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Chapter-3 Syntax

The document discusses syntax and sentence structure. It defines syntax as the study of how words combine to form phrases, clauses, and sentences. The rules of syntax determine word order and grouping in a language. Constituents are the natural groupings within a sentence, which can be identified using constituency tests like replacing a group with a pronoun. Syntactic categories are classes of words that can substitute for each other, like nouns and verbs. The chapter explains constituents, syntactic categories, and how syntax rules govern sentence patterns. Students are assigned reading and exercises on identifying constituents and syntactic categories.

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Hoài Thương Nguyễn
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141 views

Chapter-3 Syntax

The document discusses syntax and sentence structure. It defines syntax as the study of how words combine to form phrases, clauses, and sentences. The rules of syntax determine word order and grouping in a language. Constituents are the natural groupings within a sentence, which can be identified using constituency tests like replacing a group with a pronoun. Syntactic categories are classes of words that can substitute for each other, like nouns and verbs. The chapter explains constituents, syntactic categories, and how syntax rules govern sentence patterns. Students are assigned reading and exercises on identifying constituents and syntactic categories.

Uploaded by

Hoài Thương Nguyễn
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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TON DUC THANG UNIVERSITY

FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES


DIVISION OF LINGUISTICS, LITERATURE & CULTURAL STUDIES

INTRODUCTION TO LANGUAGE - 001164

CHAPTER 3:
Syntax: The sentence
patterns of language
Lecturer: Le Thi Phuong

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CONTENTS

1. What the syntax rules do


2. Sentence structure
3. Constituents and Constituency Tests
4. Syntactic Categories

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WHAT IS SYNTAX?

E.g: (The / boy) (found/ a dog.)

=> Sentences: composed of discrete units that are


combined by rules

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WHAT IS SYNTAX? (CONT.)

• Syntax: study of ways in which words combine


into units such as phrases, clauses, and
sentences.

• The results from this combinations  syntactic


structures.

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WHAT IS SYNTAX? (CONT.)

• Syntax: study of ways in which words combine


into units such as phrases, clauses, and
sentences.

• The results from this combinations  syntactic


structures.

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WHAT THE SYNTAX RULES DO

The rules of syntax combine words into phrases and


phrases into sentences.

• Determine the correct word order for a language.


E.g. 1) I live in HCMC.
2) HCMC I in live.

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WHAT THE SYNTAX RULES DO (CONT.)

• Describe the relationship between the meaning


of a particular group of words and the
arrangement of those words.
E.g. 3) He did what I told.
4) He told what I did.

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WHAT THE SYNTAX RULES DO (CONT.)

• Specify the grammatical relations of a sentence,


such as subject and direct object.
E.g. 5) Your dog chased my cat.
6) My cat chased your dog.

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WHAT THE SYNTAX RULES DO (CONT.)

• Specify other constraints that sentences must


adhere to.
E.g. 7) (a) the boy found. 
(b) the boy found the ball. 

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WHAT THE SYNTAX RULES DO (CONT.)

• Syntactic rules not only determine the order of


words in a sentence, but also how the words are
grouped.
E.g. The child found the puppy
[The child] [found the puppy]
[(the)(child)] [found{(the)(puppy)}]

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WHAT THE SYNTAX RULES DO (CONT.)

• Syntactic knowledge includes rules that tell us how


words form groups in a sentence or how they are
hierarchically arranged with respect to one another.

Tree
diagram

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SENTENCE STRUCTURE (CONT.)

• Sentences have hierarchical organization: words are


grouped into natural units.

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CONSTITUENTS AND CONSTITUENCY TESTS

• The natural groupings of a sentence are called


constituents.

• We use the constituency tests to find the


constituents.

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CONSTITUENTS AND CONSTITUENCY TESTS (CONT.)

1. “Stand alone” test: if a group of words can


stand alone, they form a constituent.
E.g. The boy found the puppy.
What did the boy find?
 found the 
 The puppy 

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CONSTITUENTS AND CONSTITUENCY TESTS (CONT.)

2. “Replacement by a pronoun” test: pronouns


can substitute for natural groups
E.g. + Where did you find the puppy?
I found him in the park.
+ John found a puppy and Bill did too.

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CONSTITUENTS AND CONSTITUENCY TESTS (CONT.)

3. “Move as a unit” test: if a group of words can


be moved, they form a constituent.
E.g. It was a puppy that the child found.
A puppy was found by the child.

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CONSTITUENTS AND CONSTITUENCY TESTS (CONT.)

Excercise 1: Can the underlined parts of the sentences


be constituents?
People love dogs and I do, too.

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CONSTITUENTS AND CONSTITUENCY TESTS (CONT.)

Excercise 1: Can the underlined parts of the sentences


be constituents?
I saw a man in uniform.
People love dogs.
Bob stole my money.
The woman in the office screamed.

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CONSTITUENTS AND CONSTITUENCY TESTS (CONT.)

Constituent structure of a sentence may be graphically


represented by a tree diagram.

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CONSTITUENTS AND CONSTITUENCY TESTS (CONT.)

Exercise 2: Draw tree diagram for these sentences to


show the constituents and sentence structures.

Mary shot me.


Jenny slept in the tent.
We stayed in the cave for 2 days.

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CONSTITUENTS AND CONSTITUENCY TESTS (CONT.)

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SYNTACTIC CATEGORIES

 A police officer (n) found the puppy in the garden.


 Your neighbor (n)
 This yellow cat (n)
 Very beautiful (adj)
 Upset (v)
 Skillfully (adv)
 The/a (det)

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SYNTACTIC CATEGORIES (CONT.)

A family of expressions that can substitute for one


another without loss of grammaticality is called a
syntactic category.

E.g.

=> A police office, Your neighbor, This yellow cat: the


same syntactic category: Noun phrase
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SYNTACTIC CATEGORIES (CONT.)

Noun phrase:
• often contain a determiner (a/ the) and a noun
• also consist of a proper name, a pronoun, a noun
without a determiner, or even a clause or a
sentence
E.g: John, He, Him, The girl that Professor Snap
loved, the man of her dreams.

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SYNTACTIC CATEGORIES (CONT.)

Noun phrase:

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SYNTACTIC CATEGORIES (CONT.)

Verb phrase:
E.g: John found a puppy.
• Always contain a verb
• May contain other categories: noun phrase,
prepositional phrase

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SYNTACTIC CATEGORIES (CONT.)

Syntactic categories include:

• Phrasal categories (NP, VP, AdjP, PP, AdvP)


• Lexical categories (N, V, P, Adj, Adv)
• Functional categories (determiner – e.g. a, the,
this, those, every; auxiliary – e.g. have, could, must)

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SYNTACTIC CATEGORIES (CONT.)

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SYNTACTIC CATEGORIES (CONT.)

Exercise: Write the syntactic category for each


underlined phrase.
A bottle is not enough.
Five green bottle are enough.
Jack went away.
The car is very expensive.

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HOMEWORK
• Complete all the tasks in Further practice (Handout
Chapter 3)
• Have the assigned reading materials read:
Fromkin, V., Rodman, R., & Hyams, N., [2014], An
Introduction to Language, Tenth Edition, Cengage
Learning, New York.
Pages: 140-158; 165-177

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