Syntax

Syntax: Heads and Phrases

• Words are organized into phrases and clauses
• Each phrase is of a particular syntactic
category (Noun Phrase, Verb Phrase, Adjective
Phrase,, ect), and each has a head (noun,
Verb, Adjective, etc)
• Phrase structure rules provide us with a way
to draw, or diagram phrases and to capture
certain important generalizations about how
syntactic structure is organized.
 Cont…
• The largest phrase is the clause, a syntactic
unit consisting of a subject and a predicate.
• Clauses are independent or subordinate,
depending on whether they are contained in
larger phrases.
 Syntax
• System of rules and principles that describe
how we organize words into phrases and
phrases into larger units, the largest being the
clause; also the study of this system.
• The position of the word in the sentence is
often the only way we know its syntactic
category (parts of speech).
• E.g: The girl goes on many long walks.
The girl walks the dogs.
 Cont…
• 1. walks is a noun;it occurs to the right of long,
the adjective that modifies it.
• 2. walks is a verb; it occurs after the subject
the girl, and before the object, the dogs
• Syntax is that words can be grouped or
combined in certain ways.
• E.g. Six hungry gorillas spotted the
sandwiches.
• Six hungry gorillas spotted the sandwiches.
 Cont..
• Sentence is a general term for a long string of
words but sentences can be made up of one
or more clauses, syntactic units.
e.g. The gorillas thought that they spotted the
sandwiches when they were strolling through
the jungle.
The sentence above contains two smaller
clauses.
 Cont…
• Phrase: syntactic unit (NP, VP, etc.) headed by
a syntactic category (N,V,etc).
• Independent and dependent clause
 Nouns and Noun Phrases
• The granflons ? Nonsense word– Parts of speech?
Noun because English nouns usually follow a certain
set of words (in this case, the determiner, the)
• Quantifiers, numerals, and determiners are all
functional categories (Det)
• * eight all dogs , all eight dogs
• Certain nouns need no determiner at all; generic nouns
and mass nouns.
• E.g. Lions roar. (generic plural noun)
• Madawi makes lovely jewelry. (mass noun)
 Cont…
• Proper names usually occur without
determiners, too.
• Sarah walked in the door. (proper noun)
• *The Sarah walked in the door.
• Some proper nouns do take determiners,
however,
• The Eifel Tower is an amazing building.
• The New York Mets played a game yesterday.
 A phrase Structure rule for noun
Phrases
• Phrase structure– a system of rules that
organizes words into larger units or phrases.
• Descriptions and generalizations about the
syntax of nouns and the categories that
introduce nouns are aspects of phrase
structure and can be expressed by phrase
structure rules for the larger syntactic unit,
the Noun Phrase, or NP.
 Cont.

• In phrase structure rules, items in parentheses

are optional.
e.g. NP – (D) N
D – these, six, all, every, the/a
“ an NP can contain a determiner (optional) and
must contain a noun.”
The syntactic structure is divided into phrases
and each phrase must have a head.
 Cont…
• So a NP must contain at least a noun and a VP
must contain at least a verb.
• The head of the phrase is the most important
part because it determines the category of the
phrase.
• All the elements that combine to form a
phrase are called constituents. So, N is the
head of NP, a phrase that can also include D.
Both D and N are constituents of NP.
 Cont…
• A graphic representation of phrase structure:

NP NP

these mangoes four mangoes

NP

all mangoes
 Verb and Verb Phrases
• Verbs in English has 5 forms: infinitive,
present tense, past tense, present participle,
and past participle
• Syntactically, verbs can be divided into three
groups: auxiliary, main, and modal
Main verbs: feel, go, eat, run, hope
Afnan feels happy.
Deema went on a trip.
 Cont…
• Ashwag ate kabsa.
• Obama hopes to win the election
• Samar ran the Marathon.
Auxiliary verbs: have, be
Fatimah has eaten too much candy
Noura is running for his life.
Modal verbs: may,might,shall, should, will, would,
can, could, must
Hanadi may, might, shall, should, will, would, can,
could, must go on a cruise.
 Cont…
• Auxiliary, main, and modal verbs occur in a
certain order in English. The following sentences
illustrate the various combinations of the main
verb read with auxiliary and model verbs. These
combinations follow a particular syntactic
pattern:
• Thekra should have been reading under the
umbrella.
• Afrah should be reading under the umbrella.
• Faridah should read under the umbrella
 Cont…
• Latifah read under the umbrella.
• *Thekra have should been reading under the
umbrella.
• *Afrah should reading be under the umbrella.
• *Faridah read should under the umbrella.
In addition to a main verb, the VP can include as
many as 3 other verbs. These options include a
modal (which, if present, must come first) and as
many as two auxiliary verbs, forms of have or be.
 Cont…
• Modal + have+ be+ main verb
Might have been sleeping
• Modal+ have + main verb
Might have slept
• Modal + be+ main verb
Might be sleeping
• Modal + main verb
might sleep
 Cont…
• Have + main verb -- has slept
• Have + be + main verb-- has been sleeping
• Be+ main verb -- is sleeping
• Main verb-- slept
• Main verbs are not optional in the sentence:
(modal) (have) (be) main verb
 A Phrase Structure Rule for Verb
Phrases
• VP – (Aux) V
• Aux – modal, have , be
With these rules, we can draw the following trees:
VP VP VP

Aux V Aux V V
Has eaten will eat eats
 Cont…
• Negation– causing a statement to have the
opposite meaning by inserting not between Aux
and V.
• Negation: have/be/modal + not
Tarfah is not playing a game of chess.
Ara has not played a game of chess.
Dania must not play a game of chess.
Main verbs can’t occur in this position:
*Dana played not a game of chess.
 Subject-Auxiliary Inversion
• Subject-auxiliary inversion (SAI) is a movement of an
auxiliary verb to sentence initial position (preceding
the subject) to form a question.
• E.g. Nouf is singing the Nasyid.
Is Nouf singing the Nasyid?
Razan has played an excellent game of
tennis.
Has Razan played an excellent game of
tennis?
Rawan can play an excellent game of basketball.
Can Rawan play an excellent game of basketball?
 Cont…
• Main verbs in English cannot undergo SAI.
• E.g. Nouf sings the Nasyid.
*Sings Nouf the Nasyid?
Another difference between English main verbs
and Aux verbs is that only Aux verbs can occur
in tag questions, questions that are added on
to the end of the sentence by a rule we’ll refer
to as tag question formation.
 Cont….
• E.g. Nouf is singing the Nasyid, isn’t she?
Razan can’t play tennis, can she?
Rawan has played an excellent game of
basketball, hasn’t she?
Main verbs cannot occur in tag questions, which is
why we cannot produce sentences such as this:
*Rawan played an excellent game of basketball,
playedn’t she?
 Cont….
• To summarize the difference between Aux
and main verbs in English: Only Aux verbs
--- undergo SAI
---occur to the left of not
---show up in tag questions
 English Do insertion
• What happens if there is no auxiliary element in a
sentence?
• E.g. Nouf sings/sang the Nasyid.
• Rawan plays/played a game of basketball.
• In such a case, do is inserted. This is done in cases
where the modal and the aux are absent.
• Do insertion
• To perform subject-auxiliary inversion, negation, and
tag question formation, insert do in Aux if Aux is
otherwise empty.
• Emphatic do functions as something that is stressed.
 Adjectives and Adjective Phrases
• Adjectives are describing words: tall, happy,
enormous.
• They can be modified by members of the
functional category Deg which stands for degree,
such as so, too, very, rather, quite
• The [rather enormous ] hog.
Deg Adj
Phrase structure rule for adjectives:
AP—( Deg) A
Deg--- very, so, rather
 Adjective Phrase Positions
• Adj modify N, they occur in certain positions. One position is called
prenominal position, or before a noun in a noun phrase.
• E.g the enormous hog
• six enormous hogs
• all very happy children
• They can also occur in postnominal position, right after the noun in
a NP
• E.g. Something wicked
• the options available
• the heir
• So the phrase structure rule for NP to include pre and post nominal
adjective phrases:
• NP---(D) (AP) N (AP)
 Cont…
• Adjective phrases also occur in predicate
position, immediately after linking verbs—verbs
that link the subject with an adjective phrase that
describes it.
• Examples of linking verbs: remain, appear,
become, and be, and “sense” verbs feel,
taste,look, smell, and sound.
• The hog remained/appeared/became/is/seemed
enormous.
 Cont…
• The beef tasted/smelled very funny.
• The VP rule looks like this:
VP--- AuxV (AP)
 Adverbs and Adverb Phrase
• Not all adverbs end will –ly
• E.g still, never, often, fast, usuallyy, just perhaps,
even, fortunately, once, twice, also, forcibly,
sometimes
• Adverb phrases can also be modified by degree
(Deg) words such as:
• Very dejectly, so slowly, awfully happily
• Some adverbs that can’t be modified by degree
words are; *very once, *so sometimes,
• *awfully yet
 Cont…

• Phrase structure rule for adverb phrases:

Adv– (Deg) Adv
Adverb phrases modify verbs and even the entire clauses.
They contribute information about time, manner,
reason, place, or cause (among other things).
E.g. They marched clockwise around the field. (manner)
Luckily, the beagle ate the dog food before the cat did.
(speaker attitude)
The dog always runs around after he eats. (frequency)
The dishes aren’t done yet. (aspect: completion)
 Adverb Phrase Positions

• Most adverb phrases can occur at the beginning or at

the end of the sentence, and many can also appear in
positions internal to the sentence.
• E.g. Happily/luckily/still, the beagles ate their
dog food.
The beagles happily/luckily, still ate their dog food.
The beagles ate their dog food happily/luckily/still.
So Adv phrases can occur anywhere, with some
restrictions.
Draw the tree diagrams--
Prepositions and Prepositional Phrases
• Prepositions are in the functional category
because they are closed class, we don’t add
prepositions to the language.
• But prepositions have complex meanings such
as these phrases:
• Near the table and on the table– and for this
reason, prepositions are best categorized as a
lexical category.
 Cont..
• Syntactically, prepositions are typically
followed by NP objects:
• In/on/under/over/around/above the rocks
(preposition + NP)
• Some prepositions can be modified by degree
words such as right, straight, clear, e.g:
• She ran right/straight/clear
into/on/under/over/around/above the rock
 Cont…
• Prepositions can also be followed by a VP and
another PP.
• You should never eat right before going for a run.
• You can see wildflowers growing out under the
tree
• Phrase structure rule for Prepositional Phrase:
• PP ---- (Deg) P (XP)
• Draw the tree diagrams:
 Cont…
• PP can occur in a number of different
positions in the clause.
• After verbs in a VP.
• She [slept under the stars/in a sleeping
bag/on a bed of straw].
• Another common position in which we find PP
is in NP, as a modifier of N.
• [She picked the grey kitten with white paws]
 Summary
• Phrase structure rules are just a way of
representing some of the basic unconscious
knowledge we all have as speakers.
• NP– (D) (AP) N (XP)
• D– that, ten, some, the
• VP– Aux V (XP)
• Aux—modal, have, be
• AP—(Deg) A
 Cont..
• AdvP--- (Deg) Adv
• PP --- (Deg) P (XP)
• Deg– very so, too, clear, etc*
• * the member of the category Deg that modify
prepositions are a little different from those
that modify adjectives or adverbs.
 Clauses
• Clause—syntactic phrase made up of at least a
subject (NP) and a predicate (VP)
• Is the largest syntactic phrase made up of NP
+ VP. The NP is the subject and the VP
predicate.
• Phrase structure rule for clauses (CI):
CI---NP VP
Examples: the tapir is eating leaves
 cont
• The very dirty worm seemed sad
CI

NP VP

D AP N AUX V AP
Deg A A
The very dirty worm seemed sad
 Subjects and Predicates
• A subject is usually the doer of the action, but not all are
agentive. Some examples are:
• It is raining.
• There is a mouse in the hallway.
• That is simply ridiculous!
• Semantic definition of the subject is different from the
syntactic one.
• Example: The cat chased the mouse. (active)
• The mouse is chased by the cat. (passive)
• The NP (2nd e.g) the mouse is in the syntactic subject
position. Subject of a sentence is from the syntactic
position.
 Cont…
• The predicate of a sentence is rather difficult
to describe in terms of meaning, but simple to
describe it syntactically: the predicate is the
VP of the clause.
• The predicate is syntactically everything that’s
not the subject:
• The cat chased the mouse.
• The mouse was chased by the cat.
Independent and Subordinate clauses
• Subordinate clause is a clause that is
contained in another constituent.
• E.g. I think that Sumaya claimed
that Atheer believed
that Amal said
that Abeer detests chocolates.
The above sentence has a NP and a very large
VP. All the underlined clauses are subordinate.
 Cont…
• Draw a tree diagram.
• Subordinate clauses come in a variety of types.
• E.g. The teacher thinks that Bashayir is very intelligent.
• We wonder who took the exam.
• The students believe the teacher to be kind.
• That birds can fly is a proven fact.
• The person whom I know from work was on the news
yesterday.
• The entire (largest) clause is called an independent
clause because it is not contained inside another
constituent.
 What is a sentence?
• A sentence can include any number of clauses (both
independent and subordinate) and, when written, can
be of any length.
• Using different types of punctuation (colons,
semicolons, dashes) it’s possible to string together any
number of clauses and call the entire thing a
“sentence”.
• So, a sentence is (at least) a clause and sometimes
more. A short sentence, then could be something like
Leave!
• Sentence is more of an abstraction than a syntactic
unit.