Syntactic StructuresMeeting 4

In English, words are combined into larger structures to convey more various meaning. Words can be lexical and functional. The combination of (no) more than two words will produce various structural meaning. The structures can be divided into four principal groups.

What are the four groups? Hungry people Home town Easily superior

As examples of structure of …………..

It is formed by the combination of:

…………… + …………………..

Structure of …. Money talks Soldiers have been killed Snow kept falling

It is formed by the combination of:

…………… + …………………..

Structure of … Speak truth Be careful Love your neighbour

Structure of … Pins and needles Hope and pray Neither war nor peace

These are the basic structures as the bases for more complex structures.

They can be used as the main outlines and provide a framework of ideas and a basic terminology

These structures are based on:

1. English syntax is a many-layered organization of relatively few types of basic units

2. Every structure may be divided into its immediate consituents (ICs) and ten subdivided until the ultimate consituents

Structure of Modification It consists of two components:

Head + Modifier Possible meanings of modifier:

- to broaden- to qualify- to select- to change- to describe- to affect the meaning of the head.

The head can be:

- noun

- verb

- adjective

- adverb Unlike the head, the modifiers are limited

Noun as HeadThe modifiers can be:1. ADJECTIVE: good book

great workremarkable tales

The rule is: Adj + Noun Rarely Adjective follows the Noun (Noun + Adjective) in:

- technical terms or quotations: court-martial, darkness visible

- when adjectives is a part of a larger structure: a figure vague and shadowy, a man taller than I thought

2. Nouns: - in possessive: my father’s house meaning house of my father that woman’s doctor meaning doctor of that woman - in noun-adjuct: a father image meaning an image like father

that woman doctor meaning that doctor who is a woman

Post-head dependents which are not complements in a VP

are adjuncts

Adjuncts are never obligatory

Adjuncts modify some aspect of the possible reference of

the VP

Different types of phrases can act as an adjunct in a VP (XP

is an abbreviation for an unspecified type of phrase)

Adjuncts can be fronted to pre-Subject

Adjuncts

Some characteristics of noun modifiers:1. noun adjunct is almost always singular Ex.: dog days vs dog’s life2. Certain noun-determiners (this/these and that/those) exhibit the phenomenon of concord Ex.: that boy’s book = book of that boy

that boys book = that book for boys those boys’ book = book of those boys those boys’ books = books of those boys those boys books= those books for boys

3. Most nonpersonal nouns do not have the (-‘s) inflection Ex.: communications officer, reparations agreement, 4. A few nouns have certain irregular forms which can help identify the possessive and plurality of the noun Ex.: woman doctor (noun adjunct) vs woman’s doctor (possessive)

women doctors (noun adjunct) vs women’s doctors (possessive)

Appositive Appositive is a noun, noun-headed structure of modification, or a

structure of coordination made up of nouns or noun-headed structures modifying a noun head which it follows.ex.: - His brother, a doctor, was there also

- Mr. Jones, the art critic, praised the painting

- The children, both boys and girls, received presents- the poet, Chaucer, …- the product, cellophane, …- Professor Jones …- Vice-President Smith …- The River Duddon

3. Verbs as modifiers

verbs can function as modifiers in the following forms:

- present participle (pre or post head)

- past participle (pre or post head)

- to infinitive (always post head)

Present/past participle modifiers Pre-Head (if they are by-itself).

Examples: - running water

- baked potatoes Post-head (if they are parts of a larger

structure)

Examples: - water running in the street

- potatoes baked slowly

To infinitives Examples: - Money to burn

- The man to see

What about the following:

a. A pleasing table

b. A rotting table

c. A dining table

Can you discriminate each of those?

4. Adverbs as Noun modifiersIn English it seldom occurs as noun modifiers. If so, it occurs

immediately after the noun modified. They are adverbs of then (today, daily, seldom, etc.) and there (outside, ahead, backward, etc.) groups.

Example: - the people here- The temperature outside- Heavens above

And the thus/so-class (easily, slowly, aloud, etc) groups only modify present participle verbs, such as his speaking rapidly, our acting together.

5. Prepositional Phrases as Noun modifiersThis phrase consists of prepositions and lexical words.

Preposition can be simple prepositions: one-morpheme preposition (after, as, at, etc), two-morpheme prepositions (about, above, across), and three-morpheme prepositions ( against, concerning, considering), compound prepositions (adverb+preposition) such as across from, along with, apart from, and phrasal prepositions (simple preposition, a noun, and another simple preposition) such as in regard to, in spite of, by means of, etc.

Example of Prepositional phrase as modifiers:

- a way of doing

- a mile from here

- a book from under the table

Verbs as the Heads Head: V Dependents:

Pre-head modifier: AdvP Post-head modifier: AdvP/PP (Post-head) complement: NP/PP/AdvP/clause

S

Subject:NP Tense:AUX Predicate:VP

The boy has run very quickly

head:V PtHdMod:AdvP

S

Subject:NP Tense:AUX Predicate:VP

The boy has very quickly run

PrHdMod:AdvP V

Adjective as the Head

• Head

• Dependents:

• Prehead Modifier (PrHdMod)

• Posthead Complement (Comp)

AdjP

PrHdMod:AdvP Head:Adj Comp:PP

so very improbably keen on that movie

crazy about that movie

Adverb as the Head

• head: Adv

• dependents:

• prehead modifier: AdvP

• posthead complement: PP / clause

more carefully than Jo

so very quickly that he fell over

quickly *than Jo/ that he fell over

PrHdMod: Head: Comp:

AdvP Adv PP/Clause

Preposition as the Head

• head: P

• Prehead modifier: AdvP

• Posthead complement: NP/PP

PP

PrHdMod:AdvP Head:P Comp:NP

straight though the intersection

almost right into the crowd

barely in the water