Lecture Four

Syntax

I. Definition It’s a kind of micro linguistics that studies

how words are combined to form sentences and the rules that govern the formation of sentences. (Transformational syntax to be introduced in the book.)

II. Word-level categories Category refers to a group of linguistic

items which fulfill the same or similar functions in a particular language. Traditionally, category is termed as “parts of speech”.

Major lexical categories and minor lexical categories

Examples of some lexical categories

Major lexical categories ExamplesNoun (N)

Verb (V)

Adjective (A)

Preposition (P)

book, boy, love, sheep

run, read, play

happy, tall, clear

about, over, on

Minor lexical categories Examples

Determiner (Det)

Degree word (Deg)

Qualifier (Qual)

Auxiliary (Aux)

Conjunction (Con)

the, a, this, those

quite, very, more, so

often, always, seldom, almost

must, should, can, might

and, but, or

A word’s distributional facts together with information about its meaning and inflectional capability help identify its syntactic category.

Meaning: John, pen, book, pretty lady, left quietly

Inflection: plural affixes, tenses, degrees

Distribution: the girl, a card, should stay, will help

III. Phrase categories Definition: Categories which are built

around a certain word category. Types: Noun phrase (NP): the pretty girl

Verb phrase (VP): often dream

Adjective phrase (AP): very pessimistic

Prepositional phrase (PP): in the house

Adverbial phrase (ADVP): very quickly (Wen, p. 118)

Head, specifier and complement

IV. Phrase structure rule Introduction: NP (Det) N (PP) …

VP (Qual) V (NP) …

AP (Deg) A (PP) …

PP (Deg) P (NP) …

(Note: “ ” means “consist of”; ( ) means “can be omitted”; “…” means other complement options are available)

XP rule The XP rule: XP (specifier) X (complement) X ˉ Theory a. XP (specifier) X ˉ b. X ˉ X (complement) Coordination rule X X * Con X Phrase elements

Specifier: specify the meaning of head, top level of phrase structures, syntactic category may be different

Complements: provide information about entities and locations, a word’s complement is included in the head

Revised XP rule: XP (specifier) X (complement *) (see p.50)

Examples of some As, Ns, and Ps permitting CP complements

Items Heads Examples

Adjectives afraid, certain, aware I was afraid that nobody would believe me.

Nouns fact, claim, belief She can’t believe the fact that she would fail in the exam.

Prepositions over, about They argued over whether she had come to class.

(Note: complementizier – that, whether, if; CP – complement phrase)

Modifiers Modifier position in English

Modifier Position Example

AP precedes the head A very careful girl

PP follows the head open with care

AdvP precedes or follows the head

read carefully; carefully read

The expanded XP rule:XP (Spec) (Mod) X (Complement *) (Mod)

(Note: difference between complement and modifier)

V. Sentences (The S rule)

The S rule

S NP VP

InflP (=S) (following the XP rule, with an internal structure)

VI. Transformations

1. Auxiliary movement

Inversion (revised):

Move Infl to C

One application * The teacher wonders [CP if should his student _____ stay].

(Note: complementizers and auxiliaries are mutually exclusive)

Auxiliary unchanged, trace and head movement

2. Do insertion

3. Deep structure and surface structure Deep structure: XP rule which determine

s the internal structure of the phrasal categories.

Further illustration

The XP rule

DEEP STRUCTURE

Transformations (Subcategorization restricts choice of complements)

SURFACE STRUCTURE

(Note: When transformations are not necessary, the representations of

these two levels are the same)

4. Wh Movement An example in which wh occupies the s

ubject position An example sentence with a relative clause She has finally found the man whom she loves.

D-structure

S-structure

5. Move αand constrains on transformations

References

Dai, W. D & He, Z. X. (2002). A new concise course on linguistics for students of English. Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press.

TaskDo the following as required in groups of four or five:

1. The following sentences all contain embedded clauses that function as complements of a verb, an adjective, a preposition or a noun. Draw a tree structure for each sentence.

a) You know that I hate war.b) He said that Tom asked whether the class was over.c) Gerry can’t believe the fact that Anna flunked the

English exam.d) Chris was happy that his father bought him a Rolls-

Royce.e) The children argued over whether bats had wings.

2. Each of the following sentences contains a relative clause. Draw the deep structure and the surface structure trees for each of these sentences.

a) The essay that he wrote was too long.

b) ]The dog that he keeps bites

c) Herbert found the man she loved.

d) The girl whom he often quarrels with majors in linguistics.

3. The derivations of the following sentences involve the inversion transformation. Give the deep structure and the surface structure of each of these sentences.

a) Would you come tomorrow?

b) Can you pass me the newspaper?

c) Should the student report the incident?

d) What did you eat for lunch?

e) Who should this be reported to?

f) What was Helen bringing to the party?