Syntax

the study of the principles and processes by which

sentences are constructed in particular languages
(Chomsky, 2002:11)
the study of the rules that govern the ways in
which words combine to form phrases, clauses,
and sentences
 Syntax is one of the major components of
grammar
Issues in Syntax
 Word Categories
- Noun
- Verb
- Adjective
- Determiners
- Inflections

 Constituent structure
- Phrases (NP, VP, DP, PP, AP, ADVP)
- Testing for constituency
- Phrase structure rules
- Phrase structure threes (X-bar theory)
 Grammatical functions (SUBJ, OBJ, OBJ Teta)
 Non-grammatical functions (COMP. ADJ)
 Semantic roles (Agent, Patient, Experiencer)
 Voice (Active/Agentive, Passive, Objective)
 Control structure, Raising, Complex Predicates, Serial Verb constructions, etc.
 Syntactic theories (lexical functional grammar, language Typology)
Newson, Mark, Daniel Pap, Gabriella Toth, Krisztina
Szeesenyi, Marianna Hardos, dan Veronika Vincze.
2006. Basic English Syntax with Exercises. Budapest:
Bolcsesz Konzorcium HEFOP Iroda
Word Categories
Reasons for determining word
categories ?
Kinds of word categories ?
The ways to determine word
categories ?
Why determining word categories?
Lexical knowledge concerns not only the meaning and
pronounciation but also the category/ where to put
words in a sentence
e.g. She came here with her boyfriend
*She came here her boyfriend with
*She her boyfriend came here with
Kinds of Word Categories
Lexical/ Thematic Categories (-F)
-words denoting people, places, things, actions,
states, and properties
- They commonly have a clear lexical meaning
- They include : Noun, Verb, Adjective, Adverb,
and Preposition

 Functional Categories (+F)

- words that do not refer
- They have grammatical meaning
- They include : Determiner, Auxiliary verbs
 The ways to determine word categories?
Morphological criteria / morphological properties,
berdasarkan imbuhan yang menempel pada kata

Syntactic Criteria/Distribution / position in a

syntactic structure (based on their
subcategorization)
berdasarkan posisi kata dalam frasa, klausa
atau kalimat
Morphological Criteria
 English Nouns ?
- can take the plural and possessive suffix
cat - cats
boy - boys
bag - bags
John - John’s

 English Verbs ?
- can take the tense/aspect suffixes
Tense and aspect
 Tense : present and past, future
Tense is related with the time showing whether the event is happening
at the moment, happened in the past, or will happen in the future
 Aspect : perfective. progressive, habitual aspect
Aspect is related to how the speaker views the action at a certain
time, showing whether the action focuses on the on going situation,
completed situation, or repeated situation
She is coming today tense : present (1s)
Aspect: progressive (is coming)
She was sleeping tense: past (the marker is ‘was’)
Aspect: progressive (was sleeping)
1. She works hard
2. She worked hard
Progressive aspect
ciri: to be (is/ was/ were / been) + V ing

She is sleeping
She was sleeping
She has been sleeping
Perfective Aspect
ciri: has/have/had + V3 (past participle)
She has gone
She had gone when…
She has been sleeping (2 aspects: progressive : been
sleeping

perfective aspect: has been

Habitual aspect
Ciri: muncul dalam bentuk present
verba yang digunakan verba aktif
She works hard
She went out yesterday : tense : past (went)
aspect: -
While I was studying, he came in
tense: past (was) tense: past (came), Asp: -
aspect: progressive (was studying)
She works hard to get good grades
tense: present (works -s)
aspect : habitual aspect (work –s)
Active verbs : sing, write, type, work, walk
She is singing (progressive aspect)
She sings every day (habitual aspect)

Stative verbs : know, understand, seem

She seems very happy (tense: present)
aspect : -
She knows you very well (tense: present – know)
aspect: -
*she is knowing you very well
active – stative verb
active verbs : verbs than can take progressive aspect
stative verbs: verbs that cannot take progressive aspect
She works hard : tense present
aspect : habitual
Every sentence should have a tense marker
A sentence may not have an aspect
A sentence may have more than one aspect
Examples of sentences having no aspect
She worked hard
She knows you very well
She is here
She seems very happy
She has been staying here for 3 years
Tense: present (marker: has)
aspect: - Perfective (has been)
- Progressive (been staying)
She will be staying here at 10 tomorrow
Tense: Future
Aspect: progressive (be staying)
The child had seen her mother when I saw him last time
Tense: past (had) Tense : Past (saw)
Aspect: Perfective (had seen) Aspect : -
 Adjectives ?
- can take the comparative / superlative form
big bigger biggest
happy happier happiest
comfortable more comfortable most comfortable
- can take –ly suffix to form Adverb
happy happily
Adverbs?
 They have –ly suffix

 Prepositions?
- occurs without any affix
Syntactic Criteria
Based on the distribution in a phrase/ with words a
given word occurs
Distributional Test for Nouns
alone (predicative adjective)
lone (attributive adjective)

Predicative attributive
She is alone a lone girl
*She is lone *an alone girl
She is asleep *an asleep child
 Transitive verbs – verbs that requires two or more arguments
hit I hit an animal
Argument argument (entities required by a verb)

see
give She gave me some money
Arg Arg Arg
 Intransitive verbs : verbs that require one argument
sleep She is sleeping
Arg
walk
go
Distributional tests for Prep
Particles (a part of a verb
It can be separated from the verb when there is a pronoun
V Particle NP V Pronoun Particle
Turn on Turn it on Turn on the lamp
Put on Put it on
put off Put them off

Preposition (bukan bagian dari verba)

Verb Prep NP/N
Interested in the book *Interested it in
Interested in it
focus on this paper focus on it
*focus it on
Distribution – (sub)categorization

Verbs ?
She gave him the money

She gave the money to him

give category [-F, -N, +V]
-grid <agent, theme, goal>
sub-cat [nominal, prepositional]

She put the book on the table

put category [-F, -N, +V]
-grid <agent, theme, location>
sub-cat [nominal, prepositional]

?She put the book the table

Theta Grid – isinya argumen
 Digambarkan dengan semantic roles
agent I hit him
Agent
patient I hit him (terdampak)
Patient
theme I read a book (tdk terdampak)
Theme
locative/location I put it on the table
locative
goal I gave the man some money
goal
She is waiting for the bus
wait category [-F, -N, +V]
-grid <agent, goal>
sub-cat [prepositional]

I will discuss the problem of covid 19

discuss category [-F, -N, +V]
-grid < Agent, theme>
sub-cat [nominal]
The woman is sleeping her child?
This paper will discuss about the language?
Nouns ?
Adjectives
Inflections
Aspectual auxiliary
Modal auxiliary

 Determiners
Articles
Demonstratives

 Degree adverbs
Complementizers (to introduce a clause)