MIDTERM - MODULE 5

LESSONS : SYNTAX AND SEMANTICS

I. OBJECTIVES:
1 Deepen one’s understanding on syntax.
2. Refresh one’s knowledge on sentences according to function
and sentences according to structure.
3. Construct grammatically correct and meaningful sentences .
4. Differentiate different kinds of clauses.
5. Distinguish lexical semantics from sentence or sentential
] semantics.
6. Cite the different types of oppositeness in meaning.
7. Give examples for the different types of sense relations.
8. Compare the different semantic relations.

II . NOTES
A. SYNTAX
Syntax is the branch of linguistics that studies sentence
structure. It is concerned with the ways words go together to form
sentences and how the words are related to one another. In his theory
of generative grammar, Noam Chomsky has pointed out to the
astonishing fact that a speaker of any language can produce and
understand an infinite number of sentences. The inventory of
phonemes of a language is finite, the number of words may reach
hundreds of thousands and it would be very difficult to try to count all
the existing words of a language. However to say how many
sentences there are in a language is really an impossible task. A
speaker can create new sentences by adding prepositional phrases,
adjectives, clauses, etc.
The traditional grammar which has its roots in the description of
the classical languages - Greek and Latin- provided the distinction and
description of the parts of speech: nouns, verbs, adverbs, etc.
Modern lingusts though accepting this distinction, point out to some
incompleteness of the definitions of parts of speech. In these

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definitions parts of speech are presented including their essential
meaning properties but not all their functional properties are revealed.
Yet the distinction of parts of speech (or lexical categories) is of crucial
importance because it helps to classify the words of a language.
Using the rules of syntax, we combine words into phrases and
phrases into sentences. English has fixed Subject- Verb- Object ( SVO )
word order. Therefore, the sentence * The children took all the apples.
Is correct
(grammatical) but the sentence * Took all the apples the children is
ungrammatical.
Sentences are not just lineal strings of words – they may be
analyzed hierarchically into phrases. For example , the following
sentence contains three phrases, indicated by bracketing.
[ the diligent students] [have completed] [ the last task.]
The main types of phrases are: the noun phrase ( the book,
these people, the red carpet ); the verb phrase (have completed, will
be going); the adjective phrase; the adverb phrase, and the
prepositional phrase. A phrase can contain only the head. Prepositional
phrases consist of a preposition and a noun phrase(in the crowded
street, with a spoon).
According to Noam Chomsky’s generative grammar, a finite set
of formal rules project a finite set of sentences upon the potentially
infinite number of sentences language. To put it more simply, there
are a certain number of formal rules which explain the structure of the
sentences in a language. One of the main rules states that a sentence
consists of a noun phrase and a verb phrase.
Sentences are classified into different types. Sentences
according to use (function) are:
Declarative : Castles of the Middle Ages were surrounded by
moats.
Interrogative : Do I take the road to the right or the one to the
left?
Imperative : Speak softly.
Exclamatory : What a beautiful voice your mother has!
Sentences according to form (structure) :
Simple : contains one subject and one predicate either or both of
which
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 may be compound.
After serious consideration we voted for class president.
Compound : contains two or more independent clauses.
The experiment was a failure, but the inventor did not
despair
of success.
Compound sentences can be joined by a comma and
coordinating conjunctions such as : and, but, for , nor,
or, so,
or yet.

Complex : Contains one principal clause (independent clause) and

one
or more subordinate clauses (dependent clauses)
If you desire good health, eat proper food.
A main or independent clause is one that has a subject and a
predicate and can stand alone.
A subordinate clause or dependent clause is one that has a
subject and a predicate but cannot stand alone. It is introduced by a
subordinating conjunction and is connected to the main clause. This
clause can be adjectival or adverbial.
Ex, Edison spent much of his time working in his laboratory
(main clause) that was found in the basement.(subordinate clause)
A subordinate clause can either be adjectival ( when it modifies
a noun or pronoun ) or adverbial (when it modifies a verb).
A comma is used to set off the subordinate clause when this
clause is found at the beginning or in the middle of the sentence.
Adjectival clauses are usually introduced by the relative
pronouns who, whom, which and that. Adverbial clauses are
introduced by subordinating conjunctions, such as the following:
After before so that where
Although because than when
As if unless whenever while
As long as since until which
Examples:
We should thank Thomas Edison because a day will not pass
without
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 us using many of his inventions.
In 1877, he invented the first phonograph which used a tinfoil
cylinder instead of a flat record.
The family moved to Michigan when Edison was seven.
Thomas Alva Edison, who was the seventh and youngest child,
was
finally called Al.

B .SEMANTICS
The study of meaning is normally referred to as semantics from
the Greek noun “ sema” - sign, signal, and the verb “semaino” –
signal, mean. A linguist who is studying meaning tries to understand
why certain words and constructions can be combined together in a
semantically acceptable way, while others cannot. For example, it is
quite all rifgt to say:
My brother is a bachelor.
The camel sniffed the chocolate and then ate it.
The platypus remained alive for an hour after the hunter shot it.
Mirabella arrived yesterday.
But not:
My brother is a spinster.
The camel swallowed the chocolate and then ate it.
The platypus remained alive for an hour after the hunter killed
it.
Mirabella arrived tomorrow.
These sentences are well-framed syntactically: nouns, verbs, and so
on are all in the right order. But they are contradictory. An English
hearer could interpret them only by assuming that the speaker has
made a mistake, in which case he would say , for instance, “A
brother can’t be a spinster , you must mean “Bachelor”! (An
exclamation mark indicates a semantically impossible sentence).
A linguist studying semantics would also like to know why
anyone who knows a language can recognize certain phrases and
sentences as having similar meanings , and would ask how it is that
people can recognize.
A further human ability which needs explaining is the fact that
hearers not only recognize ambiguous sentences, but they can also
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use the surrounding context to choose the most likely of the possible
interpretation. For example:
Visiting great-aunts can be a nuisance.
Is ambiguous. Are the great aunts coming to see us, or are we going
to see them? But if someone came across the sentence:
Visiting great-aunts can be a nuisance; I wish we didn’t have to
go.
They would have no doubt that we are visiting the great-aunts, rather
than vice versa.
Semantics is the branch of linguistics that studies meaning in
language. It is generally accepted that words, phrases, and sentences
have meanings. Lexical semantics studies the meanings of words
and sense relations (such as synonymy, antonymy, and hyponymy).
Sentence
semantics (or sentential semantics) is concerned with the meaning of
sentences.
The meaning of words is part of human linguistic knowledge.
The meaning of the majority of words is conventional, i.e. all speakers
of a language intuitively agree on their meanings. If they did not, it
would not be possible for people to communicate with each other.
It is possible to analyze meanings of words decomposing them
into more basic semantic features. Thus the noun man can be
described as having the features [+HUMAN], [+MALE], and [ +ADULT].
Componential analysis helps to clarify how words relate to other words.
Comparing man and boy, it can be noted that the two words are
differentiated only by one semantic feature: boy is characterized as [-
ADULT].
Linguists acknowledge that it is difficult both to define and to
analyze
the meaning of a word. One of the reasons is that word meaning is not
homogeneous. A distinction is drawn between denotation, which is
understood as the relationship between words and the entities in the
world to which they refer, and connotation, which is understood as
the additional (often emotional or evaluative) associations suggested
by words. Denotation is reflected in the dictionary definitions of words.
Thus the denotation of the word wolf is a “wild animal that looks like a
large dog and lives and hunts in groups” (Longman Dictionary of
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Contemporary English 2007 ). However, for a lot of people the word
may arouse associations of danger and rapacity, and these
associations may be treated as the word’s connotation. The word
home has the meaning of a place(house or apartment) where you live,
yet it has additional associations of safeness and warmth. Denotations
of words are more stable and established , while connotations are less
determinate.

Within the vocabulary, words are semantically related to one

another in different ways. Sense relations are paradigmatic, i.e. they
reflect the choice and the substitution of one word for another in a
particular context.
One of the most widespread sense relations, is synonymy, or
sameness of meaning. However, there are no strict or perfect
synonyms, i.e. two words usually do not have exactly the same
meaning. Compare the adjectives beautiful and pretty. Both mean
someone or something that is attractive to look at. Beautiful describes
someone who is good- looking in a very special and even exceptional
way, whereas pretty refers to someone or something that is pleasant
to look at but not impressive.
Antonyms are words that are opposite with respect to some
element of their meaning; for example, big and small both describe
size, but opposite in regard to the extent of the size. A large number
of antonymic pairs are adjectives, but this sense relations is also found
among other word classes. Three different types of oppositeness of
meaning can be distinguished :
1. gradable antonyms (gradables) – represent a more or less
relation i.e. more of one is less of the other.
Ex. Rich -poor; fast- slow; tall- short
2. complementaries – represent an either/ or relation, which
means the negation of one is the meaning of the other.
Ex. Dead- alive ; married single
3. converses – In a pair of converses, one describes a relation
between two objects, and the other describes the same
relation when the two objects are reversed.
Ex. Teacher- pupil; parent- child; buy- sell

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 Hyponymy - a word whose meaning is both narrower than
and included in the meaning of a more general term. The words
“tulip” and “rose” are hyponyms of “flower”.
Meronymy - the part-whole relation; e.g. door and windows
are meronyms of room; leaves and twigs are meronyms of tree

Semantic relations among sentences:

1. paraphrase - If two sentences have the same meaning

Ex. The cat chased the mouse, is a paraphrase of the

sentence The mouse was chased by the cat.
2. Entailment – is a semantic relation between two sentences
when the truth of one sentence implies the truth of another
but not vice
versa. For example , the sentence Peter saw a fox entails
Peter saw an animal. However, to say that Peter saw an
animal does not mean that he saw a fox- he might have
seen a wolf, a lion, etc.
3. Contradictory- Two sentences are contradictory when they
both can not be true at the same time . In other words, if
one sentence is true, the other one has to be false. For
example Miranda is
dead, is a contradiction to Miranda is alive.

Classification (inclusion)
A further way of examining lexical structure is to note the ways
in which a language classifies items. In English, for example, claret
and hock are classified as “wines”. Tea and coffee are referred to as
“beverages”. And wines and beverages both come under the heading
of “drinks”.
This indicates that the vocabulary of a language is partially
hierarchically structured. In the figure below, more general items
come at the top, and more specific items are subdivisions of these:

drinks
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 beverages wines

tea coffee claret hock

Note: Write all your answers in the separate sheet provided.

No need to return. Please do a self-check.

References:
Aitchison, Jean. 1992. Linguistics, NTC Publishing Group, Chicago,
Illinois

Fromkin, V., Rodman, R. et. al. 2010. Introduction to Linguistics.

Cengage Learning Asia Pte Ltd (Philippine Branch). Pasig City.

Retrieved from Internet sources.

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