SYNTAX

• Definition
• Syntactic Category
• Structure Function
• Syntactic Construction
 SYNTAX
– the part of linguistics that Syntax refers to the arrangement of
words within sentences or, more broadly, to the structure of
sentences, their parts and the way the parts are put together.
The scope of our study includes the classification of words, the
order of words in phrases and sentences, the structure of phrases
and sentences, and the different sentence constructions that
languages use.
Syntax is a tool used in writing proper grammatical sentences.
The word syntax derives from the Greek word syntaxis, which
means arrangement.
SYNTACTIC CATEGORY
Syntactic categories
•Lexical categories (i.e. word-level
categories): noun, verb, adjective,
preposition, etc.
•Phrasal categories: NP, VP, AP, PP,
etc.
Phrasal categories(Phrases) / Constinuents

Phrases / Constinuents
• A phrase or constinuents is a group of words
that express a concept and is used as a unit
within a sentence. It is a small group of words
that adds meaning to a sentence. A phrase is
not a sentence because it is not a complete
idea with a subject, verb and a predicate.
• Often, suffixes will suggest that a word is a noun.
For example, -tion, -ness, -ment, or -er at the
end of a word usually signify that the word is a
noun, as in suggestion, happiness, involvement,
and diner.
-able/-ible achievable, capable, illegible, remarkable
-al biographical, functional, internal, logical
-ful beautiful, careful, grateful, harmful
-ic cubic, manic, rustic, terrific
-ive attractive, dismissive, inventive, persuasive
-less breathless, careless, groundless, restless
-ous courageous, dangerous, disastrous, fabulous
Phrases

(Noun phrases/ NP)

A noun phrase consists of a noun and all its modifiers.
e.g
bag

The house is new.

the house
The bewildered tourist is my uncle.
The bewildered tourist
This is quiet place.
quiet place
There is dog in the car.
dog in the car
(Verbal phrase/VP)
A verb phrase consists of a verb and all its modifiers.
e.g
Runs, sleep, walk, dance
drives quickly, eats slowly, parks slowly
throws the ball
send the company the letter
 • Running on the wet floor, she
• Ted might eat the cake.
slipped and broke her arm.
might eat
running on the wet floor,
slipped.
• My mother is fixing us some • To bake a cake, you need flour
dinner. and sugar.
is fixing to bake a cake, need
• to caught the big fish, one of
• The author is writing a new my unforgetable experienced.
book. to caught the big fish,
is writing experienced.
(Adjective phrase/ Adj P)

is a phrase that tells us something about the noun it is modifying.

Example:
The magistrate was a kind man.
The magistrate was a man with a kind heart.
The fish tasted awfully funny
(Adverb Phrase/ Adv. P)
is a group of words that serves the purpose as an adverb. An adverb is a word used
to modify a verb, an adjective or another adverb.
Ex:
James acts rudely.
James acts rudely.

I heard her extremely loudly voice.

I heard her extremely loudly voice.

The cake that she give to me during party is slightly smaller .

The cake that she give to me during party is slightly smaller .

The day passed quickly enough.

The day passed quickly enough.
(Preposition Phrase/ PP)

A prepositional phrase is a group of words consisting of

a preposition, its object, and any words that modify the
object.
We will be going to the movies.
He arrived in time .
The cat in the middle is the cutest.
After the game will be too late for us to go to dinner.
• The lady on the bus is my sister.
The lady on the bus is my sister.

• The sky is above my head.

The sky is above my head.

• The flower in the vase is a peony.

The flower in the vase is beautiful.
 Clauses
What is “Clause”?
1. A clause is a group of words that contains a subject and predicate,
and functioning as a member of a sentence.
2. A clause is the smallest grammatical unit that contains minimally
a subject and a predicate, that can or cannot express a complete
thought or idea.
There are two kinds of clauses
1. Main clause (independent clause), a clause that can
stand alone as a sentence (can make sense by itself);
also known as a simplesentence.
2. Subordinate clause (dependent clause), a clause that
add the additional information to the main clause, but
which cannot stand alone as a sentence.
Main Clauses/ Independent
• Subject + Verb = Complete Thought.

Cola spilled over the glass and splashed onto the counter.

My dog loves pizza crusts.

He loves me
Subordinate clause
• Subordinate Conjunction + Subject + Verb = Incomplete Thought.

• Whenever lazy students whine

Whenever = subordinate conjunction; students = subject; whine = verb.

• Because he loves
• when I wake in the morning
• Until you try
Sentence
Sentence is any make sense-making script that begins with a
capital letter and ends with a period, with three dots, with
question mark or with exclamination mark.

Simple Declarative
Compound Imperative
Complex Exclamatory
Compound-Complex Interrogative
 Syntatic Rules
English parts of speech often follow ordering patterns in sentences
and clauses, such as compound sentences are joined by conjunctions
(and, but, or) or that multiple adjectives modifying the same noun follow
a particular order according to their class (such as number-size-color, as
in "six small green chairs"). The rules of how to order words help the
language parts make sense.

the race Beth ran.

gorgeous the lady is.
the swamp dog on the lake.
an old amazing sweatshirt blue .
S-V-O
Sentences often start with a subject, followed by a predicate
(or just a verb in the simplest sentences) and contain an object
or a complement (or both), which shows, what's being acted
upon.

Example:
Beth ran the race.
The dog swim on the lake.
The lady is gorgeous
• declarative sentences – subject goes before the verb,
object after it:
A small dog chases a big cat. Subj V Obj
• interrogative sentences – subject after the auxiliary
verb, object after the verb:
Does a small dog chase a big cat? Aux Subj V Obj
Adjective Order
• an amazing, old, blue
sweatshirt.
• a beautiful, long,
yellow, paper kite.
• a Italian blue small automobile
a small blue Italian automobile
• She’s a Japanese small beautiful
woman.
She's a beautiful small
Japanese woman.
• The student was wearing a blue,
old, amazing sweatshirt.
The student was wearing an
amazing,old, blue sweatshirt.
• The sky had white, billowy,
clouds.
The sky had billowy, white
clouds.
 Arguments and complements
Arguments are the constituents which are occur in
sentences because of the requirements of verbs. A
traditional binary division recognises intransitive and
transitive verbs,
i.e. those without an object
– Fiona smiled
and those with an object
– Fiona has eaten the potato.
 The latter group is in fact more complex and allowance must be made
for ditransitive verbs

– Fiona gave Siobhan the new book.

some of which have prepositional or clausal complements

– Fiona spent her holidays in Connemara.

- Fergal regarded her as his potential successor.

Still others can take a past participle in adjectival function,

e.g. He thought the matter closed

or have a prepositional object,

e.g. Fiona cooked a meal for Fergal

or show an infinitival complement,

e.g. Fiona intends to write a novel

Phrase structure rules and trees
Phrase structure rules
are type of rewrite rule used to describe bu given language's
syntax that are closely related with the early transformational
grammar ( It considers grammar to be system of rules that
generate exactly those combinations words that form
grammatical sentence in a given language.)
They are used to break down a natural language sentences
into its constinuient parts, also known as syntatic categories.
Phrases

(Noun phrases/ NP)

A noun phrase consists of a noun and all its modifiers.
e.g
bag (Noun)
the house ( Det. + N) = The house is new.
The bewildered tourist ( Det. + Adj. + N) = The bewildered tourist is my uncle.
quiet place ( Adj + N)= This is quiet place.
dog in the car ( N+PP)= There is dog in the car.
Phrase structure rule for
NPs:
NP = (Det) (Adj) N (PP)
(where ‘()’ indicates optionality)
Activity 1:

• John
• the boy
• a little boy
• boy in a bubble
(Verbal phrase/VP)
A verb phrase consists of a verb and all its modifiers.
e.g
Runs, sleep, walk, dance ( V )
drives quickly, eats slowly, parks slowly (V+ Adv)
throws the ball ( V+ NP)
send the company the letter ( V+ NP+NP)
running on the park (V+PP)
Phrase structure rule for VPs:
VP = V (NP) (PP) (Adv)
VP = V (NP) (PP) (Adv)
• sang V
• ate the cake V +NP
• ate the cake hungrily V +NP+ Adv
• sang a song in the shower V +NP +PP
• fell into the pond slowly V+ PP +Adv
Activity 2
• Make a Verb Phrase Tree with the following verb structures:

1. V
2. V +NP
3. V +NP+ Adv
4. V +NP +PP
5. V+ PP +Adv
Prepositional phrase (PP)

in P
from a boy in a bubble P+ NP

• Phrase structure rule for PPs:

• PP= P (NP)
Sentences
• Must contain NP and VP
The dog barked.
*The dog.
*Barked.
• May contain an auxiliary verb
The dog will bark
S = NP (Aux) VP
 Sentences Tree Diagram ( S= NP VP)
• The dog eat the bone

• Laila washed the plate after meal.

• The water flows slowly on her face.

Sentences Tree Diagram ( S= NP Aux VP)

• The dog will eat the bone.

• Laila was washed the plate .

• The water shall flows slowly on her face.

• Johny has finished the work.

Conjunction
• Words and phrases of the same category can be
combined using conjunctions (and, but, or...)
The dog and the cat
Eat, drink, or be merry.
You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him
drink.
NP = NP conj NP
VP = VP conj VP
S= S conj S
The dog and the cat
NP = NP conj NP

Eat, drink, or be merry.

VP = VP conj VP

You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink.
S= S conj S
Recursion
• Recursion: the property of language that allows for the
embedding of categories (which can yield infinitely
long phrases)

Example:
the cat on the mat in the house on the street
Sentence Ambiguity
Ambiguity:
• syntactical – more than one possible
structure for the same string of words.
I saw a man with a telescope. (Who has the
telescope, me or the man?)
The boy saw the man with telescope.