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4.1 Syntax and grammar
As another subfield of linguistics, syntax is the study of sentence structure. It is
concerned with the rules of how words are put together in certain patterns to form
different sentences. As inflections are used by speakers to indicate the grammatical
relations between the words in a sentence, traditionally "grammar" refers to syntax and
the part of morphology that deals with inflections. This is what we mean by saying "the
grammar of the sentence" or "a grammatical study of sentences". We are not using the
term "grammar" in the sense Chomsky uses it to call his linguistic theories.
4.2 Word order
As we have mentioned before, syntax deals with the patterned relations between words
in the sentences, and with the systematic means of stating and analyzing such patterns.
By saying that the relation between words in a sentence is patterned, we mean that there
are rules which govern the ways words are put together. Let us consider the following
sentences:
1. The children sleep peacefully.
2. *Sleep children peacefully the.
3. The ideas sleep furiously.
4. *Ideas the furiously sleep.
Sentences 1 and 3 are normal English sentences in that they are grammatically
well-formed sequences of words. Being grammatically well-formed mainly means that
the words in the sentences are ordered according to syntactic rules of English by
following certain patterns, such as "determiner + noun + verb + adverb". Sentence 3 is
not meaningful in non-poetic context, but this lack of meaningfulness does not negate its
grammaticality. Put in a poetic context, it is meaningful if we stretch our imagination a
bit. But sentences 2 and 4 are ungrammatical (hence the asterisk.), because they violate
the syntactic rules which control the word order, position of words of various classes
relative to one another in sentences. Word order is particularly important to English as
it is not so inflectional as some other Indo-European languages. The grammatical
functions performed by inflections in highly inflectional languages are therefore
performed by word order in English. For example in English the identities of subject or
object are solely determined by word order, not by the inflections indicating a subjective
or objective case. Word order is often referred to by the term syntagmatic relation.
4.3 Word classes
As we have mentioned before, syntax is the patterning of words in the sentences.
Speakers of one language do not have total freedom in combining words to make
sentences. They have to follow certain syntactic rules concerning the patterning of
words, for example, the word order "determiner + noun + verb +adverb" mentioned in
the previous section. Words are put together in this order according to the classes they
belong to. Word classes are sets of words, which have the same grammatical limitations
and the same potential for occurrence. That is to say, they are likely to fit into the same
slot in a sentence and mutually substitutable in particular grammatical context. For
example, all the words in "The children sleep peacefully" can be substituted by words of
the same classes:
1. A cave collapsed suddenly.
2. That man wrote slowly.
3. Those dogs barked angrily.
The resulting sentences of the substitution are all grammatical, because the, a, that,
those belong to the same word class "determiner"; children, cave, man, dog are all the
members of the class "noun"; sleep, collapse, write, bark are "verbs" and peacefully,
suddenly, slowly, angrily are "adverbs".
We are quite familiar with such terms as "nouns", "verbs", and "adverbs" since they are
traditionally referred to as parts of speech. However, in many linguistic works the term
"word class" is used instead of "part of speech". Linguists insist that words should be
solely classified in accordance with their syntactic properties, their distribution in
sentences, as in the above discussion. They regard the traditional definition for parts of
speech, such as "A noun is the name of any person, place, or thing", "A verb is a word
which denotes an action", "An adjective modifies a noun", as a mixture of inflectional,
syntactic and semantic description and as logically defective or circular.
The syntactic relation of substitution between words of the same class is also referred to
as the paradigmatic relation. The term "paradigmatic" is often used along side with the
term "syntagmatic" to specify the two different linguistic relations, "vertical" and
"horizontal", at many levels of linguistic system other than words.
Syntagmatic and paradigmatic relations are not confined to the relations between single
words. For example, in "Whoever takes this pill will sleep peacefully", the primary
syntagmatic relation is the one that exists between
* "whoever takes this pill", "will
sleep" and "peacefully". If the sentence is substituted by "The children sleep peacefully",
then there is a paradigmatic relation between "whoever takes the pill" and "children",
and between "will sleep" and "sleep". Similar relations also exist on phonological,
morphological, phrasal, and even textual levels. In the two phoneme strings /pit/ and
/bit/, there is a syntagmatic relation between /p/or /b/, /i/ and /t/, and a paradigmatic
relation between /p/ and /b/. In the two words meaningful and meaningless, morphemes
mean, -ing and -ful can be viewed as having a syntagmatic relation between them, and
the relation between -ful and -less can be viewed as a paradigmatic one.
Word classes can be "closed" or "open". If a word class is not expanded by the creation
of additional members, it is closed. For example, in English we rarely, if ever, invent or
adopt a new or additional pronoun. Semantically closed class words form a system and
they are mutually exclusive and usually defined in relation to the rest of the class. On
the other hand, an open class is indefinitely extendible. New words are constantly added
to open classes. Words belonging to the same open class are not mutually defining.
They only have the same grammatical properties and fit into the same slot in a sentence
as the other words in the class. In English
we have the following closed word classes:
Preposition
Pronoun
Determiner
Conjunction
in, on, at, in front of, beneath, etc.
you, it, his, herself, mine, etc.
a, the, this, those, both, etc.
but, or, and, etc.
Modal verb
can, may, must, ought, etc.
Primary verb
have, be, do.
And the following open word classes:
Noun
Adjective
man, dog, China, etc.
good, wonderful, green, old, etc.
Adverb
fast, swiftly, slowly, wonderfully, etc.
Full verb
run, walk, arrive, beat, etc.
4.4 Word groups
We have learned that words are placed one after another in a sentence according to
certain word order, but sentences are more than a mere linear sequence of single words.
There are word groups in a sentence. For example, in the sentence "The two ugly
sisters had gone home without her", it is obvious that certain words, such as had and
gone, or the, two, ugly and sisters, "belong together" in a way in which others do not.
And had gone appears to have a closer relation with home and without her than with the
two ugly sisters. Usually word groups correspond to syntactic categories such as subject,
predicate, object, complement, etc. on one hand and clauses or phrases on the other. In
the above example, the word group the" two ugly sisters corresponds to the category of
"subject" or "noun phrase" with the rest of the sentence can be grouped together as it
corresponds to the category of "predicate" or "verb phrase".
There is a hierarchical relation between all the possible word groups in a sentence. The
idea is that in any given sentences some words are more closely related than others, and
a sentence is made up of two-part constructions on a series of levels or layers. The big
word groups contain some smaller ones and the smaller ones may in turn contain some
still smaller ones. There are groups, subgroups and sub-subgroups. How far the
grouping will go is determined by the required depth of syntactic description, but
usually we stop at single words. The word groups in a sentence are called its
constituents and, when they are considered as part of bigger word groups, they are
called its immediate constituents. Immediate Constituents Analysis is the technique
of breaking down sentences into word groups by making successive binary cuttings until
the level of single words is reached. The single words resulted from an 1C Analysis are
called the ultimate constituents. There are many ways to demonstrate the stages of IC
Analysis and the resulting constituent structure. For example, to analyze the sentences
"In the bank I gave them my application" and "The new product has passed tests with
flying colours", we can use vertical bars:
1. In the bank I I gave them my application.
2. In II the bank I I IIgave them my application.
3. In II the III bank II II gave III them my application.
4. In II the III bank I I II gave III them IIIImy application.
5. In II the III bank I I II gave III them IIIImy IIIII application.
Or square brackets:
1. [The new product has passed tests with flying colours.]
2. [[The new product] [has passed tests with flying colours.]]
3. [[[The] [new product]] [[has passed tests] [with flying colours.]]]
4. [[[The] [[new] [product]]] [[[has passed] [tests]] [[with] [flying colours.]]]
5. [[[The] [[new] [product]]] [[[[has] [passed]] [tests]] [[with] [[flying]
[colours.]]]]]
Or tree diagrams:
In the bank I gave them my application
Figure 4-1 tree diagram
IC analysis of this kind does not give labels to the constituents. If syntactic labels are
used to indicate the constituents, we will have a "labeled tree diagram":
S
PP
S
NP
VP
Pron
NP
V
NP
Pron
NP
P
Det
N
Det
N
In the bank I gave them my application.
Figure 4-2 labeled tree diagram
Or a "labeled square bracketing":
[S[NP[Det The] [NP[A new] [Nproduct]]] [vp[vp[tense has] [vpassed]] [Ntests]] [pp[pwith]
[NP[A flying] [Ncolours.]]]]]
Word groups have two types of constructions: endocentric and exocentric
constructions. If the group in question is syntactically equivalent to one of the words it
contains, or, to put it another way, if one of the words in the group can stand in place of
the whole group, the group is said to have an endocentric construction. If not, the
group is said to have an exocentric construction. In an endocentric construction, the
word that can stand for the whole group is the head, and the other words are its optional
modifiers. Most constructions are exocentric. for example, the English prepositional
phrases with care, from the village, on the table and subordinate clauses if you are here,
because it won't do, which you like are exocentric constructions made up of a
preposition and a noun phrase, or of a conjunction and a clause. Neither of the two parts
in either case is syntactically equivalent to the adverbial or modifier they make together.
The typical English endocentric constructions are noun phrases and adjective phrases.
Take the sentence "The beautiful red dress is very good indeed" for example. The head
dress of the noun phrase the beautiful red dress and the head good of the adjective
phrase very good indeed can replace the whole phrase respectively in the sentence as
there are syntactically the same.
4.5 Grammatical categories
The term "grammatical category" is used by some linguists to refer to word class. In
TG grammatical categories are syntactic units indicated by "category symbols" such
as S, NP, VP, Det, A, etc. But, in more general use, the term refers to certain defining
properties of word classes with corresponding inflectional affixes as their formal
indications. The inflectional affixes characterize individual word forms, not lexemes.
For example, the lexeme "book" has two word forms: the singular book and the plural
books. Together they constitute the category of number in English indicated by suffix -s.
Similarly, the non-past work and the past worked of the lexeme "work" form the
category of tense in English indicated by the suffix -ed. Apart from number and tense,
there are case and gender for nouns and adjectives, and aspect, voice and mood for
verbs. These grammatical categories are an essential part of the inflectional languages.
Many of them are still used in the description of the English language even though the
formal indication of them has almost entirely lost long before.
Gender is an arbitrarily fixed characteristic of individual nouns, pronouns, or other
words in the noun phrases such as determiners and adjectives. Many inflectional
languages have three meaning-related gender distinctions: masculine feminine and
neuter. We can say that English has no gender because nouns, determiners, adjectives
in English have no inflectionally marked gender distinctions. The suffix -ess in princess,
duchess, actress, etc. are derivational not inflectional. The choice of English pronouns is
based semantically on the non-arbitrary, natural distinction of sex. This "notional
gender" in English should be talked about in terms of "male" and "female" instead of
"masculine" and "feminine". Compare the following French sentences with their English
counterparts:
Le cadeau (masculine) est beau.
La maison (feminine) est belle.
The gift is fine.
The house is fine.
Gift and house have no sex distinction but they are arbitrarily distinguished in French as
masculine and feminine, and there is a gender agreement among the determiner, noun
and adjective in the sentence.
The category of case applies not only to nouns but also to a whole noun phrase. Cases
indicate the syntactic and/or the semantic role of a noun phrase in a sentence. It is very
prominent in the grammar of inflectional languages. For example, Latin has six cases:
nominative (for subject), vocative (for a noun used in name calling), accusative (for
direct object), genitive (for a noun used to modify a higher noun phrase or to indicate a
possessive relation), dative (for indirect object) and ablative (for a noun when a
departing motion is indicated). Many English pronouns have different forms
corresponding to the distinction of subjective (nominative), objective (accusative and
dative) and genitive cases, as in I, me, my; we, us, our; he, him, his, etc. Apart from the
pronoun system, English has only one case distinction in nouns — the genitive case
indicated by the suffix /-iz/, /-z/ and /-s/ in phonetic forms and "apostrophe + s" (boy's), or
an apostrophe only (boys') in writing.
Ablative n.〈语法〉夺格, 离格（与 by, with, from 等连用） Of, relating to, or being
a grammatical case indicating separation, direction away from, sometimes manner or
agency, and the object of certain verbs. It is found in Latin and other Indo-European
languages.
Number is a grammatical category with a relatively clear semantic basis. It is a category
primarily for nouns. Not all the English nouns have a singular-plural distinction. Those
nouns that have this distinction are called "count nouns". Their regular plural forms are
clearly marked by plural suffixes.
The other major inflectional categories, such as person, tense, aspect, mood and voice,
belong mainly to the verb. The category "person" is overtly marked in English pronoun
system. It also belongs to the verbs because the number of the subject is indicated in the
verb form when the subject is in the third person and the verb is in the present tense, as
in It hurts as against They hurt.
Tense shows the relationship between the form of the verb and the speaker's concept of
time. In English the formal indication is between past and non-past, with the past
formally marked in regular verbs by suffix -ed. Aspect deals with how the event
described by a verb is viewed. English has two aspect constructions, the perfective and
the progressive, realized by "have + -ed participle" and "be + -ing participle"
respectively. Mood involves a choice between indicative, imperative and subjunctive
forms of the verb on the semantic basis of the factuality. The English imperative has
only a "tenseless" be as the formal marker. Subjunctive mood is used to indicate some
of the nonfactual and hypothetical situations. English has two formal markers of the
subjunctive mood, the base form and were. When the base form is used, there is a lack
of the regular agreement between subject and the finite verb, and the present and the
past are not distinguishable. When were is used, there is no indication that the verb is in
the past tense or the subject is plural. Compare:
Indicative mood
He is / was careful.
Imperative mood
Be careful.
Subjunctive mood
I demanded that he be careful.
If I were you, I would be more careful.
Voice is somewhat different from the other grammatical categories. Although it is
morphologically a property of the verb, it is closely related to the syntactic structure of
the sentence. It makes it possible to view the action of a sentence in either of the two
ways without changes in the facts reported. The passive voice of English is realized by
"be + -ed participle". The doer in the active sentence is omitted in the passive or is
indicated by a "by-phrase" in passive sentence. Compare:
Active voice
Passive voice
Jim caught the ball.
The ball was caught.
Passive voice with "by-phrase"
The ball was caught by Jim.
Words occur in a phrase or a sentence in various category-indicating forms. The
selection of these forms has two types, government and concord. Government refers to
the situation where one word in a phrase or sentence requires that another word in the
same phrase or sentence take a particular category form. For example, English
prepositions and verbs govern the forms of pronouns that follow them in the same
syntactic construction so that the "objective" forms of these pronouns must be used, as
in with me, to him, to invite them, to save us, etc. The reflexive pronouns in English are
also "governed" by the subject noun in the same clause structure. For example:
1. The boy hurt himself.
2. The woman hurt herself. ;
3. The men hurt themselves.
Concord refers to the agreement in a phrase or sentence in terms of marked
grammatical categories. English does not have gender concord in a noun phrase as
French does. There is only a number concord as shown in the following sentences:
1. This boy goes to school every day.
2. These boys are Chinese.
3. I am a teacher and you are a student.
There is a concord of number between this, boy, goes and these, boys, are. And there is
also a concord of number and person between I, am and you, are.
Sentence structure
The grammatical structure of a sentence is traditionally analyzed in terms of the
functional categories of its constituents. A sentence is seen as composed of a subject (S)
and a predicate(P). The predicate may contain, apart from the verb (V), objects (O),
complements (C) and adverbials (A), which are further categorized into direct object
(Od), indirect object (Oi), subject complement (Cs), object complement (Co),
subject-related adverbial (As) and object-related adverbial (Ao). If we disregard the
optional adverbials, we will have seven major sentence types:
1. SV
Jane's cat snores.
2. SVO
Jane keeps a cat.
3. SVCs
Jane is very fit.
4. SVAs . Jane's room is on the second floor.
5. SVOiOd Jane is keeping Archie a piece of pie.
6. SVOCo
7. SVOAo
Jane is keeping Archie happy.
Jane keeps her cat in the garden.
The grammatical structure often corresponds to the semantic structure of sentences,
which is analyzed in terms of the semantic roles played by the constituents. These
semantic roles normally correspond to certain syntactic categories when the sentence in
question is active and with an animate doer. For example, subject usually has a role of
an agent and complements are attributes. Indirect object has a role of a beneficiary
and direct object is a patient. Adverbials may be instrumental, locative or temporary.
The grammatical structure also corresponds to the thematic structure, which is
described in terms of the information value of the constituents. The initial constituent of
a sentence is called theme and the rest of the sentence rheme. Theme is normally the
starting point or the topic and contains given information. As subject in English
usually is the first constituent in a sentence, it is often the unmarked theme. The whole
predicate is the rheme. However, we will have a different picture when there is
passivisation or fronting. The semantic roles of the constituents remain the same but the
object can be made subject or fronted to the initial position to become the theme, as
shown in the following table:
Active sentence
Mother
Passive sentence
my brother
this toy.
Functional elements subject
indirect object direct object
Semantic roles
beneficiary
agent
Thematic structure theme
My brother
patient
rheme
has been given
Functional elements subject
this toy
direct object
by Mother.
prepositional
object
Semantic roles
beneficiary
Thematic structure theme
This toy
Fronted direct object
has given
Functional elements direct object
patient
agent
rheme
my brother
subject
has been given
by Mother.
prepositional
object
Semantic roles
patient
Thematic structure theme
beneficiary
rheme
agent
Figure 4-3 thematic structure