BASIC INFORMATION IN

SYNTAX
Doctor Chimwemwe Kamanga
(2024)

(Department of Language, Cultural and Creative

Studies- Mzuzu University)
 Syntax defined
 Syntax is the study of how words are
combined into syntactic structures.
 Syntax studies the organisation of words into
phrases and phrases into sentences.
 The way a sentence is organised determines its
meaning.
 Syntax is concerned with the way words and
phrases are arranged.
 The study of phrase and sentence structure is
also called grammar.
 Exercise
 Consider the following words:
 Misses, Emmanuel, NkhataBay, again
 These words can be arranged in many different
ways, but only a few of them can make
sentences in English.
 Make as many sentences in English as possible
using these words.
 Concerns in Syntax
1. Word order (I want these books. vs *Want
these I books.)
2. Agreement – subject and verb, determiner
and noun (He wants this book. vs *He want
this book.)
3. Hierarchical structure – what modifies what
(We need more intelligent leaders. More of
intelligent leaders vs Leaders that are more
intelligent)
 Word classes
 The analysis of a sentence structure starts with
the classification of words.
 Words can be categorised into two classes
based on their morphological properties
(formation or form), semantic properties
(meaning), and syntactic properties (structural
function or part of speech).
 Open words
 These are words that carry the fundamental
meaning in a sentence.
 Open words include nouns, verbs, adjectives,
and adverbs.
 They can be used to create new words
(derivation).
 Productivity of open words
Morphological Syntactic Semantic
Word type Example
properties (form) properties properties
(structure) (meaning)
Noun HOUSE Adding –S to Names an entity Names a structure or
HOUSE to make it a dwelling place
HOUSES
Verb WALK Adding –ED to Denotes an action Denotes action of
WALK to make it movement
WALKED
Adjective BIG Adding –GER to Qualifies a noun Denotes
BIG to make it comparative size
BIGGER,
Adverb SLOWLY Adding –LY to Modifies a verb Denotes speed of
SLOW to make it movement
SLOWLY
 Closed words
 Closed words are made up of grammatical
words.
 Examples include determiners (e.g. THE),
pronouns (e.g. HE), prepositions (e.g. ON) and
conjunctions (e.g. AND).
 Words in this class have a grammatical
function.
 Lexical categories
 A lexical category is a syntactic grouping for
elements that are part of the lexicon of a
language.
 Lexical categories are also known as parts of
speech, grammatical categories and
grammatical classes.
 Words are categorised on the basis of their
grammatical function in syntactic structures
and not necessarily on their meanings.
 Major lexical categories
 Noun
 Verb
 Adjective
 Adverb
 Minor lexical categories
 Conjunctions
 Particles
 Adpositions- Prepositions and Postpositions
 Determiners- Articles, Demonstratives, Possessive
determiners, Cardinal numerals, Quantifiers, Distributive
determiners, and Interrogative determiners
 Note
 Lexical categories may be defined in terms of
core notions or prototypes.
 Given forms may or may not fit neatly into a
grammatical category.
 The category membership of a form can vary
according to how that form is used in discourse.
 Grammatical categories are distinct from formal
relational categories such as subject, object and
predicate or functional categories such as agent,
topic or definite.
 Phrasal categories
 Phrasal categories constitute an intermediate
form between an individual lexical item and a
larger form such as a clause and a sentence.
 Phrasal categories are thus basic elements
from which larger structures such as clauses
and sentences are assumed to be constructed.
 Examples of phrasal categories
 Adjectival phrase (AP)
 Adverbial phrase (AdvP)
 Adposition phrase (PP)
 Noun phrase (NP)
 Verb phrase (VP)