Syntax is:

1. Syntax is: the study of grammatical relations between words and other units within the sentence. • The study of sentence formation • Subconscious grammatical knowledge • Word order

2. Itis a branch of linguistics that studies the rules that govern the formation of sentences.

3. Syntax “Part of grammar that represents a speaker’s knowledge of sentences and their structures is called syntax” (Fromkin p.116)

4. Functions of Syntax Syntax allows language to be limitless within the structure rules. John found a book in the library. John found a book in the library in the stacks. John found a book in the library in the stacks on the fourth floor.

5. Micro Linguistics Sounds of language Grammar Meaning Phonetics Phonology Morphology Syntax Semantics Pragmatics

6. What do native speakers know syntactically? • differentiating between grammatical (well-formed) vs. ungrammatical (ill-formed) utterances • producing and understanding an unlimited number of sentences based on limited number of syntactic rules • recognizing ambiguities

7. Grammaticality judgments • They aredetermined by rules that are shared by the speakers of the language. • Words must conform to specific patterns determined by syntactic rules of the language.

8. Grammaticality Judgments: • We went to my grandmother’s house. • Visiting relatives can be a nuisance. • The children might being sing. • We fed her snail poison. • Colorless green ideas sleep furiously. • Me and Beth are watching a movie. • Swedes like fish more than Italians. • She ain’t got nothing to hide. • A: ambiguous, *: ungrammatical, #: grammatical, but nonsensical, %: grammatical in a non-standard v.

9. Basic Word Order • SVO (English, Chinese) • The boy saw the man. • SOV (Russian, Turkish, Japanese) • Pensive poets painful vigils keep. (Pope) • VSO (Irish, Arabic, Welsh) • Govern thou my song. (Milton)

10. Basic Word Order • OSV (Jamamadi & Yoda) • When nine hundred years you reach, look as good you will not. • So…put subject in front of the verb, would you? Fail this test you will. • OVS (Apalai - Amazon basin) • VOS (Malagasy (Madagascar)

11. English (SVO) • Susiebringscoffee • Japanese (SOV) • sushi-gaco:hi:-o mottekuru • Susiecoffeebring • Malagasy (VOS) • Entin’ kafe Susie • bringcoffeeSusie

12. Spanish • Quiza venga el Presidente. The President may come. • La chica es una estudiante excelente. The girl is an excellent student. • Yo lo vi. I saw him. • El nino escribe poemas preciosos. The boy writes beautiful poems.

13. Word order changes meaning:

14. Two principles of sentence organization • 1. LINEAR ORDER • not only a limitation, we actually make use of the linearity of the language • We use word order to distinguish subject from object, etc. • Tom chased Jerry. • Jerry chased Tom.

15. The boy raced the girl. Words grouped into natural units: [The boy] [raced the girl]. Further division: [ [The][boy]][ [raced][[the][girl]]]. Tree Diagram: 2. HIERARCHICAL ORDER verb phrase noun phrase noun phrase raced The boy the girl

16. NP = Noun phrase (subject or object in a sentence) The child is lucky. A police officer found the criminal. She is the girl that John loved. VP = Verb phrase (always contains a verb, may contain other categories, such as noun phrase or prepositional phrase) The child saw an elephant. Rob slept on the couch. PP = Prepositional Phrase (preposition followed by an NP) Susan devoured the cake in the pantry. CP = Complementizer Phrase (contains complementizer, such as that, if, whether, and is followed by an embedded sentence) Jack doesn’t know if he should fetch a pail of water. Jill knows that she should fetch a pail of water. TERMS

17. Constituency CONSTITUENT a group of words in a sentence that behave syntactically and semantically as a unit. I have stick dog has stick scratched the dog with a stick scratched the dog with a stick

18. Constituents & Constituency Tests Constituents = the natural groupings of a sentence A constituent is formed if… 1) a group of words can stand alone Ex. “What did you find?” “A puppy” (not “found a”) 2) pronouns can substitute for natural groups Ex. “Where did you find a puppy?” “I found HIM in the park.” 3) a group of words can be move.[move unit] Ex. It was [a puppy] that the child found. [A puppy] was found by the child.

19. Categories A categoryrefers to a group of linguistic items which fulfill the same or similar functions in a particular language; e.g., a sentence, a noun phrase or a verb.

20. Example of Syntactic Categories Lexical categories: • Noun (N) • Verb (V) • Adjective (A) • Adverb (Adv) Examples: • moisture, policy • melt, remain • good, intelligent • slowly, now

21. Functional categories: • Determiner (Det) • Degree word (Deg) • Qualifier (Qual) • Auxiliary (Aux) • Conjunction (Con) Examples: • the, this • very, more • always, perhaps • will, can • and, or

22. Det / N / Adv / V a. The glass suddenly broke. b. A jogger ran towards the end of the lane. c. The peaches never appear quite ripe. d. Gillian will play the trumpet and the drums in the orchestra. Det / N / V / P / Det / N / P / Det / N Det / N / Qual / V / Deg / Adj N / Aux / V / Det / N / Conj / Det / N / P / Det / N

23. Syntactic units that are built around a certain word category are called phrases, the category of which is determined by the word category around which the phrase is built.

24. E.g. if the word around which the phrase is built is a noun, then the phrase is a NounPhrase (NP). e.g. the car, a clever student

25. Phrasal categories The most commonly recognized categories: • NP : Noun Phrase The car, a clever student • VP : Verb Phrase study hard, play the guitar • PP : Prepositional Phrase in the class, above the earth • AP : Adjective Phrase very tall, quite certain

26. Phrase Structure Rules(I) The phrase structure rule for NP, VP, AP and PP (example): • NP(Det) N (PP) … • VP(Qual) V (NP) … • AP(Deg) A (PP) … • PP(Deg) P (NP) …

27. Symbols The list of common symbols in syntactic analysis:

28. NP = Noun phrase (subject or object in a sentence) The child is lucky. A police officer found the criminal. She is the girl that John loved. VP = Verb phrase (always contains a verb, may contain other categories, such as noun phrase or prepositional phrase) The child saw an elephant. Rob slept on the couch. PP = Prepositional Phrase (preposition followed by an NP) Susan devoured the cake in the pantry. CP = Complementizer Phrase (contains complementizer, such as that, if, whether, and is followed by an embedded sentence) Jack doesn’t know if he should fetch a pail of water. Jill knows that she should fetch a pail of water.

29. Sentences consist of Subjects and Predicates. • The Subject is what we are talking about, and the Predicate is what we say about it. • Therefore the Subject contains old information (so speakers will have something to talk about), and the Predicate contains new information (so speakers will be able to say something new). 47

30. Phrase structure rules (II) • NP (Det) N (PP) • PP  P NP Det N Det N PP The bus P NP Det N The bus in the yard The bus in the yard NP The bus (NP)

31. Phrase structure rules (III) • VP  V (NP) (PP) V NP V det N took the money from the bank (VP) took the money (VP) NP PP Det N P NP took the money Det N took the money from the bank

32. Draw the tree diagram! 1. repaired the telephone 2. the success of the program 3. a film about pollution 4. move towards the window 5. cast a spell on the broomstick

33. The main structure rules 1. S  NP (Aux) VP 2. NP  (Det) (AP) N (PP) 3. VP  V (NP) (PP) (Adv) 4. PP  P NP 5. AP  A (PP)

34. e.g. The old tree swayed in the wind S NP Aux VP DetAdj N V PP P NP Det N The old tree past sway in the wind

35. The children put the toy in the box S NP VP Det N V NP PP Det N P NP Det N The children put the toy in the box

36. ambiguity: • a word or a syntactic structure that can be understood in two or more possible ways ...

37. If the source of multiple interpretation is a word, then it is an example of lexical ambiguity. • Lexical ambiguity stems from the existence of homophony and polysemy.

38. Homophony occurs when a single word has more than one meaning. For example, the word bank can be used to denote either a place where monetary exchange and handling takes place or the land close river, the bank of the river.

39. The fisherman went to the bank. • She is looking for a match. • The priestmarried my sister. • "You know, somebody actually complimented me on my driving today. They left a little note on the windscreen; it said, 'Parking Fine." So that was nice."

40. Structural ambiguity (I) Synthetic buffalo hides (NP) Synthetic buffalo hides (NP) Synthetic buffalo hides Synthetic buffalo hides Buffalo hides that are synthetic. Hides of synthetic buffalo.

41. Ambiguities maylead to humorous results: • For sale: an antique desk suitable for a lady with thick legs and large drawers.

42. Structural ambiguity(II) The boy saw the man with the telescope S NP Aux VP Det N V NP PP Det N P NP Det N The boy past see the man with the telescope

43. Structural ambiguity (III)The boy saw the man with the telescope S NP Aux VP Det NP N V Det N PP P NP Det N The boy past see the man with the telescope

44. Draw two phrase structure trees representing the two meanings of the sentence: The magician touched the child with the wand. Be sure you indicate which meaning goes with which tree.

45. Smoking grass can be nauseating. • Dick finally decided on the boat. • The professor’s appointment was shocking. • The design has big squares and circles.

46. That sheepdog is too hairy to eat. • Could this be the invisible man’s hair tonic? • The governor is a dirty street fighter. • I cannot recommend him too highly. • Terry loves his wife and so do I. • They said she would go yesterday. • No smoking section available 47

47. Deep structure • The basic structure of sentences which specified by phrase structure rules. e.g. NP + V + NP • Same deep structure can be the source of many other surface structures.

48. For example: • The boy is sleeping Is the boy sleeping? S NP Aux VP Det N V The boy is Sleeping

49. S Aux NP VP Det N V Is the boy --- sleeping

50. Examplesof the same deep structure: • Charlie broke the window • It was Charlie who broke the window • Was the window broken by Charlie?