ENG2212 ENGLISH SYNTAX

ENG2212 – ENGLISH SYNTAX Study Notes

STUDY NOTES
ENG

ENG2212
ENGLISH SYNTAX
STUDY NOTES

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 ENG2212 – ENGLISH SYNTAX Study Notes

ENG2212
ENGLIHS SYNTAX
COURSE OUTLINE

1. English Tenses
2. Definition of operational syntactic form
a. Syntax
b. Sentence
c. Syntactic participle
d. Constituent
e. Phrase
f. Node
g. Phrase structure rules
3. Structure of basic English syntax
4. Structure of English NP, Aux, VP, PP
5. Sentence generation
6. Sentence analysis

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 ENG2212 – ENGLISH SYNTAX Study Notes

1. ENGLISH TENSES
a. Regular verbs

Regular verbs are verbs that follow the normal rule of ending with –ed
for the past and past participle forms. Most English verbs are regular,
e.g.

Present Past Past participle

allow allowed allowed
push pushed pushed
kill killed killed

b. Irregular verbs
Irregular verbs are verbs that do not end in –ed for their past and
participle forms. They take the usual rule of “s” for the present form of
the third person singular and –ing for the present participle while the
past and past participle forms of irregular verbs cannot be produced
from the base form. E.g.

Present Past Past participle

set set set
shut shut shut

The past form of some irregular verbs is the same with their past
participle form when they take two patterns, e.g.

Base form Past form Past participle

smell smelled/smelt smelled/smelt
spill spilled/spilt spilled/spilt

The past form is the same with their past participle form when they
change spelling:

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 ENG2212 – ENGLISH SYNTAX Study Notes

sit Sat sat

pay Paid paid

Some have two forms of past participle one of which is the same as the
past form and the other differs:

Show showed showed/shown

Swell swelled swelled/swollen

The base, past and past participle forms of some irregular verbs are all
different:

Break broke broken

Drive drove driven

c. AUXILIARY VERBS
Auxiliary verb is the verb that helps other verbs to form different tenses.
There are two(2) kinds of auxiliary verbs:

i. Primary auxiliaries
ii. Modal auxiliaries
a. Primary auxiliaries
Primary auxiliaries are verbs used to form negations, questions, and
tenses. These are verbs like; be, do and have.

b. Modal auxiliaries
Modal auxiliaries are verbs used to express various moods and mental
attitudes like hope, expectations, possibility and futurity, e.g. shall, can,
must etc.

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a. PRIMARY AUXILIRIES VERB

Infinitive Present Tense Past Tense Present Past
Continuous Participle
be am, is, are was, were being been
have have, has had having had
do do, does did doing done

b. MODELS
Present tense Past tense
shall should
will would
can could
may might
ought (to) used (to)
need
dare

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 ENG2212 – ENGLISH SYNTAX Study Notes

THE ENGLISH TENSES

There are basically three (3) tenses in English language, and they are
categorized into parts:

a. The simple present tense:

i. The simple present tense
ii. The present continuous tense
iii. The present perfect tense
iv. The present perfect continuous tense
b. The simple past tense:
i. The simple past tense
ii. The past continuous tense
iii. The past perfect tense
iv. The past perfect continuous tense
c. The future simple tense:
i. The simple future tense
ii. The future continuous tense
iii. The future perfect tense
d. Conditional tense

a. THE SIMPLE PRESENT TENSE:

i. The Simple Present Tense
The simple present tense is formed by using the base form of the verb
i.e. the infinitive. “s” is used with singular nouns like boy, book, table,
cat and the third person singular pronouns; he, she, it add an “s” to the
infinitive for the formation of simple present tense, e.g.
 He cooks the breakfast/dinner
 She tries well to the examination
 It mixes the flour well
 The waiter does the job well
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 ENG2212 – ENGLISH SYNTAX Study Notes

 The boy plays football

 The cat jumps over the fence
 The baby cries loudly
Plural nouns boys, books, cats, tables and the pronouns; I, we, you and
they do not add anything to the infinitive for the formation of the present
simple tense. E.g.

 We cook the breakfast/dinner

 They go to school every morning
 The waiters do the job well
 The babies cry loudly
 The boys play football
 You go to school regularly
 You try well in the examination

While the pronoun “I” – to express a state with this tense “am” we use
“I” e.g.
 I am a student
 I am a very tall
 I am brilliant
ii. The Present Continuous Tense
The present continuous tense is formed using the present tense of the
verb 'to be'( am, is, are) and the present participle of the main verb i.e.

 am
 i am + reading
 she/she is + reading
 it is + raining

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“am” is used only with the pronoun “I” while “is” is used with all
singular nouns and third person singular pronoun, e.g.

 the boy is eating

 The student is dancing
 He is reading
 It is raining
While “are” is used with the pronouns – we, you, they and all the
plural nouns e.g.

 We are running
 You are cheating
 The students are reading
 They are eating
iii. The Present Perfect Tense
The present perfect tense is formed by using the present form of the
verb “have (have/ has)” and the past participle form of the verb. E.g.
Have/has + past participle
Have - is used with the plural nouns and the pronouns I, you, we and
they e.g.

 I have written a poem

 I have hurt my knee
 I have lost my car
 We have known her for two years
 They have watched the movie
 You have passed the examination
 The boys have failed the test
 The women have smelt the odour
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While the verb “has” takes only the singular nouns with the third person
singular pronouns – he, she and it.

 He has written the examination

 She has passed the test
 It has broken long ago
 The boy has showed his experience
 The woman has cooked the food
iv. The Present Perfect Continuous Tense
To form the present perfect continuous tense, we use have/has + been + -
ing form of the verb, e.g. [i.e. the has/have + present participle of verb
“be” followed the –ing form].

o Has – is used with all singular nouns and the third person singular
pronouns – he, she and it e.g. has + been + -ing.
 He has been reading the novel
 She has been playing soccer
 It has been raining for long
 The woman has been cooking the food

o Have – is used with all plural nouns and the pronouns I, we, you and
they, i.e. have + been + - ing of verb, e.g.
 I have been sleeping since morning
 You have been watching this movie
 We have been debating on the issue
 They have been waiting for the result
 The boys have been thinking for over an hour
 The women have been cooking the dinner

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 ENG2212 – ENGLISH SYNTAX Study Notes

a. THE SIMPLE PAST TENSE:

i. The Simple Past Tense
The simple past tense is formed by using the subject plus the past form of
a verb, i.e.

 Subject + past form

He + laughed
She + spoke
ii. The Past Continuous Tense
It is also called the past progressive tense. It is formed by using the past
tense of the verb “to be” (was / were) and –ing form of the main verb.

was/were + -ing form

o Was – is used with all singular nouns and third person singular
pronouns, i.e. he, she and it and with the first person pronoun I e.g.
 I was playing the game yesterday
 He was reading the novel
 It was raining heavily at night
 She was sleeping when he came
 The boy was reading for examination
 The woman was chatting with the girl
o Were – is used with plural nouns and the pronouns, i.e. we, you and
they, e.g.
 The women were chatting with girl
 The boys were reading for examination
 We were addressing the student before you came in
 They were playing football
 You were reading the book in the room

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iii. The Past Perfect Tense

The past perfect tense is formed by using the verb had and the past
participle form of the main verb, i.e. had + past participle:

 had + finished
 had + written

I
we
Finished the work
you
Shut the door
she Had
Written a letter
he
Sat down
it
they

iv. The Past Perfect Continuous Tense

To form the past perfect continuous tense, use the past form of “have” i.e.
“had” and past participle of “be” followed by “ing” form (present
participle) of the main verb, i.e.

 had + been + v-ing

had + been + reading

I
we
you
she Had been talking
he
it
they

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 ENG2212 – ENGLISH SYNTAX Study Notes

c. THE FUTURE SIMPLE TENSE:

i. The Simple Future Tense
The future simple tense is formed by using “will” or “shall” with the base
form of the main verb.

will/shall + infinitive
In traditional grammar, the pronouns I and we take shall in the formation
of the future tense. While (will is used here for emphasis).

i
will go to school (emphasis)
we

In modern grammar, the traditional difference between will and shall is no

longer considered. Will is preferred form for the entire pronouns except I
and we in question.

I
we
come tomorrow
you
write a letter next week
she will
invite you tonight
he
fly next year
it
they

ii. The Future Continuous Tense

This tense is formed by using “will be” or “shall be” and the –ing form of
the main verb.

 shall/will + be + v-ing form

He will be reading

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 ENG2212 – ENGLISH SYNTAX Study Notes

I
we
you
she will be reading
he
it
they

iii. The Future Perfect Tense

The future perfect tense is formed with will have or shall have and the past
participle of the main verb.

will/shall + have + past participle

I
we
you left
will before the three
she have started
shall o’clock
he eaten
it
they

AUXILIARY

Tense Perfective Progressive Passive Modal Verb

Aspect Aspect Aspect (M)
(have + en) (be + ing) (be + en)

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2. DEFINITION OF OPERATIONAL SYNTACTIC FORM

a. Syntax

Syntax is the study of rules governing the construction of sentences.

Why do study syntax

We study syntax because no two language are the same. If they have the
same word order, there might be differences in the internal structure.
For examples:

 English ///Aliyu ate the food///

 Hausa ///Aliyu ya ci abinci///
 Fulfulde ///Aliyu nyamii ngiri///

b. Sentence
The concept of the sentence is very controversial in an academic arena
been there is over 200 definitions with a lot of debate and criticism. The
debate us academic in nature ranging from traditional, transformational
and systemic grammar. However, scholars argue that a sentence can be
seen from systemic point of view as the larger grammatical unit, to this
is a little bit compatible.

c. Syntactic Category/Participle
Syntactic category is a group of that can be substituted without one
another in the same position in a sentence without affecting the
grammaticality of the sentence. For examples:

 ///The boy kicked the air///

 ///The grill kicked the boy///
Without change of grammatical arrangement.

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d. Constituent
Constituent is a word or group of words that can form a unit in a
sentence or part of the sentence, because they are closely related to each
other than the other. For examples:

 ///The beautiful girl sat on the front seat////

This sentence can be divided into Noun phrase constituent and Verb
phrase constituent; ///The beautiful girl/// is an noun phrase constituent,
whereas ///sat on the front seat/// is a verb phrase constituent. Basically,
a sentence can be divided into noun phrase constituent and verb phrase
constituent. It is possible to find noun phrase within the verb phrase or
verb phrase within the noun phrase.

e. Phrase
Phrase is a sequence of word that can form a constituent in a sentence,
that is why we have noun phrase constituent and verb phrase
constituent.

f. Node
Node is a level branching point of a tree diagram when the upper
(higher) node dominant the lower node within any intervened sentence,
or when the lower node is dominated by higher node we can say the
node are daughters.
S higher

NP VP upper
D N V NP lower
(daughter)

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3. STRUCTURE OF BASIC ENGLISH SYNTAX

Generally, the structure of English sentence has three (2) different
constituent, noun phrase (NP), auxiliary (Aux) and verb phrase (VP).

a. Noun phrase constituent

Technically is known as NP, is a sequence/group of words that are

related to each other with noun, pronoun or nominal group as essential
elements. Similarly, NP comes with one or more modifiers, for
examples:

 /the boy came late/

 /the young boy came late/
 /the young handsome boy came late/
 /the young handsome boy who sat on the front seat came late/
 /the tall man who carried a baby came late/
b. Auxiliary
There are five (5) items under Aux constituent:
i. Tense (Tns)
ii. Perfective aspect (have + en)
iii. Modals
iv. Progressive aspect (be + ing)
v. Passive (be + en)
c. Verb phrase constituent
There are various element which include in the V, PP, NP, Adv. Phrase,
Adj. Phrase but the most important element is the verb, all the rest are
optional this implies that a verb can came alone or with other elements.

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4. SENTENCE GENERATION
a. Phrase Structure Rule

Phrase structure rule of sentence generation it helps the linguist to

generate grammatical sentences. The higher node occupies the left side,
whereas the category which the higher nodes were made occupies the
right side. For examples:

Phrase Structure Rule

Node  Category
NP  Det N
VP  V PP
PP  Pre NP
NP  Det N

Tree Diagram
S

NP VP

Det N V PP

P NP

Det N

b. Lexical
Lexical is a large stool of vocabulary which lexicons grammatical
category could be selected.

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c. Lexical Insertion Rule

Lexical insertion rule is a rule which guide the selection of lexical
items/lexicons. For example:

NP VP

Det N V PP

P NP

Det N

The boy slept in the class

d. Sub-categorization

Sub-categorization is a rule which checks the grammaticality of a

sentence and semantic.

5. SENTENCE ANALYSIS
 Sentence 1: The dog barked and the cat screamed
S

S Conj S

NP VP NP VP

Det N V Det N V

The dog barked and the cat screamed

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 Sentence 2: He wrote the book that I bought

S

NP VP

Pro V NP

Det N S-

CP S

NP VP

Pro V

He wrote the book that I bought

 Sentence 3: John is playing soccer

S

NP aux VP

Tns Progressive V NP

Present be + ing Play N

John is playing soccer

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 ENG2212 – ENGLISH SYNTAX Study Notes

SELF-ASSESSMENT
1. He teaches them English Grammar
2. She wrote a letter
3. I will buy a new car
4. I read a book
5. He is Nigerian
6. She passes the ball to short
7. They are my friends
8. They are writing a note
9. He have eaten the food
10. They have been writing since morning
11. It has been raining till now
12. I graduated from BASUG
13. It was working hard
14. They were dancing last week in the hall
15. Musa had drunk the juice
16. They had been playing tennis
17. I shall go to school
18. It would ran faster
19. They will be riding bikes
20. She will have finished by next three days
21. The black beautiful girl will have been travelling for two days
22. The man has given him the letter that I wrote last night]
23. The man died and has been buried at the town graveyard
24. Black books had been wetted
25. My data was exhausted last night
26. I saw Amaka when she was talking to her brother s
27. I knew that Bukola had loved me but I did not have any idea whether she
was interested in marriage
28. The king and the queen were agreed by the government to establish a
new customary law.
29. A’isha is late to school, but the Principal allowed her attend classes
30. Amina killed the cat and Musa disposed the body
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