Syntax Lecture2

7/24/2019 Syntax Lecture2

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Defning words and word classes

SoonafterbreakfastMaryAnnbroughtintheTimes.

Can you make out the words? Could you do it in a language you don’t know?

It is your linguistic competence that allows you to recognize the words and

this competence is perfect only when your mother tongue is in question. You

have no such competence for languages you don’t speak – you cannot

recognize the oundaries etween the words if you don’t know the

language.

! very simple "elsh sentence# Bethymayemrysyneiwneud? $"hat is %mrys

doing?&

Beth y may emrys yn ei wneud?'ometimes you cannot even recognize the words of a language you know.

(ladly the cross I’d ear $church hymn& interpreted y a )ve*year old girl as

(ladly the cross*eyed ear.

+ +

Word is the smallest linguistic unit which has meaning, structure and form.

"ords are classi)ed as di-erent parts of speech.

he orm of a word is its orthographical shape $if the word is written, if not

– the sound of the word is what formally de)nes it&. ! word usually stands

etween pauses $in speech& or lanks $in writing&. ! ig prolem in de)ning

words according to their form is the di-erent way some words $ususally

compounds& are written# post-oice, postoice, post oice. In normal

everyday speech, people do not usually make pauses after every word $we

make pauses after each group of logically or semantically connected words&

so this criterion cannot e asolutely reliale for word*de)ning.

!ccording to their form, we may reach the conclusion that words ending in

–er or –est are ad/ectives, those ending in –s are either plural nouns or

vers, those ending in –ly advers and those ending in –ed always ves.

0owever, morphological shape can e misleading# ound morphemes suchas, for e1ample –er or –ly can e used to form various le1ical categories#

trainer is a noun, whereas greater is an ad/ective2 greatly is an adver,

whereas lovely is an ad/ective. here are nouns that do not take the plural –

s ending $ furniture, information& and this morphological distinction still

doesn’t make them any less nouns than, for e1ample, chairs or words.



!s for the structure, words are made up of morphemes. hey have at least

one morpheme# tale, the. 3orphemes can e free or ound# all free

morphemes are at the same time words. 4ound morphemes $such as –y in

cheeky or –s tables& are not words ecause they cannot stand as

independent units of a sentence structure. 4ound morphemes can e

derivational $cheek y & or grammatical $tables&. What is the longest

English word? !ntidisestalishmentarianism $5 morphemes&

"hen it comes to meaning, there are several prolems. Consider the

following e1amples# ve o!clock shadow, plain sailing, piece of cake, bury

the hatchet, put up with someone. !re these e1amples words? "hat is their

meaning? "ould the meaning alter if one made some changes to them, e.g.

if one said piece of paper, put on with someone or ve o!clock news?

3ost of us were taught that nouns represent ’people or o/ects’ while vers

represent ’action’. 0owever, nouns such as destruction $or, for that matter,action&, happiness, sincerity actually represent an action or a feeling or a

characteristic.

here is also the prolem of polysemy and homonymy#

6ut the hat on your head. 0e is head of department.

I had to sit on a wooden chair all day. !ll questions must e addressed to

the chair.

3eaning is quite important when it comes to de)ning words, ut it is not

crucial, as in many cases there is no asolute correspondence etween

words and the concepts they represent.

he most reliale criterion in /udging what a word is and what le1ical

category $part of speech& it elongs to is its syntactic function or

distriution within a sentence# this criterion encompasses all other

de)nitions of words. "ords are supposed to e comined into units of

higher level. 0owever, these cominations cannot e done in an aritrary

way# door table watch is not a construction, while the front door is a noun

phrase.

The syntactic defnition o word:

! word is a an uninterruptile, free, traditionally recognized unit which hasa certain sound, graphic shape and morphological structure, as well as

meaning and as such enters into grammatical relations with other units of

the same kind, thus forming constructions.

Parts o speech/lexical categories/word classes. ame se!eral words

"elonging to the gi!en category:



7ouns#

8ers#

!d/ectives#

!dvers#

6repositions#

Con/unctions#

6ronouns#

!rticles#

7umerals#

9eterminers#

Intensi)ers#

Is it possile to say my these "obs, the his "obs, her some "obs?

hese articles $the&, possessives $my, his, her&, demonstratives $these&,

quanti)ers $some& all ’determine’ the word they refer to. hey are thereforecalled determiners and they cannot occupy the same position in a sentence

at the same time# they compete with each other for a single structural

position.

"ords such as very, rather, too, #uite, less are called intensi)ers. Do these

words "elong to an open or closed class? #n what way are they

distri"uted in a sentence? Pro!ide some examples.

Try to determine what $ind o lexical category can occur in the

ollowing en!ironment:

hey have no ::::::::::::: .

hey can ::::::::::::: .

hey read an :::::::::::::: ook.

0e treats ;ohn very ::::::::::::: .

0e walked right ::::::: the wall.

"e can make di-erence etween full+le1ical+content and

empty+grammatical+function words. <ull words elong to the open class of

words $nouns, most vers, ad/ectives, advers&. %mpty words are devoid of

le1ical meaning and they elong to the closed class of words $no newfunction words can e admitted into a language&. %mpty words include

articles, pronouns, determiners, prepositions, con/unctions, au1iliary and

modal vers. hese words provide grammatical relations etween words

which help us understand the construction and content words provide

le1ical meaning. 0owever, all words have oth le1ical and grammatical

meaning to a certain degree. <or e1ample, $ower is a content word ut it



also has the grammatical meaning of a ’noun in singular form’, while of is a

function word which can have the following le1ical meanings# part of

something $piece of read&, quality $heart of gold&, possession $friend of

mine& etc.

%very language has more content words, ut in a single piece of te1t there

are more function than content words.

Exercises:

%lassiy the words in the ollowing sentences into unction or

content words.

The boy wrote a poem with his friend%

The actions by the government came too late%

The hurricane caused the destruction of the villages%

&enny!s neighbour always knows the answer%

The book is red and blue%The book seemed nice to me%

They upped the price%

The door of that car is damaged%

'ith their books about linguistics, they went to school%

That car drives fast%

That person looks hard%

(!m looking hard for an answer%

)e drove very #uickly%

That fast car must be a police car%

*olicemen are usually very friendly%

Their cangaroo ate my food%

Both candidates gave speeches%

( have a book in my hand%

( have worked here for ve years%

ow classiy all the words in these sentences into parts o speech.

Determine the lexical category o the underlined words.

)is second book came out earlier this year and became an instant

bestseller%'hen you book something such as a hotel room, you arrange to have it%

*rice #uotes on selected categories will be sent out upon re#uest%

+o doubt that he was forced to leave his family against his will%

)e intended to will the large amount of money to rank%

&ane stood aside to let her pass%

)e has a rail pass that!s right for you%



The anadian government uses a parliamentary system of democracy%

The anadian bought himself a barbe#ue%

.race me no .race, nor /ncle me,

( am no traitor!s uncle0 and that word

.race

(n an ungracious mouth, is but profane%

*olice police police outing%

%an ollowing constructions "e defned as sentences or not?

Apparitions evanesced into darkness%

The possets were outgribben%

&rom '(a""erwoc$y' "y )ewis %arroll

was rillig and the slithy toves

9id gyre and gimle in the wae2

!ll mimsy were the orogoves, !nd the mome raths outgrae.

&unction words* in+ectional su,ixes -"ound morphemes and word

order pro!ide the syntactic structure and ena"le us to ma$e

conclusions a"out parts o speech o the words in a sentence. 4earing

this in mind, try to analyse the stanza from the poem y =ewis Carroll. hen

try to translate it.

Syntax Lecture2

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