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/ 36
FRU LACK. A Howse +enkxaKd
FACULTE DRLLETTRES ETDES sceENCES HUMAMIES
SYNTAX
Readings selected and edited by
Dr. Mohamed El Ghazi
2019- 2620
78.PC AGADIR MAROC Woks pS a9 suse Aah ga
TEL: +212(0)48.22.05.58 — FAX: +212(0)48,22.16,20 +212 (0)48.22.16.20 2 Sli — +212 (0)48,22.05.58 kilt)
A. Introduction to Syntax Dr. M“Elghazi (ed.)
IbnZohr University-Agadir
Facalty of Letters and Human Sciences
Department of English Studies
INTRODUCTION TO SYNTAX
‘COURSE DESCRIPTION -
This course is a basic introduction to syntactic analysis and argumentation.
We first introduce a basic’ approach to syntactic analysis: the prescriptive and descriptive
approaches. The goal is to become familiar with its core facts, as well as with the terms and
concepts central to this type of syntactic analysis. The lectures will cover word categories in
terms of form and function, inflectional categoties, syntactic structures, representation and
movements.
Some concepts and analyses explained below are simplified in order to make them
aeeessible to beginners. Students wishing to know about the more sophisticated syntactic analyses
are advised to refer to textbooks on introductions to syntax listed in the bibliography.
COURSE CONTENTS
Introduction
The Linguistic Theory Main objectives
Syntax -
What is Syntax?
Why do we need to study Syntax?
Syntactic Relations
Positional relations
Relations of substitutability .
Relations of co-occurrence
Syntactic Function werd order
Subject ——— \ pro focams
Object ayrtemtal wilh vecb
Modifiers
SON age dicen
Syntactic Categories
| Lexical/Open Categories
| Functional/Closed Categories
‘Noun-related Categories wi a
= Number Gender Case Sr Agreement tan CV umlot
al salve ce dO
Verb-related Categories ees nndWik case
+ Tense * Aspect = Mood * Voice
Phrase Structure ats } yal ane passing
gosition a corde\i ut
Kenn gee introduction to Syntax. Dr. M™Elghazi (ed.)
Argument Structure
Syntactic Representation
X-bar Theory
Levels of Representation and Merge
Movement and Control
EVALUATION
Final written exam Introduction to Syntax Dr. M“Elghazi (ed.)
INTRODUCTION TO SYNTAX
Introduction
Linguistic theory has the following three main objectives:
to (knowledge) which! generate (i.e. enumerate explicitly PY tac)
‘
means of rules) the grammatical utterances ofamnativespeaker, 6 Commo! (pach
ME Unites 3 Gramm 37
The concepts of competence land performance are central to linguistic theory:
has of his mother tongue. This
knowledge is mostly gnconscious, and more or less complete by the age of 6. The
concept of competence is
@ Performance refers to theyactual use"of this"linguistic knowledge. Language production
may be i , eg. tiredness, drunkenness, stress.
Performance-in contrast to competence~is not perfect and errors eat occur, as, ¢.g. in
slips of the tongue or incomplete sentences. In other words,
‘The concept of performance more'or less corresponds to Saussure's concept of parole.
Syntax is one of the core domains of linguistics. Other core domains are morphology, semantics,
pragmatics, phonetics, and phonology. While morphology investigates the internal structure of
words, syntax concentrates on how words are arranged in a sentence
What is Syntax?
The term syntax comes from the ancient Greek syntaxis, a “verbal noun” which literally means
arrangement or setting out together,
- Itis a branch of modem linguistics which is concerned with the study of sentence structure.
~ Traditionally it refers to the branch of Grammar dealing with the ways in which words are
arranged to show connections of meaning. (Matthews, P.H., 1990, p1)
- Syntax = “the way in which words are arranged to show relationships of meaning within (and
sometimes between) sentences” (David Crysial, The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language p. 94)
- It is the study of the way meaningful units (viz. words, phrases) are externally organized in a
sentence,
_ sentences in a language. :
{Chomsiey|Mefines syntax as"
are constructed in a particular language’
"". (Chomsky: 1969)
hb Introduction to Syntax Dr. M“Eighazi (ed)
~ Question: Can you compare this definition to the one given by the Gructutal Yohool of
Let us elaborate more on the key terms in this short definition.
Syntax is a branch of linguistics
Saying that syntax is a branch of linguistics is not evident as it might seem. It sets the
limits of the broad domain of research it belongs to. This entails that the scientific conditions
which gover linguistic research in general also govern research in syntax in particular. We are
hinting here to the conditions of comprehensiveness, objectivity, synchronicity, empiricism,
consistency ...etc.
Syntax is the Study of Sentence Structure
Sentence: "The sentence can be defined as the maximal unit of syntax or the largest unit over
‘which constructional relations hold...
The sentence
‘srammatical'snd certainvothers areungrammatical. (Matthews 1990:29-45)
yy; an independent linguistic form,
not included by virtue of any grammatical construction in any larger linguistic form” (L.
Bloomfield, Language, p. 170)
Some exceptions:
Ellipses: ‘Where are you going?’ ‘To town’
The relevant question here is how to define a construction?
Grfucture 2he way related parts are arranged / organized together forming a whole.
i --(thus), the
« difference in word order results in a difference in structure as well as in meaning". (Aarts, F. and
J. Aarts, 1988:07)
‘Why do we need te study Syntax?
‘There are many reasons for studying syntax, from general humanistic or bebavioral motivations
to much more specific goals such as those in the following:
© To help us to ly.
illustrate the patterns of English more effectively and clearly.
© To enable us tovanalyze the structure of English sentences ina systematic and explicit way.
For example, let us consider how we could use the syntactic notion of head, which refers
to the essential clement within a phrase. The following is a short and informal rule for
English subject-verb agreement.
(27) In English, the main verb agrees with the head element of the subject. This informal
rule can pinpoint what is wrong with the following two examples:
(28)
a. *The recent strike by pilots have cost the country a great deal of money from tourism
and so on. b. *The average age at which people begin to need eyeglasses vary considerably
s Introduction to Syntax Dr. M™Elghazi (ed.)
Once we have structural knowledge of such sentences, itis easy to see that the essential element
of the subject in (28a) is not pilots but strike, This is why the main verb should be has but not
have to observe the basic agreement rule in (27),
Meanwhile, in (28b), the head is the noun age, and thus the main verb vary needs to agree with
this singular noun.
Iewould not do to simply talk about ‘the noun’ in the subject in the examples in (28), as there is
‘more than one. We need to be able to talk about the one which gives its character to the phrase,
and this is the head.
If the head is singular, so is the whole phrase, and similarly for plural. The head of the subject
and the verb (in the incorrect form) are indicated in (29):
(29)
a. *[The recent strike by pilots] have cost the country a great deal of money from
tourism and so on.
b. *[The average age at which people begin to need eyeglasses] vary considerably.
Either example can be made into a grammatical version by pluralizing the head noun of the
subject,
Now let us look at some stightly different cases, Can you explain why the following
oo
a. *Despite of his limited educational opportunities, Abraham Lincoln became one
of the greatest intellectuals in the world.
. *A pastor was executed, notwithstanding on many applications in favor of him.
To understand these examples, we first need to recognize that the words despite and
notwithstanding are prepositions, and further that canonical English prepositions combine only
with noun phrases. In (30), these prepositions combine with prepositional phrases again (headed:
by of and on respectively), violating this rule.
A more subtle instance can be found in the following:
G1) a. Visiting relatives can be boring.
b. Isaw that gas can explode.
‘These examples each have more than one interpretation. The first one can mean either that
the event of seeing our relatives is a boring activity, or that the relatives visiting us are themselves
boring. The second example can either mean that a specific can containing gas exploded, which I
saw, or it can mean that T observed that gas has a possibility of exploding.
fone knows Bniglish syntax, that is, if one understands the syntactic structure of these
English sentences, itis easy to idemtify these different meanings. Structural (or syntactic) nay bt
knowledge can be used to diagnose the differences, Partof our study of syntax involves making
clear exactly how each word is categorized, and how it contributes to a whole sentence. 4.
wit
‘When it comes to understanding a rather complex sentence, knowledge of English syntax can be seid A
a great help. Syntactic of structural knowledge helps us to understand simple as well as complex
Englishisentences in a systematic way. There is no difference in principle between the kinds of -
examples we have presented above and (33); (33) The government’s plan, which was elaborated
é Introduction to Syntax. Dr. M“Elghazi (ed.)
in a document released by the Treasury yesterday, is the formal outcome of the Government
commitment at the Madrid summit list year to put forward its ideas about integration. Apart from
having more words than the examples we have introduced above, nothing in this example is
particularly complex.
‘The syntactic sidy of sentence structure is not carried out with the same approach. As a matter of
‘act, it uses different approaches, The most important of which are: the descriptive approach, and
the very recently explanatory approach.
e
pesnaphies dasecaphin, pera
A
pppeeae
He is by, - Heis taller oe Be? ic
Rom T- Aan we. - oe in Me Introduction to Syntax ‘Dr. M“Elghazi (ed.)
Syntactic Relations
\ Positional relations
‘WRelations of substitutability
Relations of co-occurrence
Syntactic relations can be analyzed into three kinds, namely, positional relations, relations of
substitutability, and relations of co-occurrence.
“ Positionst Relation symtaymabve ; Borizen’l ; Qaim celghigns
For language to fulfill its communicative function, it must have a way to mark the grammatical
roles of the various phrases that cai Occur ina clause. In a Sentence such as NX af
jee
The boy kicked the ball
There must be a way to indicate the first NP functions as subject and the second as direct object.
ie Ast Ne tunctions as subject
Two of the most common ways to convey this sort of information in human language are through 4
positional relation (or word order) and affeeation!. Np ie mark imdiakes We cole cegerd Css
Positional relation, (based on Word Order) of pesibion: Aron an Js5 ¢
It’réfers to If the words in’a sentence fail to
occur in a fixed order required by the conyention of a language, one tends to produce an utterance
ether ungrammatical or nonsensical at allf This ean be illustrated by sentences (B),and (c) in the
following examples respectively ® speci fee Ce i bedesa Pfcab'o~)
{a) The boy kicked the ball. = pntea Dig te green.
(b) “Boy the ball kicked the
(©) *The ball kicked the boy.
On other occasions, the tivo sentences cited in Examples below have exactly the same words in
number and form and are both grammatically well-formed, but they have opposite meanings
(a) The teacher saw the students.
(b) The students saw the teacher.
Interestingly, word. order is among the three basic ways (word order, genetic and areal =“
classifications) to classify languages in the world. In this way of classification, there are totally andy be
six possible types of i e; they are SVO, VSO, SOV, OVS, OSV, and VOS. English belongs
to SVO type, though this does not mean that SVO is the only possible word order.
They are also called Syntagmatic Relations, Horizontal Relations, or simply Chain Relations.
1. aflixation is used in Arabic, The ease mark indicatos the function of the NP regardless of the position it ocupies in the
sentence, Y Retatoworsubttimanany —AvecaNH, paAdigmBWe ,vechica , cBoice
Firstly, the Relation of Substitutabilityrefers\to)
classes or sets of words substitutable for
(not semantically) in Sentences with the same structure, which calls for
a Distinguish between formal substitution and semantic substitution.
The smiles.
man
boy
girl
‘Secondly, it refers to groupsiof moreithanone word whichmay be jointly substitutable
grammatically for'aisingte word ofa particular set. aig
<>
po pttens men |
wee { taucoe Ges bo amen.
Lopres ai
cep
In (a) one can make a choice from the nominal groups, whereas in os ‘one can make a choice
from the adverbial groups:
: ‘This is what Saussure called Associative relations,
| or in Hjemslev's term, Paradigmatic relations. .
| To ‘make fim itmore understandable, they arecalled Vertical relations or Choice
3; RelationofCo-Oceurrence
By the relation oot one means that wordsiof differentsets of clauses wosakern
ofaword of another set or class tovform a sentence or
‘Sentence; For instance, a nominal phrase can be preceded by a determiner and adjective(s) and
followed by a verbal phrase.
ve (preceded by) NI (followed by)
y A pretty et psmires +
The Tattest bey | sings |
The adricen man | ches
es l breathes
poocKeneal
‘Thus relations of co-occurrence partly belong to Syntagmatic relations, partly to paradigmatic ay
relations, Introduction to Syntax Dr. M“Elghazi (ed.)
Syntactic Functions
‘The SYNTACTIC FUNCTION shows theirelationship between a linguistic formand other parts
of the linguistic pattem in which it is used.
Names of functions are expressed in terms of subjects, objects, predicators, modifiers,
complements, etc. the following are some of the basic functional terms in syntax.
, while the
objest isthe personior thing acted upomby'the doer. This definition seems to work for sentences
like ex, (a, b), but is clearly wrong in examples like ex. (¢, d).
EX. i ai oer
‘a. Mary slapped John . ’ padlena defen
b. A dog bit John. by doesn wack.
John was bitten by a dog.
(@. Jobn underwent a major heart surgery. :
Expressions like “the doer of the action” or “the pérgon-or thing acted upon” identify particular
semantic roles, namely agent and patient. But, as we can see in ex. above, the subject is not
always an agent, and the patient is not always an object. John is “acted upon” in all four of these
sentences; but the word John appears as the object in ex, (a, b) and the subject in ex. (c,d).
Space bare vars 40r& Subject
In order tofaccount for the case of subject in-pasive voice Such as ex, (c), we have another
two terms “grammatical:subject” and P Since the core object noun (John in this
case) sits in the slot before the verb in the passive, it is called GRAMMATICAL SUBJECT, for
the original object noun phrase occupies the grammatical space before a verb, the space that a
subject normally occupies; the core subject (A dog), now the object of a preposition (by a dog), is
called the LOGICAL SUBJECT, since semantically the core subject still does what a subject
normally does: it performs an action.
of the subject is “whatwhersentenceis about” (ie., topics ~
Another TTR:
Again, this definition seems to work for many sentences (such as ex. 4-17a), but fails in others
(such as ex. 4-17b,c). All three of these senter seem to be “about” Bill; thus we could say that
Bill is the topic of all three sentences. But Bill is the subject in ex. 4-17(a), the object in ex. 4-
17(b), and neither subject nor object in ex. 4-17(c).
These sentences make it.clear that the topic is not always the grammatical subject.
Ex. 44.17
a. Bill is a very crafty fellow.
(lack is preity reliable, buf) Bill I don’t trust. : ;
(GOASIGEDML I wouldn't ake his promises very seriously. regic bet mol subject
df seems that
topic. Rather, wemsmenamnmmicaleniteria to develop a workable definition.
Sevkecia Z
What characteristics do subjects have? Note the following properties of subjects in English:
9
8 WERE. Subject ordinarily prevedes the verb in statement: B21 F025 222 a con add ($1
S d ~» Hmh since we com!
VON, snorkel erder (ned minal) SO AO $ frei
4am war Ked order (mocmal) UIS4O (Acobic) subject Introduction to Syntax Dr. M“Elghazi (ed.)
Bx. 4-18
a. Sally collects stamps.
b.*Collects Sally stamps.
GS ERAUEN: The first and third person pronouns in English appear in a special form when the
pronoun is a subject, as illustrated in ex. 4-14. This form is not used when the pronoun occurs in
other positio: ote pronsuns ceflecl Me pesiMion cm Aik Rey occur
b. Tlove him,
c. We threw stones at them.
d. They threw stones at us.
GP QR In. the simple present tense, an —s is added to the verb when a third
person subject is singular. However, the number and person of the object or any other element in
the sentence have no effect at all on the form of the verb:
Ex. 4.20
(@©Bhe angers him. oe hares imethie jadhobu ues 98 >
a 3 Q eh,
b. They anger him. stadBabu Ges sé ~
c. She angers them. : jadhabnd Os 0 ~
-@ GE if tic lac a que word (who or what), the rest of
the sentonce remains unchanged, as in ex. 421(b), But when any other clement of the sentence is
replaced by a question word, an auxiliary verb must appear before the subject. If the basic
sentence does not contain an auxiliary verb, we must insert did or do(es) immediately after the
question word, as in ex. 4-21(4,¢)
Ex. 4-21
(a) John stole/would steal Mrs. Thatcher's picture from the British Council
(b) Who stole/would steal Mrs. Thatcher’s picture from the British council?
(c) What would John steal, if he had the chance?
(d)What did John steal, from the British Council?
(e) Where did John steal Mrs. Thatcher's picture from?
© WEEE A TAG QUESTION is used to seck confirmation of a statement. It always
contains @ pronoun which refers back to the subject, and never to any other element in the
sentence. See
Ex.422 9 ————___ only. i tshirs
@ John loves Mary, doesn’t he? \ Yard im
(b) Mary loves John, doesn’t she?
(¢)*Iohn loves Mary, doesn’t she?
Of course, for another language the list of specific properties would be different.
Exercise: How would you define the Giga? (“\2ybe)
4 is a noun which is always inflected for a nominative case. The latter is marked with a suffix
pronounced as /-w/ or /-un/
In Arabic the subject always occurs after the verbeither implicitly or explicitly.
AA Introduction to Syntax Dr. M“Elghazi (ed.)
In some languages, SUBJECT refers to one of the nouns in the nominative case. The typical
example can be found in Latin, where subject is always in nominative case, such as pater and
Jilius in the following examples.
Ex.
(@) paterfiliumamat(the father loves the son)
(b) patremfiliusamat (the son loves the father)
In SA, the subject always occurs after the verb either explicitly or implicitly.
It is always marked for the nominative case. The latter is morphologically realized by the
‘morpheme pronounced either /-u/ or its variant /-un/.
But what about Duribazayd-un
Zaydun is called na-ib alfa3il not alfa3il so the example does not refute the definition
(Object)
OBJECT is also a term hard to define. Since, {IRIIMIIS, subject can be Gittins haa
Gil, object may epiNINNNIRNNNINANNLRERPMENAANEND, and it is further classified into
DIRECT OBJECT and INDIRECT OBIECT.
Ex. 4-24 :
(a) Mother bought a doll.
(®) Mother gave my sister a doll.
Ind. Obj. Dir. Obj.
In some inflecting languages, object is marked by case labels: the accusative case for direct
object, and the dative case for indirect object. <
In English, “object” is recognised by tracing its relation to word order (aftembhmnmestoms
YSEREGLGn) and by inflections (of pronouns).
Ex, 4-25
(@) Mother gave a doll to my sister.
(b) John kicked me.
| | Modern linguists (c.g. QUEMBIcy. INaitimy) suggest that object refers to such gpsitemmthnteliomen
(become:subject ina passive tansformation.)
Ex. 4.26
(@) John broke the giass. (The glass was broken by John.)
(b) Peter saw Jane. (Jane was seen by Peter.)
Although there are nominal phrases in ex, 4-27, they are by no means objects because they
cannot be transformed into passive voice.
Ex. 4.27
(a) He died last week.
The match lasted three hours.
He changed trainsyat Fengtai. (*Trains were changed by him at Fengtai.)
Uaed goiak
Objeckiw Arabi c «
_ mash be explicit
maar by alfa B Jo tan win LJ
: om our of ber oo before Re verb
Remark:
b aber as aluical moun or 36 0 hve Introduction to Syntax Dr. M“Elghazi (ed.)
Modifiers
Tn grammar, a modifier is an yoptionalgclement in phrase structure or clause structure.[1] A
modifier is so called because it isysaid:tormodify (change thesmeaningiof) another element in
the structure, on which it is dependent. Typically the modifier can be removed without
affecting the grammar of the sentence. For example, in the English sentence This is a red ball,
the adjective red is a modifier, modifying the noun ball. Removal of the modifier would
leave This is a bali, which is grammatically correct and equivalent in structure to the original
sentence. she verb "te be’
Other terms used with a similar meaning arefqualifiei|(the word qualify may be used in the
same way asmodifyin this context), attribute, and adjunct. These concepts are often
distinguished from complements and arguments, which may also be considered dependent on
another element, but are considered an indispensable part of the structure. For example, in His
face became red, the word red might be called a complement or argument of became, rather
than a modifier or adjunct, since it cannot be omitted from the sentence.
Yypes
Fremodifiers and postmodifiers
|, depending on the
type of modifier and the rules of syntax for the language in question. A modifier placed before
the head is called a premodifier; one placed after the head is called a postmodifier. For
example, in land mines, the word land is a premodifier of mines, whereas in the phrase mines
in wartime, the phrase in wartime is a postmodificr of mines. A head may have a number of
snodifiers, and these may include both premodifiers and post modifiers. For example:
that nice tall man from Canada whom you met
In this noun phrase, manis the _ head, nice and tall arepremodifiers, and from
Canada and whom you met are postmodifiers.
Notice that in English, simple adjectives are usually used as premodifiers, with occasional
exceptions such asgalore (which always appears after the noun) or the
adjectives immemorial and martial in the phrases time immemorial and court martial (the latter
comes from French, where most adjectives are postmodifiers). Sometimes placement of the *
adjective after the noun entails a change of meaning: compare a responsible person and the
person responsible, or the proper town (the appropriate town) and the town proper (the area of
the town as properly defined).
Itis sometimes possible for a modifier to be separated from its head by other words, as in The
man came who you bumped into in the street yesterday, where the relative
clause who...yesterday is separated from the word it modifies (man) by the word came. This
type of situation is especially likely in languages with free word order.
oi fy duns
‘Typesof Modifiers cs
The two principal {7 RERORMIRUEEREajennties (and adjectival phrases and adjectival
clauses), which modify nouns; ‘and adverbial phrases and adverbial clauses),
which modify other parts of particularly verbs, adjectives and other adverbs, as well as
whole phrases or clauses. however;
an adjective will normally be considered a modifier when used attributively, but notwhemused
pirecticatively — compare the examples with the adjective red at the start of this article.)
oa advucb
wh AR
adj Introduction to Syntax Dr. M“Elghazi (ed.)
Another type of modifier in some languages, including English, is the noun adjunct, which is a
noun modifying another noun (or occasionally another part of speech). An example is land in
the phrase land mines given above.
Examples of the above types of modifiers, in English, are given below.
Itwas [a nice house}. (adjective modifying a noun, in a noun phrase)
[The swifityflowing waters] carried it away. (adjectival phrase, in this case a participial
phrase, modifying a noun in a noun phrase)
‘She's [the woman withthe hat]. (adjectival phrase, in this case a prepositional phrase,
modifying a noun in a noun phrase}
I saw [the man wham we met yesterday]. (adjectival clause, in this case a relative clause,
modifying a noun in a noun phrase)
His desk was in [the faculty office]. (noun adjunct modifying a noun in a noun phrase)
[Put it gently in the drawer]. (adverb in verb phrase)
He was [very gentle]. (adverb in adjective phrase)
She set it down [very gently]. (adverb in adverb phrase)
[Even more] people were there, (adverb modifying a determiner)
It ran [right up the tree]. (adverb modifying a prepositional phrase)
[Only the dog] was saved. (adverb modifying a noun phrase)
In some cases, noun phrases or quantifiers can act as modifiers:
[A few more] workers are needed. (quantifier modifying a determiner)
She's [two inches taller than her sister]. {noun phrase modifying an adjective}
Ambiguous and dangling modifiers
Sometimes it is not clear which clement of the sentence a modifier is intended to modify. In
many cases this is not important, but in some cases it can lead to genuine ambiguity. For
example:
()e painted her siting on the sep. gonobifitr (om guns)
Here the participial phrase sitting on the step may be intended to modify her (meaning that the
painting's subject was sitting on the step), or it may be intended to modify the verb
phrase painted her ot the whole clause he painted her (or just he), meaning in effect that it was
the painter who was sitting on the step.
Sometimes the
Sentence; or is not in an appropriate position to be associated with that modifier, This is)oRten
considered a grammatical or stylistic error, For example:
: ate
Walking along the road, a vulture loomed overhead. dong bing med fies
Here whoever was "walking along the.road" is not mentioned in the sentence, so the modifier
(walking along the road) has nothing to modify, except a vulture, which is clearly not the
intention, Such a case is called a "dangling modifier", or more specifically, in the common
case where (as here) the modifier is a participial phrase, a "dangling participle"
Syntactic Categories: _ Word Categories Functional Categories Inflectional Categories
Ab Weg pak te abenk debe
Syndnehe Colspovite wecylagy Sst Kian
Go Like parks A spuck
A basic distinction is drawn between lexical categories and functional categories. Section 2.1
discusses lexical categories, and Section 2.2 functional categories. In English there are five lexical
categories: N(ouns), Adj(ectives), Adv(erbs), V(erbs) and P(repositions).* Lexical eategories are
open-class categories, i.c. new members can easily be added to the list of nouns, verbs, etc., and
they have a rich semantic conteat.
‘The words in (10) are nouns. You may simply know this, but how can you actually support this
intuition? There are basically two tests we can use to show that the words in (10) are nouns. The
first concems morphology, the second distribution.
(00) cat, fog ys, ox
+ Marphotowy— cm Pleled for plnral
Morphology studies the internal structure of words. In English, nouns can usually
(plutalyi.c., they bear an overt morphological mark for plaral. The regular form is -s (pronounced as
Is], [2]. or [iz], which are allomorphs of the morpheme (plural}), as in (I1a-c), but there are also
Jess productive forms, as in (11d) and (Ile).
ap acat— cats - ’
a frog - frogs CASE A581 GME
lynx — lynkes
an ox—oxen
a mouse ~ mice
yatat (cm Aeabie)
ceooe
‘There is hardly any overt case distinction in modern English. The phrase ‘the wizard! is a subject in
(12a) and an object in (12b). Although ‘the wizard’ has different fimctions in (12a) and (12b)~
subject vs. objectand occupies different positions, no difference in case is visible. When ‘the
wizard’ is replaced by a pronoun, as in (12a') and (12b), a case distinction between nominative and
accusative becomes visible. The same holds for the phrase ‘the witch’. Nouns still show genitive
case marking, as in (13), a difference which is also visible in pronouns.
a2) ‘The wizard kissed the witch.
He kissed her
The witch Kissed the wizard
She Kissed him
‘dhe cat’ til — its tail
the wizard's broomstick — his broomstick
a3)
we
* Adverbs are sometimes not regarded as a separate lexical category, but subsumed under the category of Adjectives.
AS English Linguisties (University of OWenburg)
+ Disteibatien
Distribution considers in what environment a word can appear. As shown in (14), sounsieantbe
‘Preceded by c.g. aaticles (14a), possessive(pronouns (14b), or demmOnsthatives (14c):
(14) a, the cat, the frog, the tym
>. myeeat, my frog, my lynx
cc. this eat, this frog, this lyme
The words in (15) are adjectives, We can again use the two criteria discussed above, i.e. morphology
and distribution, to show that adjectives are different from nouns, etc.
(15) red, happy, handsome aren
English. adjectives do not #ifl€CiORYPIGFAI-as opposed to das alte Haus vs. die alten
pe Méuserbut there is . Comparative
and superlative may be realised as bound morphs (-er, -est), as in (16a) and (16b), or appear as free
morphs (more, the mosi), as in (16c).
6) aderssdenjeneraaese
b. happy, happier, the happiest
¢. Random, more handsome, th most handsome
a
be modified by:nldegresvadivett, as in (17). They can
© Concerning their
adjectives
. they modify the noun, as in (18), bubithieyican also
(be predicative, ic., they appear in a sentence with e.g. (copula) be, as in (19). ec
GD 2 word
b werhemy \
© ratherbandsome =
8) a. the red cat
& AGen) temp toe \b-
ce this handsome wizard J ~
(9) a ‘The cat is (too) red.
1b. The frogs (very) happy. ye
c ‘The wizard is handsome.
2.13 Adverbs (Advs)
Adverbs are often (but not always) as you can see in
(20). They are basically invariant, but some may occur with comparative morphology (-er, ~est).
(20) happily, sotly, carefully, quickly, mildly, ... fast, often
As to their distribution, like adjectives (ee (17) and (21).
Unlike adjectives, however, they cannot appear in the environment of a noun (22) (the asterisk *
which precedes an example indicates that it is ungrammatical). They can, however, appear with
‘YeEbS as in (23), wie whole. seatence
AG ey
eee
ey
be
3) a
b
Some types
(ay
Introduction to Syntax
very happity :
rather fat adj
auitecomningly
happily cat
‘the cunningly answer
jw
of adverbs, e.g. usually, frequently, often, can modify a whole sentence:
purr happily
rum fast
hunt cunningly
Usually, the Cheshire Cat purrs happily.
Some examples of verbs are given in (25).
© Verbs can show
jar }ense
inflicted $
lection, as in (26), where —s stands for 3" person singular present tense (26a),
pea ern eierere pene oe
and ~ed for past tense (26b/b.
(26) & Shawn jumps, kicks, and bans.
a Shawn and his woolly friends jamp, kick, and baa
b. Shawn jumped, Kicked, and based.
D. Shawn and his woolly ftiends jumped, kicked, and baaed.
‘Verbal inflection in English is very poor. In the present tense only two forms are distinguished
Gleep vs. sleeps). A comparison with German and Italian in (27) shows that German has five (or
four (e.g. machen)) different forms, and Italian has six different forms. In the past tense English
only has one form (slepe (irregular), jumped, kicked), Verbal inflection is also visible in the suffix —
ing in present participles (sleeping, jumping, kicking).
| (27) English: German: Ttalian: ri
sleep ioh scate dono
you sleep du sents dorm
hae, she it sleeps ef, es blk lorie
we sleep wir eoafen ‘ormiamo
cag, you sleep tbr chia donnie
| x AMO they sleep sie schlafen doemeno
ike
[Seem
| have to be dist
| a stan a is wo int ve flexed.
»
Wallace and Gromit can celebrate now.
Legal eBtegovies Bre seta clas words
At Some examples of prepositions are given in (29).
gp momen
| , Le. they never show any inflection. They are usually followed
(Bepomeinel constieents, as in (30). Some prepositions can also beifollowed by/a sentential
GBD.
in [the cottage]
on [the roof}
after {the play]
after [the Cheshire Cat vanished]
b. before [Humpty Dumpty wolfed down his breakfast]
Nouns, adjectives, adverbs, verbs, and prepositions are usvally classified as lexical categories.
‘Typically lexical categories have rich semantic content. If you replace ‘dog’ by ‘wolf or ‘before’ by
‘after’ the meaning changes drastically. Lexical categories are open-class categories, which means
that speakers regularly add new members. In this respect, prepositions are atypical. Although they
have rich semantic content, it is hard to create new prepositions.
2.2 Functional Categories _, only gronarotical cofecone:
In contrast to Iexical categorics, functional categories have little, or rather abstract, semantic content.
Functional categories are closed-class categories, which means that no new members can be added.
In English three basic functional categories are distinguished. These are determiners, auxiliaries and
modals_tater subsumed under the category Inflection (cf. Section 5.2.2)-and complementizers.
les_belc to the class of determiners. In English, the singular definite article and the plural
defi cle ake the same form the, ex in (32s) and (328). The indefinite aticle (2c) is realised
in the singular by a or an, depending on whether the following word starts with a phonetic
consonant or vowel. Is there a plural indefinite article, as for example in French (les maisons ‘the
houses’ vs. des maisons ‘houses')? To the extent that the information ({indefinite] and [plural])
seems to be conveyed despite the absence of an overt determiner, it reasonable assumption that
there is an indefinite plural article, but that it is not phonologically realised: it is phonologically mull
Similarly, the indefinite article which precedes mass nouns in English (33) is null:
G2) a, ox ‘ " ue onto’
op seme g - wild sing ;
©. acat, an ox -
eee : fe
(08) wan tee
d- alee.
AG Introduction to Syntax
We assume, for simplicity's sake, that demonstratiyes and (possessive pronouns also belong to this
category, since they are in complementary distribution with the article in modern English:
34) a this cat, that dog
1b. “this the cat, *the this cat, “that the dog, *the that dog
35) my cat, his dog,
b. the my eat, my the cat, this the dog, *the his dog,
. regress onetally camndk 6cCuc alone
yo primary function of
Generally, auxiliaries
cannot_occur_on_their_own: out of context, examples of the type in (6b') and (36c’) are.
‘Ungrammatical. Auxiliaries do not have rich semantic content; the verb which they precede contains
the lexical information. We therefore draw a formal distinction between lexical verbs, which have
Jexical content, and auxiliaries, which do not,
(86) 2 Humpty Dumpty eats breakfast.
b. Humpiy Dumpty is eating
b.* Hurapty Dumpty is.
Humpty Dumpty bas eaten
cv Humpty Dumpty as.
English also has a set of modals (c.g. can, may, must, shall), which do not have rich semantic
content. Their role is to express the modality of the sentence, i.e, necessity or possibility. Like
auxiliaries, modals need to co-occur with a lexical verb:
QT) & The Cheshire Cat can smile,
a\* The Cheshire Cat can,
b. ‘The Cheshire Cat should smite,
Di" ‘The Choshire Cat should.
‘TISGHERAS HS NMISUEIS AN RARES CAR ISEMAMESIEA. There are two different forms for have in the
present tense (have, has), and three for be (am, are, is). The auxiliaries have and be also have an
infinitival form. The infinitival form have follows the modal may in (38a) and the infinitival form
be follows the modal might in (38b). Note that if the modals had been omitted from these sentences,
the finite forms of these auxiliaries would have surfaced, ic. has in (38a) and is in (8b).
G8) a. Humpty Dumpty may Aave eaten too much.
D. Alice might be upset
Modals do not carry an -s in 3 person singular present tense: she can/*cans, nor do they have an
inifinitival form: *he should can eat more (cf. Er sollte mehr essen Kénnen). Moreover, the forms
may and might, for example, do not necessarily express a difference in tense, i.e. present vs. past
fense, but can sometimes express a difference in probability. Compare (39a) with (39b), in which
‘might suggests a somewhat lower probability than may.
39) & — Hemay haves mmmy ache tomorrow.
b. He might have a tammy ache tomorrow.
a
AS English Linguisties (University of Oldenburg)
2.2.3 Complementizers (C3) aro seer .
Besides determiners, ai ies and modals, complementizers also belong tothe class of functional
elements. shown in (40). (The
parentheses around that in (40a) indicate that the complementizer that is optional.)
(40) a. believe [(hat) Alice and Humpty Dumpty are good friends).
b. Alice regrets {char Humpty Dumpty eats too much).
©. She wonders {whether he will ever get tired of eating marshmallows].
He will of course ask her again {ifhe ean have some more).
€. [For Humpty Dumpty to go on a diet] would be quite pointless.
4o ool
Introduction to Syntax u- at e Dr. M“Elghazi (ed.)
6 eel wo wt bol
Inflectional Categories
The term @AWEGORY in some approaches (refersiteiclassestatiti Ueto ALIS HAMowssense,
e.g., noun, verb, subject, predicate, noun phrase, verb phrase, etc. Morelspecificallymitmefensit0)
: the categories of the noun, for example, include
number, gender, case and countability; and of the verb, for example, tense, aspect, voice, etc. In
this section, we are talking about the grammatical categories in the sccond sense.
Noun-related Categories:
2 Number)
Fs
NUMBER is a grarimaticaljeategory; used for the analysis of word classes displaying such
Gum
GENDER displays such contrasts as “masculine: feminine: neuter”, “animate: inanimate”, etc. for
the analysis of word classes. ‘Wen mond-em ferns elif et
. The opposite is grammatical gender. ‘Though there is a statistical
correlation between natural gender and grammatical gender, the assignment may seem quite
arbitrary in many cases, for instance, in Latin,ignis ‘fire’ is masculine, while flamma‘flame’ is
feminine.
English gender contrast canronlyibe observed impronounsjandja'smallinumber!of i0uns, and,
they are mainly of the natural gender type.
het vialegra!
> it Er ‘
ee grist pader stb gue
Again, imBreach, RRR
ES Ua a toa fille TM uaa
beau cadeau (fine gift) 4 "1
belle maison (fine house)
Te cadcau est beau. (The gift is good.)
La maisonest belle, (The house is beautiful.)
‘One has always to keep an eye on gender in some languages because it changes lexical meaning
sometimes, for example, in French:
Ex. 4-33
(@) lepocle (the stove)
Japoele (the frying pan)
(©) lependule (the pendukm)
Tapendule (the clock) -
AA Introduction to Syntax Dr. M™Eighazi (ed.)
e
‘Person
Person reyealsywhether thepersOnlonithing is speaking, spOKeHit, 6HSPOKENIGL. First person
signals the speaker. Second person denotes the person spoken to. Third person indicates the
person spoken of.
ESE I went to Europe this past summer, —» speaker = deer
2nd: Have you ever been to Europe? —y spdkur (V4 )sppKoub
3rd: She went to Europe when she was seventeen. 4). of (absent)
The’ case cate; is used in the anal
of word classes to identifylihersyntactiorelationship
In Latin grammar, cases are based on variations in the morphological forms of the word, and
are given the terms “accusative”, “norninative”, “dative”, etc. There are five cases in ancient
Greek and eight in Sanskrit. Finnish has as many as fifteen formally distinct cases in nouns, each
with its own syntactic function.
In English, CASE is a special form of the noun which frequently corresponds to a
combination of preposition and noun, and it is realised in three channels: (a) inflection, (b)
following a preposition, (c) word order, as manifested in ex. 4-34.
etd Ex 434 : conbmnimdWie—> (Sst) gil
ergate @ tacher: teacher's — genitive ie -nccusdtie afeydgbal) 6!
fll eke Rete Pate kicked John. ~ dake (yyyeyy7) sat
accuse mr OminBhire CASE grikve (85e -» ob. 50
AGREEMENT (or CONCORD) may be defined as theiequirement thatltieiSrisioftwolormore
(wottls of specific word classes that stand in specific syntactic relationship with one another shall
also, betioharictétizedbymiielsainenparadigmaticallyiiniarke@eaeBory (or categories). This
syntactic relationship may be anaphoric, as when a pronoun agrees with its antecedent (ex. 4-
35a), or it may involve a relation between a head and its dependent (ex. 4-35b), as when a verb
agrees with its subject and object.
The examples for the agreement of number between nouns and verbs are (c).and-(d) in ex. 4-
35. :
Ex. 4.35
(@) Whose is this pen?
-Oh, it’s the one I lost,
(b) Eachperson may have one coin,
(©) This man suns. _ These men run.
(@ The bird flies. These birds fly.
‘The features of the head noun which may be reflected in the agreeing dependent forms are what
we have described above: gender, number, and case. Agreement between gender and number
should be shown in noun-adjective relation in French (Compare the last two phrases in ex. 4-33).
dd Introduction to Syntax Dr. M“Elghazi (ed.)
Verb-related Categories
‘Dense=Aepectmewd, commonly abbreviated TAM and also called tense—medality-aspect or
‘TMA, is the grammatical system in a .¢ that covers the expression of tense (loeatiomim
tine) apes Una sucingle ibe ate Conlnibas Heirat neem
occurrence), and mood or modality (degree of necessity, obligation, probability, ability). In some
cases, evidentiality (whether evidence exists for the statement, and if so what kind) may also be
included.
‘The term is convenient because it is often difficult to untangle these features of a language. Often
any two of tense, aspect, and mood (or all three) may be conveyed by a single grammatical
construction; but this system may not be complete in that not all possible combinations may have
an available construction. In other cases there may not be clearly delineated categories of tense
and mood, or aspect and mood.
For instance, many Indo-European languages do not clearly distinguish tense from aspect. An
example from English is the verbal phrase "used to go": this construction denotes both past tense
and habitual aspect (a sub-type of imperfective (ongoing) aspect involving repetitiveness), while
since it is unmarked for mood it imparts indicative mood. Yet English has no comparable
construction for habitual aspect in the present or future, and it has no comparable construction in
the past tense for perfective aspect (for actions viewed as a bounded whole, as in "went [once]").
In some languages, such as Spanish and Modem Greek, the imperfective aspect as a whole is
fused with the past tense in a form traditionally called the imperfect. This fusion can: occur
because the imperfective aspect only exists in the past tense. Other languages with distinct past
imperfectives include Latin and Persian. a 2
ens (keane 8s grommadccall’) Vs 08 ond wales
Tense is the grammatical term that refers to the time when the action of the verb occurs: past,
present, future. The time frame of an action is usually established by referring to the present
moment; for example, the passé composé and the future are respectively past and future in
relation to the present. =v Placing rents cor 3 Name Ling
However, some tenses establish their time frame by referring to other actions in the past or in the
future. For example, the plus-que-parfait tense indicates a past action that occurred prior to the
the completion of another past action. The futurantérieur tense indicates a future action that will
have occured before another future action. Actions that occur before another action are described
as beftigenterior,
‘Tenses aré also described by their number of parts. For example, a tense with only one yerb form
is called a simple tense (fe, le passé simple). In contrast, a tense comprising two forms, the
auxiliary verb and the participle, is referred to as a compound tense (ie, le passé composé)
Aspect, unlike tense, is not concerned with placing events on a time line. Rather, aspect is
‘progressive actions, punctual actions, habitual actions, ete.
‘The most important aspectual distinction in French concerns the difference between the two most
common past tenses: the imparfait and the passé composé. While both tenses refer to actions in
the past, they are used for very different types of actions. The imparfait indicates an action that is
Le Introduction to Syntax Dr. M™Elghazi (ed.)
ongoing or habitual. Actions in the imparfait may be simultaneous or overlapping. The passé
composé on the other hand, indicates an action that is in a strict sequence in relation to another
action, In other words, an event in the passé composé must be completed before another may be
used in narration.
These aspectual differences are best understood in a narrative context where the imparfait is
typically used to set the scene of a story by giving background information.
Seated on the terrace of the Cactus _Installé & la terrasse du Cactus Café,
Cafe, Tex was watching the people
who walked by. He was enjoyinga Tex regardait les gents qui
cup of coffee, but something was passaient. Il savourait une tasse de
missing . . . a cigarette! café, mais quelque chose manquait
. une cigarette!
‘The passé composé is used for the foreground, that is, the plot line events. Note that plot line
events are sequential, that is, an event must be completed before another event begins.
Tex took out a cigarette from his Tex a sorti une cigarette de son
pack, He lit it and took along drag. —_paquet. II 'a.alhumée et il a tiré une
Mmm... ecstasy! grande bouffée. Mmm ... extase!
Mood!
. There are four moods in French:
(RiG@icative, subjmsctive, conditional, and imperative. All of these moods, except the imperative,
may be conjugated in different tenses. Each of these moods has a different function.
The indicative mood is the most common and is used to relate facts and objective statements.
Tammy gets Tammy se réveille
upearly in t6t le matin. (present
the moming. tense of the
indicative mood)
The subjunctive meod is used more commonly in French than in English. It is used to express
opinions and feelings (subjective thoughts).
It is too bad that Tex's parents are Test dommage que les parents de
dead. Tex soient morts. (present “i of a
vak
the subjunctive mood)
en
The conditional mood is used to express hypothetical or contrary-to-fact statements.
If Corey were handsome, hy Crap Si Corey était beau, i] aurait une
have a girlfriend. copine. (present tense of the
conditional mood)
tegtessed y
mmoddls tm a) k Introduction to Syatax
‘Dr. M™Elghazi ed.)
The imperative mood is used to give direct orders or commands.
Tex, get up! Tex, réveille-toi!
Voice is a grammatical category
Voice is either active or passive. Active voice refers to the situation where the subject of the
sentence performs the action of the verb.
The authorities expelled Tex from
Les autorités ont expulsé
France.
Tex de France.
‘On the other hand, passive voice refers to the situation where the subject receives the action of
the verb.
Tex was expelled from France (by Tex a été expuisé de France (par les
the authorities). autorités).
Phrase Structure
Argument Structure
Syntactic Representation
X-bar Theory
Levels of Representation and Merge
Movement and Control
£8 Re arcangntat of Re conshitwenks of asad onee
a tRe way senkowe is brotn cata ccna oben
. Phrase Structare — Comporta's (92rasts) and Row ese oR rBses are
341 Constituents 7 Seagal take Ree vbkimdde cosbibearks (Qos)
ts abonk Reond lysis of aseatarre tah CAs imbermdh tushibrents
‘The words of a language can be grouped into different categories. In a sentence, these words
combine to form larger units, called constituents. A sentence is not simply a string of linearly
ordered words: wordsicombineltolforn larger units;
Consider the sentence in (41):
(41) Harry will meet his closest friends after dark.
‘There are groups of words in this sentence which seem to belong together, as indicated by the
bracketing in (42). Most of us share the intuition that the bracketing in (42a) is natural, whereas that
in (42) is not.
(42) a (Harry! [will] [meet (his closest frionds} [after dark].
b* (Harry will] [meet his} (closest friends after} [dark],
Each of the bracketed units in (42a) is a constituent. it i
, Thus a string of words (and
sometimes just a single word) forms a constituent if it can be subject to syntactic manipulations as a
unit, such as being moved around, being replaced by another word, etc. These manipulations are
called constituency tests. These tests are possible variants of a sentence which are recognised as
grammatical by native speakers. We consider five of these tests, which can help us determine
whether a given unit is indeed a constituent.
| B.LL Substitution eae
Substitution is a manipulation in which a unitisiteplaceabylaishoner Toni Galleaaprosigri. Units
containing a noun can usually be replaced by pronouns:
(43) a. HE will meet his closest friends after dark,
b. Harry will meet 'THIBM after dark.
c. Hany will meet his closest friends THEN)
Substitution operates on constituents. As shown in (43b) ‘his closest friends’ can be substituted for.
by ‘them’, while neither ‘his closest’ (44a) nor ‘his closest friends after’ (44b) can be substituted for
by them’,
@4) a Harry will meet THEM friends after dark,
b* Harry will meet THEM dark,
Based on substitution we can conclude that ‘his closest friends’ is a constituent and so is ‘Harry’ and
‘after dark’.
LE English Linguistics (University of Oldenburg)
GuaClefing kis Whe (omaving )
Clefting isolateSTaSOnstiuentibyemovinglinintowherslot (_) in the frame "1S QURAWEGY which
results in putting emphasis on the constituent:
G5) a —_Ttis HARRY who will mect his closest friends after dark.
b. Ibis HIS CLOSEST FRIENDS that Hany will meet after dark.
© itis AFTER DARK that Hary will meet his closest friends,
In (45) ‘Hany’, ‘his closest friends’, and ‘after dark' are again identified as constituents, while ‘his
closest’ and ‘after’ do not pass the clefting test:
(48) 2% — Itis HIS CLOSEST that Harry will mest friends after dark.
b.* Wis APTER that Harry will meet his closest friends dark.
-ANDOUSLIEGEREGERIBEMUBMIONed. ‘This means that a constituent can bEIREpIACEM Ibylaquestion-word,
asin 47):
(41) a WHO will meet his closest friends after dark? (who = Harry)
b, WHO(QM) will Harry meet after dark? who(m) = his closest friends)
© WHEN will Harry meet his closest friends? (when = after dark)
‘We can show that the target of the question can only be a constituent:
48) a* His closest WHO will Harry meet after dark?
bt After WHEN will Harry meet his closest friends?
‘Once more we have identified ‘Harry’, ‘his closest friends’, and ‘after dark’ as constituents.
Deletion is another constituency test. It has to be handled with care, howeve
as shown in (49). Both
ter dark’ and ‘closest' pass this test, Note that deleting ‘closest’ and ‘after dark’ at the same time, as
in 9c), does not show that ‘closest after dark’ is a constituent. This might be quite obvious, since
after all ‘closest’ and ‘after dark’ are not adjacent to each other; ‘friends’ intervenes. In (50a), on the
other hand, nothing intervenes between ‘in the belfry’ and ‘after dark’ and still ‘in the belfry after
dark’ is not a constituent. And although we know that 'his closest friends' is a constituent, it does not
pass the deletion test (50b) (cf. Section 4.2).
(49) a Hany will meet his closest friends after-dack,
b. Harry will meet his elesest friends after dark.
©. Harry will mect his elessst friends after dark.
(50) a. Harry will meet his closest friends in-che-belity- after dace
be Harry will meet his-olosest-feiends in the belfry after dark,
LF Introdvction to Syntax
A Unit which forms a constituent can be moved, unless this movement violates other constraints.*
(The symbol '_’ marks the site from which the constituent has been moved.)
(1) a After dark, Harry will meet his closest friends _.
b. His closest friends, Harry will meet _ after dark.
As shown for other tests, movement only affects strings of words which form a constituent:
(52) a* After, Harry will meet his closest friends _ dark.
b* His closest, Harry will meet _ friends after dark.
(ESET, the
