English 7

MODULE Name ________________ ________ Grade 7 Score

7 Introduction to Syntax
Syntax the module of the grammar that accounts for the structure (= the form) of grammatically acceptable sentences
 Sentence the "highest" (i.e., largest) syntactic unit ; the lowest (i.e., smallest) syntactic units are words; the intermediate
syntactic units are the phrases
 Phrase a word or group of words functioning as a syntactic unit between the level of individual words and the sentence as
a whole  noun phrase (NP)  verb phrase (VP)  adjective phrase (AdjP)  adverb phrase (AdvP)  prepositional
phrase (PrepP)
 Phrasal head the central word of a phrase whose grammatical category defines the type of phrase
  noun  NP  verb  VP  adjective  AdjP  adverb  AdvP  preposition  PrepP
 Noun phrase (NP) phrasal (syntactic) category: contains a noun or pronoun as its head, and functions as the subject or as
various objects in a sentence
 Verb phrase (VP) phrasal (syntactic) category: contains a verb as its head along with its complements such as noun
phrases and prepositional phrases
 Adjective phrase (AdjP) phrasal (syntactic) category: contains an adjective as its head
 Adverb phrase (AdvP) phrasal (syntactic) category: contains an adverb as its head
 Prepositional phrase (PrepP) phrasal (syntactic) category: consists of preposition – the phrasal head – and a noun phrase
 Adnominal prepositional phrase occur in NPs, where they modify the head N or Prn. Ex: The old desk by the window
suddenly collapsed. (= which desk?)
 Adverbial prepositional phrase occur in VPs, where they modify the head V. Ex: The old desk suddenly collapsed after
lunch. (= when?)
 Phrase structure rules principles of grammar that specify the constituency of syntactic categories
o S  NP VP NP  Det (AdjP) N (PrepP)
 Phrase structure tree- a tree diagram with syntactic categories at each node; reveals both the linear and hierarchical
structure of phrases and sentences
 Deep structure- any phrase structure tree generated by the phrase structure rules of transformational grammar; the basic
syntactic structures of grammar
 Surface structure - the structure that results from applying transformational rules to a deep structure; the actual utterances
in language use
 Transformation rule, transformation- syntactic rule that applies to the deep structure of a sentence and derives a new
structure by moving or inserting elements
Examples:
There are two kinds of information a tree makes claims about:
1. What the categories of the words and phrases in it are in context.
2. What the labels of those words and phrases are in context.
What do I mean by "in context"? I mean in the context of the sentence. English words can be lots of categories, as we saw in
lecture. Consider still
1. Noun: We built a still in the woods. 3. Adjective: It was a dark and still night.
2. Verb: We stilled their voices. 4. Adverb: We still haven't heard from John.
In each of these sentences still functions as a particular part of speech. In each of these sentences, there is a correct answer for how
to label still in the tree:
Challenge Yourself
FT1 Classify each word in the following sentences according to the categories given above.
1. Some people like cats. 5. Europeans peopled America. 9. Careful owners wash their cars.
Adj N V N N V N Adj N V Pron N
2. Down fills the best duvets. 6. She might drive down my street. 10. The man with a wooden leg ate my hamburger.
N V Det Adj N Pron HV V Prep Pron N Det N Prep Der Adj N V Pron N
3. No-one saw her. 7. You should put paint on the sound wood. 11. I heard a wooden sound.
Pron V Pron Pron HV V N Prep Det Adj N Pron V Det Adj N

4. The bell sounds for tea. 8. We could think of no other option. 12. We built our tree house in the tree.
Det N V Prep N Pron HV V Prep Adj Pron N Pron V Pron Adj N Prep Det N

Language 7 -page 2- Second Quarter

FT2 Given the following phrase structure rules, draw an appropriate syntactic tree.
The extremely careful artist My really smart friend Some of my friends
Det Adv Adj N
 On the road Beside a turtle Sing the song

Could go to the store Would swim in the pool Take your time

the use of computers my really smart friend plays soccer after school

FT3 Given the following sentence structure rules, draw an appropriate syntactic tree.
1. The archeologists found a strange, very old painting on the wall. 2. Thieves stole the doctor’s wife’s car.

3. The dogs and the cats ran from the room. 4. Every student studied the text and did a good translation.

5. Some strange ill-defined figures stood outside the door of the 4. That kind of idea made the students extremely unhappy.
classroom.

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