Syntax Syntax

Syntax Syntax

The study of phrases, clauses, and sentences.1957 Noam Chomsky “Syntactic Structures”

ObservationsObservations

The biggest house vs. theest big houseThe big house vs. big the houseAmerican history teacher or American history teacher ?What will Tiny Abner put on his head? Vs. what will Tiny Abner put a hat on his head?Katznelson is expected to run vs. Katznelson is expected will run

Categories as Categories as theoretical constructstheoretical constructs

Words are classified into categories according to their behavior:◦Nouns can be made plural…◦Adjectives can be made comparative and

sup….◦Determiners : only one article can precede the

noun…◦Verbs agree with their subjects …..

categoriescategories

Lexical: nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbsPhrasal: noun phrase, verb phrase,

adjective phrase, adverb phrase

Each phrase contains at least one lexical category of the same basic type

NP, VP, AP, DP, AdvP, QP….

Look!Look!

The brick house the old house

Is brick an adjective?

Use syntactic theory to account for the behavior of the following words:

Walk-walkedWeek-

weekestWok-woked

Weak-weakestBeast-beasts

Best-bests

Left to right orderingLeft to right ordering

See: The red car vs. red the carPhrase structure (PS) rules:- which elements are permitted in a type of

phrase- the left-to-right ordering of those elements-whether any of the elements are optional

English PS rulesEnglish PS rules

SENTENCE: SNP-VPNOUN PHRASE: NP(Det)-(AP)-N-(PP)Ex. Leea is eating the apple

VERB PHRASE: VP V-( NP )-(PP) AP

Ex. The battery died Chris hit the ballHe drove the car into a treeThey are in the kitchenThe teacher is angryMy boss was very happy with her decision

Types of phrases in EnglishTypes of phrases in English

ADJECTIVE PHRASE: AP (I) –AdjEx. He jumped very high AP

Adj N

PREPOSITIONAL PHRASE: PP Prep-NPEx. I was at the hospital

PP

Prep NP

PracticePractice

• Ice floats• The red car• John• In a bad mood• In a very bad mood• Gave a party for Mary• Was a fool• Was extremely silly• Ran those people hit

that man on the head• Ran with difficulty• Ran extremely

quickly

English PS :

SENTENCE: SNP-VP

NOUN PHRASE:

NP(Det)-(AP)-N-(PP)

VERB PHRASE: VP V-( NP )-(PP)

AP

ADJECTIVE PHRASE:

AP (I) –Adj

PREPOSITIONAL PHRASE:

PP Prep-NP

Tree diagramsTree diagrams

S dominates all of the other nodesNode S directly dominates NP and VPNodes NP and VP are daughters of SNodes of Det (art) , N, and PP are sisters

Practice with treesPractice with trees

The children laughed at the clown.

Haste makes waste.Two very small packages

arrived.A meteor hit my red car.The fastest runner won

the longest race of all.Learning a new language

can be exhausting.