Words

❖ How do we identify word boundaries?

e.g. Johnhastwobrothersandonesister.
• It is our linguistic competence which
allows us to do that.
• linguistic competence is the linguistic
knowledge possessed by native speakers of a
language.
• e.g. John-has-two-brothers-and-one-sister.
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 Nouns
❖Subtypes
• Count noun = (it can be counted. e.g. one chair, two
chairs )
• Mass noun = ( it is uncountable. e.g. *one furniture,
* two furnitures)
*********
• Common noun = ( it can be modified by a determiner.
e.g. the chair, the boy, these books)
• Proper noun = ( it can not be modified by a
determiner. e.g. *The Ahmad is writing, *The Jeddah is
a beautiful city)
Dec-18 KAU-Syntax/ LANE-334 2
 Nouns
❖Forms:
• Singular (e.g. The teacher is teaching his child)
• Plural (e.g. The teachers are teaching their children)

❖Grammatical functions:
• Subject (e.g. Ahmad wrote a book)
• Object (e.g. Ahmad met Ali yesterday)

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 Noun Phrases
❖The noun is the head of the noun phrase.
• The head is the central element (non-omissible) of the
phrase.
• For example:
• [NP The teacher ]
= [NP teacher ]
• [NP The math teacher ]
= [NP teacher ]
• [NP The good math teacher ]
= [NP teacher ]
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 Noun Phrases
❖ Elements before the head:
• The head noun can be preceded by a determiner or
an adjective.
➢ a Determiner can be:
• a definite article such as the
• an indefinite article such as a and an.
• a possessor such as his , her, their, our, my, your and its.
• a demonstrative such as this , that, these and those.
• a numeral such as one, two, three ….
• an item like some, any, each, every, all, both, half, many, much ,
which and whose

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 Noun Phrases
❖Determiners are specifiers because they
specify what person or thing is indicated by (or referred
to by) the NP.
▪ Determiner = grammatical category
▪ Specifier = grammatical function
• Examples:
• [a student], [ the student]
• [his book] , [their books]
• [this car], [these cars]
• [two boys], [all girls], [some girls]
❖ Items like some, any, each, every, all, both, half, many, much are
known as quantifiers
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 Noun Phrases
❖Determiners may be:
• Predeterminers (e.g. half, all , both)
• Central determiners (e.g. the, a, my, that , this …)
• Postdeterminers (numerals such as two, three, …)

Determiners

predeterminers central determiners postdeterminers

• e.g. [ NP Both the two students] passed the exam.

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 Noun Phrases
❖ Elements before the head:
• The head noun can also be preceded by an adjective.
➢ Adjectives are modifiers because they modify the
head noun.
• Examples: [smart boy] , [easy job] , [expensive book]
➢ Adjectives which precede the nouns are called pre-
modifiers and they follow determiners
NP

determiners pre-modifiers NOUN

e.g. [ NP Both the two smart students] passed the exam.
Dec-18 KAU-Syntax/ LANE-334 8
 Noun Phrases
❖ Elements after the head:
• The head noun can also be followed by other elements
such as relative clauses.
➢ Elements that follow the nouns are called post-
modifiers.
• Examples:
• [NP The car [S which you bought]] is stolen
• [NP The tall man [PP with the red hair]] entered the room.
NP

determiners pre-modifiers NOUN post-modifiers

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 Personal pronouns
Possessive Possessive
Subject Object reflexive
determiner pronoun
First person I me my mine myself

Second person you you your yours yourself

Singular

he him his his himself

Third person

Masculine

Feminine she her her hers herself

Neutral it it its its itself

First person we us our ours ourselves

Plural

Second person you you your yours yourselves

Third person they them their theirs themselves

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 Personal pronouns
❖A pronoun can be linked with another NP in the
sentence or outside the sentence.

❖ Pronouns are referential.

• e.g. Ahmad met Khaled at the university. He gave him a book.

➢ The noun Ahmad and the pronoun he are co-referential.
➢ The noun Khaled and the pronoun him are co-referential

• e.g. Ahmad met him at the university.

➢ The noun Ahmad and the pronoun him are not co-referential.

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 Personal pronouns
❖Possessive determiners precede the noun
(they must be followed by a noun).
• e.g. I like my car very much.
• e.g. * I like my very much.

❖Possessive pronouns can be used to replace a

complete noun phrase (NP).
• e.g. This is your car. [NP My car / Mine] is there.
• e.g. This is your car. Mine is there.

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 Verbs
➢ 1. Main verbs/lexical verbs
e.g. (go, read, buy, travel , … etc.)
➢ 2. Auxiliaries (AUX) or helping verbs
e.g. (is, are, was, has, have, had, will , … etc.)

❖Grammatical function:
▪ Predicate
• A predicate might be a single word or a group of words.
• e.g. Ahmad left.
• e.g. Ahmad will leave.
• e.g. Ahmad wrote a book.
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 Verbs
❖Forms:
▪ Main verbs and auxiliaries can have different forms
depending on the following:

➢Tense
• Past e.g. Omar wrote a book last year.
• Present e.g. Omar writes a book every year.
• Future e.g. Omar will write a book next year.

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 Verbs
➢ Agreement
▪ In many languages, verbs agree with their subjects.

▪ Examples:
• (The man / he / the lady / she ) is sleeping.
• (The men / they / you ) are sleeping.

• (The man / he / the lady / she ) teaches English.

• (The men / they / you ) teach English.

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 ❖ Modal auxiliaries or Modals:
(e.g. will - would, can - could, may-might , shall, must)
▪ Examples:
• Omar will meet the king.
• He said that he would meet the king.
• you can speak English
• you could speak English
• It may rain today.
• It might rain
• The students should come early to the class.
• The students must study hard to pass the exam.
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 ❖ Other types of auxiliaries
• There are auxiliary verbs which are not models such as:
• have- has - had
• be (am, is, are, was, were)
• do - does – did
▪ Primary auxiliaries are used to indicate the aspect and the voice of
the sentence. They can also be used as main verbs.
 Aspect: A term typically used to denote the duration of the activity
described by a verb (i.e.whether the activity is ongoing or completed)
➢ Perfect Aspect
▪ Indicated by the auxiliary verb have + past participle form:
• e.g. Mary has taken the medicine.
• e.g. I have taken my medicine.
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 ❖ Primary Auxiliary
➢ Progressive Aspect (in progress activity)
▪ Indicated by the presence of the auxiliary be + main verb-ing
such as:
• Mary is taking the medicine.
• Mary was taking the medicine when John entered the room.

 Voice: A term refers to whether a sentence or a clause is

ACTIVE or PASSIVE.
➢ Active Voice:
• e.g. The thieves stole the jewels.
➢ Passive Voice
• e.g. The jewels were stolen.

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 Verb phrases (VP)
❖The verb is the head of the verb phrase.
• e.g. The student passed the exam.
• e.g. [S [NP The student] passed [NP the exam]].

▪ Does the verb passed constitute a verb phrase?

• No.
• Clefting and fronting suggest that the verb passed is not
a constituent as shown below:
• * It is passed that the student the exam.
• * Passed the student the exam.
Dec-18 KAU-Syntax/ LANE-334 19
 Verb phrases (VP)
▪ Pseudo-cletfing shows that the passed the exam is a
constituent as shown below:
• What the student did was pass the exam.
• [S [NP The student] [VP [V passed] [NP the exam]]].
➢ The NP [the exam] is a part of the VP. It completes the
meaning of the verb passed.
➢ The NP [the exam] is called a complement of the verb
passed.
➢ Complements are those elements whose
presence in the sentence / the phrase is
syntactically required.
Dec-18 KAU-Syntax/ LANE-334 20
 Verb phrases (VP)
❖ Verb Complements
➢ Consider the following:
▪ The boy laughed. Intransitive verb
• The verb laughed takes no complement.
• VP V
▪ Ahmad finished the course. (Mono)-transitive verb
• The verb finished takes the NP [the course] as its complement.
• VP V NP
▪ The story was interesting. Copula verb
• The verb was requires the AdjP [interesting ] as its complement.
• VP V AdjP

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 Verb phrases (VP)
❖ Verb Complements
▪ He told the girl a story. Ditransitive verb
• The verb told requires two complements: the NP [the girl ] and
the NP [a story].
• VP V NP NP
▪ He called him stupid. Complex transitive verb
• The verb called requires two complements: the NP [him] and the
AdjP [stupid ]
• VP V NP AdjP
▪ He remained in the classroom. Intransitive verb + PP/AdvP
• remained requires the PP [in the classroom] as its complement.
• VP V PP
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 Verb phrases (VP)
❖ Verb Complements
▪ The boy put the cup on the table. Transitive verb + PP
• The verb put requires two complements: the NP [the cup] and the
PP [on the table].
• VP V NP PP

➢ A verb subcategorizes for a certain type of complements

(i.e. a verb occurs inside a certain frame and must be
followed by certain classes of categories).

Dec-18 KAU-Syntax/ LANE-334 23

 Verb phrases (VP)
❖ Subcategorization frames for verbs:

Head Complements Verb types

Verbs like laugh, sleep, ------- Intransitive

Verbs like is , are, look, seem AdjP , NP or PP Copula

Verbs like wrote, say ,… NP or S Monotransitive
Verbs like told , send, gave NP+ NP or NP + PP Ditransitive

Verbs like name, call NP + AdjP or NP Complex transitive

Verbs like remain, move, lean PP / AdvP Intransitive + PP

Verbs like put NP - PP Transitive+ PP

Dec-18 KAU-Syntax/ LANE-334 24

 Verb phrases (VP)
➢ Verb Complements are obligatory.
➢ Adjuncts are optional.
❖Adjuncts
▪ e.g. The boy put the cup on the table last night.
• The verb put requires two complements: the NP the cup and the
PP on the table .
▪ What about [last night ] ?
• It is optional. The verb does not require [last night ] as its
complement. It is called an adjunct.
➢Adjuncts are those elements whose presence in
the sentence/ phrase is syntactically optional.
Dec-18 KAU-Syntax/ LANE-334 25
 Verb phrases (VP)
❖Auxiliaries precede main verbs in certain order:
tense models perfect progressive passive main verb suffix

Ø may have been ----- work _ing

- could have ------ been stole _n

• e.g. She may have been working in the garden.

• e.g. My car could have been stolen.
➢ What is the grammatical function of auxiliaries?
▪ They are specifiers.

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 Adjectives
❖Adjectives describe nouns or pronouns.
▪ For example:
• Ahmad is smart.
• He is smart.

➢ Adjectives may have different forms depending

on the degree of quality they express:
(base > comparative > superlative)
• Mary is nice, Philip is nicer, but James is the nicest.

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 Adjectives
➢ Longer adjectives cannot be graded by adding -er, -est
to the base. We must add more and most before the
adjective to form comparative and superlative like e.g.
:
• She is ambitious,
• She is more ambitious than her sister
• She is the most ambitious student in the first year.
➢ There are also irregular degree of comparison
such as:
• good > better > best ----- bad > worse > worst
• little > less > least
Dec-18 KAU-Syntax/ LANE-334 28
 Adverbs
❖Adverbs modify verbs.
➢ Adverbs may have corresponding adjectives and
they are formed by adding -ly
▪ For example:
• kind (Adj) > kindly (Adv).
• beautiful (Adj) > beautifully (Adv).
➢ There are other adverbs which have no
corresponding adjectives like :
• e.g. soon, well, then, there , now.
➢ Some elements can be both adverbs and
adjectives such as early, fast, hard and late.
Dec-18 KAU-Syntax/ LANE-334 29
 Adverbs
➢ Like adjectives, adverbs may have different
forms depending on the degree of quality they
express:
(base > comparative > superlative)
• early > earlier > earliest.
• slowly > more slowly > most slowly

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 Adjective phrases (AdjP)
❖Adjectives are Heads of adjective phrases.
➢ An adjective may be preceded by an adverb
phrase which specifies it.
• e.g. Ahmad is[AdjP [AdvP [Adv very ]] [Adj smart ]].
➢ An adjective may also be followed by a PP or a S
which serves as a complement.
• e.g. Ahmad is [AdjP [ Adj worried ][PP about the future]].
• e.g. Mary is[AdjP [Adj afraid] [S that she might die]].

➢ e.g. Mary is[AdjP [AdvP [Adv extremely]] [Adj afraid] [S that

she might die]].
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 Adjective phrases (AdjP)
Function Specifier Head Complements
Category (AdvP ) adjective PP / S
[AdvP very] [Adj handsome] ------
Examples [AdvP extremely] [Adj worried] [PP about his future]
[AdvP extremely] [Adj afraid] [S that she might die]

➢ Adjective phrases may occur as a Premodifier (adjunct)

inside a NP or as Predicative complement inside VP:
• He likes [NP the [AdjP German] [N girl] ]
• Her voice [VP was [AdjP very soft]]
• She [VP is [AdjP afraid that she might die]]

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 Adverb phrases (AdvP)
❖Adverbs are Heads of adverb phrases.
➢ An adverb may be preceded by another adverb
which specifies it.
• e.g. Ahmad came [AdvP [AdvP [Adv very ] ] [Adv soon ]].
➢ Adverb phrases may occur inside a VP or an
AdjP
• He [VP [ V left] [AdvP [AdvP [Advvery] ] [Adv early] ] ]
• She is [AdjP [ AdvP [Adv typically] ] [ Adj British] ]

Dec-18 KAU-Syntax/ LANE-334 33

 Adverb phrases (AdvP)
Function Specifier Head
Category (AdvP ) adverb
[AdvP very] [Adv recently]
[Adv typically]
Examples
[AdvP extremely] [Adv slowly]

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 Prepositional Phrases (PP)
❖Prepositions function as the Head of a PP.
➢ Prepositions may consist of:
• only one word like e.g. on, at, in, over, under, inside, outside, …
etc.
• or more than one word like e.g. in relation to , with respect to
, because of , in favour of , in aid of

➢ Prepositions can be followed by some elements

which are called prepositional complements like:
• [PP [P in] [NP the corner] ]
• [PP [P with ] [NP [AdjP [Adj red]] [N hair] ] ]
• [PP [P about ] [NP this topic] ]
Dec-18 KAU-Syntax/ LANE-334 35
 Prepositional Phrases (PP)
❖Prepositions can be preceded by some element
which are called specifiers like:
• [PP [ AdvP [Adv right]] [P on ] [NP the spot]]
• [PP [AdvP [Adv straight ]] [P through ] [NP the wall]
❖PPs may occur within other phrases such as
VPs , NPs.
• e.g. He [VP met her [PP at the entrance]].
• e.g. [NP the noise [ PP in the room]]
Function Specifiers Head Complements
Category (AdvP / NP) Preposition NP
[AdvP straight]
Examples [P before] [NP his arrival]
[NP two minutes]
Dec-18 KAU-Syntax/ LANE-334 36
 Conjunctions
❖Conjunctions serve to link sentences/clauses, or
phrases.

➢ Conjunctions can be subdivided into:

▪ Coordinators like e.g. and, or, but , for … etc.
• a) John got up and walked out.
• b) Not Paul, but Bill failed his finals.
• c) We had to hurry, for we were late.

▪ Subordinators like e.g. when, before, that, if, because

,although , so that, as soon as … etc.
• a) The snake killed the rat before it swallowed it.
Dec-18 KAU-Syntax/ LANE-334 37
 Conjunctions
• b) He didn’t go, because he felt ill.
• c) They came back early, in order that they could see the film on
TV.
➢ A subordinator is referred to as Complementiser
because it appears in COMP position.
➢ Coordinators appear between two words,
phrases or clauses whereas subordinators are
parts of the subordinate clauses.
➢ As a result, subordinators can be fronted but not coordinators:
• a) Before it swallowed it, the snake killed the rat.
• b) * And it swallowed it, the snake killed the rat.
Dec-18 KAU-Syntax/ LANE-334 38
 Clauses and sentences
❖There are two main types of sentences:
▪ Declarative sentence: is used to give information.
▪ Interrogative sentence: is used to ask for information.

➢ Interrogative sentences may be:

▪ Yes/ no question
• It is used to ask for the answer yes or no.
• It is introduced by an auxiliary.
• e.g. Do you like swimming?
▪ Wh-question
• It is used to ask for a specific information (e.g. time, reason, thing,
place, ...)
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 Clauses and sentences
▪ Wh-question
• It is used to ask for a specific information (e.g. thing, time, reason,
place, ...).
• It is often introduced by a wh-word (what, where, when and which)
or by a word like how.
▪ Examples:
• What did she say?
• When did she go?
• Where did she go?
• How did she get to know you?

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 Clauses and sentences
❖Declarative sentences are used to make
statements. They may be:
▪ Simple sentences are those that normally contain one statement.
• e.g. Ahmad works in the airport. (Main clause)
▪ Compound sentences are those which contain two or more
clauses of equal status joined by a coordinator (and, or , but).
• e.g. [s [S Ali works in the airport] and [S his sister works in the hospital] ].
(Main clause) (Main clause)
• [ S1 [S2 ] coord [S3] ].
▪ Complex sentences are those which contain two or more
clauses that are not equally balanced ( i.e. one main clause + one or
two subordinate clauses).
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 Clauses and sentences
Examples:
• [S1 I knew [S2 that the snake killed the rat.]]
• [S1 The snake killed the rat [S2 before it swallowed it.]]
• [S1 The policeman asked me [S2 what I had seen there]]
(main clause) (subordinate clause)
• [ S1 [S2 subord ] ]
❖ A clause is a group of words that contains a subject and
a verb.
❖ A clause may be a part of a sentence or it may be a
complete sentence in itself.
❖ A main clause is the one that makes sense on its own.
❖ A subordinate clause depends on the main clause for its
meaning. It cannot stand alone.
Dec-18 KAU-Syntax/ LANE-334 42
 Clauses and sentences
❖Complementizers and COMP position
▪ Elements such as that, whether, if and for , etc are
called complementizers and they occupy COMP
position.
• [ S They know [CP [c that ] [S the snake killed the rat.]]]
• [ S They asked [CP [c whether ] [S they might go home
early]]]
• [ S They asked [CP [c if ] [S they can go home]]]

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 Clauses and sentences
❖Complementizers and COMP position
S

NP VP

PRN V CP

C S

They know the cat killed the rat

They asked if they can go home
They asked whether they can go home

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 Clauses and sentences
❖Finite and nonfinite clauses
❖ Finite VPs are those which are marked for tense (past or
present).
❖ Finite clause is a clause that contains an auxiliary or
nonauxiliary verb marked for tense and has a nominative
subject like I /we / he / she / they.
▪ For example, compare the two bracketed clauses in:
• (i) What if [people annoy her]?
• (ii) Don’t let [people annoy her]
• In (i), we can have a nominative pronoun like they in the subject
position instead of people
• In (ii), the subject people cannot be replaced by a nominative
pronoun like they (only by an accusative pronoun like them)
Dec-18 KAU-Syntax/ LANE-334 45
 Clauses and sentences
• (iii) What if [they annoy her]? (Finite)
• (iv) Don’t let [them/(*they) annoy her] (Nonfinite)

➢ Nonfinite forms include:

▪ a). Infinitive forms like:
• e.g. [John believes [the prisoner to be innocent]]
• (Finite) (Non-finite)
▪ b). –ing / -ed participle forms like:
• e.g. [I saw [Mary leaving]]
• (Finite) (Non-finite)
• e.g. [I found [all the seats occupied]]
• (Finite) (Non-finite)
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 Clauses and sentences
Finite clause is a clause that contains an auxiliary or
nonauxiliary verb which is marked for tense and has a
nominative subject like I /we / he / she / they.

Non-finite clause is a clause that contains a verb which is

not marked for tense (either infinitive form or participle
form) and has an accusative subject like me /us / him / her /
them.

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 Word order
➢ Consider the following:
Oxford – recently – graduated – John – form
a) John graduated from Oxford recently.
b) Recently John graduated from Oxford.
c) From Oxford John graduated recently.
d) From Oxford John recently graduated.
e) John recently graduated from Oxford.
➢ Consider also the following:
a) John died.
b) * died John.
❖ English has Subject- verb (SV) word order.
❖ Arabic, for example, has both SV and VS word order.
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