SYNTAX

Presented by Charles Alim

Synt
The arrangement of words
ax
and phrases to create
well-formed sentences in a
language.
 SYNTAX
It is a branch of linguistics that
studies the structure of sentences
in a language, specifically how
words and phrases are arranged
to convey meaning.
 Syntactic
Categories
Lexical Non-lexical
Categories Categories
 Lexical
also known as parts of
Categories
speech, are the classes
into which words are
grouped based on their
function and form in a
sentence.
Noun
Words that represent
(N)
people, places, things, or
ideas.
Ex: cat, city, girl, etc.
Verb
Words that express
(V)actions, states, or
occurrences.
Ex: run, jump, think, buy,
etc.
Adjective
Words that describe or
(A) modify nouns.
Ex: tall, blue, interesting,
small, big, etc.
Adverb
Words that modify verbs,
(Adv)
adjectives, or other
adverbs.
Ex: slowly, quickly, happily,
rarely, etc.
Preposition
Words that show
(P)
relationships between nouns
(or pronouns) and other
words in a sentence.
Ex: in, on, under, etc.
 Non-lexical
Categories
also known as function words or
grammatical categories, are
words that primarily serve to
express grammatical
relationships rather than lexical
meaning.
Determiner
(Det)
Word that introduces a
noun and specifies its
reference.
Ex: the, a, this, that, etc.
Degree word
(Deg)
Modify adjectives or adverbs
to indicate the intensity or
extent of a quality.
Ex: very, extremely, quite,
etc.
Auxiliary
Helping verbs used with
(Aux)
main verbs to form different
tenses, moods, or voices.
Ex: will, can, have, etc.
Conjunction
(Con)
Words that connect
clauses, sentences, or
words.
Ex: or, and, but, etc.
 Word
S V O
Most languages have specific

Order order

Subject Verb Object

 Phrase
Structure
Sentences are divided into
phrases, such as noun
phrases (NP) and verb
phrases (VP).
 Phrase
We have rules in syntax about what
Structure
word classes can pattern together in
phrases.

NP >
NP Rule
S > NP VP
VP > V NP
NP > (Det)
 Phrases
NP: Noun
The car, a clever student
Phrase
VP:Verb
Study hard, play the guitar
Phrase
PP: Prepositional
In the class, above the
Phrase
earth
 Phrases
AP: Adjective
Very tall, quite certain
Phrase
AdvP: Adverb
Quite happily
Phrase
 Tree
It is a visual representation of the
Diagram
grammatical structure of
sentence. It illustrates how
a

different parts of a sentence

relate to each other and how they
are organized hierarchically.
Noun Phrase
Structure
Rules
NP >>>
(Det) N (PP)
PP >>> P NP
The bus in the
yard.
 Verb Phrase
Structure
Rules
VP >>> V
(NP) (PP)
S >>> NP
took the money from the
(Aux) VP
bank
 Prepositional
Phrase Structure
Rule
PP >>> P NP
from a boy in a
bubble
Senten
ce
 The Main
Structure
Rules
1.S >> NP (Aux) VP
[Link] >> (Det) (AP) N
(PP)
[Link] >> V (NP) (PP)
( Adv)
[Link] >> P NP
 Syntax
Rules
1. All sentences require a subject and a verb.
However, imperative sentences (commands) do
not need to include their subject because it’s
assumed to be the person the sentence is directed
at.
2. A single sentence should include one main idea.
If a sentence includes two or more ideas, it’s best
to break it up into multiple sentences.
3. The subject comes first, and the verb comes
second. If the sentence has objects, they come
 Syntax
Rules
4. Subordinate clauses (dependent clauses)
also require a subject and verb. Below we
explain more about how to use subordinate
clauses in sentence structure.
5. Adjectives and adverbs go in front of the
words they describe. If there are multiple
adjectives describing the same noun, use the
proper adjective order, known as the “Royal
Order.”
 GAP
Syntactic Ambiguity: Sentences can often be
interpreted in more thanSone way due to syntactic
ambiguity.

Universal Grammar: The ideas of universal Grammar

proposes that certain syntactic structures are
common across the languages. However, variations
in syntactic structures across languages challenge
the universality of these principles.

Integration with Semantics: how syntax and

semantic interact is a crucial area of the study.
THANK YOU!