2011-12 LINGUA INGLESE 1 modulo A/BIntroduction to English Linguisticsprof. Hugo Bowles

Lesson 8

Syntax 1

1

Syntactic analysis – building a tree

For your exam you need to be able to analyse a simple sentence into its component parts and illustrate it as a tree structure

The aim of this lesson is to get you from words to sentences

So we start with words and build from there

Sentences

Sentences, like the morphology of individual words, can be analysed using trees to illustrate their phrase structure

In order to be able to analyse a sentence you need to understand the main grammatical categories

Grammatical categories

Nouns (N)dog, cat, apple, park etc.

Determiners (Det.)a, the, this, that etc.

Verbs (V)walk, come, go

Adjectives (A)big, black, hairy etc.

Adverbs (Adv)quickly, slowly etc.

Pronouns (PRO)he, she etc.

Prepositions (P)in, on, under, over etc.

From words to categories

Words have to be attached to their

grammatical category

dog the walks hairy park quickly in the

N Det V A Adv PN Det

… and then they have to be put in order

the hairy dog walks quickly in the park

Det A N V P DetAdv N

The base of the tree

words and categories are the base of the tree

the hairy dog walks quickly in the park

Det A N V P DetAdv N

From categories to phrases to sentences

words are connected to categories

categories combine to form phrases

phrases combine to form sentences

What kind of phrases are there?

Types of phrase

Noun phrase (NP) Verb phrase (VP) Prepositional phrase (PP) Adverb phrase (AdvP) Adjective Phrase (AP)

Phrases Each sentence contains

a subject and a predicate

the hairy dog walks quickly in the park

Syntactically these correspond to:

a and a

the hairy dog walks quickly in the park

noun phrase verb phrase

The top of the tree So the tree for any sentence (S) should start

like this:

This means that every sentence is made up of a noun phrase and a verb phrase

S

VPNP

The base of the tree

words and categories are the base of the tree

the hairy dog walks quickly in the park

Det A N V P DetAdv N

Connecting the tree

What we need to do is to connect:

the structure

at the top

of the tree

TO

the words of

the sentence

at the bottom

of the tree

the hairy dog walks quickly in the park

S

VPNP

Det A N V Adv P Det N

Connecting top and base

You need to start at the base of the tree and build more phrases on to the categories. These phrases could be:

Noun phrases Adverb phrases Prepositional phrases Adjective phrases

What about? The dog ?

The park?

A simple noun phrase (NP)

Determiner (Det.) + Noun (N) = Noun Phrase (NP)

the dog the park

Det

NP

N

NP

Det. N

Noun phrase (NP)

A name is also a noun and attaches to a noun phrase

Romeo

NP

N

What about ?

in the park

Prepositional Phrase (PP)

Preposition + NP = Prepositional Phrase (PP)

in + =

the park in the park

NP

Det N

P PP

P NP

Det N

What about ?

quickly

Adverb Phrase (Adv.P) When there is just one adverb, it

attaches to an Adverb Phrase (Adv.P)

quickly

Adv

Adv.P

What about

hairy

Adjective Phrase (AP) A single adjective attaches to an

Adjective Phrase (AP)

hairy

A

AP

More on adjectives Adjectives are often found in sentences

as modifiers of nouns:

the hairy dog

modifier of noun

In this case they form part of a more complex noun phrase …

More complex noun phrases

… and they are analysed like this:

the hairy dog

Det

NP

NA

AP

Now we go back to the sentence and start

to decorate the tree ………

Inserting the phrases

The subject NPis easy to insert……………….……………… but the VP is more difficult

the hairy dog walks quickly in the park

S

VPNP

Det A N V Adv P Det N

AP

First you attach the Verb

the hairy dog walks quickly in the park

S

VPNP

Det A N V Adv P Det N

AP

Then you attach the AdvP

the hairy dog walks quickly in the park

S

VPNP

Det A N V Adv P Det N

AP AdvP

Then you attach the PP

the hairy dog walks quickly in the park

S

VPNP

Det A N V Adv P Det N

AP AdvP NP

PP

What a complete tree looks like

a sentence

divides into a noun phrase ……………….. and a verb phrase

these attach to

phrases or

and categories categories

attach to words the hairy dog walks quickly in the park

S

VPNP

Det A N V Adv P Det N

AP AdvP NP

PP

How to analyse the syntactic structure of a simple sentence

It’s a bit like decorating a Christmas tree:

Write S NP + VP at the top Write the words of the sentence at the bottom Write the categories above the words Where necessary put the categories into phrase

structures (NP, Adv,P, AP, PP) Attach the phrase structures to the main NP and

VP

Step 1 – write S NP+VP at the top

S

VPNP

Step 2 – write the words at the bottom

the hairy dog walks quickly in the park

S

VPNP

Step 3 – write the categories of the words

the hairy dog walks quickly in the park

S

VPNP

Det A N V Adv P Det N

Step 4 – put the categories into phrase

structures where necessary

the hairy dog walks quickly in the park

S

VPNP

Det A N V Adv P Det N

AP AdvP NP

PP

Step 5 – attach the phrase structures to the main NP and VP

the hairy dog walks quickly in the park

S

VPNP

Det A N V Adv P Det N

AP AdvP NP

PP

Juliet

Juliet

N

loves

loves

V

Romeo

Romeo

N

Romeo/Juliet loves Juliet/Romeo

Juliet loves Romeo

Romeo Juliet

N N

NP

V

NP

S

VP

Romeo/Juliet loves Juliet/Romeo

Juliet loves Romeo

Romeo Juliet

N N

NP

V

NP

S

VP

6. He loves carrots

He loves carrots

PRO N

NP

V

NP

S

VP

7. The lamb followed Mary

The lamb followed Mary

Det N

NP

V

NP

S

VP

N

8. Beavers build dams

Beavers build dams

N

NP

V

NP

S

VP

N

9. The cat killed the mouse

The cat killed the mouse

Det N

NP

V

NP

S

VP

N Det

10. Jack killed the giant

Jack killed the giant

N

NP

V

NP

S

VP

N Det

11. She solved the mystery

She solved the mystery

N

NP

V

NP

S

VP

PRO Det

12. The witnesses helped her

The witnesses helped her

PRO

NP

V

NP

S

VP

DET N

13. Alice followed the rabbit

Alice followed the rabbit

N

NP

V

NP

S

VP

N Det.

14. Alice followed the white rabbit

Alice followed the white rabbit

N

NP

V

NP

S

VP

N Det. A.

AP.

15. Alice slowly followed the white rabbit

Alice slowly followed the white rabbit

N

NP

V

NP

S

VP

N Det. A.

AP.

Asv

Adv.P

HOMEWORK Please analyse the remaining

sentences on your handout as trees and bring them to the Syntax 2 lesson