SYNTAX

SYNTACTIC STUDIES
TRANSFORMATIONAL RULES
AND OPERATIONS
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 LINGUISTIC LEVELS:
OVERVIEW
• Language has a complex structure
• We can never describe a piece of speech in a
single, simple statement.
e.g “Hello, there!” can be described in terms of…

- Pronunciation, intonation…
- Vocabulary,…
- Grammar,…
- Function,…
- Discourse,…
………………….. and in many more aspects

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 How Many Levels?
• There are a number of language structure
models that scholars have adopted in the
study of the spoken language.

• These models range from the most basic

2-level framework to the more complex
framework of 6 levels.

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 2-Level Framework

Language

Level 1 Level 2

Form Meaning

• Simple models of language study recognise at least the

physical forms (sounds, letters, signs and words)
contained in a language and the range of abstract
meanings conveyed by these forms
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 3-Level Framework
Language

Level 1 Level 2 Level 3

Pronunciation Grammar Meaning
(phonology) (syntax) (semantics)

• Pronunciation - form of sound organisation to convey

differences in meaning
• Grammar – form of meaningful units that are brought into
sequence to convey wider and more varied patterns of
meaning
• Meaning – the meaning conveyed by the above forms
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 6-Level Framework
Language

Structure pragmatics Use

Medium of Meaning
Grammar
transmission (semantics)

Level 1 Level 2 Level 5 Level 6

phonetics phonology lexicon discourse
Level 3 Level 4

morphology syntax
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6-level Model Of Sentence Structure Analysis Proposed By David Crystal (1987)
 The 6-level structure of language analysis proposed by
Crystal are:
• Phonetics - The study of physical facts of pronunciation
defined by the process of articulation, acoustic
transmission and audition
• Phonology – The study of how different languages
organise sounds to convey different meanings

• Morphology - the study of word structure

• Syntax – the study of word sequence within sentences
• Lexicon – the study of vocabulary
• Discourse – the study of patterns of meaning
Crystal also incorporates the dimension of language “in use” that
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includes the works of pragmatics.
 Basic Grammatical Notions
• The range of construction that is studied under
grammar is very large
• Grammarians have often divided it into sub-fields.
• The oldest and most widely used division is that
between morphology and syntax

– Morphology is the branch of grammar that studies the

structure of words

– Syntax is the branch of grammar that studies how

words are arranged to show relationships of meaning
within and between sentences i.e the sentence
structure (syntaxis is the Greek word for “arrangement”)
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 Syntactic Studies
• Contribute in…
– Generating (un)grammatical sentences to explain
grammar
• 3a. Disa fed the baby.
• 3b. Disa burped the baby.
• 3c. *Disa slept the baby. (intransitive verb)
– Explaining creativity
• "Some purple gnats are starting to tango on the microwave."
– Explaining ambiguity
• The lifeguard rescued the swimmer with no clothes on.
– Explaining cross-linguistic differences
• Linda apple ate (in Japanese structure)

• Provide a basis for the notion of

Transformational Grammar 9
 Generating (un)grammatical sentences
to explain grammar
• To show the difference between transitive & intransitive verbs
e.g
Transitive verbs need objects
1a. Disa fed the baby.
1b. Disa burped the baby. Intransitive verbs do not take
1c. *Disa slept the baby. objects

• To show the difference between verb and phrasal verbs

e.g run (verb) – to to move very
quickly, by moving
2a. Jack and Jill ran up the hill.
your legs more quickly
2b. Jack and Jill ran up the bill.
than when you walk
2c. *Jack and Jill ran the hill up.
2d. Jack and Jill ran the bill up.
run up (phrasal verb) - to use so
2e. Up the hill ran Jack and Jill. much of something,
2f. *Up the bill ran Jack and Jill. or borrow so much
money, that you
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Note - prepositions do not go after noun owe a lot of money
 Explaining Creativity
– Grammarians go beyond analysing sentences by
generating a set of rules that would „generate‟ tree
structures in order to form new sentences
e.g S NP + VP
VP V + NP The history of
generative syntax
NP DET + N since 1957 is the
study of the most
V chased, ate efficient ways of
Det the writing rules
N girl, dog, hotdog,

• by substituting an abstract category with suitable words,

new sentences can be generated:
- the girl chased the dog, the girl ate the hotdog
- the dog ate the girl, the dog chased the hotdog etc
What other sentences can you think of? 11
 TASK 1
– Try this individually:
Generative grammar
are objective
S NP + VP descriptions of the
VP V + NP grammatical patterns
that occur, unlike
NP DET + (ADJ) + N prescriptive
V (choose any 2 verbs) grammar that tells us
whether it is right or
Det the wrong
N (choose any 2 nouns)
ADJ (choose any 2 adjectives)

- Generate at least 4 sentences from your choice of words.

- Compare your sentences with your partners.
- How many different sentences have you got between you
and your partner? 12
 Explaining Creativity

• By substituting chunks of the phrases with a more

familiar words, we will be able to see the
grammaticality of creative construction

NP VP
– "Some purple gnats / are starting to tango on the microwave.”
– “Some red ants / are starting to climb up the microwave.”
– “Some beautiful girls/ are starting to walk on the stage

OR make it more creative!

“Some brave mites/ are starting to win in the parliamentary debates”

Now you try it...........! 13

 Explaining Ambiguity
• The study of syntax is also useful in explaining meanings especially when
the surface structure has more than one deep structure
• The notion of deep and surface structure was introduced by Chomsky in
1957 in his book Syntactic Structures.
– Chomsky argued that a sentence is formed based on an intended
underlying meaning and some surface structure represent more than
one deep structure and conversely, one deep structure can materialise
into more than one surface structure

1st e.g : the Surface Structure “Visiting relatives can be boring”

can have two D-Structure
1. It can be boring to visit relatives
It should be noted that
2. Relatives who come visiting can be boring
this notion of D-Structure
2nd e.g : the Deep Structure “Cats chase mice” and S-Structure has
altered greatly over the
can have 2 S-Structure years but the basic
1. Cats chase mice insight has contributed
2. Mice are chased by cats greatly to the study of
linguistics 14
 Explaining Ambiguity
The lifeguard rescued the swimmer with no clothes on

NP VP AdjP
with no clothes on

DET N V NP

The lifeguard rescued

DET N AdjP

the swimmer with no clothes on

It could be the either lifeguard or the swimmer who does not have any clothes
15 on
 Explaining Cross-Linguistic Differences by
Studying Word-Order patterns
• The term „word order‟ can refer to both:
1. The order of words within a phrase
2. The order of multi-word units or phrases within
a sentence
e.g “The cat sat on the mat”
* cat the sat mat the on
* the cat on the mat sat
Both sentences above have word-order problems,
one of the first type, the other of the second type.

• Word-order studies however usually refer to the second

type of problem – the sequence in which grammatical
elements (such as S,V,O) occur in sentences
(such as in comparative studies across languages) 16
 Explaining Cross-Linguistic Differences by
Studying Word-Order patterns
• In comparing word-order across languages, it is important
to identify the basic or most common pattern found in the
language.
Which of the patterns below is the common word-order in
English?
- The boy / saw / the man
- The Jones / I invited – / but not the Smiths
- Govern / thou / my song (Milton)
- Strange fits of passion / have I known (Wordsworth)
- Pensive poets / painful vigils / keep (Pope)

• The first one is the natural, usual, unmarked word-order

while the rest conveyed special effects of an emphatic or
poetic kind
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 Explaining Cross-Linguistic Differences by
Studying Word-Order patterns

• Compare the word-order between your language and

English using the following phrases:

– I will happily go with you

– Beautiful girl
– The beautiful girl
– I saw her
– The pet which was my choice
– Where to? To the canteen!
– I sometimes eat late
– I have already told her

Describe the differences and similarities between the

order of words in the phrases and the order of phrases in
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sentences. Found any other examples?
 Explaining Cross-Linguistic Differences by
Studying Word-Order patterns
– I will happily go with you
– Saya akan (dengan gembiranya ) ikut awak dengan gembiranya
– Beautiful girl
– (Cantik) Gadis cantik
– The beautiful girl
– (Itu) (cantik) gadis cantik itu
– I saw her
– Saya nampak dia
– The pet which was my choice
– Haiwan peliharaan (yang menjadi) (saya punya) pilihan saya itu
– Where to? The stall!
– (Mana) Ke mana? (Itu) warung itu!
– I sometimes eat late
– Kadang-kadang saya (kadang-kadang) makan lewat
– I have already told her 19
– Saya sudah beritahu dia
 Explaining Cross-Linguistic Differences by
Studying Word-Order patterns

• Compare the word-order between the Japanese language

and English using the following phrases:

– two friends
tomodatini (friends) futari (two)
– from Tokyo
Tokyo kara
– Linda ate an apple
Lindaga (linda) ringoo (apple) tabeta (ate)

What can you say about the nouns in the

Japanese language?
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 Use of OSV Word-Order
to Defamiliarise Speech in Films

• Yoda speaks:
Sick I have become.
Strong with the force
you are.
Your father he is.
When nine hundred
years you reach, look
as strong you will not

Return of The Jedi (1983)

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 Transformational Grammar
– Transformational rules enable the grammarians to show the
relationship between sentences that had the same meaning but
were of different grammatical form

– The leading idea behind transformational grammar is that we

can give a better account of the complexity of natural language
syntax if we view it as the output of relatively simple basic
phrase structures plus transformational operations.
(Ideas introduced and developed by Noam Chomsky since 1955)

– This view is, of course, by no means uncontroversial among

linguists, many of whom have preferred the alternative of
enriching phrase structure rules so as to avoid the need for
transformational operations.

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 Transformational Grammar
– Chomsky developed Transformational Grammar to replace
„Left-to-Right Grammar‟
– Every sentence exists on two levels :
• Surface Structure : the actual spoken sentence.
• Deep Structure : underlying meaning of the sentence.
– A single deep structure idea can be expressed in many
different Surface structures :
Deep Structure : Boy kisses Girl
Surface structure : The boy kissed the girl.
The boy was kissing the girl.
The girl was kissed by the boy.
– The deep structure gives the semantic component of a
sentence, while the surface structure gives the proper
phonological information to express that thought. 23
 Transformational Grammar
Chomsky has proposed two sets of Rules :
1. Phrase Structure Grammar : these rules dictate the
form of the deep structure.
• Phrase structure rules specifies the necessary phrases for proper
sentence construction, and the specific word ordering that should
be followed within these sentence phrases.
• Phrase Structure Grammar forces a hierarchical arrangement
among different parts of sentences. However, it cannot help
distinguish among ambiguous sentences

2. Transformational Rules : these rules help transform the deep

structure into the surface structure.
• Transformational rules account for the shortcomings in Phrase
Structure Grammar
• The manipulation of verb tenses is one aspect of transformational
rules.
• Present tense, past tense, subjunctive, past perfect, future tense are
all derived through transformational rules. 24
 Transforming Questions
– One of the extensive transformations in the English language
is the formation of questions.

– There are two basic types of questions in English.

– One is used for asking questions where the answers are

expected to be 'yes' or 'no'. These are Yes/No Questions. Tag
questions can be described as Yes/No Questions but they are
of different sentence patterns.

– The other is used in situations in which the questioner is

looking for the identity of a person, place, time, object, reason
etc. These are called the WH-Questions.

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 Yes/No Questions
– Yes/No Questions require “yes” or “no” answers. The following
examples are different ways in which people ask Yes/No Question:

• A: Are you from around here?

B: Yes (I am from around here)
• A: Do you come here often?
B: Yes, (I do come here often)
• A: Can I buy you a drink?
B: No (you can(not) buy me a drink)
• A: Will you marry me?
B: No (I will (not) marry you)
• A: Has she called you?
B: Yes (she has called me)

The words in blue are auxilliary verbs or helping verbs.

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 Yes/No Questions
Yes/No Questions are formed by moving the highest auxiliary, i.e. the
auxiliary of the main clause.
(i) Form a declarative sentence using the normal phrase structure
rules. Build deep structures using phrase structure rules

S -- NP + Aux + VP (You) (are) (from around here)

or (You) (come here often)

(ii) Identify the auxiliary verbs or add in auxiliary verbs for the main
verbs.
(You) (are) (from around here)
(You) (do) (come here often)

(iii) Use transformational rules to turn deep structure into surface

structure. The operation involved here is movement. Move the
auxiliary verb of the main clause to the front of the sentence.

S – Aux + NP + VP (Are) (you) (from around here) ?

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(Do) (you) (come here often) ?
 Yes/No Questions
1. John is a doctor. One verb: is (be)
2. Jane drives a sports car. One verb: drives
3. Joan played basketball last night. One verb: played
4. Jan is eating her dinner. Two verbs: is eating
5. June has rented an apartment. Two verbs: has rented
6. Jen has been living there since 1969. Three verbs: has been living

Task – describe the operation of transforming sentences

1, 4, 5 and 6 into questions

Sentence 2 - Jane drives a sports car.

verb – drives
auxiliary – do + es

Deep structure – Jane (does) drive a sports car

Surface structure – Does Jane drive a sports car?

Task - describe the operation of transforming sentence 3 into a

question 28
 WH-Questions
Wh-Questions allow a speaker to find out more
information about topics. They are as follows:

– When? -------- Time

– Where? -------- Place
– Who? -------- Person
– Why? -------- Reason
– How? -------- Manner
– What? -------- Object/Idea/Action

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 WH-Questions
- The “grammar” used with WH-Questions depends on
whether the topic being asked about is the “subject” or
“predicate” of a sentence. Transformation rule applies
when topics asked about are the predicate of a
sentence

- For the subject pattern, simply replace the person or

thing being asked about with the appropriate wh-word.

D-S: Someone kicked her S-S : Who kicked her?

S – NP (someone) + VP S -- NP (who) + VP
(Something is bothering you) What is bothering you?
S – NP (something) + VP S -- NP (what) + VP

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 WH-Questions
Procedure for forming wh-questions in English:
(i) Built deep structures using phrase-structure rules.
Form a declarative sentence.
- Sheila is cooking (something) S -- NP + Aux + V + NP

(ii) Encode verb-argument relations, modifier relations.

Include a WH-phrase, using the normal phrase
structure rules.
- Sheila is cooking (what) S -- NP + Aux + V + NP

(iii) Move the auxiliary to the front of the sentence.

- Is Sheila cooking (what) S -- Aux + NP + V + NP

(iv) Move the WH phrase to the front of the sentence.

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- What is Sheila cooking? S -- NP + Aux + NP + V
 WH-Questions
1. Deep-Structure: "Gromit has done what?"

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 WH-Questions
2. Aux-movement: "has Gromit done what?"

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 WH-Questions
3. WH-movement: "What has Gromit done?"

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 Active - Passive Voice
- Transformational rules can also help show the
link between active and passive sentences

Active : The horse chased the man

Passive : The man was chased by the horse

- The kind of formulation needed to show this

transformation is:

NP1 + V + NP2 ------ NP2 + Aux + V-en + by + NP1

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 Active - Passive Voice
Four separate operations would be recognised
here:
1. The first Noun Phrase in the active sentence (NP1) is placed
at the end of the passive sentence .

2. The second Noun Phrase in the active sentence (NP2) is

placed at the beginning of the passive sentence

3. The verb (V) is changed from past tense to past participle

(V-en), and an Auxiliary verb is inserted before it

4. A particle “by” is inserted between the verb and the final

Noun Phrase

This rule will generate all regular active-passive sentences

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The end…….

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