1、讲义四Syntax,GraceTan,SYNTAX is the study of the rules governing the ways different constituents are combined to form sentences in a language , or the study of the interrelationships between elements in sentence structures. 句法研究的是语言中不同成分组合句子的支配规则，或者句子结构中各要素间的相互关系。,The Traditional Approach The Structura
2、l Approach The Generative Approach The Functional Approach,I.Traditional approach The types of sentence,A. According to the structure:Sentence can be simple and non-simple (complex and compound). The simple sentence The girl is watching TV. Mary and John are sitting on the sofa.The compound sentence
3、 并列句A compound sentence consists of two or more simple sentences, usually connected by a comma plus a joining word (and, but, for, or, nor, so, yet). A compound sentence is used when you want to give equal weight to closely related ideas. We are watering the trees, for we dont have any rain for a mo
4、nth.,The complex sentence复合句A complex sentence is made up of a simple sentence and a statement that begins with a dependent word. A complex sentence is used when you want to emphasize one idea over another in a sentence.What I want to emphasize is this. We should never pretend to know what we dont k
5、now.The compound-complex sentenceEllipsis is a common feature in English, but in many sentences of this type it is not possible to state exactly what is left out.,B. According to communicative function:Sentence can be declarative, interrogative, imperative and exclamatory.functional approach:P101 In
6、dicative(interrogative +declarative) Imperative(jussive命令句+optative祈愿句),Yes/no wh_,2.3. The extension of sentence Sentence can be extended either by conjoining or embedding.Conjoining is a way by which clauses are joined by means of coordinating conjunctions并列连词 (and, but, or), or connectives 连接词and
7、 parataxis.并列(一系列相关的从句或词组之间没有连词)(如:“I came, I saw, I conquered.“)Embedding嵌入法 is a process of construction whereby one clause is a constituent of another or is subordinated to another.,2.4. The structure of sentence The linear and hierarchical structures of sentences湖大2004 State briefly on one of th
8、e two topics give below (minimally 100 words) Grammar is antonomous. Linguistic structure is hierarchical.,Language types,SVO: English, French, Swahili, Hausa, ThaiVSO: Tagalog, Irish, (Classical) Arabic, (Biblical) HebrewSOV: Turkish, Japanese, Persian, GeorgianOVS: Apalai (Brazil), Barasano (Colom
9、bia), Panare (Venezuela)OSV: Apurina and Xavante (Brazil)VOS: Cakchiquel (Guatemala), Huave (Mexico),Sentence patterns/types in English,i) SVC Mary is a nurse/poor. ii) SVA Mary weighs 120 pounds. iii) SV Mary came. iv) SVO Mary cheated me. v) SVOC Mary called me Jim. vi) SVOA Mary put her child dow
10、n. vii) SVOO Mary lend him some money. 真题：Name three/five of SVO lgs:,广外2004 Observe the given Korean data and state as many syntatic difference between English and Korean as you can.(note :SM=subject marker OM=object marker) (1) k sony n-iee w yu-l l masi-ass-tathe boy-SM milk-OM drink-PAST-ASSERTI
11、ON “The boy drank milk.” (2) k -n n mu s- l m k-ass-n nya He-SM what-OM eat-PAST-QUESTION “What did he eat?”,Key Korean is SOV in its syntax while English is SVO. Korean is agglutinative粘着 in its word formation.Different linguistic elements, each of which exists separately and has a fixed meaning, a
12、re joined to form one word. In Korean, a question is formed by using mu s- l (What-OM) in the middle of a S and a question marker at the end of the S without the inversion or aux-insertion as in English.,Categories范畴 It refers to the defining properties of grammatical units 甄别性特点 The categories of t
13、he noun, include number, gender, case and countability; 名词的范畴包括数、性、格和可数性； The categories of the verb, for example, person, tense, aspect, mood, voice, etc. 动词范畴则含有人称、时、体、式、态等。,1).Word-level categories,Major lexical categories（主要词类）: N, V, Adj, Prep. Minor Lexical categories（次要词类）: Det, Deg, Qual, Au
14、xi, Conj. Det Determiner (限定词) Deg Degree word（程度词） QualQualifier(修饰词) AuxAuxiliary (助动词) Con Conjunction (连接词),2).Phrase-level categories,Phrase categories(短语范畴)-the syntactic units that are built around a certain word category are called phrase categories, such as NP, VP, AP, PP. The structure: sp
15、ecifier + head + complement Head(词头/中心词)-the word around which a phrase is formed Specifier(指示语/标志语)-the words on the left side of the heads Complement（补足语）-the words on the right side of the heads Eg. The pretty girl dreaming about going to Paris.,Grammatical Categories,The term “grammatical catego
16、ry” is used by some linguists to refer to word classes. In TG grammatical categories are syntactic units indicated by “category symbols” such as S, NP, VP, Det , A, etc. 有些语言学家用“语法范畴”这个术语来表示词类。在转换生成语法中，语法范畴是用S, NP, VP, Det , A等“范畴符号”表示的句法单位。,Which of the following items is Not one of the grammatical
17、 categories of English pronouns? A gender B number C case D voice Answer: D,_is Not a grammatical category of English verbs? A tense B aspect C number D gender Answer: D,Number,the noun-a book, some books the pronoun- I, we, etc. English verbs-do & does, etc. In French and German, adjectives and art
18、icles also reflect the number. It is generally believed that Chinese does not have number.,性 (Gender),Many inflectional languages have three meaning-related gender distinction: masculine, feminine and neuter. In English gender contrast can be only observed in pronouns and a small number of nouns whi
19、ch shows the biological gender.,In English, the gender distinctions are_ A not related to real world entities B on the whole natural C divided into Feminine, Masculine and neuter D divided into Feminine and Masculine Answer: B,Case,Latin:nominative 主格, vocative呼格 , accusative宾格, genitive属格, dative与格
20、, ablative离格. English: nominative/subjective case accusative/objective case genitive case 中山大学2004The category of _ is prominent in the grammar of Latin, with 6 distinctions of nominative, vocative, accusative,genitive, dative and ablative.,Tense,It is deictic, indicating time relative to time of ut
21、terance. There are only two kinds of tenses: past others say there are only 2 basic sentencesthe present and the past. Explain what tense is and whether it is justiable to say there is a future tense in English.,Aspect,It is not deictic, indicating time relative to the time of another event describe
22、d in the narrative. The perfective完成体 indicates the completion of an action. The imperfective indicates the duration without completion.,The relation between the determiner “this” and the noun “man” is_ A government B concord C binding D paradigmatic Answer: B,Concord & Government,Concord (agreement
23、): forms of two or more words in a syntactic relationship should agree with each other in terms of some categories: this man, these men Government: a word of a certain class determines the forms of others in terms of category. She gave him a book.,II.Structuralism,Saussure argues that linguistic uni
24、ts are interrelated with each other in a structure, not isolates. According to Saussure, language is a system of signs, each of which consists of two parts: signified (concept), signifier (sound image). And the relationship between the two parts is arbitrary. Consequently, one needs to find the valu
25、e of a sign from its relations to others in order to explain individual signs.,Syntactic Relation,Positional relation or Word Order:refers to the sequence arrangement of words in a lg. It is also called syntagmatic relation, horizontal relation, chain relation.指一个单位和同一个序列中的其他单位之间的关系，或者说是在现场的所有成分之间的关
26、系。 English SVO type,Relation ob substituability/Paradigmatic relation: it refers to the relation holding between elements replaceable with each other at a particular place in a structure, or between one element present and the other absent. It is also called associative relation, vertical relation o
27、r choice relation. The _is smiling. Constraints: - - an animate noun（book, desk ）- a semantic component of human（trees , cats ）- in the singular（boys , men）,Expressions like “Tom” or “He” can both be filled in the blank of the sentence “_is smiling.” So Tom and He have _relation. A syntagmatic B par
28、adigmatic C systematic D governing Answer: B,Relation of Co-occurrencewords of different clauses may permit , or require, the occurrence of a word of another set or class to form a sentence or a particular part of a sentence.,真题 北二外2004,_refers to the relations holding between elements replaceable w
29、ith each other at particular place in structure, or between one element present and the others absent. A.syntagmatic relation B.Paradigmatic relation C.Co-occurrence relation B,constructions & constituents,structural linguists find that sentences do not only have a linear structure, but also have a
30、hierarchical structure, made up of layers of words groups. For instance, in the sentence “ The boy kicked the ball”, the relation between “the” and “boy” is closer than that between “boy” and “kicked”.,Usually, sentences and phrases are referred to as constructions. The component elements of constru
31、ction are called as constituents. A constituent which is not at the same time a construction is a morpheme. A construction, which is not at the same time a constituent, is a sentence.,湖南大学2004Apply the substitution test to determine which of the bracketed sequences in the following sentences forms c
32、onstituents. Rewrite the sentence, replacing the words in brackets with one word.Is the bracked sequence a constituent? A) The tragedy upset the entire family. B) They hid in the cave. C) The computer was very expensive. D) The town square and the civic building will be rebuilt.Key: The bracketed se
33、quences in sentences A,B,and D,are all constituents.By replacing the words in brackets , they can be rewritten like this: A) It upset the entire family. B) They hid there. D) They will be rebuilt.,Which of the following choice is not a constituent? A I like the song. B I C song D like Answer: A,IC a
34、nalysis Immediate constituents,IC UC Binary cutting Brackets (Poor) (John) (ran) (away) Tree diagram : advantages and disadvantages 北二外2004Distinguish the two possible meanings of “more beautiful flowers”by IC analysis.,endocentric & exocentric constructions,Endocentric construction: Head Constructi
35、on: one whose distribution is functionally equivalent to one of its constituents, which serves as the center of the whole. NP: an old man VP: will be leaving AP: very late,Exocentric construction: one whose distribution is not functionally equivalent to any of its constituents. That is, there is no
36、noticeable center in it. Basic S: The boy smiled. PP: on the shelf Predicate construction: He kicked the ball. Connective construction: John seemed angry.,北二外2001,Tell if each of the following is endocentric or exocentric construction. 1.Take a break. 2.an extremely difficult book 3.Ladies and Gentl
37、emen 4.at present 5.swimming in the lake,The phrase “the three small Chinese children” is _construction. A endocentric B exocentric C hierarchical D linear Answer: A,Which of the following is exocentric? A women and men B on the table C a clever boy D an ugly man Answer: B,返回,PS rules,NP (Det) N (PP
38、) VP (Qual) V (NP) AP (Deg) A (PP) PP (Deg) P (NP) ,The parenthesesthe element in them is optional,箭头可以读作“由构成”或者“扩展为”，括号表明其中的成分可以省略，每个规则后面的三点表示可以选择加入其他的补语。,东大2001Explain and exemplify the following PS rules.(D)N NP (S)Pron Aux_t(M)(have-en)(be-ing)Key:1st rule means that a noun phrase can be written
39、 as a determiner plus a noun, and may then be followed by a sentence. Eg: (a) the man who came to see me last night(b)Michael who had never been there before.2nd rule means that an auxiliary can be represented by a number of ways. An auxiliary should contain tense element (t) and a modal verb (M), o
40、r a past perfect from (have-en) or be plus an ing form of a verb. Eg: Aux-t (M) :May I read your paper?Aux-t(have-en):Have you finished your paper?Aux-t(be-ing):Are you reading your paper?,广外2004On the basis of the following data, write out the PS rules for adverb phrases and verb phrases. 1) John w
41、alked slowly. 2) Tom talked with Jack very quickly. 3) Alice discussed the matter with her best friend quite early. Key: Adverbs may be preceded by a very tiny class of adverbs.The class of adverbs in these sentences leads to the following new PSrules: AdvP(Deg)Adv (Deg stands for Degree words) VP V
42、 (NP)(PP)(AdvP),NP (Det) N (PP) VP (Qual) V (NP) AP (Deg) A (PP) PP (Deg) P (NP) ,Specifier,Complement,Head,XP,X,The XP rule: XP (specifier) X (complement),Coordination Rule（并列规则）,Coordination structures -the structures that are formed by joining two or more elements of the same type with the help o
43、f a conjunction such as and, or, etc. Four important properties: 1) no limit on the number of coordinated categories before the conjunction;连词连接多少个成分没有限制 2) a category at any level can be coordinated; 任何层次都可以并列 e.g. son and father, in the room and in the garden,3) the categories must be of the same
44、type; 4) the category type of the coordinate phrase is identical to the category type of the elements being conjoined.并列词组的类别与构成该词组的类别一致 Example:girls playing in the garden and boys reading in the room 名词短语 in the room and in the garden介词短语 判断并列词组的类别根据构成并列词组的成分的类别来判断,Subordination Rule,Subordinating
45、 construction is a construction in which the units have different syntactic status, one being dependent on the other, there is only one head, the other is modifier.eg. two dogs, bald gentlemen, swimming in the lake 3 clauses :complement clauses补语分句adjunct/adverbial clause附加语言分句relative clause,Recurs
46、iveness/ Recursion,A childrens rhyme This is the farmer sowing the corn, that kept the cock that crowed in the morn, that waked the priest all shaven and shorn, that married the man all tattered and torn, that kissed the maiden all forlorn, that milked the cow with the crumpled horn, that tossed the
47、 dog, that worried the cat, that killed the rat, that ate the malt, that lay in the house that Jack built.,Transformational Generative Grammar,Noam Chomsky any language has two levels of structures -deep and surface structure the surface structure is derived from the deep structure.,D-Structure & S-
48、structure,D-structure: it refers to the abstract representation of the syntactic properties of a construction, which is the underlying level of structural relations between its different constituents.,S-structure: it refers to the final stage in the syntactic derivation of a construction, which clos
49、ely corresponds to the structural organization of a construction people actually produce and receive.,A D-structure may have different S- structures: (1) The man opened the door. (2) The man didnt open the door. (3) Did the man open the door? (4) Didnt the man open the door? (5) The door was opened by the man. (6) The door was not opened by the man. (7) Was the door opened by the man? (8) Wasnt the door opened by the man?,
