International University – HCMC

Department of English
EL013IU INTRODUCTION TO LINGUISTICS
Module 6
Syntax

Dr. Vũ Hoa Ngân

The materials are designed for in-class use only.
Please do NOT share or publish them online without my permission. 1
 Review of Advanced Grammar
(p. 96)

constituent
/kənˈstɪtʃuənt/

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 Review of Advanced Grammar
(p. 96) Constituent analysis: shows how small
constituents (components) in sentences
go together to form larger constituents

E.g., An old man brought a llama to the wedding.

1. At the word level, how many constituents are there?

2. What are constituents at the phrase level?

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 Syntax/ Syntactic structures
(p. 108)
Syntax: the structure and ordering of components within
a sentence (phrases & sentences)
Purposes:
• To describe the sequence/ ordering “arrangement” of
elements in the linear structure of the sentence.
• To produce/ generate sentences based on the
underlying rule system
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 Syntactic Rules
(p. 109)
• “all and only” criterion
• rules for creating well-formed structures only
• an asterisk * to indicate ungrammatical

E.g., What is a rule for English prepositional phrases?

1. Not “all and only” rule (preposition + noun): e.g., near London, but *near
tree, *with dog
2. Revised rule (preposition + noun phrase):
– preposition + proper noun: e.g., near London
– preposition + pronoun: e.g., near me
– preposition + article + noun: e.g., near a tree
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 Generative Grammar
(p. 109) Choose the correct sentence:
I met him ___.
a. at party
• The grammar will generate all
b. at a party the well-formed structures of the
c. at the home language
d. at a home • The grammar will not generate
any ill-formed structures
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 Generative Grammar
(p. 109) Generative grammar:
• A small and finite/ limited set of rules can
produce a large and potentially infinite/
unlimited number of well-formed structures
• can be used to generate or produce
structures.
E.g.: preposition + noun phrase
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(p. 111) Syntactic Analysis
Conventional abbreviations: • NP (= noun phrase)
• S (= sentence) • VP (= verb phrase)
• AdjP (= adjective phrase)
• N (= noun) • AdvP (= adverb phrase)
• Adj (= adjective) • PP (= prepositional phrase)
• Pro (= pronoun)
• Adv (= adverb) • PN ( = proper noun)
• V (= verb) • Art (= article)
• Prep (= preposition)
• C (= complementizer) that
• Aux (= auxiliary verb)
• CP(= complement phrase)
(later) 8
 Syntactic Analysis
(p. 111) Symbols used in syntactic analysis
* ungrammatical sentence
→ consists of/ rewrites as
( ) optional constituent
{ } one and only one of the elements

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 Syntactic Analysis
(p. 111) Symbols used in syntactic analysis:
Arrow
→ consists of/ rewrites as

E.g., the dog

NP → Art N
(Read: A noun phrase consists of an article and a noun)

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 Syntactic Analysis
(p. 111) Symbols used in syntactic analysis
Round brackets:
( ) optional constituent
E.g., the dog
NP → Art N
E.g., the big dog
NP → Art (Adj) N
(Read: A noun phrase consists of an article, and a noun, with the
option of including an adjective between them)
• From this notation, different noun phrases can be generated:
e.g., a big house, the interesting movie, the book 11
 Syntactic Analysis
(p. 111) How would you read the formula?
1. NP → Art (Adj) N
2. NP → Pro
3. NP → PN
Curly brackets
{ } one and only one of the elements
NP → {Art (Adj) N, Pro, PN}
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 Phrase Structure Rules
(p. 112) Phrase structure rules state that
the structure of a phrase of a specific type will
consist of one or more constituents in a
particular order.

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 Phrase Structure Rules
(p. 112)
How would you read the following phrase
structure rules?
• 1st rule: S → NP VP
• 2nd rule: NP → {Art (Adj) N, Pro, PN}
• 3rd rule: VP → V NP
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 Lexical Rules
(p. 112)
• Words can be used when rewriting constituents.
E.g., PN → {John, Mary}
Pro → {it, you}

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 Why care about RULES?
(p. 112) Examine these sentences. How do you find these
sentences? How would you know?
7. *Dog followed boy.
8. *You it saw.
9. *John Mary small dog.
10. *Followed Mary the dog big.
11. *The helped you boy.
12. *Mary John helped.
* ungrammatical sentences

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 Why care about RULES?
(p. 112) We can rely on these rules to generate the grammatical
sentences 1-6, but not the ungrammatical sentences 7-12.
1. A dog followed the boy. 7. *Dog followed boy.
2. You saw it. 8. *You it saw.
3. John saw the big dog. 9. *John Mary small dog.
4. It followed Mary 10. *Followed Mary the dog big.
5. The small boy helped you. 11. *The helped you boy.
6. Mary helped John. 12. *Mary John helped.
* ungrammatical sentences

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 Tree Diagrams
(p. 113)
E.g.; A dog followed the boy.
How to analyze “a dog” and “the
boy”?
NP → Art N Phrase structure rule

a dog
the boy Tree diagram

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 Tree Diagrams
(p. 113)
• a visual representation of underlying
syntactic structure, hierarchically
organized
• the symbols are used to label parts
of the tree
E.g.; A dog followed the boy.
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 Tree Diagrams
(p. 113)
How would you draw a
tree diagram for the
3rd rule of phrase
structure?
VP → V NP
followed the boy
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 Tree Diagrams
(p. 113)
How would you draw a
tree diagram for the
1st rule of phrase
structure?
S → NP VP
The dog followed the
boy.
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 Tree Diagrams
(p. 117) Complete the following tree diagrams:

4.

1. 2. 6.

3. 5.
7. 8. 9.

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 Websites to Draw Syntax Tree
Syntax Tree
Generator
http://mshang.ca/s
yntree/

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 Websites to Draw Syntax Tree
• phpSyntaxTree -
http://www.tycho.iel.unica
mp.br › phpsyntaxtree

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 Websites to Draw Syntax Tree
• TreeForm – Tutorial @
https://youtu.be/A5DhtQg
rlTE

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 Quiz
1. How many adverbs are in this sentence?
“She really injured her foot yesterday and has to walk very slowly and carefully today.”
A. 2 B. 3 C. 4 D. 5 E. 6 F. 7

2. How many different parts of speech are used in this sentence?

“The happy girls chased the puppy into the garden.”
A. 4 B. 5 C. 6 D. 7 E. 8 F. 9

3. How many noun phrases are there in this sentence?

“The young boy found a small bird on the ground, named it Tweetie and kept it in a cage in his room.”
A. 3 B. 4 C. 5 D. 6 E. 7 F. 8

4. What is the grammatical function of the proper noun in this sentence?

“The teacher explained how to answer the questions, but Jason said he still didn’t understand.”
A. adjective B. adjunct C. object
D. prepositional phrase E. subject F. verb
5. Identify two characteristic features of grammatical objects.
A. often performs the action B. can be represented by the word “them.”
C. controls the verb D. what the sentence is about
E. typically the first noun in a sentence F. often undergoes the action

6. How many adverbs are there in: We had a very hard day yesterday, so we really couldn’t get up early this
morning.?
A. 1 B. 2 C. 3 D. 4 E. 5 F. 6 26
 Quiz
7. How many prepositions are there in: The young girl didn’t know where she was, so she asked a man
with a small child if he knew the way to the station.?
A. 1 B. 2 C. 3 D. 4 E. 5 F. 6

8. Which of these words represents a noun phrase?

A. the B. woman C. kept D. snake E. it F. escaped

9. What is the basic structure of: The old dog loved the small boy.?
A. Art N B. Art N V C. NP VP
D. S VP E. V NP F. VP N

10. How many conjunctions are there in: Pierre and Marie-Claire came home early because they were
tired, but Helène stayed out till midnight.
A. 1 B. 2 C. 3 D. 4 E. 5 F. 6

11. Identify the adjectives in: The sly wizened old woman gave Snow White a very shiny red apple.
A. apple B. shiny C. sly D. very E. wizened F. woman

12. Which two of these are well-formed English noun phrases?

A. the ball red B. the dog bit the man C. old man slept
D. the rugby player with the broken nose
E. sold the snake F. someone 27
 Tree diagrams
1. The children put the toys in the box.
2. My wife washes the dishes.
3. The old tree swayed in the wind.

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