ENG 4839: Structure of English

Prepared by Sidratul Moontaha Mitul

Assistant Professor, Department of English, FASS

Lecture 7-9: Syntax, Sentence and Phrases

Outline of the Class
• What is Syntax?
• Sentence- Simple vs. Multiple Sentence
• Grammatical Units
• Constituents, constituency, Immediate constituents
• Chain and choice relationships (syntagmatic and paradigmatic)
• Grammatical hierarchy
• Embedding, Subordination, Coordination
• Immediate Constituent (IC) Analysis
• Exercises
 Syntax
What is Syntax?
The set of rules, principles, and processes that govern the
structure of sentences in a given language, specifically word
order and punctuation, is called SYNTAX
The basic feature of syntax in most languages is the
sequence of Subject(S), Verb(V) and Object(O)
For English language this order is:
S+V+O
I (S) like(V) movies(O).
# weekday BUP I to go every.
# I go to BUP every weekday.
Syntax
In linguistics, syntax is the study of the rules, or
patterned relations, that govern the way words
combine to form phrases and phrases combine
to form sentences.

The word originates from the Greek words συν

(syn), meaning co-or together, and τάξις (táxis),
meaning sequence, order, or arrangement.
Syntax 2
Syntax concerns itself with the possible and impossible
phrases in any human language.
That is, it describes what a sentence is in terms of rules that
specify what sequences of words are permissible.
The combinatory behavior of words is governed by their part
of speech (noun, adjective, verb, etc.), a categorization that
goes back in the Western tradition to the Greek grammarian
Dionysius Thrax).
Syntax 3
Dionysius Thrax (Διονύσιος ὁ Θρᾷξ) (170 BC - 90
BC).

The first extant (knyg. išlikęs) grammar of Greek,

Art of Grammar (Tékhnē grammatiké) is attributed
to him but many scholars today doubt that the
work really belongs to him.
Syntax 4

Modern research into natural language attempts to

systematize descriptive grammar and to find general laws
that govern the syntax of all languages.

Briefly put, syntax is the study of the rules that describe

what a well-formed or grammatical sentence is.
What is a Sentence?
The largest structural unit in terms of which the
grammar of a language is organized can be called a
sentence.
Specifically, it is a linguistic object put together
entirely in accordance with the rules for
constructing sentences in a language: rules which
have to be identified (in a linguistic description) by
patient and painstaking investigation.
Sentence 2

More particularly, a sentence does not have to be something

which somebody might reasonably say, and not everything
that we might reasonably say is a sentence.
Mike: Where’s Susie?
Alice: In the library.
Noam Chomsky’s famous example sentence:
Colourless green ideas sleep furiously.
Sentence 3
A further point is that a sentence is not just a
string of words; rather, it is a string of words
with a grammatical (syntactic) structure
assigned to it.

Visiting relatives can be a nuisance.

 Visiting relatives can be a nuisance.
Visiting relatives can be a nuisance. Visiting relatives can be a nuisance.
Sentence 4
I saw her duck.
I saw her duck. I saw her duck.
 Sentence 5
Time flies like an arrow;
fruit flies like a banana.

PRAGMATICS makes
the useful distinction
between the abstract
sentence and the actual
spoken or written
utterance.
 Types of Sentence Structure
1. Simple Sentence

2. Compound Sentence

Multiple
3. Complex Sentence
Sentences

4. Compound - Complex
Sentence
Simple Sentence
•Contains only 1
independent clause
•An independent clause
is a group of words (with
a subject and a verb)
that express a complete
thought.
 Compound Sentence
•Contains at least two
independent clauses
(coordinate clauses)
•These clauses are joined
together by using
COORDINATING
CONJUNCTIONS (like but,
and so, or, yet, however etc.)
or semicolon
•He was unhappy about it, and
yet he did what he was told.
 Complex Sentence
•Contains an independent
clause and a subordinate
clause (dependent clause) (if,
although, when, till,
because etc.)
•A subordinate clause is a group
of words that have a subject and
a verb but does not express
complete thought.
•When I last saw you, you lived
in Washington.
Compound-Complex
Sentence

•Compound-Complex
sentences are a mash-up
of compound and
complex sentences

•They contain at least two

independent clauses
and at least one
subordinate
clause
Grammatical Units

In order to state general rules about the construction of

sentences,
it is necessary to refer to units smaller than the sentence
itself, i.e. CLAUSE, PHRASE, WORD, MORPHEME.

The relation between one unit and another unit of which it is

a part is CONSTITUENCY.
 Grammatical description of a clause

Clause
/ / \ \
[Noun Phrase] [Verb Phrase] [Adjective Phrase] [Adverb Phrase]

(Det N) (Aux Main verb) (Adv Adj) (Adv Adv)

(1)The evenings have turned very cold just recently

/evening-s/ /turn-ed/ /recent-ly/

Figure 2.3d (from Quirk et al.)

 2.4-2.6 Constituents p39-40
Figure 2.3d above (from Quirk et al.1985) shows constituents simply as
the smaller parts into which a unit can be divided;

CONSTITUENCY– the relation between one unit and

another unit of which it is a part

CONSTITUENT – any part of a sentence which is regarded

as forming a distinct syntactic unit within the overall
structure of the sentence

IMMEDIATE CONSTITUENT – the parts into which another

unit is immediately divisible, e.g.
 2.4-2.6 Constituents p39-40
Identify (immediate) constituents:

(1) [The evenings] [have turned] [very cold] [just recently]

VP [have turned]-->have + turned

 2.5-2.6 Chain and choice relationships p41-42

• Chain – syntagmatic, i.e. ‘and’ relationship,

➢ X + Y (a sequence of morphemes)
• Choice – paradigmatic, i.e. ‘or’ relationship,
➢ X/Y
(1) [The weather] [has been] [very cold] [just recently]
[It ] [was] [cold] [recently]
 Definitions: chain and choice
• SYNTAGMATIC relations exist between 2 elements
which are simultaneously present in a single structure
(x + y, the + evenings, V + O, etc.)

• PARADIGMATIC relations exist between 2 elements

which are competing possibilities (x/y, substitution)
'the weather = it'
 2.7 The grammatical hierarchy p42 - 43

• Units of grammar may be placed in a hierarchy in terms of their

POTENTIAL SIZE or EXTENSIBILITY as follows:
• HIGHEST UNIT: SENTENCE
CLAUSE
PHRASE
WORDS
LOWEST UNIT: MORPHEMES
• By MORPHEME we understand a minimum unit of form and
meaning; e.g., a whole word (forget), an inflection such as –s
(forget+s), or a word-formation affix, such as un-, -ful (un+forget+ful).
 2.8 Embedding p43 - 44
• The above hierarchy still represents an oversimplified view
of the relation between units. In example
(4) Some students will be working late in their
rooms,
• the PP in their rooms contains as a constituent another
phrase, the NP their rooms.
• This is an example of the phenomenon of EMBEDDING
which accounts for the indefinite extensibility of certain
units of grammar.
 2.8 Embedding p43 - 44
• This means that, by repeated embedding, both a NP and a
PP can be indefinitely extended:
→NP: some students [at [the college [on [the other side [of
[the park [at the north end of...
→PP: on [the top floor [of [a house [in [the corner [of [the
old square [behind the church...

• EMBEDDING can be defined as the occurrence of one unit

as a constituent of another unit at the same rank in the
grammatical hierarchy (phrase and clause level)
 2.9 Subordination p44 - 46
• Another kind of embedding occurs when one clause is
made a constituent of another clause: the case is
described as subordination.
(5) The weather has been remarkably warm.
(6) We returned from Italy last week.
(7) The weather has been remarkably warm since
we returned from Italy last week.
 2.9 Subordination p44 - 46
• Clauses which are embedded in other clauses (e.g.,
since we returned from Italy last week) are
SUBORDINATE clauses.

• The subordinate clause is parallel in its function to the

adverb phrase such as just recently in (1) and is
termed an 'adverbial clause'. /What kind? – give the
name
 2.9 Subordination p 44 - 46

• Embedding gives rise to the theoretical possibility of

grammatical units having indefinite length.

• The familiar nursery chant The House That Jack Built

shows how repeated subordination of one relative clause
to another leads to the construction of sentences of ever-
increasing length:
 Subordination Cont…
This is the house [that Jack built
This is the malt [that lay in the house [that Jack built
This is the rat [that ate the malt [that lay in the house
[that Jack built
This is the cat [that killed the rat [that ate the malt
[that lay in the house [that Jack built, etc.
 2.10 Coordination p46-47
• The principle of indefinite extensibility is also present
in grammar in another respect: two or more units of
the same status on the grammatical hierarchy may
constitute a single unit of the same kind.

• This type of construction is termed COORDINATION,

and is signalled by the coordinating conjunctions and,
or, but:
(8) You can go [by air] or [by rail].
 2.10 Coordination p 46-47
• Coordinated units can be clauses, phrases, and words. The
number of coordinated constituents is open-ended.
➢Coordination of clauses:
(9) It was Christmas day, and the snow lay thick on the ground.

➢Coordination of prepositional phrases:

(10) You can go by air or by rail.

➢Coordination of noun phrases:

(11) His son and his daughter live in London.
Immediate Constituent (IC) Analysis
Immediate Constituent Analysis, also called IC
Analysis, in linguistics, is a system of grammatical
analysis that divides sentences into successive
layers, or constituents, until, in the final layer, each
constituent consists of only a word or meaningful
part of a word.
The term was introduced by the American linguist
Leonard Bloomfield in 1933
It was further developed by Roulon Wells and Zellig
Harris
 EXERCISES
Ex. 1. Analyse the sentences given below.

(a) Identify which phrases/clauses are joined by subordination

and which by coordination;
(b) Identify the phenomenon of embedding.
1) When I last saw you, you lived in Washington.

2) He was unhappy about it, and yet he did what he was told.

3) If you treat her kindly, she'll do anything for you.

4) They have lit a fire because I can see the smoke rising.
5) I may see you tomorrow, or I may phone later in the day.

6) You can neither write elegantly, nor can you write clearly.

7) It was Christmas day, and the snow lay thick on the ground.

8) You can go by air or by rail.

9) The weather has been remarkably warm since we
returned from Italy.

10) The room has a large window which faces south.

11) They live on the top floor of a house in the corner of the
old square.
12) You can sleep on the couch or you can go to a hotel.

13) John plays the guitar, and his sister plays the piano.

14) We live in the house by the bridge over the river.

15) Both Peter and John refuse to visit the place again.

16) He neither smoked cigars nor cigarettes.

17) Buy your tickets as soon as you reach the station.