Introduction to Linguistics:

SYNTAX
(parts of speech categories & subcategories)
Dafydd Gibbon
B.A. British And American Studies
Basic Module 2
Winter Semester 2007/2008

SYNTAX
(SENTENCE SYNTAX)

Winter Semester 2007/2008

Introduction to Linguistics

Paradigmatic relations in syntax

Syntactic categories
Lexical categories
Verbals

Nominals
Nouns

Glue categories
Prepositions

Pronouns

Conjunctions

Main verbs Auxiliary verbs

Adjectives

Interjections

Determiners

Winter Semester 2007/2008

Introduction to Linguistics

Parts of speech - categories

Nouny categories

Verby categories

Determiners
Adjectives
Nouns
Pronouns
Verbs (main verbs, auxiliary verbs)
Adverbs

Glue categories

Prepositions
Conjunctions
Interjections

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Introduction to Linguistics

Syntagmatic relations in syntax

sentence

subject

predicate

verbal

the

loud smoker

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is

being

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object

nuisance

Words: context, external structure

Parsing: the analysis of sentences in to parts (Latin: pars
part) deaths inquests open
Prostitutes'

Inquests into the deaths of four women who were killed in Suffolk have been
opened and adjourned. The hearing at Ipswich Coroner's Court found no
clear cause of death for Tania Nicol and Annette Nicholls. Anneli Alderton
was asphyxiated and Paula Clennell died from compression of the neck,
coroner Dr Peter Dean said.The inquest into the death of another victim,
Gemma Adams, was opened last week.
Police are continuing to question two men about the murders. The first
suspect, Tom Stephens, 37, was arrested on Monday. A second man being
held has been named locally as 48-year-old Stephen Wright. Both are
suspected of killing all five women.

Task:

Identify the part of speech of each word in this text

Group the words into larger units

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Introduction to Linguistics

NOUN CATEGORIES

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Noun categories: determiners

Articles:

Quantifiers:

cardinal numerals:

my, your, his, her, its, our,

their

Demonstratives:

definite: the
indefinite: a

Possessives:

existential:

some, several, few,

many, ...

dual:

proximal: this
distal: that

one, two, ...

both, either

universal:

each, every, all, ...

Relatives, interrogatives:

what
which
whose

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Introduction to Linguistics

Noun categories: adjectives

Adjective types:

scalar:

adverbs of degree:

alive / dead
married / unmarried

very
highly
extremely
incredibly

appraisive:

Special feature of scalar

adjectives:

polar:

small ... big

cold ... hot
hairless ... hairy

good
great
wonderful

ordinal:

first, second, ...

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Noun categories: nouns

Proper nouns:

names:

Common nouns:

Countable nouns:

knife, fork, spoon

Mass nouns (uncountable nouns):

personal
place
product, etc.

bread (a slice of bread)

butter (a piece of butter)
jam (a spoonful of jam)

For thought:

What happens when you count uncountable nouns?

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Noun categories: pronouns

Personal pronouns:

Possessive pronouns:

proximal: this
distal: that, yonder (archaic)

Quantifier pronouns

mine, yours, his, hers, its, ours, theirs

Demonstrative pronouns

I/me, you, he/him, she/her, we/us, they

cardinal numerals: one, two, ...

existential: some, several, few, many, ...
dual: both, either; universal: each, every, all, ...

Relative pronouns

more like conjunctions

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VERB CATEGORIES

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Verb categories: verbs

Main verbs:

finite forms:

person (1st, 2nd, 3rd)

number (singular, plural)
tense (present, past)

non-finite forms

present
perfect

might

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have

Periphrastic verbs
(auxiliary verb + non-finite
main verb):

infinitive
participle:

it

been

modal: can, may, will, shall;

ought, ...
aspectual: be+prespart
(continuous), have+pastpart
(perfect)
passive: be+pastpart

being

Introduction to Linguistics

repaired

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Verb categories: verbs

Main verbs:

finite forms:

person (1st, 2nd, 3rd)

number (singular, plural)
tense (present, past)

non-finite forms

present
perfect

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migh+t have+0

tense modal

Periphrastic verbs
(auxiliary verb + non-finite
main verb):

infinitive
participle:

it

perfect

be+en

modal: can, may, will, shall;

ought, ...
aspectual: be+prespart
(continuous), have+pastpart
(perfect)
passive: be+pastpart

be+ing

continuous passive
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repair+ed
main verb
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Verb categories: verbs

Periphrastic verbs (auxiliary verb + non-finite main verb):

modal: can, may, will, shall; ought, ...

aspectual:

be+prespart (continuous)
have+pastpart (perfect)

passive: be+pastpart

Discontinuous morphemes the flip flop rule of English

auxiliary verbs:
it

migh+t have+0

tense modal

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perfect

be+en

be+ing

continuous passive

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repair+ed
main verb

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Verb categories: adverbs

Deictic:

here, there; now, then

soon, immediately,
yesterday, ...

Place & direction (where):

Manner (how):

Time (when):

upwards, into, towards

Degree

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slowly, quickly
cleverly, stupidly
nicely, nastily
well
...

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better dealt with in

connection with adjectives

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SOME GLUE CATEGORIES

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Glue categories: prepositions

Express syntagmatic relations

Basically - make nominal expressions into adverbial
expressions
Pretty much the same categories as adverbs
Except the all purpose preposition of
Tasks:

What is the meaning of of?

Construct prepositional phrases corresponding to the types of
adverbs

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Glue categories: conjunctions

Express syntagmatic relations

Co-ordinating conjunctions:

and, but

Subordinating conjunctions:

conjunction-like relative pronouns:

who, which, that

make sentences (clauses) into adjective-like noun modifiers
i.e. basically:

make sentence (clauses) into adverb-like verb modifiers

Task:

find examples of conjunctions of each type and put them into

sentences

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Glue categories: interjections

Express syntagmatic relations

Interjections link parts of dialogues together:

They may also be expressions of subjective reactions:

Hi!
er
huh?
Ouch!
Wow!

Task:

find examples of 5 different interjections (not the ones listed here)

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PHRASAL CATEGORIES

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Noun Phrases: definitions

The Noun Categories form larger units:

Adjective Phrase = (DegreeAdverb)* Adjective
Nominal Phrase = (Adjective Phrase)* Noun
Noun Phrase = (Determiner) Nominal Phrase (Relative Clause)
Show how the following Noun Phrase is constructed, using the
definitions above:
The very first twenty-five extremely young smart yellow ducks

Note that linguistics has developed relatively independently in

different places, so there are different terminology systems.
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The very first twenty-five ...

NP

Det

NomP

AdjP

the

AdjP

AdjP

D-Adv

C-Adj

Q-Adj

D-Adv

Adj

very

first

twenty-five

extremely

young

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Introduction to Linguistics

AdjP

AdjP

Adj

Adj

smart yellow ducks

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Simple & complex sentences

Basic structure of simple sentences in English

SVO

Basic structure of simple sentences in German:

either

or

SOV (cf. subordinate clauses)

XVY (i.e. verb second)

Complex sentences:

subordinate clauses

relative
adverbial

coordinate clauses

with coordinating conjunctions

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Homework on Syntax

Select a newspaper text (about 2 or 3 sentences, not too

short)

Make a small dictionary of the parts of speech

Make tree drawings of the sentences,

showing parts of speech

showing how syntagmatic relations group the words together
hierarchically

Find examples of sentences with subordinate clauses.

Formulate recursive rules for coordinated sentences:

with and
for lists, with commas and then with and at the end.

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