The Study of

Language
(SYNTAX)
Presented by:
GLADYZ ARTJANE Q. FLORES

ENGLISH

SYNTAX

Definition of syntax
Definition and types of Grammar
Generative Grammar
Deep and Surface Structure
Structural Ambiguity
Tree Diagram
Symbols used in Syntactic Analysis
Phrase structural rules
Lexical rules
Movement rules
Recursion
Complement phrase

SYNTAX
Greek word syntaxis which
means arrangement.
It studies combinations of words
including word-structure and
sentence-structure.

GRAMMAR
Greek word Grammatika or
Grammatkia which may be
translated as the art of writing.
Incorporated the whole study of
language.

TYPES OF GRAMMAR
Prominent types of grammar are discussed below:

Traditional Grammar

Prescriptive Grammar

Descriptive Grammar

Sentence-Interpretative Grammar

Sentence-Producing Grammar

Reference Grammar

Contrastive Grammar

Theoretical Grammar

Structural Grammar

GENERATIVE
GRAMMAR
A set of formal rules are used to
generate or define the membership
of an infinite set of grammatical
sentences in a language.
This grammar attempts to produce
all and only grammatical
sentences of language.

Consider these sentences:

(1) You close the door.

(2) The door is closed by you.
(3) Close the door!

(1) ACTIVE
(2) PASSIVE
(3) IMPERATIVE

SURFACE STRUCTURE
defined as the syntactic form they
take as actual sentences.
DEEP STRUCTURE underlying
abstract representation of the
sentence.

Consider these sentences:

Annie bumped into a man

with an umbrella.
I saw a man with a Telescope.

Annie bumped into a man with

an umbrella.
Possible Meanings:
1. Annie had an umbrella and she
bumped into a man.
2. Annie bumped into a man when
he happened to be carrying an
umbrella.

I saw a man with a

Telescope.
Possible Meanings:
1. I saw a man using a telescope.
2. I saw a man holding a telescope.

Structural Ambiguity
Distinct underlying interpretations
that have to be represented
differently in deep structure.

Tree Diagram
A tree diagram is a way of
representing the tiered nature of
a structure in a graphical form.
Tree diagram provides us a visual
representation of the constituents
of the corresponding expression.

E.g. A child can kick a football.

Symbols used in Tree

Diagram

S - Sentence
NP- Noun Phrase
PN- Proper Noun
N-Noun
VP-Verb Phrase
Adv-Adverb
V-Verb
Adj-Adjective
Prep-Preposition
Art-Article

Pro-Pronoun
PP-Prepositional
Phrase

*Ungrammatical Sentence
Consists of / rewrites as

( ) Optional Constituent

{ } Only one of these

constituents must be selected

Phrase Structure Rules

Phrase structure rules generate structures.

NP VP

NP

{Art (Adj+) N, Pro, PN}

VP

V NP (PP) (Adv)

PP

P NP

Tree Diagrams

NP

NP

VP

Art

PP

VP

NP P

NP

Lexical Rules
As we know, phrase structure rules generate
structures. To turn those structures into
recognizable English, we also need lexical
rules that specify which words can be used
when we rewrite constituents such as N.

PN

{ Mary, George }

{ Girl, Dog, Boy }

Pro

{ It, you, he }

Art

{ A, An, the }

{ Help, run, play }

We can rely on these rules to generate the grammatical sentences but not
ungrammatical sentences.

Movement rules
It is easy to represent Declarative forms in tree
diagrams.

NP Aux VP

e.g. You will help Mary. S

S
NP

Aux

Pro

You

VP

will

help

NP

Mary

Movement rules
It is easy to represent Declarative forms in tree diagrams.
e.g. You will help Mary.

BUT HOW CAN YOU

REPRESENT THIS ONE?
Will you help Mary?

Movement rules
Will you help Mary?
S
Aux

NP
Pro

Will

you

Aux NP VP

VP
V

help

NP

Mary

Movement rules
You will help Mary.

Will you help Mary?

S
NP

Aux

Pro

You
S

VP

will

help

Aux

NP

Mary Will

NP Aux VP

S
NP

This process
is based on
movement
rules.

VP

Pro

NP

you

help

Mary

Aux NP VP

Recursion
Examples:
a. ab
b. aabb
c. aaabbb
a. The man [who the girl saw is my friend
b. The man [who the girl [who sneezed] saw] is
my friend.
c. The man [who the girl [who Peter [who knows]
met] saw] is my friend.

Consider the sentences

Mary helped George.

Cathy knew that Mary
helped George.
John believed that Cathy
knew that Mary helped
George.

Recursion
The rules of grammar will also
need the crucial property of
recursion. In this, we can put
sentences inside other sentences
and these sentences can be
generated
inside another
sentences.

Complement Phrase
Mary helped George.
Cathy knew that Mary helped George.
John believed that Cathy knew that
Mary helped George.
Traditionally, such sentences are called clauses (thatclause)
In the above examples, that is called complementizer (C).
We can say that sentences with that are Complement
Phrase (CP).

S
Complement Phrase Rule

NP VP

VP

V CP

CP

C S

Complement Phrase
S

John believed that Cathy knew

that Mary helped George.

VP

NP
V

CP
S

NP
V

VP
C

PN

NP
PN

PN

John believed that Cathy

CP

knew that

Mary

VP

helped

NP
PN

George.