ASSIGNMENT ON SYNTAX

Submitted to : Dr Tahira Asghar

Submitted by : Iqra Shabir.

: Muhammad Irfan.
Course :General Linguistics.
Department of Linguistics, Islamia University of Bahawalpur
WHAT IS SYNTAX?

The term ‘syntax’ is from the Ancient Greek) syntaxis, a verbal noun which literally
means ‘arrangement’ or ‘setting out together’. Traditionally, it refers to the branch of grammar
dealing with the ways in which words, with or without appropriate inflections, are arranged to
show connections of meaning within the sentence (Matthews, 1982:1)

"Syntax" refers to the rules that govern the ways in which words combine to form
phrases, clauses, and sentences. The term is also used to mean the study of the syntactic
properties of a language. Syntax is a set of rules in a language. It dictates how words from
different parts of speech are put together in order to convey a complete thought.

GENERATIVE GRAMMAR

Generative grammar is a linguistic theory that regards grammar as a system of rules that
generates exactly those combinations of words that form grammatical sentences in a given
language. The generative school has focused on the study of syntax, but has also addressed other
aspects of a language's structure, including morphology and phonology.

GOAL OF GENERATIVE GRAMMAR

A small and finite (i.e., limited) set of rules that will be capable of producing a large and
potentially infinite (i.e., unlimited) number of well-formed structures. The small and finite set of
rules is sometimes described as a ‘generative grammar’ because it can be used to ‘generate’ or
produce sentence structures and not just describe them.

This type of grammar should also be capable of revealing the basis of two other phenomena:

How some superficially different sentences are closely related?

How some superficially similar sentences are in fact different?

SCOPE OF SYNTAX

Syntax deals with how sentences are constructed, and users of human languages employ a
striking variety of possible arrangements of the elements in sentences. One of the most obvious
yet important ways in which languages differ is the order of the main elements in a sentence. In
English, for example, the subject comes before the verb and the direct object follows the verb. In
Lakhota (a Siouan language of North America), on the other hand, the subject and direct object
both precede the verb, while in Toba Batak (an Austronesian language of Indonesia; Schachter
1984b), they both follow the verb, while in Toba Batak (an Austronesian language of Indonesia;
Schachter 1984b), they both follow the verb.

This is illustrated in (1.1), in which the teacher, waXspekhiye ki and guru i function as
subjects, and a book, wówapi wN and buku function as direct objects.

(1.1 a. The teacher is reading a book. English

)
b. WaXspekhiye ki wówapi wN yawá. Lakhota

teacher the book a read

c. Manjaha buku guru i. Toba Batak

read book teacher the

ASPECTS OF SYNTACTIC STRUCTURE

In the syntactic structure of sentences, two distinct yet interrelated aspects must be
distinguished. The first one has been referred to as grammatical relations. It includes more than
just grammatical relations like subject and direct object; it also encompasses relationships like
modifier–modified, e.g. tall building or walk slowly (tall, slowly = modifier, building, walk =
modified) and possessor–possessed, e.g. Pat’s car (Pat’s = possessor, car = possessed).

The second aspect concerns the organization of the units which constitute sentences. A
sentence does not consist simply of a string of words .The words are organized into units which
are then organized into larger units. These units are called constituents, and the hierarchical
organization of the units in a sentence is called its constituent structure. The constituent
composed of a noun and an article is called a noun phrase [NP] whilw a constituent composed of
a preposition is called prepositional phrase [pp] and the constituent composed of a verb plus
following NP is called a verb phrase [VP].

These constituents structures are may be exemplified in the following example.

[S [NP The [N teacher]] [VP [V read] [NP a [N book]] [PP [P in] [NP the [N library]] PP]

VP] S]

CONSTITUENTS AND THEIR FORMAL REPRESENTATION

For syntactic analysis it is necessary to have a set of tests which will permit the analyst to
uncover the constituent structure of sentences of the language being studied. This is known as
immediate constituent analysis. There are three primary tests for constituency: substitution,
permutation and coordination. The substitution criterion entails that only a constituent can be
replaced by another element, usually a pro-form, i.e. a pronoun for nouns, a pro-VP for VPs, or a
pro-PP for a PP.

a. The new teacher read a short book in the library.

b. She read a short book in the ‘she’ replacing ‘the new teacher’
library.
c. The new teacher read it in the library. ‘it’ replacing ‘a short book’

d. The new teacher read it there. ‘there’ replacing ‘in the library’

d′. The new teacher read it in there. ‘there’ replacing ‘the library’

e. The new teacher did. ‘did’ replacing ‘read a book in

the library

RECURSION
 Recursive (‘repeatable any number of times’) rules have the capacity to be applied
more than once in generating a structure. For example,
The gun was on the table.
The above sentence has one prepositional phrase describing location i.e., ‘on the table’. We
can also add ‘near the window’ and ‘in the bedroom’ in this sentence. Then it will be
The gun was on the table near the window in the bedroom.
Sentences are put inside other sentences e.g., ‘Mary helped George.’ can become ‘Cathy knew
that Mary helped George.’ In addition, two sentences can be generated inside another
sentence such as:
John believed that Cathy knew that Mary helped George.

Principally, there is no end to recursion. Grammar will have to capture the facts that:
A sentence can have another sentence inside it.

A phrase can be repeated as often as required.

Recursion is a feature of grammar.

It is an essential part of a theory of cosmic structure.

SURFACE STRUCTURE

In transformational and generative grammar, surface structure is the outward form of a

sentence. Surface structures are derived from deep structures by a series of transformations.
Deep and surface structures are often used as terms in a simple binary opposition, with the deep
structure representing meaning, and the surface structure being the actual sentence we see. The
final stage in the syntactic representation of a sentence provides the input to the phonological
component of grammar. It corresponds to the structure of the sentence we articulate and hear.

Charlie broke the window.

The window was broken by Charlie.

The distinction between them is a difference in their surface structure. The grammar must be
capable of showing how a single underlying abstract representation can become different surface
structures.
DEEP STRUCTURE

Charlie broke the window.

The window was broken by Charlie.

The distinction between them is a difference in their surface structure. This superficial
difference in form disguises the fact that the two sentences are very closely related, even
identical, at some less superficial level. The ‘underlying’ level, where the basic components
(Noun Phrase +Verb +Noun Phrase) shared by the two sentences can be represented, is called
their ‘deep structure’. The deep structure is an abstract level of structural organization in which
all the elements determining structural interpretation are represented. That same deep structure
can be the source of many other surface structures such as: It was Charlie who broke the
window.

The grammar must be capable of showing how a single underlying abstract representation
can become different surface structures.

STRUCTURAL AMBIGUITY

Observe the following two distinct deep structures:

‘Annie had an umbrella and she bumped into a man with it.’

‘Annie bumped into a man and the man happened to be carrying an umbrella.’

These two different versions of events can actually be expressed in the same surface
structure form:
Annie bumped into a man with an umbrella. This sentence provides an example of
structural ambiguity.
It has two distinct underlying interpretations that have to be represented differently in
deep structure.

Phrases can also be structurally ambiguous.

‘small boys and girls’

can be
‘small boys and (small) girls’
‘small boys and (all) girls.’
Our syntactic analysis will have to be capable of showing the structural distinction between
these underlying representations.

LABELED AND BRACKETED SENTENCES

An alternative type of diagram is designed to show how the constituents in sentence

structure can be marked off by using labeled brackets. The first step is to put brackets (one on
each side) round each constituent, and then more brackets round each combination of
constituents.

For example
[The] [dog] [loved] [the] [girl]
With this procedure, the different constituents of the sentence are shown at the word
level [the] or [dog], at the phrase level [the dog] or [loved the girl], and at the sentence
level [The dog loved the girl].
We can then label each constituent using these abbreviated grammatical terms:
Art (= article) V (= verb)
N (= noun) VP (= verb phrase)
NP (= noun phrase) S (= sentence)

S
` VP
NP
Art N V NP Art N

[The] [dog] [loved] [the] [girl]

REPRESENTING CONSTITUENT STRUCTURE IN THE FORM OF TREE

DIAGRAM
 Thus far only labeled bracketing have been used to indicate constituency, as in (4.1), but
there is an alternative way to represent constituent structure, namely a tree diagram (also known
as a phrase-structure tree or immediate-constituent diagram). The essential features of a phrase-
structure tree are depicted in the given Figure.

PP

p NP

DET N

in the Phrase structure tree library

diagram

TREE DIAGRAMS

The most common way to create a visual representation of syntactic structures is through
tree diagrams. We can use the symbols introduced (Art=article, N = noun, NP = noun phrase) to
label parts of the tree as we try to capture the hierarchical organization of those parts in the
underlying structure of phrases and sentences. At the top of the tree diagram, we begin with a
sentence (S), and divide it into two constituents (NP and VP). In turn, the NP constituent is
divided into two other constituents (Art and N) and VP into V and NP.