Ling200-0401
Syntax 3-Handout
# Chapter 4 + Files #
11 / 08 / 01
WHAT IS SYNTAX?
Review
How
do get to differentiate the different units within a sentence?
How do you identify the constituents that a sentence may be consisted of?
Constituent Tests
a)
Substitution Test (pronouns, do so, there/then)
b)
Movement Test
c)
Coordination Test (and, or, but)
*Apply the three constituent tests in the following sentence:
The
lazy students bought the book at the last minute.
Now that you have identified the units within this sentence, let’s take a further step and look at how are they organized.
How could we represent the way they are organized?
Phrase Structure
Tree diagrams are used to represent the internal
organization of sentences. The phrase structure of a sentence shows the nesting
of the constituents and the way different types of phrases are put together.
What are the types
of phrases that we can find?
All phrases are built around a basic category that acts like the head of the phrase. The basic categories around which phrases are constructed are Nouns, Verbs, Adjectives, and Prepositions. Therefore, we will have as many types of phrases as categories we have. Moreover, bear in mind that if the head of the phrase is not present we cannot construct any phrase.
a)
Noun Phrase (NP):
It
is the phrase with a noun (N) as its
basic category.
Examples
of Noun Phrases are (where the basic category is underlined):
Mary
A
man
pictures
of my friends
every
student’s parents
these
rumors that the secretary will be fired
b) Verb Phrase
(VP):
The phrase with a
verb (V) as the basic category.
Examples of Verb Phrases
are(where the basic category is underlined):
sleep
read a book
put the book on the table
think that he will win
tell Mary that she will be there
c) Prepositional Phrase (PP):
The
phrase with a preposition (P) as its basic category.
Examples
of Prepositional Phrases are(where the basic category is underlined):
in
over
the hill
on the
stage of the theater
at the
metro entrance
d)
Adjectival Phrase(AdjP):
The
phrase with an adjective (Adj) as its basic category.
Examples
of Adjectival Phrases are(where the basic category is underlined):
beautiful
quite
certain
very
famous
extremely
courageous
As we have seen, phrases are built around a skeleton consisting of two levels:
NP VP AdjP PP ¬ Phrase Level
N V Adj P ¬ Word Level
The lowest level is reserved for the word around which the phrase is built- an N in the case of NPs a V in the case of VPs, and so on. This element, as already mentioned before, is the head of the phrase.
Moreover, as the following examples show, it is possible to have a phrase in which only the head position is filled.
NP VP
N
V
Mary eats