SYNTAX
Rimajon Sotlikova
SYNTAX
Is
derived from the Greek elements, syn
means together and tax means
arranging.
Is
a level of grammar that refers to the
arrangement of words and morphemes in
the construction of structures, such as:
phrases, clauses and sentences.
Descriptive syntax or
descriptive grammar
Prescriptive syntax or
prescriptive grammar
The combination of
smaller units in
sentences
The concept of
correctness and
incorrectness in
speaking and writing.
Types of Syntactic Structures
Sentence
(string of words:grammatically complete
with at least two components: a subject and
a predicate)
Constitudes
(combination of units)
Subject
(the topic of the
sentence)
Predicate
(a comment made
about the topic)
Types of Sentences and Clauses
Simple Sentence
(one subject and one
predicate)
The dog ran away
Compound Sentence
(the combination of
simple sentences )
The dog and the
cat ran away.
Dependent Clause
Independent Clause
(a simple sentence)
(can not stand alone as a simple sentence
A Complex sentence
A compound-complex (sentence
(sentence with a simple sentence
and one or more dependent clauses)
These are the people who
would be travelling with us
but must be attached to an independent
clause)
(with two or more independent clauses and
at least one dependent clause)
When the teacher assigned the reading for the
exam,many students were stunned, but they agreed
to study as well as they could.
Most common sentence types
Declarative (It makes
a statement)
HeHe
has
just
arrived.
just
arrived.
Interrogative (It asks a
question)
Has he just arrived?
Imperative (Expresses
a command or
request)
Andrew, come here.
Exclamatory (shows
strong or sudden
feeling)
Negative
Active and passive
voices
Oh, what a beautiful day!
He hasnt come yet.
He broke the window. The window was broken
by him.
Phrase
A phrase is any constituent of a clause.
Noun phrase (NP)
Adverb phrase
(AdvP)
Adjective phrase
(AP)
Prepositional phrases
(PP)
Verb phrase (VP)
NP+VP
Some examples for noun phrase:
Andrew
NP (N is proper noun here)
He
NP (Pronoun)
The dog
NP (with Determiner-article)
Six dogs
NP (with numeral)
The six dogs NP ([Link])
My dog
What dog
That dog
NP (with Determiner-possessive)
NP (with Determiner-interrogative)
NP (with determiner-demonstrative)
Verb phrase (tells something about the subject)
A tree diagram
Chomsky and Generative grammar
Many linguists attempted to produce a particular type of grammar that has a
very explicit system of rules would result in well formed sentences.
A set of explicit rules is called a generative grammar
A generative grammar defines the syntactic structure
It shows two kinds of phenomena:
How some superficially
different sentences are
closely related
How some superficially
similar sentences are in fact
different
Deep and surface structure
Maria broke the window.
The window was broken by Maria.
Superficially
different
Closely related by
meaning
Distinction between
them is about their
surface structure
Underlyning their basic
components and
interpretation are their
deep structure.
Ambiguity
Lexical ambiguity
The women appealed to
all men
Structural ambiguity
Part-of-speech
ambiguity
Maria owns large
dogs and cats
Andrew will forget
tomorrow
By tomorrow
Andrew will forget
something
Andrew will forget a
specific day (that is
here tomorrow)
Structural ambiguity
Recursion
Is used in order:
To generate a
sentence
To make a sense
in a sentence
The book is one the table.
The book is on the table near the window.
The book is on the table near the window in the bedroom.
Repeatable any
number of times