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F U N D A M E N TA L S O F L A N G U A G E A N D
LINGUISTICS Nguyen Thanh Loan
SYNTAX ED – HANU

KEY CONCEPTS

What is syntax?
Syntactic rules
Constituents
Syntactic categories
Syntactic tree
The basic verb phrases
X-bar theory: the basics

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ANALYZE THESE SENTENCES

1.
a. The kindhearted boy had many girlfriends.
b. The kindhearted, intelligent boy had many girlfriends.
c. The kindhearted, intelligent, handsome boy had many girlfriends.

d. John found a book in the library.

e. John found a book in the library in the stacks.
f. John found a book in the library in the stacks on the fourth floor.

2.
a. The President nominated a new Supreme Court justice.
b. President the new Supreme justice Court a nominated.

3.

“Then you should say what you mean,” the March Hare went on.
“I do,” Alice hastily replied, “at least – I mean what I say – that’s the same
thing, you know.”
“Not the same thing a bit!” said the Hatter. “You might just as well say that ‘I
see what I eat’ is the same thing as ‘I eat what I see’!”
have choices eat everything
4.
a. Your dog chased my cat.
b. My cat chased your dog.

5.
a. Disa slept the baby. ungrammatical

b. Disa slept soundly.

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6.
a. Jack and Jill ran up the hill.
b. Jack and Jill ran the hill up.
c. Up the hill ran Jack and Jill.
d. Jack and Jill ran up the bill.
e. Jack and Jill ran the bill up.
f. Up the bill ran Jack and Jill.

Syntax (Gr.): “putting together”/”arrangement”: The part of grammar that

represents a speaker’s knowledge of sentences and their structures.
If we concentrate on the structure and ordering of components within a
sentence à we are studying the syntax of a language.
Any speaker of any human language can produce and understand an
infinite number of sentences. (refer to example 1a-f)
The sentences of a language cannot be stored in our mental lexicon.
Rather, sentences are composed of discrete units that are combined by
rules.
The rules of syntax combine words into phrases and phrases into
sentences.

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Among other things, the rules determine the correct word order for a language.
à Example 2b. President the Supreme new justice Court a nominatedis
ungrammatical since it is not in the correct word order of English.
à * President the Supreme new justice Court a nominated.
A second important role of the syntax is to describe the relationship between
the meaning of a particular group of words and the arrangement of those
words.
à 3a. I say what I mean is different from 3b. I mean what I say, although they
contain the same words.
The rules of the syntax also specify the grammatical relations of a sentence,
such as subject and direct object.
à 4a. Your dog chased my cat. is different from 4b. My cat chased your dog.

Some verbs in English are transitive (require a noun phrase complement) or

intransitive (do not require NP complement). Sleep is intransitive, thus:
à 5a. Disa slept the baby is ungrammatical.

In (6) we see that the phrase ran up the hill behaves differently from the phrase
ran up the bill, even though the two phrases are superficially quite similar. Thus,
we have:
a. Jack and Jill ran up the hill.
b. * Jack and Jill ran the hill up.
c. Up the hill ran Jack and Jill.
d. Jack and Jill ran up the bill.
e. Jack and Jill ran the bill up.
f. * Up the bill ran Jack and Jill.

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CONSTITUENTS

Consider this sentence:

The little boy found a puppy.
How many words are there?
Can you group them into phrases?
the little boy, found, a puppy are phrases.
The natural groupings or parts of a sentence are called constituents.
­ Morphemes are constituents of words;
­ Words are constituents of phrases;
­ Phrases are constituents of clauses;
­ Clauses are constituents of sentences.

TEST FOR CONSTITUENCY

1. The ”stand alone” test: If a group of words can stand alone, for example, as
an answer to a question, they form a constituent.
The little boy found a puppy.
Q: What did the little boy find?
A: A puppy (not something like found a)
a puppy can stand alone à it is a constituent.
2. The “replacement by a pronoun” test: Pronouns can substitute for natural
groups.
Q: “Where did you find a puppy?”
A: I found him in the park.

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Words such as do (which is not a pronoun per se) can also take the place of the
entire predicate (found a puppy)
e.g.: The little boy found a puppy and I did, too.
à If a group of words can be replaced by a pronoun or a word like do, it forms
a constituent.
3. The “move as a unit” test: If a group of words can be moved, they form a
constituent.
It was a puppy that the child found.
A puppy was found by the child.
in both sent a puppy and the child have changed its postition yet they remain intact -> each them is a constituent

How about The puppy played in the garden?

Our knowledge of the constituent structure of a sentence may be graphically
represented by a tree diagram.

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SYNTACTIC CATEGORIES

Depending on meaning, inflection, and distribution, words can be classified to

different syntactic categories.
­ Lexical categories:
­ noun (N): cat, dog, chair, opportunity, trailer, happiness
­ verb (V): wash, shake, listen, determine, check, etc.
­ adjective (A): dirty, wet, soft, lucky, tidy, etc.
­ adverb (ADV): crazily, fast, rarely, seldom, slowly, etc.
­ preposition (P): in, at, under, about, with, etc
­ Functional categories:
­ determiner (D): a, an, the, this, that, etc.
­ auxiliary verb (AUX): can, may, should, will, have, etc.
­ conjunction (CONJ): and, so, but, yet, because, or, etc.
­ degree word (DEG): very, really, quite, etc.

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Words are grouped together into larger structural units called phrases.
• Noun phrase (NP): cat, a cat, a cat under the table, etc.
• Verb phrase (VP): go, will go, go to school, will go to school, etc.
• Adjective phrase (AP): beautiful, very beautiful, etc.
• Adverb phrase (ADVP): quickly, very quickly, etc.
• Prepositional phrase (PP): on the table, at school, etc.
Less familiar categories:
­ Determiner (Det): a, an, the
­ Demonstratives: this, that, these, and those, and “quantifiers” such as each
and every
­ Tense (T): may, might, can, could, must, shall, should, will, would, have, be, etc.

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Each phrase has a head – the obligatory element that the phrase is centered on,
The head of every phrase a lexical category of its same syntactic type.
e.g.:
­ In the mother of James Brown (NP), mother (N) is the head.
­ In sing a song (VP), sing (V) is the head.
­ In under the table (PP), under (P) is the head.

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A phrasal category that may occur next to a head, and only there, and which
elaborates on the meaning of the head is defined as a complement.

E.g.:
­ In the mother of James Brown, mother (N) is the head; of James Brown (PP) is the
complement.
­ In sing a song, sing (V) is the head; a song (NP) is the complement.
­ In under the table (PP), under (P) is the head, the table (NP) is the complement.

A phrase may have an element preceding the head. These elements are called
specifiers.
specifers can be determiners, possesives, or none

E.g.
­ In the mother of James Brown
­ In Jane’s hair
­ In just under the table
­ In the NP dogs with bones or the PP under the table

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In traditional grammar, only words that belong to lexical categories can project
into
bỏ
phrases.
Noun (N) à Noun phrase (NP)
­ E.g.: cat, the cat, the heavy cat, the cat under the table, the cat that I saw
yesterday

Verb (V) à Verb phrase (VP)

­ E.g.: sleep, do homework, slowly answered the question, rarely listens to music
in the evening

Adjective (AP) à Adjective phrase (AP)

­ E.g.: nice, really hot, very brightly colored

Adverb (ADV) à Adverb phrase (AdvP) not common

­ E.g.: loudly, very loudly

Preposition (P) à Prepositional phrase (PP)

­ E.g.: in the garden

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In traditional grammar, a simple sentence (S) is a structure that has an NP followed

by a VP.
▪ [S[NP The boy][VP saw a great movie]].
▪ [S[NP John][VP went to the zoo with his parents last Sunday]].
A distinction should be made between form and function:
­ form: what the constituent is
­ function: what the constituent acts or does

Word/Phrase Form Function

John planted a tree John noun subject
planted a tree verb phrase predicate
planted verb predicate/ verb
a tree noun phrase complement/ direct object
He is in the garden He pronoun subject
is in the garden verb phrase predicate
is verb predicate/ verb
in the garden prepositional phrase subject complement

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In short, syntactic categories include both phrasal categories such as NP,

VP, AP (adjective phrase), PP (prepositional phrase), and AdvP (adverbial
phrase), as well as lexical categories such as noun (N), verb (V), preposition
(P), adjective (A), and adverb (Adv).

Each lexical category has a corresponding phrasal category.

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TREE DIAGRAM

Tree diagrams are often used to

represent the hierarchical organization
of syntactic structures.
S à NP + VP
VP à V + NP

terminal note-> cannot be further analyzed

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TREE DIAGRAM

Tree diagrams are often used to represent

the hierarchical organization of syntactic
structures.
S à NP + VP
VP à V + NP

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TREE DIAGRAM

NP à Det + N The dog chased the cat.

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TREE DIAGRAM

PP à P + NP The cat was in the box.

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VERB PHRASES

There are two kinds of verbs in English:

­ Lexical verbs: run, eat, seem, explain, rain, try, etc.;
­ Auxiliary verbs: be, do, and have (primary) and can, could, will, would, may,
might, shall, should, must, ought (modal).

A full VP in English must contain a lexical verb and may contain auxiliary verbs.

Lexical verbs are subcategorized according to what constituents must appear

with them in the VP.

There are six subcategories: intransitive, transitive, ditransitive, intensive,

complex-transitive, and prepositional.

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1. Intransitive verbs
The intransitive verb is a class of
verb that does not take an NP as Tom slept.
the complement.
VP à V(intrans)
e.g.: The baby smiled.

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2. Transitive verbs Kate hugged the baby.

The transitive verb is a class of verb
that takes a single NP as the
complement.
The NP functions as the direct object
(dO) of the verb.
VP à V(trans) + dO
­ dO à NP

E.g.:
­ Kate hugged the baby.
­ He met her.

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3. Ditransitive verbs Monica made Chandler a cake.

The transitive verb is a class of
verb that requires two objects:
one is a direct object (dO), the
other an indirect object (iO).
The iO can be a NP, as in:
Kate gave John a book.
VP à V(ditrans) + iO + dO
­ iO à NP
­ dO à NP

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When the dO precedes the iO, Monica made a cake for Chandler.
the two complements must be
joined by either to or for.
The iO now takes the form of
a PP.
E.g.:
Kate gave a book to John.
VP à V(ditrans) + dO + iO
­ dO à NP
­ iO à PP

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4. Intensive verbs (aka. linking, Ted is an architect.

copular or relational verbs)
The intensive verb is a class of verb
which requires a single complement to
attribute properties to the subject.
Intensive verbs belong to a small
group which include be (most
common), seem, appear, become, look,
etc.
The complement of an intensive verb,
(NP, PP, or AP) functions as the subject
complement (sC)/ subject predicative.
VP à V + sC
­ sC à {NP; PP; AP}

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Robin looks very happy. Marshall was in the library.

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The intensive verb is the only class of verb that has the VP completed by an
AP alone, as in: Marshall is [AP unhappy].
be is the only intensive verb that can be followed by an NP, a PP, or an AP,
e.g.:
­ Barney is [NP a womanizer].
­ Barney is [PP at the bar].
­ Barney is [AP extremely eloquent].
Some intensive verbs such as feel, turn, and sound that take an NP as the
subject complement have a different meaning when they take an NP as the
direct object. e.g.:
­ He felt a tap on his shoulder. (NP as dO)
­ He felt a real idiot. (NP as sC)

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5. Complex transitive verbs Penny considered Leonard a nerd.

The complex-transitive verb is a
class of verb that requires two
complements: a direct object
and an object complement
(oC)/ object predicative.
The dO is an NP, while the oC
can be an NP, a PP, or an AP.
VP à V(complex) + dO + oC
­ oC à {NP; PP; AP}

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Raj kept the dog in his office. Sheldon made his mom very angry.

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Some verbs can belong to more

than one verb class, e.g:
­ The voters elected Mary president.
­ The voters elected Mary.
elected in the examples can also be
classified as a transitive verb.

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Syntactic ambiguities sometimes

occur with words that can be
either a ditransitive verb or a
complex-transitive verb, e.g.:
found.
e.g.:
a. Bernadette found Howard a
funny man.
­ found = V(ditrans); Howard = iO; a
funny man = dO

Bernadette found Howard a

funny man.
­ found = V(complex); Howard = dO;
a funny man = oC

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6. Prepositional verbs Rachel glanced at the paper.

The prepositional verb is a class
of verb that takes a PP as the
complement. The PP functions
as the prepositional object
(pO)/ prepositional
complement.
Verbs like stare, glance, lean,
deal, refer, fall into this class.
VP à V(prep) + pO
­ pC à PP

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OVERVIEW OF SYNTACTIC
CATEGORIES AND FUNCTIONS

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\IDENTIFY DIFFERENT TYPES OF

VERBS AND FUNCTIONS OF
COMPLEMENTS

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The adjunct/ adjunct adverbial/ VP-adverbial is an optional unit that

functions as a modifier to the VP.
Adjuncts express a wide range of ideas, including manner, means, purpose,
reason, place, and time.
AdvPs, PPs, and some NPs can function as adjuncts.
E.g.:
­ He ran [AP very fast].
­ He met her [PP at the airport].
­ He gave her a book [AdvP last week].

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Syntactic ambiguities occur when a PP stands after the complement of a

transitive verb.
The boy saw the man with a telescope.
[The boy][saw][the man][with a telescope] [The boy][saw][the man with a telescope]
S P dO Adjunct S P dO

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Because an adjunct is the modifier of the VP, the V and its complement(s)
must form a constituent.
[The boy][saw the man][with a telescope] à Solution

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Complements of the verb are sisters of V,

while adjuncts are sisters of VP.
à When complements and adjuncts
both occur, the complement must come
first.
Adjuncts can appear in different positions
in a sentence, not just behind the verb and
its complement(s).
­ She put it under the bed very slowly.
­ She very slowly put it under the bed.
­ She put it very slowly under the bed.
­ Very slowly, she put it under the bed

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When there are two (or more)

adjuncts, they are arranged in a
hierarchical structure. E.g.:
She hardly slept last night.
S Adjunct dO Adjunct

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AUXILIARY VERBS
A VP may contain one or some auxiliary verbs.
­ He failed. (No auxiliary verbs)
­ He will fail. (1 auxiliary verb)
­ He could have failed. (2 auxiliary verbs)
­ He did his homework. (No auxiliary verbs)
­ He is doing his homework. (1 auxiliary verb)
­ He has been doing his homework. (2 auxiliary verbs)
­ He will have been doing his homework. (3 auxiliary verbs)
There are four types of auxiliary verbs: modal (MOD), perfect (PERF),
progressive (PROG), and passive (PASS).
The ordering of auxiliary and lexical verbs is fixed:
(MOD) à (PERF) à (PROG) à (PASS) à V

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The form of each verb is determined by the preceding verb.

Auxiliaries must be followed by VPs, so they can be analyzed as verbs
(denoted as MOD, PERF, PROG, or PASS instead of V) that take VP
complements.
­ MOD: will, would, can, could, may, might, shall, should, must, ought to and
marginally: need, dare, used to
­ PERF: have
­ PROG: be
­ PASS: be

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He will return. He will have returned.

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He is doing his homework. He will be doing his homework.

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He could have been fired. The song must have been being
played.

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TENSE

Tense is the grammatical category which governs how verbs are inflected
to mark distinctions in time. E.g.
­ He loves linguistics. à Present time
­ He loved linguistics. à Past time
English has two tenses: past and non-past. E.g.
­ He loves linguistics. à Non-past tense (V + -s)
­ He loved linguistics. à Past tense (V + -ed)

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There is no simple correlation between the grammatical category tense and

the notion of time. E.g.
­ I wish I knew the answer. à Past tense, present time.
­ The train leaves at 6, so you have to be hurried. à Non-past tense, future
time.
­ If he told me that tomorrow, I wouldn’t be surprised. à Past tense, future
time.
­ Last week I’m walking down the street...à Non-past tense, past time.
When a verb (auxiliary or lexical) is marked for tense, person, number, it is
said to have the finite form, otherwise it is non-finite, e.g:
­ Finite: (I) walk, (he) walks, (I/he) walked, (you) write, (she) writes,
(you/she) wrote, etc.
­ Non-finite: (will) walk, (is) walking, (have) walked, (could) write, (are)
writing, (had) written, etc.

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In a VP, only the first verb (auxiliary or lexical) is tensed (having the finite
form).
­ He did his homework.
­ He will do his homework.
­ He will have done his homework by then.
­ The homework has been done.
­ The homework will have been done by then.
Finite verbs are marked for tense with a [+pst] or [–pst] feature.

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The boy did his homework. The boy will do his homework.

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Because all finite clauses are tensed, works in the late 1980s hypothesized
that the VP is part of a Tense phrase (TP) headed by T, which is a finite
auxiliary or carries only a [±pst] feature.
Mike did his homework. Mike will do his homework.

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X-BAR THEORY

Remember specifiers?
In English it is the first position in the phrase, if it is present at all, and a
phrase may contain at most one specifier.
In the sentence I heard [Pavarotti sing an aria], Pavarotti is the specifier of
the VP sing an aria. The structure for this VP is as follows:

The head sing and its complement (an aria) are under the same node (a point
in a tree where branches join). The complement has an important relationship
with the meaning of the head.

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à The complement is defined as the

sister of the head, and the specifier is
defined as the sister to the head +
complement complex.

Similarly, in I saw [everyone at the

stadium], everyone is the specifier of
at the stadium.

The structure for the PP is as follows:

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To capture the generalization that each

phrasal category has the same internal
structure, we substitute X in place of N,
V, P, A.
This 3-tiered structure is referred to as
the X-bar schema.
X-bar can be written as X̅ or X’.

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Consider the examples Mike did his homework. and Mike will do his homework.
The verb phrases: did his homework and will do his homework.

intermediate
projection of T

The T’ (T-bar), formed by T + VP construction, is an intermediate projection

of the head T.

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The T’ merges with a constituent functioning as the subject to form a TP, which
is a maximal projection of the head T.

Mike did his homework. Mike will do his homework.

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In the X-bar schema, which was proposed

by Noam Chomsky in the 1970s, all phrases
in English have a three-level structure – X,
X’, and XP.

­ Every phrase contains a head X;

­ The complement, if any, is the sister of X;

­ X and the complement merge to form X’;

­ The specifier, if any, is the sister of X’;

­ X’ and the specifier merge to form XP;

­ The complement is always a phrase;

­ There can be more than one X’.

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GENERAL RULES

1. S → NP VP 10. P’→ P NP
2. NP → Det N’ 11. AP → A’
3. N’→ N 12. A’→ A
4. N̅ → N PP 13. A’→ A PP
5. VP → V’
6. V’ → V NP
7. V’→ V PP
8. V’→ V AP
9. PP → P’

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OTHER PHRASAL the cat under the table

STRUCTURES
Noun phrases

cat the cat

the lazy cat under the table

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properly run the company

OTHER PHRASAL
STRUCTURES
Verb phrases

run run the company

properly run the company on my own

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The tall guy reluctantly opened the door for the woman.

Simpliflied version

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COMPLEMENTIZERS

A finite clause (a TP) can be part of a larger clause.

E.g.:
Ha knows that the team won.
complementizer

I’m not sure if he was there.

complementizer

à that/ whether/ if are known as Complementizers (C).

It can be hypothesized that C is the head of a Complementizer phrase
(CP), taking a TP as its complement.

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that the team won can be The whole sentence:

represented as follows:

The CP, in turn, becomes the complement in a larger TP.

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NOTES ON DRAWING TREES

WITH THE X-BAR SCHEMA
To avoid unnecessary complexity, the X’ level can be left out when there is
no specifier and/or complement.
a pen eat pizza
really nice

at home good at music book of magic

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Next week:
Language and the brain (Read at home)
Social variation of language (In class)

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