SYNTAX

Rimajon Sotlikova

SYNTAX
Is

derived from the Greek elements, syn

means together and tax means
arranging.

Is

a level of grammar that refers to the

arrangement of words and morphemes in
the construction of structures, such as:
phrases, clauses and sentences.

Descriptive syntax or
descriptive grammar

Prescriptive syntax or
prescriptive grammar

The combination of
smaller units in
sentences

The concept of
correctness and
incorrectness in
speaking and writing.

Types of Syntactic Structures

Sentence
(string of words:grammatically complete
with at least two components: a subject and
a predicate)

Constitudes
(combination of units)

Subject
(the topic of the
sentence)

Predicate
(a comment made
about the topic)

Types of Sentences and Clauses

Simple Sentence
(one subject and one
predicate)

The dog ran away

Compound Sentence
(the combination of
simple sentences )

The dog and the

cat ran away.

Dependent Clause

Independent Clause
(a simple sentence)

(can not stand alone as a simple sentence

A Complex sentence

A compound-complex (sentence

(sentence with a simple sentence

and one or more dependent clauses)

These are the people who

would be travelling with us

but must be attached to an independent

clause)

(with two or more independent clauses and

at least one dependent clause)

When the teacher assigned the reading for the

exam,many students were stunned, but they agreed
to study as well as they could.

Most common sentence types

Declarative (It makes
a statement)

HeHe
has
just
arrived.
just
arrived.

Interrogative (It asks a

question)

Has he just arrived?

Imperative (Expresses
a command or
request)

Andrew, come here.

Exclamatory (shows
strong or sudden
feeling)
Negative
Active and passive
voices

Oh, what a beautiful day!

He hasnt come yet.

He broke the window. The window was broken

by him.

Phrase

A phrase is any constituent of a clause.

Noun phrase (NP)

Adverb phrase
(AdvP)

Adjective phrase
(AP)
Prepositional phrases
(PP)

Verb phrase (VP)

NP+VP

Some examples for noun phrase:

Andrew

NP (N is proper noun here)

He

NP (Pronoun)

The dog

NP (with Determiner-article)

Six dogs

NP (with numeral)

The six dogs NP (Determiner.Numeral.Noum)

My dog

What dog

That dog

NP (with Determiner-possessive)
NP (with Determiner-interrogative)
NP (with determiner-demonstrative)

Verb phrase (tells something about the subject)

A tree diagram

Chomsky and Generative grammar

Many linguists attempted to produce a particular type of grammar that has a

very explicit system of rules would result in well formed sentences.

A set of explicit rules is called a generative grammar

A generative grammar defines the syntactic structure

It shows two kinds of phenomena:

How some superficially

different sentences are
closely related

How some superficially

similar sentences are in fact
different

Deep and surface structure

Maria broke the window.

The window was broken by Maria.

Superficially
different

Closely related by
meaning
Distinction between
them is about their
surface structure

Underlyning their basic

components and
interpretation are their
deep structure.

Ambiguity
Lexical ambiguity

The women appealed to

all men

Structural ambiguity

Part-of-speech
ambiguity

Maria owns large

dogs and cats

Andrew will forget

tomorrow
By tomorrow
Andrew will forget
something

Andrew will forget a

specific day (that is
here tomorrow)

Structural ambiguity

Recursion

Is used in order:
To generate a
sentence

To make a sense
in a sentence

The book is one the table.

The book is on the table near the window.

The book is on the table near the window in the bedroom.

Repeatable any
number of times