Syntax to ESP

Liezle B. Concepcion
Discussant
 Syntax refers to the rules that govern the ways in which
words combine to form phrases, clauses, and sentences.

The term syntax comes from the Greek word, meaning

“arrange together”

HEARING AND SPEAKING SYNTAX

Syntax is one of the major concept of grammar. It’s the concept that
enables people to knowhow to start a question with a question word
(“What is that?”), or that Adjectives generally come before the
nouns they describe (“green chair”), subjects often come before
verbs in non-question sentence s (She jogged”), prepositional
phrases start with Prepositions (“to the store”), helping verbs come
before main verbs (“can go” or “will do”), and so on.
 SYNTAX vs. DICTION and FORMAL vs. INFORMAL

Diction refers to the style of writing or speaking that

someone uses, brought about by their choice of words,
whereas syntax is the order in which they’re arranged in
the spoken or written sentence.

 Something written using a very high level of

diction, like a paper published in an academic
journal is written very formally.

 Speaking to friends or texting are informal.

 SYNTAX VARIATIONS AND DISTINCTIONS

Not all people speak English in exactly the same way.

Social Dialects learned by people with common

backgrounds– such as a social class, profession, age
group, or ethnic group– also may influence the
speaker’s syntax.

Social dialects are also called “ Social Varieties”

 Syntactic features of particular text
types:
PASSIVATION is the transformation of a sentence from an active form to a
passive form.
Through the process of passivation, the direct object of an active declarative
sentence can become the subject of a passive sentence.
The opposite of passivation is activation. Both terms were coined by the linguist
Noam Chomsky.
Example:
ACTIVE VOICE: A forest fire destroyed the whole suburb.
PASSIVE VOICE: The whole suburb was destroyed by a forest fire
Passivation allows you to leave out the Actor in Material processes,
Experiencer in Mental processes, and Sayer (speaker) in Verbal
process clauses:

Material: Poachers killed the elephant- the elephant was killed

Mental: Rangers noticed the vultures – the vultures were noticed
Verbal: The marksmen told the poacher to freeze- the poacher was
told to freeze

Note:
If you look back to set examples above you will notice that the doer is missing in
every case and yet the sentences are still logical and complete. The doers are
either unknown, unnecessarily and can be guessed from the context.
The use of passivation (passive voice)
Change of focus
we use the passive voice when we want to shift the focus of attention
from the agent to the recipient of the action.

• The flood killed 24 people. (focus on the flood, the agent)

• 24 people were killed by the flood . (focus on 24, people , the
recipient)
Unknown or unimportant agent
We use the passive voice when we do not know who is performing the
action or if the identity of the agent is not important.

Tom’s bike has been stolen. (unknown agent)

I was advised to apply for a visa in advance. (unimportant agent)
Generalized agent
We use the passive voice with a generalized agent, i.e. when the
subject of sentence is you, one, we, people, everybody etc. .:

The Venus de Milo can be seen at the louvre. (You can see the Venus
de Milo at the louvre.)
Smart phones are used for many different things. ( We/People use smart
phones for may different things.

Obvious agent
We use the passive voice when the identity of the agent is obvious.

• The murderer has been arrested. (The police have arrested the
murderer.)
Impersonality

We use the passive voice when we do not want to mention the

agent because
 We want to avoid naming the specific person responsible for the
action,
 We want to sound tactful without revealing the source of
informationor
 It would be inapropriate or embarrassing to mention the agent:

• It has been decided to cancel next week’s meeting .

• I regret to inform you that your application has been rejected.
• Mistakes have been made.
Description of processes
We often use the passive voice in describing processes, when
the emphasis is on the actions and not on the people who
perform them.

• Then the pig is disemboweled and cut into two.

• After they had been picked, the grapes were crushed with bare
feet.
 ACTIVITY NO. 1

Instructions: Passivize each sentence and identify to what

passivation it is used for.
Nominalizations are nouns that refer to a process.
-- a noun phrase generated from another word class, usually a verb.
(Other word classes include adjectives and nouns).
-- the process of nominalization turns verbs (actions or events) into nouns
(things, concepts or people).

Nominalization itself is an example of nominalization, but more

common examples are words like evaporation, condensation,
mechanization, and optimization. (they often end in -ation/-tion/-
ition. There is always a verb hidden each one.

Heating water to the boiling point causes evaporation.

Examples: Vs.
Heating water to the boiling point will cause it to evaporate.

Optimization of our work force is a key goal of our company.

Vs.
Our company wants to optimize our work force.
 ACTIVITY NO. 2

Instruction: read the sentences below and identify which one contains a nominalized
expression and identify nouns which have been formed from a verb.
Example:
1. Student numbers are increasing rapidly from year to year and the university is
becoming concerned that they may need to build more accommodation in
order to house everyone.

2. The rapid increase in student numbers is causing concern at the university.

More accommodation may have to built in order to house everyone.

a. The indication of the business b. The business report indicates that

report that sales figures are down sales figures are down 10% on last
10% on last month is worrying. month, which is worrying.

a. A team of scientists analyzed b. The analysis of data by a team of

data in lab before they wrote scientists in the lab was undertaken
their report. before writing a report.
 Modals (also called modal verbs, auxiliary verbs/modal
auxiliaries) are special verbs which have irregularly in English.

 They are different from normal verbs like “work, play, visit..”they give
additional information about the function of the main verb that
follows it. They have great variety of communicative functions.

 Here are some characteristics of modal verbs:

 They never change their form. You can’t add “s”, “ed”, “ing”
 They are always followed by an infinitive without “to”
 They are used to indicate modality allow speakers to express certainty,
possibility, willingness, obligation, necessity, ability.
The use of modal verbs:
Modal verbs are used to express functions
such as:
1. Permission
2. Ability
3. Obligation
4. Prohibition
5. Lack of necessity
6. Advise
7. Possibility
8. Probability
Modal expressing Example
verb

must Strong obligation You stop when the traffic light

turns red.
Logical He must be very tired. He’s been
coclussion/ working all day long.
certainty
Must not prohibition You must not smoke in the
hospital.
can ability I can swim.
permission Can I use your phone please?
possibility Smoking can cause cancer.
Modal Expressing example
Verb
possibility When I was younger I could run so fast.

Ability in the Excuse me, could I just say something?

past
Could possibility It could rain tomorrow!

permission May I use your phone please?

Probability It may rain tyomorrow!

may possibility
Lack of
necessity/ I need not buy tomatoes. There are
Modal Expressing example
Verb
Polite Might I suggest an idea?
permission
might Possibility, I might go on holiday to Australia next
probability year.
50% I should / ought to see a doctor. I have a
obligation terrible headache.
advice You should / ought to revise your lessons.
Should/
ought to Logical He should / ought to to be very tired.
conclussion He’s been working all day long.
Had better advice You’d better revise your lessons
DIRECTING/COMMANDING