Transcript Introduction to Syntax Level 1 Course

Introduction to English Syntax
Level 1 Course
Ron Kuzar
Department of English Language and Literature
University of Haifa
Chapter 3
Major Sentence Patterns:
The Verbal Sentence
Major Sentence Patterns:
General Introduction
• In the following 5 chapters we will familiarize
ourselves with the following sentence patterns:
– The verbal sentence.
– The copular sentence. (3 sub-patterns)
– The existential sentence.
– The extraposition sentence (2 sub-patterns).
– The locative inversion sentence.
• Sentence Patterns are constructions.
Terminological Note
• Sentence Pattern
• Also:
– Sentence type
– Sentential construction
– Clause type
– Clausal construction
– Sentence model
A construction is
• (a) a complex linguistic form that is noncompositional (it is not just the sum total of its
components).
• (b) It has its own form and function (meaning).
• (c) It is not a product of derivation from
another construction.
• Sentence patterns are (a) complex noncompositional linguistic forms that (b) have
their own form and meaning, and (c) are not
derivable from one another.
• Hence, sentence patterns are constructions.
Terminological Note
• Derivation (in this context) means that
sentences have a “history” or a “biography”,
i.e. they start out as in one form and then
become something else.
• For example: an interrogative sentence
starts out as a declarative sentence:
– Linda is happy
• And then it “becomes” an interrogative
sentence, through subject-auxiliary inversion:
– Is Linda happy
Terminological Note (continued)
• To say that a construction (in our case a
sentence pattern) is not a product of
derivation from another construction
amounts to saying, for example, that an
existential sentence:
– There are spots on the wall
• Is not “derived” from the verbal sentence
– Spots are on the wall.
• They represent two unrelated constructions.
Terminological Note
• Some terms (extraposition, inversion) to
be used in the upcoming discussion may
suggest derivation. These terms have
become accepted labels, so we use them,
even though they represent a derivational
linguistic philosophy towards sentence
patterns.
Representation of
Sentence Patterns
• Sentence Patterns will be represented by the
maximal number and type of slots determined
by the valency of predicates participating in
that pattern.
The Verbal Sentence Pattern
• In the V sentence, the V is the predicate.
• The valency of the verb may have up to 3
arguments, hence its maximal pattern will look
like this:
NP
(M) [VP V
NP
NP/PP]
Subj.
Mod
+Aux
Pred.
Dir. Obj.
Ind. Obj.
Obl. Obj.
Dir. Obj.
– Remember: adjuncts may be added as well.
Examples of V Sentences
NP
VC (=M+V)
It
John
The storm
Jack
The water
Mary
Italy
Linda
Beth
Robert
was snowing.
fell.
has subsided.
may be talking
has separated
should find
borders
gave
offered
has been forcing
NP
NP/PP
to Sam.
from the oil.
Her keys.
France.
George
a hug.
a job
to Jeff.
the screw into the hole.
Terminological Note
• The term V sentence refers to sentences
whose predicate is a lexical verb.
• Grammatical verbs are not predicates.
Hence:
– Mary is a teacher.
– Yohn is tired.
• Are not V sentences.
• Note However:
• The V have is both lexical and grammatical.
The possessive use is lexical:
– Linda has a dog.
Unmarked Word Order
• Here and elsewhere in the presentation of
Patterns, the sentence formula is arranged in
the unmarked word order.
• If we look at all the word order alternations of
a sentence as a set of options (=a category),
one of the members of this set is unmarked.
• Unmarked word order is the word order
which is most widely used, and which
contains no special function or emphasis.
• Marked word order serves to emphasize
something or to achieve a special effect.
Terminological Note
• A set of options is called a category.
• A category has members (also called: terms).
• For example:
– frog/frogs = a binary category of number (sg./pl.)
– I/you/he/she/it/we/they = a multiple category of
personal pronouns.
• Some categories (not all!) have a member
which is unmarked.
• The unmarked member is often more widely
used than the others and has the broadest
function, with no special effect or emphasis.
Unmarked vs. Marked Word Order
• Direct Object Fronting:
Unmarked: Mary found her keys.
Marked: Her keys Mary found, [but her wallet she must have lost].
• Direct Object Fronting (in a double object construction):
Unmarked: She gave me a lousy book.
Marked: A lousy book she gave me! [Can you believe it?].
• Oblique Object Fronting:
Unmarked: You can rely on me.
Marked: On me you can rely. [It is John who is unreliable].
• In each pair, the unmarked member is more broadly
usable, while the use of the marked member creates
a special effect.
Another Word Order Alternation
• Another marked word order alternation is the
interrogative (vs. unmarked declarative) form, used
for expressing questions or astonishment :
Unmarked: They fooled you.
Marked: Did they fool you?
Marked: Wow! Did they ever fool you!
• Note however that the word order of the
predicate and the arguments has NOT
changed here.
They fooled you / Did they fool you
= A fool B = SVO
The V Sentence:
The Unmarked Sentence Pattern
• The group of all sentence patterns constitute a
category.
• In the category of sentence patterns,
the V sentence is the unmarked pattern.
• This pattern is most broadly used and does
not carry any particular function or emphasis.
• Differently put, upon hearing a V sentence, the
listener cannot predict that a special function
or emphasis are intended.
Events
• Nevertheless, note that all sentences that
describe events are V sentences.
– The teacher entered the classroom.
– She spoke to the students.
– A tree fell in the forest.
– Mary sneezed.
Events and non-events
• Event verbs comprise the majority of verbs.
• However, there is also a minority.
• In the minority we find, for example:
– Old MacDonald had a farm.
Possession is not an event.
• Mary loves John.
Feelings are not events.
• The vineyard stretches over 5 square miles.
Spatial relations are not events.
• Etc.
Unmarkedness and Prototypicality
• It is not unusual to find a member of a
category that is unmarked but also has a
prototypical function.
– The burglar broke the window.
= prototypical V sentence:
Eventive: representing an event.
– The pool reflected the clouds.
– Mary had a little lamb.
= non-prototypical V sentence:
non-eventive, representing a state.
V sentences and Narratives
• Telling stories is a basic human need.
• Stories are also called narratives.
• Since:
– In narratives something always happens.
– Events are central to most narratives.
• Hence:
• V sentences representing events form the
skeleton of most narrative texts.
Terminological Note
• We have defined two different functions for the
V sentence:
– to express events,
– to serve as the core of narratives.
• The former is its sentential function.
• The latter is its discursive function.
Sample Question
• In the following passage, identify all sentences
expressing events:
– Joseph Pulitzer was born in Hungary to a wealthy
Jewish grain dealer. Before age 17, he left home
to get away from his stepfather. He applied to the
French Foreign Legion, and the British army in
India, but was rejected because he had poor
eyesight and was underage and frail. In 1864, a
U.S. agent in Hamburg, Germany, recruited
Pulitzer for the Union army in North America's Civil
War.
Answer to Sample Question
Sentences not expressing events.
Sentences expressing events.
Joseph Pulitzer was born in Hungary to a wealthy
Jewish grain dealer. Before age 17, he left home
to get away from his stepfather. He applied to the
French Foreign Legion, and the British army in
India, but was rejected because he had poor
eyesight and was underage and frail. In 1864, a
U.S. agent in Hamburg, Germany, recruited
Pulitzer for the Union army in North America's
Civil War.
Homework
• In the following passages, identify sentences
expressing events:
– After the war Pulitzer looked for work in New
York City. Entering French’s Hotel to get his
shoes shined one day, he was turned away
because of his frayed uniform. He felt appalled.
He moved to St. Louis, where he found only
menial jobs before becoming a reporter in 1868.
In 1874 he bought a St. Louis German
newspaper.
[Continued on the next slide]
– In 1878 he bought two more newspapers and
merged them into the best-selling evening
paper. In 1883 he bought a New York morning
paper, The World, and four years later began
The Evening World. He remembered the
incident at French Hotel, so he bought it and
built The World headquarters on the site of his
earlier humiliation. The newspaper magnate
died in Charleston, at age 63. His endowment
has awarded eight coveted journalism awards
annually since 1917.