SALWA AYARI INTRODUCTION TO LINGUISTICS SYNTAX

Syntax
Syntax is the branch of linguistics that studies the structure and formation of
sentences. It explains how words and phrases are arranged to form correct sentences.
A sentence could make no sense and still be correct from the syntactic point of view
as long as words are in their appropriate positions and agree with each other. Here is a
classic example by Noam Chomsky that illustrates a case in which a sentence is
correct but does not make sense:

 Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.

Syntax refers to the set of rules that determines the arrangement of words in a
sentence. Along with diction, it is one of the key ways writers convey meaning in a
text.

Generative rules: (Chomsky, Radford, Van Valin)

Generative Grammar Holds That from a finite set of rules, it is possible to generate an
infinite number of well-formed sentences

Generative rules are rules to derive all possible combinations of constituents.

e.g.: NP
- Money: N
- The boy: D N
- The big boy: D A N
- The new book of grammar: D A+ N PP ,
- He: PRN
- John PN
Let’s try to generate a possible rule that can account for all these combinations.

- S ------> NP VP or
- S ------> NP Aux VP
- S ------> NP (Aux) VP

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These are called P-S rules (phrase structure rules) with which we can generate infinity
of phrases and clauses (all possible combinations. These rules are recursive: you can
repeat them endlessly = generative capacity).

The Sentence Rule

S ------> NP (Aux) VP

The NP Rule

The VP Rule

The AP Rule: AP ------> (deg) A

The PP Rule: PP -------> P (NP)

The Determiner Rule

The format for PSRs is shown in the box below. X, Y, and Z are used here as
variables to stand
for any category.
XP XYZ
the label for the →
“consists of”/ the elements that
make up the
constituent is written as constituent

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Formal syntactic representation: (P-marker and bracketing):

There are 2 ways of representing structure: P-marker or tree diagram:

Labeled Bracketing
Labeled bracketing is a way of representing the structure of an expression

We include square brackets ('[ ']') on either side of the constituent

The brackets carry subscripts, so-called labels, which state the category of the unit in
questions.

Consider the following NP : the man : it is composed of Determiner + a Noun

Both words and phrases are bracketed this way.

The structure of the sentence the dog loved the girl is written as follows:

The structure of the sentence the boy eats apples is written as in (i):

(i) [NP[Det the][N boy]][VP[V eat][NP[N apples]]]

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The steps in labeling are as follows : Consider the following sentence : The very small boy
kissed the platypus

1-First we mark the parts of speech

2- Next we apply the NP, AP and the PP rules

3- Now the VP rules

Performing this type of analysis, we have not only labeled all the constituents, we
have captured the hierarchical organization of those constituents.
In this hierarchy, the sentence (S) is higher than and contains the noun phrase (NP).
The noun phrase (NP) is higher than and contains the noun (N). We can also see that
the sentence (S) contains a verb phrase (VP) which contains a verb (V) and another
noun phrase (NP).

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Moving from brackets to trees is reasonably straightforward. AS They

are a
great way to visually communicate the syntactic structure of a
tree consider the following sentence

[ [Horatio’s team] [caught [the smugglers]] ]

This means the smugglers is a constituent and there should be a node in the
tree that dominates the smugglers.

Exercise: Represent the sentence below using labeled bracketing

s

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The format for PSRs is shown in the box below. X, Y, and Z are used here as
variables to stand
Phrase Structure Markers
This part introduces the basic vocabulary for tree diagrams. Tree diagrams are the
notation that most syntacticians use to describe how sentences are organized in the
mental grammar.

Phrase structure trees show three aspects of the sentence structure

 linear order of words in the sentence
 the groupings of words into phrases
 the hierarchical structure of phrases

The simple English sentence consists of two principal constituents

 Noun Phrase (NP)
 Verb Phrase (VP)

What the label labels is called a node. The points in the tree the branches come from
are called nodes. In this little incomplete tree, the S is the mother node. The NP and
VP are the daughter nodes.

Each branch connects one node to another. The higher node is called the parent and
the lower one is the child. A parent can have more than one child, but each child has
only one parent. And, as you might expect, if two child nodes have the same parent,
then we say that they’re siblings to each other. (Just so you know, most linguistics
textbooks call these nodes “mother, daughter and sister” nodes, but we’re using non-
gendered terms in this book.)

If a node has no children, we call it a terminal node.

The NP node and the VP node now have daughters of their own. The NP node has
two daughters, a Det ("Determiner") node and an N ("Noun") node. The VP node has
one daughter, a V ("Verb") node. Generally speaking a Noun Phrase will have an N
daughter and a verb phrase will have a V daughter. These are called their head
words.

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Noun Phrases

The Adjective Phrase

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THE Adverb Phrase

The Prepositional Phrase

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The Verb Phrase

The Sentence

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Syntactic Ambiguity
Syntactic ambiguity is also referred to as structural ambiguity or grammatical
ambiguity.
Structural or syntactic ambiguity, occurs when a phrase, clause or sentence can be
given two or more different interpretations as a result of the arrangement of words or
lexical units. It is useful to recognize that syntactic ambiguity does not result from just
the ordering of the words in the ambiguous structure. Rather, it results from the
multiplicity or confusion of grammatical roles and relationships- grammatical
functions such as subject, object complement, object complement, indirect object,
adjunct, and modifier.

SOURCES OF STRUCTURAL AMBIGUITY

1-Ambiguity through modification.

a-Span of modification
Ambiguity may arise in the noun phrase because there is confusion about the span of
the application of a modifier. This occurs when we have two Noun Phrases preceded
by a pre-modifier. The confusion is whether the premodifier relates to both NPs or
only one,
 This job is for old men and women
 Joana met tall boys and girls
Is the job intended for old men and old women or old men but women of all ages? Are
we talking about boys and girls who are tall or only boys who are tall? The ambiguity
results in the two possible interpretations as indicated above:
 Joana met boys and girls who are both tall
 Joana met boys who are tall
b- Confusion of Head (Intrinsic & Possessive)
Here, we are looking at an ambiguity that occurs as a result of the confusion of the
head itself. This type of ambiguity occurs when there are two premodifiers- modifiers
– one an adjective, and the other a possessive adjective. The question is whether the
adjective modifies this possessive or the noun-head which the possessive modifies:
Ata pulled out the senseless workers’ strike.
It is the workers who are senseless or is it the strike (worker’s strike) which of the
two is the head - worker or strike is senseless? These can be captured on a done on
tree diagrams as:

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e-Misplaced Modification Other examples include:

Beautiful girls’ hostels
- Is it the girls’ or hostels that are beautifu
Does the phrase mean
 Beautiful hostels for girls
Or
 Hostels for beautiful girls
c-Two adjectives preceding the Noun
Consider the following examples
 New English Textbook
 Practical English Course
 Modern Physical Lessons.
Here also, the confusion of head is apparent, unless it is taken for granted:
 it is a Textbook on the New English (new - modern, contemporary English as
opposed to Old, or Middle English) Or
 It is an English Textbook which is new i.e. recent?
Again, does Practical English Course refer to
 a practical course in English (i.e. a course with accessible, practice-oriented
presentation style – practical course) or
 • an English Course which is practical – written to suit the practical uses of the
language – practical English?
d-Confusion of Head (Prepositional Phrase & Relative Clause)
When a noun phrase is made up of a noun- head, a postmodifying PP and relative
clause, confusion may arise as to whether the relative clause modifies the head of the
NP or the head the noun phrase of the prepositional phrase. Take for example:
The secretary of the president who sacked the typist.

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Was it the secretary who sacked the typist, or was it the president?

Misplaced modification comes in three forms.

 Dangling modifiers
A modifier is said to be dangling when it is attached to the wrong noun/head.
The ambiguity occurs between the following:
• the meaning as it appears from the syntactic arrangement (which might be an
absurdity)
• the meaning as we think is normal but is not realized by the sentence: For e.g.
Jane saw a monkey driving to Accra.
This structure, with the modifier driving to Accra means syntactically, the monkey
was driving to Accra. This is based on the principle of proximity, since a monkey is
the closest noun to the modifier. The rule states: ‘a modifier attaches itself to the
noun which is closest to it’ on the other hand, a monkey driving is absurd. We can
then say that it is Jane who was driving to Accra and not the monkey.
When the modifier is applicable to the two nouns easily as below, the ambiguity
becomes more serious: For e.g.
We gave a table to a boy with painted legs
Whose legs were painted? The boy’s or the table’s. Each of them is possible.
Syntactically or according to the way the words are arranged, it is the boy’s. But on
the issue of frequency of occurrence, it is the table’s. The confusion between syntactic
and plausible interpretations renders the expression ambiguous.

 Misplaced Restrictors
Misplaced restrictors bring semantic confusion because they are between
the subject and the predication and can be seen as modifying in any of the
two syntactic regions. Usually in speech, stress and intonation are used to
specific meaning and to forestall ambiguity:
For e.g.
Bill only washes on holidays
If only modifies Bill (used as a determiner) the meaning will be Only Bill washes on
holidays.
If only operates as part of the predicate – used as an adverb-a downtoner-the
sentence will mean Bill does nothing apart from washing on holidays.
Still looking at the flexibility of the adjunct (on holidays), we can say only perhaps
modifies on holidays, and thus gives the meaning Bill washes on holidays only.

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 Squinting Modifiers
Squinting modifiers are usually adverbs of time, frequency and manner (e.g.
‘tomorrow’, ‘occasionally’, ‘always’, and ‘slowly’). They are often placed between
two verbs and may relate to both of them. It is unclear whether they it modify the
piece of text that precede or follow them .

Teachers who goof occasionally apologize.

Do we mean
(a) teachers goof occasionally, or
(b) That they apologize occasionally?

Examples of Squinting Modifiers

Here are some examples of squinting modifiers (shaded):
 Cycling up hills quickly strengthens your quadriceps.
 (In this example, the adverb quickly is a squinting modifier. It is unclear
whether quickly pertains to Cycling up hills or strengthens.)
 Taking a moment to think clearly improves your chances.
 (In this example, the adverb clearly is a squinting modifier. It is unclear
whether it modifies to think or improves.)
 Saving lives often induces pride.
 (We do not know whether often relates to saving lives or induces pride.)
 She told her nephew eventually the dog would have to go back to its
owner.
 (Does eventually relate to told or would have to go back?)
 Public speakers who pause briefly refocus their audience.
 (Does briefly relate to pause or refocus?)

Practice: Give a structural representation to this sentence, using both tree diagrams and
labeled brackets:

1. The man in the store bought a new book with a blue cover.

Exercise 2: The following sentences are structurally ambiguous. For each sentence, give the
possible interpretations and the corresponding tree diagram:

1. They say she went yesterday.

2. The mother hit the boy with a stick.

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Exercise 1: Lexical Categories Identify the lexical category of the underlined

word in each sentence (give mopho-syntactic evidence).
1. There has been some improvement in the past week.
2. In the past, there has not been much improvement.
3. He is ill past hope
4. How could one possibly renounce to worldly pleasures and earthly delights
5. He feels that you are in the wrong”
6. She guessed wrong
7. I clean forgot her name
8. I need your help
9. You needn’t worry about the test
10. She is buying a daily.
11. She is writing a daily paper
12. The child fell down.
13. They went up and down the stairs
14. He's been so down lately
15. Down your drinks please
16. They talked about the ups and downs of the business cycle
Exercise 2: Labeled Bracketing : Represent the structure of the sentences below
using labeled bracketing:
1. The children put the toys in the box
2. John hit the ball
3. The boy bought apples
4. My friend ran home
5. The boy seemed incredibly stupid to that girl
6. My brother bought an expensive car on Tuesday
Exercise 3: tree Diagrams:
A/ Draw a tree diagram to represent the different syntactic components of the
following sentences.

• The guy met the researcher.

• The smart guy met the researcher.
• The smart guy met the famous researcher.
• Now, create a labeled & bracketed analysis of the above sentences.

B/ Draw tree diagrams that correspond to the following phrases/

sentences
 took the money
 took the money from the bank
 the girl saw a dog
 A dog followed the boy
 You saw it
 The old tree swayed in the wind
 The children put the toy in the box
 The small boy saw George with a crazy dog recently
 You will help me
 Will you help me?

Exercise 3 : Structural Ambiguity Draw two phrase structure trees

representing the two interpretations of the sentences below:

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1. This job is for old men and women

2. The magician touched the child with the wand
3. The boy saw the man with the telescope.
4. The man killed the king with a knife
5. Jane hid the letter from Dan
6. He likes raw vegetables and meat
7. The teacher spoke to the boy with a smile

[S [noun John] [verb phrase [verb hit] [noun phase [determiner the] [noun ball]]]] Fig

[S [NP [D the] [N boy] ] [VP [V seemed] [AP [Adv incredibly ] [Adj

stupid ] ] [PP [P to ] [NP [D that ] [N girl ] ] ] ]]
[S[NP[Det the][N boy]][VP [V bought ] [NP[N apples]]]]]

1) [S[NP[Det My][N friend]] [VP[V ran] [AdvP [Adv home]]]].

2) [S[NP[D My][N brother]] [VP [VP[V bought][NP[D an][AP[A

expensive]] [N car]]] [PP[P on][NP[N Tuesday]]]]].

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AMBIGUITY ANSWER KEY

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Jane hid the letter from Dan

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Labeled Bracketing

[S [noun John] [verb phrase [verb hit] [noun phase [determiner the] [noun ball]]]] Fig

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[S [NP [D the] [N boy] ] [VP [V seemed] [AP [Adv incredibly ] [Adj

stupid ] ] [PP [P to ] [NP [D that ] [N girl ] ] ] ]]
[S[NP[Det the][N boy]][VP [V bought ] [NP[N apples]]]]]

1) [S[NP[Det My][N friend]] [VP[V ran] [AdvP [Adv home]]]].

2) [S[NP[D My][N brother]] [VP [VP[V bought][NP[D an][AP[A

expensive]] [N car]]] [PP[P on][NP[N Tuesday]]]]].

Annie whacked the man with an umbrella.

• Same surface structure

• BUT different deep structure

• What are the two possible meanings/ the two distinct deep structures/ two distinct
underlying interpretations here?

• The boy saw the man with the telescope.

• Small boys and girls

• Our syntactic analysis should be capable of showing the structural distinction between
these underlying representations.

Structural ambiguity: a situation in which a single phrase or sentence has two (or more)
different underlying structures and interpretations

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