Syntax

Dr Muhammad Yousaf
 Syntax
• The word “syntax” comes originally from Greek and literally means “a
putting together” or “arrangement.”
• When we concentrate on the structure and ordering of components within
a sentence, we are studying the syntax of a language.
• When we set out to provide an analysis of the syntax of a language, we try
to adhere to the “all and only” criterion.
• This means that our analysis must account for all the grammatically correct
phrases and sentences and only those grammatically correct phrases and
sentences in whatever language we are analyzing.
• In other words, if we write rules for the creation of well-formed structures,
we have to check that those rules, when applied logically, won’t also lead
to ill-formed structures.
 Generative Grammar
• We have 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.
• This 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: first, how some superficially different
sentences are closely related and, second, how some superficially
similar sentences are in fact different.
 Deep and surface structure
• Two superficially different sentences are shown in these examples:

➢Charlie broke the window.

➢The window was broken by Charlie.

• The distinction between them is a difference in their surface structure, that

is, the different syntactic forms they have as individual English sentences.
• However, this superficial difference in form disguises the fact that the two
sentences are very closely related, even identical, at some less superficial
level.
• This other “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 and Was the
window broken by Charlie?.
• In short, the grammar must be capable of showing how a single underlying
abstract representation can become different surface structures.
 Structural ambiguity
• Let’s say we have two distinct deep structures. One expresses the idea that:
“Annie had an umbrella and she bumped into a man with it.”
• The other expresses the idea that
“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.
 Tree Diagram
• One of the most common ways to create a visual representation of
syntactic structure is through tree diagrams.
• Although this kind of “tree,” with its “branches,” seems to grow down
rather than up, it functions rather well as a diagram representing all the
grammatical information found in the other analyses.
• It also shows very explicitly that there are different levels in the analysis.
• That is, there is a level of analysis at which a constituent such as NP is
represented and a different, lower, level at which a constituent such as N is
represented.
• This type of hierarchical organization can be illustrated in a tree diagram
for a whole sentence, beginning at the top with S.
 Tree Diagram
• If we start 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).
• Finally, one word is selected that fits the label Art (the) and another
that fits N (girl).
• You can go through the same procedure with the VP branches.
Tree Diagram
Symbols used in syntactic analysis
 Phrase structure rules
• When we use a tree diagram format, we can think of it in two different
ways.
• In one way, we can simply treat it as a static representation of the structure
of the sentence shown at the bottom of the diagram.
• We could then propose that, for every single sentence in English, a tree
diagram of this type could be drawn.
• An alternative view is to treat the tree diagram as a dynamic format, in the
sense that it represents a way of generating not only that one sentence,
but a very large number of other sentences with similar structures.
• This second approach is very appealing because it would enable us to
generate a very large number of sentences with what look like a very small
number of rules.
• These rules are called phrase structure rules.
 Phrase structure rules
• As the name suggests, these rules state that the structure of a phrase
of a specific type will consist of one or more constituents in a
particular order.
• We can use phrase structure rules to present the information of the
tree diagram in another format.
• That is, the information shown in the tree diagram on the left can be
expressed in the phrase structure rule on the right (on next slide).
Phrase structure rules
 Phrase structure rules
• According to this rule, “a noun phrase rewrites as an article followed
by a noun.”
• The first rule in the following set of simple (and necessarily
incomplete) phrase structure rules states that “a sentence rewrites as
a noun phrase and a verb phrase.”
• The second rule states that “a noun phrase rewrites as either an
article plus an optional adjective plus a noun, or a pronoun, or a
proper noun.”
• The other rules follow a similar pattern.
Symbols used in syntactic analysis
 Lexical rules
• Phrase structure rules generate structures. In order to turn those
structures into recognizable English, we also need lexical rules that
specify which words can be used when we rewrite constituents such
as N.
• The first rule in the following set states that “a proper noun rewrites
as Mary or George.”
 Movement rules
• In making the question, we move one part of the structure to a
different position. This process is based on a movement rule.
• In order to talk about this process, we need to expand our phrase
structure rules to include an auxiliary verb (Aux) as part of the
sentence.
• This is illustrated in the first rewrite rule below. Auxiliary verbs
(sometimes described as “helping” verbs) take different forms in
English, but one well-known set can be included in the rudimentary
lexical rule for Aux below.
• We also need a lexical rule that specifies the basic forms of the verbs,
shown as the third rewrite rule below.
Movement rules
Movement rules
 Recursion

• The rules of the grammar will also need the crucial property of
recursion. Recursive (“repeatable any number of times”) rules have
the capacity to be applied more than once in generating a structure.

Mary helped George.

Cathy knew that Mary helped George.
John believed that Cathy knew that Mary helped George.
• The word that, as used in these examples, is called a complementizer (C).
• The role of that as a complementizer is to introduce a complement phrase
(CP).
• For example,
• In the second sentence (Cathy knew…), we can identify one CP which
contains that plus Mary helped George. We already know that Mary helped
George is a sentence (S).
• So, we are now in a position to define a CP in the following way: “a
complement phrase rewrites as a complementizer and a sentence,” or CP
→ C S.
• Yule, G. (2010). The study of language. Cambridge university press.
• Thank You