Taalstructuren (E1SA)

Lecture 1

2023-2024
Liisa Buelens
Liisa.Buelens@UGent.be
Vanessa De Wilde
Vanessa.Dewilde@UGent.be
  Introduction
OVERVIEW

 What is grammar?
 Levels of grammatical analysis
 Categories of grammatical analysis
 Grammatical analysis at sentence level
General overview
 BASICS

 PART ONE: Introduction to Grammar

(syntactic analysis)

 PART TWO: The Verb Phrase

PART ONE
Introduction to grammar
 Syntactic analysis
 Analytical tools: terminology
 Formal and functional analysis on different levels:
 Sentence
 Clause
 Phrase
 Word
 Morpheme
 Exercises
PART TWO
The Verb Phrase
 General introduction
 Time, Tense and Aspect
 The expression of present time
 Simple Present, Present Progressive
 Present Perfect, Present Perfect Progressive
 The expression of past time
 Simple Past, Past Progressive,
 Past Perfect, Past Perfect Progressive
 Exercises
  to become familiar with the terminology used
in traditional descriptive grammar of English
PART ONE | Aims

 to develop insight into the structure of English

 to develop skills in syntactic analysis
 Of particular construction types
 On different levels
 In terms of form and/or function
 PART ONE: Introduction
to grammar
PART ONE
WHAT IS GRAMMAR?
What is grammar?
 Broad sense
 a language-related set of rules
 comprises a number of disciplines:
What is grammar?

 PHONOLOGY
 PHONETICS
 MORPHOLOGY
 SEMANTICS
 SYNTAX
 PRAGMATICS
 PHONOLOGY
how the language system combines:
 (abstract) features  phonemes
 phonemes  words
What is grammar?

 sip vs zip

 English vs Russian: onset syllables

 kniga ‘book’, vnuk ‘grandson’, tkanj ‘fabric’, ptitsa ‘bird’, etc.

 zdr-, zbr-, zbl-, zgr-, zgl-, zgn-, vzv-, vgl-, vzb-, fkl-, ftr-, vbr-, sxv-,
vsk
 fspl-, fstr-, fskr-, vzdr-, vzgl-
 PHONETICS
= how the speaker produces the fixed set of meaningful
speech sounds and all their combinations
What is grammar?

 Plural –s:
[s] (in "cats")
[z] (in "cabs")
[Ɪz] (in "buses")
 MORPHOLOGY
= the relationships between words and morphemes

1. inflectional morphology
= how words take different guises to show grammatical meanings
 The plural is shown by adding a suffix -s (book-s)
What is grammar?
 MORPHOLOGY
= the relationships between words and morphemes

2. derivational morphology
= word formation
= lexical morphology
What is grammar?

= how new words are formed from existing words

 Use of prefixes, suffixes and infixes

 The nominalizer -ness in English is productive but -ity is not:
vain-ness, plain-ness, Jane-ness
vanity, *planity, *Janity.
 verb  noun: -ion --- communicat-ion, interact-ion, …
 noun  verb: -ize --- catastroph-ize

 Merge existing words: chillax, wurfing, bromance, brunch, pregret,

hangry, …
The art of mashing up words to invent new ones - BBC Reel
 LEXICOLOGY
= concerned with lexical items, mainly words
 LEXICOLOGY is the study of their history, meaning(s) and usage.
 LEXICOGRAPHY lists and describes lexical items in dictionaries.
What is grammar?

SEMANTICS
= meaning of sentences and their components.

 Colourless green ideas sleep furiously. (Noam Chomsky)

 He bought a shirt for me. He bought me a shirt.

 He parked the car for me. *He parked me the car.

 lexical semantics vs. constructional semantics: not always compatible

 SYNTAX (= ‘grammar’ in narrow sense)
= relates to the levels of and relationships between:
sentence - clause - phrase - word

 the way in which parts of a sentence are internally organized and

arranged
What is grammar?

 the way they relate to one another

 = descriptive grammar
 ≠ prescriptive grammar
 PRAGMATICS
= discourse and communicative aspects of language

 language is broken down into utterances

 utterance = sentence expressing a speech act
 statements
What is grammar?

 commands (or orders)

 exclamations
 questions
 requests
 offers
 suggestions

 conversational implicature
- Can you pass the salt?
- *Yes, I can // Sure, here you are.
What is grammar?
 What is grammar?

meaning LANGUAG
E

semantic
s
phonolog
y
pragmatic synta
s morpholog phonetic
x y
discours s
e morphemes
analysis words lexi
discourse, to s
interaction sentences words sounds
Larger Smaller
Analysis
Analysis of
of Grammar
Grammar Phonology
Phonology
spoken
spoken interaction
interaction
What is grammar?
LEVELS OF GRAMMATICAL ANALYSIS
 6 Levels = units = ranks
Levels of grammatical analysis

discourse
sentence
clause
‘consists of’
phrase
word
morpheme
 6 Levels = units = ranks
Levels of grammatical analysis

discourse
sentence
clause ‘is an
immediate
phrase constituent
of’
word
morpheme
 DISCOURSE
= text level
Levels of grammatical analysis

Definition
 LDELC: connected language in speech or writing

 OED: a connected series of utterances by which meaning is

communicated, esp. forming a unit for analysis; spoken or written
communication regarded as consisting of such utterances.

 ‘connected’
 cohesion
 ellipsis

 See examples course material

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLtwFugudZE
  Vincent: But you know what the funniest thing about
Levels of grammatical analysis | DISCOURSE

Europe is?
 Jules: What?
 Vincent: It's the little differences. A lot of the same shit we
got here, they got there, but there they're a little different.
 Jules: Examples?
 Vincent: Well, in Amsterdam, you can buy beer in a movie
theatre. And I don't mean in a paper cup either. They give
you a glass of beer, like in a bar. In Paris, you can buy
beer at MacDonald's. Also, you know what they call a
Quarter Pounder with Cheese in Paris?
 Jules: They don't call it a Quarter Pounder with Cheese?
 Vincent: No, they got the metric system there, they
wouldn't know what the fuck a Quarter Pounder is.
  Jules: What'd they call it?
Levels of grammatical analysis | DISCOURSE

 Vincent: Royale with Cheese.

 Jules: (repeating) Royale with Cheese. What'd they call a
Big Mac?
 Vincent: Big Mac's a Big Mac, but they call it Le Big Mac.
 Jules: What do they call a Whopper?
 Vincent: I dunno, I didn't go into a Burger King. But you
know what they put on french fries in Holland instead of
ketchup?
 Jules: What?
 Vincent: Mayonnaise.
 Jules: Goddamn!
 Vicent: I seen 'em do it. And I don't mean a little bit on the
side of the plate, they fuckin' drown 'em in it.
 SENTENCE
Definition
Levels of grammatical analysis

OED: A series of words in connected speech or writing, forming the

grammatically complete expression of a single thought; in popular
use, such a portion of a composition or utterance as extends from one full
stop to another. It is the verbal expression of a proposition, question,
exclamation, command, or request, containing normally a subject and a
predicate (though either of these may be omitted by ellipsis).

How to recognize?
 In writing: punctuation
 starts with capital
 ends with : . ? !
 In speech: intonation
Levels of grammatical analysis | SENTENCE

Types
 Declarative
 Interrogative
 Imperative
 Exclamative

Sentence structures
 Simple
 Compound
 Complex
 Compound complex
 Complex compound
 CLAUSE
Definition
Levels of grammatical analysis

= an immediate constituent of a sentence

 Simple sentences consist of one clause.

 Sentences can also consist of different clauses.

How to recognize?
 organized around at least two elements
 a verb
 a subject

 it is a meaningful unit:
it indicates an event or a state in reality
 Examples
Levels of grammatical analysis | CLAUSE

« We’re all in the gutter,

but some of us are looking at the stars. »
(Oscar Wilde)

 We’re all in the gutter. But some of us are looking at the stars.
 We’re all in the gutter. Some of us are looking at the stars, however.

Two main clauses:

- they can stand on their own,
- but they are textually dependent => the order is fixed

 *Some of us are looking at the stars, however. We’re all in the gutter.
Levels of grammatical analysis | CLAUSE

Examples

« We’re all in the gutter,

but some of us are looking at the stars. »
(Oscar Wilde)

 Although we are all in the gutter, some of us are looking at the stars.

Subclause / Subordinate clause + main clause:

first clause is structurally dependent on the second clause
 PHRASE
Definition
= an immediate constituent of a clause
Levels of grammatical analysis

= a group of words belonging together,

which fulfils a syntactic function in the clause

 The boy was reading a novel.

 The boy / was reading / a novel.
NP / VP / NP
S V DO

How to recognize? (cf. later tests)

 Substitution

He read it.
 Movement in the clause

A novel was being read by the boy.

 WORD
Levels of grammatical analysis

Definition
= an immediate constituent of a phrase
= separate entities in the lexicon
= lexical items

Types
 Simple words

eye, sand, time

 Compound words
 eye candy, sandpaper, carbon footprint, Chelsea tractor, credit crunch
 long-distance runner, mother-in-law, jack-of-all trades
 forget-me-not, hand-me-down
 MORPHEME
Definition
Levels of grammatical analysis

= an immediate constituent of a word

= the smallest meaningful grammatical unit

Types
 Free morphemes

= separate words

 Bound morphemes
= cannot occur on their own
prefixes & suffixes
 un-believable, in-tolerant, pre-modifier
 brief-ly, cat-s, work-ed, work-s
Levels of grammatical analysis | HIERARCHY

sentence

clause

phrase

word

morpheme
I like cars but my brother prefers bikes.
Levels of grammatical analysis | HIERARCHY

sentence

clause

phrase

word

morpheme
I like cars but my brother prefers bikes.
Levels of grammatical analysis | HIERARCHY

sentence

clause

phrase

word

morpheme
I like cars but my brother prefers bikes.
Levels of grammatical analysis | HIERARCHY

sentence

clause

phrase

word

morpheme
I like cars but my brother prefers bikes.
Levels of grammatical analysis | HIERARCHY

sentence

clause

phrase

word

morpheme
I like car -s but my brother prefer -s bike -s.
Levels of grammatical analysis | HIERARCHY

sentence

clause

phrase

word

morpheme
I like car -s but my brother prefer -s bike -s.
Levels of grammatical analysis | HIERARCHY

Tree diagram

I like car -s but my brother prefer -s bike -s.

Levels of grammatical analysis | HIERARCHY

Hierarchy
Tree diagram
Levels of grammatical analysis | HIERARCHY

Labels

sentence

cl cl

phr phr phr phr phr phr

w w w w w w w w

m m m m m m m m m m m
I like car -s but my brother prefer -s bike -s.
Levels of grammatical analysis | HIERARCHY embedded phrases

status of phrase

in a clause in another phrase

= embedded

the girl [with the hat]

Levels of grammatical analysis | HIERARCHY embedded clauses

status of clause

main clause subclause

= independent = dependent = embedded

in a main clause in a phrase

I like you because you like me.

I like the tracksuit that you’re wearing.

 So far …
Levels of grammatical analysis

First step: levels of analysis

 discourse – sentence – clause – phrase – word – morpheme
 tree diagram: hierarchical representation of part-whole relationships in
sentence

Next steps of analysis …

 identify the type of constituent

formal analysis
 identify the role each constituent plays in the larger unit it belongs to

functional analysis
CATEGORIES OF GRAMMATICAL ANALYSIS
 Three basic sets of categories

FORM
= type of constituent (e.g., noun)
Categories

FUNCTION
= syntactic role of constituent (e.g., Subject)

MEANING
= semantic role of constituent (e.g., Agent)
 examples: p.7

Formal categories
= form categories

To be identified at each level:

 words
Categories

nouns, pronouns, lexical verbs, adjectives, adverbs, interjections,

conjunctions, …
 phrases

noun phrases, adjective phrases, …

 clauses

main clauses & subclauses (finite, non-finite, verbless, …)

 sentences

simple, compound, complex, …

 I wonder what I am doing here.

1) (declarative) SENTENCE
Categories| FORMAL

2) main clause subclause

3) NP VP NP NP VP AdvP

4) personal lex. verb relative/ personal auxiliary lex. verb / adverb

pronoun interrog. pronoun -ing form
pronoun
 examples: p.8

Functional categories

Define the syntactic functions of sentence elements in the next larger

unit:
Categories

 words
Head, Premodifier & Postmodifier
 phrases
Subject, Direct Object, Indirect Object, …
 clauses
Subject, Direct Object, Indirect Object, …
 I wonder what I am doing here.
Categories| FUNCTIONAL

S V DO
subject verb (direct) object

DO S V A
(direct) object subject verb adverbial
 That man knows what you did last summer
Categories| FUNCTIONAL

S V DO
subject verb (direct) object

DO S V A
(direct) object subject verb Adjunct of time
Det Head Head Head Head Head Premod Head
 WARNING!

The difference between formal and functional analysis is crucial, and

should be maintained on each level of analysis!
Categories

FORMAL
= categories
e.g., noun, NP, finite subclause, …

FUNCTIONAL
= syntactic functions
e.g., Premodifier, Subject, Indirect Object, …
 Semantic categories

1. Add meaning to functional and formal categories

 different types of Adverbials
Adverbials of place, time, manner, instrument, …
Categories

 different types of Pronouns

possessive, personal, …

2. Refer to semantic roles played by components of sentence

Kia kisses Kiran.

Kia: Agent (= doer)
Kiran: Patient (= undergoer)
GRAMMATICAL ANALYSIS
AT
SENTENCE LEVEL
 Three basic types of sentence structure
Sentence level

SIMPLE (S)
COMPOUND (Cd)
COMPLEX (Cx)
 SIMPLE
= one clause only
= one VP (+ one Subject)

Examples
 Everybody hurts sometimes.
Sentence level

 Every day I’m shuffling.

two verbs, but only one VP
 Party people, make some noise!
 She wore an itsy-bitsy teeny weenie yellow polka dot bikini for the first time
that day.
long
 Work it!
no Subject, but “You, work it!”
 What a beautiful day!
 Meanwhile, back at the track.
verbless
 COMPOUND
= at least two main clauses
= at least two clauses at the same level
Sentence level

[main clause] + [main clause]

Examples
 Dogs have owners, cats have staff.
 Borrow money from a pessimist - they don't expect it back.
 Any jackass can kick down a barn, but only a good carpenter can build
one.
 COMPLEX
= main clause and at least one subclause
= at least two clauses at a different level

[main clause [subclause]]

Sentence level

Examples
 Is it progress if a cannibal uses a fork?
 Everybody should believe in something. I believe I'll have another
drink.
 It's a cruel cruel world to face on your own. It’s a heavy cross to carry
alone.
 Help me carry the fire.
 COMPLEX COMPOUND (Cx-Cd)
= main clause with an embedded clause, which contains more than one
compound clause
Sentence level

[main clause [subclause + sublcause]]

Examples
 Traffic was stuck for hours after two cars had collided and a third one
smashed into them.
 Take me down to the paradise city where the grass is green and the
girls are pretty.
 COMPOUND COMPLEX (Cd-Cx)
= more than one compound clause, at least one of which has a subclause
= at least two main clauses, one of which with a subclause

[main clause] + [main clause [subclause]]

Sentence level

[main clause [subclause]] + [main clause]

[main clause [subclause]] + [main clause [subclause]]

Examples
 I used to think I was indecisive, but now I'm not so sure.

 I am not a vegetarian because I love animals; I am a vegetarian

because I hate plants.
 It's true that we don't know what we've got until we lose it, but it's also
true that we don't know what we've been missing until it arrives.
- Summaries: chapters 1-4

- Exercises on levels of grammatical analysis

(pp. 1-4 in the exercise syllabus)
- ex. 1
- ex. 2 (a & b)
- ex. 3 (a & b)
- ex. 4 (at least 1-10) – skip the c) part for now