Syntax

What is Syntax?
Syntax is the study of rules in which how words
are combined.
(internal structure of sentences and the
relationship among their components p589)
Which sentence is grammatical?
ex1. bought J ohn books
ex2. bought books J ohn
ex3. J ohn books bought
ex4. J ohn bought books
ex5. books J ohn bought
ex6. books bought J ohn
Structure of sentences
The sentence ex4 is grammatical.
The reason that the sentence, ex4 is grammatical
and other sentences are ungrammatical is
because of the word order.
What is the word order in English?
subject verb object
The subject of the sentence is J ohn.
The verb of the sentence is bought.
The object of the sentence is books.
Syntax deals with the structures of sentences.
Phrase constituent (p171)
In syntax,, a group of words that serve as a unit
is called a constituent.
ex1. Kate bought a new car.
A new caris a constituent.
ex2. The boy kicked a ball.
the boyand a ballare constituents.
ex 3. A picture of flowers hung on the wall.
A picture of flowersand on the wallare
constituents.
It is possible that a phrase contains another
phrase.
A picture of flowersis a phrase and flowers
is another phrase.
Constituent test (p177-178)
How do we divide the sentences into
constituents?
4 constituent tests: substitution test,
questions and sentence fragments, cleft
sentences
1. Substitution test
If a word such as a pronoun can substitute for a
group of words, the group of the words is a
constituent.
Substitution test
1. Kate bought a new car. She bought a new
car. She bought it.
*Kate bought a new it. ungrammatical
*Kate bought a it. - ungrammatical
a new caris a constituent.
2. The boy kicked a ball. He kicked a ball.
He kicked it.
*He kicked a it. ungrammatical
3. A picture of flowers hung on the wall.
It hung on the wall. It hung there.
*A picture them hung on the wall.
ungrammatical
A picture of flowersis a constituent.
Substitution test
4. The project members left the office.
They left the office. They left there.
The project members constituent
the office constituent
5. The dog barked at the stranger.
He barked at the stranger.
He barked at him.
the dog constituent
the stranger constituent
Be careful at the strangeris not a phrase.
He barked therehas the different meaning.
Questions
A constituent can be the answer for questions.
Kate bought a new car. What did Kate buy? A new
car.
The boy kicked a ball. Who kicked a ball? The boy.
What did the boy kick? A ball.
A picture of flowers hung on the wall. What hung on
the wall? A picture of flowers. Where did a picture
of flowers hang? On the wall.
The project members left the office. Who left the
office? The project members. Where did the
project members leave?
The dog barked at the stranger. What barked at the
stranger? The dog. Whom did the dog bark at?
The stranger.
Cleft sentence
A sentence can be divided into two parts and a
part can be enclosed with itand that.
The boy kicked a ball. It is a ball that the boy
kicked. It is the boy that kicked a ball.
The project members left the office. It is the
project members that left the office.
We could not test verb phrases with cleft
sentences.
Verb phrase (VP)
ex1. J ohn kicked a ball and Tom kicked a ball.
In ex1, we can write did soinstead of kicked a
ball.
ex 2. J ohn kicked a ball and Tom did so.
In other words, did sois the substitution for
kicked a ball.
The phrases that can be substituted with did so
are verb phrases.
Inside of the verb phrase, a noun phrase exists.
In other words, a phrase can contain another
phrase.
Phrases
Please divide following sentences into phrases.
1. The old man lived in Los Angels.
2. Lisa parked the car in front of the hotel.
3. People in Hollywood appreciated Louis
Vuitton bags.
4. Bush defended the activities of the National
Security Agency.
5. Working for disabled children gave me great
experience.
6. A policeman caught a pickpocket in a hotel
pub.
Parts of speech (p172 p584)
Parts of speech = grammatical category
ex. noun, verb, adjective, adverb, preposition
article (p572): aand the
(This textbook calls article, but others call
determiner.)
quantifiers (p187): many, some, all, both, most,
few
demonstrative (p576): this, that, these, those
Head of Phrase (p205-206)
A constituent forms a phrase.
In the example sentence, The boy kicked a
ball,the boyis a phrase.
The phrase consists of two words: theand
boy.
The head of a phrase is that shows the
grammatical role of the phrase. For example,
theis an article and boyis a noun. The
grammatical role of the phrase, the boyis a
noun. Since we can substitute the boywith a
pronoun he. Thus the boyis a noun phrase.
Head of Phrase 2
Kickedis a verb.
The grammatical role of the phrase, kicked a
ballis a verb since we can substitute it with did
so. So it is a verb phrase.
In the sentence, A picture hung on the wall,on
the wallis a phrase. What is the head of the
phrase? We can substitute therefor on the
wall,so it is prepositional phrase. Furthermore,
we cannot omit on.
*A picture hung the wall. So the preposition, on
shows the grammatical role of the phrase.
Identify the heads of phrases 1
Please identify the heads of phrases and the
parts of speech.
1. a picture of horses
A picture of horses is presented there.
2. in front of the hotel
J ohn was waiting for a taxi in front of the hotel.
3. caught a pickpocket
The policeman caught a pickpocket.
4. working for disabled children
Working for disabled children was tough.
5. strangers from England
Scott well-behaved to strangers from England
Identify the heads of phrases 2
6. bought a new car
I bought a new car.
7. in the kitchen
The youngest child hid in the kitchen.
8. with this stunning portrait
Stacy emerged with this stunning portrait.
9. nearly correct
His answer was nearly correct.
10. greatly appreciated
You help was greatly appreciated.
Tree diagram (p171)
A tree diagram is a graphic representation
of syntactic constituent structure (p589)
Although the textbook introduces the tree
diagram of sentences, first we will draw
tree diagram of noun phrases.
Tree structures of NP
Tree structures of noun phrases.
Underlined parts indicate the head of the
phrases.
NP NP NP
noun Art noun Art adjective noun
cats the cat a new baby
Tree structures of NP 2
NP
Art Quant AP
Art adjective noun

the several married couples
Tree structures of NP 3 (p175)
A noun phrase with preposition phrase
NP
PP
NP
Art noun preposition noun
a picture of mountains
draw tree structures of NP
1. flowers
2. a new hotel
3. the textbooks
4. the gossip about an old friend
5. the gate of the house
Possessive phrases 1 (p210)
The tree structure of Possessive phrase is as
follow:
NP
Poss
NP Affix noun
noun
J im s car
Possessive phrases 2
In the sentence, andoes not agree with fences
so it indicates that anbelongs to the preceding
NP
NP
Poss
NP
det adjective noun Affix noun
an old building s fences
Draw tree structure
1. J anes book
2. The secretarys car
3. A cute dogs tail
Adjective phrase
Adjective phrases in predicates (ex. the car is
quite old.)
adjective phrase (AP)
adverb
adjective
quit old
(quitis degree adverb.)
Adjective phrase
adjective phrase (AP)
adverb P PP
NP
adverb adjective preposition noun
very afraid of ghosts
Draw trees
1. new
2. quite new
3. very fond of the dog
Phrases
Phrases may consist of single words or several
words.
ex1. His book is new.
In ex1, newforms an adjective phrase (AP)
ex2. His book is quite new.
In ex2. The adjective phrase consist of quite
and new. quiteis an adverb. So we can say
that quiteforms an adverb phrase.
However, it is not necessary to write AdvP in this
class.
tree structure of VP 1
VP VP VP
V V NP V NP NP
run Art N N Art N
take the test show Tom the picture
tree structure of VP 2
VP
V NP PP
Art N P NP
Art N
put the glasses on the table
Verb phrase
Draw trees
1. live in New York
2. send the mail
3. put the picture on the table
4. walk
5. bring the newspapers to the classroom
lexical verb vs. auxiliary verb
Lexical verb vs. auxiliary verb
three kinds of auxiliary verbs
modal auxiliary verbs: can, could, shall, should,
will, would, may, might, and must
aspect auxiliary verbs: have and be
passive auxiliary verbs: be
Order of auxiliary verbs
modal aspect passive
ex. The seat could have been occupied
Lexical verb
Lexical verbs indicate action or state.
(give, run, walk, put, stay, sit, join, etc.)
Lexical verbs come after auxiliary verbs.
J ohn has come back to New York.
J ane will walk in the park.
Mark should have cooked the dinner.
VP (verb phrase)
Auxiliary verb auxiliary verb lexical verb
should have cooked
Auxiliary verb
In Syntax, the past form of a verb consist of two
constituents. When we make a question, we
use did. In addition, native speakers of English
sometimes insert dofor emphasis.
J ohn ran. J ohn runs.
Did J ohn run? Does J ohn run?
J ohn did run. J ohn does run.
In addition, in tag questions, auxiliary verbs are
used.
You know those women, dont you! (p162)
So although no auxiliary verbs appear in
sentences, we insert auxiliary verb in tree
structures.
Phrase structure rules (p201)
Phrase structure rule (p585) A statement of an
operation that expands a single symbol into two
or more parts.
ex. The boy kicked a new ball.
In the above sentence, the boyis a noun
phrase since hecan be its substitute. A new
ballis also a noun phrase. Kicked a new ball
is a verb phrase.
In order to show the relation among these
phrases, the phrase structure rules are written.
Phrase structure rules 2
Grammatical sentences.
ex1. J ohn ran. (J ohn did run.)
In the sentence, ex1, J ohnforms a noun
phrase while runforms a verb phrase.
We use Sfor a sentence.
The sentence above can be expressed as
follows:
S NP Aux VP
Phrase structure rules = PS rules
Phrase structure rules 3
In order to accommodate all types of
sentences, optional constituents are
written inside of parentheses. For
example, articles in noun phrase are
optional so we use Art in parenthesis.
examples of Noun phrase
books, the book, the book of teas
A noun phrase consists of a noun, an
article and a prepositional phrase. Article
and PP are optional.
NP (Art) N (PP)
Phrase structure rule 4
SNP Aux VP
VP V AP (V: be, seem and so on.)
AP (Adv) Adj (PP)
PP Prep NP
Kim is very angry at Bill.
VP V NP (V: be, seem and so on.)
NP (Art) (Adj) N (PP)
J ane is a smart student of this high school.
PS rules (noun phrases p205)
A noun phrase can consist of a plural noun, a
proper noun, or Art common noun etc.
1. plural noun books
2. article + noun a book, the book
3. article + adjective + noun a new baby.
4. article + quantifier + noun
5. article + noun + prepositional phrase
So we write
NP (Art) (Quant) (Adj) N (PP)
PS rules (verb phrases p175)
Verb phrases
1. intransitive verb (run, rise, weep): VPV
J ohn runs. J ane weeps. The sun rises.
2. transitive verb + NP (take, buy): VP V NP
J ulia drank beer. J ohn took the test.
3. ditransitive verb + NP + NP (give, show):
VPNP NP
ex1. J ohn gave her a necklace.
ex2. He showed Tom the picture of his family.
4. transitive verb + NP + PP: VP V NP PP
The waiter put the glasses on the table.
VP V (NP) (NP) (PP)
complement
A complement is a constituent in a phrase that is
necessary to complete the phrase. For example,
the verb, likerequires a noun phrase as a
complement. In other words, without a noun
phrase, a sentence with like(ex. they like) is
ungrammatical.
buy, hit direct object
J ohn bought the ink stone.
He hit the punch bag.
lend, give direct object and indirect object
They will lend you a room
Tom gave J ane a bracelet.
complement 2
rely, live prepositional phrase
We rely on computers.
J ack lives in California.
put lay noun phrase and prepositional phrase
He put the suitcase on the bed.
J ane laid her baby in the cradle.
think noun phrase
J ane thought no harm.
think that
J ames thought that Anne was very beautiful.
think wh-phrases
I think who I met was a Russian.
complement 3
ask noun phrase
Sam asked the price of the antique lamp.
ask indirect object direct object
J ane asked him his name.
ask wh-clause
J ane asked where J ohn parked his car.
ask that clause
Andy asked that his friend sweep the room.
Complementizer phrase(p206)
Some verbs (think, ask) take wh-clause or that
clause as complement.
These clauses are embedded.
The textbook: VP V (S), but other textbooks use
CP (complementizer phrase).
VP V (CP)
I use CP.
VP with CP
VP
V CP
Comp S
NP Aux VP
N V NP
think that people had chased the escaped prisoner
VP with CP 2
VP
V CP
Comp S
NP Aux VP
wonder whether the student will pass the exam
Wh-questions (p211)
When you make wh-questions, a wh-word comes
first, and then auxiliary verb comes next.
In Syntax, these wh-words and auxiliary verbs
are fronted (moved) and there are traces of wh-
word and the auxiliary verb.
J ohn will marry someone.
Who will J ohn __ marry __?
In the sentence above, the auxiliary verb, will and
who are fronted. __shows the location of
traces.
Wh-question 2
Complex Wh-question
Mary believe someone will marry J ohn.
Who does Mary ___ believe J ohn will marry ___?
Wh-question tree 1
CP
C S
Aux NP (Aux) VP
V NP
Who will J ohn ____ marry ____
Wh-question tree 2
CP
C S
Aux NP (Aux) VP
V S
NP Aux VP
V NP
Who does Mary ___ believe J ohn will marry ___
Wh questions
Please draw trees
1. What did Max chase?
2. What will Bill eat at the restaurant?
complement & adjunct

verb + complement complete sentence
(grammatical sentence)
complement necessary
Martha put some money in the bank.
In the bankis complement.
*Martha put some money.
Without in the bank, the sentence is ungrammatical.
adjunct () not necessary
J ohn drank a beer in the park.
In the parkis adjunct.
J ohn drank a beer - grammatical ().
noun phrases with CP
There are complex noun phrases with relative
clauses like VP with CP. The text book calls it
Mod (modifier) phrase (p193). However, other
books call it CP so I will use CP. Relative
pronouns such as who,what,whichare
called complementizer.
As we have seen in wh-questions, in Syntax, there
is a link between the gap and the wh-word.
noun phrase with CP 2(p193)
People who were wearing hats
NP
N CP
Comp S
NP Aux VP
V NP
people who ____ were wearing hats
noun phrase with CP 3
NP
Art N CP
Comp S
NP Aux VP
N V NP
the book which J ane bought ___
Subject (p168)
The subject of sentence is person(s) or thing(s)
that is being discussed, described or dealt with.
The subject of a declarative sentence generally
comes before the auxiliary verb and main
verbs in linear order.
ex. The girl will play the game.
In questions, the subjects are located between
auxiliary verbs and the main verbs.
Will the girl play the game?
In tag questions, the subject of the sentence
agrees with the pronoun in the tag.
The girl will play the game, wont she?
Subject with CP
We have learned complex NPs. These NPs can
be the subjects of sentences.
ex1. The girl who won the 100 m race in the
Olympic lives in this town.
Subject: the girl who won the 100 ms race in the
Olympic
ex2. The boy who played scary TV games has
nightmare.
Subject: the boy who played scary TV games
What are subjects?
1. Yesterday, Kate bought a new car.
2. J ohn wont sing to Mary.
3. A picture of flowers hung on the wall.
4. The project members left the office.
5. The apples that J ohn bought yesterday look
delicious.
6. The guy who I met at the party seems shy.
7. The car which has the rack on the roof belongs
to J anes office.
What are the subjects of the sentences above?
Subject auxiliary verb inversion
(p153)
When you make questions in English, auxiliary
verbs are fronted. This is called subject auxiliary
verb inversion.
Kate bought a new car.
__ Kate did buy a new car.
Did Kate buy a new car?
__ J ane is a doctor. Is J ane a doctor?
Subject verb inversion 2
S S
NP Aux VP Aux NP VP
Art N V NP Art N V NP
Art N Art N
The girl did buy a car. Did the girl __ buy a car
Subject-verb agreement
Subject-verb agreement: When a subject is a
third person singular present tense in English,
the inflectional morpheme s is attached to the
verb.
Other languages such as French require the
agreements of gender, too.
bal dance masculine (male)
balle ball feminine (female)
livre book masculine
mer sea feminine
Subject-verb agreement 2
Check if the subject and verb agree in the
following sentences.
1. The houses in the village looks very nice.
2. The bicycles donated by the community are
refurbished.
3. The pay rate for plumbers are unbelievable.
4. A train of modern cars are passing in front of
us.
5. The restaurants in which we have ate the
dinner is going to get out of business.
One sentence two trees
A sentence possibly can have two different tree
structures. That sentence is ambiguous; in other
words, the sentence has two meanings.
ex. A man saw a woman with a telescope.
Two interpretations two tree structures.
1. The woman has the telescope.
2. The man has the telescope.
Ambiguous sentence tree 1
S
NP Aux VP
Art N V NP
Art N PP
P NP
A man did see a woman with the telescope.
Ambiguous sentence tree 2
S
NP Aux VP
Art N V NP PP
Art N P NP
Art N
A man did see a woman with the telescope.
Ambiguous sentence 2
conjunction a word that joins words, phrase or
sentences. (ex. and, but, and or)
Two noun phrases connected with andform a
large noun phrase.
[NP and NP]
NP
The old men and women left the room.
1. [The old [men and women]] [left [the room]]
2. [[The old men] and women] [left [the room]]
Ambiguous sentence tree 3
S
NP VP
Art Adj NP V NP
NP Conj NP Art N
the old men and women left the room
Ambiguous sentence tree 4
S
NP VP
NP Conj NP V NP
Art Adj N N Art N
the old men and women left the room