Syntax

The Structure of Sentences

Asian 401

Syntactic Categories

= Word Classes = Parts of SpeechAll languages have syntactic categories.

The syntactic category of a word determines the role it can play in a sentence.

Only a noun can complete the sentence “Give a __________ to me.”

Lexical vs. NonlexicalNounVerbAdjectivePrepositionAdverb

Clearly identifiable meanings

Determiner (a, the, this, etc.)

Conjunction (and, or, but, etc.)

Degree word (too, very, etc.)

Functional

Identifying Categories

Native speakers may have a good intuition about the syntactic category of a word.

But linguists require more objective ways of determining syntactic categories.

There are two tests one can use:

Test 1: Inflection

Certain inflectional paradigms apply only to one syntactic category.

For example, if a word can take the inflectional suffix -ed in English, it must belong to the verb category.

Problem 1: What about sing?Problem 2: Analytic languages

Test 2: Distribution

The words with which a word may co-occur can be used to determine its syntactic category.

Example: only nouns can come after a or the in English.

All languages have such distributional restrictions on syntactic categories.

Other languages

Different languages have different syntactic categories.

Some Asian languages have no adjectives. They have verbs meaning “to be red”, “to be happy”, etc.

Many Asian languages have a syntactic category called classifier.

Classifiers

Also called measure words.In Thai, Vietnamese, Japanese, Chines

e, Korean, Indonesian, etc.Co-occur with counted nounsExamples: “one student”, “two student

s”; “one book”, “two books”Different classifiers co-occur with differe

nt nouns

Distribution tests

Distribution tests for syntactic categories are different in all languages.

Chinese has no articles like a, the. So you can’t test for nouns with them.

But in Chinese, only nouns co-occur with classifiers. If a word can come after a classifier, it must be a noun.

Sentence Structure

Recall from morphology that words are not simply strings of morphemes. They have a hierarchical structure that we can represent with trees.

devaporize

vaporize

de- vapor -ize

Sentence Structure

Similarly, sentences do not consist of a string of words. They also have an internal hierarchical structure.

The structural elements of sentences are called syntactic constituents.

Constituents

The following sentence is not just a string of eleven words:Bill and John ate all the cookies yesterday at the park.

It is made up of four basic constituents:Bill and John ate all the cookies yesterday at the park.

Constituency tests

I can demonstrate that these are constituents by movement and substitution tests.

Only constituents can be moved to another part of the sentence; only constituents can be substituted for in a sentence.

Test 1: Movement

Bill and John ate all the cookies yesterday at the park.

We can move at the park:Bill and John ate all the cookies at

the park yesterday. We can’t move at the:*Bill and John ate all the cookies at

the yesterday park.

Test 2: Substitution (1)

Bill and John ate all the cookies at the park yesterday.

Substitute they for Bill and John:

They ate all the cookies at the park yesterday.

Substitution (2)

Bill and John ate all the cookies at the park yesterday.

Substitute did so for ate all the cookies:

Bill and John did so at the park yesterday.

Substitution (3)

Bill and John ate all the cookies at the park yesterday.

Substitute there for at the park:

Bill and John ate all the cookies there yesterday.

Substitution (4)

Bill and John ate all the cookies at the park yesterday.

Substitute then for yesterday:

Bill and John ate all the cookies at the park then.

Substitution 5

Can’t substitute across boundaries:Bill and John ate all the cookies at the p

ark yesterday.

Substitute did so for ate all the:

*Bill and John did so cookies at the park yesterday.

Substitution 6

Can’t substitute across boundaries:Bill and John ate all the cookies at the p

ark yesterday.

Substitute them for cookies at:

*Bill and John ate all the them the park yesterday.

Constituents are phrases

all the cookies is a noun phrase. We can substitute any noun phrase for it:

They ate cookies yesterday.They ate some cookies yesterday.They ate the cookies left over from

dinner last week yesterday.They ate the cookies that their mother

told them several times not to eat yesterday.

Sentence structure

We form sentences by combining words into phrasal constituents, phrases into larger constituents, and these constituents into sentences.

All phrases have the same basic structure:

Phrase Structure

Phrase (XP)

Specifier Head (X) Complement(s)

The specifier narrows the meaning of the head. The complements give more information about the head.

Phrase types

Noun Phrase (NP): Functions like a noun, head is noun (N)

Verb Phrase (VP): Functions like a verb, head is verb (V)

Adjective Phrase (AP): Functions like an adjective, head is adjective (Adj)

Prepositional Phrase (PP): Head is preposition (Prep) [in, on, with, etc.]

Exercise 1

On your handout, identify the specifier, head, and complement(s) of each phrase.

Hint: In English, specifiers come before the head, complements come after the head.

Exercise 2

On your handout, say whether each phrase is a noun phrase, verb phrase, adjective phrase, or prepositional phrase.

Then identify the specifier, head, and complements of each phrase.

Warning: Some phrases have other phrases inside them!

Specifier typesIn NPs, specifiers are determiners like

a, the, this, that, these, those.In VPs, specifiers are adverbs like alway

s, never, seldom, often.In APs, specifiers are degree words like

very, quite, too, so.In PPs, specifiers are adverbs like almo

st, nearly.

Complement types

In NPs, complements can be PPs: cabin by the lake, book on the table.

In VPs, complements can be NPs or PPs: ate the cookies, ate at the park.

In APs, complements can be PPs: happy about the new job.

In PPs, complements are NPs: at the park.

Sentence structure

The basic English sentence structure is:S

NP (Subject) VP (Predicate)

For this course, we ignore the I (for “inflection”) found in your textbook.

Simple Sentence

The NP and VP might only contain a head (no specifiers or complements):

S

NP VPN V

Bill swam

More complex sentence 1

S NP VP

Det N V

The boy swam

More complex sentence 2

SNP VP

Det N V PPPrep NP

Det NThe boy swam in the stream

More complex sentence 3

SNP VP

Det N PP V PPPrep NP Prep NP

N Det NThe boy from Ohio swam in the stream

Exercise 3

On your handout, draw trees illustrating the constituent structure of sentences.

Start by labeling all the syntactic categories. First identify main subject NP and predicate VP of the sentence. Then move from right to left, arranging [Specifier Head Complement(s)] groupings into phrases.

Syntax in Asian languages

In all languages, sentences are formed from constituent phrases.

We often say that “word order” is different in different languages.

More accurate to say that “constituent order is different”.

Syntax in Asian languages

Languages differ in the order of these constituents.

In particular, languages can differ in the order of specifier, head, and complement within a phrase.

Consider the basic order of constituents in a simple sentence:

SVO

S NP VP

N V (head) NP (comp)

NJohn speaks English

[Subject] [Verb] [Object]

SOV (Japanese)

SNP VP

NP (comp) V (head)

John-ga eigo-o hanasemasu [Subject] [Object] [Verb]

NP (head-complement)

NP

N (head) PP (complement)

Prep NP N

boy from Tacoma

NP (complement-head)

NP

complement N (head)

Tacoma lái de nánhár

Main Points (1)

Words belong to syntactic categories. They determine the role a word plays in a sentence.

Sentences have hierarchical structure. They are composed of constituents.

The most basic constituents are phrases.

Main Points (2)

Phrases have three types of components: head, specifier, complement. All phrases have a head.

In English, specifiers precede heads and complements follow.

Specifiers are single words; a complement may itself be a phrase with internal structure.

Main Points (3)

Languages differ in their syntactic categories.

Languages differ in the order of constituents in a sentence.

Languages differ in the order of elements within a phrase.

We will learn more about the syntax of Asian languages in Week 9.

End