O M I D
04-11-2013, 07:59 PM
Syntax: The word "syntax" refers to the relationships of words within a sentence. In English, speakers and writers generally indicate these relationships through word order. For example, the actor--or "subject"--in a sentence generally comes before the verb. Recipients of actions--or "objects"--generally appear after verbs. English syntax actually is much more complex than these examples suggest, but they illustrate a general principle: syntax is the system that speakers and writers use when they combine words into phrases and clauses, ultimately creating meaning.
Syntax and Sentence Structure
Syntax refers to the harmonious way in which words are put together to form phrases, clauses, or sentences. These words can be structured in a variety of patterns. The subject-verb structure emphasizes action and the subject's determination. A telescoping effect in a sentence can detail movement from general to specific or far to near. A periodic sentence suspends the main idea or subject until the end of the sentence. This creates suspense within the sentence and prolongs reader interest.
Syntax: the rules of sentence formation. Also, syntax represents the component of the mental grammar that represents speakers’ knowledge of the structure of phrases and sentences.
Grammatical or *Ungrammatical?
Grammatical (well-formed): Describes a well-formed sequence of words, one conforming to the rules of syntax.
*Ungrammatical (ill formed): Ill-formed structures (sequence of words) that do not conform to the rules of grammar/syntax.
A native/fluent speaker will judge intuitively that a sentence to be grammatical and the other one to be ungrammatical *.
Intuitive knowledge belongs to the linguistic competence of the native/fluent speaker.
In generative/transformational grammar there are three important aspects of sentence structure:
1) the linear order of words from left to right
2) the categorization of words into parts of speech
3) the groupings of words
Grammaticality is not based on:
1) Grammaticality does not depend on having heard the sentence before.
Example: Enormous crickets in pink socks danced at the prom.
2) Grammaticality does not depend on whether the sentence is meaningful or not.
Example: Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.
Although the sentence does not make sense, it is syntactically well formed. However, it sounds “funny”.
Compare: Colorless green ideas sleep furiously. (sounds funny)
*Furiously sleep ideas green colorless. (ungrammatical)
3) Grammaticality does not depend on the truth of the sentence.
Example: Pregnant men are happy.
Unicorns live in the forest.
What else do you know about syntax?
Hierarchical Structure: the groupings and subgroupings of the parts of a sentence into syntactic categories.
Example: the bird sang [[the][sang]]
We already saw these groupings and subgroupings with morphemes:
Example: unlockable [[un][lock][able]]
Ambiguity: will happen when a sentence has multiple meanings (as we saw with the word unlockable).
For sale: an antique desk suitable for ladies with thick legs and larger drawers.
We will oil your sewing machine and adjust tension in your home for $10.00
This will make you smart. (
These structures are ambiguous because of the grouping, therefore causing structural ambiguity
[*=center] Syntactic Rules describe the form of the sentences in the language. For example, in English, the sentence "They can fish" is syntactically correct, while the sentence "Can fish they" is incorrect. To take another example, the language of binary numerals uses only the symbols 0 and 1, arranged in strings formed by concatenation, so that the sentence 101 is syntactically correct for this language, while the sentence 1,110,211 is syntactically incorrect.
The syntactic rules in a grammar must at least account for:
1. the grammaticality of sentence
2. word order
3. structural ambiguity/Lexical ambiguity (semantic)
Flying planes can be dangerous (structural ambiguity)
The man pointing at the person with a gun (structural ambiguity)
The professor answered to the students with a smile (structural ambiguity)
This will make you smart (Lexical Ambiguity)
She found him a pig (Lexical Ambiguity)
4. grammatical relations (for example, which NP is the subject, and which NP is the direct object)
Bill hire Mom
I rented the room to you
5. whether the different structures have different meanings of the same meaning
Bill hired Mary
Mary was hired by Bill
6. the creative aspect of language
- unlimited number of sentences
- novel sentences
- unlimited in length of sentences (recursiveness)
What is SYNTAX?
[*=center] the rules of sentence formation
[*=center] the component of the mental grammar that represents speakers+BOA-knowledge of the structure of phrases and sentences.
[*=center] The grammars of all languages include rules of syntax that reflect speakers+BOA-knowledge of these facts.
[*=center] Sentences are not random strings of words. To be a sentence, words must conform to specific patterns determined by the syntactic rules of the language.
★ SENTENCE STRUCTURE
[*=center] subgroups of words
[*=center] Syntactic rules determine the order of words in a sentence, and how the words are grouped.
PHRASE STRUCTURE TREES（Constituent structure tree）
One approach to analyzing a sentence is to divide the words of a sentence into phrases (defined as words closely associated with one another syntactically). This technique is known as parsing. The most fundamental division is between subject and predicate (verb).
Sometimes a sentence or phrase allows for two different syntactic interpretations. Parsing using parentheses to show syntactic relations can disambiguate such a phrase as:
old men and women
Tree diagrams can be used to show such "long distance" grammatical relations.
Consider also the sentence:
The fish is too old to eat.
Tree Diagrams: Hierarchical structures are generally depicted in a [B]tree diagram. Tree diagrams make it easier to see the parts and subparts of a sentence.
Consider the following sentence:
The child found the puppy.
Possible Groupings: 1. (the child), (found the puppy)
subject predicate
2. (the child) (found) (the puppy)
subject verb direct object
3. (the) (child) (found) (the) (puppy)
determiner noun verb determiner noun
Notice: (found the puppy) --> found) (the puppy) but not *(found the) (puppy)
If someone asks, "What did you find?"
The answer should be something like the puppy, but not found the
[*=center] Therefore, every sentence has one or more corresponding constituent structures composed of hierarchically arranged parts called constituents.
Syntax and Sentence Structure
Syntax refers to the harmonious way in which words are put together to form phrases, clauses, or sentences. These words can be structured in a variety of patterns. The subject-verb structure emphasizes action and the subject's determination. A telescoping effect in a sentence can detail movement from general to specific or far to near. A periodic sentence suspends the main idea or subject until the end of the sentence. This creates suspense within the sentence and prolongs reader interest.
Syntax: the rules of sentence formation. Also, syntax represents the component of the mental grammar that represents speakers’ knowledge of the structure of phrases and sentences.
Grammatical or *Ungrammatical?
Grammatical (well-formed): Describes a well-formed sequence of words, one conforming to the rules of syntax.
*Ungrammatical (ill formed): Ill-formed structures (sequence of words) that do not conform to the rules of grammar/syntax.
A native/fluent speaker will judge intuitively that a sentence to be grammatical and the other one to be ungrammatical *.
Intuitive knowledge belongs to the linguistic competence of the native/fluent speaker.
In generative/transformational grammar there are three important aspects of sentence structure:
1) the linear order of words from left to right
2) the categorization of words into parts of speech
3) the groupings of words
Grammaticality is not based on:
1) Grammaticality does not depend on having heard the sentence before.
Example: Enormous crickets in pink socks danced at the prom.
2) Grammaticality does not depend on whether the sentence is meaningful or not.
Example: Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.
Although the sentence does not make sense, it is syntactically well formed. However, it sounds “funny”.
Compare: Colorless green ideas sleep furiously. (sounds funny)
*Furiously sleep ideas green colorless. (ungrammatical)
3) Grammaticality does not depend on the truth of the sentence.
Example: Pregnant men are happy.
Unicorns live in the forest.
What else do you know about syntax?
Hierarchical Structure: the groupings and subgroupings of the parts of a sentence into syntactic categories.
Example: the bird sang [[the][sang]]
We already saw these groupings and subgroupings with morphemes:
Example: unlockable [[un][lock][able]]
Ambiguity: will happen when a sentence has multiple meanings (as we saw with the word unlockable).
For sale: an antique desk suitable for ladies with thick legs and larger drawers.
We will oil your sewing machine and adjust tension in your home for $10.00
This will make you smart. (
These structures are ambiguous because of the grouping, therefore causing structural ambiguity
[*=center] Syntactic Rules describe the form of the sentences in the language. For example, in English, the sentence "They can fish" is syntactically correct, while the sentence "Can fish they" is incorrect. To take another example, the language of binary numerals uses only the symbols 0 and 1, arranged in strings formed by concatenation, so that the sentence 101 is syntactically correct for this language, while the sentence 1,110,211 is syntactically incorrect.
The syntactic rules in a grammar must at least account for:
1. the grammaticality of sentence
2. word order
3. structural ambiguity/Lexical ambiguity (semantic)
Flying planes can be dangerous (structural ambiguity)
The man pointing at the person with a gun (structural ambiguity)
The professor answered to the students with a smile (structural ambiguity)
This will make you smart (Lexical Ambiguity)
She found him a pig (Lexical Ambiguity)
4. grammatical relations (for example, which NP is the subject, and which NP is the direct object)
Bill hire Mom
I rented the room to you
5. whether the different structures have different meanings of the same meaning
Bill hired Mary
Mary was hired by Bill
6. the creative aspect of language
- unlimited number of sentences
- novel sentences
- unlimited in length of sentences (recursiveness)
What is SYNTAX?
[*=center] the rules of sentence formation
[*=center] the component of the mental grammar that represents speakers+BOA-knowledge of the structure of phrases and sentences.
[*=center] The grammars of all languages include rules of syntax that reflect speakers+BOA-knowledge of these facts.
[*=center] Sentences are not random strings of words. To be a sentence, words must conform to specific patterns determined by the syntactic rules of the language.
★ SENTENCE STRUCTURE
[*=center] subgroups of words
[*=center] Syntactic rules determine the order of words in a sentence, and how the words are grouped.
PHRASE STRUCTURE TREES（Constituent structure tree）
One approach to analyzing a sentence is to divide the words of a sentence into phrases (defined as words closely associated with one another syntactically). This technique is known as parsing. The most fundamental division is between subject and predicate (verb).
Sometimes a sentence or phrase allows for two different syntactic interpretations. Parsing using parentheses to show syntactic relations can disambiguate such a phrase as:
old men and women
Tree diagrams can be used to show such "long distance" grammatical relations.
Consider also the sentence:
The fish is too old to eat.
Tree Diagrams: Hierarchical structures are generally depicted in a [B]tree diagram. Tree diagrams make it easier to see the parts and subparts of a sentence.
Consider the following sentence:
The child found the puppy.
Possible Groupings: 1. (the child), (found the puppy)
subject predicate
2. (the child) (found) (the puppy)
subject verb direct object
3. (the) (child) (found) (the) (puppy)
determiner noun verb determiner noun
Notice: (found the puppy) --> found) (the puppy) but not *(found the) (puppy)
If someone asks, "What did you find?"
The answer should be something like the puppy, but not found the
[*=center] Therefore, every sentence has one or more corresponding constituent structures composed of hierarchically arranged parts called constituents.