Syntax The analysis of sentence structure Syntax in

Syntax The analysis of sentence structure

Syntax in Linguistic Tree Linguistics Sounds of language Phonetics Syntax Dr Alok K Das Phonology Grammar Morphology Syntax 2 Meaning Semantics Pragmatics

Why syntax? o It’s part of Linguistics o It’s part of the grammar of every language o And the grammar of a language is part of a native speaker’s linguistic knowledge Syntax Dr Alok K Das 3

Universal grammar o Theory of Chomsky o UG has Principles, true of all languages n All languages have the same underlying structure o e. g. all languages have nouns and verbs Syntax Dr Alok K Das 4

All languages have constituents o Take a simple sentence n Johnny danced o We can call the sentence S, and label the syntactic categories N and V S Syntax Dr Alok K Das N V Johnny danced 5

What are the NP and VP? The frog ate the lizard. The frog sat on the lilypad. The fat frog ate the long lizard slowly. The fat frog with a lizard in its mouth sat on the lilypad. o The fat frog who was sitting on the lilypad with a lizard in its mouth danced the lambada. o o Syntax Dr Alok K Das 6

Syntactic Categories Lexical categories o Noun (N) o Verb (V) o Adjective (A) o Preposition (P) o Adverb (Adv) Examples o moisture, policy o melt, remain o good, intelligent o to, near o slowly, now Syntax Dr Alok K Das 7

Syntactic Categories Non-lexical categories u Determiner (Det) u Degree word (Deg) u Qualifier (Qual) u Auxiliary (Aux) u Conjunction (Con) Examples u the, this u very, more u always, perhaps u will, can u and, or Syntax Dr Alok K Das 8

Phrases o NP : Noun Phrase The car, a clever student o VP : Verb Phrase study hard, play the guitar o PP : Prepositional Phrase in the class, above the earth o AP : Adjective Phrase very tall, quite certain Syntax Dr Alok K Das 9

Phrase Structure Rules o NP (Det) N (PP) o PP P NP The bus in the yard NP The bus (NP) Det N The bus Det N PP P The Syntax Dr Alok K Das bus in NP Det N the yard 10

Phrase Structure Rules o VP V (NP) (PP) o S NP (Aux) VP took the money from the bank VP took the money (VP) V NP Det took the V N NP Det PP N P money took Syntax Dr Alok K Das the money from NP Det N the bank 11

Draw the tree diagram. 1. repaired the telephone 2. the success of the program 3. a film about pollution 4. move towards the window 5. cast a spell on the broomstick Syntax Dr Alok K Das 12

Example The old tree swayed in the wind S Aux NP Det Adj N VP V PP P The old tree past swayed Syntax Dr Alok K Das in NP Det N the wind 13

Example The children put the toy in the box S NP Det VP N V NP Det The children put the Syntax Dr Alok K Das PP N toy P in NP Det N the box 14

Draw two phrase structure trees representing the two meanings of the sentence: The magician touched the child with the wand. Be sure you indicate which meaning goes with which tree. Syntax Dr Alok K Das 15

Draw the deep structure of the following sentences 1. Will the boss hire Hillary? 2. Is that player leaving the team? 3. Who should the director call? 4. What is Joanne eating? Syntax Dr Alok K Das 16