Syntax: The Sentence Patterns of Language

Prepared by: Nur Jalilah Binti Ismail Nurhidayah Binti Ishak

Syukriah Binti Sabirin

What is Syntax?

• Syntax : The study of the structures of sentences which attempts to uncover the underlying principles (rules) for constructing well-informed sentences of a particular language.

Rules in Syntax

• There are 2 rules in syntax:1. Phrase structure rules2. Transformational rules

Phrase: Any groups of two or more words

that together form a thought or express one

meaning.A phrase has no subject or verb.

Clauses: Groups of two or more words that have a subject & a

predicate. Two types of clauses: Independent Clause

(Main Clause) & Dependent Clause

(Subordinate Clause)

Clause Types• Most sentence can be analyzed into one of only

seven basic clause types consisting of two, three or four elements.

S + V : I / yawned S + V + O : I / opened / the door S + V + C : I / am / ready S + V + A : I / went / to London S + V + O + O : I / gave / him / a pen S + V + O + C : I / got / my shoes / wet S + V + O + A : I / put / the box / on the floor

What is a subject?

• Examples:1. The boy yawned.2. Are you going?

The subject usually appears before the verb in statements, and after the

first verb in questions.

What is a verb?

• E.g:That farmer drinks beer by the bucketful.

S V O A

The verb plays a central role in clause structure. We can omit other clause elements

except the verb.

What is an object?

Object elements usually follow the subject and verb in a clause.There two type of object: Direct

object & Indirect object.

Direct & Indirect Object

• Direct object typically referring to some person or thing directly affected by the action expressed by the verb.E.g: The child lost her ball. I remember the occasion.

• Indirect object typically refers to an animate which is the recipients of the action.E.g: I gave my paper to the boy.

Sentence Types

• Sentences are constructed in three main ways:1. Simple Sentence2. Compound Sentence3. Complex Sentence

Simple Sentence

• Simple sentences contain one complete verb and are made up of one main clause.

• E.g: Did the boys arrive before breakfast? Verb: Arrive Main clause: Before breakfast

Compound Sentence

• Compound sentence is made up of two or more main clause. The main clauses are joined by a conjunction, semicolon, or sentence connector.

• E.g: We heard the news; we couldn’t believe our ears.

• The two clauses are joined by a semicolon.

Complex Sentence• Complex sentence is made up of a main

clause and one or more subordinate clauses.

• E.g: We had to go because the children were tired.•Main clause: We had to go• Subordinate clause: because the

children were tired.

Phrase Structure Rules (PS Rules)

• Phrase Structure Rules govern the structure of sentence in a language. One example is the rule that English sentence must consist of a Noun Phrase(NP) and a Verb Phrase(VP)

Phrase Structure Phrase (VP)

S NP VPNP art NVP V NPArt the aN man horseV saw

Tree Diagrams

• A phrase structure tree is a form of representation of sentence in which nodes or element are labelled by syntactic category (noun phrase (NP), verb phrase (VP), preposition phrase (PP), etc)

Example of Tree Diagram

S

NP VP

N V

He ate

S

NP VP

N V NP

he saw her

S

NP VP V NP NP

N art N

He gave her the book

S

NP VP

N V PP

P N

She went to sea

S

NP VP

N V PP PP/AP

det adj N P N P NP

adj det N

the old man went to sea in a boat