Syntax: The Analysis of

Sentence Structure
Lance Joshua S. Castro
Introduction to Linguistics (ENG113A)
Panimulang Linggwistika (FIL113A)
 Not much can be said
with a single word.

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 We say that an utterance is
grammatical if native speakers judge
it to be a possible sentence of their
language. Hence, (2) is grammatical,
but (1) is not.

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 • This lecture will focus on syntax, the
component of grammar that is concerned
with the form of grammatical sentences.
• The starting point for work on syntax is the
universally accepted idea that words belong
to categories of different types (nouns,
verbs, and so on) and that these categories
can be combined in particular ways to form
phrases—and ultimately, sentences.

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One widely accepted way to represent the
internal structure of sentences makes use of
‘tree diagrams’:

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 • Structures like this are built by two
interacting operations.
• A Merge operation combines words to
create larger phrases and sentences,
and a Move operation can carry an
element to a new position within the
structure.

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Categories and
Structure
 • A fundamental fact about words in all human
languages is that they can be grouped together
into a relatively small number of classes called
syntactic categories or parts of speech.
• This classification reflects a variety of factors,
including the types of meaning that words
express, the types of affixes that they take, and
the types of structures in which they can occur.

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A potential source of confusion in the area of word
classification stems from the fact that some items can
belong to more than one category.

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 How then can we determine
a word’s category?

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 One criterion involves meaning.
For instance, nouns typically
name entities (‘people and
Meaning things’), including individuals
(Harry, Sue) and objects (book,
desk). Verbs characteristically
designate actions (run, jump),
sensations (feel, hurt), and states
(be, remain)…

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 Most linguists believe that
meaning is only one of several
Inflection criteria that enter into
determining a word’s category.
Inflection can also be very
useful for distinguishing among
different categories of words.

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 A third and often more reliable
criterion for determining a
Distribution word’s category involves the type
of elements (especially
functional categories) with which
it can co-occur (its distribution).

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 For example, nouns can typically
appear with a determiner, verbs with
an auxiliary, and adjectives with a
degree word.

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In contrast, a noun cannot occur with an auxiliary, and a
verb cannot occur with a determiner or degree word.

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Phrase Structure
 • Sentences are not formed by simply
stringing words together like beads on a
necklace.
• Rather, they have a hierarchical design in
which words are grouped together into ever
larger structural units called phrases — the
door, to the door, go to the door, and so on.

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As a first approximation, it is often suggested that the
internal structure of phrases follows the design shown in
figure 5 (X' is pronounced ‘X-bar’).

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 However, it is common (and practical!) to represent tree
structures in an abbreviated way, without the intermediate
X', when there is no specifier and/or complement, as shown
in figures 5.5 and 5.6.

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The Merge Operation
Combines words in a manner compatible with the X' Schema.

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Sentences
 The largest unit of syntactic analysis is
the sentence. Sentences typically consist
of an NP (often called ‘the subject’) and a
VP that are linked together by an abstract
category dubbed ‘T’ (for ‘tense’).

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 • As illustrated in figure 5.10, T serves as the
head of the sentence, taking the VP as its
complement and the subject NP as its
specifier (+Pst = past, –Pst = non-past).
• What we think of as a sentence or a
sentential phrase, then, is really a TP.

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 • The tense feature in T must be compatible
with the form of the verb. So, a sentence like
the one in figure 5.10, whose head contains
the feature + Pst, must contain a verb
marked for the past tense (hence, found
rather than find ).

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 • Although somewhat abstract, this analysis
has the advantage of giving sentences the
same internal structure as other phrases
(with a specifier, a head, and a complement),
making them consistent with the X' Schema.
• Moreover, because T, like all heads, is
obligatory, we also account for the fact that
all sentences have tense (i.e., they are all past
or non-past).

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 • The TP structure also provides us with a
natural place to locate modal auxiliaries
such as can, may, will, and must, most of
which are inherently non-past, as shown by
their incompatibility with time adverbs such
as yesterday: *He can/will/must work
yesterday.

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 • Although traditionally called auxiliary verbs,
modals are treated as instances of the T
category in contemporary syntactic analysis,
• Because modals have inherent tense, we will
assume that it is not necessary to have the
feature ±Pst in the T position when they are
used.

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 • This structure neatly accounts not only for
the fact that modals express an inherent
tense but also, for their positioning between
the subject (the specifier) and the VP (the
complement)—in the position reserved for
the head of the sentence.

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Let’s check our
knowledge!
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Tests for phrase structure
• How can linguists be sure that they have
grouped words together into phrases in the
right way?
• The existence of the syntactic units, or
constituents, found in tree structures can be
independently verified with the help of special
tests.

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1. The substitution test
• One piece of evidence for syntactic units comes
from the fact that they can often be replaced by
an element such as they, she, he, it, do so , and
so on. (This is called a substitution test.)

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2. The movement test
• A second indication that at the corner forms a
constituent is that it can be moved as a single
unit to a different position within the sentence.
(This is called a movement test .)

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3. The coordination test
• Finally, we can conclude that a group of words
forms a constituent if it can be joined to another
group of words by a conjunction such as and, or,
or but . (This is known as the coordination test
since patterns built around a conjunction are
called coordinate structures.)

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Complement
Options
Complement Options
• How can we be sure that individual words will
occur with a complement of the right type in the
syntactic structures that we have been building?
• Information about the complements permitted
by a particular head is included in that head’s
entry in a speaker’s lexicon.

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Complement Options
• The term subcategorization is used to refer to
information about a word’s complement
options, such as the fact the verb devour
belongs to a verb subcategory that requires an
NP complement.

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 • When a verb’s complement options include
an NP, as in the case of devour, give, buy ,
and so on, it is said to be transitive, and its
NP complement is often referred to as its
direct object.
• Verbs like vanish, arrive, and dash that don’t
have an NP complement are called
intransitive.

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 • A word can belong to more than one
subcategory, such as eat.
• Of course, not all verbs exhibit this flexibility
(devour VS eat).
• Some heads can take more than one
complement. The verb put is a case in point,
since it requires both an NP complement and
a PP complement (or a locative adverb such
as there).

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Here again, subcategorization ensures that
particular heads can appear in tree structures only
if there is an appropriate type of complement.
Thus, the adjective sick takes an of-PP as its
complement, while the adjective satisfied takes a
with-PP.

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Complement Clauses
• All human languages allow sentential phrases
(or ‘clauses’, as they are often called) to function
as complements.

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 • The bold-faced bracketed phrase in (16) is
called a complement clause; the larger
underlined phrase in which it occurs is called
the matrix clause.
• Words such as that, whether, and if are
known as complementizers (Cs). Together
with their TP complement, they form the CP
(complementizer phrase).

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When a CP occurs in a sentence such as (16), in which it
serves as complement of the verb hope, the entire
sentence has the structure in figure 5.15.

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 There is no limit on the number of embedded clauses
that can occur in a sentence, as (17) shows.

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Move
 • As we have seen, it is possible to build a very
large number of different sentences by
allowing the Merge operation to combine
words and phrases in accordance with the X'
Schema and the subcategorization
properties of individual words.
• Nonetheless, there are still many kinds of
sentences that we cannot build.

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Yes-no Questions

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A defining feature of yes-no questions is that the
auxiliary verb occurs at the beginning of the sentence
rather than in its more usual position to the right of the
subject, as illustrated in (19).

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 • How does the word order in (18) come
about?
• The formation of question structures requires
the use of an operation that we can call
Move.
• Traditionally known as a transformation
because it transforms an existing structure,
Move transports the item in the T position to
a new position to the left of the subject.

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 • This analysis has at least two advantages. First, it
allows us to avoid positing two types of modal
auxiliary verbs in English: one that occurs between
the subject and the VP and one that occurs to the
left of the subject.
• Thanks to Move, all modal auxiliaries belong in the
same place—in the T position, from which they can
then be moved to the left of the subject in order to
signal a question.

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 • Second, the use of Move automatically captures
the fact that the sentence Should those guys
leave? is the question structure corresponding to
Those guys should leave.
• According to the analysis presented here, both
sentences initially have the same basic
composition.
• They differ only in that the Move operation has
applied to the T category in the question structure.

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A Landing Site for T
• In what position does the modal auxiliary ‘land’
when it is moved to the left of the subject?
• One promising idea assumes that TPs occur
within a larger CP ‘shell’, in which the C position
carries information about whether the sentence
is a statement or a question.

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A Landing Site for T
• For the sake of illustration, we use the symbol
+Q to indicate a question; sentences with the
feature −Q in their C position will be interpreted
as statements.

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• In some languages, the Q feature is ‘spelled out’
as a separate morpheme.
• In languages like English, where there is no such
morpheme, the feature must attract another
element to its position. The modal auxiliary in
the T position is that element.

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As illustrated in figure 5.17, T is drawn to the C
position, where it attaches right next to the +Q feature.

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• A Move operation can do no more than change an element’s
position. It does not change the categories of any words and it
cannot eliminate any part of the structure created by the
Merge operation.
• Thus, should retains its T label even though it is moved into
the C position (it changes its address, not its name).
• Moreover, the position that T formerly occupied remains in the
tree structure. Called a trace and marked by the symbol t, it
records the fact that the moved element comes from the head
position within TP.

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The Move operation used for yes-no questions is often
informally called Inversion; it can be formulated as
follows.

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Interesting evidence that T does in fact end up in the C
position comes from patterns such as (22), which
contain an embedded CP. Here, the C position in the
embedded clause is occupied by the complementizer
whether.

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• To summarize, we have introduced two changes into our
system of syntactic analysis.
• First, we assume that TPs occur inside CP shells even when
there is no visible complementizer.
• Second, we assume that the Inversion transformation moves T
(and its contents) to the C position in order to indicate a
question.
• In addition to giving the correct word order for the question
structure, this analysis helps explain why the result of applying
Inversion sounds so unnatural when the C position is already
filled by another element.

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Thank you for
listening!

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