PHRASE STRUCTURE RULES

LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the lesson, the students are expected to:

1. describe the sentence-level and sub-sentence-level structure of the English sentence;

2. differentiate the basic properties of sentence grammar: linearity, hierarchy, categoriality
and;
3. construct tree diagram to analyse sentence structure.

LEARNING CONTENT

American regime has effectively influenced the educational system of the country-in its
effect, Filipinos become second language learners of the English language. Moreover, it became
an official medium of instruction in the Philippine education. As second language learners of
the language, it is imperfect to be similarly sound as the native speakers and easily learn the
grammatical structure of the language. With this, different theories would adhere that learning
and acquisition of the second language is determined by many factors which affect the non-
native like production of the English language.

Differences between the Filipino and English language are of great extent. Their
structures vary for so, word-by-word translation limits the authenticity and the form of each
language.

The English structure is governed by its grammatical composition by which from its
phonological formation to pragmatic composition, its structure has to deal with the rules it is
governed with. Its syntactic structure is morphologically intertwined by lexis to compose a
meaningful sentence.

In the year 1960’s and 70’s, Noam Chomsky, an American linguist, has popularized the
terms deep and surface structure of the language in which the English grammar is structured.
Oxford Dictionary of English Grammar in 2014 defines these two sentence levels as deep
structure representing the meaning, and surface as the actual sentence written which the
readers see. Technically, these two structures of sentence are represented in phrase structure
rules to give analysis on how lexis is grammatically formed in the syntax level surfacing it to its
phonological elements.

To get started of the phrase structure rules, it is important to define the three basic
properties of sentence grammar: linearity, hierarchy and categoriality.

These three properties of grammar characterize that a sentence is made up of

grammatical structures that govern the correctness of the sentence. Linearity refers to the
proper order of the constituents in the sentence in which the sentence pattern is most likely
applied, while hierarchy refers to the shared communal relationship of each constituent in the
sentence such as a noun phrase (NP) is composed of a determiner and a noun e.g. the man;
and functions of each constituent in the sentence is referred as categoriality, e.g. a noun can
function both as a subject and an object of the preposition.

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What about Phrase Structure Rules?

The deep structure of the sentence level is generated by phrase structure rules and
surface structures are derived from deep structure. These rules describe the sentence-level and
sub-sentence-level structures of the language. These also provide a parsing device to surface
the properties of sentence grammar.

The process of surfacing the structure of a sentence is shown below.

Phrase structure rules Lexicon

Underlying structure (i.e. tree

diagrams)

Rules of movement, addition, substitution, and deletion

([Link] rules)

Morphological rules

Orthographic or phonological
rules

Surface Structure

To surface the structure of a sentence, the phrase structure rules and lexis should be
identified first before it undergoes tree diagramming. Mapping is then applied to place each
constituent to their proper nodes. After mapping, the constituents are rewritten to apply with
mapping rules. The resulting structure is finalized through morphological rules and lastly, to
produce a written or spoken form, the orthographic or morphological rule is applied.

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 The table below presents the symbols used on the rules.

Symbol Meaning
In every rule, this arrow is always present to
show that the constituent being defined is
expanded to or rewritten.
{ } These two curly brackets enclose the
constituents or phrases of which a phrase is
expanded to.
n
Exponent n determines the number of
constituent enclosed in a parenthesis.
Constituents which are enclosed in a
parenthesis means an optional or non-
obligatory to be derived from the structure.
sm This refers to a sentence modifier. Sentence
modifiers are sentential adverbs that modify
an entire sentence.
S This symbol represents an obligatory sentence
core.
NP This category of noun phrase is derived when
object noun predicate is present in a sentence.
NP2 This symbol is applied in rule 15 which
indicates that a verb is preceded directly byIO
and DO which is not in a prepositional
position, e.g. She gave (v) me (IO) a book (DO).

The following are the rules on phrase structure provided with tree diagram.

Rule No. 1
(sm)n S
S SUBJ PRED

A sentence (S) is expanded to or rewritten into two ways. First, it is expanded to one or
more optional sentence modifier signified through the exponent n. In the presence of the
sentence modifier, the core sentence is present. Second, is the obligatory placement of the
subject and predicate. Follow the example below in tree diagram.

Perhaps, Mary is sick.

sm S

Perhaps
SUBJ PRED
3

Mary is sick
Rule No.2

S  SUBJ PRED
Sentence core expansion in the presence of sm has been discussed in rule [Link] also
from the given example of the first rule.

Rule no. 3

SUBJ  NP
It is a general rule that a subject is composed of NP. The example is structured below.

The umbrella is expensive

SUBJ PRED

NP

is expensive

The umbrella

Rule no. 4
(det)3 (AP) N (-pl) (PrepP)
NP 
pro

The expansion of NP is composed of first, the presence of the optional determiner which
is limited only to three counts, Adjectival phrase (AP)-optional, and the obligatory noun with its
inflected number determined by its plurality (-pl) and also the optional Prepositional Phrase
(PrepP). The second expansion is the presence obligatory pronoun.

Determiners in the NP are not obligatory, however in some instances they are being
used to modify the noun. They refer to the special class of words that limit the nouns that
follow them, e.g. articles a, an, the; demonstrative nouns this, that, this,those; possessive
pronouns my, yours, his, its, ours, their; and quantifiers such as many, few, little etc.

It is observed that the number of determiners is limited only to three. In this sense,
determiners are categorized as predeterminers e.g. all, both; core determiners e.g. articles a and
the; postdeterminers e.g. quantifiers like three and the comparative reference like other. An
example of determiners in 3 is all the other.

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 The presence of the the PrepP in the NP is considered as having no predicate
relationship with the head noun, it’s not * a man is of honor but a man of honor.

Example: The smart boys in the classroom joined the quiz bee.

SUBJ PRED

NP
joined the quiz bee

det
AP
N PrepP
the
adj
boy-pl

smart
Rule No. 5 in the classroom

n n
AP  (intens) ADJ (PrepP)
Optional multiple intensifiers in adjectival phrase is possible to specify the degree of
extent of the adjective it precedes. Rule 5 indicates that multiple descriptive adjectives can
occur before the head nouns (e.g. big old yellow bus).

The optional prepositional phrase in this rule is seen often with adjective phrases
generated in predicate position when it is placed under adjective, it is represented
orthographically as a hyphenated complex adjective, [Link] (det) good (adj)-for-nothing (prep)
cousin (n).

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Example: The very big old yellow bus arrived late.

SUBJ
PRED

NP
arrived late

det

the intens adj N

adj adj

very bus
big old yellow
Rule No. 6

PrepP PrepP NP
Prepositional phrase is composed of preposition and NP. The discussion on the
expansion of NP has already been discussed in rule 4.

SUBJ PRED

NP

det AP N

the adj boy-pl Prep NP

joined the quizbee
smart in
det
N

the
classroom

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Rule No. 7

PRED  AUX VP (Advl)n

There are two obligatory constituents which predicate is composed of-the auxiliary(aux)
and verb phrase (VP). On the other hand, adverbials into series of numbers are non-obligatory
and may occur in sentence final position. Types of adverbials are discussed in rule 8.

Rule No. 8
Advl Cl
Advl  Advl P
PrepP

The types of adverbials that appear in sentences are adverbial clause (advl Cl) e.g. She
went home before you could come; adverbial phrase (Advl P) She dances very gracefully and
Prepositional Phrase (PrepP) e.g. The staff bought newspapers from the store. Expansion of each
phrase is discussed in the following rules.

Note: Remember that the brackets signify that only one of the three phrases must be selected
from the generated adverbial.

Rule No. 9
Advl Cl adv sub S’

An adverbial clause is composed of an adverbial subordinate (adv sub) and a sentence

(S); e.g. She hid before (adv sub) you could come (S).

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Rule no. 10
Advl P (intens)n ADV

Adverbial phrase has its constituents optional intensifier raised to multiple intensifiers
and an obligatory adverb; e.g. She dances very (intens) gracefully (adv).

The following are tree diagrams of sentences composed of adverbials from rules 8-10.

SUBJ PRED

NP Aux VP Advl

pro Advl Cl
hid
She adv sub S

before SUBJ PRED

NP Aux VP

pro

you could come

SUBJ PRED

NP Aux VP Advl

pro Advl P
dances
She intens adv

very gracefully

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 S

SUBJ PRED

NP Aux VP Advl

det N Prep P
bought
prep NP
the staff
det N
from

the store

The tense, mood, and voice of the verb in English grammar are determined by the
auxiliary present in the predicate position in the sentence. In this sense, the English considers
only two tenses of the verb, the past and the present because morphologically, tense is referred
as the only inflection one can use with finite verbs.

On the other hand, non-imperative English sentences carry either a modal auxiliary or
grammatical tense-past or present. Moreover, two optional structural markers are also
included-progressive and perfect aspect. These two aspects are treated in the tree diagram as
combined by three dots because on its grammatical structure the auxiliary and the inflected
verb are discontinuous. Another auxiliary verb present in the English grammar together with
the progressive and perfect aspect is the phrasal modal e.g. be going to, have to, be able to.

Rule no. 11
T (pm) (perf) (prog)
AUX M

-imper
This rule is viewed as the auxiliary is rewritten to either of the tense, modal and the
imperative mood (-imper) with the optional aspects of verb the perfect and progressive and
phrasal modal.

Rule No. 12
-past
T -pres

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 English morphological tense is composed of either past or present.

Rule No. 13
perf  have...-en

The perfect aspect is composed of the auxiliary verb have and the inflection –en.

Rule No. 14
prog be...-ing

The progressive aspect is composed of the auxiliary verb be and the inflection –ing.

The tree diagrams below show the structure of rules 11-14.

SUBJ PRED

NP Aux
VP

N
pm V NP
T perf prog
Karen
-past had to have be...-en write...-ing
det N

a novel

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 S

SUBJ PRED

NP

pro VP
AUX
You
-imper V

walk

Rule No. 15
NP
cop AP
VP  PrepP
V (NP)2 (Prep P)

This rule expands the role of the verb in the sentence. First, is the presence of the copula
verb determined through the preceding phrases, NP, AP and PrepP. Second, when the verb is
preceded directly by the optional indirect object and direct object (NP) 2 and Prepositional
phrase.

The tree diagrams below show the difference of verb expansion with the use of copula in the
sentence and the presence of indirect and direct object which precede directly the main verb.

SUBJ PRED

NP Aux VP

N
T
cop NP
Marissa
-pres det
be N

11 a doctor
 S

SUBJ PRED

NP Aux VP

N T
V NP NP
Kara
-past
give N N

Ana flower-pl
Rule No. 16

(det)3 (AP) N(-pl) (PrepP)

NP
-pro

This rule is applied to sentences which are composed of object noun predicates played by
nouns, adjectives or adverbial preposition; e.g. The president chose Sam secretary (noun),Ramon
considers dogs good (adj), Sarah put the cat on the table (prep).

Tree diagram of the example sentences are shown below.

SUBJ PRED

NP Aux VP

det N T
V NP

The President -past choose

NP NP

N N
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Ana secretary
 S

SUBJ PRED

NP

AUX
N VP

Ramon T
V NP
-pres
consider
NP AP

N adj

dog-pl good

SUBJ PRED

NP

N AUX VP
Sarah
T
V NP
-pres
put
NP  PrepP

det N NP
Prep

the cat on det N

13 the table
 Activity 1

Identify which characterizes deep or surface structure. Write DS if the sentence

describes Deep Structure and SS for Surface structure.

__________1. Grammatical relations such as subject of and object of are defined.

__________2. Semantic interpretations are prevalent.
__________3. Grapho-phonic system is applied to analyse the properties of the word.
__________4. Visual Word recognition is present in reading a text.
__________5. Pragmatic system is used to analyze syntactic meanings.

Activity 2
Directions: Draw tree diagram for the following sentences.

1. Perhaps, Alice will celebrate her birthday in USA.

2. Lara is going to enrol next semester.
3. Grandma runs very quickly.
4. The farmers voted Kara as President.
5. The students have been looking for books in the reading room.

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