SYNTAX

by. Fider Saputra T, S.Hum., M.Hum.

 What is SYNTAX???
SYNTAX is defined as the study
of the arrangement of words
into a grammatical structure in
the form of phrases, clauses,
and sentences.
 EXAMPLE
The words book, the, is, and
red can be arranged into a
meaningful form or
construction???
The book is red.
 SYNTACTICAL DEVICES
To make a grammatical construction in English,
there are several devices, those are:
word order, word form, function word or
particle, and suprasegmental element.
 WORD ORDER

Phrases or sentences are not

words ordered randomly but they
are structured according to the
syntactic rules of the language.
 WORD ORDER
Look at the following examples:
Beautiful girls the
Beautiful the girls
The girls beautiful
The beautiful girls
Girls the beautiful
Girls beautiful the
Which construction is the correct one according to
the syntactic rules of language?
 WORD ORDER
The native speakers of English know exactly that
only The beautiful girls is acceptable or in more
academic term it is a grammatical construction
in English.
In other words, to have a grammatical
construction in English, the words should be
ordered or arranged in certain way so that the
construction is grammatical.
 WORD FORM
Apart from word order, there is another
syntactic device in English, which is called word
form. It means that the words order is not
enough for a string of words to be a syntactical
construction when the words are not in the right
form.
 WORD FORM
Look at this example:
The girls beautiful

This example is not acceptable or not

grammatical. How to make that construction
become acceptable or grammatical without
changing the order?
We can make it grammatical by changing the
form of some words.
 WORD FORM
Look at this example:
The girls beautiful

First, the word girls is changed into possesive noun,

girl’s or girls’.
Second, the word beautiful (adjective) is changed
into beauty (noun).
By changing those two words, it becomes the girl’s
beauty or the girls’ beauty which both are all
acceptable or grammatical.
 FUNCTION WORD
In general, words can be grouped into two big classes;
content words/mayor classes and function words/minor
classes.
Content words are those which are called parts of speech
covering nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs.
Function words are those which are not included in
content words. It covers auxiliary verbs (can, may, must,
will, etc), articles and determiners (a/an, the, some, this,
that, many, several, etc), prepositions (in, on, at, above,
etc), qualifiers (very, somewhat, quite, etc), interrogators
(when, where, who, etc), negators (not, never),
subordinators (if, as, though, after, etc), coordinators
(and, but, or, yet, etc), and other minor groups of words.
 The Differences between content
words and function words
Content words Function words
Have clear lexical meaning Do not always have clear
lexical meaning
Have formal markers Do not have formal markers
(-ness, -ment, -ly)
Low frequency of occurance High frequency of occurance

Very great in number Limited in number

Possible to have new words Almost never have new

words
 FUNCTION WORD
Funtion words play important roles to make a string of
words grammatical.
Analyze the example below:
*He is boy.
*They are looking me.
*He sick.
*They are studying the classroom.
*They are good at school, and they are arrogant.

For anyone who knows English, these examples are not

good, because they are not acceptable. They have a lack
of certain word to be a grammatical construction. Find
the lacks!
 FUNCTION WORD
Analyze the example below:
1. He is a boy.
2. They are looking at me.
3. He is sick.
4. They are studying in the classroom.
5. They are good at school, but they are arrogant.
Example 1: needs an article a because boy is a countable
noun.
Example 2: needs preposition at before the word me.
Example 3: needs an auxiliary be (is).
Example 4: needs preposition in before the classroom.
Example 5: needs a different coordinator other than and
(but)
 SYNTACTICAL UNIT
There are 4 types of syntactical unit:
1. Word
2. Phrase
3. Clause
4. Sentence
Before discussing syntactical unit, it is advisable to
understand the term constituent and construction.
A constituent is an element or a part of a construction.
Whereas, a construction is a unit consisting of at least
two constituents.
For example:
In English, the phrase the book is a construction which
has two constituents (the and book).
 WORD
In Morphology, the smallest unit or constituent
is morpheme, while the biggest unit is word.
In Syntax, however, the smallest unit is word
and the biggest one is sentence. Word which is
the smallest syntactical unit can stand alone as
an aswer of a question.
 WORD
Based on the number and the kind of morpheme composing
them, words are classified into three groups:
1. Single words
Words that consist of a single free morpheme. E.g. go,
buy, nice, good, student.
2. Complex words
Words that consist of a single free morpheme and at least
one bound morpheme. E.g. agreement (agree+ment),
disagreement (dis+agree+ment).
3. Compound words
Words that consist of at least two free morphemes which
have new meaning compared with the meaning of their
constituents.
E.g. chairman  pemimpin (chair = kursi, man = orang)
eggplant  terong (egg= telur, plant = menanam)
 PHRASE
A phrase is a related group of words that always
have a head and modifier. The words work
together as a unit, but they do not have a
subject and a verb.
Based on its main parts, basically phrases can be
classified into:
1. noun phrases
2. verb phrases
3. adjective phrases
4. adverbial phrases
 NOUN PHRASES
Noun phrases are phrases in which their main
parts are nouns. In a sentence, it may function
as subject, object, or complement.
For examples:
-The boy has read a good novel last week.
- They are friends of mine.
 VERB PHRASES
Verb phrases are phrases in which their main
parts are verbs. They may function as predicates
of sentences.
For examples:
-The boy has read a good novel last week.

In this sentence, has read is the verb phrase.

 ADJECTIVE PHRASES
Adjective phrases are phrases in which their
main parts are adjectives. In syntactical
construction, They may function as
complements.
For examples:
-They are very friendly.

In this sentence, very friendly is the adjective

phrase functioning as the complement of the
sentence.
 ADVERBIAL PHRASES
Adverbial phrase is a phrase functioning as an
adverb of a syntactical construction. It can modify a
verb, adverb, or adjective and can tell ‘how’,
‘where’, ‘why’, or ‘when’.
For examples:
-They have to arrive before sunset.
- They have a house by the ocean.

In this sentence, before sunset and by the ocean

are the adverbial phrases, the former describes
about adverb of time (when) and the latter adverb
of place (where).
 CLAUSE
A clause is a group of words containing a subject
and verb.
Some clauses are independent, meaning that they
express a complete thought. An independent clause
is the same as a complete sentence.
Some clauses are dependent, meaning that they
cannot stand alone. They do have a subject and a
verb, but they do not express a complete thought.
Based on its function, clause can be classified into
three clauses:
1. Noun clauses
2. Adjective clauses
3. Adverbial clauses
 NOUN CLAUSES
Noun clauses are clauses functioning as subject,
object, and complement.
For examples:
- What I need is you. (as subject)
- I know what i need. (as object)
- This is what i need. (as complement)
 ADJECTIVE CLAUSES
Adjective clauses are clauses functioning as
modifying nouns.
For example:
- The man who is living next door is from
Australia.
- He has written a book which is related to
democracy.
 ADVERBIAL CLAUSES
Adverbial clauses are clauses functioning as
adverb.
For example:
- Besides he is a journalist, Tom is also a good
writer who has written a lot of novels.
- As he badly needs money, Tom sold his
wedding ring last week.
 SENTENCE
There are many kinds of sentences depending
on what the basis for classification.
Based on their responses, sentences can be
grouped into three categories:
1. Declarative sentence: a sentence which
needs a response in the form of attention.
2. Interrogative sentence: a sentence which
needs an answer.
3. Imperative sentence: a sentence which
needs a response in the form of action.
 SENTENCE
Based on the number and the kind of clauses
composing them, sentences can also be grouped
into four categories:
1. simple sentence
2. compound sentence
3. complex sentence
4. compound complex sentence
 SIMPLE SENTENCE
Simple sentence is the one that consisting of a
single main/independent clause.
For example:
- The boys play football.
- He likes playing badminton.
- They are good students.
 COMPOUND SENTENCE
Compound sentence is the one that consisting of at
least two main/independent clauses without any
subordinate/dependent clause and usually
combined with a coordinating conjuntion such as
and, but, yet, etc.
For example:
- The boys play football and the girls play with
their dolls.
- He likes playing badminton but his sister likes
playing tennis.
- They are good students and they are good at
sports.
 COMPLEX SENTENCE
Complex sentence is a sentence that consisting
of one main/independent clause and at least
one subordinate/dependent clause.
For example:
- The boys play football when they have a
break.
- He likes playing badminton which is also his
father’s hobby.
- They are good students who are keen on
studying.
 COMPOUND COMPLEX
Compound complex sentence is a sentence with
at least two main/independent clauses and at
least one subordinate/dependent clause.
For example:
- Unlike their parents who used to win the
medal for quick running, Tommy likes playing
badminton but his sister likes playing tennis.
- They are good students and they are good at
sports, as consequence they are awarded as
the students of the year.
THANK YOU