Syntax

AN INTRODUCTION
Native speakers and grammatical
sentences
— Syntax: The system of rules and categories that
underlies sentence formation in human language.
— Speakers of a language are able to combine words in
novel sentence. However, not any combination of
words will give a well-formed sentence.

— *House painted student a the.

— A student painted the house.

— Grammatical sentence: A sentence that speakers

judge to be a possible sentence in their language.
Transformational (or generative)
grammar/syntax

— Transformational syntax: A widely accepted

approach to syntactic analysis in which syntactic
phenomena are described in terms of phrase
structure rules (which generate deep structures)
and transformations).

— Transformation: A type of syntactic rule that can

move an element from one position to another.
Universal Grammar (UG):

— Universal Grammar The system of categories,

mechanisms, and constraints shared by all human
languages and considered to be innate.

— The Key idea of UG:

— Despite the many superficial differences among
languages, there are certain commonalities with
respect to the manner in which sentences are
formed.
What is grammar?

— Grammar: The mental system of rules and

categories that allows humans to form and
interpret the words and sentences of their
language.
— Grammar must include
— A. a lexicon
— B. computational system: The syntactic
component of grammar that can combine and
arrange words in particular ways.
What is grammar?

Merge and Move

They are two principal structure-building operations
that are made available by universal grammar.

Merge: a syntactic operation that combines elements

to create phrases and sentences.

Move: a syntactic operation that transports an element

to a new position within a particular sentence.
Categories and structure

Words in all human languages can be grouped together into

classes called syntactic categories.
Syntactic category: the category into which an element is
placed depending on the type of meaning that it expresses, the
type of affixes it takes, and the type of structure in which it
occurs.

Ex. Nouns, Adjectives, Verbs, Adverbs & Preposition.

This classification reflects the following factors:

A. The type of meaning that the words express.
B. The type of affixes the words take
C. The type of structure in which the words can occur
Categories of words

Syntactic categories (Word-level categories).

A. Lexical categories
B. Non-lexical Categories.
Categories of words
Syntactic categories: Word-level categories.
A. Lexical categories (contents words).

Lexical categories Examples

(contents words).

Nouns (N) Harry, boy, wheat, policy, moisture,

bravery
Verbs (V) arrive, discuss, melt, hear, remain, dislike
Adjectives (A) good, tall, old, intelligent, beautiful, fond
Preposition (P) to, in, on, near, at, by
Adverb (Adv) silently, slowly, quietly, quickly, now
Categories of words

Syntactic categories: Word-level categories.

A. Lexical categories (contents words).

Lexical categories Examples

(contents words).

Nouns (N) Most studied syntactic categories.

Verbs (V) They are called lexical categories
They play an important role in sentence
Adjectives (A) formation
Preposition (P)
Adverb (Adv) Less studied
Derived from adjectives
Categories of words
Syntactic categories: Word-level categories.
A. Lexical categories (contents words).
Lexical categories Examples
(contents words).

Nouns (N) Noun (N) A lexical category that typically

names entities, can usually be inflected for
number and possession (in English), and
functions as the head of a noun phrase (e.g.,
key, Bob, perception).
Verbs (V) Verb (V) A lexical category that typically
designates actions, sensations, and states, can
usually be inflected for tense, and functions
as the head of a verb phrase (e.g., see, feel,
remain).
Categories of words
Syntactic categories: Word-level categories.
A. Lexical categories (contents words).
Lexical categories Examples
Adjectives (A) Adjective (A): A lexical category that designates
a property that is applicable to the
entities named by nouns, can often take
comparative and superlative endings in
English, and functions as the head of an
adjective phrase (e.g., red, obese, hearty).
Preposition (P) Preposition (P): A minor lexical category
whose members typically designate relations
in space or time (e.g., in, before); they come
before the NP complement with which they
combine to form a PP.
Adverb (Adv) Adverb (Adv): A lexical category that typically
names properties that can be applied to
the actions designated
Categories of words
Syntactic categories
Word-level categories.
A. Lexical categories
B. Non-lexical Categories.
— Non-lexical Categories or functional categories:
A word-level syntactic category whose members specify grammatical
relations rather than carry semantic content (e.g., auxiliary verbs,
conjonctions, determiners, and degree words).
They have meanings that are harder to define and paraphrase than lexical
categories.
Categories of words
B. Non-lexical categories (function words).
Non-lexical Examples
categories
(function words)

Determiner (Det) the, a, this, these, no

Degree word (Deg) too, so, very, more, quite
Auxiliary (Aux):

Modal will, would, can, could, may, must, should,

Non-modal be, have, do

Conjunction (Con) and, or, but
Categories of words

Some words can belong to more than one category.

Noun vs. Verb
A. I need help.
B. Help me please

A. I found a comb
B. The boy should comb his hair
Categories of words

Some words can belong to more than one category.

Preposition/Verb/adjective
The child stood near the fence.
The runner neared the finish line.
The end is nearer than you might think.
How can we determine a word’s category?
Meaning:
Nouns indicate:
entities (people and thing) including individuals (Harry,
Sue)
objects (book, desk).

Verbs indicate:
Actions (run, jump)
Sensations (feel, hurt)
States (be, remain).
How can we determine a word’s category?

Meaning

Adjectives indicate:
— property or attribute of the entities denoted by
nouns.
— Ex. When we say:
That high building
— We are attributing the property ‘high' to the
building designated by the noun.
How can we determine a word’s category?
Meaning.
Adverbs denote:
— properties and attributes of the actions,
sensations, and states designated by verbs
— Ex.
— Janet left quickly.
— Janet left early.
The adverb quickly indicates the manner of Janet's
leaving and the adverb early specifies its time.
Is meaning enough?

— 'abstract' nouns such as difficulty, truth, and

likelihood, do not name entities in the strict sense.

— Thus, a word's category membership does not always

bear such a straightforward relationship to its
meaning.
Is meaning enough?

— Nouns may also denote actions.

— Ex, Give someone a push.

— Thus, a word's category membership does not always

bear such a straightforward relationship to its
meaning.
Is meaning enough?

— Some words that have similar meanings can belong

to different categories.
— Ex. Like/fond of

— Mice like cheese. V

— Mice are found of cheese. A

— Thus, a word's category membership does not always

bear such a straightforward relationship to its
meaning.
How can we determine a word’s
category?

Inflection: the modification of a word's form to

indicate the grammatical subclass to which it
belongs (e.g. the -s in ‘books’ marks the plural
subclass).

Inflection can help in distinguishing categories of

words.
Inflection
Lexical categories and their inflectional affixes:
Category Inflectional; affix Examples
Plural –s Books, chairs, doctors
N
Possessive ‘s Johne’s, the man’s

Category Inflectional; affix Examples

Arrived, melted, hopped
V Past tense –ed
Progressive –ing Arriving, melting, hopping
Third person singular –s Arrives, melts, hops

Category Inflectional; affix Examples

Comparative –er Taller, faster, smarter
A Superlative -est Tallest, fastest, smartest
Inflection

However, inflection does not always help to

determine the word’s category.

Ex. Not all adjectives can take comparative and

superlative affixes
Ex. Intelligent *intelligenter
beautiful *beautifuler
Ex: some nouns can not be pluralised
*Moistures , * bravery, *knowledge
Distribution

Distribution:
the set of elements with which an item can co-
occur.
This is a more reliable criterion for determining a
word’s category.
It refers to the type of elements with which a word
can co-occur.
Distribution

Distribution:
We can identify a word’s category without
knowing its meaning
Ex.
Nouns can typically appear with
determiners:

A car *a write
The man *the read
Distribution

Verbs can typically appear with an auxiliary

Has gone *has man
Will stay *will beautiful

Adjectives typically appear with a degree

word:
Very rich *very destruction
Too big *too student
A poem that syntacticians love
Jabberwocky" is considered one of the greatest
nonsense poems written in English

Lewis Carroll (1832-1898). Through the Looking-

Glass
balances elements that make sense
with some that do not
'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe: verb preceded by auxiliary
All mimsy were the borogoves, noun. Take a plural ending
preceded by a Det.
And the mome raths outgrabe.

'Beware the Jabberwock, my son!

The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!'
Phrase structure

Sentences have a hierarchical design in

which words are grouped together into
larger structural units called phrases.

What is a a phrase?
A phrase is a unit of syntactic structure
consisting of an obligatory head and an
optional specifier and/or compliments.
Ex. The doctor arrived quickly.

— The and doctor form a phrase

— Arrived and quickly formed another phrase.

[ The doctor ] [ arrived quickly ]

Ex. Those students ride bicycle.

— Those and students form a phrase.

— ride and bicycle formed another phrase.

[ those students] [ Ride bicycle ]

 Traditional syntactic analysis

— The doctor arrived quickly.

— Those students ride bicycles.

— The doctor and those students are subjects. Arrived

quickly and ride bicycles are predicates.

— Ride is a transitive verb

— Leave is an intransitive verb