SYNTAX
GRAMMARS → theories about how language works.
Syntax is different from grammar, but can also be seen as a part of grammar: structural aspect of grammar.
SYNTAX → the study of how words combine to form phrases, clauses and sentences.
Two basic principles of syntax:
1) LINEAR ORDER: the ordering of the words in sentences helps to determine:
• whether a sentence is grammatical or not .
• what the sentence mean.
2) HIERARCHICAL STRUCTURE: The semantically coherent groups of words within a sentence.
EX. Fluffy is the large black cat in the window.
- the large black cat vs. is the large
- in the window vs. cat in the
Sentences are not simply series of adjacent words → they are made of meaningful groups (or chunks).
Example: “Many actors eat at fancy restaurants”
There are meaningful groups of words in this sentence
• many actors
• eat at fancy restaurants
They have meanings of their own and each makes a coherent contribution to the meaning of the sentence
as a whole → constituents of this sentence.
Other groups of words do not naturally form meaningful units:
• actors eat at
• eat at fancy
They do not have meanings on their own and are therefore not constituents of the sentence.
Constituent tests
Constituents are meaningful or semantically-coherent groups of words because they can:
• can stand alone and make sense → question test.
Many actors eat at fancy restaurants. What do many actors do? → Eat at fancy restaurants.
• be substituted by a pro-form (e.g. pronoun) → substitution test.
Many actors eat at fancy restaurants? They eat at fancy restaurants.
• be moved around and still make sense.
With great care, he opened the door / He opened the door with great care.
COSTITUENTS: descriptive phrasal categories. (5 types of phrasal categories in English)
1) NP= (det) (mod) N (qual)
2) VP= (auz) V (compl)
3) PrepP= must have a NP
4) AdjP= are always part of a NP
5) AdvP= the most common consists simply of a lexical adverb
