1

Chapter 4 Syntax

Part II

2

Sentence Structure

p. 122Sentences have a hierarchical organization, i.e., the words in a sentence are grouped into natural Units, called constituents.

3

The tree diagram

A structure tree is used to represent graphically the constituent structure of a phrase or a Sentence.

4

Constituents

pp. 122-1241. definition: natural groupings of a phrase or sentence2. Every sentence in a language is associated with one or more constituent structures. If a sentence has more than one constituent structure, it is structurally ambiguous, and each tree will correspond to one of the possible meanings.

5

Example: I bought an antique desk suitable for a lady with thick legs and large drawers.Two phrase structure trees:(1) [a lady with thick legs and large drawers](2) [[a desk for a lady] [with thick legs and large

drawers]]

6

Constituency tests

p. 122-123Tests to reveal the constituents of a sentence:1. The “stand alone” test2. The “replacement by a pronoun” test3. The “move as a unit” test

7

Syntactic categories 詞類

p. 1241. definition: a family of expressions that can substitute for

one another without loss of grammaticality2. also called ‘grammatical categories’ or ‘parts of

speech’3. Kinds: (a) lexical categories (b) phrasal categories

8

(a) lexical categories

p. 126 Noun (N) Verb (V) Adjective (Adj) Adverb (Adv) Preposition (P) Conjunction (Conj) Determiner (Det) Auxiliary verb (Aux)** Functional categories: Conj ,Det, Aux

9

Determiners (Det) 限詞

(a) articles: a, an, the (b) demonstratives ( 指示詞 ): this, that, these, those, … (c) quantifiers ( 量詞 ): each, every, one, all,… (d) possessive case of nouns and pronouns: my, his, John’s, …

10

Auxiliary verbs (Aux) 助動詞

(a) modal auxiliaries ( 語氣助動詞 ): can, may, shall, will, … (b) helping verbs: be in passives (be + p.p.) and progressives (be + v-ing) do in negatives and emphatic sentences have in perfect (have, has, had + p.p.)

11

(b) phrasal categories

Sentence (S) Noun phrase (NP) Verb phrase (VP) Adjective phrase (AP) Prepositional phrase (PP)

12

Phrase structure trees (PS trees)

p. 127The PS tree:(1) The PS tree is a phrase structure tree diagram which provides labels (syntactic category information) for each of the constituents of a sentence; it is also called a constituent structure tree. (2) A PS tree can represent every sentence of English and of every human language.(3) PS trees are explicit graphic ( 圖像式 ) representations of a speaker’s knowledge of the structure of the sentences of his language.

13

Three aspects of speakers’ syntactic knowledge represented in PS trees

p. 128(a) The linear order of the words in the sentence(b) The groupings of words into syntactic categories(c) The hierarchical structure of the syntactic categories

14

Example (1) (p. 127) The child found the puppy.

. S NP VP Det N V NP Det N The child found the puppy

15

Example (2): (p. 130)The puppy played in the garden.

S NP VP Det N V PP P NP Det N The puppy played in the garden

16

Example (3): (p. 130)The professor said that the student passed the exam.

S NP VP Det N V CP C S NP VP

Det N V NP

Det N

The professor said that the student passed the exam

17

Relationships within a PS tree

p. 128 Where categories meet is a node. Every higher node dominates all the other

categories beneath it. A node immediately dominates the categories

one level below it. Categories that are immediately dominated by

the same node are sisters.

18

PS rules

p. 1311. S → NP VP2. NP → Det N 3. VP → V NP4. VP → V5. VP → V PP6. PP → P NP7. VP → V CP8. CP → C S

19

p. 132Draw tree diagrams for the following sentences:1. The boys left.2. The wind blew the kite.3. The senator hopes that the bill passes.