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Dian Ekawati, M.Pd
Language is at the centre of human societies; it
plays a crucial part in the organisation of social
activities, from government through the
workplace to the home. These complex tasks
require complex language, and that requires
syntax. (Miller, 2002)
When we concentrate on the structure and
ordering of components within a sentence, we
are studying the syntax of a language.
(Yule,2006)
A major component of the GRAMMAR of a
language (together with LEXICON, PHONOLOGY,
and SEMANTICS), syntax concerns the ways in
which words combine to form sentences and
the rules which govern the formation of
sentences, making some sentences possible
and others not possible within a particular
language. (Longman Dictionary of Language
Teaching and Applied Linguistics, 2002)
The way words fit together to form sentences or utterances
(Thomas, 1993)
The system of rules and categories that underlie sentence
formation in human language (Grady, et al., 1987)
The part of grammar that concerns the structure of phrases
and sentences (Fromkin , et al., 1992)
The Elements of Syntax
Lexicon:
the Major
Word Classes
Nouns
Verbs
Adjectives
Adverbs
Marked
Word
Order
Unmarked
Word
Order
Word
Order
Conjunctions
Pronouns
Articles
Prepositions
Function
Words:
the Minor Word
Classes
Number
Gender
Case
for Nouns
Number
Mood
Modality
Aspect
Tense
for Verbs
Comparison
for Adjectives
Comparision
for Adverbs
Inflectional
Morphology
Morphology
The Grammatical
and
Meaningful
Sentence
GRAMMAR: a description of the possible arrangements of
words in language
PHONOLOGY, MORPHOLOGY, SYNTAX, SEMANTICS,
PRAGMATICS (GRAMMAR)
STRUCTURE: Relationship between constituents
SYNTAX : How to put words (word arrangements) in the
sentence
word classes are sometimes called word form or parts of
speech
Word Classes
Major Word
Classes
Minor Word
Classes
Major word classes are also called open classes meaning
that their membership is unrestricted and indefinitely large
since they allow the addition of new members.
in English, there are four major four classes:
1. Nouns
2. Adjectives
3. Adverbs
4. Verbs
Within the class of nouns, we can distinguish members which are identifiable as
nouns on the basis of typical derivational suffixes
Derivational suffixes
Examples
-age Anchorage, coverage, postage -ance Acceptance, appearance, utterance -ation Affirmation, information, transformation -dom Boredom, freedom, kingdom -ee Divorcee, employee, interviewee -eer Engineer, mountaineer, profiteer -ence Difference, existence, preference -ess Actress, governess, murderness -ette Cigarette -hood Childhood, kinghood, parenthood -ism Idealism, modernism, organism -ist Marxist, royalist, specialist -ment Amendment, shipment, government -ness Bitterness, whiteness, exactness -ship Friendship, kinship, scholarship
Moreover, most nouns are morphological characterized by
their ability to take typical inflexional suffixes.
Most nouns can take two inflexional suffixes, one to mark
number (plural) and one to mark case (the genitive)
The plural:
/s/ lips
/z/ boys, dogs
/iz/ horses, brushes
The genitive is one of the cases of English noun, the other being the common (or unmarked) case
Three ways of genitive morpheme:
1. /s/ : after bases ending in voiceless sounds
Dick’s car, ship’s crew
2. /z/ : after bases ending in voiced sounds
firm’s profit, my brother’s cottage
3. /iz/ : horse’s tail, George’s children
The genitive singular ending: for goodness’ sake, boys’ school
Irregular plural : men’s cloth
1. Common nouns : count nouns and uncountable nouns
2. Proper Nouns refer to one particular person, country, town, etc.
To its physical entities, Nouns are classified into:
Concrete and abstract nouns
Concrete nouns refer to people, objects, etc.
abstract nouns refer to qualities, states, etc.
Collective nouns refer to groups of people, animals, or things
(committee, herd)
Many members of adjectives are identifiable on the basis of
typical derivational suffixes
Derivational suffixes
Examples
-able (-ible) reasonable
-ful harmful
-ic (-ical) Allergic, economical
-ish Greenish
-ive Massive
-less Speechless
-like ladylike
Many adjectives take inflexional suffixes to form the
comparative (-er) and the superlative degress (-est)
bright -brighter -brightest
( adjectives +more/most do not inflect for comparison)
Kinds of Adjectives:
1. Attributive
2. predicative
Attributive adjectives normally precede the noun phrase
head.
a green door
Predicative adjectives normally function as subject/object
complement
The door is green
We paint the door green
Many adverbs can be identified on the basis of typical
derivational suffixes such as –ly, -wards, -wise
Derivational suffixes
Examples
-ly fully
-ward (s) Afterwards, upward(s)
-wise Clockwise, edgewise, lengthwise
Only small number of adverbs inflect for comparison. The
majority of these are identical in form with adjectives.
early -earlier -earliest
fast
hard
quick
soon
well
badly worse worst
Two functions of Adverb:
1) Adverbial : the soldiers were punished cruelly
2) Modifier : very beautiful, hardly ever
Adverbs can also express the attitude of the speaker
towards what he is saying and linking sentence.
Honestly, I don’t have any money left.
The Simpsons are very disappointed. So they left early.
There are three derivational suffixes that are typical of the class of verbs:
There are four inflexional morphemes to the verb base:
1) Present
2) Ed1 : past tense
3) Ed2 : ed participle
4) Ing : ing-participle
Derivational suffixes
Examples
-en Broaden, darken, lengthen
-ify Glorify, simplify
-ize/ise Economize, nationalise, scandalize
Two subclasses of verbs: Auxiliary and lexical verbs
1. I don’t like hamburger.
2. I will do my assignment tomorrow.
Two kinds of verbs: Transitive and intransitive verbs
Phrasal verbs : (verb + closed word): bring about
Prepositional verbs: (verb + prep) depend on