INTRODUCTION TO SYNTAX

Meeting 3
Lecturer: Tantri Sari Safitry, M.Pd.
WHAT IS SYNTAX?
• The study of sentence formation
• The ways symbols may be combined to create well-
formed sentences in the language.
• It deals solely with form and structure of symbols in a
language without any consideration given to their
meaning.
GRAMMATICAL OR UNGRAMMATICAL:
1. The boy found the ball
2. The boy found quickly
3. The boy found in the house
4. The boy found the ball in the house
5. Disa slept the baby
6. Disa slept soundly

Find: Transitive verb (with object)

Sleep: Intransitive verb (no object)
SYNTACTIC CATEGORIES (1)

Lexical categories Examples

• Noun (N) • moisture, policy
• Verb (V) • melt, remain
• Adjective (A) • good, intelligent
• Preposition (P) • to, near
• Adverb (Adv) • slowly, now
Syntactic Categories (2)

Non-lexical categories Examples

 Determiner (Det)  the, this
 Degree word (Deg)  very, more
 Qualifier (Qual)  always, perhaps
 Auxiliary (Aux)  will, can
 Conjunction (Con)  and, or
 INDICATE THE CATEGORY OF EACH WORD IN
THE FOLLOWING SENTENCES.

a. The glass suddenly broke.

Det / N / Adv / V
b. A jogger ran towards the end of the lane.

Det / N / V / P / Det / N / P / Det / N

c. The peaches never appear quite ripe.

Det will
d. Gillian / Nplay/ theQual
trumpet/ and
V the
/ Deg
drums/ in
A the orchestra.

N / Aux / V / Det / N / Conj / Det / N / P / Det / N

PHRASES

• NP : Noun Phrase
The car, a clever student
• VP : Verb Phrase
study hard, play the guitar
• PP : Prepositional Phrase
in the class, above the earth
• AP : Adjective Phrase
very tall, quite certain
PHRASE STRUCTURE RULES
• NP  (Det) N (PP)
• PP  P NP

The bus in the yard

The bus (NP)
NP

Det N
Det N PP

The bus P NP

Det N

The bus in the yard

PHRASE STRUCTURE RULES
• VP  V (NP) (PP)
• S  NP (Aux) VP

took the money from the bank

took the money (VP)
VP

V NP
V NP PP
Det N
Det N P NP

took the money

Det N

took the money from the bank

DRAW THE TREE DIAGRAM.

1. repaired the telephone

2. the success of the program
3. a film about pollution
4. move towards the window
5. cast a spell on the broomstick
THE MAIN STRUCTURE RULES

1. S  NP (Aux) VP
2. NP  (Det) (AP) N (PP)
3. VP  V (NP) (PP) (Adv)
4. PP  P NP
5. AP  A (PP)
Example (1)
The old tree swayed in the wind

NP Aux VP

Det Adj N V PP

P NP

Det N

The old tree past swayed in the wind

Example (2)
The children put the toy in the box

NP VP

Det N V NP PP

Det N P NP

Det N

The children put the toy in the box

DO THE
TASK!
 DRAW THE STRUCTURE TREES FOR THE
FOLLOWING SENTENCES
1. Dave fell down.
2. Ugly cats like this food.
3. They will study English syntax.
4. James believes Mary thinks Tom is honest.
5. The girl he liked has left.
6. Andreas has met the new lecturer.
7. Angry bees sting on the face.