Syntax

The analysis of sentence structure

Dr. Ali Ajam, M.Pd

 Syntax in Linguistic Tree

Linguistics

Sounds of
language Grammar Meaning

Phonetics Phonology Morphology Syntax Semantics Pragmatics

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Why syntax?

 It’s part of Linguistics

 It’s part of the grammar of every
language
 And the grammar of a language is
part of a native speaker’s
linguistic knowledge

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Reasons for studying syntax
 Infinity of expressions
 There is an infinite number of possible
utterances in every language
 It is obvious that all these utterances cannot
be stored in our brains
 Our knowledge of a language consists of
 A finite number of words (the lexicon; the
“dictionary in your head”), and
 Rules (the grammar of the language)
 It is the job of the syntactician (and the
morphologist) to find out what these
rules are
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Language acquisition
 Everyone who can speak knows how to
use the rules
 and it is amazing that children can do it
so fast
 But nobody can really state exactly
what the rules are!
 Understanding syntax (and
morphology) can help researchers to
understand how young children learn
their native language
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Universal grammar
 Theory of Chomsky
 UG has Principles, true of all languages
 All languages have the same underlying
structure
 e.g. all languages have nouns and verbs
 and Parameters, whose setting varies
from language to language
 English and Chinese SVO; Japanese SOV
 Spanish and Chinese pro-drop; English not
pro-drop
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All languages have constituents
 Take a simple sentence
 Johnny danced
 We can call the sentence S, and label the syntactic
categories N and V

N V
Johnny danced

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Phrase structure grammar
 N and V aren’t always
very good labels S
 Johnny is similar to the
handsome student,
because they are both the
same kind of constituent
 They are both Noun
Phrases
NP VP
 We can remove The
Johnny and add the danced
handsome student, handsome
and the sentence student
structure is still
similar

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Different sentence, same
constituents
S
 Now let’s add an object
 danced the lambada is
the same kind of
constituent as danced
 a VP
NP VP
 You can swap danced for The danced the
danced the lambada and handsome lambada
the basic structure is the
same
student

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What are the NP and VP?
 The frog ate the lizard.
 The frog sat on the lilypad.
 The fat frog ate the long lizard slowly.
 The fat frog with a lizard in its mouth
sat on the lilypad.
 The fat frog who was sitting on the
lilypad with a lizard in its mouth
danced the lambada.

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Phrase structure rules
 Now, you know this phrase structure rule:
 S  NP VP (a Sentence comprises a Noun
Phrase followed by a Verb Phrase)
 Draw a tree for the phrase Emma drinks
 Here are two more phrase structure rules:
 VP  V NP
 NP  N
 Think about that carefully
 Now, draw a tree with more detail
 For the sentence Emma drinks whisky

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Now let’s change the NP rule
 First, DET means determiner
 Function words like the, a, this, several
 NP  (DET) N
 That means a noun phrase can have a determiner,
and it must have a noun
 Now you can diagram Johnny danced the
lambada in a bit more detail than I did on the
other slide
 Remember:
 S  NP VP
 VP  V NP)

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Now let’s change the NP rule
again
 Such that we have
 S  NP VP
 VP  V NP
 NP  (DET) (ADJ) N
 Now you can diagram this sentence
 The unhappy book ate the green lambada
 The sentence is syntactically well-formed,
by the way

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Grammatical or Ungrammatical:

1. The boy found the ball

2. The boy found quickly
3. The boy found in the house
4. The boy found the ball in the house
5. Disa slept the baby
6. Disa slept soundly
Find: Transitive verb (with object)
Sleep: Intransitive verb (no object)

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Syntactic Categories

Lexical categories Examples

 Noun (N)  moisture, policy
 Verb (V)  melt, remain
 Adjective (A)  good, intelligent
 Preposition (P)  to, near
 Adverb (Adv)  slowly, now

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Syntactic Categories

Non-lexical categories Examples

 Determiner (Det)  the, this
 Degree word (Deg)  very, more
 Qualifier (Qual)  always, perhaps
 Auxiliary (Aux)  will, can
 Conjunction (Con)  and, or

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 Indicate the category of each
word in the following sentences.

a. The glass suddenly broke.

Det / N / Adv / V
b. A jogger ran towards the end of the lane.
Det / N / V / P / Det / N / P / Det / N
c. The peaches never appear quite ripe.
Det / N / Qual / V / Deg / A
d. Gillian will play the trumpet and the drums in the orchestra.
N / Aux / V / Det / N / Conj / Det / N / P / Det / N

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Phrases

 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 Rules
 NP  (Det) N (PP)
 PP  P NP

The bus in the yard

The bus (NP)
NP

Det N
Det N PP

The bus P NP

Det N

The bus in the yard

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Phrase Structure Rules
 VP  V (NP) (PP)
 S  NP (Aux) VP

took the money from the bank

took the money (VP)
VP

V NP
V NP PP
Det N
Det N P NP

took the money

Det N

took the money from the bank

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Draw the tree diagram.

1. repaired the telephone

2. the success of the program
3. a film about pollution
4. move towards the window
5. cast a spell on the broomstick

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The main structure rules

1. S  NP (Aux) VP
2. NP  (Det) (AP) N (PP)
3. VP  V (NP) (PP) (Adv)
4. PP  P NP
5. AP  A (PP)

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Example
The old tree swayed in the wind

NP Aux VP

Det Adj N V PP

P NP

Det N

The old tree past swayed in the wind

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Example
The children put the toy in the box

NP VP

Det N V NP PP

Det N P NP

Det N

The children put the toy in the box

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 Ambiguity: a word, phrase or
sentence with multiple meanings

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

Synthetic buffalo hides Synthetic buffalo hides

Buffalo hides that are synthetic. Hides of synthetic buffalo.

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Ambiguities often lead to humorous results

 For sale: an antique desk suitable for lady

with thick legs and large drawers.
 what does “thick legs and large drawers”
refer to?
The desk or the lady?

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Structural Ambiguity
The boy saw the man with the telescope

NP Aux VP
Det N V NP PP
Det N P NP

Det N
The boy past saw the man with the telescope

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Structural Ambiguity
The boy saw the man with the telescope
S

NP Aux VP
Det N V NP

Det N PP

P NP

Det N
The boy past saw the man with the telescope
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Draw two phrase structure trees representing the two
meanings of the sentence:

The magician touched the child with the wand.

Be sure you indicate which meaning goes with which

tree.

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Declarative – Interrogative
 Move the auxiliary to the left of the subject.

The boy will leave. Will the boy leave?

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

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The Wh Movement
 Surface structure: Which car should the man repair?
 Deep structure: S

NP Aux VP

Det N V NP

Det N

The man should repair which car

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Draw the deep structure of the following sentences

1. Will the boss hire Hillary?

2. Is that player leaving the team?
3. Who should the director call?
4. What is Joanne eating?

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