1、Chapter FourFrom Word to Text1Syntax is the study of the rules governing the ways different constituents are combined to form sentences in a language, or the study of the interrelationships between elements in sentence structures.2What are the three basic syntactic relations?3Syntactic relations can

2、 be analysed into three kinds:relations of positionrelations of substitutabilityrelations of co-occurrence1. Syntactic relations syntactic relations4What is positional relation?What are the other names for it?What happens if the word order is changed?51.1 Relations of PositionFor language to fulfill

3、 its communicative function, it must have a way to mark the grammatical roles of the various phrases that can occur in a clause. The boy kicked the ball NP1 NP2 Subject Object6Positional relation, or WORD ORDER, refers to the sequential arrangement of words in a language. If the words in a sentence

4、fail to occur in a fixed order required by the convention of a language, one tends to produce an utterance either ungrammatical or nonsensical at all. For example,7The boy kicked the ball*Boy the ball kicked the*The ball kicked the boyThe teacher saw the studentsThe students saw the teacher8Position

5、al relations are a manifestation of one aspect of Syntagmatic Relations (組合關系)observed by F. de Saussure. They are also called Horizontal Relations or simply Chain Relations. 9Word order is among the three basic ways (word order, genetic and areal來自一個地區的 classifications) to classify languages in the

6、 world: SVO, VSO, SOV, OVS, OSV, and VOS. English belongs to SVO type, though this does not mean that SVO is the only possible word order. 10What is relations of substitutability? What are the other names?111.2 Relation of Substitutability The Relation of Substitutability refers to classes or sets o

7、f words substitutable for each other grammatically in sentences with the same structure. The_ smiles. man boy girl12It also refers to groups of more than one word which may be jointly substitutable grammatically for a single word of a particular set.strong manThe tallest boy smiles.pretty girl yeste

8、rday.He went therelast week. the day before.13This is also called Associative Relations by Saussure, and Paradigmatic聚合 Relations by Hjemslev. To make it more understandable, they are called Vertical Relations or Choice Relations. 14What is the relation of co-occurrence? Is the relation syntagmatic

9、or paradigmatic?151.3 Relation of Co-occurrence It means that words of different sets of clauses may permit, or require, the occurrence of a word of another set or class to form a sentence or a particular part of a sentence. For instance, a nominal phrase can be preceded by a determiner and adjectiv

10、e(s) and followed by a verbal phrase. 16Relations of co-occurrence partly belong to syntagmatic relations, partly to paradigmatic relations. 172. Grammatical construction and its constituents 2.1 Grammatical Construction Any syntactic string of words ranging from sentences over phrasal structures to

11、 certain complex lexemes.an appleate an appleMary ate an apple182.2 Constituents and Phrase StructureConstituent is a part of a larger linguistic unit. Several constituents together form a construction: the girl (NP)ate the apple (VP)the girl ate the apple (S)19Immediate Constituent直接成分 Analysis(IC

12、Analysis)The girl ate the apple20Phrase StructureTree diagram S NP VPDet N V NP Det NThe girl ate the apple21Word-levelPhrasalN=nounA=adjectiveV=verbP=prepositionDet=determinerAdv=adverbConj=conjunctionNP=noun phraseAP=adjective phraseVP=verb phrasePP=preposition phraseS=sentence or clause22Bracketi

13、ngBracketing is not as common in use, but it is an economic notation in representing the constituent/phrase structure of a grammatical unit. (The) (girl)(ate)(the) (apple)SNPDet TheN girlVPV ateNPDet theN apple23PractiseUse the tree diagram to analyse the following sentences:The boy was crying. He b

14、ought an old car with his first pay cheque.24Whats the difference between endocentric and exocentric constructions?What are their respective syntactic constructions?252.3 Endocentric and Exocentric Constructions Endocentric construction is one whose distribution is functionally equivalent to that of

15、 one or more of its constituents, i.e., a word or a group of words, which serves as a definable centre or head.Usually noun phrases, verb phrases and adjective phrases belong to endocentric types because the constituent items are subordinate to the Head. 2627Exocentric construction refers to a group

16、 of syntactically related words where none of the words is functionally equivalent to the group as a whole, that is, there is no definable “Centre” or “Head” inside the group, usually includingthe basic sentence, the prepositional phrase, the predicate (verb + object) construction, and the connectiv

17、e (be + complement) construction.28The boy smiled. (Neither constituent can substitute for the sentence structure as a whole.)He hid behind the door. (Neither constituent can function as an adverbial.)He kicked the ball. (Neither constituent stands for the verb-object sequence.)John seemed angry. (A

18、fter division, the connective construction no longer exists.)29two main types of endocentric constructionsWhat are the characteristics of coordinations? What are the characteristics of subordinations?What are their respective places in recursiveness of languages?302.4 Coordination and Subordination

19、Endocentric constructions fall into two main types, depending on the relation between constituents: Coordination31Coordination Coordination is a common syntactic pattern in English and other languages formed by grouping together two or more categories of the same type with the help of a conjunction

20、such as and, but and or . These two or more words or phrases or clauses have equivalent syntactic status, each of the separate constituents can stand for the original construction functionally. 32Coordination of NPs:NP the lady or NP the tigerCoordination of VPs:VP go to the library and VP read a bo

21、ok Coordination of PPs: PP down the stairs and PP out the door Coordination of APs: AP quite expensive and AP very beautifulCoordination of Ss:S John loves Mary and S Mary loves John too.33Subordination Subordination refers to the process or result of linking linguistic units so that they have diffe

22、rent syntactic status, one being dependent upon the other, and usually a constituent of the other. The subordinate constituents are words which modify the head. Consequently, they can be called modifiers. 34two dogs Head(My brother) can drink (wine). HeadSwimming in the lake (is fun). Head(The peppe

23、r was) hot beyond endurance. Head35Subordinate clausesClauses can be used as subordinate constituents. There are three basic types of subordinate clauses: complement clausesadjunct (or adverbial) clausesrelative clauses36John believes that the airplane was invented by an Irishman. (complement clause

24、)Elizabeth opened her presents before John finished his dinner. (adverbial clause)The woman that I love is moving to the south. (relative clause) subordinate clause37What are the basic functional terms in syntax? What is a subject?What is a predicate? What is a predicator?What is an object?383. Synt

25、actic Function The syntactic function shows the relationship between a linguistic form and other parts of the linguistic pattern in which it is used.Names of functions are expressed in terms of subjects, objects, predicators, modifiers, complements, etc. 393.1 Subject In some languages, subject refe

26、rs to one of the nouns in the nominative case. The typical example can be found in Latin, where subject is always in nominative case, such as pater and filius in the following examples.pater filium amat (the father loves the son)patrum filius amat (the son loves the father) 40In English, the subject

27、 of a sentence is often said to be the agent, or the doer of the action, while the object is the person or thing acted upon by the agent. This definition seems to work for these sentences:Mary slapped John. A dog bit Bill. 41but is clearly wrong in the following examples:John was bitten by a dog. Jo

28、hn underwent major heart surgery. In order to account for the case of subject in passive voice, we have two other terms “grammatical subject” (John) and “logical subject” (a dog). 42Another traditional definition of the subject is “what the sentence is about” (i.e., topic). Again, this seems to work

29、 for many sentences, such asBill is a very crafty fellow. but fails in others, such as(Jack is pretty reliable, but) Bill I dont trust. As for Bill, I wouldnt take his promises very seriously. 43All three sentences seem to be “about” Bill; thus we could say that Bill is the topic of all three senten

30、ces. The above sentences make it clear that the topic is not always the grammatical subject. What characteristics do subjects have?subject44Word orderSubject ordinarily precedes the verb in the statement: Sally collects stamps.*Collects Sally stamps.45Pro-formsThe first and third person pronouns in

31、English appear in a special form when the pronoun is a subject, which is not used when the pronoun occurs in other positions:He loves me. I love him.We threw stones at them.They threw stones at us. 46Agreement with the verbIn the simple present tense, an -s is added to the verb when a third person s

32、ubject is singular, but the number and person of the object or any other element in the sentence have no effect at all on the form of the verb: She angers him. They anger him. She angers them. 47Content questionsIf the subject is replaced by a question word (who or what), the rest of the sentence re

33、mains unchanged, as inJohn stole the Queens picture from the British Council.Who stole the Queens picture from the British council? 48What would John steal, if he had the chance?What did John steal from the British Council?Where did John steal the Queens picture from?When any other element of the se

34、ntence is replaced by a question word, an auxiliary verb must appear before the subject. 49Tag questionA tag question is used to seek confirmation of a statement. It always contains a pronoun which refers back to the subject, and never to any other element in the sentence. John loves Mary, doesnt he

35、?Mary loves John, doesnt she?*John loves Mary, doesnt she?503.2 Predicate Predicate refers to a major constituent of sentence structure in a binary analysis in which all obligatory constituents other than the subject were considered together. It usually expresses actions, processes, and states that

36、refer to the subject.The boy is running. (process)Peter broke the glass. (action)Jane must be mad! (state)The word predicator is suggested for verb or verbs included in a predicate.513.3 Object Object is also a term hard to define. Since, traditionally, subject can be defined as the doer of the acti

37、on, object may refer to the “receiver” or “goal” of an action, and it is further classified into Direct Object and Indirect Object.Mother bought a doll.Mother gave my sister a doll. IO DO 52In some inflecting languages, object is marked by case labels: the accusative case for direct object, and the

38、dative case for indirect object.In English, “object” is recognized by tracing its relation to word order (after the verb and preposition) and by inflections (of pronouns).Mother gave a doll to my sister.John kicked me.53Modern linguists suggest that object refers to such an item that it can become s

39、ubject in a passive transformation.John broke the glass. The glass was broken by John.Peter saw Jane. Jane was seen by Peter.object54Although there are nominal phrases in the following, they are by no means objects because they cannot be transformed into passive voice.He died last week.The match las

40、ted three hours.He changed trains at Manchester. (*Trains were changed by him at Manchester.)554. Category The term category refers to the defining properties of these general units: Categories of the noun: number, gender, case and countability Categories of the verb: tense, aspect, voice564.4.1 Num

41、berWhat are the contrasts in number?What constructs can reflect number?574.1 NumberNumber is a grammatical category used for the analysis of word classes displaying such contrasts as singular, dual, plural, etc. In English, number is mainly observed in nouns, and there are only two forms: singular a

42、nd plural, such as dog: dogs. Number is also reflected in the inflections of pronouns and verbs, such as He laughs: They laugh, this man: these men.58In other languages, for example, French, the manifestation of number can also be found in adjectives and articles.le cheval royal (the royal horse) le

43、s chevaux royaux (the royal horses)594.4.2 GenderGender: natural gender & grammatical genderIs there a natrual correlation between natural gender and grammatical gender?What constructs can manifest gender?604.2 GenderSuch contrasts as “masculine : feminine : neuter”, “animate : inanimate”, etc. for

44、the analysis of word classes. Though there is a correlation between natural gender and grammatical gender, the assignment may seem quite arbitrary in many cases. For instance, in Latin, ignis fire is masculine, while flamma flame is feminine. 61English gender contrast can only be observed in pronoun

45、s and a small number of nouns, and, they are mainly of the natural gender type.he: she: it prince: princess author: authoress62In French, gender is manifested also both in adjectives and articles. beau cadeau (fine gift) belle maison (fine house)Le cadeau est beau. (The gift is good.)La maison est b

46、elle. (The house is beautiful.)63Sometimes gender changes the lexical meaning as well, for example, in French:le poele (the stove)la poele (the frying pan)le pendule (the pendulum) la pendule (the clock)644.4.3 CaseCase: used to indentify the syntactic relationship between words in a sentence.What a

47、re the cases concerned with English nouns?654.3 Case The case category is used in the analysis of word classes to identify the syntactic relationship between words in a sentence.In Latin grammar, cases are based on variations in the morphological forms of the word, and are given the terms “accusativ

48、e”, “nominative”, “dative”, etc. There are five cases in ancient Greek and eight in Sanskrit. Finnish has as many as fifteen formally distinct cases in nouns, each with its own syntactic function.66In English, case is a special form of the noun which frequently corresponds to a combination of prepos

49、ition and noun, and it is realized in three channels: inflectionfollowing a prepositionword orderas manifested inteacher : teacherswith : to a manJohn kicked Peter : Peter kicked John674.4 AgreementAgreement (or concord) may be defined as the requirement that the forms of two or more words of specif

50、ic word classes that stand in specific syntactic relationship with one another shall also, be characterized by the same paradigmatically marked category (or categories). 68This syntactic relationship may be anaphoric, as when a pronoun agrees with its antecedent, Whose is this pen? -Oh, its the one

51、I lost.or it may involve a relation between a head and its dependent, as when a verb agrees with its subject and object:Each person may have one coin. 69Agreement of number between nouns and verbs:This man runs. The bird flies.These men run. These birds fly.704.5.1 PhrasePrase is a single element of

52、 structure containing more than one word, and lacking the subject-predicate structure typical of clauses.What are the basic types of phrases in English?Whats the difference between phrase and word group?Can the examples in Ex 4-36 be called word groups?71SentenceClausePhraseWord5. Phrase, Clause and

53、 Sentence 72the three tallest girls (nominal phrase)has been doing (verbal phrase) extremely difficult(adjectival phrase) to the door (prepositional phrase) very fast (adverbial phrase)phrase73ClauseFiniteNon-finiteInfinitive Participial Gerundial Subject ObjectAdverbialRelativeAppositionalComplemen

54、t74The best thing would be to leave early.Its great for a man to be free.Having finished their task, they came to help us.John being away, Bill had to do the work.Filled with shame, he left the house.All our savings gone, we started looking for jobs.Its no use crying over spilt milk. Do you mind my

55、opening the window?75Sentence: traditional approachsimple Sentence complexnon-simple compound76Sentence: functional approach Yes/no Interrogative Indicative wh- DeclarativeSentence Jussive Imperative Optative 77Basic sentence types: BolingerMother fell. (Nominal + intransitive verbal)Mother is young

56、. (Nominal + copula + complement)Mother loves Dad. (Nominal + transitive verbal + nominal).Mother fed Dad breakfast. (Nominal + transitive verbal + nominal + nominal) There is time. (There + existential + nominal) 78Basic sentence types: QuirkSVC Mary is kind. a nurse.SVA Mary is here. in the house.

57、SV The child is laughing.SVO Somebody caught the ball. SVOC We have proved him wrong. a fool.SVOA I put the plate on the table. SVOO She gives me expensive presents. 796. Recursiveness Recursiveness mainly means that a phrasal constituent can be embedded within another constituent having the same ca

58、tegory, but it has become an umbrella term such important linguistic phenomena as coordination and subordination, conjoining and embedding, hypotactic and paratactic. All these are means to extend sentences. How long can a sentence be? 80Theoretically, there is no limit to the embedding of one relat

59、ive clause into another relative clause, so long as it does not become an obstacle to successful communication. The same holds true for nominal clauses and adverbial clauses. I met a man who had a son whose wife sold cookies that she had baked in her kitchen that was fully equipped with electrical a

60、ppliances that were new 81Johns sister Johns sisters husbandJohns sisters husbands uncle Johns sisters husbands uncles daughter, etc. that house in Beijingthe garden of that house in Beijingthe tree in the garden of that house in Beijinga bird on the tree in the garden of that house in Beijing826.1