WRITTEN REPORT

(Syntax)

Presented By

Queenie Alliah V. Dela Luna

Nathalie Mae L. Dimapelis
Janella J. Santorcas
Louie Lalaine Cazandra G. Vero

Year/Section & University

Bachelor of Secondary Education Major in English 1-1

Polytechnic University of the Philippines - Biñan Campus

Instructor
Ms. Lennette Bersamin

Date
January 6, 2022

Introduction to Linguistics
INTRODUCTION

Before we proceed to the report proper, we'll first introduce the important
matters in regards to the creation of this written report. The purpose of this written
report is to narrate the contents of the PowerPoint as well as the explanation in regards
to the topics about syntax for the subject introduction to linguistics. In addition to that,
this report is created by the presenters as a performance task requirement instructed by
their professor. It is ensured that the written report includes all the necessary contents
and explanation taken by the reporters to make their presentation this upcoming week.

REPORT PROPER

SYNTAX
Introduction to Linguistics

I. Energizer

"Korique or Not Korique"

Instructions: Say Korique if the sentence is grammatical and Not Korique If the sentence is
ungrammatical. Open your microphone to answer.

Sentences:
1. The Judge swore the new citizens in.
2. Colorless green Ideas sleep furiously.
3. The noun crumpled the milk.
4. The hung the fisherman fence net on the.
5. This is the cat that ate the rat that was sold by the man that lived in the city that was on
the river.

II. Lesson Proper

Objectives
At the end of the lesson the students are expected to:
● Be familiar with word classes and the basic terminology of the study of syntax.
● Recognize the syntactic structure of simple English sentences and phrases.
● Be familiar with the syntactic category of sentences.
● Apply the phrase structure rules to analyze grammatical and ungrammatical sentences.
Contents
● Introduction to Syntax
● Syntactic Structure
● Common Syntactic Categories
● Phrase Structure Rules
● Grammatical and Ungrammatical Sentences

————————

INTRODUCTION TO SYNTAX

————————

Etymology
The word “syntax” comes from the Ancient Greek for “coordination” or “ordering together.”

Definition
Syntax is the grammatical structure of words and phrases to create well-formed sentences.

● Syntax is a term used by linguists to describe a set of principles and rules that govern
sentence structure and word order in a particular language.
● In english, the general rule of syntax follows the subject-verb-object pattern
● Syntax deals with the tools available in languages for putting words together in
sequences and making sentences. Thus, we could say…

SYNTax is the study of SENTences structures

Example:
The boy jumped happily.
The boy happily jumped.
Happily, the boy jumped.

*Same words used

*Different surface/syntactic structure
*Same deep structure or underlying meaning
Example:
She has what a man wants.
She wants what a man has.

*Same words used

*Different surface/syntactic structure
*Different deep structure or underlying meaning

————————

SYNTACTIC STRUCTURES

————————

Syntactic Structure = Word Order

● One aspect of syntactic structure of sentences is the division of a sentence into sub-
units.

Morphemes → Words → Phrases → Clauses → Sentences

* This is the order from the smallest structure to the longest in a language

Syntactic Units
● Morpheme
○ smallest meaningful unit in a language
ex. Un + Kind + Ness
● Words
○ Combination of letters
ex. fabulous
● Phrase
○ Group of words; cannot convey a complete thought
ex. My cousin Rehan
● Clause
○ Group of words; conveys a complete thought
ex. Rehan graduated last year
● Sentence
○ Combination of clauses together
ex. I met my close friend last new year.
Types of syntactic structures
1. Modification
- A relationship which means that there is structural dependence of one grammatical unit
upon another; one element (head) is considered more important than the others.

Head + Modifier

Ex. Alice was speaking in a low voice.

Suzan gave an outstanding performance in the program.

2. Complementation
- Structure that consists of verbal elements and complements

Elements + Complements

Ex. The dog seemed hungry.

He gave his friend two books.

3. Coordination
- Two or more syntactically equivalent units joined in a structure which functions as a
single unit.

Elements + Coordinators/Correlatives

Ex. Jane is a good teacher and her students like her.

I would rather stay at home than go out today.

4. Predication
- Is the relationship which exists between the subject and the predicate of the sentence.

Subject + Predicate

Ex. The jet plane + landed yesterday.

She + Cried

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COMMON SYNTACTIC CATEGORIES

————————
PHRASAL CATEGORY
- These elements are at the phrase level.
Adjective phrase (AP), adverb phrase (AdvP), adpositional phrase (PP), noun phrase (NP), verb
phrase (VP).

● Noun Phrase (NP)

- phrase that has a noun or pronoun as its head or performs the same grammatical function as a
noun. (eg. everyone who, children around the table)

The bakery on the corner sells a lot of pastries.

● Verb Phrase (VP)

- consists of a verb plus another word that further illustrates the verb tense, action and tone.
(e.g. walking quickly, might eat the chocolate)

My mother is fixing us some dinner.

● Adpositional Phrase (PP)

- Contains an adposition (preposition, postposition, circumposition) as head and usually
complement other phrases such as noun phrases.

He hid beneath the duvet.

LEXICAL CATEGORY
- These elements are at the word level.
adjective (A), adposition (preposition, postposition, circumposition) (P), adverb (Adv),
coordinate conjunction (C), determiner (D), interjection (I), noun (N), particle (Par), pronoun
(Pr), subordinate conjunction (Sub), verb (V), etc.

● Noun (N)
- words that represent a person, thing, concept, or place. (e.g. cake, Mary, shoes)

Joe took his car to the garage.

● Adjective (Adj.)
- word that describes the noun (e.g. beautiful, smooth, heavy)

Taylor is an adorable baby.

 ● Verb (V)
- word that expresses an action or a state of being (e.g. jumping, eats, sleeps)

I ran away from cornelia street.

● Adverb (Adv.)
- word that modifies a verb, an adj., another adv., or a sentence (e.g. slowly, rarely, yesterday)

Olivia, my cat, waits impatiently for her food.

● Pronoun (Pro.)
- word that takes the place of a noun (e.g. he, it, someone)

God rest my soul, I miss who I used to be.

● Determiner (Det.)
- a word that modifies or introduce a noun in a sentence (e.g. the, an, those)

Would you like to buy this new book?

● Adposition (P)
- class of words used to express spatial or temporal relations or mark various semantic roles;
prepositions and postpositions (e.g. in, towards, for)

Someday, I'll be living in a big old city.

————————

PHRASE STRUCTURE RULES

————————

● Phrase structure rules are a type of rewrite rule used to describe a given language's
syntax and are closely associated with the early stages of transformational grammar,
proposed by Noam Chomsky in 1957.
● They are used to break down a natural language sentence into its constituent parts, also
known as syntactic categories, including both lexical categories (parts of speech) and
phrasal categories.

The Main Phrase Structure Rules

S —> NP VP
NP —> (Det.)(Adj.P) N (PP)...
PP —> (Det.) P (NP)
VP —> V (NP)(PP)(Adv.)...

"—>" = consists of
"( )" = optional
"..." = other complements available

What does a tree diagram show?

■ The linear order of the words.

■ The categorization of words into particular syntactic categories (i.e. constituents).
■ The hierarchical structure of the syntactic categories.

Tree Diagram Example:

Tree Diagram Example:

Tree Diagram Example:

● Applying the phrase structure rules successively and substituting actual words for the
abstract symbols allows us to generate many proper sentences of a given language.
Thus, if the rules are correct, then any sentence produced in this way ought to be
grammatically (syntactically) correct. However, it is also expected that the rules will
generate syntactically correct but semantically nonsensical sentences.

————————

GRAMMATICAL AND UNGRAMMATICAL SENTENCES

————————

GRAMMATICAL VS. UNGRAMMATICAL

Grammaticality
● based on:
- syntactic rules
● not based on:
- whether it’s meaningful
- whether it’s pleasing to hear
Well formed vs. Ill formed

(1) Example of Grammatical and Ungrammatical Sentences

Grammatical
The fisherman hung the net on the fence.
S V O
Ungrammatical
The hung the fisherman fence net on the.
? ? ?

*The grammatical sentence follows the S-V-O basic sentence pattern.

Subject + Verb + Object

(2) Example of Grammatical and Ungrammatical Sentences

Grammatical
Joshua is a new student.
S LV C
Ungrammatical
A joshua new student is.
? ? ?

Grammatical
Orange and Yellow are bright colors.
S LV C
Ungrammatical
Colors bright yellow orange are and.
? ? ?

*The grammatical sentence follows the S-LV-C basic sentence pattern.

Subject + Linking Verb + Complement

(3) Example of Grammatical and Ungrammatical Sentences

Grammatical
They are baking cookies and cakes.
S TV DO
Ungrammatical
Baking they cookies cakes and are.
? ? ?
Grammatical
Chris sent an email.
S TV DO
Ungrammatical
Email an sent Chris.
? ? ?

*The grammatical sentence follows the S-TV-DO basic sentence pattern.

Subject + Transitive Verb + Direct Object

● It is said that syntax only refers to the grammar structure of sentences. Thus, applying
syntactic rules does not ensure creating sensical sentences. One of the most famous
examples of this is the “Colorless green ideas sleep furiously” composed by Noam
Chomsky in 1957.
● It is an example of a sentence whose grammar is correct but whose meaning is
nonsensical. It was used to show inadequacy of the then-popular probabilistic models of
grammar, and the need for more structured models.

Nonsense Sentence with Clear Syntax:

Colorless green ideas sleep furiously

"It is syntax that gives the words the power to relate to each other in a sequence...to carry
meaning—of whatever kind—as well as glow individually in just the right place"

(Burgess 1968)
 III. Activity
"I-Type mo 'ko"

Instructions: Type in the chat box the correct answer, first to do so will get the point. The top
three students with the most points will get a reward.

Part I.
Guess the Syntactic Category
Part II.
Fill in the blanks

Part I.
1. pull the trigger
2. clandestine meetings
3. towards
4. I am
5. Those

Part II.
Answers:
(Part 1)
1. Phrasal Category - Verb Phrase
2. Phrasal Category - Adjective Phrase
3. Lexical Category - Preposition
4. Phrasal Category - Noun Phrase
5. Lexical Category - Determiner
(Part 2)
- 1st Picture
1. VP (Verb Phrase)
2. Adj. (Adjective)
3. V (Verb)
4. N (Noun)
- 2nd Picture
1. PP (Prepositional Phrase)
2. NP (Noun Phrase)
3. Det. (Determiner)
4. Adj. (Adjective)
5. VP (Verb Phrase)

IV. Evaluation

Via google forms

Instructions: Supply the missing terms

1. ______ is a group of words that cannot convey a complete thought.

2. It is _____ that gives the words the power to relate to each other in a sequence
3. The relationship that exists between a subject and a predicate is called _____.
4. ______is a group of words that convey a complete thought.
5. ______ are a type of rewrite rule used to describe a given language's syntax.
6. The syntactic category at the word level is called ______.
7. The syntactic category at the phrase level is called ______.
8. The word “syntax” comes from the Ancient Greek word that means _____.
9. Syntax is the study of ____.
10. The sentence "Colorless green ideas sleep furiously" is composed by ____.

Answers:
1. Phrase
2. Syntax
3. Structure of Predication / Predication
 4. Clause
5. Phrase Structure Rules
6. Lexical Category
7. Phrasal Category
8. Coordination / Ordering Together
9. Sentences Structure
10. Noam Chomsky

REFERENCES:

Ashworth, E. (2014, October 2). Syntax (Part 1) [Video]. YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9168PgGHBc&feature=youtu.be

Ashworth, E. (2014b, October 2). Syntax (Part 2) [Video]. YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPWuI9whbEY&feature=youtu.be

Basic Sentence Patterns in English: Rules and Structures You Must Know.
(n.d.). English ESL b School.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/qqeng.net/Learning/basic-sentence-
patterns-in-english/amp/

Cabuyao, N. R. (2022, June 21). STRUCTURES OF MODIFICATION:

GROUP 2 (BSED-ENGLISH 1A) [Video]. YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWQyz0Gw9_c&feature=youtu.be

Charlie, A. (n.d.). SYNTAX.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/slideplayer.com/amp/13498715/

Colorless green ideas sleep furiously - wikidoc. (n.d.).

https://www.wikidoc.org/index.php/Colorless_green_ideas_sleep_furiously

Lexical Category. (2017, April 25). Glossary of Linguistic Terms.

https://glossary.sil.org/term/lexical-category

Linguistics, A. (2020, June 24). Introduction to Syntax [Video]. YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZTGglxxS7A&feature=youtu.be
.
Pak, F. (n.d.). Introduction to syntax.
https://www.slideshare.net/zatoichifay/introduction-to-syntax-copy

Palace, M. (2021, July 31). SYNTACTIC STRUCTURES - Coordination

and Complementation - ENGLISH GRAMMAR [Video]. YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7K_GkO_khQM&feature=youtu.be

Palace, M. (2021b, July 31). SYNTACTIC STRUCTURES: Predication &

Complementation - ENGLISH GRAMMAR [Video]. YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmnX_QhIOVM&feature=youtu.be

Phrase Structure Rules. (n.d.). https://elearning.cpp.edu/learning-

objects/syntactic-tree-structures/assets/psr-instructions.

Writing Explained. (2020, April 5). What is Syntax? Definition, Examples of

English Syntax.
https://writingexplained.org/grammar-dictionary/syntax.