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SYNTAX

SYNTACTIC STUDIES

TRANSFORMATIONAL RULES AND OPERATIONS

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LINGUISTIC LEVELS:OVERVIEW

• Language has a complex structure• We can never describe a piece of speech in a

single, simple statement.

e.g “Hello, there!” can be described in terms of…

- Pronunciation, intonation…- Vocabulary,…- Grammar,…- Function,…- Discourse,… ………………….. and in many more aspects

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How Many Levels?

• There are a number of language structure models that scholars have adopted in the study of the spoken language.

• These models range from the most basic 2-level framework to the more complex framework of 6 levels.

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2-Level Framework

• Simple models of language study recognise at least the physical forms (sounds, letters, signs and words) contained in a language and the range of abstract meanings conveyed by these forms

Language

Form Meaning

Level 1 Level 2

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3-Level Framework

• Pronunciation - form of sound organisation to convey differences in meaning

• Grammar – form of meaningful units that are brought into sequence to convey wider and more varied patterns of meaning

• Meaning – the meaning conveyed by the above forms

Language

Pronunciation(phonology)

Meaning(semantics)

Grammar(syntax)

Level 1 Level 2 Level 3

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Language

Medium of transmission

UseStructure

GrammarMeaning

(semantics)

phonetics phonology

morphology syntax

lexicon discourse

pragmatics

Level 2

Level 3 Level 4

Level 5 Level 6

6-Level Framework

6-level Model Of Sentence Structure Analysis Proposed By David Crystal (1987)

Level 1

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The 6-level structure of language analysis proposed by Crystal are:

• Phonetics - The study of physical facts of pronunciation defined by the process of articulation, acoustic transmission and audition

• Phonology – The study of how different languages organise sounds to convey different meanings

• Morphology - the study of word structure

• Syntax – the study of word sequence within sentences

• Lexicon – the study of vocabulary

• Discourse – the study of patterns of meaning

Crystal also incorporates the dimension of language “in use” that includes the works of pragmatics.

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Basic Grammatical Notions

• The range of construction that is studied under grammar is very large

• Grammarians have often divided it into sub-fields.• The oldest and most widely used division is that

between morphology and syntax

– Morphology is the branch of grammar that studies the structure of words

– Syntax is the branch of grammar that studies how words are arranged to show relationships of meaning within and between sentences i.e the sentence structure (syntaxis is the Greek word for “arrangement”)

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Syntactic Studies• Contribute in…

– Generating (un)grammatical sentences to explain grammar

• 3a. Disa fed the baby. • 3b. Disa burped the baby. • 3c. *Disa slept the baby. (intransitive verb)

– Explaining creativity• "Some purple gnats are starting to tango on the microwave."

– Explaining ambiguity• The lifeguard rescued the swimmer with no clothes on.

– Explaining cross-linguistic differences• Linda apple ate (in Japanese structure)

• Provide a basis for the notion of Transformational Grammar

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Generating (un)grammatical sentences to explain grammar

• To show the difference between transitive & intransitive verbs e.g

1a. Disa fed the baby.

1b. Disa burped the baby. 1c. *Disa slept the baby.

• To show the difference between verb and phrasal verbse.g

2a. Jack and Jill ran up the hill. 2b. Jack and Jill ran up the bill.

2c. *Jack and Jill ran the hill up. 2d. Jack and Jill ran the bill up.

2e. Up the hill ran Jack and Jill. 2f. *Up the bill ran Jack and Jill.

run (verb) – to to move very quickly, by moving your legs more quickly than when you walk

run up (phrasal verb) - to use so much of something, or borrow so much money, that you owe a lot of money

Note - prepositions do not go after noun

Transitive verbs need objects

Intransitive verbs do not take objects

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Explaining Creativity

– Grammarians go beyond analysing sentences by generating a set of rules that would ‘generate’ tree structures in order to form new sentences

e.g S NP + VP

VP V + NP

NP DET + N

V chased, ate

Det the

N girl, dog, hotdog,

• by substituting an abstract category with suitable words, new sentences can be generated: - the girl chased the dog, the girl ate the hotdog - the dog ate the girl, the dog chased the hotdog etc What other sentences can you think of?

The history of generative syntax since 1957 is the study of the most efficient ways of writing rules

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TASK 1– Try this individually:

S NP + VP VP V + NP NP DET + (ADJ) + N V (choose any 2 verbs) Det the N (choose any 2 nouns) ADJ (choose any 2 adjectives)

- Generate at least 4 sentences from your choice of words.- Compare your sentences with your partners.- How many different sentences have you got between you

and your partner?

Generative grammar are objective descriptions of the grammatical patterns that occur, unlike prescriptive grammar that tells us whether it is right or wrong

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Explaining Creativity

• By substituting chunks of the phrases with a more familiar words, we will be able to see the grammaticality of creative construction

NP VP– "Some purple gnats / are starting to tango on the microwave.”– “Some red ants / are starting to climb up the microwave.”– “Some beautiful girls/ are starting to walk on the stage

OR make it more creative!

“Some brave mites/ are starting to win in the parliamentary debates”

Now you try it...........!

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Explaining Ambiguity• The study of syntax is also useful in explaining meanings especially when

the surface structure has more than one deep structure

• The notion of deep and surface structure was introduced by Chomsky in 1957 in his book Syntactic Structures.

– Chomsky argued that a sentence is formed based on an intended underlying meaning and some surface structure represent more than one deep structure and conversely, one deep structure can materialise into more than one surface structure

1st e.g : the Surface Structure “Visiting relatives can be boring”

can have two D-Structure

1. It can be boring to visit relatives

2. Relatives who come visiting can be boring

2nd e.g : the Deep Structure “Cats chase mice”

can have 2 S-Structure

1. Cats chase mice

2. Mice are chased by cats

It should be noted that this notion of D-Structure and S-Structure has altered greatly over the years but the basic insight has contributed greatly to the study of linguistics

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Explaining Ambiguity

  The lifeguard rescued the swimmer with no clothes on

S

V

VP

AdjP

NDET

NP

DET N

NP

The lifeguard rescued

the swimmer with no clothes on

with no clothes on

AdjP

It could be the either lifeguard or the swimmer who does not have any clothes on

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Explaining Cross-Linguistic Differences by Studying Word-Order patterns

• The term ‘word order’ can refer to both:1. The order of words within a phrase2. The order of multi-word units or phrases within

a sentence

e.g “The cat sat on the mat” * cat the sat mat the on

* the cat on the mat satBoth sentences above have word-order problems, one of the first type, the other of the second type.

• Word-order studies however usually refer to the second type of problem – the sequence in which grammatical elements (such as S,V,O) occur in sentences

(such as in comparative studies across languages)

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• In comparing word-order across languages, it is important to identify the basic or most common pattern found in the language.

Which of the patterns below is the common word-order inEnglish?- The boy / saw / the man- The Jones / I invited – / but not the Smiths- Govern / thou / my song (Milton)- Strange fits of passion / have I known (Wordsworth)- Pensive poets / painful vigils / keep (Pope)

• The first one is the natural, usual, unmarked word-order while the rest conveyed special effects of an emphatic or poetic kind

Explaining Cross-Linguistic Differences by Studying Word-Order patterns

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• Compare the word-order between your language and English using the following phrases:

– I will happily go with you– Beautiful girl– The beautiful girl– I saw her – The pet which was my choice– Where to? To the canteen!– I sometimes eat late– I have already told her

Describe the differences and similarities between the order of words in the phrases and the order of phrases in sentences. Found any other examples?

Explaining Cross-Linguistic Differences by Studying Word-Order patterns

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– I will happily go with you– Saya akan (dengan gembiranya ) ikut awak dengan gembiranya– Beautiful girl– (Cantik) Gadis cantik– The beautiful girl– (Itu) (cantik) gadis cantik itu– I saw her – Saya nampak dia– The pet which was my choice– Haiwan peliharaan (yang menjadi) (saya punya) pilihan saya itu– Where to? The stall!– (Mana) Ke mana? (Itu) warung itu!– I sometimes eat late– Kadang-kadang saya (kadang-kadang) makan lewat– I have already told her– Saya sudah beritahu dia

Explaining Cross-Linguistic Differences by Studying Word-Order patterns

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• Compare the word-order between the Japanese language and English using the following phrases:

– two friends

tomodatini (friends) futari (two)

– from Tokyo

Tokyo kara – Linda ate an apple

Lindaga (linda) ringoo (apple) tabeta (ate)

What can you say about the nouns in the

Japanese language?

Explaining Cross-Linguistic Differences by Studying Word-Order patterns

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Use of OSV Word-Order to Defamiliarise Speech in Films

• Yoda speaks:Sick I have become.

Strong with the force

you are.

Your father he is.

When nine hundred

years you reach, look

as strong you will not

Return of The Jedi (1983)

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Transformational Grammar

– Transformational rules enable the grammarians to show the relationship between sentences that had the same meaning but were of different grammatical form

– The leading idea behind transformational grammar is that we can give a better account of the complexity of natural language syntax if we view it as the output of relatively simple basic phrase structures plus transformational operations.

(Ideas introduced and developed by Noam Chomsky since 1955)

– This view is, of course, by no means uncontroversial among linguists, many of whom have preferred the alternative of enriching phrase structure rules so as to avoid the need for transformational operations.

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Transformational Grammar– Chomsky developed Transformational Grammar to replace

‘Left-to-Right Grammar’– Every sentence exists on two levels :

• Surface Structure : the actual spoken sentence.• Deep Structure : underlying meaning of the sentence.

– A single deep structure idea can be expressed in many different Surface structures :

Deep Structure : Boy kisses GirlSurface structure : The boy kissed the girl. The boy was kissing the girl. The girl was kissed by the boy.

– The deep structure gives the semantic component of a sentence, while the surface structure gives the proper phonological information to express that thought.

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Transformational GrammarChomsky has proposed two sets of Rules :

1. Phrase Structure Grammar : these rules dictate the form of the deep structure.

• Phrase structure rules specifies the necessary phrases for proper sentence construction, and the specific word ordering that should be followed within these sentence phrases.

• Phrase Structure Grammar forces a hierarchical arrangement among different parts of sentences. However, it cannot help distinguish among ambiguous sentences

2. Transformational Rules : these rules help transform the deep structure into the surface structure.

• Transformational rules account for the shortcomings in Phrase Structure Grammar

• The manipulation of verb tenses is one aspect of transformational rules.

• Present tense, past tense, subjunctive, past perfect, future tense are all derived through transformational rules.

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Transforming Questions

– One of the extensive transformations in the English language is the formation of questions.

– There are two basic types of questions in English.

– One is used for asking questions where the answers are expected to be 'yes' or 'no'. These are Yes/No Questions. Tag questions can be described as Yes/No Questions but they are of different sentence patterns.

– The other is used in situations in which the questioner is looking for the identity of a person, place, time, object, reason etc. These are called the WH-Questions.

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Yes/No Questions

– Yes/No Questions require “yes” or “no” answers. The following examples are different ways in which people ask Yes/No Question:

• A: Are you from around here?B: Yes (I am from around here)

• A: Do you come here often?B: Yes, (I do come here often)

• A: Can I buy you a drink?B: No (you can(not) buy me a drink)

• A: Will you marry me?B: No (I will (not) marry you)

• A: Has she called you?

B: Yes (she has called me)

The words in blue are auxilliary verbs or helping verbs.

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Yes/No QuestionsYes/No Questions are formed by moving the highest auxiliary, i.e. the auxiliary of the main clause.

(i) Form a declarative sentence using the normal phrase structure rules. Build deep structures using phrase structure rules

S -- NP + Aux + VP (You) (are) (from around here) or (You) (come here often)

(ii) Identify the auxiliary verbs or add in auxiliary verbs for the main verbs.

(You) (are) (from around here) (You) (do) (come here often)

(iii) Use transformational rules to turn deep structure into surface structure. The operation involved here is movement. Move the auxiliary verb of the main clause to the front of the sentence.

S – Aux + NP + VP (Are) (you) (from around here) ? (Do) (you) (come here often) ?

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Yes/No Questions1. John is a doctor. One verb: is (be)2. Jane drives a sports car. One verb: drives3. Joan played basketball last night. One verb: played4. Jan is eating her dinner. Two verbs: is eating5. June has rented an apartment. Two verbs: has rented6. Jen has been living there since 1969. Three verbs: has been living

Task – describe the operation of transforming sentences 1, 4, 5 and 6 into questions

Sentence 2 - Jane drives a sports car. verb – drives auxiliary – do + es

Deep structure – Jane (does) drive a sports car Surface structure – Does Jane drive a sports car?

Task - describe the operation of transforming sentence 3 into a question

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WH-Questions

Wh-Questions allow a speaker to find out more

information about topics. They are as follows:

– When? -------- Time– Where? -------- Place– Who? -------- Person – Why? -------- Reason– How? -------- Manner – What? -------- Object/Idea/Action

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WH-Questions

- The “grammar” used with WH-Questions depends on whether the topic being asked about is the “subject” or “predicate” of a sentence. Transformation rule applies when topics asked about are the predicate of a sentence

- For the subject pattern, simply replace the person or thing being asked about with the appropriate wh-word.

D-S: Someone kicked her S-S : Who kicked her? S – NP (someone) + VP S -- NP (who) + VP

(Something is bothering you) What is bothering you? S – NP (something) + VP S -- NP (what) + VP

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WH-QuestionsProcedure for forming wh-questions in English:

(i) Built deep structures using phrase-structure rules. Form a declarative sentence.

- Sheila is cooking (something) S -- NP + Aux + V + NP

(ii) Encode verb-argument relations, modifier relations. Include a WH-phrase, using the normal phrase structure rules.

- Sheila is cooking (what) S -- NP + Aux + V + NP

(iii) Move the auxiliary to the front of the sentence.

- Is Sheila cooking (what) S -- Aux + NP + V + NP

(iv) Move the WH phrase to the front of the sentence.

- What is Sheila cooking? S -- NP + Aux + NP + V

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WH-Questions

1. Deep-Structure: "Gromit has done what?"

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WH-Questions

2. Aux-movement: "has Gromit done what?"

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WH-Questions

3. WH-movement: "What has Gromit done?"

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Active - Passive Voice

- Transformational rules can also help show the link between active and passive sentences

Active : The horse chased the man

Passive : The man was chased by the horse

- The kind of formulation needed to show this transformation is:

NP1 + V + NP2 ------ NP2 + Aux + V-en + by + NP1

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Active - Passive Voice

Four separate operations would be recognised here:

1. The first Noun Phrase in the active sentence (NP1) is placed at the end of the passive sentence .

2. The second Noun Phrase in the active sentence (NP2) is placed at the beginning of the passive sentence

3. The verb (V) is changed from past tense to past participle (V-en), and an Auxiliary verb is inserted before it

4. A particle “by” is inserted between the verb and the final Noun Phrase

This rule will generate all regular active-passive sentences

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The end…….