SYNTAX: THE SENTENCE PATTERNS OF

LANGUAGE

by: Miss Florabel M. Biasong

Abuyod National High SchoolTeresa, Rizal

SYNTAX The way in which linguistic elements (words and phrases) are arranged to form grammatical sentence structure. 

LEXICAL CATEGORIESA lexical category is a syntactic category for elements that are part of the lexicon of a language. These elements are at the word level.

part of speechword class

grammatical categorygrammatical class

Also known as:

CONTENT WORDSNOUN

Proper Noun Common Noun

AbbyFilipinoSunday

mayorschoolfestival

COUNT NOUN MASS NOUN

booksheepbox

watergrains

gas

SINGULAR NOUN PLURAL NOUN

animalchurchknife

cactus

animalschurches

knivescacti

VERBREGULAR VERB IRREGULAR VERB

walkclap

perform

driveshakeknow

SIMPLE TENSES PERFECT TENSES

Present – go, goesPast - went

Future - will go

Present Perfect - has gonePast Perfect - had gone

Future Perfect – will have gone

ACTIVE PASSIVE

Gail writes a letter.The firemen put off the fire.

The letter was written by Gail.

The fire was put off by the firemen.

ADJECTIVEADJECTIVE OF QUALITY ADJECTIVE OF QUANTITY

fateasy

pretty

a lotlittlefew

ADJECTIVE OF NUMBER DEMONSTRATIVE ADJECTIVE

fourmany

several

this, thesethat

those

INTERROGATIVE ADJECTIVE POSSESSIVE ADJECTIVE

whichwhosewhom

myyourTheir

ADVERBADVERBS OF MANNER ADVERB OF TIME

moderatelygraciouslyfervently

a week agotomorrow

lately

ADVERB OF PLACE ADVERB OF DEGREE

somewhereherethere

greatlycompletely

entirely

PRONOUN I, you, he, she, it, we, theyMe, him, her, us, themMine, yours, his, hers, its, ours, theirsMyself, yourself, himself, itself, ourselves

PREPOSITION

above, behind, from, through, upon, towards, underneath, below, between, beyond, across

CONJUNCTION

and, but, or nor, yetalthough, because, before, till while, sinceboth…and, either..or, neither…nor, not only…but also, so…as, whether…or

INTERJECTION

Ouch!, Oh no!, Hey!, Alas!, Oh!, Ah!, Wow!, Presto!, Whew!, Gee!, Hush!

FUNCTION WORDS

“Then you should say what you mean,” the March Hare went on.

“I do,” Alice hastily replied, “at least—I mean what I say—the same thing you know.”

“Not the same thing a bit!” Said the Hatter. “You might just well say that ‘I see what I eat’ is the same thing as ‘I eat what I see’!”

“You might just as well say,” added the March Hare ‘I like what I get’ is the same things as ‘I get what I like’!”

“You just as well say,” added the Dormouse…that ‘I breathe when I sleep’ is the same thing as ‘I seep when I breathe’!”

“It is the same thing with you,” said the Hatter.

from Alice’s Adventure in Wonderland

WORD ORDER In linguistics, word order typology refers to the study of the order of the syntactic constituents of a language and how different languages can employ different orders.

1. Subject – verb – object (SVO) English, Roman, Bulgarian, Chinese and

Swahili e.g. I see him.

2. Subject – object – verb (SOV) Japanese, Mongolian, Turkish, Korean e.g. I him see.

3. verb – subject – object (VSO) Classical Arabic, Insular Celtic languages,

Hawaiian e.g. See I him.

4. verb – object - subject (VOS)

Fijian, Malagsay e.g. See him I.5. object – verb - subject (OVS) Hixkaryana e.g. Him see I.

6. object - subject – verb (OSV) Xavante, Warao e.g. Him I see.

1. In a normal (declarative) sentence, the subject of a sentence comes directly in front of the verb. The direct object (when there is one) comes directly after it: e.g.:  The man wrote a letter. People who live in glasshouses shouldn't throw stones. The president laughed.

2. Note that by the subject, we mean not just a single word, but the subject noun or pronoun plus descriptive phrases that go with it. The rest of the sentence - i.e. the part that is not the subject - is called the predicate.e.g.: People who live in glasshouses shouldn't throw stones.

3. If a sentence has any other parts to it - indirect objects, adverbs or adverb phrases - these usually come in the following places: 

a. The position of the indirect object  - The indirect object follows the direct object when it is formed with the preposition to:- The indirect object comes in front of the direct object if to is omitted

Example: The doctor gave some medicine to the

child.      The doctor gave the child some medicine.  

b. Adverbs or adverb phrases can come in three possible places:   - before the subject  (Notably with common adverbs or adverb phrases)e.g: Yesterday the man wrote a letter.   - after the object  (Virtually any adverb or adverb phrase can be placed here)e.g.:  The man wrote a letter on his computer in the train.    - in the middle of the verb group. (Notably with short common adverbs)e.g.: The man has already written his letter.

4. In standard English, nothing usually comes between the subject and the verb, or between the verb and the object.   There are a few exceptions. The most important of these are adverbs of frequency and indirect objects without to. e.g:   The man often wrote his mother a letter.        I sometimes give my dog a bone.If you always apply these few simple rules, you will not make too many word order problems in English. The examples above are deliberately simple - but the rules can be applied even to complex sentences, with subordinate and coordinated clauses. 

The director, [who often told his staff (to work harder),] never left the office before [he had checked his e-mail.]

5. Word order in English questions:This really is so simple....  Almost all questions use the same structure.All you need to do is to remember this simple and common English phrase: 

How do you do?The structure of almost every simple question in English is based on this same model:    (Question word if there is one) - Auxiliary or modal - subject - main verb - (plus the rest of the sentence): e.g.   What did Tom Cruise do?    Did Arnold Schwarzenegger learn English quickly?   How quickly did Arnold Schwarzenegger  learn English ?   Has the representative from that German company sent us his invoice yet?

ExceptionsExamples:     - Never before had I seen such a magnificent exhibition.    (After never or never before, subject and verb can be - and usually are - inverted).    - Hardly had I left the house, than it started to rain.     (When a sentence starts with hardly, subject and verb must be inverted.).    - Had I known, I'd never have gone there.      (Inversion occurs in unfulfilled hypothetical conditional structures when if is omitted.    -  The book that you gave me I'd read already.      (The long object, The book that you gave me, is placed at the start of the sentence for  reasons of style: this unusual sentence structure is not necessary, just stylistic).

What syntax rules do? The rules of syntax combine words into phrases and phrases into sentences.

ENGLISH is Subject – Verb – Object language

Correct word order for a language.1

1. The president nominated a new Supreme Court justice.

2. *President the new Supreme justice Court a nominated.

2 Describe the relationship between the meaning of a particular group of words and the arrangement of those words.

1. I mean what I say.2. I say what I mean.

3Specify the grammatical relations of a sentence such as subject whom.

1. Your dog chased my cat.

2. My cat chased your dog.

4 Specify the other constraints that sentences must adhere to.

1. The boy found.2. The boy found quickly.3.The boy found in the house.4.The boy found the ball.

1. Dina slept the baby.2. Dina slept soundly.

1. Zack believes Robert to be a gentleman.

2.Zack believes to be a gentleman.3.Zack tries Robert to be a gentleman.4.Zack ties to be a gentleman.5.Zack wants to be a gentleman.6.Zack wants Robert to be a gentleman.

5 Sentences are not simply string of words with no further organization.

1. Jack and Jill ran up the hill. 2. Jack and Jill ran the hill up.3. Up the hill ran Jack and Jill.4. Jack and Jill ran up the bill.5. Jack and Jill ran the bill up.6. Up the bill ran Jack and Jill.

The syntactic knowledge crucially includes rules that tell us how words form groups in a sentence, or how they are hierarchically arranged with respect to one another.

The captain ordered all old men and women off the sinking ship.

6

old men

and women

old men and women

MUCHAS GRACIAS!

lady_abz_14@yahoo.com