English syntax part 1 notes | Lecture notes English Language

Syntax

- a branch of linguistics concerned with syntactic rules/patterns of a particular language which its users employ to generate/identify

surface units capable of activating a particular communicative reading

- syntactic rules – a chess game parallel (Wittgenstein, F. de Saussure) a closed set of combination rules to generate

syntactic units

Syntactic chaining

- syntactic units – syntagmas (structure/realization) show surface and cognitive chaining

- structure depends on syntactic relations/ functions - surface chains (limited in number)

- cognitive/theta frames (chaining of semantic/theta/ thematic/ cognitive roles)

- valency – minimum units in a frame/chain

Method of analysis

- Depending on a starting point:

1 surface chains (semasiology) – grammatical relations

2 cognitive frames (onomasiology) – syntactic meaning

Semasiological approach

- Syntactic segments (syntactic units or syntagmas) - linear chunks of language signs by the use of which language speakers are

able to render certain syntactic information.

Syntactic pyramid

- Sentence, Clause, Semiclause, Phrase, Word, Morpheme

- Constituency - the relation between one unit and another unit of which it is a part of

Chain and choice relationships

- The principle which allows both unitaw and multiple constituents of a grammatical unit goes against the commonsense

understanding of 'parts' and 'whales', and therefore needs some justification.

- The justification lies in a distinction between Chain (ie syntagmatic) and Choice (ie paradigmatic) relationships among- ling-

uistic constituents. The chain relationship is an 'and' relationship, whereas the choice relationship is an 'or' relationship.

- Thus if two units X and Y occur one after the other in a larger unit, they are in a chain relationship, X + Y. But if X and Y can be

substituted for one another in a larger unit, they are in a choice relationship, X/Y

Embedding

- accounts for the indefinite extensibility of certain units of grammar.

1 Subordination

- one clause is made a constituent of another clause

- Clauses which are embedded in other clauses (eg: since we returned from Italy last week) are Subordinate clauses, and they

are often introduced by a subordinating Conjunction

- Subordination of clauses is not confined to clauses which are immediate constituents of other clauses.

- There are also clauses (especially those termed relative clauses; which are constituents of phrases, and which therefore are only

indirectly embedded within a larger clause.

2 Coordination

- two or more units of the same status on the grammatical hierarchy may constitute a single unit of the same kind

- typically signalled by a link-word termed a conjunction: in this case a Coordinating conjunction. - but, and

Layers of syntactic analysis

- The layer of word and sentence

- The old man had taught the boy to fish and the boy loved him.

- / The old man had taught the boy to fish and the boy loved him./

- The/ old/ man/ had/ taught/ the/ boy/ to/ fish/ and/ the/ boy/ loved/ him/.

The layer of clause

- the number of autosemantic verbs delimits the number of clauses

- /The old man had taught the boy to fish/ and /the boy loved him/

Clause versus semi-clause (the Prague School tradition)

- Both share

o the presence of the Verb

- BUT! With semi-clauses

o the form of the verb is non-finite (infinitive, gerund, participle)

o dependent on the superordinate clause

- The old man had taught the boy /to fish/ and the boy loved him.

The layer of Phrase, Phrase rank tests

1 Transposition

- The/ old/ man/ had/ taught/ the/ boy/ to/ fish/...

- Old* the* man had/ taught/ the/ boy/ to/ fish/...

2 Substitution

- The old man had taught the boy to fish...

- That young fisherman had taught the boy to fish...

3 Coordination

- The old man and that young fisherman had taught the boy to fish...

- Phrase Structure of clause

- The old man/ had taught/ the boy/ to fish/...

Cognitive/Question test

- an intuitive identification of cognitive roles activated by a particular Phrase syntactic segment on the level of Clause

- The old man had taught the boy to fish.

- Who had taught the boy? the old man

- Whom did he teach? the boy

- What did he teach the boy? to fish

- WHO does WHAT to WHOM

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Syntax

a branch of linguistics concerned with syntactic rules/patterns of a particular language which its users employ to generate/identify surface units capable of activating a particular communicative reading
syntactic rules – a chess game parallel (Wittgenstein, F. de Saussure) a closed set of combination rules to generate syntactic units Syntactic chaining
syntactic units – syntagmas (structure/realization) show surface and cognitive chaining
- structure depends on syntactic relations/ functions - surface chains (limited in number)
- cognitive/theta frames (chaining of semantic/theta/ thematic/ cognitive roles)
- valency – minimum units in a frame/chain Method of analysis
Depending on a starting point: 1 surface chains (semasiology) – grammatical relations 2 cognitive frames (onomasiology) – syntactic meaning Semasiological approach
Syntactic segments (syntactic units or syntagmas) - linear chunks of language signs by the use of which language speakers are able to render certain syntactic information. Syntactic pyramid
Sentence, Clause, Semiclause, Phrase, Word, Morpheme
Constituency - the relation between one unit and another unit of which it is a part of Chain and choice relationships
The principle which allows both unitaw and multiple constituents of a grammatical unit goes against the commonsense understanding of 'parts' and 'whales', and therefore needs some justification.
The justification lies in a distinction between Chain (ie syntagmatic) and Choice (ie paradigmatic) relationships among- ling- uistic constituents. The chain relationship is an 'and' relationship, whereas the choice relationship is an 'or' relationship.
Thus if two units X and Y occur one after the other in a larger unit, they are in a chain relationship, X + Y. But if X and Y can be substituted for one another in a larger unit, they are in a choice relationship, X/Y Embedding
- accounts for the indefinite extensibility of certain units of grammar. 1 Subordination
- one clause is made a constituent of another clause
- Clauses which are embedded in other clauses (eg: since we returned from Italy last week) are Subordinate clauses, and they are often introduced by a subordinating Conjunction
- Subordination of clauses is not confined to clauses which are immediate constituents of other clauses.
- There are also clauses (especially those termed relative clauses; which are constituents of phrases, and which therefore are only indirectly embedded within a larger clause. 2 Coordination
- two or more units of the same status on the grammatical hierarchy may constitute a single unit of the same kind
- typically signalled by a link-word termed a conjunction: in this case a Coordinating conjunction. - but, and Layers of syntactic analysis
The layer of word and sentence
The old man had taught the boy to fish and the boy loved him.
/ The old man had taught the boy to fish and the boy loved him./
The/ old/ man/ had/ taught/ the/ boy/ to/ fish/ and/ the/ boy/ loved/ him/. The layer of clause
- the number of autosemantic verbs delimits the number of clauses
- /The old man had taught the boy to fish/ and /the boy loved him/ Clause versus semi-clause (the Prague School tradition)
Both share o the presence of the Verb
BUT! With semi-clauses o the form of the verb is non-finite (infinitive, gerund, participle) o dependent on the superordinate clause
The old man had taught the boy /to fish/ and the boy loved him. The layer of Phrase, Phrase rank tests 1 Transposition
- The/ old/ man/ had/ taught/ the/ boy/ to/ fish/...
- Old* the* man had/ taught/ the/ boy/ to/ fish/... 2 Substitution
- The old man had taught the boy to fish...
- That young fisherman had taught the boy to fish... 3 Coordination
- The old man and that young fisherman had taught the boy to fish...
Phrase Structure of clause
- The old man/ had taught/ the boy/ to fish/... Cognitive/Question test
an intuitive identification of cognitive roles activated by a particular Phrase syntactic segment on the level of Clause
The old man had taught the boy to fish.
Who had taught the boy? the old man
Whom did he teach? the boy
What did he teach the boy? to fish
WHO does WHAT to WHOM

- HOW/WHERE/WHEN/WHY?

Syntactic layers 1 Sentence

the highest-ranking unit of grammar, and hence that the purpose of agrammatical description of English is to define, by means of whatever descriptive apparatus may be necessary (rules, categories, etc), what counts as a grammatical sentence in English a) Simple Sentence - the sentence consisting of a single independent clause b) Multiple Sentence - subsuming complex and compound sentence - for all sentences which consist of more than one clause, either through subordination or through coordination.
/The old man had taught the boy to fish and the boy loved him./ 2 Clause
/The old man had taught the boy to fish/ and /the boy loved him/.
tvpes: Subject Verb Object Complement Adverbial Type SV Someone was laughing. Type SVO My mother enjoys parties. Type SVC The country became totally independent. Type SVA I have been in the garden. Type SVOO Mary gave the visitor/a glass of milk. Type SVOC Most people consider these boks rather expensive. Type SVOA You must put all the toys upstairs.
The seven fall naturally into three main types.
There are:
a two-element pattern: SV
three three-element patterns: SV + O/C/A
three four-element patterns: SVO + O/C/A
Active and passive structures
clauses containing a noun phrase as object are distinguished by the fact that they are usually matched by passive clauses, in which the object noun phrase now appears as subject (V,,,, = passive verb phrase)
as type SVOO clauses have two objects, they can often have two passive forms - one in which the indirect object becomes the subject, and another in which the direct object becomes subject.
this correspondence permits us to convert clauses of types with an object into equivalent types without objects (or, in the case
of SVOO, with only one object).
In all passive clause types, the agent by-phrase, which incorporates a noun phrase equivalent to the subject of the corresponding active clause, has the structural status of an optional adverbial.
even when the agent by-phrase is absent, however, there is an implication of its presence at the level of meaning.
the agent by-phrase acts as complementation of the passive verb. 3 Semi-Clause
The old man had taught the boy /to fish/ and the boy loved him. 4 Phrase
the constituents which function as elements of clause structure are either phrases or subordinate clauses
the five formal categories of phrase: verb phrases, noun phrases, adjective phrases, adverb phrases, and prepositional phrases. a) Verb Phrases - consist of a main verb which either stands alone as the entire verb phrase, or is preceded by up to four verbs in an auxiliary function: was, has been, must have been, may have been being; b) Noun Phrases - consist of a head, which is typically a noun, and of elements which (either obligatorily or optionally) determine the head and (optionally) modify the head, or complement another element in the phrase: determinant, premodifier, head, post-modifier, complementation c) Adjective Phrases - consist of an adjective as head, optionally preceded and followed by modifying elements
Sometimes an obligatory or optional complementation is added. d) Adverb Phrases - are similar to adjective phrases in their structure, except that they have an adverb, instead of an adjective, as their head e) Prepositional Phrases - consist of a preposition followed by a prepositional complement, which is normally a noun phrase
The old man/ had taught/ the boy/ to fish... 5 Word
Word classes a) Closed Classes - the sets of items are 'closed' in the sense that they are only exceptionally extended by the creation of additional members: a moment's reflection is enough for us to realize how rarely in a language we invent or adopt a new or additional pronoun
preposition - of, at, in, without, in spiteof
pronoun - he, they, anybody, one, which
determiner - the, a, that, every, some
conjunction - and, that, when, although
modal verb - can, must, will, could
primary verb - be, have, do b) Open Classes - Items belonging to such a class have broadly the same grammatical properties and structural possibilities as its other members, but the class is 'open' in that it is indefinitely extendable. New items are constantly being created, and no one could make an inventory of all the nouns (for example) in English, and be onfident that it was complete.
noun - John, room, answer, play
adjective - happy, steady, new, large, round
full verb - search, grow, play
adverb - steadily, completely, really c) Numerals - one, two, three;first, second, third d) Interjections - oh, ah, ugh,phew

Onomasiological vs Semasiological analysis

The old man had taught the boy to fish and the boy loved him.
Semasiological approach: to identify syntactic frames consisting of slots for words (14), phrases (6), semiclauses (1), and clauses (2) in a sentence.
Onomasiological approach: to identify the onomasiological/cognitive/theta chains – 2 main theta chains:
- WHO – DO WHAT- TO WHOM - WHAT and WHO – DO STH – WHOM?
- slots and 3 slots (identical with clause elements slots)
/The old man /had taught /the boy/ to fish / and /the boy/ /loved/ him/. Structure - Function terms and concepts Aspects of analysis → Ranks in the Syntactic^ Structure terms^ Function terms Pyramid ↓ Sentence simple sentence compound sentence (copulative, adversative….) complex sentence (nominal, relative, adverbial dependent clause) speech-act functions: statement, question, command, wish… grammatical types: declarative, interrogative, imperative, optative, exclamative Clause main/matrix clause dependent clause Subject Object Adverbial Subject Complement Object Complement Postmodifier Semiclause gerund (-ing - present participle) participle (-ing/-ed) infinitive (to + verb) Subject Object Adverbial Subject Complement Object Complement Premodifier Postmodifier Prepositional Complement Phrase noun phrase, verb phrase, adverb phrase, adjective phrase, prepositional phrase Verb Subject Object Subject Complement Object Complement Adverbial (Adjuncts, Disjuncts, Conjuncts) Premodifier Postmodifier Word parts of speech: noun, verb, adjective, adverb…^ Head Navigator^ Modifier Prepositional Complement^ Determiner^ Auxiliary^ Prepositional

English syntax part 1 notes, Lecture notes of English Language

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- HOW/WHERE/WHEN/WHY?