Download English Grammar and Syntactic Structures Feyisayo Ademola

English Grammar and Syntactic Structures
Feyisayo Ademola-Adeoye, Department of English, University of Lagos
Introduction
Grammar is the study of the structure of sentences. It gives an explanation for a language’s
sentences that are well-formed and organized according to a set of rules. The term grammar
could be used in both general and specific senses (see Crystal, 1997; Radford, 2004; Zeller,
2006). The general sense of the term grammar refers to all aspects of language namely
phonology, morphology, syntax and morphology. The specific sense of the term which refers to
the aspect of language that looks at the structure of sentences (different from morphology,
phonology and semantics) is the approach used here. Grammar examines the way words are
combined to form sentences (Ballard, 2001:4) Syal and Jindal 2007 suggest that grammar
operates between phonology and semantics. They see grammar as the study of the way in which
words/morphemes combine to form meaningful sentences. The study of grammar includes the
study of five vital aspects of grammatical structure namely: morpheme, word, phrase, clause and
sentence. The morpheme, which is the lowest of the five fundamental aspects of grammar is the
smallest meaningful component of a word (Haspelmath and Sims, 2010) for example the word
unimportant is made of two morphemes un- and important, misleading has three morphemes
mis-lead-ing while the word unfriendliness has four morphemes un-friend-li-ness. Morphemes
combine to form words. A word is the smallest, meaningful, free form which combines with
others to form a sentence (McGregor, 2009; O’Grady, et al, 2011). A group of related words
without a subject and predicate is known as a phrase. Examples are a big black car, extremely
difficult, and in light of recent events. In contrast to a phrase, a clause is a meaningful group of
words which has a subject and predicate:
Subject
The name of the man
He
Predicate
is Mr. Robinson.
loves anything on wheels.
A sentence is a group of words that is complete in itself, contains a subject and predicate and is
used to convey a statement, question, command or exclamation.
Word Classes
Words are the building blocks of language. All words belong to a particular class or category
depending on the features which characterize them. There are eight major classes and one minor
one. The major ones are nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, determiners, prepositions
and conjunctions. The minor one is the class of interjections (see Ballard (2001) for treatment of
auxiliaries as a separate major classes and numerals as part of minor classes). The contemporary
approach is to divide words into word classes according to the features which characterize them.
This is because categorization of words into parts of speech based on notional definitions (as
used by traditional grammarians) has been considered inadequate due to its vagueness. For
example:
Nouns denote entities - boy, dress, house, David, etc.
Verbs denote action - come, build, sell, etc.
Adjectives denote states - sick, excited, poor, etc.
For example, the word hunger is not an entity yet it is a noun in The child died of hunger. Pink is
a name of a colour but it is an adjective in she wore a pink dress. The current trend is to establish
word classes that are coherent. That is, all words belonging to the same class should behave in
the same way and most, if not all, the grammatical operations that apply to one member of a
class should apply to the others. Words like girl, box, and table are assumed to be nouns because
they can (i) appear immediately before and immediately after a verb, (ii) be preceded by the
definite article, (iii) take plural markers (iv) have possessive forms: Words like laugh, want and
check are treated as verbs because they take the third person singular forms in the present
(laughs, wants, checks), and they all have the past tense ending -ed (laughed, wanted, checked).
Words liked beautiful, young and angry are considered adjectives because:
(i) they occur after forms of to be verb: Mrs. Ojo is beautiful.
(ii) they occur after articles and before nouns: She is married to the young president.
(iii)they occur after very: He is very angry.
(iv) they occur in the comparative or superlative forms: younger/ youngest; more beautiful
/most beautiful
(v) they occur before -ly to form adverbs: He left angrily.
Note that word classes are not as harmonized as suggested in the preceding paragraphs. Because
of the variability in language, there are a number of exceptions. For instance, irregular nouns like
sheep have a common singular/plural forms (one sheep, ten sheep) therefore they will not take
the plural ending -s. Nouns like equipment and luggage are non-count/uncountable/mass nouns
and cannot be pluralized (one luggage, *two luggages) while nouns like knickers and tweezers
have a plural form but no countable singular form. Similarly, not all verbs can be identified by
their inflectional morphology as there are many verbs with irregular past or perfect forms. (e.g.
fly, flies, flew flown). Infact, in the case of verbs like cut the past and perfect forms are the same
as the base form (he cuts the grass, he cut the grass yesterday, he has cut the grass). From the
foregoing discussion, it is apparent that it is difficult to tell what class a word belongs to by just
looking at it. The class of a word is best determined by how the word is used in a sentence. A
good demonstration of this principle is the word round which can belong to any of five word
classes depending on the structural context.
i.
The woman wore round glasses. (Adjective)
ii.
They saw the boy as they rounded the bend. (Verb)
iii.
Serena won all the rounds. (Noun)
iv.
We sat round the table for lunch. (Preposition)
v.
A plate of kolanut was handed round. (Adverb)
Open and Closed Classes of Words
We have seen above that all words can be labeled according to the word classes or grammatical
categories they belong to. Grammatical categories can in turn be divided into two word classes:
content words and function words. Content words are the meaning-carrying words of a sentence.
They include Nouns (N), Verbs (V), Adjectives (A), Most Verbs (V), Adverbs (ADV) and
sometimes prepositions (P). Content words carry the primary communicative force of an
utterance and have substantial descriptive content. Radford (2004) suggests that one of the
differences between content words like the noun house and a pronoun like She is that while
house has apparent informative and illustrative content in the sense that it stands for a building
that someone lives in, a pronoun like she does not have an illustrative content (for instance, you
cannot draw a picture of she). Content words are also known as open-class words. This means
that more words continue to be added to this class. Examples of newly added words in English
include verbs like email, text message, and fax (with noun counter parts); nouns like blog,
affluenza, agritourism; and adjectives like bootylicious, crunk (means to get excited or be full of
energy), and fetch (means cool, trendy, awesome) (for more on Open and Closed classes, see
Denham and Lobeck, 2010; O’Grady et al, 2011).
In Contrast to content words, function words are words that express grammatical or structural
relationship with other words in a sentence. They have little or no lexical meaning and they
usually bear information about grammatical properties such as person, number, gender case etc.
Function words include Determiner (D) Quantifier (Q), Pronoun (P), Degree word (Deg)
Auxiliary (Aux) and Conjunction (Conj). Function words are also known as closed class words.
Whereas new words are freely added to open classes of words, the membership of the closed
class is usually fixed. That is, no new words are added to it. Table1 below provides examples of
the word classes that are fundamental to the study of English grammar and syntax.
Table1
Content Words (Open Class)
Examples
Noun
bucket, water, fan, power, freedom
Verb
agree, know, deny, laugh, cut
Adjective
red, kind, young, bright, handsome
Preposition
from, after, under, beside, in
Adverb
soon, lately, always, perhaps, here
Function Word (Closed Class)
Examples
Conjunction
and, or, but, whether, nor
Determiner
my, a, the, our, their
Pronoun
he, she, it, they, you
Because assigning words into different classes is not always a straight forward exercise, linguists
(Radford, 2004; Tallerman, 2011; O’Grady, et al, 2011, etc) have suggested that criteria such as
semantic, morphological and syntactic evidence could be used to identify word classes. Semantic
criterion has to do with meaning. A simplified definition of these four major classes might be:
A noun is the name of a person place or thing (John, London, ruler)
An adjective is a describing word that modifies a noun. (a beautiful girl)
A verb is a word that expresses an action, event, state or process (walk, feel, seem)
An adverb modifies a verb, an adjective or another adverb (quickly, slowly)
However, there is not always a direct link between the class of a word and its meaning. For
example nouns like love, freedom, sanctity do not name objects in the strict sense. Also, even
though words that denote actions are likely to be verbs, nouns may also signify action. The word
bang is a noun in the sentence, They started the year with a bang, The issue becomes even more
problematic because there are words which are very alike in meaning but belong to different
classes. For example:
John reveres his father (revere is a verb)
John is in awe of his father (awe is an adjective)
The second criterion is morphological evidence which has to do with the types of inflectional
and derivational affixes that a word takes:
Table 2
Class
Affix
Examples
Noun (N)
Plural –s
Girls, doors, trays
Possessive -’s
Ken’s (the) girls’
Third person singular -s
Moves, crash, cook
Past tense -ed
Moved, crashed, cooked
Progressive -ing
Moving, crashing, cooking
Comparative -er
Finest, darker, lower
Superlative -est
Finest darkest, lowest
Adjective + -ly
Sadly, carefully, slowly
Verb (V)
Adjective (A)
Adverb (ADV)
Still, morphological properties do not always provide the type of evidence required to determine
the class of a word. This is because not all nouns can be pluralized (*furnitures, *warmths,
*humours) and there are adjectives which do not take the comparative and superlative affixes
(*foolisher, *foolishest, *timider, *timidest).
The third criterion, syntactic evidence, is the most reliable means of determining the class of a
word. It has to do with the distribution of a word. That is, the type of elements that co-occur with
particular words.
Distributional properties of nouns, verbs and adjectives:
Table 3
Word class
Distributional Property
Examples
Noun
appears with a determine
a bed, the rain
Verb
appears with an auxiliary
is singing, may leave
Adjective
appears with a degree word
very smart, too hot
A noun cannot occur with a degree word or an auxiliary *very man, *may boy
A verb cannot occur with a determiner or degree word: *an ask *very sing,
An adjective cannot occur with an auxiliary *may kind, *could smart
Phrases: Types and Functions
A phrase is a group of related words that combine together to form a grammatical unit. It is
usually without a subject and a predicate. There are five types of phrases and each one gets its
name from the word class that is most significant in the unit. The five types of phrases are: the
Noun Phrase (NP), the Verb Phrase (VP), the Adjective Phrase (AP), the Adverb Phrase (ADVP)
and the Prepositional Phrase (PP). Each phrase performs the same function as the dominant part
of speech. For example, the noun phrase performs functions of nouns – as subject, object,
complement, prepositional complement, etc. Note that a phrase may consist of just one word.
The Noun Phrase
A noun phrase is a group of related words whose key or head word is a noun. The words in
italics in each of the following sentences are noun phrases and their functions are indicated in
brackets.
1.
The man with the golden gun killed the villain. (NP as subject)
2.
She ate all the food. (NP as object)
3.
Her parents bought the girl a Christmas present. (indirect object)
4.
Mrs. Kolajo will become the school librarian. (subject complement)
5.
The council made the Dean the new vice chancellor. (object complement)
6.
During this vacation, we intend to go to the Middle East. (NP as Prepositional
Complement)
7.
The bedroom bedside tables are all made from oak (NP as Noun Phrase Modifier)
8.
Their son’s house mates are very untidy. (NP as a Determinative)
9.
Sasha, your best friend, is very feisty. (NP as an Appositive)
10.
They clapped for him several times (NP as an adverbial)
The Verb Phrase
The verb phrase is a group of related words, whose key or head word is a lexical verb. Like the
verb, the verb phrase functions as the predicator in the clause or sentence. A verb phrase may be
simple and consist of only the head word (the lexical verb) or it may have one or more (up to
four) auxiliary verbs. There are two categories of auxiliary verbs – primary auxiliary verbs and
modal auxiliary verbs. Examples of primary auxiliary verbs are BE (am, is, was, were, are, been,
an, being), HAVE (have, had, has) and DO (do, does and did). Modal auxiliaries are can, could,
shall, should, will, would, may, must, might, etc. Be and Have are used to express different
aspects and voices in sentences, while DO is used for emphasis and in interrogative and negative
constructions. Modal auxiliaries are used to express different shades of meaning such as
obligation and necessity (must) advice (ought to), ability / request (can). The words in italics in
each of the following sentences are verb phrases.
1.
The examination might have been being written then.
2.
I do like fish and chips.
3.
The boy had finished his food when his friends arrived.
4.
Do you eat bacon and eggs?
5.
The visitors are leaving now.
The Adjective Phrase
An adjective phrase is a group of related words whose key or head word is an adjective. Like
adjectives, an adjective phrase describes or modifies a noun, usually making its meaning more
specific. The words in italics in each of the following sentences are adjective phrases and their
functions are indicated in brackets.
1.
He gave a politically correct answer. (AP as Noun Phrase modifier)
2.
The man is very delighted to hear the news. (AP as subject complement)
3.
The woman painted her kitchen bright yellow (AP as object complement)
Adjectives phrases (as well as Adjectives) can be used attributively or predicatively. When an
Adjective phrase appears before the Noun/Noun Phrase it qualifies, it is said to be used
attributively. However, when it follows linking verbs like BE, seem, appear, look, etc, it is said
to have been used predicatively. Examples are as follows:
1.
The extremely talented artist has arrived. (The AP extremely talented describes the artist
which it appears before so it is used attributively)
2.
The artist seems extremely talented. (The AP extremely talented describes the artist but
follows the linking verb seem so the AP is used predicatively)
The Adverbial Phrase
An adverbial phrase is a group of words with an adverb as its head, sometimes occurring with
modifiers or qualifiers. An adverbial phrase can modify a verb, an adjective or another adverb.
An adverbial phrase may also be a group of words functioning as an adverbial. It can appear in a
number of different positions depending on its form. The words in italics in each of the following
sentences are adverbial phrases with their functions indicated in brackets.
1.
The hungry lion growled really aggressively. (AdvP modifying the verb growled)
2.
He gets tired very quickly. (AdvP modifying the adjective tired)
3.
Jane arrives late quite often. (AdvP modifying the adverb late)
A prepositional phrase that is used to modify a verb, an adjective, or an adverb is also called an
adverb phrase:
1.
He runs along the beach every weekend The PP used as an adverbial to modify the verb
runs and answers the question where?)
2.
Ready by five O’ clock, the children set out early to reach the school. (The PP by five O’
clock modifies the adjective ready and answers the question when?)
3.
Are these shoes big enough for you? (The PP for you modifies the adverb enough and
answers the question how?)
Meaning of Adverbials
Adverbials give us additional information about an action, happening or state as described by the
rest of the sentence. Adverbials usually tell us something about when, where or how something
happened. They, therefore, usually answer questions like who? Or what? (Leech & Svartvik,
2002; Borjars & Burridge, 2010) All kinds of adverb phrases can be made with different types of
phases.
Table 4
Type
Type of Wh question Adverb phrase
Example
Manner
How
Faster than other (AdvP) He ran faster than others
Place
Where
On the road (PP)
The children were playing on the road
Time
When
In the morning (PP)
I will do it in the morning
Frequency
How often
Twice a week (NP)
She goes to the gym twice a week
Purpose
Why
For his son (PP)
He bought the bicycle for his son
The Position of Adverbials
While most constituents have inflexible order-rules, Adverbials are, however, quite lax in their
positioning. They are usually mobile and can appear in three main positions in a sentence – the
front – position, mid-position and the end-position.
1.
Fortunately enough, they had excess cash with them.
2.
She lives in Abuja, so we hardly ever see her.
3.
He is coming back next week.
The Prepositional Phrase
A prepositional phrase is a group of words whose key or head word is a preposition. In contrast
to the other four types of phrase, the prepositional phrase cannot stand alone as the head of a
phrase. It has to occur with another element or prepositional complement. In other words, a
prepositional phrase usually begins with a preposition and ends with a noun, noun phrase or a
pronoun, called the object of the preposition. The words in italics in each of the following
sentences are prepositional phrases.
1.
We expect the plane to arrive in an hour.
2.
The snake slithered through the thick bush.
A prepositional phrase can function as an adjective or an adverb. When it functions as an
adjective, it describes a noun or a pronoun.
1.
The present on the table is for you. (PP functions as an AP modifying the noun present)
2.
The film by Danielle Steel will be released next week. (PP functions as an AP modifying
the noun film)
When a prepositional phrase functions as an adverb, it modifies a verb, an adjective, or another
adverb.
1.
You should put the food on the table. (PP functioning as an Adverb Phrase modifying the
verb put)
2.
My mother is pleased with me. (PP functioning as an Adverb phrase modifying the
adjective pleased)
3.
You are sleeping too much for your own good. (PP functioning as an adverb phrase;
modifying the adverb much).
Clauses: Types and Functions
A clause is a word that contains a subject and a predicate. A clause may be either a sentence (a
main clause or an independent clause) or a sentence-like construction within another sentence
(that is, a dependent or subordinate clause). The clause is the grammatical unit between the
phrase and the sentence. A main or independent clause has a subject and a predicate. It
expresses a complete thought and can stand alone as a sentence. Here are some examples:
1.
David ate all the food.
2.
I will see you tomorrow.
A subordinate or dependent clause also has a subject and a predicate. But unlike a main clause,
it does not express a complete thought nor can it stand alone. The clauses in italics are
subordinate clauses:
1.
I will leave when I am ready.
2.
I know that my redeemer lives!
Noun Clauses
A noun (or nominal) clause is a subordinate clause that is used as a noun. It performs the same
functions as a noun in a sentence. Noun clauses can begin with that or wh words like whoever,
whatever, what, why, etc. They could also be to-infinitive or -ing nominal clauses.
The noun clause can occur as:
1.
Subject:
For her to fail her exam like that is unbelievable.
2.
Direct Object:
I think that he is hungry.
3.
Indirect Object:
He gave whoever came early a bar of chocolate.
4.
Subject Complement:
The assumption is that she will pass.
5.
Object Complement:
They call the teacher whatever names they like.
6.
Appositive:
The assumption, that he did it, is unfounded
7.
Adjectival Complement:
She is glad to help us.
8.
Prepositional Complement:
He is sick of being treated like a stranger.
Adjectival Clauses
An adjectival clause (also referred to as relative clause) is a subordinate clause that modifies a
noun or a pronoun. An adjective clause gives more information about the noun, noun phrase or
pronoun (i.e. antecedent) it modifies. It usually follows the word it modifies. Adjective clauses
answer the same questions as adjectives: Which? What kind? How many? Adjective clauses
usually begin with relative pronouns like that, which, who, whom and whose or by the
subordinating conjunctions when and where. Here are some examples:
1.
The woman who lives opposite our flat is a teacher.
2.
They sold every item that they bought.
Sometimes, the relative pronoun is not pronounced. That is, there is a ‘zero pronoun’ even when
the ‘zero pronoun’ is not pronounced, it still exists because it fills a grammatical position in the
clause ( Leech & Svartvik 2002). Both examples below are acceptable:
1.
The houses that he builds are always beautiful.
2.
The houses he builds are always beautiful.
Types of Adjectival or Relative Clauses
There are two main types of relative clauses. The restrictive (also known as essential or defining
relative clause) makes the meaning of the sentence clear. Without the restrictive relative clause,
the full meaning of the sentence would not be clear. Consider the following example:
My brother who lives in London will arrive tomorrow evening (that is, I have two or more
brothers).
In contrast, the non-restrictive relative clause is not required to make the meaning of a sentence
clearer. Instead, it gives additional information about the antecedent. For example:
My brother, who lives in London, will arrive tomorrow (that is, I have only one brother).
Adverbial Clauses
An adverbial clause is a subordinate clause that modifies a verb, an adjective, or an adverb. It
answers the question when, where, how, why much or how often. Adverbial clauses are usually
introduced by subordinating conjunctions like after, although, because, after, before, when,
since, until, where, whenever, wherever, while, etc.
1.
She cleaned the kitchen whenever she cooked (The adverb clause modifies the verb
cleaned)
2.
He is not happy unless he upsets others. (The adverb clause modifies the adjective happy)
3.
They can sing better than we can sing. (The adverb clause modifies the adverb better)
An adverbial clause that modifies a verb can appear before, in the middle or after a main clause.
An adverbial clause that precedes a main clause is usually separated from the main clause with a
comma:
Whenever she cooked, she cleaned the kitchen.
Types of Adverbial Clause
Adverbial clauses of time indicate, the time something happens and are introduced by
subordinating conjunctions like after, before, since, until, when, whenever, as soon as, etc.
1.
Call me as soon as you get there.
2.
My mum, once my dad arrived, went to bed.
Adverbial clauses of place are usually introduced by where or wherever:
1.
He did well wherever he went.
2.
Where he had been stabbed, there was a big scar.
Adverbial clauses of manner are introduced by exactly as, just as:
1.
Prepare the meal exactly as the nutritionist instructed.
2.
You must leave the bathroom just as you met it.
Adverbial clauses of reason or cause are usually introduced by because, as, or since:
1.
I took his toys because he was naughty.
2.
Since she was available, she attended to the visitors
Adverbial clauses of condition are introduced by subordinators like if (positive condition) and
unless (negative condition)
1.
He will come home if he closes early.
2.
Unless the strike has been called off, there will be no lectures tomorrow.
Adverbial clauses of result show the result or outcome of an event or situation and are usually
introduced by so that:
1.
We were so hungry that we finished all the food.
2.
He shook her very hard so that she regained her senses.
Adverbial clauses of purpose are usually introduced by in order to, so as to, so that, in order
that:
1.
Jane left home on time so that she could make the appointment.
2.
The children cleaned the house in order for them to please their mother.
The Sentence
A sentence is a group of words that contains a subject and a verb, and expresses a complete idea.
A sentence is the largest unit to which syntactic rules can apply. It can be divided into a subject
and a predicate. In English, written sentences begin with a capital letter and usually end with a
full stop, a question mark and sometimes an exclamation mark. Sentences can be classified
according to their structure (simple, complex, compound) or according to their function or
meaning (statement, question, command, exclamation).
Structural Classification of Sentences
A simple sentence has one main clause and no subordinate clauses:
The man wept .
They jeered at him.
She is a caterer.
We enjoyed the movie a lot.
A complex sentence contains one main clause and one or more subordinate clauses:
1.
2.
When I was schooling in France,
I learnt a few basic words
subordinate clause
main clause
He was sacked
because he was rude.
main clause
subordinate clause
A compound sentence is made up of two or more main clauses:
1. She bought all the ingredients and cooked the food
main clause A
main clause B
2. She was born into wealth, she married into a very wealthy family, but she was very unhappy
main clause A
main clause B
main clause C
A compound complex sentence contains more than one main clause and at least one subordinate
clause:
1. Mum cooked the food, I washed the plates while dad watched television
main clause A
main clause B
subordinate clause
2. Because the weather was very bad, we couldn’t go to school and we couldn’t visit our friends.
Subordinate clause
main clause A
main clause B
Functional Classification of Sentences
A simple sentence may be a statement, a question, a command, or an exclamation.
Statements or declarative sentences give information or make declarations. They are the most
frequently used of all the types of sentences. In statements, the subject comes before the verb and
generally ends with a full stop:
I am not going home yet.
His parents believe in him.
I promise to take care of you.
I now declare the meeting open.
Questions or Interrogative sentences are used to ask questions, they usually end with a question
mark. They are different from statement in some ways:
*
In yes/no questions, the operator occurs before the subject:
Are you alright?
*
In wh-questions, the sentence begins with a wh word.
Where are you going?
*
Does he own a car?
Whose bag is this?
Sometimes, an interrogative sentence may have a subject-verb order but end with a rising
intonation in spoken English and question mark in written English.
You’d like some biscuits?
Dad left already?
Commands which are also known as imperatives or directives are sentences that instruct
someone to do something. They end with a full stop and do not have overt subjects (sometimes,
they take the subject you)
(You) turn off the TV.
(You) leave now
Exclamations are sentences used to express strong emotions, feelings or attitude such as pain,
surprise, anger, happiness, frustration, elation, etc.
Exclamations usually begin with wh words like how, and what and end with an exclamation
mark:
What a beautiful home you have!
How magnificent it looks!
Not all exclamatory sentences begin with a wh-word:
Fantastic, you made it!
Ouch, that really hurts!
Negative Sentences
A negative sentence makes a negative instead of a positive statement. To make a negative
statement, the word not is placed immediately after the operator (or auxiliary). Not is often
contracted and attached to the preceding word. When there is no operator in the positive
sentence, the appropriate form of DO (does, did) is inserted.
Positive
Negative
David can dance.
David cannot dance.
Mary left yesterday.
Mary did not leave yesterday.
Active and Passive Voice
When the subject performs the action denoted by the verb, the verb is said to be in the active
voice:
The girl broke the glass.
The boy kicked the ball.
It is possible to change the order above such that the subject is no longer active, but is, instead,
being acted upon by the verb.
The glass was broken by the girl.
The ball was kicked by the boy.
The passive voice is used when the doer of the action is unknown, unwanted or unneeded in a
sentence; when the writer wants to emphasize the action rather that the doer of the action and for
sentence variety. The passive voice is formed by using the auxiliary verb BE together with the
past participle form of the verb. The tense of the passive verb is determined by the tense of the
auxiliary verb. Note that only verbs that take an object (i.e. transitive verbs) can be used in the
passive construction.
The verb BE is conjugated as follows:
Table 5
Present Tense
Past Tense
Singular
Plural
Singular
Plural
I am
we are
I was
we were
You are
you are
you were
you were
He/she/it/is
they are
he/she/it was
they were
Table 6 shows sentence changed from active to passive in the principal tenses.
Table 6
Active
Passive
Time reference
They grow beans in the North.
Beans are grown in the North.
Present
Bolu is cooking dinner.
Dinner is being cooked by Bolu.
Present continuous
Soyinka wrote The Lion and
The Lion and the Jewel was
Simple Past
the Jewel.
written by Soyinka.
They were cleaning the floor.
The floor was being cleaned.
Past continuous
He has produced over 10
Over 10 movies have been
Present Perfect
movies in the last year.
produced in the last year by him
They are going to build a new
A new hall is going to be built
Future intention with
hall.
by them.
‘going to’
He will finish the book tomorrow.
The book will be finished
Simple Future
tomorrow by him.
What is Syntax?
This section will explain different syntactic structures and the rules that determine them. Syntax
is the aspect of grammar that represents a speaker’s knowledge of sentences and their structure;
it is the sub domain of grammar that deals with the structure of sentences (Aarts 2001). Syntax is
the study of the rules that govern the ways in which words are combined to form phrases, clauses
and sentences. It is one of the major aspects of grammar (see Crystal, 1997; Syal & Jindal, 2007,
McGregor, 2009). Syntax is the study of principles and processes by which words are grouped
into phrases, clauses and sentences. The term is also used to refer to the rules and principles that
govern the sentence structure of any individual language. According to Tallerman (2011), syntax
is the study of the syntactic properties of language, it studies how words group together to make
phrases and sentences. While some use the term grammar to mean the same as syntax, many
linguists follow the contemporary approach of treating grammar as an all encompassing term that
includes all of its organizing rules, information about the sound system (phonology) form of
words (morphology) how we adjust language according to context (pragmatics) etc. In this view,
syntax is only one part of the grammar of a language.
What is Grammar?
Ballard (2001) suggests that grammar is the set of rules of any given language that enables us to
construct any sentence in that language which we recognize to be well-formed. Grammar deals
with two aspects of language construction. On the one hand, it deals with syntax which has to do
with the principles of combining words together to form phrases, clauses and sentences. On the
other hand, it deals with inflectional morphology which is concerned with the set of rules that
determine the type of inflection the individual words in a sentence take. Grammar is the branch
of linguistics that deals with syntax and morphology, sometimes also phonology and semantics
(World English Dictionary). In a sentence like My mother buy two crates of eggs every week,
syntactic rules determine that the words follow the particular order as above and not *two mother
my egg week create of every buy while morphological inflectional rules determine the realization
of the verb as 3rd person singular buys instead of buy to indicate agreement between the verb and
its subject. Also since there is more than one crate and egg, crate and egg are both in the plural
form. Endings such as the -s on the verb and the -s on crate and egg are inflections. Both the
inflectional and syntactic rules work together to determine the grammaticality of the sentence.
The term grammar refers to either the inherent structure of words and sentences (morphology
and syntax respectively) in a language; or to the study of and description of this structure,
published as grammar rules in books about language. Other approaches include more topics
under the term grammar- orthography (spelling, punctuation and capitalization) semantics (word
meanings) phonetics and phonology (sounds) and pragmatics (language use in context). The term
grammar is sometimes used with a systematic ambiguity. The term could refer to the explicit
theory constructed by the linguist and proposed as a description of the speaker’s competence. It
could also refer to the competence itself (Chomsky & Halle, 1968). The grammar of a language
includes the sounds and sound patterns, the basic units of meaning such as words, and the rules
to combine all of these to form sentences with the desired meaning. Grammar is what we know
(sum total of everything we know about out language). It represents our linguistic competence. It
is the mental representation of a speaker’s linguistic competence, what a speaker knows about
language including its phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics and lexicon; a linguistic
description of a speaker’s mental grammar. Syntax is that aspect of grammar that represents a
speaker’s knowledge of sentences and their structure (Fromkin, et al, 2002). In traditional terms,
grammar includes morphology and syntax. In a broader Chomskyan sense, grammar includes
phonology and structural aspects of semantics, etc. That is, a grammar of a language is a
computational system which derives the phonetic and semantic representation of expressions
(Radford, 2004).
Theories of Syntax
Syntactic theories are generally classified into two broad groups – formal and functional. Formal
theories of syntax concentrate on linguistic form, leaving meaning in a peripheral position. In
contrast, functional theories focus on the role of language and the way that syntax is organized to
perform these roles; meaning plays an important role in functional theories. Within each group,
there’s a range of variation in the extent to which theories are formal or functional. In extreme
versions of formal syntax, grammar is seen as an abstract algebraic system which specifies the
acceptable strings of symbols making up a language. Meaning is presumed irrelevant, and syntax
is seen as constituting an autonomous system. At the other extreme end of functional syntax,
meaning and function are considered central and the existence of syntactic structure is denied.
However, the majority of syntactic theories fall somewhere in between the two extremes
(Mcgregor, 2009).
Traditional grammarians considered Latin their model. Since English, Latin and Greek
belonged to the same language family – Indo-European family, they all had many grammatical
elements in common. However, many of these similarities have been lost due to wide-ranging
changes that English had undergone over the years. Early grammarians viewed these changes as
a deterioration of standards which had to be curbed. Consequently, they came up with a number
of prescriptive rules on the basis of Latin; ignoring the fact that each language is unique and had
to be described on its own. More emphasis was on the written aspect of language than the spoken
part. Even the definitions given to the parts of speech by them were insufficient and unclear.
Rather than describe the language as spoken or used by native speakers, they prescribed how it
should be spoken/written, finding faults with it on trivial grounds (Syal & Jindal, 2007). Here are
examples of sentences considered ungrammatical by traditional grammarians:
1
a.
He does not know nothing. (double negative)
b.
You haven’t seen nothing yet (double negative)
2.
I will do it (use of will with I. It should be shall)
3.
She is taller than me (comparison is between he and I and not me)
Contemporary approaches to studying languages have suggested that the correctness of sentences
in a language should be judged by native speakers who use the language and not the
grammarians or linguists. Thus, the approach used by traditional grammarians was considered
unscientific illogical and presumptive.
Structural grammar: In reaction against the approach of the traditional grammarians of the 17th,
18th and 19th centuries, a new approach called structuralism spearheaded by linguists like
Ferdinand de Saussure, Franz Boas, Edward Sapir and Leonard Bloomfield began at the
beginning of the twentieth century. The first major work combining the theory and practice of
linguistic analysis was language by Leonard Bloomfield, which appeared in 1933, a book which
dominated linguistic thinking for over twenty years and stimulated many descriptive studies of
grammar and phonology. Later the Bloomfieldian approach came to be known as structuralist
because of the various kinds of technique used to identify and classify features of sentence
structure (in particular, the analysis of sentences into their constituent parts) (Crystal, 1999).
Some of the major tenets of the structuralist approach are:
i.
Spoken language is primary and writing is secondary
ii.
The synchronic study of language takes precedence over diachronic study.
iii.
Language is a system of systems. The elements of this system (sound, words, etc) have
no authenticity or weight on their own. For example each sound is meaningless in isolation
except when combined with other sounds.
iv.
Language is described in terms of it structure. The phone is seen as the unit of phonology
and morpheme the unit of grammar. For example, the word cup is made up of three phonemes /k/
/ʌ/ and /p/ while the word shoes consists of two morphemes- shoe and -s. Therefore, to study the
structure of a sentence, a linguist must know the string of morphemes and phonemes that make
up the sentence. Structural linguists breakdown a sentence into its immediate constituents. A
sentence is broken into two each, each part is further broken down until the smallest segment is
arrived at. The sentence The rich man with two wives bought the house can be analysed into its
immediate constituents as follows:
The rich man with two wives bought the house
ei
The rich man with two wives
ei
bought the house
ei
The rich man
with two wives
ei
bought
ei
The
rich man
with
ei
two wives buy
ei
rich
the house
ei
(past) the
house
ei
man
two
wives
However, by the 1950s, the fascination of this approach waned as a result of a sharp reaction
against the limitations of the approach of structural linguistics especially in the area of grammar.
Categorical grammars: according to Malmkjær (2002), the idea of categorical grammar came
originally from the proposals of Ajdukiewicz (1935) but later developed by Bar-Hillel (1953)
and Lambek (1961). The major highlight of categorical grammar is that expressions are assigned
to functor and argument categories, while using a general rule of function application to combine
functors with their arguments (Malmkjær, 2002) Syntactic structures are credited to the
properties of the syntactic categories instead of the rules of grammar (as is the standard practice
in generative grammar). For example, rather than claim that sentences are generated by a rule
that combines a Noun Phrase (NP) and a Verb Phrase (VP) (S
NP, VP), in categorical
grammar, such rules are assumed to be inherent in the head word itself. Therefore a grammatical
category like an intransitive verb is represented by a complex formula that implies that the verb
acts as a function word which requires an NP as an input which, in turn, yields a sentence level
structure as an output. This complex category is represented as (NP\S) instead of V. NP\S is
interpreted as a category that searches to the left (as indicated by the \) for an NP (the item on the
left) and outputs or yield a sentence (the element on the right). In contrast, the class of transitive
verb is defined as an element that requires two NPs (that is, a subject and a direct object) in order
to form a sentence. This is represented as (NP/(NP\S)) which can be interpreted as a category
that searches to the right (indicated by /) for an NP object and generates a function
(corresponding to the VP) which is (NP\S), which then stands for a function that searches to the
left for an NP subject and finally yields a sentence.
Functionalist theories are interested in the form of sentences. But more importantly, they are
preoccupied with the communicative function of a sentence. Some functionalist theories are:
Functional Discourse grammar, Prague Linguistic Circle, Systemic Functional Grammar,
Cognitive Grammar, Construction Grammar, Role and Reference Grammar and Emergent
Grammar. Systemic –functional grammar, one of the most prominent functionalist grammars,
was developed by the British linguist Michael Alexander Kirkwood Halliday. The theory started
in the late 1950s and 1960, as Scale and Category Grammar (Malmkjaer, 2002). Systemic
Functional Grammar (SFG) is a branch of a broad social semiotic approach to language called
systemic linguistics. The term systemic refers to the understanding of language as a web of
systems for creating meaning. That is, when we use language, we make choices from sets of
available options while the term functional suggests that the theory is interested in different
contexts of use of language in contrast to formal grammar which is usually preoccupied with
compositional semantics, syntax and word classes. In other words, every time we make a choice
from the available options, we are doing so in order to fulfill a communicative purpose. The
approach is concerned with the choices the grammar makes available to speakers and writers.
These choices relate the speakers’/writers’ intentions to the real forms of language. Language is
seen as a resource people use to accomplish their purposes by expressing meanings in context.
Systemic linguists have four main theoretical claims about language:
i.
Language is functional
ii.
The function of language is to express meaning.
iii.
These meanings are influenced by the social and cultural context in which they are
exchanged.
iv.
The process of using language is a semiotic process of communicating meaning by
choosing.
According to Halliday (1975), language came into being because of three kinds of metafunction
or social-functional needs: to be able to interpret experience in terms of what is going or around
us and inside us (also known as ideational function); to be able to interact with the social world
by negotiating social roles and attitudes (interpersonal function) and to be able to create
messages with which we can package our meanings in terms of what is new or given, and in
terms of what the starting point of our message is, which is also known as the theme (textual
function) Halliday further suggests that any piece of language triggers all three metafunctions
simultaneously. Central to this approach is that language must be seen as taking place in a social
context. Language is not good or bad. Rather, it is either appropriate to the context of use.
Language function (that is what is used for) is often more important than language structure
(how it composed).
Generative grammars are among the theories that focus primarily on the form of a sentence,
rather than its communicative function. Generative grammar is a unifying term used for different
theories that have emerged from Chomsky’s dominant theory of syntax which he propounded in
the mid-1950s and which has continually been reinvigorated by his insight up till date
(Chomsky, 1995, 2000, 2001, 2004, 2008). This theory has had different names through its
development. Table 7 (adapted from Cook and News on 2007) shows the different names by
which it has been known:
Starting
Model
Key terms
Date
1957
Key book/
Article
Transformational
grammar (TG)
generative Rewrite rules
Transformation
Chomsky
1957
Generative
Kemel sentence
1965
1970
Aspects, Later Standard theory
Competence/performance
Chomsky
Deep /surface structure
1965
Extended Standard Theory (EST)
Chomsky
1970
1981
Government / Binding theory (GB)
Principles
Chomsky
Principles and parameters
Parameters
1981
D- and S- structure
movement
Post1990
Minimalist Programme (MP)
Computational system
Chomsky
interface conditions
1993
perfection
Others
theories which have branched off of the Generative Grammar include Generative
Semantics, Relational Grammar and Generalized Phrase Structure Grammar (which are largely
out of date ), as well as Arc Pair Grammar, Head-driven Phrase Structure Grammar (HPSG),
Lexical-Functional Grammar (LFG) and Nanosyntax. Since the beginning, the central task of
linguists working within the framework of generative grammar has been to develop a general
theory that reveals the rules and laws that govern the structure of particular languages, and the
general laws and principles that control all natural languages. In this framework, the mentally
represented knowledge of language is called grammar. Generally speaking, grammar refers to all
aspects of linguistic competence: phonetics and phonology (the sound and sound patterns of
language ), morphology and syntax (the structural properties of words, phrase and sentences) and
semantics (linguistic meaning). However, the term grammar is usually viewed narrowly as the
aspect of language faculty that is mainly concerned with linguistic structures. The underlying
principle of generative grammar is that sentences are generated by a subconscious set of
procedures (like computer programs) which are part of our minds. The goal of syntactic theory is
to figure out what we subconsciously know about the syntax of our language. That is, the goal of
syntactic theory is to model these procedures through a set of formal grammatical rules. These
are not like the rules of grammar you might have learned in school such as: how to punctuate
sentences, how not split an infinitive, etc. Rather, these rules tell you the order in which to put
your words. For instance, in languages like English (an S V O language), you put the subject of a
sentence before its verb. These rules generate the sentences of a language, hence, the name
generative grammar (Carnie, 2002; Radford, 2004; Hornstein, et al, 2005; Zeller, 2006).
Some Underlying Principles of Generative Grammar
Universal Grammar has to do with the fact that all human beings acquire a complex system,
regardless of how and where they are raised; a fact that suggests that we are all naturally wired to
acquire language. Descriptive grammar helps us understand the core grammatical rules used to
produce and understand language. It is assumed that the core grammatical rules have similar
properties across languages, forming a kind of basic grammatical blue print. The core properties
make up what linguists refer to as Universal Grammar (or UG). One of the goals of modern
linguistics is to find out what languages have in common and to learn about the UG. Some
principles of universal grammar are: (i) All languages combine subjects and predicates to form
larger units like clauses and sentences. However, order of the units may differ across languages.
(Two most common word orders in the languages of the world are SVO (English) and SOV
(Japanese)). (ii) Sentences in all languages of the world must have subjects which is a
consequence of the Extended Projection Principles (EPP) (Chomsky, 1981) which will be
discussed below. However, the subject in some language may be ‘silent’ (as in null subject
languages like Italian, Greek, Zulu, etc.) or overt as in English.
Parameters are pieces of information that are responsible for differences between languages.
From the examples of principles of Universal Grammar, you can see that each principle can be
described in binary terms. That is, there is a metaphorical innate on/off switch that allows people
acquiring a language to choose from among a fixed set of possibilities. Therefore, whether a
language has SVO or SOV/VSO order is a possible parameter: In English, this parameter is set to
‘on’. Therefore, the language is SVO; in Turkish, it is set to ‘off’ and the language is SOV. In
Irish, the parameter is also set to ‘off’ and the language is VSO. The same goes for the principle
that has to do with sentences having subjects. A language can have the subject parameter set
either to ‘on’ (as In English, French and many Nigerian languages) or ‘off’ as you find in many
null subject or pro drop languages (like many Bantu languages, Greek, etc)
The X- Bar Theory: When bar is used as a suffix attached to a category label such as N, V, P, T
etc, as in N-bar, V-bar, P-bar, T-bar, it denotes an intermediate projection which is larger than a
word but smaller than a phrase. Hence, in a phrase such as university policy on examination
malpractice, we might say that the string policy on examination malpractice is an N-bar, since it
is a projections of the head noun policy, but it is an intermediate projection because it has a
larger projection into the NP, university policy on examination malpractice. The term bar
notation refers to a system of representing projection levels which posits that the first merge of a
head x with its complement forms an X bar constituent while the second merge of a head with a
specifier forms an XP. The X-bar theory is a general blue print for building phrases- an innate
property of human language
XP
ei
Specifier
ZP
X'
ei
X
YP Complement
Fig 1
The complement of X is the sister of a head X. The specifier (or Spec) of X ([spec, X]) is the
sister of a non-head immediately dominated by XP. Complements and specifiers are optional, but
the structure in figure1 represents the fundamental architecture of the syntax of all natural
languages. The X-bar structure and the operation Merge are part of UG. Consequences of X-bar
Theory are:
 Every phrase has exactly one head (head principle)
 The head is always peripheral (this follows from the binary branching principle). The
head is always on one side or the other, never in the middle.
 The level of complexity of XP is higher than that of X’; the level of complexity of X’ is
higher than that of X.
 A head can only combine with a phrase (phrase principle)
 A head of category X always selects its complements on the same side (either on the left
or on the right)
Here are some examples of the different types of phrase:
a)
Verb phrase:
b)
VP
Noun Phrase
NP
ty
ty
Spec
were
V'
ty
Spec
V
N'
NP
N
the
PP
ty
cleaning
ty
university
ty
D
the
c)
N
P
room
of
Adjectival Phrase:
d)
AP
PP
NP
N
Lagos
Prepositional Phrase
ty
ty
Spec
very
A'
Spec
P'
ty
A
PP
P
right
NP
ty
scared
ty
through
ty
P
of
N
bees
NP
D
the
N
window
C- command (or constituent-command) is a particularly important syntactic relation which
provides us with a useful way of determining the relative position of 2 different constituents
within the same tree (in particular, whether one is lower in the tree than the other or not). We can
define this relation informally as follows where X,Y and Z are three different nodes: A
constituent X, C commands its sister constituent Y and any constituent Z which is contained
within Y.
Fig 2
A
ty
B
ty
C
ty
H
J
D
E
ty
F
G
In the light of the definition of c-command given above, (in fig 2) A does not c- command any of
the other nodes since A has no sister. B c-commands C, D, E, F, and G because B’s sister is C
and C contains D, E, F and G. H c-commands only J, because H’s sister J does not contain any
other constituent. Likewise, F c-commands and only G. D c-commands E, F, and G because E is
the sister of D and E contains F and G. We can illustrate the importance of the c-command
relation in syntactic description by looking at the distribution of a class of expressions known as
anaphors. These include reflexives (myself/yourself/themselves, etc.) and reciprocals like each
other and one another. Such anaphors have the property that they cannot be used to refer directly
to an entity in the outside world but rather must be bound by (i.e take their reference from) an
antecedent elsewhere in the same phrase or sentence. Where an anaphor has no (suitable)
antecedent to bind it, the resulting structure is ungrammatical and we can see from contrasts such
as those below:
a)
He must feel proud of himself.
b)
*She must feel proud of himself.
c)
*Himself must feel proud of you.
d)
The president blames himself.
e)
*Supporters of the president blames himself.
*S
ei
NP
ei
N
supporters
ei
PP V
tyblames
P
NP
of ei
VP
NP
himself
D
the
N
president
The sentence *Supporters of the president blames himself is ungrammatical because the NP node
containing the president doesn’t c-command the NP himself. This is because the NP the president
is not the subject of the sentence but only part of the complex NP/DP supporters of the president.
As a result, in terms of the definition of C-command given above, the president does not ccommand himself. The lowest branching node that dominates the NP the president does not
dominate the reflexive pronoun himself. Therefore, the syntactic rule that determines the
distribution of reflexive pronouns in a sentence must include the requirement that there be an
antecedent that c-commands the reflexive pronoun.
The Operation Merge: A word belonging to a particular syntactic category can combine with
other words to form a constituent of the same category. This operation is called merge. For
example, merging a noun with a determiner creates a nominal constituent called a Noun Phrase
(also known as the determiner phrase in the Minimalist Programme).
The (D) + man (N)
=
the man (NP/DP)
A (D) + woman
=
a woman ( NP/DP)
We can represent the outcome of this operation as a binary tree diagram:
NP/DP
ei
D
N
the
man
Words can also merge with phrases to form larger constituents:
Girls (N) + in the garden (PP) = girls in the garden (NP)
Under (P) + the table (NP) = under the table (PP)
Mad (A) + at him (PP) = mad at Paul (AP)
Bathe (V) + the baby (NP) = bathe the baby (VP)
NP
ty
ty
N
V
girls
ty
PP
NP
ty
P
NP
in ty
D
N
the garden
PP
AP
VP
ty
P
NP
under ty
D
P
table
A
N
at
PP
ty
mad
N
the
ty
bathe
D
Paul
N
the
baby
The word which determines the syntactic category of its phrase is called the head. A phrase can
also be made up of only its head:
NP: Children can be mean.
PP: He put the book under.
AP: The bag is old.
VP: The baby slept.
Constituency Tests: We already know that phrases and sentences are built up by merging
consecutives pairs of constituents into larger and larger structures and that the resulting
structures can be represented in terms of a labeled tree diagram. The question however is: how
are we sure that a syntactic structure on a tree diagram forms a constituent? There are a number
of standard tests used to determine the status of structures:
a) Distribution: Expressions that can substitute for one another without loss of grammatically are
constituents.
Joan
He
The girl with the toy
put the money on the table
The man who won the prize
NPs
left the baby in the room
Victoria
swept the floor
drinks
VPs
b) Pronominalisation: What can be replaced by a pronoun is a constituent.
She put the money for food on the table (NP)
The woman put the money for food there (PP)
The woman did this (= put the money for food on the table)
The woman put the one on the table (N)
c) Questions and Answers: Constituents can be identified through questions and answers.
Questions: Who put the money for food on the table?
Answer: The woman (NP)
Question: What did the woman put on the table ?
Answer: the money for food. (NP)
Question: Where did the woman put the money for food?
Answer: on the table. (PP)
Question: What did the woman do?
Answer: (what she did was) put the money for food on the table. (VP)
d) Displacement: Groups of words that can be displaced (moved somewhere else) are
constituents.
On the table, the woman put the money for food.
The money for food, the woman put on the table
Syntactic Representations: The constituents of a sentence such as: The woman put the money for
food on the table and its hierarchical structure can be represented by syntactic trees like (1):
(1)
CP
ty
C
TP
Ø
NP
ty
D
N
the woman
ei
T'
ty
vP
ty
T
Ø
NP
v'
6
ty
The woman v
VP
Ø +putei
V'
ty
PP
ty
V
NP
P
NP
put
ty
on
ty
D
D
N
ty
N
PP
money ty
the
P
NP
the
table
N'
For
food
or by bracketed diagrams like (1)
(1) [CP[cØ[TP the woman [TØ[vP the woman[vØ+put][VP[v put[NP the [N' money[pp for [NP
food]]]]]]][PP on [NP the table]]]]]]
Note that the golden rule of tree structures (see Carnie 2002:37) is that modifiers are always
attached within the phrase they modify. Also note that the triangle (in the tree diagram) is a
convention to show that a structure has not been given in full.
Functional Categories I: DP, TP: The syntactic structure building operation merge that
combines heads with phrases can also be used to derive functional categories. Functional
categories realize grammatical features which are sometimes realized as words or affixes. For
example, a determiner element realizes features of the functional category D, such as number,
definiteness, case, referentiality, etc. D can then merge with the lexical category N to form a DP:
DP
ty
D
NP
a
ty
A
N
beautiful dress
In English, the D can also carry a possessive feature which may be realised by the clitic -’s. The
determiner D merges with NP to derive D' Which in turn merges with an independent possessor
DP in the specifier position to drive a DP. Since the functional category D usually occurs with
the functional category N, it looks as if D extends the projection of N. D is therefore called the
extended projection of N.
DP
ei
DPPOSS
D
the
ty
N D
NP
woman ‘s
ty
A
N
beautiful dress
D'
ty
A verb also has an extended projection. The category T which stands for tense is assumed to
have grammatical features of the clause such as tense and agreement (that is, finiteness). It may
or may not be pronounced. When pronounced, it could be realized by auxiliary or modal verbs,
or by agreement or tense affixes. T usually merges with the v' (light verb) to derive TP:
CP
ty
C
TP
Ø
NP
ty
D
N
the woman
ei
T'
T
has ei
NP
ty
vP
v'
ei
6
The woman v
Ø + bought
V
VP
ty
DP
ty
bought
D
N
a
dress
EPP: In languages like English, the T-head is assumed to have another uninterpretable feature,
called an EPP-feature. This feature is an implementation of what used to be the Extended
Projection Principle (EPP) in Government and Binding Theory, a principle which required that
the subject position of a sentence be filled. Importantly, the EPP-feature can only be deleted if a
suitable phrase is merged with the projection of T (i.e. T'). In languages like English, the subject
DP marked for nominative case is a suitable phrase. Therefore, agreement between T and the
subject is followed by an application of the operation Move (also known as internal Merge): the
subject DP in [Spec, ] is copied and remerged with T'. Since the copy of the subject DP in
[Spec, ] is not pronounced, it looks as if the subject DP has moved from [Spec, ] to [Spec, T],
but “movement” is actually no more than a metaphor for the process of copying an element
already part of the structure and merging it with the root of the derivation at this point.
Functional categories II: Head and Wh-movement
Head movement involves movement of a word from the head position in one phrase into the
head position in a higher phrase. According to Head Movement Constraint (HMC, see Radford
2004), movement from one head position to another is restricted to a given head and the closest
head which asymmetrically c-commands it. One of the syntactic structures whose derivation
involves not only merger but also a head movement operation is a yes-no question. This type of
head movement operation involves the movement of the auxiliary from the head T position in TP
into the C position in CP as shown below. The strikethrough shows the initial position of the
moved constituents
CP
ei
C
will + Q
NP
Emmanuel
TP
ei
T'
T
Will ei
NP
ty
vP
v'
Emmanuel
v
Ø + visit
V
VP
ty
DP
ty
visit
D
ei
N
his
parents
It is assumed that in main clauses, an interrogative C has a null question particle Q that is affixal
in nature. Because Q also carries a strong tense feature, it attracts the head T (which in this case
is filled by will) to move from T to C.
Wh-movement: Wh-questions such as: Which song about New York will she sing? involve two
different types of movement- the head movement by which the auxiliary will moves from the
head T position to the head C position; and the movement of the Wh-expression which song
about New York from the complement position within VP into the specifier position in CP. The
latter movement is known as Wh-movement. In contrast to head movement which moves
minimal projections like heads, Wh-movement moves maximal projections as seen in the tree
diagram below:
CP
ei
DP
ty
ei
D
NP C + T
TP
which
ty
will
ei
N
PP
PRN
T'
song ty
she
ei
P
NP
T
vP
about New York
will
ei
PRN
C'
v'
she
ei
v
Ø + sing
V
VP
ei
DP
6
sing
which song about
New York
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READING LIST
Carnie, A. (2002). Syntax: A generative introduction. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.
Culicover, P.W. (1997). Principles and parameters: An introduction to syntactic theory. Oxford:
Oxford University Press.
Haegeman, L. (1994). Introduction to government and binding theory (second ed.). Cambridge:
Basil, Blackwell.
Hornstein, N., Nunes, J. & Grohmann, K.K. (2005). Understanding minimalism. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Ogbulogo. C. (2004). Problem areas in English grammar and usage. Lagos: Sam Iroanusi
publications.
Quirk, R. & Greenbaum, S. (1973) A university grammar of English. Edinburgh: Longman.
Radford, A. (2004). Minimalist syntax: Exploring the structure of English. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Ukwuegbu, C. et al. (2002). Catch-up English language for SSCE/UME. Ibadan: HEBN
Publishers Plc.