Download Chapter 4 Syntax

• Where are you from？
– 你从哪里来？
– You are from where?
• 你是谁
– You are who?
– Who are you?
– Who do you think you are?
What is a Sentence?
• A string of random words?
• If it is a sentence, does it have to be
meaningful?
Grammaticality
• Grammatical vs. ungrammatical
– well formed vs. ill formed
– words must conform to specific patterns
determined by the syntactic rules of the language
• based on
– syntactic rules
• NOT based on
– what is taught in school
– whether it is meaningful
– whether you have heard the sentences before.
4.1 Introduction
• What is syntax?
• It is a branch of linguistics that studies how words
are combined to form sentences and the rules
that govern the formation of sentences.
• The syntax of a language is the structure and
ordering of components within a sentence.
• 句法（syntax）这个单词，来自希腊语，由两
个语素构成：{syn}和{tax}。 {syn}的意思是“一
起、共同”， {tax} 的意思是“安排、排列”，
因此syntax本来是“排列在一起”或“组合”
的意思。（胡，2002, P.91）
What can you tell from these four sentences?
*Cries fear the the blackbird the hunter.
a.
b.
c.
d.
The hunter fears the cries of the blackbirds.
The blackbirds fears the cries of the hunter.
Jack looked up the word.
Jack looked the word up.
The meaning of sentence depends on meaning of
words and words order.
• Sequences of words that observe the rules of
syntax are said to be well formed or
grammatical and those which violate the
syntactic rules are therefore ill formed and
ungrammatical.
1. Syntactic relations
• Syntactic relations can be analysed into three
kinds:
– relations of position
– relations of substitutability
– relations of co-occurrence
7
1.1 Relations of Position
• For language to fulfill its communicative
function, it must have a way to mark the
grammatical roles of the various phrases that
can occur in a clause.
• The boy kicked the ball
NP1
NP2
Subject
Object
8
• Positional relation, or WORD ORDER, refers
to the sequential arrangement of words in a
language.
– If the words in a sentence fail to occur in a fixed
order required by the convention of a language,
one tends to produce an utterance either
ungrammatical or nonsensical at all.
• For example,
9
• The boy kicked the ball
– *Boy the ball kicked the
– *The ball kicked the boy
• The teacher saw the students
• The students saw the teacher
10
• Positional relations are a manifestation of
one aspect of Syntagmatic Relations
observed by F. de Saussure.
– They are also called Horizontal Relations or
simply Chain Relations.
11
• Word order is among the three basic ways
(word order, genetic and areal classifications)
to classify languages in the world:
– SVO, VSO, SOV, OVS, OSV, and VOS.
– English belongs to SVO type, though this does
not mean that SVO is the only possible word
order.
12
Basic sentence types: Quirk
• SVC
•
•
•
•
•
•
Mary is kind.
a nurse.
SVA Mary is here.
in the house.
SV
The child is laughing.
SVO Somebody caught the ball.
SVOC We have proved him wrong.
a fool.
SVOA I put the plate on the table.
SVOO She gives me expensive presents.
13
1.2 Relation of Substitutability
• The Relation of Substitutability refers to
classes or sets of words substitutable for each
other grammatically in sentences with the
same structure.
– The ______ smiles.
man
boy
girl
14
• It also refers to groups of more than one
word which may be jointly substitutable
grammatically for a single word of a
particular set.
– The
strong man
tallest boy
pretty girl
– He went there
smiles.
yesterday.
last week.
the day before.
15
• This is also called Associative
Relations by Saussure, and
Paradigmatic Relations by
Hjemslev.
– To make it more understandable,
they are called Vertical Relations
or Choice Relations.
16
1.3 Relation of Co-occurrence
• It means that words of different sets of
clauses may permit, or require, the
occurrence of a word of another set or class
to form a sentence or a particular part of a
sentence.
– For instance, a nominal phrase can be preceded
by a determiner and adjective(s) and followed by
a verbal phrase.
17
• Relations of co-occurrence partly belong to
syntagmatic relations, partly to paradigmatic
relations.
18
4.2 Categories
• 传统认为句子是词的序列。因此句子构造的研
究涉及了对词的大量研究。（胡，2002:91）
• Category, Parts of speech, word class (p 71)
• Nouns
• Adjectives
• Verbs
• Adverbs
• Prepositions
• Pronouns
• Conjunctions
Categories 范畴
• 这些词类和功能有时叫做“范畴”。但是“范畴”
这个术语，更专门用于表示像名词、动词这些单位
的特性。 （胡，2002:91）
• Category refers to a group of linguistic items which
fulfill the same or similar functions in a particular
language such as a sentence, a noun phrase or a verb.
The most central categories to the syntactic study are
the word-level categories (traditionally, parts of speech)
Syntactic
categories
Lexical
categories
Phrasal
categories
Lexical categories
Open lexical categories
• nouns
• verbs
• adjectives
• Adverbs
Closed lexical categories
• Pronouns
• prepositions
• Auxiliary verbs
• determiners (articles, demonstratives, quantifiers)
Phrasal categories
• Verb phrase (VP)
• Noun phrase (NP)
• Prepositional phrase (PP)
4.2 Word-level categories

Category refers to a group of linguistic
items which fulfill the same or similar
functions in a particular language.
Traditionally, category is termed as “parts
of speech”.
4.2.1 Major lexical categories and
minor lexical categories:
Examples of some lexical categories
Major lexical categories
Examples
Noun (N)
Verb (V)
Adjective (A)
Preposition (P)
book, boy, love, sheep
run, read, play
happy, tall, clear
about, over, on
Minor lexical categories
Examples
Determiner (Det)
Degree word (Deg)
Qualifier (Qual)
Auxiliary (Aux)
Conjunction (Con)
the, a, this, those
quite, very, more, so
often, always, seldom, almost
must, should, can, might
and, but, or
4.2.2 Three criteria
 To Determine a word’s category, three criteria are
usually played.
① Word category often bear some relationship with its meaning.
② Words of different categories take different inflections.
③ Distribution means a certain type of elements can co-occur with a
certain word.
Meaning: John, pen, book, pretty lady, left quietly
Inflection: plural affixes, tenses, degrees
Distribution: the girl, a card, should stay, will help
4.2.2 Phrase categories
 Definition: A word or group of words written or spoken as
a unit and separated by pauses or other junctures.
 Types:
Noun phrase Eg: (NP): the pretty girl
Verb phrase
(VP): often dream
Adjective phrase
(AP): very pessimistic
Prepositional phrase (PP): in the house
Adverbial phrase (ADVP) : very quickly
Phrases that are formed of more than one word usually contain the
elements: Head, specifier (标志语) and complement.
4.3 Phrase structure (PS) rules
• What are PS rules?
– How words of different parts of speech are connected.
• Different languages have different PS rules
– English
• An adjective is placed before a noun.
– A beautiful woman
– French
• An adjective is placed either before or after a noun.
• Une belle femme ‘a beautiful woman’
• Une femme fatale ‘an attractive woman’
Writing PS Rules
Books
• NP->N
• Read: An NP is composed of a noun.
A book
• NP -> Det N
John’s book
• NP -> Pos N
Good books; a good book
• NP -> Det Adj N
• NP -> Adj N
• NP -> (Det) (adj) N
Books on the table
• NP -> N (PP)
The PS rule of an NP
• NP -> (Det) (adj) N (PP)
Phrase structure (PS) rules in English
•
•
•
•
•
•
NP -> (Det) (adj) N (PP)
NP -> Pronoun
VP -> ?
AP -> ?
PP -> ?
CP -> COMP (that) S
– COMP: complementizer=that, if, unless
• S -> ?
Phrase structure (PS) rules in English
NP -> (Det) (adj) N (PP)
NP -> pronoun
VP -> V (NP) (PP) (CP)
AP -> Adj (PP)
PP -> P NP
CP -> COMP (that) S
• COMP: complementizer=that, if, unless
S -> NP (Aux) VP
4.3 Phrase structure rule
Introduction:
NP
VP
AP
PP
(Det)
(Qual)
(Deg)
(Deg)
N
V
A
P
(PP)
(NP)
(PP)
(NP)
…
…
…
…
(Note: “
” means “consist of”; ( ) means “can be
omitted”; “…” means other complement options are
available)
4.3.1 XP rule ( X stands for the head N, V, A or P)
The XP rule: XP
(specifier) X (complement)
XP
Specifier
XP (Phrase level)
X
head
Complement
XP
Xˉ Theory
a. XP
b. Xˉ
(specifier) Xˉ
X (complement)
Specifier
X
Head
Complement
XP (Phrase level)
Note: The phrase structure rules canXˉbe summed up
Specifier
Complement
X(head) in which
as XP rule shown
in the diagram,
X stands
for N, V, A or P.
4.3.2 Coordination rule
 The structures are formed by joining two or more elements
of the same type with the help of conjunction such as and
or or.
X
X * Con X
 X stands for “a category at any structural level”; * indicates
that one or more category s can occur to the left of the Con
(conjunction).
Coordination Rule 并列原则
• Coordination structures-----the structures that are formed
by joining two or more elements of the same type with the
help of a conjunction such as and, or, etc.
----Coordination has four important properties:
• no limit on the number of coordinated categories before
the conjunction;
• a category at any level can be coordinated;
• the categories must be of the same type;
• the category type of the coordinate phrase is identical to
the category type of the elements being conjoined.
Coordination
• Coordination is a common syntactic pattern
in English and other languages formed by
grouping together two or more categories of
the same type with the help of a conjunction
such as and, but and or .
– These two or more words or phrases or clauses
have equivalent syntactic status, each of the
separate constituents can stand for the original
construction functionally.
37
• Coordination of NPs:
– [NP the lady] or [NP the tiger]
• Coordination of VPs:
– [VP go to the library] and [VP read a book ]
• Coordination of PPs:
– [PP down the stairs] and [PP out the door ]
• Coordination of APs:
– [AP quite expensive] and [AP very beautiful]
• Coordination of Ss:
– [S John loves Mary] and [S Mary loves John too].
38
Recursion 递归
• Recursive rule: a rule which can be applied
repeatedly without any definite limit.
• 递归规则：句子可以无限重复应用的规则。
Recursiveness
• Recursiveness mainly means that a phrasal
constituent can be embedded within another
constituent having the same category, but it
has become an umbrella term such important
linguistic phenomena as coordination and
subordination, conjoining and embedding,
hypotactic and paratactic.
– All these are means to extend sentences.
– How long can a sentence be?
40
• Theoretically, there is no limit to the
embedding of one relative clause into
another relative clause, so long as it does not
become an obstacle to successful
communication.
• The same holds true for nominal clauses and
adverbial clauses.
– I met a man who had a son whose wife sold
cookies that she had baked in her kitchen that
was fully equipped with electrical appliances that
were new …
41
•
•
•
•
John’s sister
John’s sister’s husband
John’s sister’s husband’s uncle
John’s sister’s husband’s uncle’s daughter, etc.
•
•
•
•
that house in Beijing
the garden of that house in Beijing
the tree in the garden of that house in Beijing
a bird on the tree in the garden of that house in
Beijing
42
Conjoining
• Conjoining: coordination.
• Conjunctions: and, but, and or.
– John bought a hat and his wife
bought a handbag.
– Give me liberty or give me death.
43
Embedding
• Embedding: subordination.
• Main clauses and subordinate clauses.
• Three basic types of subordinate clauses:
– Relative clause: I saw the man who had visited
you last year.
– Complement clause: I don’t know whether
Professor Li needs this book.
– Adverbial clause: If you listened to me, you
wouldn't make mistakes.
44
Sentential Connection
• Hypotactic (subordinate clauses):
– You can phone the doctor if you like. However, I
very much doubt whether he is in.
– We live near the sea. So we enjoy a healthy
climate.
• Paratactic (coordinate clauses):
– In Guangzhou it is hot and humid during the
summer. In Beijing it is hot and dry.
– He dictated the letter. She wrote it.
– The door was open. He walked in.
45
4.4 Phrase elements
• Specifier
• Head
• Complement
4.4.1 Specifiers
• Semantically, specifiers make more precise the
meaning of the head;
• syntactically, they typically mark a phrase
boundary.
• Specifiers can be determiners as in NP, qulifiers as
in VP and degree words as in AP.
4.4.2 Complements
• Complements themselves can be a phrase, they provide
information abut entities and locations whose existence is
implied by the meaning of the head,
• e.g. a story about a sentimental girl; There can be no
complement, one complement, or more than one
complement in a phrase, e.g. appear, break, put…;
• a sentence-like construction may also function as a
complement such as in “I believed that she was innocent. I
doubt if she will come. They are keen for you to show up.”
That/if /for are complementizers,
• the clauses introduced by complementizers are
complement clause.
4.4.3 Modifiers 修饰语
• Modifiers specify optionally expressible properties of
heads.
4.4 Phrase elements
Specifiers: They help make more precise the meaning of
head, and are attached top level of phrase structures, to
the left of the head.
Complements: They provide information about entities and
locations. The information about a word’s complement is
included in the head and termed subcategorization.
Revised XP rule: XP (specifier) X (complement *)
Examples of some As, Ns, and Ps permitting CP complements (CP =
Complement Phrase)
Items
Heads
Examples
Adjectives
afraid, certain,
aware
I was afraid that nobody would
believe me.
Nouns
fact, claim, belief
She can’t believe the fact that
she would fail in the exam.
Prepositions over, about
They argued over whether she
had come to class.
4.4.3 Modifiers: Modifier position in English
Modifier
Position
Example
AP
precedes the head
A very careful girl
PP
follows the head
open with care
AdvP
precedes or follows the
head
read carefully;
carefully read
• After the phrase
Constituent Structure Grammar
• A grammar which analyzes sentences using
only the idea of constituency, which reveals a
hierarchy of structural levels, is referred to as
a constituent structure grammar(成分结构语
法).
• Constituent structure is also named as phrase
structure.
4.4.2 Immediate constituent analysis
(IC analysis)
• Linguistic units can be parts of larger
constructions(结构体) and may themselves also
be constructions composed of smaller parts.
Using the distribution of components and
constructions, we can analyze a sentenceconsidered to be the maximum construction in
syntax—into a series of constituents(成分)—units
that make up their larger units next to them.
• Immediate constituents and ultimate
constituents
Immediate constituents and
ultimate constituents
• 直接成分，是直接位于结构体层面之下的
成分，这个结构体可能是个句子，如Poor
John ran away, 也可能是个词组, 如poor John。
从理论上讲，结构体也可以是一个单词。
一个单词也可以分析出直接成分—语素如
lovely可以分析出{love}和{ly}。
• 最后一层的成分即语素，叫做最终成分。
（胡，2002:97）
• 实际上为了方便，我们通常切到词为止。
Immediate constituent analysis
• How to divide constituents?
• How to show IC structure?
• Tree-diagram
A Tree Diagram
S
VP
NP
Det
NP
N
PP
V
Det
P
The
boy
N
N
from Taiwan
knew
the
answer
What does a tree diagram show?
• Speakers’ syntactic knowledge of sentence
structure
– the linear order of the words
– the categorization of words into particular
syntactic categories (i.e. constituents)
– the hierarchical structure of the syntactic
categories
What can tree diagrams explain?
• Structural ambiguity
Structural ambiguity
• A sentence may have two interpretations due
to different structural compositions of
constituents.
• Example :
– The boy left Mary with a broken heart.
Structural ambiguity
S
NP
Det
VP
N
NP
V
N
PP
P
The
boy
left
Mary
with
NP
a broken heart
Structural ambiguity (2)
S
NP
Det
VP
N
V
N
The
boy
left
PP
NP
Mary
P
NP
with
a broken heart
Usage of IC analysis
• to show up and distinguish ambiguities
• The mother of the boy and the girl will arrive
soon.
• How do you distinguish the ambiguities in this
sentence through tree diagram?
The
mother
Tree diagram (1)
of the boy and the girl
will
arrive soon.
The mother of the boy and
Tree diagram (2)
the girl
will
arrive soon.
4. 5 Sentences (The S rule)
Tree Diagram with labels
带标签树形图
• 1. S  NP VP (binary cutting二元切分)
S
VP
NP
Det
A
The
NP
N
boy
man
V
found
bought
Det
the
a
N
evidence
car.
2. Verb center
S
NP
Art
The
V
N
man
bought
NP
Art
N
a
car.

3. S  NP infl VP
InflP(=S)
NP
VP
Infl
 Many linguists believe that sentences, like other phrases,
also have their own heads. Infl is an abstract category
inflection (dubbed ‘Infl’) as their heads, which indicates
the sentence’s tense and agreement.
Infl realized by a tense label
InflP （ =S ）
VP
NP
Det
A
NP
N Infl
boy Pst
V
found
Det
the
N
evidence
Infl realized by an auxiliary
InflP （ =S ）
VP
NP
NP
Det
A
N Infl
boy will
V
find
Det
the
N
evidence
Exercise:
• The boy will read the book.
• John lost his pants.
• This is a picture of Patton and me having a
last-minute brawl(争吵) before the show.
• These 7 people include astronauts coming
from France and Russia.
S
 The S rule
S NP VP
NP
VP
NP
Infl
Det
N
A
boy
V
Det
N
found
the
purse
Pst
InflP (=S) (following the XP rule, with an internal structure)
S
VP
NP
Det
A
Infl
N
boy
will
NP
V
Det
N
buy
the
book
4.6 Transformational Grammar
• Also transformational-generative grammar, TG.
• Brief introduction in Chinese
生成语法
• 乔姆斯基用生成语法一词来简明地表示
“一套用来给句子进行结构描写、定义明
确严格的规则系统”。
• 乔姆斯基提出三个不同的平面来评价语法，
即“观察充分性”、“描写充分性”和
“解释充分性”。
Criteria on Good Grammar
•
•
•
•
•
Observational adequacy 观察充分性
Descriptive adequacy 描写充分性
Explanatory adequacy 解释充分性
The ultimate goal for any theory is to explain.
TG differs from traditional grammar in that it
not only aims at language description, but also
its explanation.
Transformations
•
•
•
•
•
4.6.1 Auxiliary movement (inversion)
4.6.2 Do insertion
4.6.3 Deep structure & surface structure
4.6.4 Wh-movement
4.6.5 Move α and constraints on transformations
4.6.1 Auxiliary movement
CP (Complement Phrase)
Inversion:
S
C
VP
NP
Det
the
Move Infl to the Left of the subject NP.
N
train
Infl
will
V
arrive
 Inversion (revised): Move Infl to C

One application
* The teacher wonders [CP if should his student _____ stay].
(Note: complementizers and auxiliaries are mutually
exclusive)
 Auxiliary unchanged, trace and head movement
4.6.2 Do insertion
 Insert interrogative do into an empty Infl position. Then move the
do to C position.
Do insertion
Do insertion(1)
CP
C
Do insertion(2)
N
birds
Infl
S
NP
Infl
V
(do)
S
C
S
NP
CP
fly
Do
Infl
N
birds
VP
V
e
fly
4.6.3 Deep structure & surface structure
• Consider the following pair of sentences:
John is easy to please.
John is eager to please.
• Structurally similar sentences might be very
different in their meanings, for they have quite
different deep structures.
Deep structure & surface structure
• Consider one more sentence:
– Flying planes can be dangerous.
• It can mean either that if you fly planes you are
engaged in a dangerous activity or Planes that are
flying are dangerous.
Deep Structure & Surface Structure
• Deep structure ---- Formed by the XP rule in accordance
with the head’s sub-categorization properties; it contains
all the units and relationships that are necessary for
interpreting the meaning of the sentence.
• Surface structure ---- Corresponding to the final syntactic
form of the sentence which results from appropriate
transformations; it is that of the sentence as it is
pronounced or written.
The organization of the syntactic component
The XP rule
Deep structure
Transformations
Surface structure
Subcategorization restricts
choice of complements
4.6.3 Deep structure and surface structure
①
The structure is the abstract representation of the syntactic
properties of a construction, which is formed by the XP rule in
accordance with the head’s sub-categorization properties.
②
The surface structure is the final stage in the syntactic derivation
of a construction, which closely corresponds to the structural
organization of construction people actually produce and receive.
 The deep structure for the question:
Will the train arrive?
S
can be given as below.
VP
NP
Det
the

N
train
Infl
V
will
arrive
The surface structure for the question pattern formed by applying
the inversion transformation is given as below.
Will the train
arrive?
Further illustration
The XP rule
DEEP STRUCTURE
Transformations
SURFACE STRUCTURE
(Note: When transformations are not necessary, the representations
of these two levels are the same)
4.6.4 Wh Movement

An example in which wh- occupies the subject position
What language can you speak
? (S-structure)
Wh Movement
inversion
you can speak what language (D-structure)
N
Infl
V
NP
 An example sentence with a relative clause
She has finally found the man whom she loves
. (S-structure)
Wh Movement
she has finally found the man she [loves whom] (S-structure)
N
VP
4.6.5 Move
α and constrains on transformations
α(alpha) is a cover term for any element that can be moved
from one place two another.
(1) Inversion can move an auxiliary front the Infl to the nearest C
position, but not to more distant C position.
Geoffrey should know [that the train might be late]. (Ds)
Infl
should Geoffrey
CP
know [whether the train might be late ](Ss)
CP
(2)No element may be removed from a coordinate structure.
The little girl will tell us [a story or a joke].
* What will the little girl tell us [a story or
]?
4.7 Summary
In this part introduced word categories and phrase categories.Then
do some analyses of sentence formation: phrase structure rules,
deep structure subcategorization, transformations, and surface
structure, etc. which enables to combine words into sentences in
endlessly novel way.
4.7 Task
Do the following as required in groups of four or five:
1.
The following sentences all contain embedded clauses that
function as complements of a verb, an adjective, a preposition or
a noun. Draw a tree structure for each sentence.
a) You know that I hate war.
b) He said that Tom asked whether the class was over.
c) Gerry can’t believe the fact that Anna flunked the English
exam.
d) Chris was happy that his father bought him a Rolls-Royce.
e) The children argued over whether bats had wings.
2.
Each of the following sentences contains a relative clause. Draw
the deep structure and the surface structure trees for each of
these sentences.
a) The essay that he wrote was too long.
b) ]The dog that he keeps bites
c) Herbert found the man she loved.
d) The girl whom he often quarrels with majors in linguistics.
3.
The derivations of the following sentences involve the inversion
transformation. Give the deep structure and the surface structure
of each of these sentences.
a) Would you come tomorrow?
b) Can you pass me the newspaper?
c) Should the student report the incident?
d) What did you eat for lunch?
e) Who should this be reported to?
f) What was Helen bringing to the party?
7.2 Cohesion and cohesiveness
• Cohesion is a concept to do with discourse or text
rather than with syntax. It refers to relations of
meaning that exist within the text, and defines it as
a text.
• Cohesiveness can be realized by employing various
cohesive devices:
– conjunction
– ellipsis
– lexical collocation
– lexical repetition
– reference
– substitution, etc.
101
• “Did she get there at six?”
“No, (she got there) earlier (than six).” (Ellipsis)
• “Shall we invite Bill?”
“No. 1 can’t stand the man.” (Lexical collocation)
• He couldn’t open the door. It was locked tight.
(Reference)
• “Why don’t you use your own recorder?”
“I don't have one.” (Substitution)
• I wanted to help him. Unfortunately it was too late.
(Logical connection)
102
Chapter 4 Syntax
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
4.1 Introduction
4.2 Word Class
4.3 The Prescriptive Approach
4.4 The Descriptive Approach
4.5 Constituent Structure Grammar
4.6 Transformational Grammar
4.7 Systemic Functional Grammar
Phrase rules
• The rules which govern the structure of
phrases are known as phrase rules or rewrite
rules. (p 72)
• For example:
• Art.+ adv. +adj. + N
• Demon.(指示代词)+ adj.+ N (this big house)
Phrase structure rules
短语结构规则 p72
• The grammatical mechanism that regulates the
arrangement of elements that make up a phrase is called a
phrase structure rule, such as:
• NP  (Det) + N +(PP)……e.g. those people, the fish on the
plate, pretty girls.
• VP  (Qual限定词) + V + (NP)……e.g. always play games,
finish assignments.
• AP  (Deg程度) + A + (PP)……very handsome, very
pessimistic, familiar with, very close to
• PP  (Deg) + P + (NP)……on the shelf, in the boat, quite
near the station.
Phrase categories and phrase structures
• Phrase categories----the syntactic units that are built
around a certain word category are called phrase
categories, such as NP(N), VP(V), AP(A), PP(P).
• Phrase structure: a representation of the set of
constituents that an expression contains.
• The structure: specifier + head + complement
• Head---- the word around which a phrase is formed
• Specifier指示语---- the words on the left side of the heads
• Complement补语---- the words on the right side of the
heads
• More…
X’ Theory
• XP  (Specifier)X’
• X’  X(complement)
XP(Phrase level)
X’
specifier
X(head)
complement
Generative Grammar 生成语法 p72
• 乔姆斯基用生成语法一词来简明地表示
“一套用来给句子进行结构描写、定义明
确严格的规则系统”。乔姆斯基认为任何
一种语言的说话者都掌握并且内化了一种
有生成能力的语法，这套语法能够表达他
的语言知识。“于是，生成语法试图明确
说明说话者实际了解掌握什么，而不是他
根据他掌握的东西去说什么”。（胡，
2002: 341）
Transformational Generative Grammar (TG)
• Noam. Chomsky, the most influential linguist in 20th century,
some important works:
• (1957) Syntactic Structure;
• (1965) Aspects of the Theory of Syntax;
• (1981) Lectures on Government and Binding;
• (1986) Barriers
• (1993) A Minimalist Program for Linguistic Theory;
• (1995) The Minimalist Program;
• (1998) The Minimalist Inquiry……
•
•
•
•
Chomsky is much more interested in the similarities
(language universals) between languages rather than
their differences.
Linguists should attempt to find a grammatical framework
which will be suitable for all languages;
Linguists should concentrate on the elements and
constructions that are available to all languages rather
than on elements that actually occur in all languages.
There are likely to be universal constraints on the ways
linguistic elements are combined
Chomsky proposed that the grammars of all human
languages share a common framework (Universal
Grammar).
句法学派
•
•
•
•
•
传统学派
结构主义学派
生成学派
功能学派
胡，2002:91-122
• 胡壮麟，《语言学教程》（修订版中译本）
电子版地址：http://www.docin.com/p69127272.html
传统学派
• 传统学派认为句子是词的序列。因此句子
构造的研究涉及了对词的大量研究。词类
和功能有时叫做范畴。但是“范畴”这个
术语，更专门用于表示像名词、动词这些
单位的特征。（胡，2002:91）
• 这些范畴包括数、性、格，时和体，一致
关系和支配关系的讨论。
结构主义学派
• 结构主义学派的创始人是二十世纪初瑞士
语言学家费尔迪南 德 索绪尔。在某种意义
上，他之后的所有语言学理论都属于结构
主义。他们都认为语言单位是在一种结构
（或）系统中相互关联的，不是孤立的。
（胡，2002:94）
• 在句法学的讨论中，结构主义学派的讨论
主要围绕组合关系和聚合关系，直接成分
分析法，向心结构和离心结构展开。
生成学派
• 我们用生成学派特指由美国语言学家诺姆
乔姆斯基创立的一种语言学理论。这一理
论从1957年提出以后经历了许多次改变。
（胡，2002:104）
• 涉及到句法学的讨论论题有深层结构和表
层结构，标准理论及以后的发展，管辖和
约束等。
功能学派
• 在过去的四十多年中，虽然生成学派的影响很
大，但我们也不能忽视另一个重要的语言研究
学派：功能学派。。这两个学派，一个是形式
的，现在的代表人物是乔姆斯基，另一个是功
能的，…,自从几千年前开始研究语言以来就一
直存在。甚至在转换生成语法的全盛时期，功
能学派这边仍然发出了有力的声音。（胡，
2002:117-118）
• 此书中只介绍了功能句子观和系统功能语法。
4.3 The Prescriptive Approach
• 规定性取向
• Traditional Grammar: 18th century, England,
prescriptive
• E.g. 1. You must not split infinitives.
•
2. You must not end a sentence with a preposition.
• 3. You must not begin a sentence with “and”.
• 4. You must not end a sentence with a preposition.
• The view of setting rules for the “proper” use of
language is characterized as the prescriptive approach.
• p73
4.4 The Descriptive Approach
• Background information:
•
结构主义学派的创始人是二十世纪初瑞士语言学家费尔迪南 德 索绪尔。
在某种意义上，他之后的所有语言学理论都属于结构主义。他们都认为
语言单位是在一种结构（或系统）中相互关联的，不是孤立的。 （胡，
2002:94）
• Descriptive approach(描写法)：Linguists collect
samples of the language they are interested in
and attempt to describe the regular structures of
the language it is used. p74
• Definition: Its main objective is to study the
distribution of linguistic forms in a language.
4.4.1 Structural analysis
• Objective: to study the distribution of linguistic
forms in a language.
• Method: test-frame--sentences with empty slots
• P 74
• e.g.
• The
is smiling.
• 横线中填的词有什么限制么？
• 有。1. 必须是有声名词。2. 含有“人类”语义
的有声名词。3. 单数形式。
Limitation of IC analysis
• 1. Elements in a construction can be
discontinuous.
• 2.It could not show relations between
sentences that seem to be closely connected.
2. 发展过程
•
•
•
•
•
2.1 古典理论
2.2 标准理论
2.3 扩展的标准理论
2.4 后期理论
胡，2002: 342-353
2.1 古典理论 classical theory
• 目标：把语言学变成一门科学
• 特征：强调语言的生成能力；引入了转换原
则；语法描写中不考虑语义。
• 三套语法：有限状态语法，短语结构语法，
转换语法。
• 古典理论是把语言描写形式化的开端。但无
论乔姆斯基在借用数学符号和简化分析手续
上作出多大努力，这套理论还是存在不少缺
陷。
Classical theory
• A model with three parts:
• 1. a set of phrase structure rules, 2.
transformation rules and 3. morphophonemic
rules.
• p83
2.2 标准理论
• 乔姆斯基的《句法理论若干问题》（1965）
标志着标准理论时期的到来。
• 生成语法应该包括三部分：句法部分，音
系部分和语义部分。
Auxiliary movement (inversion)
• Inversion Move Infl to the left of the subject NP.
• Inversion (revised) Move Infl to C.
CP
S
NP
C
Det
the
N Infl
train will
V
arrive
Auxiliary movement (inversion)
CP
S
C
Infl Det
Will the
NP
N Infl
train e
V
arrive
Do insertion
• Do insertion---- Insert interrogative do into an empty Infl
position.
CP
S
C
NP
Infl
Birds
VP
fly
Figure-1
CP
CP
S
C
NP
Infl
Birds do
Figure-2
VP
fly
S
C
Infl NP
Infl
Do birds e
Figure-3
VP
fly
Wh-movement
• Consider the derivation of the following sentences:
What languages can you speak?
What can you talk about?
• These sentences may originate as:
You can speak what languages.
You can talk about what.
Wh-movement
• Wh-movement---- Move a wh phrase to the
beginning of the sentence.
• What language can you
speak
?
• What can you
talk about
?
Wh-movement
• Wh-movement---- Move a wh phrase to the
specifier position under CP. (Revised)
CP
S
NP
Who
C
VP
NP
e
Infl
Pst
V
won
NP
the game
Move α and constraints on transformations
• Inversion can move an auxiliary from the Infl to the
nearest C position, but not to a more distant C
position.
• No element may be removed from a coordinate
structure.
4.7 Systemic Functional Grammar
• 韩礼德提出语言元功能的理论，即，语言有概
念功能、人际功能和语篇功能。概念功能建构
了经验模型和逻辑关系，人际功能反映了社会
关系，语篇功能则创立了语言与语境的关联。
（胡，2002：8）
• 元语言功能：语言可以用来讨论它自己。（胡，
2002：12）
• Relating the various kinds of linguistic structures
and patterns to the functions that language
serves and to the social settings in which it is
used. p87
Metafunction
•
•
•
•
•
M.A.K.Halliday
语言元功能：用来讨论语言本身。
Ideational function 概念功能
Textual function 语篇功能
Interpersonal function 人际功能
1. Ideational function 概念功能
• The function of conceptualizing the world for
our own benefit and that of others
• We bring the world into being linguistically.
Different processes of verbs
•
•
•
•
•
•
The boy kicked the post.
The man liked the new house.
The child is homeless.
The girl laughed.
The visitor said “hello”.
There is a girl over there.
The boy kicked the post.
•
•
•
•
•
Material process
Doing verbs
Present continuous
Actor 动作者-boy
Goal 目标-post
The man liked the new house.
•
•
•
•
Mental process
Internal, stative verbs
Sensor感觉者-man
Phenomenon被感知的现象-the new house
Chapter Four
From Word to Text
138
• Syntax is the study of
the rules governing the
ways different
constituents are
combined to form
sentences in a language,
or the study of the
interrelationships
between elements in
sentence structures.
139
2. Grammatical construction and its
constituents
2.1 Grammatical Construction
• Any syntactic string of words ranging from
sentences over phrasal structures to certain
complex lexemes.
– an apple
– ate an apple
– Mary ate an apple
140
2.2 Constituents and Phrase Structure
• Constituent is a part of a larger linguistic unit.
Several constituents together form a
construction:
– the girl (NP)
– ate the apple (VP)
– the girl ate the apple (S)
Immediate Constituent Analysis
(IC Analysis)
The girl ate the apple
142
Phrase Structure
Tree diagram
S
NP
Det N
VP
V
NP
Det
N
The girl ate the apple
143
Word-level
Phrasal
N=noun
A=adjective
V=verb
P=preposition
Det=determiner
Adv=adverb
Conj=conjunction
NP=noun phrase
AP=adjective phrase
VP=verb phrase
PP=preposition phrase
S=sentence or clause
144
Bracketing
• Bracketing is not as common in use, but it is an
economic notation in representing the
constituent/phrase structure of a grammatical
unit.
– (((The) (girl)) ((ate) ((the) (apple))))
– [S[NP[Det The][N girl]][VP[V ate][NP[Det the][N apple]]]]
145
2.3 Endocentric and Exocentric
Constructions
• Endocentric construction is one whose
distribution is functionally equivalent to that
of one or more of its constituents, i.e., a
word or a group of words, which serves as a
definable centre or head.
– Usually noun phrases, verb phrases and adjective
phrases belong to endocentric types because the
constituent items are subordinate to the Head.
146
147
• Exocentric construction refers to a group of
syntactically related words where none of the
words is functionally equivalent to the group
as a whole, that is, there is no definable
“Centre” or “Head” inside the group, usually
including
– the basic sentence,
– the prepositional phrase,
– the predicate (verb + object) construction, and
– the connective (be + complement) construction.
148
• The boy smiled. (Neither constituent can
substitute for the sentence structure as a
whole.)
• He hid behind the door. (Neither constituent
can function as an adverbial.)
• He kicked the ball. (Neither constituent
stands for the verb-object sequence.)
• John seemed angry. (After division, the
connective construction no longer exists.)
149
2.4 Coordination and Subordination
• Endocentric constructions fall into two main
types, depending on the relation between
constituents:
150
Subordination
• Subordination refers to the process or result
of linking linguistic units so that they have
different syntactic status, one being
dependent upon the other, and usually a
constituent of the other.
– The subordinate constituents are words which
modify the head. Consequently, they can be
called modifiers.
151
• two dogs
Head
• (My brother) can drink (wine).
Head
• Swimming in the lake (is fun).
Head
• (The pepper was) hot beyond endurance.
Head
152
Subordinate clauses
• Clauses can be used as subordinate
constituents. There are three basic types of
subordinate clauses:
– complement clauses
– adjunct (or adverbial) clauses
– relative clauses
153
• John believes [that the airplane was invented by an
Irishman]. (complement clause)
• Elizabeth opened her presents [before John finished
his dinner]. (adverbial clause)
• The woman [that I love] is moving to the south.
(relative clause)
154
3. Syntactic Function
• The syntactic function shows the relationship
between a linguistic form and other parts of
the linguistic pattern in which it is used.
– Names of functions are expressed in terms of
subjects, objects, predicators, modifiers,
complements, etc.
155
3.1 Subject
• In some languages, subject refers to one of
the nouns in the nominative case.
• The typical example can be found in Latin,
where subject is always in nominative case,
such as pater and filius in the following
examples.
– pater filium amat (the father loves the son)
– patrum filius amat (the son loves the father)
156
• In English, the subject of a sentence is often
said to be the agent, or the doer of the action,
while the object is the person or thing acted
upon by the agent.
– This definition seems to work for these sentences:
– Mary slapped John. ■ A dog bit Bill.
157
• but is clearly wrong in the following
examples:
– John was bitten by a dog.
– John underwent major heart surgery.
• In order to account for the case of subject in
passive voice, we have two other terms
“grammatical subject” (John) and “logical
subject” (a dog).
158
• Another traditional definition of the subject
is “what the sentence is about” (i.e., topic).
• Again, this seems to work for many sentences,
such as
– Bill is a very crafty fellow.
• but fails in others, such as
– (Jack is pretty reliable, but) Bill I don’t trust.
– As for Bill, I wouldn’t take his promises very
seriously.
159
• All three sentences seem to be “about” Bill;
thus we could say that Bill is the topic of all
three sentences.
• The above sentences make it clear that the
topic is not always the grammatical subject.
• What characteristics do subjects have?
160
Word order
• Subject ordinarily precedes the verb in the
statement:
– Sally collects stamps.
– *Collects Sally stamps.
161
Pro-forms
• The first and third person pronouns in English
appear in a special form when the pronoun is
a subject, which is not used when the
pronoun occurs in other positions:
– He loves me.
– I love him.
– We threw stones at them.
– They threw stones at us.
162
Agreement with the verb
• In the simple present tense, an -s is added to
the verb when a third person subject is
singular, but the number and person of the
object or any other element in the sentence
have no effect at all on the form of the verb:
– She angers him.
– They anger him.
– She angers them.
163
Content questions
• If the subject is replaced by a
question word (who or what), the
rest of the sentence remains
unchanged, as in
– John stole the Queen’s picture from
the British Council.
– Who stole the Queen’s picture from
the British council?
164

When any other element of the sentence is
replaced by a question word, an auxiliary verb
must appear before the subject.
– What would John steal, if he
had the chance?
– What did John steal from the
British Council?
– Where did John steal the
Queen’s picture from?
165
Tag question
• A tag question is used to seek confirmation of
a statement. It always contains a pronoun
which refers back to the subject, and never to
any other element in the sentence.
– John loves Mary, doesn’t he?
– Mary loves John, doesn’t she?
– *John loves Mary, doesn’t she?
166
3.2 Predicate
• Predicate refers to a major constituent of
sentence structure in a binary analysis in
which all obligatory constituents other than
the subject were considered together.
• It usually expresses actions, processes, and
states that refer to the subject.
– The boy is running. (process)
– Peter broke the glass. (action)
– Jane must be mad! (state)
• The word predicator is suggested for verb or
verbs included in a predicate.
167
3.3 Object
• Object is also a term hard to define. Since,
traditionally, subject can be defined as the
doer of the action, object may refer to the
“receiver” or “goal” of an action, and it is
further classified into Direct Object and
Indirect Object.
– Mother bought a doll.
– Mother gave my sister a doll.
IO
DO
168
• In some inflecting languages, object is
marked by case labels: the accusative case for
direct object, and the dative case for indirect
object.
– In English, “object” is recognized by tracing its
relation to word order (after the verb and
preposition) and by inflections (of pronouns).
– Mother gave a doll to my sister.
– John kicked me.
169
• Modern linguists suggest that object refers to
such an item that it can become subject in a
passive transformation.
– John broke the glass.  The glass was broken by
John.
– Peter saw Jane.  Jane was seen by Peter.
170
• Although there are nominal phrases in the
following, they are by no means objects
because they cannot be transformed into
passive voice.
– He died last week.
– The match lasted three hours.
– He changed trains at Manchester. (*Trains were
changed by him at Manchester.)
171
4. Category
• The term category refers to the defining
properties of these general units:
– Categories of the noun: number, gender, case
and countability
– Categories of the verb: tense, aspect, voice
172
4.1 Number
• Number is a grammatical category used for
the analysis of word classes displaying such
contrasts as singular, dual, plural, etc.
– In English, number is mainly observed in nouns,
and there are only two forms: singular and plural,
such as dog: dogs.
– Number is also reflected in the inflections of
pronouns and verbs, such as He laughs: They
laugh, this man: these men.
173
• In other languages, for example, French, the
manifestation of number can also be found in
adjectives and articles.
– le cheval royal (the royal horse)
– les chevaux royaux (the royal horses)
174
4.2 Gender
• Such contrasts as “masculine : feminine :
neuter”, “animate : inanimate”, etc. for the
analysis of word classes.
– Though there is a correlation between natural
gender and grammatical gender, the assignment
may seem quite arbitrary in many cases.
– For instance, in Latin, ignis ‘fire’ is masculine, while
flamma ‘flame’ is feminine.
175
• English gender contrast can only be observed
in pronouns and a small number of nouns,
and, they are mainly of the natural gender
type.
– he: she: it
– prince: princess
– author: authoress
176
• In French, gender is
manifested also both in
adjectives and articles.
– beau cadeau (fine gift)
– belle maison (fine house)
– Le cadeau est beau. (The
gift is good.)
– La maison est belle. (The
house is beautiful.)
177
• Sometimes gender changes the lexical
meaning as well, for example, in French:
– le poele (the stove)
– la poele (the frying pan)
– le pendule (the pendulum)
– la pendule (the clock)
178
4.3 Case
• The case category is used in the analysis of
word classes to identify the syntactic
relationship between words in a sentence.
– In Latin grammar, cases are based on variations
in the morphological forms of the word, and are
given the terms “accusative”, “nominative”,
“dative”, etc.
– There are five cases in ancient Greek and eight in
Sanskrit. Finnish has as many as fifteen formally
distinct cases in nouns, each with its own
syntactic function.
179
• In English, case is a special form of the noun
which frequently corresponds to a
combination of preposition and noun, and it
is realized in three channels:
– inflection
– following a preposition
– word order
• as manifested in
– teacher : teacher’s
– with : to a man
– John kicked Peter : Peter kicked John
180
4.4 Agreement
• Agreement (or concord) may be defined as
the requirement that the forms of two or
more words of specific word classes that
stand in specific syntactic relationship with
one another shall also, be characterized by
the same paradigmatically marked category
(or categories).
181
• This syntactic relationship may be anaphoric,
as when a pronoun agrees with its
antecedent,
– Whose is this pen? --Oh, it’s the one I lost.
• or it may involve a relation between a head
and its dependent, as when a verb agrees
with its subject and object:
– Each person may have one coin.
182
• Agreement of number between nouns and
verbs:
– This man runs.
– These men run.
The bird flies.
These birds fly.
183
5. Phrase, Clause and Sentence
Sentence
Clause
Phrase
Word
184
• the three tallest girls
(nominal phrase)
• has been doing
(verbal phrase)
• extremely difficult
(adjectival phrase)
• to the door
(prepositional phrase)
• very fast
(adverbial phrase)
185
Clause
Finite
Non-finite
Subject
Object
Infinitive
Adverbial
Relative
Participial
Appositional
Complement
Gerundial
186
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
The best thing would be to leave early.
It’s great for a man to be free.
Having finished their task, they came to help us.
John being away, Bill had to do the work.
Filled with shame, he left the house.
All our savings gone, we started looking for jobs.
It’s no use crying over spilt milk.
Do you mind my opening the window?
187
Sentence: traditional approach
simple
Sentence
complex
non-simple
compound
188
Sentence: functional approach
Yes/no
Interrogative
Indicative
whDeclarative
Sentence
Jussive
Imperative
Optative
189
Basic sentence types: Bolinger
• Mother fell. (Nominal + intransitive verbal)
• Mother is young. (Nominal + copula + complement)
• Mother loves Dad. (Nominal + transitive verbal +
nominal).
• Mother fed Dad breakfast. (Nominal + transitive
verbal + nominal + nominal)
• There is time. (There + existential + nominal)
190
Outline
4. 1 Definition
4. 2 Word-level categories
4. 3 Phrase categories
4. 4 Phrase structure rule
4. 5 Sentences (The S rule)
4. 6 Transformations
4. 7 Task
4.1 Definition
 It’s a kind of micro linguistics that studies how
words are combined to form sentences and the
rules that govern the formation of sentences.
(Transformational syntax to be introduced in the
book.)