English Department

S Y N T A X of the English Language 1

4th semester (2 + 2 per week)

 Syntax as a study of sentences and its place among other linguistic disciplines.

 Survey of the basic syntactic terms, categories, relations, realisations and functions.
 Paradigmatic and syntagmatic relations.
 Syntactic units and their combinations. Words as basic syntactic units. Positional division of English
words. Syntactic structural units: phrases, clauses, sentences.
 Syntactic relations: predication, modification, determination, complementation, coordination,
subordination.
 Syntactic construction types: endocentric and exocentric.
 Immediate constituent analysis. Hierarchy and binarity.
 Form and function. Survey of structural and functional elements.

 Phrase
 Kinds of phrases: NP, VP, AdjP, AdvP, PrepP. Their internal structure. Relations between their
constituents: determination, modification, complementation.
 Noun phrase (NP).
Internal structure of NPs: Det (+ PreM(s)) + HW (+ PostM(s)). Headwords in NP. Determiners.
Reference and determination. Modifiers. Syntactic relations between its constituents: premodification,
postmodification and apposition.Syntactic functions of NPs.
 Verb phrase (VP).
Auxiliary vs. main (lexical) verbs. Predicate (P) and predicator (V). Syntactic classification of verbs:
linking/copula, intransitive, transitive (mono-, di-, complex-). Internal structure of VPs. Syntactic
relations between its constituents: complementation and modification. Syntax of multi-word verbs
(phrasal, prepositional, phrasal-prepositional).
 Adjective phrase (AdjP).
Internal structure of AdjPs. Syntactic relations between its constituents: modification and
complementation. Syntactic functions of AdjPs. Adjectives used attributively, postpositively and
predicatively.
 Adverb phrase (AdvP).
Internal structure of AdvPs. Syntactic relation between its constituents: modification. Syntactic
functions of AdvPs.
 Prepositional phrase (PrepP).
Internal structure of PrepPs: Prep + PrepC (O of Prep). Syntactic relation between its constituents:
complementation. Syntactic functions of PrepP.

EXAM: written

Bibliography:
1. Quirk, R. & S. Greenbaum (1997). A University Grammar of English. Harlow: Longman.
2. Leech, G. & J. Svartvik (1996). A Communicative Grammar of English. London & New York: Longman.
3. Greenbaum, S. (1996). The Oxford English Grammar. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
4. Greenbaum, S. & G. Nelson (2002). An Introduction to English Grammar. London: Pearson Education
Limited
5. Stageberg, N. C. (1971). An Introductory Grammar of the English Language. New York et al.: Holt,
Rinehart and Winston.
6. Collins Cobuild English Grammar. (1997). London: HarperCollins Publishers.

Many other grammar books may be also useful. A number of them are available at:
http://bit.ly/SEJGrammarBooks
Seminar papers:

The syntactic relations: modification

The syntactic relations: complementation
The syntactic relations: coordination
The syntactic relations: determination
Endocentric constructions
Exocentric constructions
Form and function
Internal structure of noun phrases
Multiple premodification in noun phrase
Internal structure of verb phrases
Complementation and modification within verb phrases
Internal structure of adjective phrases
Attributive and predicative uses of adjectives
Order of adjectives in front of a noun
Forms of adjective complement
Adverb phrase
Adverbs as modifiers
Prepositional phrase
Syntactical functions of NPs
Syntactical functions of AdjPs
Syntactical functions of AdvPs
Syntactical functions of PrepPs