Syntax

Part 1

What is Syntax ?

The analysis of phrases and sentences : It studies the way words are combined with each other to form grammatical sentences in a rule-governed way.

Deep Structure & Surface Structure

:the superficial or Surface Structure apparent structure of sentence.

It relates to the order of elements ,i.e, the grammatical(syntactic) form of a sentence.

For example,

“Nora broke the window”

”the window was broken by Nora”.

Two sentences with different surface structures.

The first is active

The second is passive

: it is the underlying The deep structure abstract structure in which the elements determining structural interpretation are represented.

It relates to the abstract , underlying meaning of a sentence.

The same deep structure can be the source of other surface structures such as

It was Nora who broke the window

Was the window broken by Nora ?

Structural Ambiguity

“Annie bumped into a man with an umbrella”.

It has two different underlining meanings ,but the same surface structure.

Thus, this sentence is structurally ambiguous.

What is Structural Ambiguity ?

single phrase or sentence A situation in which a two or more different underlying has

structures and interpretations.

Small boys and girls

RecursionWe can embed phrases within phrases of the same type.

Example,

The gun was on the table near the window in the bedroom.

This is the dog that chased the cat that killed the rat that ate the fruit.

Recursion :the repeated application of a rule in generating structures

There is no end to the recursion that would produce ever longer versions of complex sentences with this structure.

This one feature of grammar. A sentence can have another sentence inside it or that a phrase can be repeated

Syntactic Structure Analysis

Symbols used in syntactic analysis

p.101

Tree Diagram

The boyNP

ART N

The boy

Tree diagram : a diagram with branches showing the hierarchical organization of structures

Types of phrases

Noun phrase (NP)

Verb phrase(VP)

Prepositional phrase(PP)

Every phrase has at least one non-optional (obligatory)element.

NP always has N

VP always has V

PP always has Prep

Phrase structure rules

Phrases are governed by rules phrase .Theses rules are called

structure rules

Phrase Structure rules

They are rules that state that the structure of a phrase of a specific type consists of one or more constitutes in a particular order

Noun Phrase

NP {(Art) (Adj) N ,Pro ,PN}

A noun phrase consists of either

An article + an optional adjective + N

A pronoun

A proper noun

NP {Art (Adj) N ,Pro ,PN}

Examples,

The cat

The cute cat

He

Mohammed

The cat The cute cat

The cat The cute cat

NP NP

Art N Art N

The cat Adj

The cute cat

Prepositional Phrase (PP)

PP Prep NP"A prepositional phrase consists of a preposition and a noun phrase."

Examples

With an umbrella

Behind the tree

On the table

With an umbrella

With an umbrella

PP

P NP

Art N

with

an umbrella

Verb PhraseVP V (NP) (PP) (Adv)

"A verb phrase is composed of a verb plus an optional noun phrase plus an optional prepositional phrase and optional adverb“

Examples :

leftMona

housethe left Mona

bag on the tablethe put Mona

house quicklythe left Mona

left the houseMona leftMona

Mona left Mona left the houseVP

VP

V V NP

Left Art N

left the house

left the house quicklyMona

left the house quicklyMona

VP

V NP Adv

Art N

left the house quickly

S NP VP

A dog followed the boy

S

NP VP

Art N V NP

Art N

A dog followed the boy

Draw a tree diagram to illustrate the phrase structure rule in the following sentences

• Nora found the keys quickly

• Tom runs fast

• Mona put the bag on the table

• A small boy saw George with a crazy dog