Transcript Chapter Four From Word to Text

Chapter Four
From Word to Text
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
Syntax 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.
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1. Syntactic relations

Syntactic relations can be analysed into
three kinds:
relations of position
 relations of substitutability
 relations of co-occurrence

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1.1 Relations of Position


For language to fulfill 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
Object
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
Positional relation, or WORD ORDER,
refers to the sequential arrangement of
words in a language.


If the words in a sentence 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,
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
The boy kicked the ball
*Boy the ball kicked the
 *The ball kicked the boy



The teacher saw the students
The students saw the teacher
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
Positional relations are a manifestation of
one aspect of Syntagmatic Relations
observed by F. de Saussure.

They are also called Horizontal Relations or
simply Chain Relations.
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
Word order is among the three basic ways
(word order, genetic and areal classifications)
to classify languages in the 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.

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1.2 Relation of Substitutability

The Relation of Substitutability refers to
classes or sets of words substitutable for each
other grammatically in sentences with the
same structure.

The ______ smiles.
man
boy
girl
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
It also refers to groups of more than one
word which may be jointly substitutable
grammatically for a single word of a
particular set.

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The
strong man
tallest boy
pretty girl
He went there
smiles.
yesterday.
last week.
the day before.
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
This is also called Associative
Relations by Saussure, and
Paradigmatic Relations by
Hjemslev.

To make it more understandable,
they are called Vertical Relations
or Choice Relations.
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1.3 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 adjective(s) and followed
by a verbal phrase.
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Relations of co-occurrence partly belong to
syntagmatic relations, partly to
paradigmatic relations.
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2. Grammatical construction and its
constituents
2.1 Grammatical Construction

Any syntactic string of words ranging from
sentences over phrasal structures to certain
complex lexemes.
an apple
 ate an apple
 Mary ate an apple

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2.2 Constituents and Phrase Structure

Constituent 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)

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Immediate Constituent Analysis
(IC Analysis)
The girl ate the apple
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Phrase Structure
Tree diagram
S
NP
Det
VP
N
V
NP
Det
N
The girl ate the apple
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Word-level
Phrasal
N=noun
A=adjective
V=verb
P=preposition
Det=determiner
Adv=adverb
Conj=conjunction
NP=noun phrase
AP=adjective phrase
VP=verb phrase
PP=preposition phrase
S=sentence or clause
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Bracketing

Bracketing 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))))
 [S[NP[Det The][N girl]][VP[V ate][NP[Det the][N apple]]]]

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2.3 Endocentric and Exocentric
Constructions

Endocentric construction is one whose
distribution is functionally equivalent to that
of 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.
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
Exocentric construction refers to a group 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 including
the basic sentence,
 the prepositional phrase,
 the predicate (verb + object) construction, and
 the connective (be + complement) construction.
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The 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. (After division, the
connective construction no longer exists.)
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2.4 Coordination and Subordination

Endocentric constructions fall into two main
types, depending on the relation between
constituents:
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Coordination

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
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.
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Coordination of NPs:
 [NP

Coordination of VPs:
 [VP

down the stairs] and [PP out the door ]
Coordination of APs:
 [AP

go to the library] and [VP read a book ]
Coordination of PPs:
 [PP

the lady] or [NP the tiger]
quite expensive] and [AP very beautiful]
Coordination of Ss:
 [S
John loves Mary] and [S Mary loves John too].
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Subordination

Subordination refers to the process or result
of linking linguistic units so that they have
different 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.
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two dogs
Head
(My brother) can drink (wine).
Head
Swimming in the lake (is fun).
Head
(The pepper was) hot beyond endurance.
Head
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Subordinate clauses

Clauses can be used as subordinate
constituents. There are three basic types of
subordinate clauses:
complement clauses
 adjunct (or adverbial) clauses
 relative clauses
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John believes [that the airplane was invented by an
Irishman]. (complement clause)
Elizabeth opened her presents [before John
finished his dinner]. (adverbial clause)
The woman [that I love] is moving to the south.
(relative clause)
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3. Syntactic 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.
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3.1 Subject

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In some languages, subject refers 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)
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In English, the subject 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.
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but is clearly wrong in the following
examples:
John was bitten by a dog.
 John underwent major heart surgery.
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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).
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Another traditional definition of the subject
is “what the sentence is about” (i.e., topic).
Again, this seems to work for many
sentences, such as


Bill is a very crafty fellow.
but fails in others, such as
(Jack is pretty reliable, but) Bill I don’t trust.
 As for Bill, I wouldn’t take his promises very
seriously.
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All three sentences seem to be “about” Bill;
thus we could say that Bill is the topic of all
three sentences.
The above sentences make it clear that the
topic is not always the grammatical subject.
What characteristics do subjects have?
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Word order

Subject ordinarily precedes the verb in the
statement:
Sally collects stamps.
 *Collects Sally stamps.
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Pro-forms

The first and third person pronouns in
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.

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Agreement with the verb
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In the simple present tense, an -s is added to
the verb when a third person subject 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.
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Content questions

If the subject is replaced by a
question word (who or what), the
rest of the sentence remains
unchanged, as in
John stole the Queen’s picture from
the British Council.
 Who stole the Queen’s picture from
the British council?

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When any other element of the sentence is
replaced by a question word, an auxiliary verb
must appear before the subject.
What would John steal, if he
had the chance?
 What did John steal from the
British Council?
 Where did John steal the
Queen’s picture from?
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Tag question

A 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, doesn’t he?
 Mary loves John, doesn’t she?
 *John loves Mary, doesn’t she?

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3.2 Predicate
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
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 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.
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3.3 Object

Object is also a term hard to define. Since,
traditionally, subject can be defined as the
doer of the action, 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

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In some inflecting languages, object is
marked by case labels: the accusative case
for direct object, and the 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.

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Modern linguists suggest that object refers
to such an item that it can become subject in
a passive transformation.
John broke the glass.  The glass was broken
by John.
 Peter saw Jane.  Jane was seen by Peter.
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Although 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 lasted three hours.
 He changed trains at Manchester. (*Trains were
changed by him at Manchester.)

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4. 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, voice

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4.1 Number

Number 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 and
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.
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
In other languages, for example, French, the
manifestation of number can also be found
in adjectives and articles.
le cheval royal (the royal horse)
 les chevaux royaux (the royal horses)

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4.2 Gender

Such contrasts as “masculine : feminine :
neuter”, “animate : inanimate”, etc. for 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.

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
English gender contrast can only be
observed in pronouns and a small number
of nouns, and, they are mainly of the
natural gender type.
he: she: it
 prince: princess
 author: authoress
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
In 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 belle.
(The house is beautiful.)
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
Sometimes 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)

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4.3 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 “accusative”, “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.

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
In English, case is a special form of the
noun which frequently corresponds to a
combination of preposition and noun, and it
is realized in three channels:
inflection
 following a preposition
 word order


as manifested in
teacher : teacher’s
 with : to a man
 John kicked Peter : Peter kicked John

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4.4 Agreement

Agreement (or concord) may be defined as
the requirement that the forms of two or
more words of specific word classes that
stand in specific syntactic relationship with
one another shall also, be characterized by
the same paradigmatically marked category
(or categories).
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
This syntactic relationship may be
anaphoric, as when a pronoun agrees with
its antecedent,


Whose is this pen? --Oh, it’s the one 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.
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
Agreement of number between nouns and
verbs:
This man runs.
 These men run.

The bird flies.
These birds fly.
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5. Phrase, Clause and Sentence
Sentence
Clause
Phrase
Word
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




the three tallest girls
(nominal phrase)
has been doing
(verbal phrase)
extremely difficult
(adjectival phrase)
to the door
(prepositional phrase)
very fast
(adverbial phrase)
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Clause
Finite
Non-finite
Subject
Object
Infinitive
Adverbial
Relative
Participial
Appositional
Complement
Gerundial
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
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The best thing would be to leave early.
It’s 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.
It’s no use crying over spilt milk.
Do you mind my opening the window?
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Sentence: traditional approach
simple
Sentence
complex
non-simple
compound
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Sentence: functional approach
Yes/no
Interrogative
Indicative
whDeclarative
Sentence
Jussive
Imperative
Optative
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Basic sentence types: Bolinger





Mother fell. (Nominal + intransitive verbal)
Mother is young. (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)
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Basic sentence types: Quirk







SVC
Mary is kind.
a nurse.
SVA Mary is here.
in the house.
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.
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6. Recursiveness

Recursiveness mainly means that a phrasal
constituent can be embedded within another
constituent having the same category, 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?

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

Theoretically, there is no limit to the
embedding of one relative 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 appliances
that were new …
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







John’s sister
John’s sister’s husband
John’s sister’s husband’s uncle
John’s sister’s husband’s uncle’s daughter, etc.
that house in Beijing
the garden of that house in Beijing
the tree in the garden of that house in Beijing
a bird on the tree in the garden of that house in
Beijing
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6.1 Conjoining


Conjoining: coordination.
Conjunctions: and, but, and or.
John bought a hat and his wife
bought a handbag.
 Give me liberty or give me
death.

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6.2 Embedding



Embedding: subordination.
Main clauses and subordinate clauses.
Three basic types of subordinate clauses:
Relative clause: I saw the man who had visited
you last year.
 Complement clause: I don’t know whether
Professor Li needs this book.
 Adverbial clause: If you listened to me, you
wouldn't make mistakes.

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7. Text and discourse


The development of modern linguistic
science has helped push the study of syntax
beyond the traditional sentence boundary.
Linguists are now exploring the syntactic
relation between sentences in a paragraph or
chapter or the whole text, which leads to the
emergence of text linguistics and discourse
analysis.
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7.1 Sentential Connection

Hypotactic (subordinate clauses):
You can phone the doctor if you like. However,
I very much doubt whether he is in.
 We live near the sea. So we enjoy a healthy
climate.


Paratactic (coordinate clauses):
In Guangzhou it is hot and humid during the
summer. In Beijing it is hot and dry.
 He dictated the letter. She wrote it.
 The door was open. He walked in.

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7.2 Cohesion and cohesiveness


Cohesion is a concept to do with discourse or text
rather than with syntax. It refers to relations of
meaning that exist within the text, and defines it as
a text.
Cohesiveness can be realized by employing various
cohesive devices:
 conjunction
 ellipsis
 lexical collocation
 lexical repetition
 reference
 substitution, etc.
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




“Did she get there at six?”
“No, (she got there) earlier (than six).” (Ellipsis)
“Shall we invite Bill?”
“No. 1 can’t stand the man.” (Lexical collocation)
He couldn’t open the door. It was locked tight.
(Reference)
“Why don’t you use your own recorder?”
“I don't have one.” (Substitution)
I wanted to help him. Unfortunately it was too late.
(Logical connection)
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