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Furiously Sleep Ideas Green Colorless. Milk The Crumpled The Question I An Egg Scuba-Diving Gave

This document discusses the key concepts of syntax including: 1. Syntax is the study of rules governing how words are combined to form sentences in a language. 2. Syntactic structures can be analyzed using phrase structure rules which explain how constituents like noun phrases, verb phrases, and prepositional phrases are formed. 3. Sentences can be represented visually using tree diagrams that show the hierarchical syntactic structure according to phrase structure rules.

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Erick Galvez
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208 views

Furiously Sleep Ideas Green Colorless. Milk The Crumpled The Question I An Egg Scuba-Diving Gave

This document discusses the key concepts of syntax including: 1. Syntax is the study of rules governing how words are combined to form sentences in a language. 2. Syntactic structures can be analyzed using phrase structure rules which explain how constituents like noun phrases, verb phrases, and prepositional phrases are formed. 3. Sentences can be represented visually using tree diagrams that show the hierarchical syntactic structure according to phrase structure rules.

Uploaded by

Erick Galvez
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Syntax

2.2 Definition of Syntax: Syntax is the study of the rules governing the way words are
combined to form sentences in a language.
 garden the
 Children are
 Work in.

This class: what syntactic structure is and what the rules that determine syntactic structure
are like.

3.3 Syntax Properties of syntactic knowledge:

 Humans can understand & produce an infinite number of sentences they never heard
before :e.g. “Some purple gnats are starting to tango on microwave”
 Our grammar can understand and produce long sentences e.g. “Bill said that he
thought that the esteemed leader of the house had it in mind to tell the unfortunate
vice president that the calls that he made from the office in the White House that he
thought was private…..”
 Determine the grammatical relations in a sentence
E.g. Mary hired Bill. Vs. Bill hired Mary

4.4 Syntax & meaning Non-sense sentences with clear syntax

 Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.


 A verb crumpled the milk.
 I gave the question a scuba-diving egg.
 *Furiously sleep ideas green colorless.
 *Milk the crumpled
 *the question I an egg scuba-diving gave.

Sentences are composed of discrete units that are combined by rules. These rules explain
how speakers can store infinite knowledge in a finite space- brain.

5.5 Phrase structure rules

 Some words seem to belong together:


{The crazy man} {is jumping off the bridge}
 Groups of words that belong together are called constituents
 The component that determines the properties of the constituent is the head, and the
constituent can be referred to as a phrase: e.g. Noun Phrase

6.6 Phrase Structure Rules

 If we look at phrases, some patterns emerge: NP, VP, PP and AP.


o The instructor = NP
o Do some homework= VP
o From a friend = PP
o Beautiful girl= AP
7.7 Lexical Rules

 We need lexical rules to specify which words can be used when we rewrite
constituents such as N.
 PN {Mary, George}
 N {girl, boy, dog}
 Art {the, a}
 Pro {he, she, it}

8.8 The main phrase structure rules

1. S → NP VP

2. NP → {Det N, Pro, PN}

3. VP → V (NP) (PP) (Adv.)

4. PP → P NP

5. AP → A (PP)

9.9 tree diagrams

 NP → (Det) N
 PP → P NP

1. This example is clear to see how is forming a Noun phrase: (The) is a determiner (boy) is a
noun Det+N= NP, then we can notice the boy in the yard which form a Noun Phrase Joining:
Det+N+PP
2. here we have the example of a verb phrase : ( Money)is a noun (the) determiner and
(took) is a verb as a result V+NP=VP.

 In the other hand we have (from the bank) wich form a prepositional phrase
(bank) is a noun (The) is a determiner (from) is preposition as a result forming
a prepositional phrase (money) is a noun (the) Determiner forming a Noun
Phrase and (took) is a verb finally we have a V+NP+PP=VP.

 VP → V (NP) (PP)
 S → NP VP

3
.

here we have a example of complete sente but forming of two parts: first, (swayed in the
wind) is a result of a Verb Phrase and later, (The old tree) which is a Noun phrase. The formula
to create a Sentence is NP+VP=S

9.9Deep and surface structure


 The deep structure: is an abstract level of structural organization in which all the
elements determining structural interpretation are represented.
 Sentences that have alternative interpretations
 Sentences that have different surface forms but have the same underlying meaning.

 Surface structure: how the sentence is actually represented.

How superficially different sentences are closely related?

E.g.: Charlie broke the window (deep surface)

The window was broken by Charlie (Surface structure)

Charlie who broke the window. (Deep surface)

Was the window broken by Charlie (Surface Structure.)

10.10 Structural ambiguity

How superficially similar sentences are different (multiple meanings).

 E.g. Annie whacked the man with an umbrella


 (Same surface structure) but different deep structure
 The boy saw the man with a telescope
 The question is: What is the scope of "with the telescope"? Does it modify only "the
man" or does it modify "saw the man"?

The boy saw the man with the telescope (1°structural ambiguity.)

Meaning: Using the telescope, the boy saw the man.


The boy saw the man with the telescope (2° Structural Ambiguity.)
Meaning: The boy saw the man. The man had a telescope.

11.11 Recursion.

Recursion
 Rules can be applied more than once in generating sentences
 E.g. repeat prepositional phrase more than once
o The gun was on the table near the window in the bedroom in the pink house.

 Put sentences inside sentences


o This is the cat that ate the rat that ate the cheese that was sold by the man
that lived in the city that was on the river…

 No end to recursion- produce longer complex sentences


 [Mary helped George]. (A sentence)
 [Cathy knew] that [Mary helped George]. (a sentence within a sentence)
 [John believed] that [Cathy knew] that [Mary helped George] The word that
introduces the complement phrase.

Ruben Zapata, professor. (may 3th, 2017). Syntax (slideshare) website:


https://es.slideshare.net/rubenzapatad/syntax-tree-diagrams/15

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