BASICS OF SYNTAX

SYNTAX is the study of the structure of phrases, clauses and sentences.

PHRASE is a group of words that function together.
PHRASAL CATEGORIES
Words that belong to same category and constituents may involve
combinations of more than one word.
Constituents are words that can combine with other words to form
semantically coherent groupings.
For instance, consider the following sentence:
(1)The joggers ran through the park.
Upon eamining the leical categories involved, we see that this
constituent is formed by the combination of a determiner and a noun.
!ow consider each words or groups below. !ote that each of them could
be substituted for the phrase the joggers in the sentence and a grammatical
sentence would result:
(")a. #usan
b. #tudents
c. $ou
d. %ost dogs
e. #ome children
f. &uge, lovable bear
g. %y friend from 'ra(il
h. )he people that we interviewed
(a)*nd (b) are single !s, (f) is composed of +,) - *+. - !, (g) is
composed of +,) - ! - /0,/ - !, and (h) is di1er from all of these.
NOUN PHRASES (NP) is a noun alone or a noun plus other words forms2
#ometimes, a single word can count as an !/ all by itself, but not always.
(e.g. the word dog cannot be substituted for the !/ slot (3) : 44444444 ran
through the par5.) 6n the sentence, dog is a !, but not a !/ (whereas other
nouns in the plural would count as both if placed alone in the slot)
* !/ can be used as the sub7ect of a sentence, as in (8)2 as direct ob7ect,
as in (9)2 as the indirect ob7ect, as in (:)2 and in many other ways as well.
(8) Some children li5e ice cream.
(9) &arold li5es some children.
(:) )he teacher gave some children a scolding this morning.
!ow consider the sentence in (;):
(;) The mothers visited their children
<onstituency tests demonstrate that visited their children is constituent.
6t is composed of = - !/. !ote that this particular structure does not share
the same properties of the structures grouped into the category of !/
because we could not insert visited their children in the slot in (3). >ther
structures could be substituted for visited their children. For eample:
(?) a. snored
b. love music
c. wal5ed the dog through the par5
d. believe that dogs are smart
e. wanted to leave
f. will sleep soundly
g. can lift 1@@ pounds
h. are wearing sunglasses
i. go home and have a beauty rest
*ll of these can be grouped to another phrasal category, which is VERB
PHRASES (VP) that consists of a single = or a = plus other words. For
eample: (f) is = - *+= and (c ) is = - !/ - //.
* =/ can be used as the predicate of a sentence A i.e. it combines with a
sub7ect !/ to form a whole #, as shown in (B):
(B) a. /at loves music.
b. &enry wanted to leave.
*nother phrasal category is that of ADJECTIVE PHRASES (ADJPs) such
as those in (1@):
(1@) a. smart
b. very epensive
c. as tall as his father
d. smarter than the average bear
e. certain to win
note that each of these could be inserted into the syntactic frame in (11):
(11) )olim is 4444444444444444444444444.
*+./s are often used to modify nouns and thus often appear as elements
of noun phrases: for instance, a very expensive watch; anyone as tall as his
father.
ADVERBIAL PHRASES (ADVPs) such as those in (1") are often used to
modify verbs and ad7ectives and adverbs and thus appear as constituents of
=/s and *+./s as in (13).
(1") a. soundly
b. Cercely
c. as Duently as a native
d. almost certainly
(13) a. spea5 French as Duently as native (=/)
b. Cercely loyal (*+./)
c. sleep soundly (=/)
*nother phrasal syntactic category is that of PREPOSITIONAL PHRASES
(PPs). // always consist of a preposition plus an !/:
(18) a. from 'ra(il
b. with &oward and his dog
c. for nothing
d. to the head honcho
* // can be an constituent of a wide range of phrases:
(19) a. go to the movies (=/)
b. my friend from 'ra(il (!/)
c. angry with &oward and his dog (*+./)
d. separately from the others (*+=/)
SENTENCES (Ss) also form a phrasal syntactic category. #entences are of
course, often used by themselves:
(1:) a. 6t is raining.
b. 6 li5e apple pie.
'ut a sentence may also appear as an element of another epression, for
eample, each of the following epressions contains a sentence:
(1;) a. the fact that it is raining. (!/)
b. a student who met Susan last Thursday. (!/)

c. discover that it is raining. (=/)
d. glad that it is raining. (*+./)
!ote that any epression resulting from the combination of two or more
smaller epressions by a con7unction belongs to the same category as
smaller ones do.
CLAUSE is the presence of a sub7ectEverb relationship.
In!e"en!ent o# $%in C&%uses clauses that can stand independently.
De"en!ent o# Su'o#!in%te (&%use clauses that cannot.
SENTENTIAL TER$INOLOGY
SI$PLE CO$POUND %n! CO$PLEX SENTENCES
* simple sentence contains at least one sub7ect and one verb and can
stand alone as an independent clause. (e.g. )he glass ashtray is dirty.)
)here are Cve basic simple sentence patterns in ,nglish:
#ub7ect - verb )he building
collapsed.
#ub7ect - verb - ob7ect )hey bought a new
car.
#ub7ect - verb - indirect ob7ect -
direct ob7ect
#he wrote him a
letter
#ub7ect - verb - sub7ect predicate .anetFs my friend
#ub7ect - =erb - ob7ect - ob7ect
predicate
#he ma5es me
happy
<ompound sentence consists of two or more clauses of eGual grammatical
importance. (e.g. &e went to the party, but 6 stayed home.)
<omple #entence
>ne type: contains a main clause and one or more subordinate clauses.
(e.g. /eggy freGuently calls because she wants to stay in touch.)
#econd type: a dependent clause is embedded or included, in an
independent clause. ,mbedded clauses can ta5e place of a sub7ect2
That he didnt want to go to the ballet was obvious. (t was obvious!
>r an ob7ect:
argued that it would be a mistake. ( argued my position.!
>r even of an ad7ective:
The person who has responsible for the accident "ed. (The person
responsible "ed.!
)hus, when we move beyond the simple or monoclausal sentence, three
processes are at wor5: (oo#!in%tion, or 7oining of two clauses of eGual
grammatical stature2 su'o#!in%tion of one clause to another2 and
e)'e!!in*, when a dependent clause is included within a main or
independent clause.
SENTENCE consists of a #ub7ect ()heme) and /redicate(0heme)
SENTENCE $OODS
T+#ee )%in $oo!s,
De(&%#%ti-e (indicative)
Inte##o*%ti-e
I)"e#%ti-e
T.o )ino# $oo!s,
E/(&%)%to#0
Su'1un(ti-e, can indicate a spea5erFs uncertainty or the
hypotheticality of the propositional content or meaning of the clause2
signaled by the use of the be verb rather than the inDected form is.
f that be so# ll leave now.
6t can also indicate that something is contrary to fact or counter factual,
here signaled by the use of the be verb in its third person plural past tense
form:
f were a bird# wouldnt eat worms.
Four of the Cve moods have sentence type counterparts, but the
sub7unctive in ,nglish can be mar5ed only by using a di1erent form of the
verb from the form ordinarily called for. Usually, the sub7unctive uses either
the uninDected base form or were.
+eclarative (statement sentence type): Today is Tuesday.
6nterrogative (Guestion sentence type): $hat are you going to wear to the
party%
6mperative (command sentence type): &ass the milk# please.
,clamatory (eclamation sentence type): what a beautiful autumn it is'
#ub7unctive (here reali(ed with the were form): wish were going with
you.
T+#ee $%in Co))uni(%ti-e Fun(tion o2 L%n*u%*e, (*llen and
Widdowson 1B;9)
)elling someone something
*s5ing someone something
Hetting someone to do something

6t is possible to as5 someone to do something using any of the following
three types, even though the Crst is more indirect way than the other two:
#tatement: am not thirsty.
Iuestion: (ould you bring something from the refrigerator for me to drink%
<ommand: &lease bring me something to drink from the refrigerator.
6t should be mentioned that the three main sentence types have negative
forms as well:
!egative statement: am not thirsty.
!egative Guestion: (ouldnt you bring me something to drink%
!egative command: )ont bring me something to drink.
TREE DIAGRA$S
)ree diagrams are one way of graphically representing the structure of a
sentence.
NODES or points which indicate a constituent.
(1?) %y mother li5es her cats.
We can determine (with constituent test) that the phrasal constituents of
this sentence are the following:
(a) my mother (!/)
(b) li5es her cats (=/)
(<) her cats (!/)
(d) my mother li5es her cats (#)

* tree diagram representing the structure of this sentence loo5s li5e:
S
VP

NP
NP
DET N V
DET N
$0 )ot+e# &i3es
+e# (%ts