LANE 334 -EA: Syntax 2011 – Term 1
Tools of Syntactic Analysis By: Dr. Shadia Y. Banjar
Dr. Shadia Yousef Banjar
http://SBANJAR.kau.edu.sa/ http://wwwdrshadiabanjar.blogspot.com
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LANGUAGE
SPOKEN
WRITTEN
We are going to deal with written Sentences. Dr. Shadia Yousef Banjar
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LEVELS OF LINGUISTIC ANALYSIS PHONOLOGY MORPHOLOGY SYNTAX SEMANTICS PRAGMATICS
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Phonology looks at and describes the sound system of a language. Morphology looks at the way words are formed . Syntax describes the way words fit together to form sentences or utterances. Semantics study meaning. Pragmatics study usage.
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Syntax • Syntax: is the branch of linguistics deals with sentence structure. • In order to study the structure of sentences, we have to know the grammatical rules governing the way words are combined to form ‘well-formed’ sentences. Dr. Shadia Yousef Banjar
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√√√√√√√
a ‘well-formed’ sentence
1. I shot the sheriff. XXXXXXX 2. *the shot sheriff I.
Native speaker
an ‘ill-formed’ sentence
Native speaker Dr. Shadia Yousef Banjar
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S
(consist of)
(sentence)
word + word + word + ‌‌. word order
rules
phrase structure rules Dr. Shadia Yousef Banjar
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SYNTACTIC CATEGORIES To understand the language in terms of syntactic rules, we have to know what are the SYNTACTIC CATEGORIES! A syntactic category is either a phrasal category, such as noun phrase or verb phrase, which can be decomposed into smaller syntactic categories, or a lexical category, such as noun or verb, which cannot be further decomposed. The three criteria used in defining syntactic categories are: 1. The type of meaning it expresses. 2. The type of affixes it takes. 3. The structure in which it occurs.
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A family of expressions that can substitute for one another without loss of grammaticality is called a syntactic category. 1. The cat chases the mouse. 2. The dog chases the mouse 3. The policeman chases the mouse. 4. The mother mouse chases the mouse. If words and phrases could not be assigned to a small group of categories, it would be very hard to learn or use a language. Dr. Shadia Yousef Banjar
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– In the given examples: 1-4, – every word is a member of a category. – a word’s category type determines the kind of phrase it can form. – a phrase is a word or string of words that functions as a unit in a sentence, built around a head. – Every language has specific phrase structure rules determining how phrases can be combined to form sentences.
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WORD CATEGORIES
WORD CATEGORIES FUNCTIONAL WORD CATEGORIES
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LEXICAL WORD CATEGORIES
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LEXICAL WORD CATEGORIES Lexical word categories are: Words that have some sort of inherent meaning are called lexical words (or content words). Categories pertaining to such words are called lexical categories e.g. NOUN, VERB, ADJECTIVE. Open-class Open-class in the sense that new words can be added, and thus have a large number of class members.
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Functional word categories Functional word categories are: Words that don’t have (an easily detectable) inherent meaning are called functional words because such words perform some function in the sentence. Categories belong to such words are called FUNCTIONAL CATEGORIES e.g. DETERMINER, CONJUNCTION Functional word categories tend to be CLOSED-CLASS (new words may not be added) and have a small number of class members.
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NOUN Morphological properties it can take a plural -s morpheme; Exceptions: children, deer, mice, fish, . . . it can be modified by a possessive (apostrophe: ’s) it contains morphemes like the following: -ity, -ness, -action, -er, -ion, -ment, -ance, -hood. These are all NOUN- OR NOMINAL SUFFIXES e.g friendliness, writer, government, neighborhood.
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Syntactic properties of the class of NOUN • preceded by articles like: the, demonstrative pronouns like: this, that, these, those and numerals like: one, two, three. •preceded by an ADJECTIVE or several ADJECTIVES. •followed by a PREPOSITION. •preceded by a PREPOSITION.
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Verb
Morphological properties • takes a past tense –ed1 form e.g. He walked. • takes the –s form of the verb for third-person singular agreement e.g. He goes to work daily. • takes the –ing form to express the progressive aspect e.g. he is running. • takes the –ed2 form to express the perfective aspect e.g. I have finished my work.
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Syntactic properties of the class of VERB • preceded by AUXILIARIES. These are words like do and have e.g. has come, does like. •preceded by MODAL VERBS. These are words like can, must, will and should e.g. can cook, must work, will sleep, and should eat. •preceded by negation words like not and never e.g. not cry, never shouts. • preceded by an ADVERB or ADVERBS e.g. quickly run. • can be followed by a NOUN e.g. hate John. Dr. Shadia Yousef Banjar
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ADJECTIVE
Morphological properties • has morphemes like -ous, -y, -ish, e.g. furious, angry, brownish, friendly. •able to form comparatives and superlatives with -er and -est. e.g. bigger , biggest.
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Syntactic properties • can be preceded by ADVERBS e.g. very angry, more hard-working. •can occur after determiners like the, a, this, these, those and numerals and before NOUNS e.g. the angry boy, those twelve small monkeys. • modifies a NOUN. •cannot immediately follow PREPOSITIONS e.g. *in angry. XXXXXXX •can follow VERBS. E.g. He is angry. Dr. Shadia Yousef Banjar
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ADVERB Morphological properties • often followed by the morpheme –ly, e.g. swiftly, quickly, angrily. Exceptions: abroad, now, fast, often, well, also, very, too, never, so, ... Syntactic properties • modifies a VERB; e.g. walks quickly. •modifies an ADJECTIVE; e.g. swiftly angry. •modifies another ADVERB; e.g. very angrily.
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Constituents A constituent is a grammatical unit which is part of a larger grammatical unit. in example (1): • The cat = noun phrase • Noun Phrase =determiner + noun • "determiner" and "noun“ are the constituents of the noun phrase.
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TREE DIAGRAMS
Three aspects of a speaker’s syntactic knowledge are explicitly represented in tree diagrams: 1. The linear order of the words in the sentence, 2. the groupings of words into syntactic categories, and 3. the hierarchical structure of the syntactic categories. Dr. Shadia Yousef Banjar
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The Tree Diagram For: Juliet loves Romeo S
VP
NP
V
NP
N N
Juliet Dr. Shadia Yousef Banjar
loves
Romeo 23
Form and Function
•Words can be grouped in certain patterns to form sentences. •In terms of forms, a sentence consists of a noun phrase and a verb phrase. •In terms of function, a sentence consists of a subject and a predicate. A predicate must contain a predicator which is a verb. •The class of a constituent indicates its form and what the form does or act as a grammatical unit indicates its function. Dr. Shadia Yousef Banjar
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