Introduction (English Syntax and Argumentation 2nd Ed.

(Part 1: Function and Form)

Linguistics: It is the study of language and its structure.
Grammar: It is a set of rules of a language.
Syntax: It is the arrangement of words or organization of words in a sentence.
Semantics: It is the study of meaning.
Morphology: It is the formation of words.
Discourse: It is spoken or written communication between people, especially serious discussion of a particular
subject.
Sentence: It is a string of words that begin with a capital letter and ends with a dot. It is used to express a situation.
Constituent: It is a string of words and they semantically and syntactically behave as a unit.
Syntactic argumentation: Giving motivated reasons for adopting certain structures and rejecting others.

Chapter 2: Function
The subject is defined as the unit that on one hand tell us who performs the action denoted by the verb and on the
other hand tell us who or what the sentence is about.
The subject has two kinds of functions: surface structure functions (grammatical or formal) and deep structure
functions (logical, semantic).
 The grammatical subject: It is determined by form, position and agreement. It is defined as the Noun Phrase
(NP) that immediately precedes the Verb (in affirmative sentences).
 The notional (or logical) subject: It is defined by meaning. When the verb is a verb of action may be defined
as the doer of the action expressed by the verb; the actor or agent (John studies English.). When the verb is
not a verb of action, the subject is the person or thing about which we may predicate a quality, location,
etc.(The pencil was on the table.)

Categories functioning as subject:

1. A noun: The house is big.

Susan plays tennis.
Sweets are bad for your teeth.
2. A pronoun: Someone has been here.
She reads the newspaper every morning.
3. A gerund: Reading is a hobby.
Drinking alcohol can kill you.
4. An infinitive: To lose hurts.
To act like that is foolish.
5. A noun clause: Whether or not I made a promise is irrelevant.
What he said was completely wrong.
6. A non-finite clause: How to make money always sells.

There are two anticipatory (or preparatory) subjects: “it” and “there”.

IT anticipates:

1) An infinitive: It is always nice to see her.

It would be a mistake to ignore his advice.
 2) A noun clause: Is it true that he did it?

It was a pity (that) you couldn’t come.

3) A gerundial clause: It is not use hoping for their help.

It’s been nice talking to you.

THERE anticipates:

1) A noun: There are three windows in this room.

There was no wind.

There won’t be enough time tomorrow.

2) A gerund: There’s no getting over it.

How can we recognize the subject of a sentence? We have some criterias:

 Subjects are usually Noun Phrases (NP)

 The subject is the first NP in the sentence.
 Subjects are obligatory.
 Subjects determine the form of the verb.
 Yes-No questions.
 Question Tags.

The predicate is the unit in a sentence whose function is to specify what the subject is engaged in doing. The
predicate is all in the sentence except the subject.
There is a problem with the definition of “verbs” as “actions”, because we have stative verbs and dynamic verbs. The
first one describes a state or condition, while the second one describes actions.
 Subject-Verb Agreement
We can define Subject-Verb Agreement as the rule by which the form of the verb has to match the subject. We say
that the verb agrees with the subject and that the subject governs the verb.
Elements inside a sentence
Predicators are pivotal elements, which specify the main action or process denoted by the verb.
In semantic terms Direct Objects (DO) are constituents that refer to entities that undergo the activity or process
denoted by the verb.
Syntactically. The structural properties that function as “tests” to find the Direct object are:

 DOs are often Noun Phrases.

 Their usual position is after the main verb.
 Direct Objects have a strong relationship with the verb that precedes them.
 They can become the subjects of passive sentences.
We say that a verb that requires a Direct Object to complement its meaning is a transitive verb. We also have
intransitive verbs; these do not need a following constituent to complete their meaning. Verbs that take a Direct
Object and an Indirect Object are called ditransitive verbs.
The Indirect Object (IO) is goal/receiver or beneficiary. Indirect objects have a number of syntactic characteristics:

 They are usually Noun Phrases.

 They cannot occur without a following Direct Object.
 They always precede Direct Objects.
 They can become the subjects of passive sentences.
Adjuncts are string of words whose function is telling us about the how, when, where or why of the situations
expressed by the respective Predicates. Adjuncts are mobile. They are always optional and express peripheral
information.
 Chapter 3: Form: Words, Word Classes and Phrases
Words seem to be straightforward enough entities.
There is a difference between “word” and “lexeme”. Words belong to the same lexeme. Lexeme is the dictionary
entry.
There are different ways of classifying words.

 Open class: class of words that is constantly enlarged as time goes by. (nouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs)
 Closed class: class of words that is static, in that no new members are added to it. (determiners, prepositions,
conjunctions, interjections)
 Word classes: noun, determiner, adjective, verb, preposition, adverb, conjunction and interjection.
Word classes
They are also called parts of speech.
Nouns
We can define nouns in different ways:
- Notional definition: Nouns are words that denote people, animals, things or places. (semantic)
- Formal definition: It is related to affixation. (morphology)
CRITERIAS

Typical noun suffixes: -ance, -hood,-tion, -ness, -ship, -ment, -ity, -an, -ant, -ar, -er, -ian, -ist, -age, -ion, -ence
- Distributional definition: We are referring to the way in which words behave syntactically in sentences. (NP
before VP  S) (NP after VP  O)
Nouns can be preceded by determiners, adjectives.
Noun subclasses:
- Common nouns:
Countable book, cat, fork, train, etc.
Non-countable butter, flour, jam, soap, etc.
- Proper nouns: Jack, London, Cathy, Sarah, etc.
- Numerals:
Cardinal one, two, three, etc.
Ordinal first, second, third, etc.
- Pronouns:
Personal pronouns I/me, you, she/her, he/him, it, we/us, they/them
Possessive pronouns my/mine, your/yours, her/hers, his, its, our/ours, their/theirs
Reflexive pronouns myself, yourself, herself, himself, itself, ourselves, themselves
Demonstrative pronouns this/these, that/those
Reciprocal pronouns each other, one another
Relative pronouns that, who, which, whose, etc.
Interrogative pronouns what, why, where, whatever, etc.
Indefinite pronouns anybody/anyone/anything, no-one, nothing,
Somebody/someone/something, etc.

Noun phrases are strings of words whose central element is a noun. This central element is called Head.
Determiners
These words specify more precisely the meaning of the noun they precede.
DETERMINER EXAMPLE
THE/A the/a camera
THIS/THESE this film/these films
THAT/THOSE that dog/those dogs
WHICH which house?
WHOSE whose neighbours?

Verbs
We classify verbs in different ways:
- Finitude:
 Finite
 Non-finite
- Role:
 Main verb
 Auxiliary verb
 Modal auxiliaries (will/would, can/could, may/might, must, shall/should, ought to)
 Aspectual auxiliaries (be-have)
Be  progressive (be + ing)
Have  perfective
 Passive auxiliary verbs (be)
(be + 3rd column)
 Dummy auxiliary (do)
- Voice:
 Active
 Passive
NICE properties of auxiliary verbs:

Negation
Interrogation
Code
Emphasis
Adjectives
- Notional definition: Adjectives are words that can modify nouns. (semantic)
- Formal definition: It is related to affixation. (morphology)
Typical adjectives suffixes: -ful, -less, -able, -ible, -ive, -ent, -al, -y
- Distributional definition:
 Pre-modifiers in a NP (attributive position)
 Post-modifiers in a NP (attributive position)
 SC (after linking words) (predicative position)

Most adjectives are gradable, i.e. they can be preceded by words such as very, extremely, less, etc.
Adjectives can also take comparative and superlative endings.
Like nouns in Noun Phrases, adjectives function as the Heads of Adjective Phrases (AP).
Prepositions
Prepositions can be:
- Simple: at, behind, beside, by, for, in, like, of, on, through, under, with, without
- Complex: means of, in front of, in spite of
They combine with Noun Phrases to form Prepositional Phrases (PP).
From the point of view of meaning, we can say that prepositions often denote a relationship of some sort between two
entities.
Adverbs
Adverbs modify verbs, adjectives or other adverbs.
Typical adverbs suffixes: -ly, -wards, -wise, -ways
Adverb subclasses
- Circumstantial adverbs: often,gleefully,intentionally,reluctantly
Circumstantial adverbs can themselves be modified.
- Degree adverbs: extremely,extraordinarily,less,more,pretty,quite,too,very
Degree adverbs cannot themselves be modified.
- Sentence adverbs: however,probably,perhaps
Sentence adverbs can themselves be modified.

Adverbs function as the Heads of Adverb Phrases (Adv.P).

Conjunctions
Conjunctions belong to a closed class of words that have a linking function. There are two types of conjunctions:
- Coordinating conjunctions (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so)
- Subordinating conjunctions (after, although, as, as if, as long as, as much as, as soon as, as though, because,
before, by the time, even if, even though, if, in order that, in case, only, only if, provided that, since, so that,
than, that, though, till, unless, until, when, whenever, where, wherever, while)
Interjections
Interjections are expressions of emotion, physical state, agreement, disagreement and such like.
Examples: ah, erh, hmm, no, oh, ouch, phew, shit, yes, yuck, etc.