the structure and ordering of components within a sentence, we are studying the

syntax of a language. In earlier approaches to the analysis of syntax, as we saw in

Chapter 7, there was an attempt to produce an accurate description of the
sequence or ordering “arrangement” of elements in the linear structure of the
sentence. In more recent attempts, there has been a greater focus on the
underlying rule system that we use to produce or “generate” sentences.
Syntax: our analysis must account for all the grammatically correct phrases and
sentences and only those grammatically correct phrases and sentences in
whatever language we are analyzing.
When we have an effective rule such as “a prepositional phrase in English consists
of a preposition followed by a noun phrase,” we can imagine an extremely large
number of English phrases that could be produced using this rule.
In fact, the potential number is unlimited. This reflects another goal of syntactic
analysis, which is to have a small and finite (i.e. limited) set of rules that will be
capable of producing a large and potentially infinite (i.e. unlimited) number of
well-formed structures. This small and finite set of rules is sometimes described
as a generative grammar because it can be used to “generate” or produce
sentence structures and not just describe them.
Deep and surface structure: Charlie broke the window.
The window was broken by Charlie.
In traditional grammar, the first is called an active sentence, focusing on what
Charlie did, and the second is a passive sentence, focusing on The window and
what happened to it. The distinction between them is a difference in their
surface structure, that is, the different syntactic forms they have as individual
English sentences. However, this superficial difference in form disguises the fact
that the two sentences are very closely related, even identical, at some less
superficial level.
This other “underlying” level, where the basic components (Noun Phrase + Verb +
Noun Phrase) shared by the two sentences can be represented, is called their
deep structure. The deep structure is an abstract level of structural organization
in which all the elements determining structural interpretation are represented.
That same deep structure can be the source of many other surface structures
such as It was Charlie who broke the window and Was the window broken by
Charlie?. In short, the grammar must be capable of showing how a single
underlying abstract representation can become different surface structures.
Structural ambiguity: “Annie had an umbrella and she bumped into a man with
it.” The other expresses the idea that “Annie bumped into a man and the man
happened to be carrying an umbrella.” Now, these two different versions of
events can actually be expressed in the same surface structure form: Annie
bumped into a man with an umbrella. This sentence provides an example of
structural ambiguity. It has two distinct underlying interpretations that have to be
represented differently in deep structure.
I once shot an elephant in my pajamas
I shot an elephant (while I was) in my pajamas.” In the other (ho, ho)
interpretation, part of the underlying structure would be something like: “I shot
an elephant (which was) in my pajamas.” There are two different underlying
structures with the same surface structure.
Recursion: (“repeatable any number of times”) rules have the capacity to be
applied more than once in generating a structure. For example, we can have one
prepositional phrase describing location (on the table) in the sentence
The gun was on the table.
We can also repeat this type of phrase, using different words
(near the window), for as long as the sentence still makes sense (in the bedroom).
So, in order to generate a sentence such as
The gun was on the table near the window in the bedroom
, we must be able to repeat the rule that creates a prepositional phrase over and
over again.
Cathy knew that Mary helped George
, we do so with the sentence Mary helped George inside it. And those two
sentences can be generated inside another sentence such as
John believed that Cathy knew that Mary helped George. In principle, there is no
end to the recursion that would produce ever longer versions of complex
sentences with this structure.
a sentence can have another sentence inside it or that a phrase can be repeated
as often as required.
recursion of this type is not only a feature of grammar, but can also be an
essential part of a theory of cosmic structure, as in the role of turtles in one little
old lady’s view of the universe (in the introductory quotation).
to be able to include sentence structures within other sentence structures.
these “sentence structures” were described as “clauses.” We know, for example,
that Mary helped George is a sentence. We can put this sentence inside another
sentence beginning Cathy knew that [Mary helped George].
called a complementizer (C). The role of that as a complementizer is to introduce
a complement phrase (CP).

Tree diagrams: One of the most common ways to create a visual representation
of syntactic structure is through. We can use the symbols (Art = article, N = noun,
NP = noun phrase) to label parts of the tree as we try to capture the hierarchical
organization of those parts in the underlying structure of phrases and sentences.
seems to grow down rather than up, it functions rather well as a diagram
representing all the grammatical information found in the other analysis on the
left.
Symbols used in syntactic analysis: It’s an optional constituent in a grammatically
well-formed noun phrase.
NP → Art (Adj) N
This shorthand notation expresses the idea that a noun phrase rewrites as (→) an
article (Art) and a noun (N), with the option of including an adjective (Adj) in a
specific position between them. We use the round brackets to indicate that the
adjective is optional.
curly brackets { }: These indicate that only one of the elements enclosed within
the curly brackets must be selected. We use these types of brackets when we
want to indicate that there is a choice from two or more constituents.
such as the dog (article plus noun), or it (pronoun), or Cathy (proper noun).
NP g → {Art N, Pro, PN} . although there are three constituents inside these curly
brackets, only one of them can be selected on any occasion.
* ungrammatical sentence → consists of / rewrites as
( ) optional constituent { } one and only one of these constituents
must be selected.
Phrase structure rules: to treat the tree diagram as a dynamic format, in the
sense that it represents a way of generating not only that one sentence, but a
very large number of other sentences with similar structures. , these rules state
that the structure of a phrase of a specific type will consist of one or more
constituents in a particular order.
NP Art N “a noun phrase rewrites as an article followed by a noun.
a sentence rewrites as a noun phrase and a verb phrase.”
“a noun phrase rewrites as either an article plus an optional adjective plus a noun,
or a pronoun, or a proper noun.”
Lexical rules: Phrase structure rules generate structures. In order to turn those
structures into recognizable English, that specify which words can be used when
we rewrite constituents such as N. The first rule in the following set states that “a
proper noun rewrites as Mary or George.” (It’s a very small world.)
PN → {Mary, George} N → {girl, dog, boy} Art → {a, the} Pro → {it, you}
V → {followed, helped, saw}.
Movement rules: One feature of these underlying structures is that they will
generate sentences with a fixed word order. That is convenient for creating
declarative forms (You will help Mary), but not for making interrogative forms, as
used in questions (Will you help Mary?).
In order to talk about this process, we need to expand our phrase structure rules
to include an auxiliary verb (Aux) as part of the sentence. This is illustrated in the
first rewrite rule below. Auxiliary verbs (sometimes described as “helping” verbs)
take different forms in English, but one well-known set can be included in the
rudimentary lexical rule for Aux below. We also need a lexical rule that specifies
the basic forms of the verbs, shown as the third rewrite rule below.
S → NP Aux VP Aux → {can, could, should, will, would}

NP Aux VP ⇒ Aux NP VP This type of rule has a special symbol ⇒ and can
V → {follow, help, see}

be illustrated in the process of one tree, on the right, being derived from the tree
on the left. a sample of what a more complex phrase structure.