Almen sproglig viden og metode(General linguistics)IntroductiontotheStudyofSyntaxCLM, engelsktt

Grammar Syntax: the structure of sentences Morphology: the structure of words

RulesSyntax describes the rules by which words combine intosentencesMorphology describes the rulesby which morphemes combineinto words

Some basic notionsGrammaticality Meaningfulness Ambiguity

Grammatical or ?

not?

MeaningfulnessColorless green ideas sleep furiously- vs. grammaticality*Green furiously ideas sleep colorless

Ambiguity

What he meansand what she scribbles

The hierarchical structure of sentenceslate- switch the order of the first two words?late*secretary the general was late[The secretary general] is a syntactic unit a constituent- switch the order of the first two constituents (better but not yet quite correct)hewas?the secretary generalwas?Rule of question formation:

The aim of syntax to identify the constituents of sentences to name those constituents* to determine their syntactic functions* another way to say this: to assign constituents to syntactic categories to determine their semantic functions

Principles of Syntactic Analysis

Identifying constituent boundaries:the adverbial test[All the students may pass their exams][[Naturally] [all the students may pass their exams]][[All the students] [may] [naturally] pass their exams][[All the students] [naturally] may pass their exams][[All the students] [may] [ pass their exams] [naturally ]]*All [naturally] the students may pass their exams*All the [naturally] students may pass their exams*All the students may pass [naturally] their exams*All the students may pass their [naturally] exams

Identifying constituents[Naturally [all the students may pass their exams]][[All the students] [may] naturally [pass their exams]][[All the students] naturally [may pass their exams]][[All the students] [may] [ pass their exams] [naturally]]Naturally = of courseNaturally = in a natural way[Sentence adverbial][Manner adverbial]

Identifying constituents:the substitution + deletion tests[All the students][The students][All students][Students][They][All]*[The][may pass their exams]

Identifying constituents:the substitution + deletion tests[may pass their exams][do][may][pass their exams][pass][*may their exams][All the students]Constituents that may substitute for each other belong to the same distributional class, or paradigm

Identifying constituents:movement tests[[All the students] [may] [pass their exams]][[May][all the students] [pass their exams]][[Pass their exams] is what [all the students] [[may]][[Their exams] is what [all the students] [may] [pass]][[The students] [may] [all] [pass] [their exams]]*[[Pass their ][all the students] [may] [exams]]Only constituents at some level of analysis may move!

All constituents identified[[[All] [[the] [students]]] [[may] [[pass] [[their][exams]]]]]AllthestudentsmaypasstheirexamsThis is a simple box-diagram

Naming constituents: lexical and phrasal categoriesLexical categoriesN(oun)V(erb)A(djective)Adv(erb)D(eterminers)Subord(inator)Coord(inator)P(reposition)Interjection- Pro(noun)- Proper (name)Phrasal categoriesNPVPAPAdvPDPPPS(entence)CL(ause)- Main; Lexical- Aux(iliary); ModalNPhrasal categoriesare said to be projections fromlexical categoriesClausal andsententialcategoriesV

Naming constituents[S [DP [D All] [NP [D the] [N students]]][VP [Aux may] [VP [V pass] [NP [D their][N exams]]]]]This is a socalled labelled bracketingIt is difficult to read, therefore

examsAllthestudentsmaypasstheirVPVPNPNPNDDDPAuxVDNS[][[[[[[[[[[[[]]]]]]]]]]]]

examsAllthestudentsmaypasstheirVPVPNPNPNDDDPAuxVDNS[][[[[[[[[[[[[]]]]]]]]]]]]

SDPVPVPAuxVNPDmaypassDNtheirexamsNPDNAllthestudentsThis is a so-called tree diagram, growing the wrong way. The top node[S], is the root, the lines are branches, and the words at the bottom areleaves. The nodes connected by the lines carry category labels.

Naming constituents

Syntactic functions(kryds og bolle)All the studentsmay passtheir examsSubjectVerbObjectIs this right?

Syntactic functions(kryds og bolle)All the studentsmay passtheir examsSubjectVerbObjectIs this right?

Syntactic functions(kryds og bolle)All the studentsmay passtheir examsSubjectVerbObjectThis is (almost) right - but as you can see,(at least) two levels of analysis are needed

SDPVPVPAuxVNPAll the studentsmaypasstheir examsAssigning syntactic functions to constituentsSubjectPredicatePredicatorObjectOperatorThe important thing hereis that V(erb) is reservedas a category label. The syntactic function of the verb is splitinto two, i.e. an Operator function (the finite auxiliary) and a Predicator function (the lexical verb).

Terminological problems

Conceptual problemsSyntactic functions at clause level:Subject, Predicate, Adjunct- but what about functions within phrases?

Standard functions within VPVPVPAuxVNPmayPredicatorObjectOperatorpasstheir exams?Well return to the question mark later

SDPVPVPAuxVNPDmaypassDNtheirexamsNPDNAllthestudentsAssigning syntactic functions to constituentsSubjectPredicate????Predicator?ObjectOperator??

Adjunct positionsSDPVPVPAuxVNPDmaypassDNtheirexamsNPDNAllthestudents

Adjunct positionsSDPVPVPAuxVNPDmaypassDNtheirexamsNPDNAllthestudents

More syntax next time!