1、Fallacies and Syntax Issues in Writing,What are fallacies,Fallacies are defects that weaken arguments.,1 Hasty generalization,Example: “My roommate said her philosophy class was hard, and the one Im in is hard, too. All philosophy classes must be hard!“ Two peoples experiences are, in this case, not
2、 enough on which to base a conclusion.,2 Missing the point,Example: “The seriousness of a punishment should match the seriousness of the crime. Right now, the punishment for drunk driving may simply be a fine. But drunk driving is a very serious crime that can kill innocent people. So the death pena
3、lty should be the punishment for drunk driving.“ The argument actually supports several conclusions“The punishment for drunk driving should be very serious,“ in particularbut it doesnt support the claim that the death penalty, specifically, is warranted.,3 Post hoc (also called false cause),Examples
4、: “President Jones raised taxes, and then the rate of violent crime went up. Jones is responsible for the rise in crime.“ The increase in taxes might or might not be one factor in the rising crime rates, but the argument hasnt shown us that one caused the other.,4 Slippery slope,Example: “Animal exp
5、erimentation reduces our respect for life. If we dont respect life, we are likely to be more and more tolerant of violent acts like war and murder. Soon our society will become a battlefield in which everyone constantly fears for their lives. It will be the end of civilization. To prevent this terri
6、ble consequence, we should make animal experimentation illegal right now.“,Since animal experimentation has been legal for some time and civilization has not yet ended, it seems particularly clear that this chain of events wont necessarily take place. Even if we believe that experimenting on animals
7、 reduces respect for life, and loss of respect for life makes us more tolerant of violence, that may be the spot on the hillside at which things stopwe may not slide all the way down to the end of civilization. And so we have not yet been given sufficient reason to accept the arguers conclusion that
8、 we must make animal experimentation illegal right now.,5 Weak analogy,Example: “Guns are like hammerstheyre both tools with metal parts that could be used to kill someone. And yet it would be ridiculous to restrict the purchase of hammersso restrictions on purchasing guns are equally ridiculous.“ W
9、hile guns and hammers do share certain features, these features (having metal parts, being tools, and being potentially useful for violence) are not the ones at stake in deciding whether to restrict guns. Rather, we restrict guns because they can easily be used to kill large numbers of people at a d
10、istance. This is a feature hammers do not shareitd be hard to kill a crowd with a hammer. Thus, the analogy is weak, and so is the argument based on it.,6 Appeal to authority,Example: “We should abolish the death penalty. Many respected people, such as actor Guy Handsome, have publicly stated their
11、opposition to it.“ While Guy Handsome may be an authority on matters having to do with acting, theres no particular reason why anyone should be moved by his political opinionshe is probably no more of an authority on the death penalty than the person writing the paper.,7 Ad populum,Example: “Gay mar
12、riages are just immoral. 70% of Americans think so!“ While the opinion of most Americans might be relevant in determining what laws we should have, it certainly doesnt determine what is moral or immoral: There was a time where a substantial number of Americans were in favor of segregation, but their
13、 opinion was not evidence that segregation was moral. The arguer is trying to get us to agree with the conclusion by appealing to our desire to fit in with other Americans.,8 Ad hominem and tu quoque,Examples: “Andrea Dworkin has written several books arguing that pornography harms women. But Dworki
14、n is an ugly, bitter person, so you shouldnt listen to her.“ Dworkins appearance and character, which the arguer has characterized so ungenerously, have nothing to do with the strength of her argument, so using them as evidence is fallacious.,句法学（Syntax）,1.What is syntax?,A branch of linguistics tha
15、t studies how words are combined to form sentences and the rules that govern the formation of sentences.,2.Categories（范畴）,Category refers to a group of linguistic items which fulfill the same or similar functions in a particular language such as a sentence, a noun phrase or a verb.,2.1 Lexical categ
16、ories,English major lexical categories实义语类 Noun (N student, lecture, John Verb (V): like, read, go Adjective (Adj): tall, lovely, red Adverb (adv): loudly, constantly, hard,English minor lexical categories功能语类 (Det): the, a, this, his Auxiliary (Aux): can, will, do, do, be, have Prepositio (pron): h
17、e, she, us, mine Conjunction (Conj): and, or, but, while Interjection (Int): Oh, ah, eh,2.2 grammatical categories:,number, gender, tense, mood, case, person, concord (一致）， government （支配关系）, etc.,A verb is to agree with the subject in person and in number. In English, this rule only affects the ver
18、b according to the number of the subject.(e.g. The boy goes to school.The boys go to school.),2.2.1 Concord (一致关系),The idea of government is the way in which certain prepositions and verbs determine the case of nouns.In English, prepositions and verbs require or restrict particular forms of the para
19、digms (聚合体，词形变化) of pronouns according to the syntactic relation between them.(e.g. I must learn from them. They pleased me the other day.),2.2.2 Government (支配关系),2.3 Functional categories,subject, predicate, object,complement, adverbial.,2.4 Phrasal categories and their stuctures,NP名词短语: a tall ma
20、n, the student VP动词短语: read a book, walk in the park PP介词短语: in the park, after dark AP形容词短语: quite rude, very anxious,Phrase stucture rule,The XP rule,The X stands for the head of N,A,V and P.,The X bar theory（X杠理论）,The coordinate rule,3.Sentence （句子）,3.1 The sentence rule,Normally a sentence consi
21、sts of at least a subject and its predicate,Infl Tense and agreement,3.2 Types of sentences句子类型,Structural Approach The simple sentence简单句 The coordinate sentence 并列句 The complex sentence 复合句,Functional Approach declarative (陈述句),interrogative (疑问句),imperative (祈使句), exclamatory (感叹句).,immediate con
22、stituent（直接成分）Constituent(构成成分) ultimate constituent （最终成分）IC（直接成分）: Can be further segmented until we obtain the smallest grammatical units.UC（最终成分）: The smallest grammatical unit obtained through segmentation.,3.3 IC Analysis (直接成分分析法):,IC Analysis refers to divide the sentence up into immediate c
23、onstituents by using binary cutting until obtaining its ultimate constituents.（把句子按其组成部分/成分用两进制切分法/二分法一直划到最小的语法单位又称最终成分词素。）,The analysis can be carried out in ways ofbracketing (括号法） upright lines（竖线法）tree diagrams (树形法）,Tree diagrams,树形图最为直观，不仅显示出句子的线性结构，而且清楚地表明其阶层结（hierarchical structure）。eg A amb
24、iguity sentence:The boy saw the man with a telescope.,not only shows linear relationship, but also hierarchical ones. helps to account for the ambiguity of certain constructions.For example: old men and womenold men and women,The advantage of IC Analysis,There will be a problem as to where to make t
25、he next cut. This is called discontinuity and such constituents are called discontinuous constituents （非连续成分）. e.g. lookup, bringin, helpout, look forward to, etc. 直接成分分析法把话语一直分到词素，忽略了词和习语作为词汇单位的整体作用。如：lookup, bringin, helpout, look forward to, 三长两短，七上八下，如果切分到词素，就会忽视习语的整体意义，从而破坏语义的完整性。,A disadvantag
26、e of IC Analysis,3.4 Transformations,3.4.1 Deep structure & surface structure The structure of the sentence as it is pronounced or written is called the surface structure.The structure that contains all the units and relationships that are necessary for interpreting the meaning of the sentence is ca
27、lled the deep structure.,For example: Flying planes can be dangerous. 这是一个多义结构，可解释为： The action of flying planes can be dangerous.驾驶飞机是危险的。 Planes that fly can be dangerous. 飞着的飞机是危险的。以上句中的表层结构（词语和词序）相同，但语 义却不同，既同一个表层结构，有两个深层结构。,3.4.2 Syntactic movement and movement rules,Aux-movement 助动词移动 Do inser
28、tion WH-movement WH移动 NP-movement 名词短语移动,Aux-movement（助动词移动）,The movement of an auxiliary verb to the sentence-initial position, such as be, have, do, will, can, and should.eg. John will buy a present.Will John buy a present?,Do insertion,Insert interrogative do into an empty Infl positioneg. Birds
29、fly.Birds do fly.Do birds fly?,WH-movement,WH-movement is obligatory in English, which changes a sentence from affirmative to interrogative.eg. John will buy what.What will John buy?John will put books whereWhere will John put books?,NP-movement,NP movement occurs發生 when, for example, a sentence changes from the active voice主動 to the passive voice被動.eg. John kissed Mary.Mary was kissed by John.,Thanks for your attention.,
