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Lecture 7. Syntax and Its Object of Study

Syntax is the branch of linguistics that studies sentence structure, focusing on how words and phrases are arranged to create meaningful sentences. It examines key concepts such as sentence structure, word order, phrases, clauses, and syntactic rules, which vary across languages. Understanding syntax is essential for constructing grammatically correct sentences and effective communication.

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5 views

Lecture 7. Syntax and Its Object of Study

Syntax is the branch of linguistics that studies sentence structure, focusing on how words and phrases are arranged to create meaningful sentences. It examines key concepts such as sentence structure, word order, phrases, clauses, and syntactic rules, which vary across languages. Understanding syntax is essential for constructing grammatically correct sentences and effective communication.

Uploaded by

nurjanmajm
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Syntax and Its Object of

Study

Nurjan Jalgasov
Introduction to Syntax
• Syntax is the branch of linguistics that studies the structure of
sentences.
• It explores how words and phrases are arranged to form
meaningful, grammatically correct sentences.
• Focuses on sentence construction, word order, and
relationships between words.
What is Syntax?
• Syntax studies the rules and processes governing the
structure of sentences.
• Focuses on how words combine to form phrases and larger
sentence structures.
• Examines word order and how different sentence elements
work together.
The Object of Study in Syntax
• Syntax studies sentence structure, including the organization
and relationship of words.
• Looks at how words (subjects, verbs, objects) interact within
phrases and clauses.
• Examines word order, phrase structure, and syntactic rules in
a language.
Key Concepts in Syntax
• Sentence Structure
• Word Order
• Phrases and Clauses
• Syntactic Rules
• Transformations and Syntactic Movement
Sentence Structure
• A sentence is typically composed of a subject and a
predicate.
• The subject is what or who the sentence is about.
• The predicate tells us what the subject is doing or what is
happening to the subject.
Example of Sentence Structure
• Subject: “John”
• Predicate: “went to”
• Full Sentence: “John went to the store.”
• Subject (John) + Verb (went) + Object (the store).
Word Order in Syntax
• Word order determines the grammatical structure of a
sentence.
• English follows a Subject-Verb-Object (SVO) word order.
• Correct word order ensures clarity and proper meaning.
Example of Word Order
• Correct: “She (subject) eats (verb) an apple (object).”
• Incorrect: “Eats she apple an.”
• Word order directly affects sentence meaning and grammatical
correctness.
Phrases and Clauses in Syntax
• Phrase: A group of words that function as a unit.
• Clause: A group of words containing both a subject and a
verb.
• A clause can stand alone as a sentence or be part of a larger
sentence.
Types of Phrases
• Noun Phrase (NP): “The quick brown fox”
• Verb Phrase (VP): “has been running”
• Adjective Phrase (AdjP): “extremely tall”
• Adverbial Phrase (AdvP): “quite quickly”
Types of Clauses
• Independent Clause: Can stand alone as a complete
sentence.
Example: “I am studying for the exam.”
• Dependent Clause: Cannot stand alone and depends on an
independent clause.
Example: “Although I am tired, I will study.”
Syntactic Rules
• Syntax is governed by a set of rules that determine sentence
structure.
• These rules dictate how words and phrases are ordered and
combined.
• Syntactic rules vary across languages but follow certain
patterns.
Syntactic Tree Diagrams
• Syntactic trees visually represent sentence structure.
• The tree shows how words group into phrases and how
phrases combine to form sentences.
• Example: “The cat sat on the mat.”
• Noun Phrase + Verb Phrase + Prepositional Phrase.
Transformations and Movement
• Transformation: Changing sentence structure while
maintaining meaning.
• Syntactic Movement: Words or phrases can move within a
sentence to create different structures.
• Example: “She is going to the store” → “Is she going to the
store?” (question transformation)
Syntactic Rules Across Languages
• Different languages have different syntactic rules and word
orders.
• English follows SVO word order, but other languages (like
Uzbek, Karakalpak, Japanese) follow SOV word order.
• Syntax helps explain why sentences in different languages
are structured differently.
Why Syntax is Important
• Syntax helps us construct grammatically correct sentences.
• It ensures clarity in communication and helps express
complex ideas.
• Understanding syntax is crucial for language learning and for
analyzing how languages work.
Conclusion
• Syntax is the study of sentence structure, word order, and
how words combine in a language.
• It focuses on the relationships between sentence elements,
phrases, and clauses.
• Mastering syntax is key to understanding and producing
grammatically correct sentences in any language.
Example
• "I went to the big store in the early morning.“
• “We saw beautiful flowers in the park”
• “Leyla is reading an interesting book in the library”

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