Download English Morphology – Lecture 1

Introduction to English Linguistics
prof. Hugo Bowles
Lesson 8
Syntax 1
1
Syntactic analysis – building a tree
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For your exam you need to be able to
analyse a simple sentence into its
component parts and illustrate it as a
tree structure
The aim of this lesson is to get you from
words to sentences
So we start with words and build from
there
Sentences
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Sentences, like the morphology of
individual words, can be analysed using
trees to illustrate their phrase structure
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In order to be able to analyse a sentence
you need to understand the main
grammatical categories
Grammatical categories
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Nouns (N)
dog, cat, apple, park etc.
Determiners (Det.)
a, the, this, that etc.
Verbs (V)
walk, come, go
Adjectives (A)
big, black, hairy etc.
Adverbs (Adv)
quickly, slowly etc.
Pronouns (PRO)
he, she etc.
Prepositions (P)
in, on, under, over etc.
From words to categories
Words have to be attached to their
grammatical category
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N
Det
V
A
dog the walks hairy
N
Adv
P
Det
park quickly in the
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… and then they have to be put in order
Det
the
A
N
V
Adv
P
hairy dog walks quickly in
Det
N
the park
The base of the tree
words and categories are the base of the tree
Det
the
A
N
V
Adv
P
hairy dog walks quickly in
Det
N
the park
From categories to phrases to sentences
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words are connected to categories
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categories combine to form phrases
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phrases combine to form sentences
What kind of phrases are there?
Types of phrase
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Noun phrase (NP)
Verb phrase (VP)
Prepositional phrase (PP)
Adverb phrase (AdvP)
Adjective Phrase (AP)
Phrases
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Each sentence contains
a subject and a predicate
the hairy dog
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walks quickly in the park
Syntactically these correspond to:
a noun phrase and a verb phrase
the hairy dog
walks quickly in the park
The top of the tree
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So the tree for any sentence (S) should start
like this:
S
NP

VP
This means that every sentence is made up
of a noun phrase and a verb phrase
The base of the tree
words and categories are the base of the tree
Det
the
A
N
V
Adv
P
hairy dog walks quickly in
Det
N
the park
Connecting the tree
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What we need to do is to connect:
the structure
at the top
of the tree
S
NP
TO
VP
the words of
the sentence
at the bottom
of the tree
Det
A
N
V
Adv
the hairy dog walks quickly
P
Det
N
in the park
Connecting top and base
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You need to start at the base of the tree
and build more phrases on to the
categories. These phrases could be:
Noun phrases
Adverb phrases
Prepositional phrases
Adjective phrases
What about?
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The dog ?
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The park?
A simple noun phrase (NP)
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Determiner (Det.) + Noun (N) = Noun Phrase (NP)
NP
Det
the
NP
N
Det.
N
dog
the
park
Noun phrase (NP)
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A name is also a noun and attaches to a noun phrase
NP
N
Romeo
What about ?
in the park
Prepositional Phrase (PP)
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Preposition + NP = Prepositional Phrase (PP)
P
PP
in +
=
NP
P
Det
NP
N
Det
the
park
in
the
N
park
What about ?
quickly
Adverb Phrase (Adv.P)
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When there is just one adverb, it
attaches to an Adverb Phrase (Adv.P)
Adv.P
Adv
quickly
What about
hairy
Adjective Phrase (AP)
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A single adjective attaches to an
Adjective Phrase (AP)
AP
A
hairy
More on adjectives
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Adjectives are often found in sentences
as modifiers of nouns:
the hairy dog
modifier of noun
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In this case they form part of a more
complex noun phrase …
More complex noun phrases
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… and they are analysed like this:
NP
AP
Det
N
A
the
hairy
dog
Now we go back to the sentence and start
to decorate the tree ………
Inserting the phrases
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The subject NP
is easy to insert……………….……………… but the VP is
S
more difficult
NP
VP
AP
Det
A
N
V
Adv
the hairy dog walks quickly
P
Det
N
in the park
First you attach the Verb
S
NP
VP
AP
Det
A
N
V
Adv
the hairy dog walks quickly
P
Det
N
in the park
Then you attach the AdvP
S
NP
VP
AP
Det
A
AdvP
N
V
Adv
the hairy dog walks quickly
P
Det
N
in the park
Then you attach the PP
S
NP
VP
PP
AP
Det
A
NP
AdvP
N
V
Adv
the hairy dog walks quickly
P
Det
N
in the park
What a complete tree looks like
a sentence
S
divides into a noun phrase ………………..
and a verb phrase
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NP
VP
these attach to
PP
phrases or
AP
and
categories
NP
AdvP
categories
attach to
words
Det
A
N
V
Adv
the hairy dog walks quickly
P
Det
N
in the park
How to analyse the syntactic
structure of a simple sentence
It’s a bit like decorating a Christmas tree:
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Write S
NP + VP at the top
Write the words of the sentence at the bottom
Write the categories above the words
Where necessary put the categories into phrase
structures (NP, Adv,P, AP, PP)
Attach the phrase structures to the main NP and
VP
Step 1 – write S
NP+VP at the top
S
NP
VP
Step 2 – write the words at the bottom
S
NP
VP
the hairy dog walks quickly
in the park
Step 3 – write the categories of the
words
S
NP
Det
A
N
VP
V
Adv
the hairy dog walks quickly
P
Det
N
in the park
Step 4 – put the categories into phrase
structures where necessary
S
NP
VP
PP
AP
Det
A
NP
AdvP
N
V
Adv
the hairy dog walks quickly
P
Det
N
in the park
Step 5 – attach the phrase structures
to the main NP and VP
S
NP
VP
PP
AP
Det
A
NP
AdvP
N
V
Adv
the hairy dog walks quickly
P
Det
N
in the park
Juliet
N
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Juliet
loves
V
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loves
Romeo
N
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Romeo
Romeo/Juliet
loves
Juliet/Romeo
S
NP
VP
NP
N
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Juliet
Romeo
V
loves
N
Romeo
Juliet
Romeo/Juliet
loves
Juliet/Romeo
S
NP
VP
NP
N
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Juliet
Romeo
V
loves
N
Romeo
Juliet
6. He loves carrots
S
NP
VP
NP
PRO
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He
V
loves
N
carrots
7. The lamb followed Mary
S
NP
VP
NP
Det
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The
N
V
lamb followed
N
Mary
8. Beavers build dams
S
NP
VP
NP
N
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Beavers
V
build
N
dams
9. The cat killed the mouse
S
NP
VP
NP
Det
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The
N
V
cat
killed
Det
the
N
mouse
10. Jack killed the giant
S
NP
VP
NP
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N
V
Jack
killed
Det
the
N
giant
11. She solved the mystery
S
NP
VP
NP
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PRO
V
Det
She
solved
the
N
mystery
12. The witnesses helped
her
S
NP
VP
NP
DET
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N
The witnesses
V
helped
PRO
her
13. Alice followed the rabbit
S
NP
VP
NP
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N
V
Alice
followed
Det.
the
N
rabbit
14. Alice followed the white rabbit
S
VP
NP
NP
AP.
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N
V
Alice
followed
Det.
A.
N
the white rabbit
15. Alice slowly followed the white rabbit
S
VP
NP
NP
Adv.P
AP.
N
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Asv
V
Alice slowly followed
Det.
A.
N
the white rabbit
HOMEWORK
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Please analyse the remaining
sentences on your handout as trees and
bring them to the Syntax 2 lesson