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ENGLISH SYNTAX
ESCUELA:
INGLÉS
NOMBRES:
Dra. Rosario María Burneo
Master of Arts
FECHA:
OCTUBRE 2008 – FEBRERO 2009
LANGUAGE
Language is a social, cultural and
psychological phenomenon that serves
the purpose of communication among
human beings
LINGUISTICS
Linguistics can be defined as the
study of human language in all its
manifestations.
LINGUISTICS
Linguistics focuses on different aspects of the
language, such as:
Word formation and inflection; (Morphology);
Sounds (Phonology).
Structure (Syntax).
Meaning (Semantics), and
The relationship between language use and
society (Pragmatics).
UNIT ONE:
BASIC SENTENCE STRUCTURES
 Lexical categories are word based:
noun, verb, adjective.
 Phrasal categories are phrase-based:
noun
phrase,
verb
phrase,
prepositional phrase, etc.
Linguistic Phenomena
These phenomena support the fact
that human languages are categorybased
 Anaphora (or anaphor) is a linguistic
phenomenon referring to entities
mentioned before in the same sentence
or discourse:
Mary likes her new job.
Students and teachers feel tired.
Linguistic Phenomena
Coordination uses conjunctions to join words
or phrases belonging to the same category:
Teachers and students are attending a lecture
 Recursion enables speakers to make use of a
finite set of rules to generate an infinite
number of sentences.
Mike, who is a doctor, lives next door.
Linguistic Phenomena
 Distribution states which words and
phrases can appear in a particular
position in a sentence.
For example:
NPs can appear in subject or object
position.
LINGUISTIC PHENOMENA
 Intrusión refers to the insertion
of parenthetical expressions like
“I guess”, “certainly”, usually”
and others.
Usually they visit us in October
They usually visit us in October
Core Sentence Patterns
Core sentence patterns are basic
strings of words that express
meaning and have an associated
structural description called Base
Phrase Marker.
Core Sentence Patterns
A Base Phrase Marker is a tree
diagram used to show the structure
of phrases, clauses and sentences in
a graphic way.
The Five Core Patterns
PATTERN ONE
 S = NP + VP intransitive + (Adv.P)
Mike walks slowly
Elizabeth runs
PATTERN TWO
S = NP + VP linking + NP
George became a doctor
S = NP + VP linking + Adj. Phrase
Mr. Johnson looks tired
Pattern THREE

THREE:

It is built around one-place transitive verbs.
S = NP+VP one-place trans+ NP
Robert washed his car
Pattern FOUR
FOUR: This pattern has two versions:
1.S = NP + VP transitive +NP + NP + (Adv.P)
Rose gave him an interesting book
- This structure takes two objects, a DO
and an IO.
- I bought a car for my son yesterday.
Pattern FOUR
2. S = NP + VP transitive + NP + NP
He considers Bush a good person
The first NP functions as the object and the
second one as the complement.
S = NP + VP transitive + NP + Adj.P
Most boys consider soccer important.
S = NP + VP + NP + Inf.P
People consider politicians to be very bad
OBJECTS
 DIRECT OBJECT
Mike bought a new car
 INDIRECT OBJECT
Mike gave me a book
 OBJECT OF PREPOSITION (also called
Oblique object)
Mike bought a book for me
Pattern FIVE
 This pattern is built around the verb
BE.
S = NP + VP be + NP
Martha is a teacher
S = NP + VP be + Adj.P
Martha is smart
S = NP + VP be + Adv.P
Martha is in the classroom
UNIT TWO: ENGLISH PHRASE
STRUCTURES
Constituents can be lexical (words) or
phrasal (phrases).
Words form phrases:
This new house
det. Adj. noun
Phrases form clauses:
This new house is beautiful
NP
PV
The Noun Phrase
 Three different types of noun phrases can be
distinguished according to their structure:
1. Anaphor: reciprocal and reflexive:
Mike and Ann love each other
Linda cut herself
The Noun Phrase
2. Pronominal noun phrase include
personal pronouns.
Lupe believes that she is beautiful.
3. Lexical noun phrases include all
other noun phrases.
The students
Marco Reyes
PRONOUNS
 Personal Pronouns:
- Nominative pronouns function as subjects
(I, YOU ...)
- Accusative pronouns function as objects of
verbs (me, us)
- Dative pronouns function as objects of
prepositions (for me, )
- Genitive pronouns indicate possession
(mine, yours, etc.)
Reflexive Pronouns
 Reflexive Pronouns refer back to the
subject of the clause they are in. They
have anaphoric reference.
 Reflexive pronouns can function as:
Direct object: I cut myself.
Indirect object: Tom bought himself a car.
Object of preposition: May lives by herself
Demonstratives
They may function as both, pronouns
and determiners.
 As pronouns:
That is my book
 As determiners:
That book is mine
Functions of Noun Phrases
 A noun phrase is a string of words headed
by a noun and which expresses meaning.
 According to its external syntax, a noun
phrase may function as a subject, as an
object and as a complement:
Those boys play tennis very well
My friend sold his old car
He is a dentist
Types of Noun Phrases
according to their structure
 Elementary noun phrases may consist
of proper nouns and pronouns.
You came yesterday
(Nominative NP)
Mike gave me a book (Accusative NP)
Mike is in his company (Genitive NP)
Robert likes to hunt (Proper NP)
Types of Noun Phrases
 Noun phrases have nouns as their
heads. A head noun is the word that
dictates the internal structure of the
phrase.
 Proper nouns
Carlos is very smart
 Common noun phrases
Cats are beautiful
Types of Noun Phrases
1. Elementary noun phrases introduced by
determiners: This cat
The moon
2. Elementary noun phrases introduced by
genitives: Mike’s car
Your house
3. Noun phrases introduced by quantity words:
Some workers
Much water
Types of Noun Phrases
 Partitive Noun Phrases can be:
1. Introduced by quantity words:
Some of his money
2. Introduced by measure words:
One pound of sugar
Types of Noun Phrases
3. Introduced by the words ALL and
BOTH:
Rose met all her classmates.
Rose met all of her classmates.
Both students attended that class.
Both of the students attended that
class.
THE VERB:
Tense, aspect and Modality
Tense communicates information about
the time in which an action or event
happens.
 Present tense
 Past tense
 Future tense (uses periphrastic
expressions). These are extra words as
WILL.
Aspect
 Aspect indicates the way an action or
event is seen or experienced. It can be
ongoing or resultant.
 The progressive aspect is ongoing.
María is washing her car.
 The Perfect aspect is resultant.
Experts have predicted a new crisis.
Modality
Mood refers to the purpose of a sentence. It
can be:
- Indicative for statements
- Interrogative for questions
- Imperative for commands
- Subjunctive for wishes
- Conditional for possibility, certainty,
obligation, necessity, promise o threat
This book might become a best seller
Action and Belief Modalities
 The Action (or deontic) modality involves
language and potential action. It is used to
make promises, to order, or to place an
obligation.
No smoking (order)
I promise to help you (promise)
Can you help me?
(request)
Belief Modality
The Belief (or epistemic) modality
involves possibility,
certainty, and
necessity.
I suppose that the children are hungry.
It might rain tonight
The Internal and External Syntax
of Phrases
Internal Syntax refers to the way words are
put together to form phrases or clauses.
External syntax refers to the function
constituents (as phrases) might perform in a
sentence or clause.
Head words dictate the internal syntax of
phrases. For example, a noun is the head word
of a noun phrase; a verb is the head word of a
VP, etc.
Subcategorization
 Subcategorization refers to the
complement properties of individual
words.
 Each word has a set of syntactic
features h indicating the context in
which it can be inserted.
Ken broke the window –Brake: V + NP
Subcategorization examples
We heard the boys asking questions–
Hear: V + NP + VP (present participle)
Catty put the pen on the desk–
Put: V + NP + PP
Noun Phrases as Complements
 NPs can function as subjects,
objects and complements.
In complement position, they
function as arguments and as
predicates.
Arguments and Predicates
 As arguments they indicate that the
subject plays certain role:
My friend killed a tiger
 As
predicates,
they
provide
information about the subject (person
or thing mentioned earlier in the
sentence). Mike is a soldier
Complements
 Infinitives as verb phrase
complements:
That bird seems to be sick
 Infinitives as complements of
adjectives:
We are eager to travel to Europe.
Complements
 Infinitives as complement of
nouns:
The plan to save wild life is
important.
LIFE IS 10% OF WHAT
Life is 10% of what happens to you, and 90%
you respond to it.
Thank you
GOD BLESS YOU
of how