Syntax as a Part of Grammar.

The Word-group
Lecture 10
 Grammar Structure
Morphology Syntax Text Grammar /
Discourse Analysis

deals with word deals with deals with connected

forms combining words speech and
(morphemes and into word groups correlation ‘culture’
words) and sentences and ‘language’.
Basic units of
discourse analysis :
discourses – texts in
social contexts
 Morphology vs. Syntax
Paradigmatic & syntagmatic studies

Jill opened the letter

Jill opens the newspaper
Jill was opening the book
Jill has opened the magazine
Jill had opened the door
 Morphology Syntax
• studies connections
between forms actually • studies connections
found in different between words actually
sentences and used together in the
extracted from their sentence.
natural surroundings. • Syntax is syntagmatic.
• Morphology is
paradigmatic.
 Syntagmatic morphology
• the study of phrases ‘n+n", "adj+n", "v+n" and
the like.
Paradigmatic syntax deals with variations:
• My friend is a dancer.
• My friend is not a dancer.
• Is my friend a dancer?
• My friends are dancers, etc.
Are these variants of one and the same sentence or
different sentences?
Syntax – the study of syntagmatic relations
of words
 The Scope of Syntax
• Approaches to syntax study:

1. Formation of word groups within sentences (W.Lily,

J.Brightland, R.Lowth).
2. The structure of sentences (Port-Royal Grammar,
M.V. Lomonosov, F. I. Buslaev).
3. The structure of both the word- groups and the
sentences (A.I. Smirnitsky, B.A. Ilyish).
4. Word groups, sentences and superphrasal unities
(L.S. Barchudarov).
 A.I.Smirnitsky
1. The analysis of sentence structure - the main problem of
syntax, while the other task is secondary.

2. The joining of words into a word group - the first step, which
precedes the formation of a sentence.

3. A word group is not complete either structurally or

semantically (not a unit of communication).

4. A sentence can function as an independent utterance, but a

word group functions only as an element of a sentence.

5. Sentences are units of speech, while word groups are units

of sentence structure.
 The Word Group.
Different approaches to word-group classification

• The word group - a basic unit of syntax and a

linguistic sign. The threefold approach should be
applied to the analysis of word groups.

• A word group - a logical and grammatical

combination of two or more words naming a
complex phenomenon, which do not form a sentence
(a beautiful flower, to work hard, in our house, etc).
 The terms
• A word group (British & Russian linguists).
• A phrase or word cluster (American linguists).
1. A narrow approach (form & meaning) by V.V. Vinogradov

A word group - a logical and grammatical combination of at

least two notional words joined by means of subordination.

Predicative word groups, such as ребенок читает, она

играет and the like, are treated as sentences.

Prepositional phrases (на столе, в университете) and

groups of notional words joined by coordination (молодой
и красивый, жить и работать, etc.) are excluded.
 A broader approach (L.S.Barchudarov)
• A phrase - a group of syntactically connected
notional words in a sentence.

The threefold approach

The meaning is represented by notional words,

the form - by different types of syntactic
connection,
the function of word groups as parts of the
sentence is also transparent.
 Classification of Word groups:

1. subordinate phrases;
2. coordinate phrases;
3. predicative phrases (secondary predication
We saw them fighting).
- Subject + predicate: He reads, they listen -
sentences, not word groups.
 The Broadest Approach
(M.Y.Bloch, B.A.Ilyish and V.V.Burlakova)

It includes phrases combinations with function words and

phrases with primary predication (subject + predicate).

M.Y. Bloch’s classification of phrases:

The basis - syntagmatic relations of the phrase constituents.
1. Notional phrases: traffic rules, to go fast, etc.
2. Formative phrases: with difficulty, out of sight, etc.
3. Functional phrases: from out of, so that, up to, etc.
 B.A. Ilyish’s classification of phrases:

The basis - function in the sentence.

1. Notional phrases perform the function of a part of a sentence
(subject, predicate, object, attribute, and adverbial modifier),
the combination of the subject and predicate belongs here.

2. Functional phrases do not perform any syntactic function in

the sentence, and whose function is equivalent to that of a
preposition, conjunction, etc.
 V.V.Burlakova’s classification of phrases

The basis – the inner form.

1. headed vs. non-headed,

2. progressive vs. regressive,
3. belonging to the same vs. different parts of speech,
exposing different types of relations between their
constituents.

Combinations of the subject and predicate are

phrases.
Варвара Васильевна Бурлакова (1905 -2000)
 The broadest possible sense
A word group is any combination of two or more words
grammatically organized.

The constituents of a word group may belong to any part of speech:

1. n+n (gold ring, Moscow streets),
2. adj+n (dirty work, cold weather),
3. prep+art+n (at the table, on the roof),
4. art+n+prep+art+n (a house in the forest, a girl from the village),
etc.

All types of syntactic relations (coordination, subordination,

predication, etc.) are possible to identify the combination of
words as a word group.
 Leonard Bloomfield
(1887-1949)

• A phrase is any combination of words

grammatically organized.
• The basis of the classification - syntactic functioning within a
sentence.

1. Endocentric phrases are those having components which (one or

any) can substitute for the whole phrase.
• Poor John ran away. John may substitute for Poor John - John ran
away. - Poor John is endocentric.
2. An exocentric phrase cannot substitute for the whole phrase:
John ran, beside John.
 Endocentric Phrases Exocentric Phrases

1. coordinate (John and 1. predicative (John ran) –

Mary) - syntactic type of syntactic type of relation.
relation. 2. prepositional (beside John)
2. subordinate (poor John) – – morphological part of
syntactic type of relation. speech: preposition.
The advantages of the broadest approach

It assigns any combination of two or more words grammatically

organized to word groups.
1. It gives us an opportunity to analyze different types of word
groupings within a sentence.
2. It treats as word groups such combinations as "he reads", "we are",
"I am" and the like.

- the group "a man writes” may be changed in accordance with its
paradigm (men) – (wrote, has written, etc.).

A phrase is a unit of nomination.

A sentence in addition to nomination correlates its contents with reality.
 The third (broadest) approach

• A word group - any combination of two or more words

grammatically organized.

• The grammatical organization of the word group - a system

of opposed syntactic relations between its components.

• These relations form syntactic categories.

 Types of syntactic relations between words
in a word group and in a sentence
Words are combined first and foremost on the basis of their
semantics, i.e. because there are certain connections and
associations between objects and phenomena in real life.

• to eat fish and chips,

• to drink coke,
• *to eat coke,
• *to drink fish and chips".

Valency - potential properties of linguistic units.

 Sometimes lexical connection between words is
decisive for identifying its grammatical structure
• Her sister is teaching English (the Present Continuous form).
• Her hobby is teaching English (a link verb and a gerund in the function of the
predicative.

Sometimes the same grammatical structure acquires a different

grammatical meaning because of the semantics of its member-
words:

The meaning of the genitive case (possession):

• George's room,
• the boy's books,
• a doctor's degree, doctor's arrival, doctor's tears.

Syntax is concerned with the grammatical relations between words in a word

group and in a sentence
 Coordination
implies grammatical equality of words joined together
• Syndetic coordination: George and Helen (are my
cousins);
• Asyndetic coordination George, Helen (and Margaret are
my cousins).

Only homogeneous parts can be combined with the help

of coordination.
• A.I.Smirnitsky: this type of connection between words
("copulative") develops only parts of a sentence but not
the sentence itself.
 Subordination
• implies inequality in the grammatical status of words
joined together.

• George's' room (room is the head),

• old George (George is the head),
• write correctly (write is the head).

There are synthetic and analytical means of expressing

subordination.
 
 Synthetic means of Subordination
Agreement is a kind of relation in which the subordinated word
takes a form similar to the form of the head word.

1. Prof. Ilyish: agreement only in "this" and "that“: his/that book -

these/those books.

2. Gorrel, Laird: agreement can be used in reference to words, which

belong to different word groups:
When everybody has given his opinion, the committee can decide
"everybody“ ("their" instead of “his”).
3. Кверк и др.: Agreement (concord) in number, person and gender is
found between the subject and the object : He injured himself in
the leg.
4. Agreement / concord - the subject and the predicate - (R.Quirk,
 Government
is a kind of relation, in which the form of the subordinate word
is determined by the head word, but is different from the head
word.

• The verb governs the object expressed by a personal pronoun :

to see him, to invite me, to help them, etc.
Government with some limitations:
• "at the chemist's",
• "to the butcher's”

• The use of the genitive case: doctor's advice, children's toys, etc.
 Analytical means of subordination
The fixed word order identifies the head word and the
subordinated word: leather coat - coat leather, marble floor - floor
marble.
1. Joining - components of a word group do not change their form:
nod his head silently.

2. Enclosure - some element of a phrase is enclosed between two

parts of another element: the then government, a heavier-than-
usual mail load.

Prepositions together with nouns, pronouns and gerunds form

word groups, which are subordinated to some external
component: to live in peace, the man of property, to write to them,
etc.
 Interdependence vs. predicative relations
• Interdependence - relations between the subject and the
predicate.
• Reciprocal relations: the subject dominates the predicate
determining its person and number: / am, he reads, they have,
etc.
• The predicate dominates the subject ascribing to it some action,
or state, or quality: He works (action). He is married (state). He is
clever (quality).
• The term “predicative relations" refers to the sentence.
• The term "interdependence“ has the same logical and semantic
background as the terms "coordination" and "subordination" and
may be used in relation to word groups.
 Cumulation
1. his new coat - his and new are subordinated to coat (fixed
position);
2. some old letters - some and old are subordinated to letters
(fixed position).

Cumulation is the rules of arranging the attributive chain

in a word group:
all the ten fine old stone houses.
Cumulative relations - to write John a letter.
Syntactic relations: to change their position only with the
help of the preposition "to": "to write a letter to John ".
 Apposition
1. Queen Mary - both words are heads and both are also attributes.
The words in apposition are identical in reference:
Alfred the King;
Mr. Smith,
the lawyer;
the novel Great Expectations;
the house, an imposing building, etc.
• The category of syntactic relations between words in a word group
comprises the following five types of relations:
coordination -subordination - interdependence - cumulation -
apposition.
• These are internal syntactic relations between components of a
word group.
Relations between words in terms of
parts of the sentence
• Professor Smirnitsky :
1. Predicative relations - between the subject
and the predicate;
2. Attributive relations - between an attribute and its head
word;
3. Completive relations - between the predicate and an
object or other secondary parts of the sentence;
4. Copulative relations - between homogeneous parts of the
sentence.
Traditional grammar: predicative, attributive, objective
and adverbial types of relations between words and word
groups in the sentence.
 External syntactic relations
• predicative, attributive, objective & adverbial
Internal syntactic relations
• coordination, subordination,
interdependence, cumulation and apposition.
• These two sets of opposed syntactic relations form two
syntactic categories:
1. the semantic-syntactic category of internal relations
between words in a word group
2. the functional-syntactic category of external relations
between words and word groups in the sentence,

The two categories intersect, when interdependence and

 Summary

1. Syntax is the study of syntagmatic arrangement of words.

2. The scope of syntax comprises both the word group and
the sentence.
3. According to the broadest approach a word group is a
combination of any two or more words syntactically
organized.
4. There are two syntactic categories characteristic of word groups:

- the semantic-syntactic category of internal relations between

the components of a word group, which is an opposition of
coordination-subordination-interdependence-cumulation-
apposition.

- the functional-syntactic category of external relations between

words and word groups in a sentence, which is a set of opposed
predicative, attributive, objective and adverbial relations.

5. The components of word groups are characterized by ample

combinability.