Lecture 5

Syntax

Prepared by Duong Minh Hoang

1. Syntactic categories
 Based on how words are distributed morphologically and syntactically, words can be classified to different
syntactic categories (also called parts of speech, word classes, or word categories).

E.g. English

Morphological distribution Syntactic distribution

- can immediately stand after the;
countable nouns can be pluralized with
Noun - can be modified by an adjective;
/-z/
- often play the roles of the subject and direct object

- must agree in person and number with - can stand immediately after the infinitival marker to;
Verb the subject; - can follow words like will, can, may, might, would,
- can change the form to mark tense should

can be used with -er/-est or more/most

- often stand before nouns for modification;
Adjective to express comparative and superlative
- often stand after intensifiers such as very and really
relations
 Parts of speech that provide lexical information are Functional
Examples
categories
lexical categories, while those that provide grammatical
- Articles: a, an, the
information are functional categories. - Demonstratives: this, that, these,
those
▪ Nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs are lexical - Quantifiers: some, every, many, few,
Determiners
categories; any, less, no, most, each, all
- Numerals: one, two, three, four
▪ Prepositions, determiners, conjunctions, auxiliaries, - Possessives: my, your, his, her
- Some wh-words: which, whose
etc. are functional categories.
from, with, at, above, before, for, of,
Prepositions
 Parts of speech that allow new members are said to be without, until
open class, while those that do not are said to be closed Conjunctions and, but, or, yet, so
class. Complementizers that, whether, if, for (sb to V)

Auxiliaries have, be, do

will, would, should, can, could, may,
Modals
might, ought
- Negative marker: not
Particles
- Infinitive marker: to
Exercise 1: Identify the syntactic categories of the underlined words below.

a. He is killing the animal.

b. Killing animals is a crime.

c. I was disgusted by the killing of the animals.

d. He was the one who designed that killing schedule.

How do you identify their syntactic categories?

Exercise 2: Identify the syntactic category of each underlined nonsense word in the following sentences.

a. John likes to glonk in the afternoons.

He never glonks on Sundays.

He started glonking when he was fourteen.

He once glonked an out-of-work actress.

He's never glonked any of his classmates.

b. John was feeling nurgy, but happy.

He's nurgier than anyone I know.

He's been behaving very nurgily all week.

c. John is a bong, and so is Fred.

In fact, they're both typical bongs.

d. She put the car ung the garage.

She made sure that it was right ung.

2. Constituency
 A constituent is a group of words that function together as a unit.

 The constituent structure of syntactic units can be diagnosed with the help of special tests.

▪ Replacement/Substitution

E.g. a. [The children] are playing outside and they look happy.

b. The children stopped [at the corner] and we stopped there too.

c. Mary is [extremely ill] and Bill is so, too.

d. Laura [drew a picture] and John did so, too.

▪ Movement/Displacement

E.g. a. They stopped [at the corner]. → [At the corner], they stopped.

b. I never read [this kind of book]. → [This kind of book] I never read.
▪ Both replacement and movement

E.g. John saw [a beautiful woman]. → John saw who? → Who did John see?

▪ Coordination

E.g. a. John ran [out the door] and [down the street].

b.*John threw [out the door] and [away the window].

▪ Cleft sentence

E.g. a. It is [this kind of book] that he likes reading.

b. It was [in this bookshop] that I bought this pen.

▪ Stand-alone

E.g. A: What was he doing when you came?

B: [Doing his homework] /*Doing his.

Exercise 3:

Prove that the underlined word group in each sentence below is a constituent by applying at least one constituency test.

a. The two boys could order tuna salad sandwiches.

b. He explained all the terrible problems he had encountered to her.

c. These mysterious creatures live at the bottom of the ocean.

d. John gave me a pair of socks.

e. It is a problem that Linda failed in the final exam.

f. The ballet dancer was supremely beautiful.

g. He moved very slowly towards the sleeping cat.

h. Tớ thấy cái con mèo trắng béo ú kia thật dễ thương.

i. Nam bảo cậu ấy không muốn đến.

Exercise 4: (Haegeman, 2005, p. 56)

In the examples below the repetition of a string of words is avoided by substituting one word or a short string of words.
The substitutes are underlined in the examples. Identify which strings have been replaced by the underlined words.

a. When he was named chief by Mayor James K. Hahn, Bratton told The Times that he wanted to establish close ties
with prominent leaders in the city’s minority communities. In doing so, he said, he would be better able to keep local
leaders informed of police action and reduce the likelihood of communities “exploding in anger.” (Los Angeles Times,
26.11.2002, p. B10, col. 5).

b. Is there anything that can prevent Hurricanes? To date, science and technology have not given us the ability to do so.
(Chicago Tribune, 3.1.2004, section 1, p. 28, col. 1)

c. Can stout shoes save you during a nuclear attack? They might do, providing you shake the radioactive dust from
them before going inside. (Guardian, G2, 1.4.2004, p. 15, col. 4)
d. I believe that if I were to continue to play for Zimbabwe I would do so only by neglecting the voice of my conscience.
(Guardian, Sports, 17.3.2003, p. 6, col. 2)

e. During the appearances, Bratton rejected the idea of flooding South Los Angeles streets with officers. Doing so
would probably raise the ire of a community with a long history of confrontation with police rather than solve

any problems. (Los Angeles Times, 26.11.2002, p. B1 + 10, col. 1)

f. The national primary care research and development centres at Manchester and York universities, which carried out
both this study and 1998’s, acknowledge that not all the doctors who say they want to leave will. But previous research
has shown that many will do so. (Guardian, 3.1.2003, p. 1, col. 1)

g. “You can still hear the trace of it.” “So you can,” said Isobel.

h. The towns [Paula Radcliffe] has lived in (Nantwich, Bedford and Loughborough) are the epitome of Middle England.
And so is she. (Guardian, 17.12.2002, p. 13, col. 1)

i. Willie Whitelaw on a meeting with the West German interior minister: “He’s very keen on terrorism. So am I.”
(Guardian, G2, 11.9.2002, p. 5, col. 4)
 Constituency tests can help to identify different readings of ambiguous sentences.

E.g. I saw the man with a pair of binoculars.

▪ Replacement test 1: I saw the man with a pair of binoculars, while my friend did so with a telescope.

→ Reading 1: I used a pair of binoculars to see the man.

→ I [[saw the man] with a pair of binoculars].

▪ Replacement test 2: I saw the man with a pair of binoculars, but my friend didn’t see him.

→ Reading 2: I saw the man who was holding a pair of binoculars.

→ I [saw [the man with a pair of binoculars]].

Exercise 5:

Explain why the following structures are ambiguous. How would you rewrite them to avoid confusion?

a. the son of the doctor in the blue shirt

b. black cab drivers

c. a Vietnamese language teacher

d. The boy and the girl’s aunt arrived late.

e. There is a bird in a cage that can talk.

f. Hổ vồ chết nhân viên ở trại nuôi thú để ngâm rượu thuốc. (Thanh Niên Online, 11/5/2018)
3. Phrasal projections
3.1. Types of phrases
 Each constituent has a head – the element that the phrase is centered on.

If the head is a… the constituent is a… Examples

cats, the cat, the cat under the table, the cat that I saw,
noun noun phrase (NP)
the last cat that I saw, mèo, con mèo, con mèo trắng

go, go to school, go to school in the morning, go to

verb verb phrase (VP)
school in the morning every day, học, học bài

beautiful, very beautiful, scared of spiders, really scared

adjective adjective phrase (AdjP)
of spiders, đẹp, rất đẹp
adverb adverb phrase (AdvP) quickly, very quickly
 In generative syntax, not only can words of lexical categories project into phrases, words of functional
categories can also project into phrases.

If the head is a… the constituent is a… Examples

prepositional phrase
preposition in the dark, under the trees, trên bàn, sau giờ học
(PP)

that he passed the exam, if he could speak English,

complementizer phrase
complementizer whether they would arrive on time, rằng anh ta đã thi đỗ,
(CP)
liệu anh ta biết nói tiếng Anh

 Non-head elements within a phrase are dependents to the head.

3.2. Properties of heads
 The head carries the central semantic information in the phrase.

E.g. an iron statue is a kind of statue, not a kind of iron.

 The syntactic category of the head determines the category of the entire phrase.

E.g. a very intelligent child is headed by the noun child, so it’s a noun phrase.

 Heads are normally obligatory, while other material in a phrase may be optional.

E.g. a. I met [NP a very intelligent child].

b. I met [NP an intelligent child].

c. I met [NP a child].

d. I met [NP children].

e. *I met [NP a]./*I met [NP a very]./*I met [NP a very intelligent].
 Only dependents of a certain category can occur with each kind of head (the head selects for its dependents).

E.g. Categories of some dependents

Category of the head Examples
selected by the head
AdjP [NP [AP very tall] trees]
N [NP water [PP in the fridge]]
PP
[NP statues [PP of the king]]
P NP [PP under [NP the sun]]
Adj PP [AP keen [PP on reading]]

 In some languages such as French and Italian, heads require their dependents to agree with some or all of the
grammatical features of the head.

 Heads may require their dependents to occur in a particular grammatical case.

E.g. Mary [VP loves me]./*Mary [VP loves I].

Exercise 6: Identify the type of phrase in each case below.

a. a highly intelligent child

b. read a wonderful book by Chomsky in class last Tuesday

c. right beneath the stars

d. quite quickly

e. really tired of learning English grammar

f. whether the students can understand its hidden meaning

g. just in time for coffee

h. wonder whether the students can understand its hidden meaning

i. sau hồi trống lệnh

j. là anh ta sẽ nghỉ việc

3.3. Phrase structure rules
 In generative grammar, phrase structure rules (PSRs), proposed in Chomsky (1957), are often used to describe
how phrases are formed.

XP → XYZ
the label for the constituent “consists of” the elements that make up the constituent

E.g.

Some simplified PSRs of English Interpretation Examples

A noun phrase consists of a head noun preceded by an
NP → (D) (AdjP) N cats, fat cats, the fat cats
optional determiner and an adjective phrase.
A verb phrase consists of a head verb, an optional eat, eat meat, frequently
VP → (AdvP) V (NP) (AdvP) noun phrase and an optional adverb phrase standing eat meat, frequently eat
either before or after the verb. meat slowly
An adjective phrase contains a head adjective and an offensive, quite
AdjP → (AdvP) Adj optional adverb phrase standing before it. unbelievably offensive
Notes:

▪ Phrase structure rules can be very complex to account for all possibilities.

E.g. a very famous English linguistics professor with long hair from Edinburgh

Revised PSR for English NPs: NP → (D) (AdjP+) (NP+) N (PP+)

▪ Dependents to the head are often phrases themselves.

E.g. PP → P NP

[PP in [NP the garden]]

→ The nesting of phrases within phrases illustrates the hierarchical structure, a property common to all languages.
 Tree diagrams are often used to graphically represent the hierarchical structure of phrases.

E.g.

dogs the dogs the big dogs the very big dogs
 in the garden
in the beautiful garden

do the homework do the homework really carefully

 Syntactic constituents are graphically represented as nodes in a tree, Root node
connected to one another by branches.

▪ Terminal node: any node with no branch under it;

▪ Non-terminal node: any node with a branch underneath it;

▪ Root node: the node with no line on top of it; Non-terminal nodes

▪ Label: the name given to a node;

▪ A node immediately dominates another node if there’s only

one branch between them;

▪ X is the mother of Y if X immediately dominates Y;

▪ Y is the daughter of X if Y is immediately dominated by X;

▪ Two nodes are sisters if they have the same mother.

Terminal nodes
Exercise 7: Draw tree diagrams for the following phrases.

a. a big bowl

b. in the blue sky

c. secretly leave the town

d. the very intensely debated project

e. ridiculously slow

f. the red flag on the pole in the square near the market (assume that in the square modifies pole and near the market
modifies square)

g. con mèo béo vô cùng dễ thương

Exercise 8: The following phrases are ambiguous. Use labelled bracketing and tree diagrams to explain why.

a. hit the burglar with a stick

b. the cup on the table near the vase

c. nhìn người đàn ông với chiếc ống nhòm

4. Dependents: Complements and adjuncts
 A complement is a syntactic unit selected by the head and has a close relationship with the head.

E.g.
English Vietnamese

NP the student [of linguistics] em sinh viên [ngành ngôn ngữ học]

VP eat [an apple] ăn [một quả táo]

AdjP scared [of snakes] ?
PP on [the table] trên [bàn]
CP that [he loved her] rằng [anh ta yêu cô ấy]
 An adjunct (or modifier) is a syntactic unit that provides additional, optional information to the head and does not
have a close relationship with the head.

E.g.
English Vietnamese

NP the [very nice] student em sinh viên [rất tốt bụng]

VP eat [very quickly] ăn [rất nhanh]

AdjP [really] scared [rất] sợ
PP [right] on the table [ngay] trên bàn
 There are several tests to determine whether a constituent is a complement or an adjunct:

▪ Adjacency: Complements tend to be close to the head.

E.g. a. the student [of linguistics] [with long hair]

b. *the student [with long hair] [of linguistics]

→of linguistics is a complement; with long hair is an adjunct.

▪ The replacement test

E.g. a. *the student [of linguistics] and the one [of chemistry]

b. the student [with long hair] and the one [with short hair].

→of linguistics is a complement; with long hair is an adjunct.

▪ Optionality: Adjuncts are always optional; complements are either obligatory or optional depending on the head.

E.g. a. sleep (soundly) → soundly is an adjunct.

b. with *(his best friend) → his best friend is a complement.

c. devour *(the prey) → the prey is a complement.

d. eat (an apple) → an apple is a complement.

▪ Syntactic flexibility: Adjuncts are usually more syntactically flexible than complements.

E.g. a. carefully drive his car → drive his car carefully

b. drive his car → *his car drive

▪ Quantity: The number of complements is strictly limited by the head, while the number of adjuncts is
theoretically unlimited.

E.g. a. He ate [the pizza] [with a fork] [in the kitchen] [with his friends]. → 01 complement, 03 adjuncts

b. The woman put [some sugar] [in her coffee]. → 02 complements, 0 adjuncts

▪ Properties of the dependent: Complements are licensed by the head.

E.g. a. sleep under the tree/in the bedroom/on the sofa/behind the door → adjuncts

b. glance at the picture → complement

c. be fond of taking pictures → complement

4.1. Dependents of English nouns
 Complements of English nouns often stand in posthead position.

Function in traditional
Position Type of complement Example(s)
grammar
Nominal a bread seller
(an NP without a a tennis ball
Prehead determiner) an income tax adviser premodifier
a legal adviser
Adjective
an ecological expert
a student of linguistics
PP a ban on smoking
an interest in linguistics
the idea that he passed the exam
Posthead CP postmodifier
the question whether he would stay

finite clause the question ‘What is the meaning of life?’

non-finite clause the decision to quit the game

 Adjuncts of English nouns can stand either before or after the head.
Function in traditional
Position Type of adjunct Example(s)
grammar
the very tall guy
AdjP
an absolutely gorgeous view
the Vietnamese silk scarf
Prehead Nominal premodifier/ attribute
a young children’s edition
the defeated team
VP (in participle forms)
the losing team
Determiner one minute more
the students present
AdjP
the babies asleep
a guy my age
NP
the exam last week
Posthead postmodifier/ attribute
a friend from China
PP
the man with long black hair
finite clause the man who came to our class yesterday
the one to do the job
non-finite clause
the person living next door
Exercise 9: Explain why the phrases and sentences in (a) are grammatical while the ones in (b) are not (an asterisk
indicates ungrammaticality).
1. (a) The present king of England is more popular than the last one.

(b) *The king of England defeated the one of Spain.

2. (a) The discussion at the match was more animated than the one in the bar.

(b) *The discussion of the match was more animated than the one of the riots.

3. (a) an English physics teacher

(b) *a physics English teacher

4. (a) the student with long hair in the corner

(b) *the student of linguistics of chemistry

Exercise 10: Discuss the ambiguity of the phrase a student of high moral principles.
 Determiners such as a, an, and the are called specifiers; they are not complements nor adjuncts, but they are still
required by the head to complete phrases.

E.g. a. *Study of endangered languages with a lot of travelling is expensive.

b. A/The/This study of endangered languages with a lot of travelling is expensive.

→ The NP is incomplete without a determiner.

c. Can I borrow the books on the shelf?

d. Can I borrow your books on the shelf?

e. *Can I borrow the your books on the shelf?

→ There can be only one determiner.

 Trees with a hierarchical structure that can show the structural relationships between the head noun and its
dependents are preferred over trees with a flat structure.

E.g. the student of linguistics with long hair

4.2. Dependents of English adjectives
 Complements of English adjectives always stand in posthead position.

Function in traditional
Position Type of complement Example(s)
grammar
afraid of ghosts
PP good at English
aware of the problem

NP very like his father

Posthead ?
glad that he passed the exam
CP
not sure whether he will be there
willing to do it
non-finite clause busy doing homework
worth mentioning
 Adjuncts of English adjectives often stand in prehead position.

Position Type of adjunct Example(s) Function in traditional grammar

really fine
AdvP
quite remarkably good
that important
Prehead Determiner premodifier/intensifier
any harder
one meter long
NP
a lot better
Posthead PP bored beyond words postmodifier/intensifier
4.3. Dependents of English prepositions
 Complements of English prepositions always stand in posthead position.

Position Type of complement Example(s) Function in traditional grammar

behind the door
NP prepositional object
from Hanoi
apart from English
PP ?
since after the incident
before he comes
a finite clause ?
until I die
Posthead
provided that you will return it tomorrow
CP ?
(not sure) of whether he will come
about learning English
non-finite clause prepositional object?
(agree) on what to do
until later
AdvP (restricted) ?
before long
 Prepositions can be used intransitively, i.e. without any complement.

E.g. The girl ran and her dog ran behind.

 Subordinating conjunctions such as because, although, and since can be (and should be) classified as prepositions.

 Adjuncts of English prepositions:

Position Type of adjunct Example(s) Function in traditional grammar

immediately after the meeting
AdvP straight to the point premodifier
Prehead quite obviously within his powers
NP thirty minutes before the conference ?
over here in Vietnam
Posthead PP ?
outside the back door by the statue
Exercise 11: In each phrase below the head is in bold italic. Identify all the things that modify that head and state
whether they are complements to the head or adjuncts to the head.

a. genuinely frightened of my father to come to our house

b. straight to the meeting point

c. right at the beginning of the play

d. beautiful beyond descriptions

e. quite different from his previous experience

4.4. Dependents of English verbs
 Traditionally, English verbs are classified (or subcategorized) into six types depending on the kinds of complements
they take.

▪ Intransitive verbs: require no complements;

E.g. The dog barked.

▪ Transitive verbs: require one NP functioning as the direct object (dO);

E.g. He ate an apple.

dO
▪ Ditransitive verbs: require two NPs functioning as the indirect object (iO) and direct object (dO);

E.g. We gave him some money.

iO dO
 ▪ Copular/Linking verbs: require one NP/PP/AdjP functioning as the subject complement (sC);

E.g. He is a doctor. He is in the garden. He is very good.

sC sC sC

▪ Complex-transitive verbs: require one NP functioning as the direct object and one NP/PP/AdjP functioning as the
object complement;

E.g. I consider him my best friend. I saw him in the garden. I found that exercise really hard.

dO oC dO oC dO oC

▪ Prepositional verbs: require one PP.

E.g. We relied on him.

→ The traditional classificatory system misses some types of complements that certain verbs can take.
 Complements of English verbs stand in posthead position.

Position Type of complement Example(s) Function in traditional grammar

NP met the girl
dO
(transitive verbs) do homework
NP NP gave the boy a book
iO & dO
(ditransitive verbs) bought my mom some flowers
NP is a doctor
sC
(copular verbs) seems a nice man
PP was in the library
sC
(copular verbs) will be at home
Posthead
AdjP is very good
sC
(copular verbs) was extremely hot
NP NP voted John the president
dO & oC
(complex-transitive verbs) considered him my best friend
NP PP put the pen on the table
dO & oC
(complex-transitive verbs) place the knife in the cupboard
NP AdjP
found the exercise difficult dO & oC
(complex-transitive verbs)
Position Type of complement Example(s) Function in traditional grammar
PP stare at him
?
(prepositional verbs) consists of fruit and vegetables
behaved very unprofessionally
AdvP ?
tread heavily

Posthead NP AdvP treated his employees badly direct object & ?

doubted that he would agree

CP direct object?
wonder whether she can speak English
tried to walk
non-finite clause ?
regret telling him my secret
 Adjuncts of English verbs can stand either before or after the head.

Position Type of adjunct Example(s) Function in traditional grammar

carefully drove the car
AdvP presented his ideas exceptionally
clearly
passed the exam without help
played football in the garden
Flexible with PP slept downstairs
stayed at home because it was adjunct/adverbial
certain restrictions
raining heavily
met her last week
NP
do the job this way
non-finite clause do homework to get good grades
CP going there whether you like it or not
Exercise 12: In each VP below the head is in bold italic. Identify all the things that modify that head and state whether
they are complements to the head or adjuncts to the head.

a. like classical music.

b. threw snowballs at the wall with friends on Christmas Day.

c. rarely read a book before midnight

d. sleeps in the garden in the afternoon

e. occasionally behaves badly in class

f. carefully passed John the salt on the table because my mother was there

g. nhẹ nhàng đặt đứa bé vào cũi

h. buổi tối ăn hai bát cơm

5. X-bar Theory
 According to X-bar (X’) Theory, which was proposed by Noam
Chomsky in 1970 and later developed by Ray Jakendoff in the late
1970s, every phrase in every natural human language has the same core
structure.

▪ Every phrase contains a head X;

▪ The complement, if any, is the sister to X and daughter of X';

▪ The adjunct, if any, is the sister to X' and daughter of X'.

▪ The specifier, if any, is the sister to X̍ and daughter of XP;

▪ There can be more than one X';

▪ X is a minimal projection, X' an intermediate projection, XP a

maximal projection.
E.g.

a. students b. the students

c. the students of linguistics d. the students of linguistics with long hair

e. ran f. ran the company

g. badly ran the company

h. behind i. behind the doors

j. just behind the doors

k. bad l. bad at chemistry

m. quite unbelievably bad at chemistry

Exercise 13: The following trees contain mistakes because they violate principles of tree drawing in X-bar theory.
Explain what the mistakes are, then draw the correct tree.

a. cats without fur b. sang without a microphone

(There are two mistakes in this tree.) (There are two mistakes in this tree.)
c. the flower seller across the street d. bought a lamp from the store on Thursday

(There are two mistakes in this tree.) (There are two mistakes in this tree.)
Exercise 14: Draw trees for the following phrases using the X-bar schema.

a. a statue of the Queen on the dashboard

b. the former director of intelligence in the navy

c. drinks in the morning every day

d. extremely fearful of lightning

e. cancelled the show because of the heavy rain

f. right beneath the bright stars in the sky

g. purchased a very small container of flour with a glass lid right after the lesson

h. ngay dưới bàn

i. học bài chăm chỉ

 References

Abney, S. P. (1987). The English noun phrase in its sentential aspect. [Doctoral dissertation, Massachusetts Institute of
Technology].

Carnie, A. (2021). Syntax: A generative introduction (4th ed.). Wiley-Blackwell.

Carnie, A. (2021). The syntax workbook: A companion to Carnie's syntax (2nd ed.). Wiley-Blackwell.

Chomsky, N. (1957). Syntactic structures. Mouton & Co.

Haegeman, L. (2005). Thinking syntactically: A guide to argumentation and analysis. Blackwell Publishing.

Huddleston, R., & Pullum, G. (2002). The Cambridge grammar of the English language. Cambridge University Press.

Radford, A. (2004). Minimalist syntax: Exploring the structure of English. Cambridge University Press.

Radford, A. (2016). Analysing English sentences (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press.

Santorini, B. & Kroch, A. (2007). The syntax of natural language: An online introduction using the Trees program. Retrieved
from https://www.ling.upenn.edu/~beatrice/syntax-textbook.

Tallerman, M. (2020). Understanding syntax (5th ed.). Routledge.