Download University of Prince Salman Ibn Abdelaziz

College of Science and Humanity
Studies, Al-Kharj
Level8 (2nd Semester)
Course Title :Syntax& Morphology
Prepared by
 Teacher: Bahia Khalifa Ibrahim
Objectives:
The difference between Syntax & Morphology
Generative Grammar
Syntactic Description
The difference between Syntax and
Morphology
 Morphology is the study of word structure. It
concerns with the different morphemes that
make up words as well as morphological
processes for forming new words.
Syntax
 The study of the rules and principles for
constructing sentences. It is originally a Greek
word which means ( a setting out together or
arrangement).
 While morphology looks at how the smallest
linguistic units ( morphemes) are formed into
complete words, syntax looks at how these
words are formed into complete sentences.
Basic Elements of the Sentence
 Subject+ Predicate
 The subject of the sentence is person, thing,
place or idea.
 Predicate: is the completer of a sentence. The
subject names the (do-er) of the sentence; the
predicate does the rest of the work.
 The glacier melted.

The glacier has been melted.
The glacier melted, broke apart and slipped into
the sea.
Syntactic Description
Certain approaches are set out to account for the
‘arrangements’ of the sentence structures.
Generative Grammar
 It is a result of the work of the American
linguist Noam Chomasky, as he attempts to
produce a grammar that has a very explicit
system of rules specifying what combinations
of basic elements in a well- formed sentences.

 He stases that language is a set of (finite or
infinite) sentences. So generative grammar is
used to describe this type of grammar. 1+1=2
 2x+3y=? Endless sentences
Properties of the Grammar
 This type of grammar has a number of
properties:
 A- The grammar will generate all the wellformed syntactic structures( sentences) of the
language and fail to generate any ill-formed
syntactic structures. This is known as
Productivity of language.
 The creation of totally novel, yet grammatical
sentences.
 Recursiveness: The capability to be applied
more than once in generating a structure.
 That chased the cat
 This is the dog that chased the cat,
 That killed the rat, …etc. endless recursion.
 Grammar must provide for this fact.
 Grammar should also be capable of revealing
the basis of two other phenomena:
 1- How some superficially distinct sentences are
closely related?
 2- How some superficially similar sentences are in fact
distinct?
Deep &Surface Structures
 Two levels of description: Surface & Deep
 Charlie broke the window.( active)
 The widow was broken by Charlie.( passive)
 (Closely related)
 Surface Structure: The syntactic form as an
actual English sentence.
 Deep Structure: The underlying level where
the basic components shared by the two
sentences would be represented.
 (Noun phrase+verb+Noun phrase)
 So, it is an abstract level of structural
organization in which all the elements
determining Structural interpretations are
represented.
 Grammar must be capable of showing how a
single underlying representation can become
different surface structures.
Structural Ambiguity
 Two different underlying interpretations.
 It has three levels:
 Word(Lexical): Khalid likes Haya more than
Adil.
 Phrase: the hatred of the killers.
 Structural: Annie whacked a
man with an
umbrella.
 Annie had an umbrella and she whacked a
man with it.
 Annie whacked a man and the man
happened to be carrying an umbrella.
Structural ambiguity Examples
 Flying planes can be dangerous.
 Young boys and girls love the adventure playground.
 They can fish.
 . “to fly planes” as well as “planes, which fly”.
Therefore, the lexeme flying can be interpreted
as the gerund form of a verb in a verb phrase, or
as an attribute of a noun phrase.This sentence
is syntactically ambiguous, because the
reference of young is unclear
 “the double classification” of fish (either
intransitive verb or noun) as well as of can
(either auxilliary or transitive verb).
 Syntax - Generative Grammar
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jc2bL1z9Wh4