SYNTAX

SYNTAX

1. is the part of grammar that represents a speaker’s knowledge of sentences and their structures. (Fromkin )

   • 6-SYNTACTIC CATEGORIES
     • is a family of expressions that can substitute for one another without loss of grammaticality.
       • Phrasal categories: Noun phrase, verb phrase, prepositional phrase, adjective phrase, adverb phrase
       • Lexical categories: nouns, verbs, prepositions,adjectives, adverbs
       • Fuctional categories: auxiliaries, determiners

2. 1-WHAT THE SYNTAX RULES DO

   • The rules of syntax combine words into phrases and phrases into sentences
     • also specify the correct word order for a language.
       • also describe the relationship between the meaning of a group of words and the arrangement of the words.
         • also specify the grammatical relations of a sentence, such as the subject and the direct object.
           • specify constraints (limitations or restrictions) on sentences based on the verb of the sentence.
             • also tell us how words form groups and are hierarchically ordered in a sentence.

3. 2-WHAT GRAMMATICALITY IS NOT BASED ON

   • is not based on meaningfulness
     • is not based on truthfulness
   • GENERATIVE GRAMMAR Generative Grammar is a set of formal rules used to generate or define the membership of an infinite set of grammatical sentences in a language.

4. 3-SYNTACTIC STRUCTURE

   • The grammar will have a finite number of rules but will generate infinite number of well formed structures
   • SURFACE STRUCTURE It refers to the sentence as it is pronounced or writen
   • DEEP STRUCTURE is an abstract level of structural organization

5. 4-STRUCTURAL AMBIGUITY

   • Distinct underlying interpretations that have to be represented differently in deep structure is called Structural Ambiguity.

6. 5-SENTENCE STRUCTURE

   • sentence can actually be separated into several groups
     • A tree diagram can be used to show the hierarchy of the sentence
   • CONSTITUENTS AND CONSTITUENCY TESTS
     • “stand alone test”: if a group of words can stand alone, they form a constituent.
       • “Replacement”. Constituents can be replaced by the same kind of constituents (NP-NP)
         • “move as a unit” test: If a group of words can be moved together, they are a constituent.

7. 7-TREE DIAGRAM

   • A tree diagram is a way of representing the hierarchical nature of a structure in a graphical form.
     • A phrase structure (PS) tree (or constituent structure tree) is a tree diagram with syntactic category information
       • Phrase structure rules specify the well-formed structures of a sentence.

8. 8-THE INFINITY OF LANGUAGE: RECURSIVE RULES

   • are rules in which a phrasal category can contain itself.
   • allow a grammar to generate an infinite number of sentences (in this case by adding PPs indefinitely)
   • RECURSIVE ADJECTIVES AND POSSESSIVES: Possessor NPs such as in the girl’s shoes function as a determiner with the ‘s representing possession (poss)

9. 9-HEADS AND COMPLEMENTS

   • Phrase structure trees also show the relationships among the elements in a sentence.
     • The head of a phrase names the phrase (e.g. the noun is the head of a noun phrase, a verb is the head of a verb phrase, etc.)
     • Every phrase has a head, but may or may not take a complement, or sister category
       • For example, a VP will have a head (a verb) and may take a complement such as an NP or a CP