Syntax

4rth Stage
2023-2024
Assist. Prof. Dr. Paiman Hama Salih Sabir
The reason I am a political radical is that I work on
syntax. If I worked on semantics (which in fact I
do), I'd be a good Thatcherite.
Noam Chomsky
 Words categories
A word is the basic element in any sentence.
Words in English fall in nine groups:
1. Nouns
2. Verbs
3. Adj
4. Adv
5. Prep
6. Pronouns
7. Articles
8. conjunctions
9. Pronouns
10. Interjections (classical)
Word category and sentence category
• Word categories are nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions,…
• Sentence categories include phrases, such as NPs, VPs, Adj Ps, etc…
• Question: what is the relation between word category and sentence ?
• It is the category of the head word that determines the category of
the phrase a whole
• It is the head noun that determines the number (singular or plural)
and the gender (masculine, feminine, or neutral) of the Noun Phrase
as a whole
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Syntax

Syntax is the branch of linguistics that studies the rules that govern the
formation of sentences from words. These rules specify word order,
sentence organization, and the relationship between word order, word
classes and other sentence elements. For instance, compare:

o Emma loaded the groceries into the car.

o Emma loaded the car with groceries.

Sentence structure:
categories
The 3rd Chapter
 • Consider the following word strings:
a. their tactics
b. their suspicious tactics
c. *their rather tactics
Nouns d. *their tactics suspecious jokes
and Noun e. *their rather tactics jokes
phrases !Rather specifies the degree of the
suspiciousness= dubiousness of the
jokes.
Nouns
• Traditional definition: a noun is the name of a person, place, or
thing.
• morphological identifying feature of all nouns is that they have a
genitive (or possessive) form. For example,
• Bill’s (as in Bill’s pancakes or those are Bill’s), mud’s (as in the mud’s
consistency),
Categories
• sub-categories of the noun category. Four sub- categories of noun:
proper vs. common and count vs. mass.
proper
• Proper nouns are names, spelt with an initial capital. Examples from
the above list are: January, Frankenstein, Bugsy, Jessica, Java,
Portsmouth.
• These generally constitute Noun Phrases in their own right.
Common
• All other nouns are common nouns. What follows normally applies
only to common nouns.
Characteristics of nouns
• All common nouns can combine with the (the definite article) to form a Noun
Phrase (e.g. the accident, the mud, the cutlery). In any two-word phrase (w1 + w2)
of the form [the + w2], w2 will always be a Noun (N).
• In addition, common nouns that refer to things that can be counted – count
nouns –
• can combine with a/an (the indefinite article) to form a Noun Phrase (e.g. a
stream, an accident). In phrases of the form [a/an + w], w will always be a Noun.
• (b) can combine with numerals (one, two, three . . . ) to form a Noun Phrase, and
with expressions like several, many, etc..
• (c) can be marked for plural. The regular marking for plural is the suffix -s
(singular nouns lack this suffix). But there are several irregular plural markers:
Mass Nouns
• mass nouns refer to ‘things’ that cannot be counted (so they are
sometimes called non-count nouns).
• Examples are butter, foam, cutlery, furniture, honesty, grace.
• Mass nouns cannot normally appear in a plural form (*foams,
*butters, *honesties). Nor can they normally follow a/an (*a foam, *a
butter, *a furniture), numerals or similar expressions (*one foam,
*nine furnitures).
• But they follow some (some foam, some furniture).
• they combine with the.
• it is often possible to turn a mass noun into a count noun precisely
by modifying it with a/an, or a numeral, and/or giving it a plural form.
• Many nouns are both mass and count. For example, theory can stand
alone or with some (cf. we need to do some theory) as a mass noun,
but it can also be preceded by a and by numerals and be plural as a
count noun (a theory, theories, three theories). Other examples are
suspicion, egg, cake, and charity.
• Proper nouns, because they anyway stand for single, identifiable
individuals, do not normally have any modifiers at all or appear in a
plural form. However, in special circumstances, even they can be
modified by the or a and appear in a plural form: the Ewings (= the
Ewing family)
• Study page 49
Analysis
• Make phrases from the following noun:
• Email

• What is the phrase category? What is its head? Is it a mass or or

countable?
• The boy who is reading the blue book

• Provide examples for nouns which are both mass and count.
• Is it possible to say the Breakers? WHAT does it mean?
Structure
• The concept of structure is fundamental to the study of syntax. But it is a
very general concept that can be applied to any complex thing, whether it’s a
bicycle, a commercial company, or a carbon molecule.
Complex may mean:
• (a) it is divisible into parts (called constituents),
• (b) there are different kinds of parts (different categories of constituents),
• (c) the constituents are arranged in a specifiable way,
• (d) that each constituent has a certain specifiable function in the structure
of
• the thing as a whole
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Structure
• Therefore, when anything can be analyzed in this way, one can say it
has structure.
• Diagrams are used to show how things are analysed into their
constituent parts.

•,
What is the tree diagram for:
• Their extremely subtle tactics
phrase
• Old Sam sunbathed beside a stream.
NP

N
Adj
Extended NP
• The very muscular gentleman lit a cigar
this is known as an expanded noun phrase which gives
more detail or information about a noun in a simple noun
phrase.
• extended Np is usually done by adding adjectives to describe
the noun in the noun phrase, for example:
• a huge tree, some colourful sweets, the large, royal castle
• She walked through the dark, mysterious forest.
• So, it is the head noun that determines what sort of thing or person
the whole NP refers to.
Q. What is the expanded noun phrase in this sentence:
The sparkling blue lake glistened in the sunlight.
• Study page 51-52
• NPs can consist just of a head Noun. As regards proper nouns – i.e.
names (e.g. Max) – these do not, as names, admit of any modification.
They are full NPs in their right
Avan is a student.
• NP

AVAN
 Head
• The head of a phrase is the element that the phrase is
centred on. It is the one essential – or obligatory –
element in that phrase.
• If you think of the phrase as a solar system, then the head is the sun.
Np head
Let’s analyse NPs ..using phrase marker
• They brightly decorated the wooden house for the holiday.
Two methods to identify Noun phrases
1. By relacing the NP with a pronoun.
• their extremely subtle tactics – they, them
• their extremely subtle tactic – it
• an extremely subtle actress – she, her
• an extremely subtle actor – he, him.
2. By asking with Wh- words:
My mother is a very good cook.
Who is a very good cook? My mother.(Np.)
 verbs
A verb is a member of a word class like nouns or adjectives,
adverbs ,etc.
As one word like (find) or more than one word like (sit
down) which expresses :
1.the existence of a state (seem, look. Appear, taste, love,
etc…
2. the doing of an action (play, chat, affect, run,
hunt,cut,shut…..
Two facts are basic
• Verbs are used to show:
1. The distinction in time such as past, present, future through tense
with the adverbs.
2.Auxiliary verbs are used with the main verbs to convey more
meanings such as aspect, modality.
Verb phrase
• A verb phrase consists of one or more verbs, that must contain a head.
• Next week, we will have been living here for ten years.
Major verb classes
• Verbs are divided according to their functions into; open (full
verbs)&closed class (auxiliaries)
• Full verbs such as go, help, understand
• Aux: do, be, have, may, can, be about to….
• If there is only one verb within the VP it is the main verb,
• BUT MORE THAN ONE verb clustering. THE final verb is the main
others are known to be auxiliaries.
 Full and auxiliary verbs
• Full verbs have regular and irregular forms.
• Full verbs have four morphological forms (-s, ing, ed1. ed2).
• Assumes, assuming, assumed, assumed.
• Auxiliaries are divided into primary and the modals.
• Primary covers verbs (to be , to do, to have)
• Primary is used as they have the primary function.
• Modals those vs. convey modal meanings.
 operator
• The major syntactic fun. Of aux. is an operational function.
• Operator: a single word has operational func. they have the NICE
features.
• What is meant by NICE?
•N
•I
•C
•e
Characteristics of the operator
1. The negative particle ‘Not’ is attached to them in negative sentences.
e.g: He may arrive- He may not arrive
2. In interrogatives, they initiate the sentence
e.g: I will be here in time-Will you be here in time?
3. They carry nuclear stress to show positivity of finite clause.
e.g: He ‘does the job by himself.
4. They function in elliptical clause where predication is omitted..
Sara will be a doctor and so will I.
Aso did not answer and Aram did not either.
 inversion
Sentence

Aux. verbs and operator predication

subject
been studying for
She has a long time

has She
Verb phrase
• He used to play football when he was young.
• They’d better stay here.
• You would rather not be in a hurry.
• The team is not going to win.
• Our team seems to manage to keep on going beaten. (quirk et al,
185:145)
Classes of aux.

primary
The modals
modal verb classes

catenatives
marginal Semi-auxiliaries

Modal idioms

Central
The modal group
1) Central:shall,should,can,could…
2) Marginal:dare,need,ought to,used to
3) Modal idioms: had better, would rather, be to, have got to.
4) Semi-aux: start with be,have and end with (to)
5) Catenatives:appear to, come to, fail to, happen to, manage to…
• VP
• Might have learned VP

Main V
aux1 aux2
• is going

Going
Is
Identify the verb phrases, do phrase markers
for them
• He is going to complete his work.
• The farmers are about to work on their fields.
IDENTIFY THE ADJECTIVES
The great architectural interest of the royal palace didn’t
strike William at that precise moment, grotesque and
flamboyant though it was. He had eyes only for Millie’s
gorgeous purple hair. Could it be artificial? It was
difficult to believe she was so edgy as to have dyed it
such a fantastic hue. She seemed too modest and shy for
that. In silent admiration, he decided it was entirely
natural
ADJCETIVES AND ADVERBS
WHAT ARE ADJECTIVES
ADVERBS
FEATURES?
PHRASES?
Adjectives and Adverbs
• Adjectives are those word categories that modify a noun in within a grammatical
constituent.
CHARACTERISTICS
1. Adjectives can be recognized by their distribution (position) within a sentence
structure or by their form (endings)
• She is a nice woman.
• She is beautiful.
• Many adjectives have characteristic endings, such as
• -able, -al, -ate, -ful, -ic, -ing, -ish, -ive, -less, -ous, -y.
• Examples are:
• capable, economical, Italianate, beautiful, microscopic,
surprising, priggish, inventive, hopeless, eponymous, fluffy.
• There are other adjectival endings, and the endings given are only
typical of adjectives, not an infallible guide. The more common
adjectives tend not to have characteristic endings
• (e.g. nice, old, hot, short, tight, full, long, quick)
• and this goes for the colour adjectives (blue, yellow, etc.)
Characteristics of Adjectives
2. Many adjectives have the morphological possibility of taking a
comparative (-er) and a superlative (-est) suffix, as in
newer and newest, subtler and subtlest.
• Others do not (cf. *beautifuller/*beautifullest,
*dubiouser/*dubiousest) but instead may be modified by the
comparative and superlative degree adverbs more and
• most, less and least.
• Yet others have irregular comparative and superlative forms
• (good, better, best).
The Question of today..
• How many types of adjectives are there in English?
• How is the sequence of adjectives?
• Make the phrase marker for:
• Too much hard, simutanouly answered
• Subsequently arrived
• Abneurally behaved
• Smartly replied
• Totally trusted
• Too high
• Too bad
• So much fun
• extremely true,
• absolutely tired,
• So much nice
• Ambiguously arranged
Gradable adjectives.
• Adjectives that accept the -er/-est inflection or modification by degree adverbs are called
gradable adjectives.
• not all adjectives are gradable.
• non-gradable adjectives do not accept the -er/-est inflection, or modification by
degree adverb.
• some examples of non-gradable adjectives:
• atomic, dead, potential, right, main, consummate, medical, fatal, final,
second, third, supreme, unique.
• The oddity LIES IN SAYING : *dead, *deadest, *more dead, *very dead,
*rather
• dead, *too dead, *somewhat dead
• However, used metaphorically (e.g. to describe a sad and deserted night club), dead is
gradable
Adjective Phrases and Adverb
Phrases
• Rather dubious, extremely subtle, and too modest are Adjective
Phrases
• WHAT ARE THE CONSTITUENTS OF Adj Phrase:
• Adj
• Very subtle (degree adv+adj)
• general adverbs. Examples are:
• frankly, potentially, oddly, enthusiastically, immediately,
suspiciously, awkwardly, theoretically. +ADJ
• theoretically
• untenable, oddly inconclusive, diabolically tinted,
immediately recognisable.
Degree adverbs
• degree adverbs modify adjectives (specifying the degree of the
attribute expressed by the adjective). They are words having the same
distribution as rather and extremely, for example:
• very, quite, so, too, slightly, hardly, highly,
moderately, completely, increasingly, incredibly,
somewhat, etc.
GENERAL Adverbs vs degree adverbs
• General adverbs differ from degree adverbs in specifying a much
wider range of concepts than just degree.
• general adverbs can themselves be modified by degree adverbs, to
form adverb phrases (AdvPs) –
• for example, very oddly, quite frankly.
• Adverb categories
General

Adverbs

Degree
Phrase marker
• So very touchy
Adj P.

Degree adv.
SO

Degree adv.
Very
Adj
Touchy
 Prepositions (prep.) and prepositional Phrase (Prep.p)
Prepositions are generally short words that express relations, often locational
relations in space or time. they are words that show the relation ship between a noun
or a pronoun and other elements in a sentence.
examples are:
to, at, from, with, towards, within, off, by, up, down, since,
before, after, during, until, like, under, over, up,etc….
Prepositions do not always express locational concepts, : in an accident, in a
blue coat, off work, under pressure, at great speed, on the
make, like a maniac.
note :
The most commonly used preposition in the English language – of – does not
express a location (in fact, if you think about it, it’s remarkably difficult to say what
of does express).
WHAT ABOUT PRONOUNS?
• THEY CAN BE AS NPs also
• They : draw PHRASE MARKE
They are here.
• The relation between a preposition and the following
Noun Phrase is a head -complement relation.
• Notice that we can replace the PP
• beside the school
with the a single word there, or here (or where). Since these
words replace PPs, they must be prepositions.
They are prepositions that count as Prepositional Phrases in their own
right – they don’t need a complement NP to express a location. The
same goes for upstairs and downstairs. Since these two
prepositions can be seen as including a complement, they don’t need a
separate complement to express
the location.
Those single-word PPs like here, there express a spatial location. There
are single-word PPs that express temporal locations. For example the
temporal PPs in those days and at the moment can be
replaced by the single words then, now (or when). Thus , these
must be prepositions that count as PPs in their own right.
The two forms of PP considered here,
On the road
• Prep.P
 Co-ordinated phrases

Coordination is a syntactic phenomenon in which two or more elements,

known as conjuncts, are linked together, often with a conjunction to
give them equal status and importance.

For instance, the conjuncts are John and Mary, and the conjunction is and.

coordinating conjunction is a conjunction that connects words, phrases, and

clauses that are coordinate, or equal to each other. There are seven
coordinating conjunctions: for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so. They can be
remembered using the acronym FANBOYS.
Co-ordinated NPs
• Two or more nouns or Nps conjoined with /and, or, but).
• Max and Adrian are being melodramatic.
• Max and Adrian is a co-ordinate noun phrase, with Max and
Adrian coordinated by and.
• [The clowns and the acrobats] declined to co-operate.
• What is the head?
• Both nouns has a head each.
• Test to find the subject NP:
• 1. replace it with a pron.
• 2. Ask with who, SO: WHO DECLINED TO COOPERATE?
• NP

N N

Adrian
Max
Conjunction
AND
CO-ORDINATED PHRASE
• ADJ P
• ADV PPHRSE
• PREP PHRASE
• VP
• BUT NOT ODD
• AND THE EXCRCICES
Mark out the coordinated phrases, their types
and heads.
• 1. I enjoyed both hiking in the mountain and swimming in the ocean.
• She is talented in both signing and painting.
• You can choose either the blue or the white shirt.
• The book is not only intrestiong but also informative.
• He likes to play both basketball and soccer.
Subject and predicate
• Max coughed,
• birds fly
• , Empires decline,
• Martha retaliated.
• we divide sentences into two constituents, the first of which is
traditionally said to function as subject, and the second as
predicate.
• For excercises:
• https://www.myenglishteacher.eu/blog/subject-and-predicate/
 Sentence (s)

Subject Predicate
• the subject as being used to mention something and the predicate as
used to say something about the subject.
• The subject generally identifies what the sentence is about; the
predicate identifies what’s being said about it
Question test for subject:

• Turn the sentence into a question that can be answered by ‘yes’ or ‘no’ (a
yes/no question). The phrase functioning as subject is the one that changes
its position when the sentence is so changed
• Some nasty accident could have occurred.
• [The clown in the make-up room doesn’t want to perform.
• Elizabeth and Leicester are rowing on the river.
• None of her attempts to give up chocolate were really
serious.
• As a matter of fact, the man you paid to do it has been
arrested
Identify the subjects and draw a tree diagram
• It is snowing again.
• There is nothing to eat
Drawing Tree Diagram
1. He reads
2. He reads the book.
3. Lana and I read the book in the park on Tuesdays.
4. Maria’s sisters are going to the pool
5. Alan really liked the piece of artwork.
6. The door is open.
Lexical Verb complements
• According to the the complements , verbs can be categorized as:

(1) transitive,
(2) intransitive,
(3) ditransitive,
(4) intensive,
(5) complex transitive,
(6) prepositional.
Transitive Verbs
• A transitive verb is one which requires a single Noun Phrase to
complement it. dread, make, spot, throw, and inspect are
transitive verbs.
• The NP that complements a transitive verb is said to function (more
specifically) as its direct object. So, in Phil dreads
affectionate cats, the NP within the VP (affectionate cats)
is complementing the transitive verb dread as its direct object.
• where an NP functioning as the direct object of a verb is a pronoun,
it has a special form. This form is called the objective case (more traditionally,accusative case’).
Thus the direct object pronouns in the objective case but the corresponding pronouns in the
subjective
(traditionally, ‘nominative’) case.
• Me I
• Her she
• Him he Phill dreads ?........
• Us we
• Them they
When the form of an NP is determined by its complement relation with
another constituent, it is said to be governed by that other constituent (in this
case, the verb). Notice that this goes for NPs complementing prepositions in PPs
as well.
The preposition governs the NP, demanding that it appear in the objective
case: for him vs. *for he, against them vs. *against they. You and it are the only
pronouns that do not have a special distinct form in the objective case.
• Thus the feature [trans] is added to the tree diagram, as in example
21 (page 71) in the book.
Intransitive verbs
• An intransitive verb is one that does not require any further constituent as
a sister in the VP. ‘Intransitive’ means ‘has (and needs) no complement’.
Disappear, die, laugh, vegetate (and play on one interpretation)
are intransitive verbs. Since an intransitive verb requires no further element
to form a complete predicate, an intransitive verb counts as a complete VP
in its own right with the [intrans] feature
e.g.: William gave Mille some Bleach.
……OR:William gave some bleach to Millie.
• The PPs that correspond in this way with indirect objects are always
introduced by either to or for. See thr tee diagrams in the book.
The child slept . S

SUBJECT
PREDICATE

vp
NP

N V
{INTRANS
Ditransitive verbs

Ditransitive verbs require TWO NPs as complements.

The classic example of a ditransitive verb is give. Others are send and buy:
-William gave Millie some bleach.
-The staff sent the general a message.
-Max buys his butler all necessary work-clothes.
The first complement (the NP in bold) functions, more specifically, as the indirect
object of the ditransitive verb. Indirect objects are usually the recipients or
beneficiaries of the action. The second complement NP
(in italics) functions as the direct object – it has the same function as the
NP that complements a transitive verb. {DI-TRANS] FEATURE IS ADDED TO THE
TREE DIGARAM.
•
Prepositional verbs
• Explained in class using the white board, due to the lack of power
point in the halls.
Intensive Verbs
• Intensive verbs require a single complement, which can take the form of
an Adjective Phrase, a Noun Phrase or a Prepositional Phrase
• The most obvious and commonly used intensive verb is be, which is
called ‘the copula’.
• The complement of an intensive verb functions (more specifically) as a
predicative:
• Ahmed is rather extravagant. (AP)
• Soran was an auctioneer. (NP)
• Oscar and the First Mate were in the engine room.
(PP)
• Other intensive verbs are: become, seem, appear, turn,
remain, look, taste, feel, smell, sound.
• SORAN WAS AN AUCTIONEER.
S
SUBJECT PREDICATE

VP
Np
NP
N V [inten]
Clauses in English