withdrew it from
Greek ‘grammatikos’ meaning ‘letters or art of letters’
 GRAMMATICAL VS
UNGRAMMATICAL
• A sentence is grammatical if speakers judge it to be a
possible sentence of their language.
• A grammatical categories is a class of expressions which
share a common set of grammatical properties
Example:
Kim and Sandy is looking for a new bicycle
I have never put the book
Chris must liking syntax.
 WHAT IS SYNTAX?

• Derived from Greek Syntaxis ---syn (together) + taxis

(arrangement)
• Syntax has to do with how words are put together to build phrases,
with how phrases are put together to build clauses or bigger
phrases, and with how clauses are put together to build sentences .
(Miller, 2002)
• Study of how words are combined together, is concerned with the
ways in which words can be combined together to form phrases
and sentences
• Grammar of language
• Is about the rules and principles to make meaningful sentences
 ROLES OF SYNTAX
• The main roles of syntax is to analyze the structure of the
sentence in order to discover the hidden meaning (s).
Consider the following:
I can see a man with a telescope.
I can can the can with a canner.
He said that that ‘that’ that that man used was wrong.
 WHY DO WE STUDY SYNTAX?

To help us to illustrate the patterns of English more effectively and clearly
To enable us to analyze the structure of English sentences in a systematic
and explicit way (Kim and Sells: 2007)
To enable human beings to compose and convey complex message. (Miller,
2002)

Example:
The recent strike by pilots have cost the country a great deal of money from
tourism and so on.
The average age at which people begin to need eyeglasses vary considerably
 TYPES OF GRAMMAR
• Traditional grammar
• Structure grammar
• Transformational generative grammar