LINGUISTICS I

Syntax comes from the Latin word syntaxis meaning things arranged
in order. This is a huge clue to the importance of the study of syntax
in linguistics.

Out of all the billions of words in the language, there have to be rules
about order or nobody will be able to make a scrap of sense.

Eg: somebody trying to order a MacDonald's meal....

Person says, 'Big, small Mac fries Coke and medium, please'.
Assistant looks completely foxed.

It is pointless having all the correct words but in the wrong order, because the person
you are speaking to is expecting the syntactic rules of the language to be followed.

You will use these rules automatically as a native speaker. Now, as a language analyst,
you need to stop and study what you have always done naturally.

let’s check the following items for a better understanding

Form and Function

Verbs
Phrases
Conjunctions
Co-ordination
Transcripts
Subordination

Form and function

In the unit entitled Grammar, you will have explored the word classes of English.
These classes indicate categories of types of words which share similar characteristics.

For example, a noun names an object or feeling and can be count or non-count,
common or proper, concrete or abstract. This categorisation refers to a word's form,
i.e. what it is.

To study syntax, you must now look at how it behaves, where it fits and what rules
govern it. This is called the function.

In the sentence below, you should be able to identify the form of each word.
The new band played at Glastonbury in June.
Word Form

The article

New adjective

Band common noun

Played verb

At adverb of place. Note that the adverb is made up of a preposition

Glastonbury (at) and a proper noun (Glastonbury)

In June adverb of time (note that the adverb is made up of a preposition (in)
and a proper noun (June)

Subject verbs
Now we need to look at how each of the parts
functions. English sentences follow strict patterns in
their construction. There are several basic simple
sentence constructions. They are:-

1. SV (subject verb) For example: Homework sucks.

Sucks. This is a third person singular form of the verb 'to suck'. That
leaves 'homework'. Its form is a common noun but, in this sentence, it is
acting as the subject, i.e. the person or thing which carries out the action
of the sentence.

So the homework is doing the sucking (subject) and the sucking is the
action (verb). This is the most basic English construction.

Below are some more examples:-

Music soothes
Music is the subject and soothes is the verb.

Planes fly
Planes are the subject and fly is the verb.

Other simple constructions

2. SVO (subject verb object) For example: The phone interrupted the lesson.

Although the form of phone is a common noun, it is acting here as a subject (i.e.
function). The other element is the lesson, also a common noun, but here it is acting
as the object (i.e. the person or thing having the action done to it). The lesson is the
thing being interrupted, so it is the object.

Below are some more examples:-

The youth cut the grass

Youth is the subject, cut is the verb and grass is the object.
The student passed the exam
Student is the subject , passed is the verb and exam is the object.

Bonus point. Can you identify the other word class that is appearing in these
examples? (This information is covered on the Grammar pages).

The answer is: possible article/s. So, this tells us that articles appear before nouns in
all cases. File that rule away because you will see countless examples of it in English.

3. SVA (subject verb adverb)

For example: The actor performed brilliantly.

Where the actor is the subject and performed is the verb.

The other component here is an adverb of manner (see Grammar pages). It has the
same form and function in that it is structurally an adverb and is functioning as an
adverb. However, this is not always the case, so beware.

The adverb gives more information about how the action of the verb is being carried
out, in this case, the performing.

Here are some more examples:-

The computer crashed yesterday.

The computer is the subject, crashed is the verb and yesterday is the adverb of
time.

I slept upstairs.
I is the subject, slept is the verb and upstairs is the adverb of place.

4. SVC (subject verb complement) For example: The party was wicked.
The party is the subject and was verb.

The other component here is the complement. A complement is something which

grammatically completes. In the above example, wicked is referring to the party (the
subject). It is not having the action done to it, as with an object, and therefore the
complement completes the sense of the sentence.

Copular verbs
The other feature here is the verb to be. This use of the verb 'to be' is called a
copular (copular comes from the Latin copula meaning a tie or link) or linking verb
because it links the subjects to the information which refers to it.

There are other copular verbs. Theses are appear, remain, sound, get, seem and
become but 'to be' is the most common.

Here are some more examples:-

The flight was smooth.

The flight is the subject, was is the verb and smooth is the complement.

The hotel seems overcrowded.

The hotel is the subject, seems is the verb and overcrowded is the complement.

Noun phrases
Noun phrases are very common in English. They have a very specific structure. You
should be able to identify the basic components from your research so far. Below is a
subheading from a magazine and a breakdown of it.

The quick quiz

article (definite article) adjective noun

You will notice that there is no verb, so this cannot be a sentence. If you were to add a
verb to complete the sense, then structurally it would become a sentence. For
example: the quick quiz finished early. The verb being finished.
Here are some more examples from magazines:-

The beautiful bargain bikini

article (definite adjective adjective noun (Right. This is known as the head of
article) the NP))

The sexy sparkly sarong

article (definite adjective adjective noun (Right. This is known as the head of
article) the NP)

We now know some syntactic rules about noun phrases:-

 The word order for a standard NP is article/adjective/noun

 The article may be omitted in headings, for example: Next Section
 You can expand the noun phrase by adding in extra adjectives
 The head or noun always comes at the end
 NPs are not sentences because they do not contain main verbs

Verb phrases

A verb phrase is anything which occurs between the pronoun and the main verb.
This can be limited to two words, for example: the pronoun (he) and the verb
(parachuted), or several words including main and auxiliary verbs, for example:
they (pronoun) may (modal auxiliary) have (primary auxiliary) and cried (main
verb).

The first job is to find the verb phrase (look for the pronoun or subject and main
verb) and then analyse what it consists of. Because of the huge potential in the
complexity of verb structures, writers can really capitalise on them to create
meaning and emotion.

Find the verb phrases in the following passage taken from the short story
'Language' by Mary Scott. List them and then go to the next page for the
correct answers.

The words on the pavement were common currency nowadays; although

Rita's mother would have found them deeply offensive. 'Language!' her
mother would cry when Rita or her brother Bob said even 'crikey' or
'blimey'.

Her mother's voice would fill with outrage. Their grandmother, she said
would have washed out their mouths that instant with carbolic soap. The
threat was enough to stop Rita and Bob going as far as their friends with
real rude words.
 Instead they went in for archaic exclamations such as 'Botheration!' or
made up their own: 'Slitherkins!' 'Pistoops!' and the somehow more daring
'Oh zags!'

You were asked to find the verb phrases in the following passage from the short story
Language by Mary Scott and list them.

The words on the pavement were common currency nowadays; although

Rita's mother would have found them deeply offensive. 'Language!' her
mother would cry when Rita or her brother Bob said even 'crikey' or 'blimey'.
Her mother's voice would fill with outrage. Their grandmother, she said would
have washed out their mouths that instant with carbolic soap. The threat was
enough to stop Rita and Bob going as far as their friends with real rude
words.
Instead they went in for archaic exclamations such as 'Botheration!' or made
up their own: 'Slitherkins!' 'Pistoops!' and the somehow more daring 'Oh
zags!'

WORD ANALYSIS

Were main verb

Would have found would = modal auxiliary

have = primary Auxiliary
found = main verb

Would cry would = modal auxiliary

cry = main verb

Said (twice) main verb

Would fill would = modal auxiliary

fill = main verb

Was main verb

Went in for main verb

Made up main verb

Phrasal verbs
You will have noticed that some of these examples of main verbs are made up of more
than one word, just to complicate matters further. These are called phrasal verbs and
they are just verbs which are more like phrases, for example: to go in for.

Many phrasal verbs are made up from base verbs of movement, for example: to take
off, to put down. We have shown the infinitive form of the phrasal verb and the main
verb in this sentence:
She stared up at the windows of the house, and Hannah recognised
her.

To stare up = phrasal verb

To recognise = main verb

We now know some syntactic rules about verb phrases:-

 They are made up of pronouns (or a subject noun), followed by various types of
verbs
 Modals always follow the pronoun or subject
 Primaries always follow modals (when functioning as auxiliary verbs)
 Main verbs come at the end of the verb phrase

Coordination is the process of joining things together (see Grammar). This can happen
on a variety of levels. The word class used for coordination is conjunctions. The
commonest conjunctions are and, but, then and so.

1. You can join words together in lists, for example:

The sun and the moon and the stars.
The words in this list are structurally noun phrases.
2. You can connect expanded noun phrases, for example:
The successful athletes and their enthusiastic supporters.
3. You can also connect simple sentences (see Pages 1 and 2). For example:

The ducks looked up and quacked.

If you separate out the two sentences, you get:

 The ducks looked up.

 The ducks quacked.

Conjunctions
As both sentences are of equal status, i.e. they are both simple constructions, we have
coordination. Coordination is used by children at an early stage of language
development and therefore writers for children also use it widely. look at the the
conjunctions in this extract from Roald Dahl's The Magic Finger.

Then I got cross, and I saw red, and I put the Magic finger on Mrs Winter
good and strong, and almost at once ...

Do you know whether the conjunctions are:

 coordinating noun phrases

 expanded noun phrases
  simple sentences?

The answer is-simple sentences!

Can you see that then is doing the same job syntactically as 'and'?

Co-ordination in speech and writing

As co-ordination is more common in speech than in writing, where it is considered

stylistically immature, it appears in novels where the writer wants to give the effect of
speech - a voice.

Co-ordination
What effect does co-ordination have in this passage from Moon Tiger by
Penelope Lively? Lisa is describing an incident with her mother Claudia.
She refers to herself as 'you'.

The trees beside the road went past the car she-sha-sha-sha and the hedges
slid about and then there was the beach and the sea rushing at you, too wet,
too deep, too rough. Claudia made you get inside a yellow rubber ring and go
out of your depth... ..And underneath you there is nothing but water deep
deep water with fishes in it and if Claudia lets you go you will sink to the
bottom.

Does it:

 Describe her excitement at going to the beach (No!)

 Express her rising panic at being out of her depth (Yes!)
 Make you see the experience from the child's point of view (Yes! This is because
she speaks with childlike language ie a lot of coordination)

Transcripts
A transcript is a record of speech. You would therefore
expect to find a great deal of coordination in a transcript.
People tend to increase the level of coordination when telling
funny stories, for comic effect.

This is Tracy. We have highlighted all the conjunctions -

there are 17, far more than any other text studied so far.

My mum's friend-she went skiing - and um - she needed the loo -

there was no toilets around - she had one of these all in one suits-
so they found a log-and she went behind this log - and this man
went past - and he pulled her out - and she came flying out - and
she had nothing on - so she said right I can't stay in that hotel - so
she went to this other hotel and she met this man - and he had a
broken arm.. and ..she asked him how did you break your arm and
he says I was on one of these ski lifts and I saw this woman skiing
 with nothing on - so I turned round to have a better look and fell
off and broke my arm.

Subordination

Where coordination is the linking of two equal units, subordination is a syntactic

relationship between a sentence and a subordinate clause. This is a clause which
cannot normally stand up on its own i.e. it does not make sense without the main
clause it depends on.

For example:
The woman, who won the lottery, donated the money to charity.

The woman donated the money to charity

subject main verb object adverb of place

So, we have SVOA construction. Who won the lottery is left. It does not make sense
without the main clause, so it is a subordinate clause. The subordinate clauses are
bold in the following examples.

1. He clung to the windowsill, which was smooth and narrow.

2. Hugging the bag to my chest, I struggled towards the car.
3. When they had finished their supper, they took their trays to the kitchen.
4. She warmed her hand at the fire in the kitchen, which smelt strongly of
manure.
5. As we passed the field, I made faces at them through the window.

Subordiante clauses and complex sentences

Writers can play around with the syntax of sentences to get emphatic or emotive
effect. For example:

Destined for the slaughterhouse, crammed together without food or water,

they trample each other in the pounding vehicles or heaving seas.
Brigitte Bardot

Look at the two subordinate clauses. Note that they have been placed at the
beginning to get maximum impact with the emotive (emotive definition: a word which
moves the reader to emotion) words slaughterhouse and crammed. They could just as
easily go after the main clause.

Now find some examples of subordinate clauses in your own reading. Sentences with
one or more subordinate clauses are called complex sentences.

Compound-complex sentences

A sentence which has coordination and subordination is called a compound-complex

sentence. For example:

Around the base of the granite monolith which dominated the town, the
houses became meaner....and the dust rose from gravel roads and whirled in
small eddies in the Sunday evening air.

Around the base of the granite monolith which dominated the and
town

subordinate clause conjunctions