Syntax by George Yule
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This document provides an overview of syntax and generative grammar. It defines syntax as the study of how words are arranged to show meaning within and between sentences. Grammar is defined as the art of writing, but is now used to study language. Generative grammar uses formal rules to generate an infinite number of grammatical sentences in a language. Deep structure refers to the underlying meaning and surface structure refers to the observable form. Tree diagrams are used to visually represent syntactic structures. Movement rules are needed to account for transformations between deep and surface structures. Recursion allows sentences to be embedded within other sentences.
![Recursion
Examples:
• a. ab
• b. aabb
• c. aaabbb
• a. The man [who the girl saw is my friend
• b. The man [who the girl [who sneezed] saw] is my
friend.
• c. The man [who the girl [who Peter [who knows] met]
saw] is my friend.](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/syntaxassignment-140226101151-phpapp01/85/Syntax-by-George-Yule-22-320.jpg)
Syntax by George Yule
- 1. In the name of Allah, the most Beneficent, the most Merciful.
- 2. Presented by: Group 7 Presented to : Sir Irfan Abbas
- 3. Contents • What is syntax? • What is Grammar and its types? • What is Generative Grammar? • Deep and Surface Structure • Structural Ambiguity • Tree Diagram • Symbols used in Syntactic Analysis • Phrase structural rules • Lexical rules • Movement rules • Complement phrase • Recursion
- 4. What is Syntax? The word „syntax‟ has been derived from the Greek word syntaxis which means „arrangement‟. It implies the way in which words are arranged so as to reveal relationships of meanings within sentences and often between them. It studies combinations of words including word-structure and sentence-structure.
- 5. What is Grammar? Grammar is a word that confuses considerably. It has been approached and defined differently by different scholars and schools of linguistics. Etymologically, the term Grammar goes back (through French & Latin) to Greek word Grammatika or Grammatkia which may be translated as the art of „writing‟. But for a long time, this term has been used very closely to incorporate the whole study of language.
- 6. Types of Grammar Prominent types of grammar are discussed below: • Traditional Grammar • Prescriptive Grammar • Descriptive Grammar • Sentence-Interpretative Grammar • Sentence-Producing Grammar • Reference Grammar • Contrastive Grammar • Theoretical Grammar • Structural Grammar • Phrase-Structure Grammar • Generative Grammar • Transformational Grammar • Stratificational Grammar • Communicative Grammar
- 7. Generative Grammar Generative Grammar is a grammar in which a set of formal rules are used to generate or define the membership of an infinite set of grammatical sentences in a language. Instead of analyzing a single sentence, this grammar devises a set of rules of construction that may help in generating sentences or structures in an infinitely large number. This grammar attempts to produce all and only grammatical sentences of language. (all and only means that our analysis must account for all the grammatical correct phrases and sentences and only those grammatical correct phrases and sentences in whatever language we are analyzing.) We have a rule such as “a prepositional phrase in English consists of a preposition followed by a noun phrase”. We can produce a large number of (infinite) phrase using this rule. e.g. in the zoo, on the table, near the window
- 8. Deep and Surface Structure • Charlie broke the window. (Active Voice) • The window was broken by Charlie. (Passive Voice) • Jack loves his brother. (Active Voice) • His brother is loved by Jack. (Passive Voice) Some linguists, in particular Noam Chomsky, have tried to account for this similarity by positing that these two sentences are distinct (different) surface forms that derive from a common deep structure.
- 9. Deep and Surface Structure • Charlie broke the window. (Active Voice) • The window was broken by Charlie. (Passive Voice) • Jack loves his brother. (Active Voice) • His brother is loved by Jack. (Passive Voice) The distinction between them is a difference in their surface structure. They have different syntactic forms of individual sentence. This superficial difference is called surface structure.
- 10. Deep and Surface Structure The sentences can have deep structure like this: • It was Charlie who broke the window. • Was the window broken by Charlie? • It is Jack loves his brother. And so on… An abstract level of structural organization in which all the elements determining structural interpretation are represented is called deep structure. OR The underlying level where the basic components can be represented is called their deep structure.
- 11. Structural Ambiguity • Annie bumped into a man with an umbrella. • Small boys and girls are playing hide and seek. Explanation can show in the first sentence two ideas: i. Annie had an umbrella and she bumped into a man. ii. Annie bumped into a man when he happened to be carrying an umbrella. Explanation can show in the first sentence two ideas: i. Small boys are playing with young girls. ii. Small boys and all girls are playing. Distinct underlying interpretations that have to be represented differently in deep structure is called Structural Ambiguity.
- 12. Tree Diagram • A tree diagram is a way of representing the hierarchical nature of a structure in a graphical form. It is named a "tree diagram” because the classic representation resembles a tree, even though the chart is generally upside down compared to an actual tree, with the "root" at the top and the "leaves" at the bottom. • Tree diagram provides us visual representation of the constituents of the corresponding expression.
- 13. Tree Diagram • E.g. A child can kick a football. S NP Art Aux VP V N NP Art A child can kick a N football
- 14. Tree Diagram • E.g. A child can kick a football. TP DP D T' N T VP V NP V The child can kick a N football
- 15. Symbols used in Tree Diagram • S - Sentence • Pro-Pronoun • NP- Noun Phrase • PP-Prepositional Phrase • PN- Proper Noun • * Ungrammatical Sentence • N-Noun • • VP-Verb Phrase • ( ) Optional Constituent • Adv-Adverb • V-Verb • Adj-Adjective • Prep-Preposition • Art-Article Consists of / rewrites as • { } Only one of these constituents must be selected
- 16. Phrase Structure Rules Phrase structure rules generate structures. • TP/S • NP VP • NP • {Art (Adj+) N, Pro, PN} • VP • V NP (PP) (Adv) • PP • P NP Tree Diagrams S NP NP VP Art PP VP N V NP P NP
- 17. Lexical Rules As we know, phrase structure rules generate structures. To turn those structures into recognizable English, we also need lexical rules that specify which words can be used when we rewrite constituents such as N. • PN • { Mary, George } • N • { Girl, Dog, Boy } • Pro • { It, you, he } • Art • { A, An, the } • V • { Help, run, play } We can rely on these rules to generate the grammatical sentences but not ungrammatical sentences.
- 18. Movement rules It is easy to represent Declarative forms in tree diagrams. e.g. You will help Mary. S NP Aux VP V Pro You NP Aux VP S will help NP Mary
- 19. Movement rules It is easy to represent Declarative forms in tree diagrams. e.g. You will help Mary. BUT HOW CAN YOU REPRESENT THIS ONE? Will you help Mary?
- 20. Movement rules Simply Will you help Mary? S Aux NP VP Pro Will Aux NP VP S V you help NP Mary
- 21. Movement rules You will help Mary. Will you help Mary? S NP Aux V Pro You S VP will help S NP Aux NP Mary NP Aux VP VP Pro you Will S V help Aux NP VP NP Mary
- 22. Recursion Examples: • a. ab • b. aabb • c. aaabbb • a. The man [who the girl saw is my friend • b. The man [who the girl [who sneezed] saw] is my friend. • c. The man [who the girl [who Peter [who knows] met] saw] is my friend.
- 23. Recursion The rules of grammar will also need the crucial property of recursion. In this, we can put sentences inside other sentences and these sentences can be generated inside another sentences. Notice these: • Mary helped George. • Cathy knew that Mary helped George. • John believed that Cathy knew that Mary helped George.
- 24. Complement Phrase • Mary helped George. • Cathy knew that Mary helped George. • John believed that Cathy knew that Mary helped George. Traditionally, such sentences are called clauses (that-clause) In the above examples, that is called complementizer (C). We can say that sentences with that are Complement Phrase (CP). Complement Phrase Rule S NP VP VP V CP CP C S
- 25. Complement Phrase S John believed that Cathy knew that Mary helped George. VP NP CP V C S NP VP CP V C S NP PN PN PN John believed that Cathy knew that Mary helped VP V NP PN George.
- 26. Query Session
- 27. Thanks
- 28. Bibliography •http://www.personal.unijena.de/~x4diho/FORM.Generative%20grammar%20theory .pdf •https://linguistics.stonybrook.edu/files/undergrad_theses/ mcadams.pdf •http://linguistics.arizona.edu/sites/linguistics.arizona.edu/fi les/3.Carnie%20Chapter1%20Introduction.pdf •http://dingo.sbs.arizona.edu/~massimo/publications/PDF/ MPPCecchetto1.pdf •http://philosophy.fas.nyu.edu/docs/IO/1176/SchifferMeani ngAndFormalSemantics.pdf •http://lohndal.com/wp-content/uploads/lasniklohndal.pdf •http://wac.colostate.edu/jbw/v6n2/noguchi.pdf •http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generative_grammar •http://lingo.stanford.edu/sag/papers/harman63.pdf •The Study of Language by George Yule •Some aspects of Linguistics by Famous Products •An Intrduction to Linguistics by V.S.Parsad •An Intoductory Text Book for Linguistics by Famous Products •Language on Target by NKM •An Easy Approach to Linguistics by NKM •A Handbook of Linguistics by Famous Products