Syntax: The Sentence Patterns of

Language

Intro. to General Linguistics

Nina Setyaningsih
 Definition
• Syntax is the study of the principles and rules
for the construction of phrases and sentences
in natural languages.
• It is the part of grammar that represents a
speaker’s knowledge of sentences and their
structures.
 Rules of Syntax
• Specifies the correct word order of language.
SVO, VSO, VOS, SOV, etc…
1. The President nominated a new Supreme
Court justice.
2. *President the new Supreme justice Court a
nominated.
 Rules of Syntax
• Specifies the grammatical relations of a
sentence: subject, object, specifier,
complement, head, etc…
• They provide the information about who is
doing what to whom
1. John loves Mary.
2. Mary loves John.
 Rules of Syntax
• Specifies constraint that must be adhered to.
(a) *Disa slept the baby.
(b) Disa slept soundly

(a) *The boy found in the house.

(b) The boy found the ball.
 Rules of Syntax
• It clarifies structural ambiguity.
For sale: an antique desk suitable for lady with
thick legs and large drawers.
- [a desk] [for lady with thick legs and large
drawers]
- [a desk for lady] [with thick legs and large
drawers]
• It permits speakers to produce and understand
limitless number of sentences never heard
produced or heard before. This is called the
creative aspect of linguistic knowledge.
 Grammatical vs. Ungrammatical
• Syntactic knowledge qualifies which utterance
is grammatical and which one is
ungrammatical.
• Well-formed or grammatical sentence: a
sequence of words that conform to the rules
of syntax.
• Ill-formed or ungrammatical sentence: a
sequence of words that violate the rules of
syntax
English sample sentences:
1. Enormous crickets in pink socks danced at
the prom.
2. Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.
3. A verb crumpled the milk.
4. *Furiously sleep ideas green colorless.
5. *Milk the crumpled verb a.
6. *The boy quickly in the house the ball found.
7. *Why are you did not eat the food?
 Syntactic Categories
Lexical categories Examples
• Noun (N) • moisture, policy
• Verb (V) • melt, remain
• Adjective (Adj) • good, intelligent
• Preposition (P) • to, near
• Adverb (Adv) • slowly, now
 Syntactic Categories
Non-lexical categories Examples
• Determiner (Det) • the, this
• Degree word (Deg) • very, more
• Qualifier (Qual) • always, perhaps
• Auxiliary (Aux) • will, can
• Conjunction (Conj) • and, or
 Indicate the category of each word in the
following sentences.
a. The glass suddenly broke.
Det / N / Adv / V
b. A jogger ran towards the end of the lane.
Det / N / V / P / Det / N / P / Det / N
c. The peaches never appear quite ripe.
Det / N / Qual / V / Deg / A
d. Gillian will play the trumpet and the drums in the orchestra.
N / Aux / V / Det / N / Conj / Det / N / P / Det / N
 Phrases
• NP : Noun Phrase
The car, a clever student
• VP : Verb Phrase
study hard, play the guitar
• PP : Prepositional Phrase
in the class, above the earth
• ADJP : Adjective Phrase
very tall, quite certain
 Noun Phrase (NP)
• NP is formed by a noun alone or a noun plus other words
a. NP →Det N the cat
b. NP → Det Adj N those noisy cats
c. NP → N cats
d. NP → Adj N noisy cats
e. NP
Pron she, you
f. NP
Det N PP my friend from Brazil
 Verb Phrase (VP)
• VP can consist of a single V or a V plus other words
a. VP
V snored
b. VP
V + ADV sleep soundly
c. VP
V + NP + PP walked the dog through the park
• A VP can combine with a subject NP to form a whole
S (sentence)
Pat loves music.
 Adjective Phrase (ADJP)
• ADJPs are often used to modify nouns and thus often
appear as elements of NP, for example:
a very expensive watch
• Examples of ADJP
smart
very expensive
certain to win
as tall as his father
 Adverbial Phrase (ADVP)
• ADVPs are often used to modify V and ADJ and ADV
• Example:
almost certainly
fiercely
• ADVPs also appear as constituents of VP and ADJP
sleep soundly (VP)
fiercely loyal (ADJP)
 Prepositional Phrase (PP)
• PPs always consist of a preposition plus an NP
• Example:
from Uganda
for nothing
• A PP can be constituent of wide range of phrases
my friend from Uganda (NP)
angry with Howard and his dog (ADJP)
go to the movies (VP)
separately from the others (ADVP)
 Phrase Structure Trees and Rules
• A tree diagram with syntactic category
information is called a phrase structure tree
• The information represented in a PS tree can
also be represented by another formal device:
phrase structure (PS) rules.
• NP → (Det) N (PP)
• PP → P NP

The bus (NP) The bus in the yard

NP
Det N Det N PP

The bus P NP

Det N

The bus in the yard

• VP → V (NP) (PP)
• NP → Det N
• PP → P NP
took the money (VP) took the money from the bank
VP
V NP V NP PP
Det N
Det N P NP
took the money
Det N

took the money from the bank

 Sentence
The children put the toy in the box
S

NP VP
Det N V NP PP
Det N P NP

Det N
The children put the toy in the box
 Draw the tree diagram
1. fixed my problem
2. the friend of the teacher
3. a movie about war
4. walk to the door
5. found a cake in the cupboard
See you next week!