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Syntax 1
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Introducing Syntax: Categories and Constituents
Michelle Sheehan (michelle.sheehan@ncl.ac.uk)


1. What is syntax?
The study of grammatical relations between words and other units within a sentence
(Matthews 1997/2005 Oxford Concise Dictionary of Linguistics. Oxford: OUP)

Basic questions:
What are the basic units of syntax (categories)?
How do these units combine to form larger syntactic units (constituents)?
How do we account for distribution of syntactic units (word order)?
What are the relevant syntactic relations (e.g. subject, predicate, object, adjunct)?
Some more questions:
How do we account for syntactic differences between languages (comparative
(synchronic) syntax)?
How do we account for syntactic differences between historical stages of
languages (historical (diachronic) syntax)?

Functional vs. Formal approaches to syntax
1. Those shoes with the six-inch heels I can never wear for more than an hour at a time
Formal analysis in terms of different categories (e.g. noun, verb, preposition,
determiner etc.) and constituents (e.g. NP, VP, PP etc.)
Functional analysis in terms of informational units, e.g. topic/comment or
theme/rheme (cf. Structuralists), weight of constituents, markedness of placement,
etc.
Note that the two approaches are not mutually exclusive (cf. Newmeyer (1998)
1
for
discussion of the relationship between formal and functional approaches).


Our focus: formal aspects of syntax

2. a. Colourless green ideas sleep furiously (Chomsky 1957 Syntactic Structures)
b. `Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe. (Lewis Carrolls Jabberwocky)

3. a. Fish
b. Fish fish
c. Fish fish fish

1
Newmeyer, F. (2000). Language Form and Language Function. Cambridge, Mass.:MIT
Press.

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d. Fish fish fish fish
e. Fish fish fish fish fish

Syntax can be studied in abstraction from meaning or function. You can tell the
categories of the words in (2b), and we know that (2a) is grammatical, even though it is
meaningless. Likewise, the different occurrences of fish in (3) have different categories
and fulfil different syntactic functions (e.g. subject, modifier, ver, object etc.).

2. Chomskyan Syntax
Language as a window on the mind

Aim: to establish what native speakers know about language

A. Whether a certain order of elements is grammatical or ungrammatical (*)

4. a. The boy loves the girl
b. The girl loves the boy
c. *The the girl boy loves
d. *Loves the boy the girl

5. a. John often kisses Mary
b. *John kisses often Mary

6. a. Colourless green ideas sleep furiously
b. *Green sleep colourless furiously ideas
7. a. Twas brillig, and the slithy toves did gyre and gimble in the wabe
b. *Brillig twas, and the toves slithy gyre did and in wabe the gimble


B. Whether material in a sentence is optional or obligatory

(n.b. *(X) means that X cannot be omitted, (*X) means that X cannot be inserted.)

8. I put the book *(on the table)
9. I found the book (on the table)

10. I ran (the race)
11. a. I ate (the sandwich)
b. I devoured *(the sandwich)

C. How superficially similar categories (verbs, nouns, prepositions) behave differently in
a given context

12. a. Have you the time to help me?
b. Do you have the time to help me?

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13. a. *Want you to help me?
b. Do you want to help me?

14. a. I know not this man
b. I do not know this man
c. I dont know this man


D. How superficially similar sentences have very different meanings

15. a. He looked up the number
b. He looked the number up
c. He looked up the chimney
d. *He looked the chimney up

16. a. They found the book on the table
b. They found the book on the atom

E. How syntax and semantics (and pragmatics) interact
17. a. I had forgotten how good beer tastes
b. I saw that gas can explode
c. Nicky saw the student with a telescope
d. Visiting relatives can be boring
e. It is dangerous for Communists to work in nuclear power stations

What are the different meanings associated with these sentences?

18. a. Ed thinks that Alastair loves him
b. Ed thinks that Alastair loves himself

19. a. Jenny has found a friend to confide in
b. Jenny has found a friend to confide in her

Levels of Adequacy (Chomsky 1965)
2

Observational Adequacy: accounts for the data in a given corpus, but nothing further,
i.e. no predictive power
Descriptive Adequacy accounts for data in a corpus and linguistic competence of
native speakers
Explanatory Adequacy accounts for everything a descriptively adequate theory
accounts for, but also provides a principled reason why linguistic competence takes the
forms it does, e.g. how children acquired competence, content of UG.

Syntacticians are interested in cross-linguistic differences as they allow us to test the
descriptive adequacy of theories.

2
Chomsky, N. (1965). Aspects of the Theory of Syntax. Cambridge MA: MIT Press.
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Compare examples 20 and 21:

20. a. In the future, everyone will be famous for 15 minutes
3

b. *In the future will everyone for 15 minutes famous be
c. *In the future will be everyone famous for 15 minutes
d. *Future, everyone 15 minutes for famous be will


21. a. In der Zukunft wird jeder fr 15 Minuten berhmt sein [German]
In the future will everyone for 15 minutes famous be

b. Yn y dyfodol, bydd pawb yn enwog am 15 munud
4
[Welsh]
In the future will-be everyone (in) famous for 15 minutes

c. Shorai wa, daremo ga 15 hun kan yumei ni naru desho
5

Future TOP everyone NOM 15 minutes for famous DAT be will
[Japanese]

22. a. John often kisses Mary
b. *John kisses often Mary

23. a. *Jean souvent embrasse Marie [French]
b. Jean embrasse souvent Marie

24. a. Think you I am no stronger than my sex? [Julius Caesar]
b In sooth, I know not why I am so sad [Merchant of Venice]


3. Categories
The basic unit of syntax is the word. Words can be divided into categories:
Lexical categories: noun, verb, adjective, adverb
Open class speakers can create new ones
Universality? All languages seem to have N and V. For adjectives/adverbs it is not so
clear.
Functional categories: auxiliaries, conjunctions, determiners, prepositions
Closed class speakers cant create new ones (usually)
Universality? Not all languages have all functional categories, but perhaps there is a
universal inventory from which they are drawn.

Why is it important to know the category of a word (as a linguist or a language learner)?


3
Attributed to Andy Warhol.
4
yn (in) is the only additional element here.
5
The additional elements are wa = topic marker; ga = nominative marker; ni = dative marker.
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Syntactic operations are sensitive to syntactic categories
e.g. To form a yes/no question you move the main clausal auxiliary
25. a. Barack Obama will make an excellent speech
b. Will Barack Obama make an excellent speech?
c. *Make Barack Obama will an excellent speech?
d. *Obama will Barack an excellent speech?

26. a. The man who will make the cocktails is going to be late.
b. *Will the man who make the cocktails is going to be late?
c. Is [the man who will make the cocktails] going to be late?

Morphological operations are sensitive to syntactic categories
Regular nouns in English take plural s
Regular verbs in English take present tense, 3
rd
person singular -s
Regular verbs in English take past tense -ed
Regular adverbs in English end in -ly
Prepositions in English dont take any morphological ending (although
prepositions in Welsh and Irish do, e.g. la with > leis with him)

Phonology and semantics are sensitive to syntactic categories
27. a. Homeowners are waiting for an increase in house prices
b. Homeowners are hoping that house prices will increase

28. a. Mistrust starts that go too well
b. Mistrust starts when lies are discovered

Also: sociolinguistic variables are often conditioned by syntactic variables. Thus the
likelihood of -ing being pronounced [In] depends on the syntactic category of the word in
which it appears as well as other factors (cf. Labov 1989
6
):
progressives and participles (e.g. She is singing) highest likelihood
adjectives (e.g. a flying fish) high likelihood
gerunds (e.g. Playing squash is healthy) lower likelihood
nouns (e.g. ceiling, building) lowest likelihood

How do we determine the category of a word?
Semantically? E.g. a noun is a naming word, a verb is a doing word etc.
But, look again at (2b):

29. `Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe. (Lewis Carrolls Jabberwocky)

Better diagnostics:

6
Labov, W. (1989). The child as linguistic historian. Language Variation and Change 1(1): 85 - 97.
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Morphology
Distribution

Morphology can be used to test whether something is a regular noun/verb:

He ______-s/-ed =verb
Two ______-s = noun

Cloze tests can be used to identify categories by their distribution:
30. a. ____________ can be a pain in the neck
Syntax / politicians / small children can be a pain in the neck
*Write / in / quietly can be a pain in the neck

b. Students can ____________ quickly
Students can read / write / learn/ drink quickly
*Students can car / with / loud quickly


4. Constituent Structure
Syntactic categories (i.e. words) can combine with other syntactic categories to form
constituents. These constituents combine to make larger constituents, i.e. sentences

Basic operation of merge: joins two syntactic units together:
31. Determiner + Noun = Noun Phrase (NP)
The + ball = the ball
Verb + NP = Verb Phrase (VP)
Kicks the ball = kicks the ball
NP + VP = Sentence (S/IP)
John kicks the ball = John kicks the ball

Other optional modifier scan also be added to phrasal constituents some examples:
Noun Phrase
32. a. Obama
b. The President
c. The American President
d. The new President of the USA
Adjectival Phrase
33. a. Fascinating
b. Completely fascinating
c. Completely fascinating to students
Verb Phrase
34. a. Watch
b. Watch rugby
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c. Watch rugby on TV
d. Watch rugby on TV on Saturday with my friends
Prepositional Phrase
35. a. Inside
b. Inside the Lecture Block
c. Just inside the Lecture Block
Adverb Phrase
36. a. Slowly
b. Unbelievably slowly

4.1 Constituency Tests
A phrase is a constituent. Phrases combine together to form sentences. So a whole
sentence is a constituent containing smaller constituents. Next week we will see a way
to represent this using phrase-structure trees, but brackets show the same thing.

[ [subject] [VP] ]
[ [subject] [V [NP] ] ]

How do we tell what is and what is not a constituent?

Non-syntactic constituency tests Morphological tests
Possessive s only attaches to NPs
37. a. Obamas
b. The presidents
c. The president of the USAs (*The presidents of the USA)
d. The president who was recently electeds
e. The man outsides
NB. s is a phrasal affix. It doesnt attach to a particular type of category but to a
particular constituent, i.e. NPs.

Syntactic constituency tests
Sentence fragment/Questioning test
38. The Frenchman got the job
a. Who got the job? The Frenchman/*Frenchman
b. What did the Frenchman get? The job/*job
c. What did the Frenchman do? Got the job/*Got

39. Al seemed very happy on Monday
a. How did Al seem on Monday? Very happy/*Very/?Happy

40. Graham played the concerto very beautifully
a. What did Graham play? The concerto/*The concerto very beautifully
b. How did Graham play? Very beautifully/*The concerto very beautifully


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Co-ordination
41. a. Tobias will read the article and lead the reading group (VPs)
b. Debbie read Chomskys article and his latest book (NPs)
c. Did the students seem very happy or very upset? (APs)
d. Catherine wrote the letter very quickly, but badly (AdvPs)
e. Carolyn wrote from Berlin and from Cairo (PPs)

42. a. *Tobias will play the match and on the squash court (NP and PP)
b. *Debbie read Chomskys article and in his latest book (NP and PP)
c. *They seemed happy and to understand everything (AP and TP)
d. *The children played noisily and in the garden (AdvP and PP)
e. *Did they knock at the door or quietly? (PP and AdvP)

Note: This test tests for more than just constituency; because only the same kind of
constituent, e.g. NP with NP, VP with VP, etc., are meant to be conjoinable. Note that
there are exceptions to this generalisation, though: I want this [AdjP accurately] and [PP
on time] which is fine, although its formally not all that different from (41d) above.
Semantic considerations seem to come into play here

Pronominalisation
43. What do you think of [those awful people whove just moved in next door]?
I really like [them]
i.e. pronoun

44. We ate [that delicious dessert with the cherries and cream] last night
Did you enjoy [it]?
*Did you enjoy it with the cherries and cream?
i.e. another pronoun

45. Kristin found [her class notes] under the novels shed read last week
What were [they] doing there?
i.e. an adverbial pronoun

46. Sheyna can [swim 50 lengths with ease], and I can [do so] too.
i.e. a VP-proform

47. I [turned the washing pink] this week and my housesmates [did so] last week
(note: did so excludes the adjunct this week)

Commutability (Preposing and Postposing)
48. I really like friendly people Friendly people, I really like
49. Brown will never [please some people] Some people, Brown will never please
[Please everyone], Brown never will
50. The book youre after is on the piano On the piano is the book youre after
51. The FBI wrote down the details The details the FBI wrote down
*Down the details the FBI wrote
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52. Mark seemed incredibly preoccupied to Robert Mark seemed to Robert
incredibly preoccupied

Ellipsis
53. Tim wont tell a lie I believe he wont (*tell)
54. I will apply on time, but many others wont (*apply)
55. Either you can work together or you cant (*work)

Clefting
56. a. I tried to speak [to [the people next door]]
b. It was [to[the people next door] that I tried to speak
c. It was [the people next door] that I tried to speak to
57. a. We decided to write a long letter to Philippe [last week]
b. It was [to Philippe] that we decided to write a long letter last week
c. It was [last week] that we decided to write a long letter to Philippe.
58. a. She read Chomsky 1998 [with great care]
b. It was [with great care] that she read Chomsky 1998

Reading
Akmajian, A., R. Demers and R. Harnish. (1984). Linguistics. An Introduction to
Language and Communication. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. (categorisation and
constituency - pp. 162 - 182)
Borsley, R. (1999). Syntactic Theory. A Unified Approach. London: Arnold.
Brown, K. and J. Miller. (1991). Syntax. A Linguistic Introduction to Sentence
Structure. London: Routledge. (the first 11 chapters focus on syntax)
Burton-Roberts, Noel. (1986). Analysing Sentences. London: Longman. (focuses on
categorisation and constituent structure, with a final chapter on the various
conceptions of grammar; example material in English)
Fromkin, V. and R. Rodman. (1993). An Introduction to Language. New York:
Harcourt Brace Jovanovich College Publishers. (Chapter 3 gives a basic introduction
to notions like grammaticality, categories and constituents; and the Lexicon, PS-
Rules and Transformations)
Graddol, D., J. Cheshire and J. Swann. (2001/1994). Describing Language.
Buckingham: Open University Press. (Chapter 3)
Haegeman, L. (2006). Thinking Syntactically: A Guide to Argumentation and Analysis.
Oxford: Blackwell. (Chapter 2)
Halliday, M. (1994). An Introduction to Functional Grammar. London: Arnold
Huddleston, R. (1984). Introduction to the Grammar of English. Cambridge: CUP.
(Chapters 1, 3, 4 and 6)
Lyons, J. (1981). Language and Linguistics. An Introduction. Cambridge: CUP.
(categories and constituents - pp. 1-4 - 117)
Matthews, P. (1981). Syntax. Cambridge: CUP. (chapter 4).
Pinker, S. (1994). The Language Instinct. London: Penguin. (Chapter 7)
Robins, R. (1989). General Linguistics. London: Longman. (categories and
constituents - pp. 208 - 215)
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Tallerman, M. (1998). Understanding Syntax. London: Arnold. (and also the revised,
expanded 2
nd
edition from 2005)
Thomas, L. (1993). Beginning Syntax. London: Blackwell (clarifies categorisation and
constituent structure; example material in English)
Yule, G. (1996). The Study of Language. Cambridge: CUP. (Chapter 10 gives a short
and extremely basic overview of matters like generative grammar; constituency;
representation devices; PS-Rules and Transformations)

2. Useful Preparation for Lecture 6
Anything you find in the above sources on constituency and phrase-structure (PS)
rules
Also:
Chomsky, N. (1986). Knowledge of Language. Its Nature, Origin and Use. London:
Praeger. (Chapters 1 and 2)
Cook, V. and M. Newson. (1996). Chomskys Universal Grammar. An Introduction.
London: Blackwell. (relevant parts of chapters 1 and 3; theres now 3
rd
edition)
Haegeman, L. (1995). An Introduction to Government and Binding. London: Blackwell.
(Chapter 1).
Haegeman, L. and J. Guron. (1999). English Grammar. A Generative Perspective.
London: Blackwell. (Chapter 1: particularly sub-sections 2.1 - 2.3)
Horrocks, G. (1987). Generative Grammar. London: Longman. (Chapter 1 and section
2.1 of Chapter 2)
Newmeyer (1998). Language Form and Language Function. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT
Press
Ouhalla, J. (1994/1999). Introducing Transformational Grammar. London: Arnold.
(Chapters 1-3 of the 1994 edition; Part I of the 1999 edition)
Radford, A., M. Atkinson, D. Britain, H. Clahsen and A. Spencer. (1999). Linguistics.
An Introduction. Cambridge: CUP. (Chapters 17 - 19 and 22)
Smith, N. (1999). Chomsky. Ideas and Ideals. Cambridge: CUP. (Chapter 1 and the
relevant parts of Chapter 2)