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Syntax

Syntax. Review of basic concepts. What is syntax? . The knowledge of sentences and their structure. Syntactic rules include: The grammaticality of sentences Word order Hierarchical organization of sentences Grammatical relations such as subject and object

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Syntax

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  1. Syntax Review of basic concepts

  2. What is syntax? • The knowledge of sentences and their structure. • Syntactic rules include: • The grammaticality of sentences • Word order • Hierarchical organization of sentences • Grammatical relations such as subject and object • Whether different structures have different meanings or the same meanings

  3. Word classes • Major word classes • Nouns • Verbs • Adjectives • Adverbs • Minor word classes • Determiners • Prepositions • Auxiliaries • Conjunctions • Pronouns

  4. Review of functions… • What 2 functions can an adjective take? • Adjectives can have a predicative function or an attributive function. • Why are adverbs often considered the ‘garbage’ category and what different types of adverbs are there? Give examples?

  5. Phrases • What’s a noun phrase (NP)? • What’s a verb phrase (VP)?

  6. Phrases NP VP NP det adj N V det N The friendly person asked a question

  7. Syntax Continued

  8. Why bother? • What is the purpose of studying syntax? • To investigate word order and sentence structure. • To be able to consciously articulate our unconscious knowledge of English.

  9. Constituents • What are sentences made up of? • “words”? • Remember from Morphology that words are not made up of letters or sounds… • A constituent is a group or ‘chunk’ of words that belong together as a unit.

  10. Basic Constituents • The man with the toupee shocked the woman at the bar. Sentence (S) Subject (NP) Predicate (VP) The man with the toupee shocked the woman at the bar Hierarchical constituent structure

  11. Ambiguous structures Big stereo sale • What does it mean? • 2 possible meanings: • (1) A big sale of stereos • (2) A sale of big stereos • Linearly, there’s no difference • Big stereo sale

  12. Linear vs. Hierarchical structure • Meaning • (1)A big sale of stereos (2) a sale of big stereos Big stereo sale Big stereo sale

  13. Ambiguous structures Quick exercise • For each ambiguous phrase, provide a paraphrase and hierarchical diagram to represent each possible meaning. • Lebanese history teachers Lebanese history teachers • Old taxi drivers old taxi drivers

  14. More complex trees… S NP VP PP det N V NP P det N The boy played in the garden

  15. Create possible sentences… S VP NP V det N PP P NP det N ____ __ ___ __ _____ _____

  16. Determining and representing hierarchical structure S NP VP adj PP NP det V V det N P NP detadjNVdetNPdet N The tipsy man finished the drink in one minute

  17. Determining and representing hierarchical structure S NP VP NP V det N PP PP det N P NP det N P NP det N P det N VdetNPdet N The man at the bar ordered a drink with no ice

  18. Grammatical Relations of NPs • Every NP has a grammatical relation to some other element in sentence. • NP: ‘The man at the bar’ relationship with ‘ordered’= SUBJECT • NPs to left of verbs = subject (dominated by S) • NP: ‘a drink with no ice’ = direct object • NPs to right of verbs and dominated directly by VP = direct object • Other 2 NPs not related to verb but to preposition (dominated directly by PP) = object of a preposition

  19. Grammatical Relations of NPs • Quick exercise S NP VP PP PP NP NP NP det N P det N V det N P det N Many people in the house put their hands in the air.

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