English Syntax

Tools for Analysis

A language can be divided into some components or
areas of analysis. Those are used to help with description
and analysis.
• PHONOLOGY
looks at and describes the sound system of a language.
• MORPHOLOGY
looks at the way words are formed.
• SYNTAX
seeks to describe the way words fit together to form
sentences or utterances.
• SEMANTICS and PRAGMATICS
study meaning.
 Syntax
The study of how sentences are:
• organized
• constructed
• structured
• formed
• arranged
to produce well-formed sentences.
 How do we SET a sentence in English?
Sentences are made up of units, and that at one level these units
are words.
So,
A sentence consists of words or alternatively words are
CONSTITUENTS of a sentence.

S = sentence
→ = consists of

S → word + word + word +

(sentence) (consist of)
I don’t know what you mean is that you love me.

S → word + word + word +

(sentence) (consists of) word + word + word +
word + word + word +
word + word
The formula we have used for analysis above has
two purposes:
1. It describes an existence sentence.
2. It tells us that this is the way in which we can
make countless other sentences in English.

It means that to make a syntactically well-

formed English sentence, all we have to do is
STRING TOGETHER A SERIES OF WORDS.
1) Make up two or three sentences using words
from the following list:

Girl, that, the, likes, apple, buys, this, eats, dog.

2) Use the following formula:

S → word + word + word + word + word
The girl eats that apple.
The girl buys that apple.
The dog eats the girl.
Girl, that, the, likes, apple, buys, this, eats, dog.

• The girl likes the apple.

• The girl likes that dog.
• The girl buys the apple.
 Word Categories
There are rules governing/determining the way
in which words can be put together to form
SYNTACTICALLY WELL-FORMED or
GRAMMATICAL sentences.

The study of syntax aims to discover them and

to describe and analyze language in terms of
these rules.
Look at the following sentence:
1) The girl likes the dog.
this appears to be reasonable.
2) The dog likes the girl.
we have changed the word order but the sentence
still WORKS. The words DOG and GIRL are
INTERCHANGEABLE (the same type of the word).
(it changes the meaning but the sentence is still
well-formed). They belong to the same WORD
CATEGORY.
 Nouns
• Nouns are often described as being the name
of something including people and places.
• Table, chair (refer to concrete things)
• Love, sincerity (refer to abstract concepts)

• NOUNS: girl, dog, apple

• S → + NOUN + likes + the + NOUN
girl girl
dog dog
apple apple
 Determiners
A small group of words and they act to limit or
determine to some extent the possible range of
things which the noun can refer to.

The basic determiners are the ARTICLE.

INDEFINITE ARTICLE: a, an
DEFINITE ARTICLE: the
The other determiners:

DEMONSTRATIVES : this, that, these, those

(penunjuk)
QUANTIFIERS : some, any, each, every,
(pembilang) no, etc
POSSESSIVES : my, your, her, his, its,
(kepunyaan) our, your (pl), their
WH-DETERMINERS : whose, what, which
(penentu-WH)
S → DETERMINER + NOUN + likes + DETERMINER + NOUN
e.g this girl that dog
that dog the apple
the apple this girl

this, that, the are INTERCHANGEABLE.

 Verbs

Verb is a word DESCRIBING AN ACTION.

#TASK 1
Look at the following example. Find out which
ones are the verbs.
• This girl eats the apple.
• This girl dog the apple.
• This girl buys the apple.
• This girl that the apple.`
S → DETERMINER + NOUN + VERB + DETERMINER +
NOUN
e.g The dog likes the apple
This girl buys that dog
That dog eats the apple.
 Tree Diagrams
Another way representing this abstract structure
is in DIAGRAMMATIC form.
Because the diagram has branches, it is called a
TREE.
 S

DETERMINER NOUN VERB DETERMINER NOUN

a dog chased that girl

The formula serves two purposes:

• It describes sentences that are grammatical sentences of English.
• It serves as a pattern or template to make more sentences with.
 Phrases and Phrase Structure
PROPER NOUNS are names of specific item such
as individual people, animals, places (e.g streets,
towns, countries), days of week, months of the
year, and so on.
COMMON NOUNS are all other nouns.
• That girl chased a cat.
• Priatin chased Avi.
By SUBSTITUTING a proper noun for a common
noun, we have had to replace both the
determiner and the noun, not only the noun.
• That she chased a it. *
(It is not well-formed sentence).

#TASK 2
Go through the following example sentences and
substitute pronouns for nouns.
• A dog chased that girl. =
• The girl likes the dog. =
• The girl eats the apple. =
• The dog wants a bone. =
• That hen ate the corn.=
• The detective found a clue. =
• There is a unit or constituent which can
consist of two words: DETERMINER + NOUN
(e.g. that girl), or one word: NOUN (e.g. Rina),
PRONOUN (e.g. she).
• Whether it consists of one or more than one
word is called a PHRASE.
• It is a unit or constituent within a sentence (S)
which contains other units or constituents.
 S

PHRASE A VERB PHRASE B

DETERMINER NOUN DETERMINER NOUN

a dog chased that girl

S → PHRASE A + VERB + PHRASE B

(37)
• PHRASE is a unit consisting of TWO WORDS, or ONE
WORD.
• Compare tree diagrams of 39.
• PRO is the shortened form of PRONOUN (see tree
diagram of 40).
• A pronoun replaces NOT JUST A NOUN, but an
ENTIRE PHRASE (a noun phrase = DET + NOUN) (see
tree diagram of 37), then it is A NOUN PHRASE.
• PHRASE could be followed by NOUN/PRONOUN.
• NOUN PHRASE can be shortened into (NP).
• DET for DETERMINER.
(39)
S

PHRASE A VERB PHRASE B

NOUN NOUN

Henry chased Carol

(40)
S

PHRASE A VERB PHRASE B

PRO PRO

He/It chased her

#TASK 3
Draw tree diagrams for the following
sentences.

1. Priatin admires Gina.

2. She loved this book.
3. Priatin kicked the ball.
4. The bird ate the seeds.
5. The detective found the secret.
 FORM AND FUNCTION
SUBJECT

• Why in all given examples, is there noun

phrase at the beginning of the sentence,
before the verb?
• If there is no purpose or if it serves no
function then why it is not put somewhere
else?
#TASK 4
What do you think with the following examples?

1. Chased that a girl dog.

2. Chased a dog that girl.
3. A dog chased that girl.
4. That girl chased a dog.
• The FIRST TWO examples ARE NOT
GRAMMATICAL in English.
• The THIRD and FOURTH are the
GRAMMATICAL ONES, but the meaning has
changed.
• The dog is the SUBJECT, being introduced first.
• It has something said about it (that it chased
the girl).
• The girl has become the SUBJECT (S for short)
of the sentence.
A dog chased that girl.
• The constituent A DOG can be described as
both A NOUN PHRASE and THE SUBJECT of the
sentence.
• This difference in definition is the difference
between FORM and FUNCTION.
• A NOUN PHRASE is what the constituent is.
• SUBJECT is what it acts as or does.
PREDICATE

• What FOLLOWS THE SUBJECT is what is said

about it and is precisely what the term
PREDICATE means.

This girl likes that dog.

SUBJECT = this girl
PREDICATE = likes that dog
This girl likes that dog.

SUBJECT : NP : DET (This) + NOUN (girl)

PREDICATE : VP : V (likes) + NP (Det = that + Noun =
dog)
• The SUBJECT of a sentence takes the form of A
NOUN PHRASE (NP).
• The PREDICATE consists of A VERB and A NOUN
PHRASE, but that may not always be the case.
• The PREDICATE can also consists of A VERB ON
ITS OWN.

The dog barked.

SUBJECT = the dog
PREDICATE = barked
The dog barked.
SUBJECT = the dog (NP = Det (The) + Noun (dog)
PREDICATE = barked (VP = V (barked)

The bird ate the seeds.

SUBJECT = NP (Det : The) + Noun (bird)
PREDICATE = VP (V:ate, NP (Det:the, Noun:seeds)
The dog barked.

The dog
FORM : NP (The : Det, dog: N)
FUNCTION : SUBJECT

barked.
FORM : VP (barked: V)
FUNCTION : PREDICATE
This girl likes that dog.

This girl
FORM : NP (Det : This, N : girl)
FUNCTION : SUBJECT

likes that dog.

FORM : VP (V : likes, NP (Det : that, N : dog)
FUNCTION : PREDICATE
• The PREDICATE contains A VERB and where it
consists of ONLY ONE WORD, that word is A
VERB.
• The FORM of the predicate is that of VERB
PHRASE (VP).
• A VERB PHRASE can contain ONE
CONSTITUENT (e.g. Verb, as in Ayu screamed)
or MORE THAN ONE CONSTITUENT (e.g. Safira
loves this book).
• See the other examples of using other types of
constituent in the example of 48.
• To show that the verb phrase constitutes ONE
COMPLETE UNIT of a sentence, we can use a
similar rest to the one we used to show that A
NOUN PHRASE constitutes a complete unit.
• With a noun phrase, we substituted A
PRONOUN for A NOUN PHRASE.
• With a verb phrase, we can substitute
does/did too.
• See the example on page 16.
• Does/did too REPLACES an entire verb phrase.
• See the examples (51a) and (51b) containing of
SUBJECT and PREDICATE.
• SUBJECT = NP
• PREDICATE = VP (V + NP)
• S NP + VP
• V and NP, each has a further function.
• The term PREDICATOR (P) will be used for the
function of the VERB.
• Sentence 51b, NP that dog is functioning as the
DIRECT OBJECT (Do).
• This girl is functioning as SUBJECT (S).
Carol cried.
• SUBJECT (S) = Carol
• PREDICATOR (P) = cried

This girl likes that dog

• SUBJECT (S) = This girl
• PREDICATOR (P) = likes
• DIRECT OBJECT (dO) = that dog
(51a)
S

NP VP
NOUN VERB

Carol cried
(51b) This girl likes that dog

NP VP

DET NOUN VERB NP

DET NOUN

This girl likes that dog (PREDICATE)