Summary of syntax

Fatur rahmat rasyid (185300008)

E Class 2018
CHAPTER 1: Heads and Modifiers

1.1 Heads and modifiers

Head is one word that controls the other word. Modifier is the other words that modify the head.
A given head may have more than modifier, and may have no modifier. Every phrase contains a
head and possibly, but not necessarily, one or more modifiers. E.g: barked (as head) loudly (as
modifier). E.g in clause: Mr. Elton delivered a charade to Emma for a friend (head :
delivered, modifiers: Mr. Elton (noun), a charade (direct object), to Emma (indirect object),
for a friend (preposition phrase)).

1.2 Heads, modifiers, and meaning

the distinction between heads and modifiers has been put in a term of one word, the heads, that
controls the other words in phrase, the modifier. The important point that the heads may have
several modifiers.

1.3 Complements and adjuncts

Modifiers fall into two classes, that is obligatory modifiers (complements) and optional
modifiers (adjucts). We might conclude that the verb controls only the phrases that follow it, but
the verb can be seen as controlling every other phrase in the clause. The subject of a clause plays
an important role, nonetheless, in a given clause the verb controls the subject noun too.

1.4 Clause
The clause is a unit which as a minimum consists of a verb and it’s complements but which may
consist of a verb, it’s complements and it’s adjuncts. An ideal clause contains a phrase referring
to an action or state, a phrases referring to the peopleand things involved in the action or state,
and possibly phrases referring to place and time.

1.5 Dictionary entries and collactions

Some regular fixed combinations of verbs and nouns are called collactions, and they involve
heads and complements. The collections are not proposed as a criterion for recognizing
complements. The central criteria of collactions are whether or not a particular phrase is
obligatory with a particular verb, or whether a particular type of phrase has to be mentioned in
the dictionary entry for a particular verb.

1.6 Verbs, complements, and the other of phrases

The relationships between heads and modifiers are called dependencies or dependency relations.
Heads have been described as controlling modifiers; modifiers are said to depend on, ot to be
dependent on, their heads. In cluses, verb and its complements tend to occure close together,
with the adjunctspushed towards the outside of the clause.
CHAPTER 2: Constituent Structure

To make sanse to a clause or a phrase is necessary to pick out each head and modifier from the
sentence and the adjectives that follow the head noun. In formal writing, a preposition plus
“which or who” goes at the front of t he clause; in informal writing the preposition goes at the
end of the clause.

Transposition: is when the preposition of the phrases in a sentence can change his place and the
meaning isn’t affected, for example: Barbara handed to Alan on Tuesday.
Substitution is when one or more words can be substituted by another word such as; them, his,
and her. For example: Barbara handed the intriguing results of the lastest examination to Alan on
Tuesday, it change to, Barbara handed them to Alan on Tuesday.
Tests phrase is a slot in which one or more words can occur, or indeed in which other phrases
can occur.

Coordination: they are words that coordinate or join phrases and clauses such as “ and” and “or”.
The phrases is a sequence of words and they could be one or more words, they can be extended
indefinitely, and exist different types of prhase and they have different type of head words,
the noun phrase is a phrase that has a noun as its head
preposition phrase is when a phrase has a preposition as a head word
adjective phrase is when the head word Is an adverb in a phrase.
CHAPTER 3: Construction

3.1 different construction and different meaning

construction are not isolated structures but fit into a general network.
e.g (1.) the wealthy young man bought his secret fiancee that piano.
We can usefull note that (1) adds another factor to our view of language. We stated at the
beginning of this chapter that different constructionhave been developed by the speakers of
languages to allow them to distinguish clearly between the different things they do with
language. The choice of the construction in 1 is determined by what precedes it in a given
conversation or letter, say. In fact to make the example more realistic, we should change it to: he
bought her that piano. One of the enduring habits of speakers is that they introduce a participant
into a narrative by means of a full noun phrase containing a noun and possibly an article and
adjective and so on, but thereafter refer to that participant by means of a pronoun. Another
example: That piano wa bought for his secret fiacee by the wealthy young man (longs passive)
and That piano was bought for his secret fiancee (short passive). The passive voice is used to
show interest in the person or object that experiences an action rather than the person that
performs the action.

3.2 Types of cunstruction

copula = used link verb, non-copula = ordinari verb, copula and non-copula constructions can be;
declarative = they can have the structure used for making statements, Interrogative = they can
have the structure used for asking question (yes or no interrogative are used for asking question
in which the answer is yes or no. e.g did he phone? and WH interrogative are used for asking
questions about participant in a situation. e.g who phoned? When did he phone? Etc.)

3.3 Relationship between constructions

The basic construction in Frank bought the piano for jane is related to other constructions in
Frank bought Jane the piano, the piano was bought for Jane bu Frank and also to the
interrogative construction in did Frank buy the piano for Jane?, did Frank buy Jane the piano?
and was the piano bought for Jane by Frank?.

3.4 Copula constructions

Copula is the Latin word for link, connection. Ascriptive copula clause are used to ascribe a
property to an entity. The copula constructions display a number of pecularities compared with
the <in>transitive constructions. Implicit in the preceding paragraph Is the fact that copula
clauses can be declarative or interrogative, and they can be YES-NO or WH interrogatives.
Unlike non-copula clauses, copula clauses cannot be passive and they not have double objects,
though they can have oblique objects.
CHAPTER 4: Word Classes

4.1 What are word classes?

Word classes refers to a group of words which have similar function <noun, adejctive, adverb,
verb, preposition, etc>. Nouns can be preceded by words such as the, a and this but verbs cannot.
Adjectives can preceded noun, as in new book, or follow certain verbs, as in is new. Verbs occure
in different slots in the clause. That is, we transfer from humans to words the precept that you
know them by the company they keep and group them into classes.

4.2 Criteria for word classes

Four types of criteria are employed to set up word classes
1. Morphological criterion
the singular criterion is used in the heading because what is at stake is simply whether a given
word allows grammatical suffixes or not. Example in Rusian: Sobaka lajala → The dog barked
The suffixe -a, which here signals the animal doing the barking.
2. Morpho-syntactic criteria
These criteria have to do with inflectional suffixes. The suffixes in; Nouns are inflected for case
and number. Verbs are inflected for tense, person and number. Adjectives are not associated with
number or case but many of them take suffixes signaling a greater quantity of some property
<for example bigger> or the greatest quantity of some property (for example biggest). Adverbs
and propositions are not inflected
Example in Rusian: Sobaka lajala → The dog barked
sobaki is the subject but also plural, and It has a different suffix, -i
3. Syntactic criteria
The syntactic criteria for word classes are based on what words a given word occurs with and the
types of phrase in which a given word occurs. Noun in English can occure in diff erent positions
(left and right) in relation to the verb. Noun allow an article to their left; but adjective do not.
Some nouns can be pluralized, but adjective cannot.
4. Semantic criteria
What words mean
It deals with meaning (dictionary and speaker’s meaning)
example: - Nouns as words denoting people, place, or things
- Verbs as words denoting an action
What speakers do with words
It refers to the principle that when speakers perform speech acts, the also perform actions. e.g:
akhing question, making statements, issue commands, etc. Similarly, speakers and writers pick
what are called verbs when prediciating, adjectives when adding to the information carried by a
noun, and adverbs when they add to the information carried by a verb or an adjective.
CHAPTER 5: The Lexicon

5.1 Syntax and lexical items

Syntax cannot be isolated from other areas of language; and individual lexical items, particularly
verbs, exercise strong control over syntactic structure. Syntactic constructions are not identical
with specific clause, particular clauses do not appear until lexical items are inserted into a
general syntactic structure.

5.2 Individual verbs, complements and adjuncts

Every type of phrase has a head, and the modifiers of heads fall into the two classes of
complement and adjunct. Complement are modifiers which typically occur next to the head and
which are required or excluded by particular lexical items. A given lexical verb controls various
properties of its complements. The label ‘prepositional phrase’ relates to the type of constituent,
a phrase with preposition as its head. Adjuncts are not necessarily next to the head. They are
typically at a distance from the verb, not obligatory and merely provide additional information
that could be dispensed with.

5.3 Classes of verbs and subcategorisation restrictions

These labels are kind of classes of verbs. Intransitive verb (excludes a noun phrase to its right),
transitive verb (requires a noun phrase to its right), ditransitive verb (requires two noun phrase
to its right), intransitive locational verb (excludes a noun phrase to its right but requires a
prepositional phrase), transitive directional verb (requires to its right both a noun phrase and
directional phrase), copula (requires to its right and adjective phrase, or a noun phrase, or a
prepositional phrase, or an infinitive). The constraints that lexical verbs place on number and
type of constituents, choice of preposition and choice of case are known as subcategorisation.

5.4 Selectional restrictions

Selectional restrictions are constraint affecting the type of lexical noun. The particular verb raises
two point. The first verb can be used metaphorically. The second is that a given noun on its own
may not denote a liquid but may be understood as doing so because of its modifiers.

5.5 Clases of nouns

The subclasses of nouns that is; concrete vs abstact, common vs proper, count vs mass, animate
vs inanimate, human vs non-human. The distiction between common and proper nouns does
have a semantic component. The distinction between count and mass nouns is involve is
involved in important grammatical choices but likewise has a meaning component.
5.6 subcategorisation, selection and constructions
subclasses of nouns is that labels such as concrete, count, and human represent properties of
nouns. The fact that paths lead from the basic active declarative positive construction out to the
other construction, some directly, some via intervening constructions.

5.7 Fixed phrase

Various types of fixed phrase:
- Polywords: in a nutshell; once and for all
- Institutionalised expressions: give me a break; how do you do?; long time no see; pleased to
meet you; see you soon; come to think of it
- Highly constrained phrase: as I was__<saying/mentioning>; as far as I__ <can see/know>; I
<just> can’t think straight; I thought I told you not to do that
- Sentence builders: my point is that__; let me begin by__; not only...but also
- Collocations: staple food/diet/industry; wouldn’t/won’t/couldn’t budge; a heavy smoker; a
heavy drinker
CHAPTER 6: Clauses I

6.1 Clauses and sentences

(1) a. Wickham eloped with Lydia.
b. Miss Bates chattered on four hours.
the example above are sentences also main clauses. We need the clause for a oherent description
of dependency relations and constituent structure. The densest clusters of dependency relations
are found inside clauses.

6.2 Main and subordinate clauses

The example in (1) in consisting of a single main clause, but many consist of several clauses.
Depending on what types tinguished. Compound sentences consist of two or more clauses joined
by conjunctions.

6.3 Subordinate clauses

- Complement clauses are the relationship between the clauses and the verb of the main clause.
- Relative clauses are called adjective clauses, reflecting the fact that adjectives also modify
nouns.
- Adverbial clauses modify verbs, but the modify whole clauses. The traditionally classified
according to their meaning, for example adverbial clauses of reason, time, cconcession, manner
or condition.

6.4 Complementisers and subordinating conjunctions

Subordinating conjunctions are the words introducing complement clauses and adverbial clauses
were generally, while coordinating conjunctions are words such as and or but. The WH words
will sometimes be referred to as relative pronouns and sometimes as complementisers.

6.5 Recognising clauses

Rules of thumb
a. If it modify another clause, it is an adverbial clause
e.g: When we sell the house, we’ll probably leave most of the furniture.
b. If it modify a verb, it is a complement clause
e.g: A motorist has reported that the road is blocked by snow at Soutra hill.
c. If it modify a noun, it could be a relative clause or a complement clause
e.g: - I like the book that you gave me.
- I like the bok which you gave me.
The relative and complement clauses are introduced by that, who, and which. Relative and
complement clause often follow their head noun or verb directly, without a complementiser.
CHAPTER 7: Clauses II

7.1 Main and subordinate clauses

The relationship between main and subordinate clauses was foreshadowed in the discussion of
rules of thumb at the end of the previous chapter. When a complementiser is removed from an
adverbial clause or a complement clause in English it leaves a sequence of words which make up
a complete main clause.

7.2 Clause and sentence

The smaller units that is phrases and clauses are linked to each other by various head -modifier
relatioins, a given phrase or clause can only occure in certain slots inside sentences. Sentences
themselves cannot be described as occurring in any particular slot in a piece of text.

7.3 More properties of subordinate clauses

The subordinate are subject to a number of constraints that don’t apply to main clauses.
Subordinate clauses are not free with respect to choice of declarative, interrogative, and
imperative syntax. For example, relatie clauses, adverbial clauses and most types of complement
clause must have declarative syntax. There is a hierarchy of subordination. Complement clauses
are the least subordinate and allow preposition fronting, negative fronting and, depending on the
head verb, interrogative structures.

7.4 Finite and non-finite clauses

Much contemporary analysis recognizes a category on noun-finite clause sequences of words
whih lack a finite verb but nonetheless are treated as subordinate clauses. Finite clauses are held
to express propositions, and so are non finite clauses, once the understood subject is, so to speak,
filled in.
CHAPTER 8: Grammatical functions

8.1 Subject
- the tigers hunt prey at night → active
- prey is hunted by the tigers at night → passive
Agreement in number with the verb, neer being preceded by a preposition, occurring in the by
phrase in the passive are grammatical, and the nooun they pick out in a given clause is the
grammatical subject of that clause.
Tigers called logical subject, by which is meant that in either syntactic construction tigers denote
the Agent.
Tigers is the starting point of the message that is called psychological subject, it denotes the
entities about which the speakers wishes to say something.

8.2 Direct object

The concept of direct object is as widely used as that of subject and has just as long a tradition.
In the (NEUTRAL, ACTIE DECLARATIVE) construction of English we do have criteria for
recognizing direct objet with most verbs combining with two NPs. Direct object unlike
grammatical subject. The letter can be recogised for any construction, but for direct object only
one construction prooides solid evidence, the basic active declarative construction, both in itself
and its relationship with the passive.

8.3 Oblique object and indirect object

Any noun phrase that is the complement of a preposition ia an oblique object, where the
prepositional phrase is itself the complement of a verb. Indirect objects can occur immediately to
the right of the verb but not immediately to the right of genuine adverbs of direction. We cannot
maintain the traditional concept of indirect object as the to phrase with verb such as give and
show and that all verb complements introduced by a preposition should be treated as one
category, namely oblique object.
CHAPTER 9: Syntactic linkage

9.1 Agreement
Agreement is found inside noun phrase and, in some of the Indo-European languages of Europe,
in the copula constructions – adjective complements of BE agree with the subject noun. The
traditional formula is that adjectives agree with nouns in number and case and also gender.

9.2 Government
Government in English grammar can be found in case refers to the grammatical relationship of
nouns or pronouns with other words in a clause or sentence. The majority of verbs in latin assign
accusative case to their object noun, but many verb assign one or other of the remaining three
cases. The nominative case was thought of as the case that was used when speakers were using
nouns to name entities.

9.3 Number and person linkage

The subject noun (phrase) is more important than the other nouns in a clause because speakers
use subject nouns to name the entity they want to talk about. Whichever analysis readers faour,
the term ‘agreement in number’ is not accurate. Either the subject noun imposes a given number
on the verb or the verb imposes a given number of the noun.

9.4 Syntactic linkage in English

Syntactic linkage in English is less complex because English nouns no longer have a case system
and English verbs have obly one contrast in person and number.

9.5 Number in English

The person-number relationship between subject verb and noun in English simple compared with
the large number of suffixes in Latin, yet the English system is not straightforward. Speakers and
writers use either a singular or a plural verb depending on wether they view a particular
committee as several people or as a single unit.

9.6 Gender in English

The pronoun she is used in reference to a female, he in reference to a male and it in reference to
an entity that is neither male or female. Reference to babies and animals varies. Parents of a baby
and owners pf, in particular, cats and dogs, know the sex of their child or animal and use she or
he. Speakers who don’t know the identity of a particular baby often refer to the baby by it.