In the name of Allah, the most Beneficent, the most Merciful.

Syntactic Relations

Presented to: Miss Madeeha Khan

Presented by: Asif Ali Raza

asifalirazzza@yahoo.com

+92-300-4626234

Points to be discussed

What are Syntactic Relations?

What is Tree Diagram?

Basic Terms regarding Tree Diagram

Constituent Command or C-Command

C-Command condition on binding

What are Syntactic Relations?

In linguistics, syntactic relations (= grammaticalfunctions, grammatical roles, syntactic functions,grammatical relations) refer to functionalrelationships between constituents in a clause orphrase.

Relation between the constituents of varioustypes of phrases or sentences is called SyntacticRelations.

What is Tree Diagram?

A tree diagram is a way of representingthe hierarchical nature of a structure in a graphicalform. It is named a "tree diagram" because theclassic representation resembles a tree, eventhough the chart is generally upside downcompared to an actual tree, with the "root" at thetop and the "leaves" at the bottom.

Tree diagram provides us visual representation ofthe constituents of the corresponding expression.

It looks like a family tree.

What is Tree Diagram?

E.g. The child can kick a football.

Tree diagrams are referred to in the relevant literature as Phrase Markers (P-Markers)

A child can kick footballa

S

NP Aux VP

NV NPArt

NArt

What is Tree Diagram?

E.g. The child can kick a football.

TP

DP T'

D N T VP

V NP

The child can kick football

Tree diagrams are referred to in the relevant literature as Phrase Markers (P-Markers)

NV

a

Terms regarding Tree Diagram

Constituent

Sub-Constituent

Root/Mother, Sister, Daughter, Grand Daughter etc

Node, Terminal Node, Non-terminal Node, LabeledNode

Branch/Solid Line

Terms regarding Tree Diagram

A

B E

C D F G

H J

Labeled Nodes

Solid Lines/Branches

Terms regarding Tree Diagram

A

B E

C D F G

H J

i-Constituentii-Non-Terminal Node

i-Sub-Constituentii-Non-Terminal Node

Terminal Nodes

Terminal Nodes contain any lexical item

Terms regarding Tree Diagram

A

B E

C D F G

H J

Terminal Nodes

Terminal Nodes contain any lexical item

The president may blame himself.

TP

DP T'

D N T VP

V

The president may blame himself

NP

Terms regarding Tree Diagram

A

B E

C D F G

H J

Mother/Root

i-Daughters of Aii-Sisters

i-Grand Daughters of Aii-Sisters—CD (daughters of B) and FG(daughters of E)iii-Cousins CD to FG and FG to CD

i-Daughters of Gii-Sisters to each otheriii-they have no cousiniv-Grand grand daughters of Av-Grand daughters of E

Who can command in a Family (in Tree Diagram)?

A

B E

C D F G

H J

Mother or Root A dominates everyone.

Who can command in a Family (in Tree Diagram)?

A

B E

C D F G

H J

B commands E, F, G, H and J

Who can command in a Family (in Tree Diagram)?

A

B E

C D F G

H J

E commands B, C and D

Who can command in a Family (in Tree Diagram)?

A

B E

C D F G

H J

C and D command each other

F commands G, H and J

G commands F

What is CONSTITUENT COMMAND or C-COMMAND?

From the above examples, C-Command can

be defined as follows:

A constituent X c-commands its sister Y and

any constituent Z which is contained within Y.

Explanation of CONSTITUENT COMMAND or C-COMMAND

We can give example of importance of C-Command relation

in syntactic description by looking at ANAPHORS (especially

REFLEXIVES and RECIPROCALS)

•He must feel proud of himself. (“He” is antecedent of “himself” and

“himself” is bound by “He”)

•The people help one another. (“The people” is antecedent of “one

another” and “one another” is bound by “The people”.)

Explanation of CONSTITUENT COMMAND or C-COMMAND

We can give example of importance of C-Command relation

in syntactic description by looking at ANAPHORS (especially

REFLEXIVES and RECIPROCALS)

•He must feel proud of herself. (“He” is antecedent and requires

singular masculine reflexive--himself to form grammatical structure but

here is “herself” and forms an ungrammatical structure.)

•The two men help one another. (“The two men” is antecedent and

requires reciprocal—each other to form grammatical structure but here

is “one another” and forms an ungrammatical structure.)

C-Command condition on binding

Can you recall this?A

B E

C D F G

H J

The president may blame himself.

TP

DP T'

D N T VP

V PRN

The president may blame himself

C-Command condition on binding

Can you recall this?A

B E

C D F G

H J

Supporters of the president may blame himself.

TP

NP T'

N PP T VP

V PRN

Supporters of the president may blame himself.

P DP

ND

Query Session

Thanks

Wish you best of luck in every sphere of life!

You may download this presentation form here:

http://www.slideshare.net/AsifAliRaza/syntactic-relations

Readings

English Syntax by Andrew Radford

English Syntax and Argumentation by Bas Aarts

Syntax by Andrew Carnie

An Introduction to English Syntax by Jim Miller

Ling 201 – Basic Concepts of Linguistics Jirka Hana – March 25, 2006

How Many Word-Classes Are There After All? István Kenesei Research Institute for Linguistics, HAS, & University of Szeged IMM14, Budapest, May 13-16, 2010

INTRODUCTION TO LINGUISTICS BA Modul 1 Institut für Anglistik nd Amerikanistik Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

Bauer, L. 1983. English Word-Formation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; 13-18; 20-22.

Brown, K. & J.E. Miller 19912. Syntax: a Linguistic Introduction to Sentence Structure. London: Harpercollins; 155-172.

Matthews, P.H. 19912. Morphology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; 24-40.