MOHAMMED V UNIVERSITY

FACULTY OF LETTERS & HUMAN SCIENCES

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE & LITERATURE
SEMESTER 6 | SPRING 2026
MAJOR: LINGUISTICS
GROUP A

M514 SYNTAX
WEEK 1

TARIK LAHYANY - FEBRUARY 25, 2026

1 Preamble: What is syntax?

SYNTAX

The study of
sentence structure

1.2
Linguistic
1.1 Approach
Traditional
Approach
1 What is syntax?

SYNTAX
1.1 Traditional Approach
1.1.1 Definition (American Heritage Dictionary)
Everyday sense definition
1 What is syntax?

SYNTAX
1.1 Traditional Approach
1.1.2 Objective

o Prescribe how people should speak and write:

a. Do not end a sentence with a copula or linking verb:

I do not know who this is. (invalid)
I do not know who is this. (valid)
b. Do not end a sentence with a preposition:
Which student did you leave the book with? (invalid)
With which student did you leave the book? (valid)
1 What is syntax?

SYNTAX
1.2 Linguistic Approach
1.2.1 Definition
Linguistic sense definition
o A modular computational system/algorithm that constructs grammars of natural languages.
1 What is syntax?

SYNTAX
1.2 Linguistic Approach
1.2.2 Objective

o To investigate how Language Faculty / Universal Grammar constructs languages.

o To discover Universal Principles / Parameters among different languages.

o To explain Language Acquisition.

1 What is syntax?

SYNTAX
1.2 Linguistic Approach
1.2.3 Historical background Philosophy:
Knowledge acquisition

Empiricism

Rationalism

John Locke
George Berkeley
René Descartes David Hume
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
Baruch Spinoza
1 What is syntax?

SYNTAX
1.2 Linguistic Approach
1.2.3 Historical background

Rationalism Knowledge is acquired through mind/reason, not experience.

- Mind contains a built-in structure.

René Descartes
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz - Some or part of knowledge is
Baruch Spinoza
innate.
1 What is syntax?

SYNTAX
1.2 Linguistic Approach
1.2.3 Historical background

Empiricism Knowledge is acquired through sensory experience.

- Mind is a tabula rasa (blank slate).

John Locke
George Berkeley - Knowledge is not innate but
David Hume
acquired by senses.
1 What is syntax?

SYNTAX
1.2 Linguistic Approach
1.2.3 Historical background

Knowledge of Language is innate.

Rationalist & Cartesian
Linguistics / Psychology
Language is part of knowledge.

I-Language= E-Language=
Mental/innate Realizations
Noam Chomsky
Steven Pinker

System Output
French, English, Arabic
1 What is syntax?

SYNTAX
1.2 Linguistic Approach
1.2.4 Innateness hypothesis
o Language acquisition is innate and unconscious:

• Children can produce utterances & sentences with poor instruction.

= Morphogenesis from Poverty of the Stimulus (Solid argument 1)

Stimulus (poor instruction about auxiliary movement)

(1) The neighbour who is playing tennis is happy.
(2) Is the neighbour who is playing tennis happy?
Language Acquisition
Output (rich & complex auxiliary movement)
(3) This man who is eating pizza is a teacher.
(4) Is this man who is eating pizza a teacher?
1 What is syntax?

SYNTAX
1.2 Linguistic Approach
1.2.4 Innateness hypothesis
o Language acquisition is innate and unconscious:

• Children can construct a complex creole syntax from poor pidgin instruction.
= Creolization from Poverty of the Stimulus (Solid argument 1)

Stimulus (poor case & tense marking)

(5) Me home next week.
(6) He no come yesterday?
Output (rich & complex case & tense marking) Language Creolization
(7) I will go home next week.
(8) He did not come yesterday?
1 What is syntax?

SYNTAX
1.2 Linguistic Approach
1.2.4 Innateness hypothesis
o Language acquisition is innate and unconscious:

• Children can construct a complex syntax within a short period.

= Rapidity (Solid argument 2)

Stage 1 (2 years old)

(9) The girl, …, Anne, she took my doll.

Stage 2 (4 years old)

(10) The girl who is called Anne took my doll.
= Modifying a noun using an adjectival clause.
1 What is syntax?

SYNTAX
1.2 Linguistic Approach
1.2.4 Innateness hypothesis
o Language acquisition is innate and unconscious:

• Children can productively embed grammatical constructions.

= Recursion (Solid argument 3)

(11) Fatima left.

(12) They believe that Fatima left.
(13) Everyone thinks that they believe that Fatima left.

• A child can be exposed to (11), but productively embed clauses before it to make (12), (13), or even a
more complex grammatical construction.
1 What is syntax? (Interim summary)

SYNTAX Definition Objectives

Traditional Syntax is the study of sentence Its objective is to prescribe

Prescriptive structure: phrases & sentences speaking & writing rules

Linguistic
Syntax is the study of sentence Its objective is to investigate how the
Rationalist
structure: phrases & sentences Language Faculty constructs languages
Cartesian

Generative Language Faculty=Universal Grammar:

Syntax A genetic innate cognitive capacity that enables humans to
acquire and generate hierarchical structured languages.
1 What is syntax?

SYNTAX
Grammaticality & ungrammaticality accounts

Consider the following sentences and state how each theory would account for their ungrammaticality.
Grammatical versions are provided on the right.

(14) * John likes. - John likes Anne.

(15) * Him likes her. - He likes her.
(16) * Himself likes grammar. - He likes grammar.
(17) * John likes loves Mary. - John likes Mary / John loves Mary.
1 What is syntax?

SYNTAX
Grammaticality & ungrammaticality accounts
(14) * John likes. - John likes Anne.

Traditional theory Generative theory

• The verb ‘like’ is transitive. It • The verb ‘like’ has a thematic structure of involving
requires an object/complement. two arguments/participants in the state of liking. It
theta marks 2 arguments. If one is missing, the
sentence crashes. Advantage
Limitation
- The account is purely - The account is
descriptive. principled.
- It does not explain how - It follows from a
syntax knows that ‘like’ is universal principle that
transitive. regulates the relationship
between predicates &
arguments.
1 What is syntax?

SYNTAX
Grammaticality & ungrammaticality accounts
(15) * Him likes her. - He likes her.

Traditional theory Generative theory

• ‘him’ is an object pronoun. It • The finite tense realized on the verb like requires a
does not go in the subject subjective pronoun. However, an objective pronoun like
position. him can be realized as a subject of a non-finite tense:
e.g., I want him to leave. Advantage
Limitation
- The account is purely - The account is
descriptive. principled.
- It does not explain how - It follows from a
syntax knows that ‘him’ is universal principle that
objective. regulates the relationship
between a subject of a
finite tense and that of a
non-finite one.
1 What is syntax?

SYNTAX
Grammaticality & ungrammaticality accounts
(16) * Himself likes grammar. - They like each other.

Traditional theory Generative theory

• ‘himself’ cannot be used as a • ‘himself’ is a reflexive pronoun that must be bound by
subject. It must go in the object an antecedent in the same clause.
position.
Limitation
- The account is purely Advantage
descriptive. - The account is
- It does not explain how principled.
syntax knows that - It follows from a
‘himself’ must go in universal principle that
object position. regulates the distribution
of reflexives and their
binding by antecedents.
1 What is syntax?

SYNTAX
Grammaticality & ungrammaticality accounts
(17) * John likes loves Mary. - John likes Mary / John loves Mary.

Traditional theory Generative theory

• The sentence is ungrammatical • A phrase marker representing a constituent cannot
because it contains two verbs. have more than one head.

Limitation Advantage
- The account is purely - The account is
descriptive. principled.
- It does not explain how - It follows from a
syntax knows that ‘like’ is universal principle that
transitive. dictates that a syntactic
structure must have one
head.
2 Generative syntax

GENERATIVE SYNTAX
2.1 Architecture
Language Faculty

Lexicon French
Stores Lexical Syntax English
Items & Computational System Arabic
Features Spanish
2 Generative syntax

GENERATIVE SYNTAX
2.2 Lexicon
o Lexical Items stored as free & bound morphemes with their features.

2.2.1. Free morphemes = words

Lexical words

Nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions

Functional / grammatical words

Pronouns, determiners, auxiliaries, complementizers & conjunctions

2 Generative syntax

GENERATIVE SYNTAX
2.2 Lexicon
o Lexical Items stored as free & bound morphemes with their features.

2.2.1. Free morphemes = words

Lexical words

Nouns (open-class)

John, book, Rabat, fish, student

2 Generative syntax

GENERATIVE SYNTAX
2.2 Lexicon
o Lexical Items stored as free & bound morphemes with their features.

2.2.1. Free morphemes = words

Lexical words

Verbs (open-class)

eat, drink, play, cry, love

2 Generative syntax

GENERATIVE SYNTAX
2.2 Lexicon
o Lexical Items stored as free & bound morphemes with their features.

2.2.1. Free morphemes = words

Lexical words

Adjectives (open-class)

big, strong, tall, sliced, promising

2 Generative syntax

GENERATIVE SYNTAX
2.2 Lexicon
o Lexical Items stored as free & bound morphemes with their features.

2.2.1. Free morphemes = words

Lexical words

Adverbs (open-class)

always, frequently, yesterday, strangely

2 Generative syntax

GENERATIVE SYNTAX
2.2 Lexicon
o Lexical Items stored as free & bound morphemes with their features.

2.2.1. Free morphemes = words

Lexical words

Preposition (closed-class)

to, under, from, like

2 Generative syntax

GENERATIVE SYNTAX
2.2 Lexicon
o Lexical Items stored as free & bound morphemes with their features.

2.2.1. Free morphemes = words

Functional or grammatical words

Pronouns (closed-class)

you, me, him, she, they, them

2 Generative syntax

GENERATIVE SYNTAX
2.2 Lexicon
o Lexical Items stored as free & bound morphemes with their features.

2.2.1. Free morphemes = words

Functional or grammatical words

Determiners (closed-class)

the, a/an, some, little, that, this, those

2 Generative syntax

GENERATIVE SYNTAX
2.2 Lexicon
o Lexical Items stored as free & bound morphemes with their features.

2.2.1. Free morphemes = words

Functional or grammatical words

Auxiliaries (closed-class)

do, be, have

can, could, would, should, shall
2 Generative syntax

GENERATIVE SYNTAX
2.2 Lexicon
o Lexical Items stored as free & bound morphemes with their features.

2.2.1. Free morphemes = words

Functional or grammatical words

Complementizers & conjunctions (closed-class)

that, who, whom, if, but, so, and

2 Generative syntax

GENERATIVE SYNTAX
2.2 Lexicon
o Lexical Items stored as free & bound morphemes with their features.

2.2.2. Bound morphemes = grammatical inflections

Abstract inflections Examples

Verbal
Tense: [+/- past, future] put (past), study (fut)
Question: [+/- wh] involves extraction
Nominal
Case: [Nominative, accusative, dative] changes the morphological form
2 Generative syntax

GENERATIVE SYNTAX
2.2 Lexicon
o Lexical Items stored as free & bound morphemes with their features.

2.2.2. Bound morphemes = grammatical inflections

Morphological inflections Examples

Verbal
Tense: -ed, -s play-ed, play-s
Aspect: -ing, -ed/-en play-ing, has play-ed, has writ-en
Person: -s play-s (3rd)
Number: -s play-s (singular)
Voice: -ed/en (passive) been play-ed / writ-en
Nominal
Number: -s book-book-s
Degree: -er/-est big, bigg-er, bigg-est
2 Generative syntax

GENERATIVE SYNTAX

Lexicon

• Lexical & Functional words.

• Abstract & morphological

morphemes.
Syntax
Computational System
2 Generative syntax

GENERATIVE SYNTAX
2.3 Syntax

o Syntax is a modular computational system / set of algorithms that generate grammatical constructions.

2.3.1. Theta module/theory

o Interaction between predicates & arguments.

o Arguments are participants in events or states.

(14) John ate an apple.

Event, eating <John, apple>
(15) John loves Mary.
State, loving <John, Mary>
2 Generative syntax

GENERATIVE SYNTAX
2.3 Syntax

o Syntax is a modular computational system / set of algorithms that generate grammatical constructions.

2.3.2. X-bar module/theory

o Representation of syntactic structures.

KP

a K’

K b
2 Generative syntax

GENERATIVE SYNTAX
2.3 Syntax

o Syntax is a modular computational system / set of algorithms that generate grammatical constructions.

2.3.3. Case module/theory

o Form & distribution of nouns, pronouns, noun phrases.

(16) They like her.

(17) * Them like she.
2 Generative syntax

GENERATIVE SYNTAX
2.3 Syntax

o Syntax is a modular computational system / set of algorithms that generate grammatical constructions.

2.3.4. Binding module/theory

o Distribution & interpretation of reflexives, pronouns, and R-expressions (Referential expressions, e.g.,
Fatima, Rabat).

(18) They like themselves.

(19) * Themselves like them.
2 Generative syntax

GENERATIVE SYNTAX
2.3 Syntax

o Syntax is a modular computational system / set of algorithms that generate grammatical constructions.

2.3.5. Control module/theory

o Distribution & interpretation of the empty category PRO.

(20) They want [PRO to leave this town]. Subjective PRO

(21) We persuaded John [PRO to leave this town]. Objective PRO
2 Generative syntax

GENERATIVE SYNTAX
2.3 Syntax

o Syntax is a modular computational system / set of algorithms that generate grammatical constructions.

2.3.6. Movement module/theory

o Movement of different elements in the sentence.

(22) Is John a teacher? Canonical=John is a teacher Head Movement

(23) The book was bought. Canonical=John bought the book Argument Movement
(24) Who invited John? Canonical=Alex invited John Non-Argument
(25) Who did John invite? Canonical=John invited Alex Movement
2 Generative syntax

GENERATIVE SYNTAX
2.3 Syntax

o Syntax is a modular computational system / set of algorithms that generate grammatical constructions.

2.3.6. Movement module/theory

o Movement of different elements in the sentence.

(22) Is John a teacher?

(23) The book was bought.
(24) Who invited John?
(25) Who did John invite?
2 Generative syntax

GENERATIVE SYNTAX

Lexicon
Syntax
• Lexical & Functional words.
Computational System
• Abstract & morphological • Theta module
morphemes.
• X-bar module
• Case module
• Binding module
• Control module
• Movement module
3 Summary

o Two theories of syntax:

o Traditional theory:
- Syntax is the study of sentence structure.
- Prescriptive.
- It provides descriptive accounts of ungrammaticality.

o (Linguistic) Generative theory:

- Syntax is the study of sentence structure.
- Explanatory/Cartesian.
- It provides principled accounts of ungrammaticality.

o Generative syntax

Language Faculty

Lexicon: Lexical Items & their features

Syntax: theta, x-bar, case, binding, control & movement modules