Good evening!

Syntactic Features of a
Language
Learning outcomes

Identified phrase and sentences

Constructed sentences following the
rules that govern a language
Identified phrase and sentences
Clarified ambiguous constructions
Inculcate
Concepts

Syntax studies the organizations of words

into phrases, and phrases into sentences. The
word ‘syntax’ came originally from Greek and
literally mean ‘ a setting out together’ or
‘arrangement.’
Basic Ideas of
syntax
Word order and
Meaning

What determines the meaning of a

sentence?
1. The selection of words plays a role in
determining the literal meaning of the
sentence.
2. The order of words plays a role in
determining the literal meaning of the
sentence
Take these examples:
a) The fox jumped over the lazy dog.
b) The fox ran over the lazy dog.*
c) The cat sat on the mat.
d) The mat sat on the cat.*
e) It is a moonlit night.
f) Night it is moonlit.*

The symbol (*) is used to mark the ungrammatical

sentence.
Ambiguity
Another factor to consider in determining sentence
meaning word order ambiguity.

Examine the following sentences:

g. We had Uncle for dinner
h. Can you drive me to work?
i. The school needs more qualified teachers.
The sentence are grammatically correct, but each has more than
one meaning. This called ambiguity.
 Sentence g may mean We ‘ ate ‘ Uncle for dinner or
Uncle joined us for dinner. The latter is more plausible
idea. This called lexical ambiguity.
Sentence h is a question that can be understood in
two ways: Are you able to drive me to work? Or Do you
know to drive? It must be clear to the hearer what the
speaker intends to say. This example of pragmatic
ambiguity.
The type of ambiguity found in the sentence I is
called structural ambiguity. It means that the
arrangement of words or sentences structure affects how
sentence is interpreted. Bracketing the phrase will help
clarify the meaning. Two ways can be done:
The school needs ˗[more qualified] teachers. ( The
present ones are not qualified)
The school needs more [qualified teachers]. (The
present ones are qualified but more are needed.)

Examine the difference in the following phrases:

 [an old woman’s] shawl (the shawl of an old
woman)
 an old [woman’s shawl] (an old shawl of a
woman)
 Phrase Structure
There are four basic ideas on phrase structure:
1. Every word is a member a category 9e.g., Noun, Verb,
etc.) that determines what kind of phrases it can form.
2. A phrase is a string of words (one or more) that
functions as a unit in a sentence. A phrase build up
around a single word, called its head.
3. In language, there is a set of specific ways in which
phrase can be combined with one to construct bigger
phrase and sentence. These are called phrase
structure rues of the language.
4. The way in which he phrase are combined in a
sentence determines its phrase structure.
 Lexical Categories
In English, the main categories are the following:
Nouns (N) – e.g., book, the comic book, the house the haunted
house, poverty
Verb (V) – e.g., write, wrote, is eating, ate , were, have been, was
born
Adjectives (A) – e.g., hungry, wet, talented, busy , crowded, many,
much, least, older
Prepositions (P) – e.g., with, of, on, under, because of, inspite of,
beyond
Adverbs (Adv) – e.., often, never, unfortunately, quickly, hungrily, soon
Determiners (Det) – e.g., a, an, the, very, all, every, each
Phrasal Categories
the phrasal categories are build up from the lexical
categories (their heads). In general, a phrase of a certain types
has the head of the same type, Hence:

Noun Phrase (NP) Verb Phrase (VP)

Haley ate
Haley, my sister slowly ate her
The bag of Haley was eating
Haley’s lunch forgot to eat her lunch
Haley’s favourite lunch was left in the cafeteria
 when you have an appropriate combination of an NP and
VP, you form a sentence.
Haley forgot to eat her lunch.
Haley, my sister, slowly ate her lunch.
Haley’s lunch was left n the cafeteria.

Prepositional phrase, adjectives phrases, and adverb phrases

combine with NPs or VPs to form longer sentences.
For Example:
The old man near the gate is looking for his grandson.
(prepositional phrase)
 My little brother woke up after a bad dream. (adverb
phrase)
The unique and colorful clown costume was adjudged the best in
the party. (adjective phrase; prepositional phrase)
 Phrase Structure Rules
Have you seen a recipe? Have you followed one in the
preparation of a dish or meal? How to put the ingredients
together, what comes first and next, is similar to putting together
the phrase in a language in order to form a complete sentence.
In English language, sentence are generated with the
following phrase structure:
S NP VP
S stands for sentences; NP for noun phrase; and VP for verb
phrase. The rules will generate sentences such as:
 Sally likes cooking.
NP VP
The dogs were barking last night
NP VP

However, other languages may have their own rules. For

example, in the Hiligaynon language, the VP comes before the
NP. Examine these sentences.
Nahampang ang mga bata. (The Children went to play.)
VP NP
Masagana ang ani. (Harvest is good.)
VP NP
Conjunction
words and phrase of the same category can be combined usin
conjunctions such as and or to form larger phrase. These are called
‘conjoined’ phrases.
Examples:
Mary and Martha are sisters. (conjoined NPs)
I like to jog and swim. (conjoined VPs)
Mother cooked lunch and we cleaned the house. (conjoined
Ss)

The use of language is limitless. The phrase structure rules do

not limit the structures but rather make possible all the grammatical
 combinations that can be done with phrases, i.e., noun
phrase, verb phrases, prepositional phrases, and so on. Most
sentences in English can be diagrammed using the phrase tree.
Examine the following basic structures:
S
NP VP
The dogs barked

S
NP VP
Det NP V Adv
The dogs barked loudly
 S
NP VP
Pro NP V NP
My sister loves chocolates

S
NP VP
We Aux V PP
are leaving
Prep Np
for Canada
 S
NP VP
Det NP comes
PP the rainbow
Prep NP
After the storm
Thank You!