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Structure of the lecture



Definition of the term syntax



Word-level categories



Phrase structure



Specifiers and complements

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Phrase structure rules

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Tests for phrase structure

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Complement options

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Trasformations

Key definitions



Components of the grammar: phonetics,
phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics



Syntax – rules for combining words to form
sentences or relations that hold between the
elements of a sentence.

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Grammatical sentence: any utterance judged by a
native speaker as well-formed.



Ungrammatical sentence: an ill-formed sentence
that is unlikely to be ever generated by a native
speaker



Transformational syntax – the most popular
approach to syntactic analysis

Transformational syntax



Transformational syntax – rules
specifying how

tree structures can be

modified by moving an element from
one position to another

Word-level categories

Lexical categories – have a dictionary

meaning:

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Verb – arrive, love, smile, kick,

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Noun – boy, table, dogs, loyalty,
bravery

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Adjective – nice, funny, ridiculous,

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Adverbs – beautifully, carefully, fast,
hard

Word-level categories

Non-lexical categories – do not usually have a

dictionary meaning:

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Determiner: the, a, an, this, those

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Degree word: too, so, very, more, quite

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Qualifier: always, perhaps, almost, often

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Auxiliary: will, have, do, should, might

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Conjunction: and, but, or

!!! Some words belong to two different

categories, e.g. work, walk, hard, fast, near,
etc.

Determining a word’s lexical

category



Meaning – nouns name entities, verbs name

actions, adjectives desribe certain properties of

nouns, adverbs describe how actions are

performed



Distribution: nouns appear with determiners (the

book), verbs with an auxiliary (will see), adjectives

with a degree word (very rich)



Inflection:

    nouns - the plural suffix –s: books, cars
    verbs – the past suffix –ed: watched, looked
                 the progressive – ing: watching
    adjectives – comparative suffixes –er, -est: taller,
                        tallest

Phrases



The man is good to the baby

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Det N V A P Det N

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Sentence structure

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S → Det N V A P Det N

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Almost any sequence of category types are possible:

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N, A (the best thing imaginable)

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A, N (such a kind girl)

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V, P (I look into your eyes)

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P, V (the man you are waiting for has called)

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A, P (living is easy with eyes closed)

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V, N (I’ll never lose affection)

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N, V (Moscow girls make me sigh)

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Certain groups of words tend to occur in the same positions,

e.g. Det N, Aux V. Such strings of words are referred to as

phrases.

Phrase structure



Phrases and sentences are not formed by stringing

words together:



John doesn’t like his uncle.

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*like doesn’t John uncle his



Inflectional languages are more flexible in this respect:

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Rdza zżera stare żelazko vs. Żelazko stare zżera rdza.



* Stare rdza zżera żelazko.



The word around which a phrase is built is called the

head.



NP, VP, AP, PP

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Phrases don’t normally contain one word, e.g. the bird

Specifiers



Specifiers make the meaning of the head more
precise:



the boy – the indicates that the speaker has a
specific boy in mind



Never drinks coffee – never indicates non-
occurring event



Quite nice – quite shows the extent to which a
given property is manifested



In English specifiers are always located to the
left of the head

Complements



Complements provide information
about entities and locations whose
existence is implied by the meaning of
the head, e.g.

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[NP the books about the war]

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[VP never drinks coffee with milk]

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[AP quite sure about Luke’s innocence]

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[PP almost ready to become president]

Phrase structure rules



Phrase structure rules stipulate, i.e.
state, the position of specifiers,
heads and complements in phrases.

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NP → (Det) N (PP) ...



VP → (Qual) V (NP) ...

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AP → (Deg) A (PP) ...

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PP → (Deg) P (NP) ...

Sentence structure

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Sentence – the largest unit of syntactic
analysis.



Sentences usually consist of a NP combined
with a VP.



The young scientist invented a mobile
phone.

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It is assumed that sentences have as their
head an abstract category called inflection,
which indicates the sentence’s tense.

Tests for phrase structure

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The substitution test:

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[The guests] left after [they] had been
cheated.

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The movement test:

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There is a lamp [on the table] vs. [On the
table], there is a lamp.

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The coordination test:

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The children [often sweep the floor] but
[never make the bed].

Transformations

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Transformations – various
syntactic operations performed to
make questions.



Basic operations include:



inversion in yes-no questions,



wh-movement,

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