Ahmad Ismail

3571-FLL/BSENG/S23

MORPHOLOGY AND SYNTAX

Chapter 8 :- Syntax

Syntax
Syntax is the study of how components are arranged within a sentence. It aims to analyze the rules that govern the structure of
sentences, enabling us to identify the underlying systems that generate grammatically correct sentences.

The primary objective of syntactic analysis is to develop a set of rules that can account for all well-formed sentence structures
while excluding those that are ill-formed. This is achieved by meeting the “all and only” criterion.

A well-formed syntactic rule should have the capacity to produce an unlimited number of correct sentence structures. For instance,
the rule “a prepositional phrase consists of a preposition followed by a noun phrase” can generate numerous correct phrases, such
as “near London” and “with the dog.”

An effective syntactic analysis should have a finite set of rules that can produce an infinite number of well-formed sentence
structures. This is known as a generative grammar, as it can generate sentence structures rather than simply describe them. A
generative grammar should also reveal the relationships between superficially different or similar sentences.

Deep and surface structure

The sentences “Charlie broke the window” and “The window was broken by Charlie” differ in their surface structure, with the first
being active and the second passive. However, despite this superficial difference, the two sentences share a common underlying
structure, known as their deep structure. This deep structure represents the basic components of the sentence, such as Noun
Phrase + Verb + Noun Phrase, and is an abstract level of organization that determines the structural interpretation of the sentence.

The same deep structure can give rise to multiple surface structures, such as “It was Charlie who broke the window” and “Was the
window broken by Charlie?”. A grammar should be able to show how a single underlying representation can be transformed into
different surface structures.

Structural ambiguity

Structural ambiguity occurs when a single surface structure has multiple underlying interpretations. This ambiguity is due to the
different deep structures underlying the same surface structure. For example, the sentence “Annie bumped into a man with an
umbrella” can be interpreted in two different ways: either Annie used the umbrella to bump into the man, or the man she bumped
into happened to be carrying an umbrella.

Similarly, phrases like “small boys and girls” can be structurally ambiguous, with two possible underlying interpretations. A syntactic
analysis should be able to distinguish between these different underlying representations and show the structural distinction
between them. This ability to identify and differentiate between multiple underlying interpretations is crucial for understanding the
complexities of language and the ways in which meaning can be conveyed and interpreted.

Recursion
A grammar’s rules must have the property of recursion, which allows them to be applied repeatedly to generate complex structures.
This enables the creation of sentences with multiple prepositional phrases, such as “The gun was on the table near the window in
the bedroom.”
Recursion also allows sentences to be embedded within other sentences, as in “Cathy knew that Mary helped George.” This
process can be repeated indefinitely, generating increasingly complex sentences.

The grammar must capture the ability to repeat phrases and embed sentences within others, a feature that is not unique to
language, but can also be found in other complex systems.

Tree Diagrams

Tree diagrams are a common way to visually represent syntactic structure, using symbols like Art (article), N (noun), and NP (noun
phrase) to label parts of the tree. This hierarchical organization shows the relationships between different constituents, such as
NP and VP, and how they break down into smaller parts, like Art and N.

A tree diagram is a visual representation of a sentence’s syntactic structure, showcasing its hierarchical organization. At the top
level, the sentence (S) is divided into two main constituents: Noun Phrase (NP) and Verb Phrase (VP). This division marks the
beginning of the hierarchical breakdown of the sentence.

As we move to the next level, the NP constituent is further divided into two smaller constituents: Article (Art) and Noun (N). This
subdivision continues until we reach the lowest level, where the Art and N constituents are represented by individual words, such
as “the” for Art and “girl” for N. This hierarchical structure can also be applied to the VP branches, allowing us to break down the
sentence into smaller and smaller parts to illustrate its underlying syntactic organization.

Symbols used in syntactic analysis

In syntactic description, symbols such as “S” (sentence), “NP” (noun phrase), “N” (noun), “Art” (article), “V” (verb), “VP”
(verb phrase), and “PP” (prepositional phrase) are used as abbreviations. Additionally, three more symbols are
commonly used: 1. The arrow → represents “consists of” or “rewrites as.” For example, NP → Art N indicates that a
noun phrase consists of an article and a noun. 2. Round brackets ( ) denote optional constituents.

For instance, NP → Art (Adj) N shows that a noun phrase can include an optional adjective between the article and
noun. These symbols and rules enable the representation of various grammatically well-formed noun phrases, such
as “the dog,” “the small dog,” “a cat,” and “a big cat.”

The third symbol used in syntactic description is curly brackets { }. These indicate that only one of the elements
enclosed within the curly brackets must be selected, showing a choice between two or more constituents. For example,
a noun phrase (NP) can consist of an article plus noun (Art N), a pronoun (Pro), or a proper noun (PN). This can be
represented by a single rule using curly brackets: NP → {Art N, Pro, PN}. It’s essential to remember that only one of
the constituents inside the curly brackets can be selected at a time.

The list of common symbols and abbreviations is summarized here. S sentence, NP noun phrase, PN proper noun, N
noun, VP verb phrase, Adv adverb, V verb, Adj adjective, Prep preposition, Art article, Pro pronoun, and PP
prepositional phrase. Additionally, the following symbols are used: * ungrammatical sentence, → consists of / rewrites
as, ( ) optional constituent, and { } one and only one of these constituents must be selected.

Phrase structure rules

Tree diagrams can be viewed in two ways: statically, as a representation of a sentence’s structure, or dynamically, as
a means of generating multiple sentences with similar structures. The dynamic approach is appealing because it
enables the generation of numerous sentences using a relatively small set of rules, known as phrase structure rules.

Phrase structure rules define the structure of phrases by specifying the constituents and their order. These rules can
be used to present the information in a tree diagram in a different format. For example, the information in a tree diagram
can be expressed as a phrase structure rule, such as “a noun phrase rewrites as an article followed by a noun.” A set
of simple phrase structure rules can be used to generate sentences, including rules for sentences, noun phrases, verb
phrases, prepositional phrases, and more.

The provided set of phrase structure rules includes the following: a sentence rewrites as a noun phrase and a verb
phrase (S → NP VP); a noun phrase rewrites as either an article plus an optional adjective plus a noun, or a pronoun,
or a proper noun (NP → {Art (Adj) N, Pro, PN}); and other rules for verb phrases, prepositional phrases, and more (VP
→ V NP (PP) (Adv), PP → Prep NP).

Lexical rules

To generate recognizable English sentences, we need to combine phrase structure rules with lexical rules. Lexical
rules specify which words can be used to rewrite constituents such as N (noun). For example, the lexical rule “N →
{girl, dog, boy}” indicates that the noun constituent can be replaced with the words “girl,” “dog,” or “boy.”
PN → {Mary, George}

N → {girl, dog, boy}

Art → {a, the}

Pro → {it, you}

V → {followed, helped, saw}

By applying these lexical rules to the phrase structure rules, we can generate grammatical sentences such as “A dog
followed the boy” and “You saw it.” However, these rules also prevent us from generating ungrammatical sentences
like “*Dog followed boy” and “*You it saw.” To visualize how the phrase structure rules form the basis of these
sentences, we can draw tree diagrams for sentences like “A dog followed the boy” and “You saw it.” These diagrams
illustrate how the phrase structure rules and lexical rules work together to generate well-formed English sentences.

Movement rules

The phrase structure rules presented earlier are a simplified example of a more complex phrase structure grammar of
English. These rules can be treated as a representation of the underlying or deep structures of sentences in English.
One key feature of these underlying structures is that they generate sentences with a fixed word order, which is
convenient for creating declarative forms, such as “You will help Mary.”

However, this fixed word order is not suitable for creating interrogative forms, such as questions. For example, to form
the question “Will you help Mary?”, we need to move the auxiliary verb “will” from its original position to the beginning
of the sentence. This process is based on a movement rule, which allows us to rearrange the components of a sentence
to form different types of sentences.

To describe this movement rule, we need to expand our phrase structure rules to include an auxiliary verb (Aux) as
part of the sentence. This is illustrated in the rewrite rule S → NP Aux VP. Auxiliary verbs, also known as “helping”
verbs, take different forms in English, such as “can”, “could”, “should”, “will”, and “would”. We also need a lexical rule
that specifies the basic forms of the verbs, such as “follow”, “help”, and “see”. With these components, we can specify
a simple movement rule that is involved in the creation of one basic type of question in English.

The movement rule NP Aux VP ⇒ Aux NP VP is a special type of rule that uses the symbol ⇒ to indicate the
transformation of one phrase structure into another. This rule can be illustrated through the process of deriving one
tree from another, as shown in the example. The rule takes the underlying structure “You will help Mary” and transforms
it into the surface structure “Will you help Mary?”.

Using this simple movement rule, we can generate various questions, such as “Can you see the dog?”, “Should George

follow you?”, “Could the boy see it?”, and “Would Mary help George?”. These questions are all surface structure
variations of a single underlying structure, demonstrating the power of movement rules in generating different sentence
forms. However, despite this progress, we have yet to incorporate recursion into our grammar rules, which is an
essential aspect of natural language.

Back to recursion

To capture the complexity of natural language, we need to incorporate recursion into our phrase structure rules.
Recursion allows us to include sentence structures within other sentence structures, which is essential for creating
complex sentences. In traditional grammar, these embedded sentence structures are referred to as “clauses.” For
example, the sentence “Mary helped George” can be embedded within another sentence, such as “Cathy knew that
Mary helped George.” This process can be repeated recursively, as in “John believed that Cathy knew that Mary helped
George.” To accommodate these complex sentences, we need to expand our lexical rules to include additional proper
nouns and verbs, such as PN → {John, Cathy} and V → {believed, knew}.

Complement phrases

The word “that” plays a crucial role in introducing a complement phrase (CP) and is therefore referred to as a
complementizer (C). In the sentence “Cathy knew that Mary helped George,” the complement phrase “that Mary helped
George” is introduced by the complementizer “that.” Since “Mary helped George” is a sentence (S), we can define a
complement phrase as “a complementizer and a sentence,” represented by the rule CP → C S.

Furthermore, in the same sentence, the complement phrase “that Mary helped George” appears after the verb “knew,”
indicating that it is part of a verb phrase (VP). This suggests that there is another rule at play, which states that “a verb
phrase rewrites as a verb and a complement phrase,” or VP → V CP. This rule highlights the importance of complement
phrases in forming verb phrases, particularly in sentences where a verb is followed by a clause introduced by a
complementizer.

The two new rules, VP → V CP and CP → C S, when combined with the earlier rule S → NP VP, demonstrate how
recursion is built into the grammar. This set of rules allows us to start with the symbol S and, through a series of
rewrites, end up with the symbol S again. This recursive process enables us to create complex sentences with multiple
embedded sentence structures, potentially leading to endless sentences.

The recursive nature of these rules is illustrated in the tree diagram, which provides a clear representation of the
syntactic structure of a complex sentence. For instance, the sentence “John believed that Cathy knew that Mary helped
George” can be broken down into its constituent parts, showcasing the hierarchical structure of the sentence. As we
delve deeper into the analysis of complex English sentences, it becomes apparent that more rules and concepts are
necessary to capture the intricacies of syntactic structure. However, having explored the fundamental principles of
syntactic analysis, we can now proceed to examine how meaning is incorporated into the study of language.

EXERCISE

1 What is the “all and only” criterion?

The “all and only” criterion refers to the idea that a set of rules or a grammar should generate all and only the
grammatical sentences of a language. In other words, the rules should produce every possible grammatical sentence,
and exclude every possible ungrammatical sentence

2 Do phrase structure rules represent deep structure or surface structure?

Phrase structure rules represent deep structure. Deep structure refers to the underlying syntactic structure of a
sentence, which may not be immediately apparent from the surface form of the sentence. Phrase structure rules are
used to generate deep structures, which can then be transformed into surface structures through the application of
transformational rules.

3 In what ways are these expressions structurally ambiguous?

(a) The parents of the bride and groom were waiting outside.
(b) We met an English history teacher.
(c) Flying planes can be dangerous.
(d) The students complained to everyone that they couldn’t understand.

Structural ambiguity arises when a sentence has more than one possible deep structure, leading to multiple
interpretations. Here are the analyses of the given expressions:

(a) “The parents of the bride and groom were waiting outside.” This sentence is ambiguous because it can be
interpreted in two ways: either the parents of the bride and the parents of the groom were waiting outside, or
the parents of the couple (bride and groom) were waiting outside.
(b) “We met an English history teacher.” This sentence is ambiguous because “English” can be interpreted as
either an adjective modifying the noun “history teacher” (meaning a teacher of English history) or as an
adjective modifying the noun “teacher” (meaning a teacher from England).
(c) “Flying planes can be dangerous.” This sentence is ambiguous because “flying” can be interpreted as either
a verb (meaning the act of flying planes is dangerous) or an adjective (meaning planes that fly are dangerous).
(d) “The students complained to everyone that they couldn’t understand.” This sentence is ambiguous because
it can be interpreted in two ways: either the students complained to everyone present that they couldn’t
understand something, or the students complained to everyone that the students themselves couldn’t
understand something.

4 Which of the following expressions would be generated by this phrase structure Rule: NP → {Art (Adj) N,
Pro, PN}?

(a) A lady (c) her (e) the widow

(b) The little girl (d) Annie (f) she’s an old woman

The correct answers are: (a) a lady, (b) the little girl, (c) her, (d) Annie, and (e) the widow. These expressions can be
generated by the phrase structure rule NP → {Art (Adj) N, Pro, PN}.

5 Which of these sentences would result from applying the rule: NP Aux VP ⇒ Aux NP VP?

(a) John will follow Mary. (c) Can George see the dog?
(b) You knew that Cathy helped the boy. (d) Should you believe that Mary saw it?

The correct answers are: (c) Can George see the dog? And (d) Should you believe that Mary saw it? These sentences
result from applying the rule NP Aux VP ⇒ Aux NP VP, which moves the auxiliary verb to the beginning of the sentence.

6 Using information from the phrase structure rules presented in this chapter, complete the following tree
diagrams.

Here are the completed tree diagrams:

 (a) S

NP VP

Art NP V NP

The girl saw you

(b) S

NP VP

N S

| VP

John knew that you V NP

| | helped Art Adj N

| | the small boy