Syntax

Syntax - is the branch of grammar that studies the way in which words combine
into larger units called phrases, clauses and sentences.
- the arrangement of words and phrases to create well-formed sentences
in a language.

 Phrases are defined as larger constituents projected round a central element the
head; are constituants of sentences and carry syntactic functions. A phrase can be
defined as a group of words that functions as a unit.

 The clause is the central structure in the language because it represents a

complete proposition, something that is stated or questioned or requested and so
on. Semantically the clause expresses one idea or thought.

 The Sentence is a string of words, either in speech or in writing that form a

single thought.

The noun phrase - NP

The verb phrase - VP
The adjective phrase - AP
The adverb phrase - Adv.P
The prepositional phrase - PP

The noun phrase: contains some obligatory and optional elements.

Obligatory - the head (can be express by a noun, a pronoun and the clause)
Ex: Paul. Students. The teacher. The child.

Optional - determiners (articles, possessives, demonstratives, quantifiers)

- modifiers (adjectives, nouns, adverbs, prepositional phrases, clauses)
Ex: Some sugar. The woman bus driver.
sugar- noun (the head) the - determinator
 some -determinator (quantifier) woman/bus - modifier
driver - the head

The prepositional phrase : contains 2 obligatory elements -the head (the PP) and the
noun
Ex: on the desk, behind the building, in our Collage
↓ ↓ ↓
the head the head the head

PP can be part of noun phrase :

The new student (in our class) → PP
↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓
deter. mod.(adj) head (head deter.(poss.) noun)

The adjective phrase : consists of the head (adj) and optional elements (adverbs,
intensifiers).

Ex: Very boring.

↓ ↓
head adv

The verbal phrase : consists of the head ( lexical verb or by an auxiliary verb, a noun
phrase or prepositional phrase)

Ex : She likes thrillers ( NP )

They left yesterday ( left- head + adverb- yesterday )
We couldn’t have known (could/have- aux vb, neg particle- not)
I don’t know his email address (do- aux vb, not- neg part, his address- NP)
 I may have been told about it (have -aux vb, been- passive aux,
told about it- PP → about- head + pron )

The adverbial phrase : adverb phrases contain an adverb as their head

Ex: worst of all, again, outside, suddenly, very fast , slowly

The classification of simple sentences:

according to their I. Inner structure

1. Declarative sentences (the order is Subject + Predicator)

- express negative or affirmative sentences
2. Interrogative sentences
- yes/no interrogatives sentences
- open interrogative / wh-sentences
- alternative interrogative sentences

3. Imperative sentences
- do not normally contain a subject and the vb is in the base form
ex: Let us meet in 5 minutes. Go home!
4. Exclamative sentences
- contains a wh` word + a noun phrase and sometimes the vb is
missing
ex: What a great disappointment she meant to me!

II. The speech act function they perform

 Syntactic Functions

1. The subject
- Is that unit which indicates who or what is engaged in carrying out the action
of the verb; that unit which tells us what a sentence is about.
Ex: The police arrested the bank robber.
The stuntman smashed the three cars in five minutes.
The community disliked her proposal
This rose smells beautifully
The girl with the white hat stood on the platform

- Subjects are expressed by phrases

- In English the subject is always in the first position in declarative sentences
- In English subjects are obligatory
- Subjects determines the form of the verb
- In yes/no interrogatives subject invert with the verb
- The dummy subject is defined by It or There
Ex: It is raining in England. It was hot.
It was suggested that the committee should meet weekly.
It was hard for him to believe that.
We leave it to the reader to appreciate what it means.

Nonreferential it - to express the distance or time in a sentence and the other it is

anticipatory which anticipate the subject in a sentence.
 Ex: Where did I put my hat? I put it in the car.

Existential there focuses on the idea of occurrence of something which has not
been introduced before.
Ex: There are 3 tigers in the cage.
There is a mark on this chair.
↓ ↓
logical subject a dummy subj. expressed by an existential there
I saw the book a minute ago. There it is!

Subjects can also be expressed by other phrase types :

Ex: Under the stairs was a safe area to hide.
Outside the fridge is not a good place to…
Restless is what I would call him.
Cautiously is how I would suggest to do it.

Predicator (predicate, predication, predicator)

Predication refers to the relationship between the verb and the other constituent
elements of the clause.
In Eng. we have 3 types of predication: nominal p, transitive p, intransitive p.
The term predicator is the central verb in a clause or a simple sentence while
predicate in a sentence comprises everything but the subject.
Predicates are expressed by a verb phrases while predicaters are expressed by verbs.
Ex: Eric lost his keys yesterday.
The cat chased the rat .
↓ ↓
subject predicate

The nominal predication

Contains a linking verb (vb copulativ/de legatura) + a predicative (nume
predicativ) or subject complement. The predicative may be expressed by adj phrases
or noun phrases.
Ex: Mary is nice. Mary is of my age.
Mary will be his wife. My hobby is collecting stamps.
Her dream was to travel a lot. The trouble is that they are too young.

Other linking verbs are semantically poor: become, run, go, make, remain, rest, lie.
Ex: She will make a good doctor. Rest assured that everything is under control.
He become a famous lawyer.

The meaning of the predicate depends on the subject and not the verb. The
predicate assigns a characteristic to the subject.
Ex: Mary was my bestfriend. The cakes are delicious. (has no pl form)

 Deverbal adjectives - converted from the noun or verb

- interested, amused,disappointed
- afraid, afloat, ablaze, ajar, alike, ashamed, asleep

 Prepositional adjectives - can be followed by a PP or by subordinate clauses

The lesson was too difficult for these beginners.
It's nice of her to have offered you flowers.
He was afraid of waking up his father. (to wake, that he might wake up)
The nominal predication is usually an indefinite noun phrases preceded by a zero
article.
Ex: It is a pity that he should have behaved as rudely.
He was master of the situation.
He was fool enough to marry her.
They are of the same opinion.
His behaviour was above reproach.
The inquiry was at a dead end.
The car was beyond repair.

The other two types of predication depend on concept of transitivity, which divides
lexical verb into two categories:
 transitive verbs that always need at least one complement (direct object) to
convey their meaning
 intransitive verbs that require no additional complements for their complete
meaning. (The foreigner smiled)

Intransitive Predication
Are expressed by complete predication in a form of intransitive verbs. In the
Intransitive predication the task is carried out by semantically independent verbs. This
equally characterizes transitive predications.
Depending on the predicating verb intransitive predications fall into 2 classes :
a) Simple Intransitives
Ex: The lilies have (splendidly) bloomed (in my garden).
The boy has slept (2 hours)(in the afternoon).

b) Intransitives with Particle

Ex: The balloon went up. The plane took off smoothly.
The snow came down thick and frost.
Ergative Verbs - (intrans or trans) usually denote a change or emotion, a transition
from one stage to another (begin, break, change, drop, improve, roll, stir, turn ).
Ex: Sarah moved the branch.
The branch moved.

Causative verbs - transitive verbs that express the causation of an event. Causative
verbs fall into three categories :
 Periphrastic causatives (cause, have, determine, get)
 Lexical causatives - which denote the result of an activity that form pairs with
intransitive verbs : die(intransitive) - kill (causative), lie- lay, sit- set, fall- fell
 Morphological causatives - verbs are converted from adjectives or nouns which
denote an attribute acquired from adjectives as a result of a cause
Adjectives : disable, enrich, activate, amplify (ample), civilize, humanize
(human), blacken (black), broaden, cheapen, fasten
Nouns: age, decay, heat, plant , frighten, hearten, stimulate
Ex : I shall have the boy re-write the exercise five times.
This made him part with his old friends.
I had my car repaired in the same garage as you.
The war caused great human lost.

- Complex Transitive Verbs with 2 objects : direct and indirect

Ex: They told the story (d) to Jack (i).

- Transitive Verbs with particles they may move in the sentence

Ex: to fill in : The man filled the application in correctly.
The man filled in the application correctly.
The man filled in correctly the application.

- Transitive Verbs with prepositional objects verbs which take direct obj and
prep obj
Ex: They blamed the boy (di obj) for (prep obj) their failure.
The thieves robbed him (di obj) off all his money. (prep obj)
 The Object (in rom. complementul)

The object is the main syntactic function that can be expressed by a noun phrase
inside the predicate. The relation between the predicating verb and the object may be
of two kinds :
1. A direct relation (a direct object)
2. An oblique relation mediated by a prepositional noun phrase ( indirect objec or
prepositional object)

The Direct Object denotes the person or thing affected by the transitive verb (whom?,
what? )
The relation between the verb and the direct object is very close. It can be proved by a
great number of idioms that contains the structure verb + direct obj.
Ex: To get the blow (to be destroyed, shocked)
To cut a poor figure ( to make a bad impression)
To move heaven and earth ( to do all efforts)

Classification of direct objects:

a) Simple direct objects
Ex: He saw Tom in the garden.

b) Coordinated objects
Ex: Henry James wrote novels and short stories.

c) Cognate objects - expressed by nouns belonging to the same family or semantic

field as the predicate
Ex: They got married and lived a happy life.
d) Double direct objects
Ex: He taught the children geography.

The Indirect Object (follows only transitive verbs)

- in spoken English attendance is to use the ind obj in front of the direct obj deleting
the preposition.
- the indirect obj designate persons naturally precede those which designate abstract
notions in English.
- spoken English manifests a preference for shorter constructions.
- indirect obj is used when the speaker wants to emphasize the indirect obj.
Ex: I shall show the letter to you (but not to her). To him I gave the order.

The Prepositional Object

- may follow both transitive and intransitive verbs and nouns or adjectives in the
nominal predication.
- in the case of verb phrases it is closely connected with verbs which take an
obligatory preposition
Ex: I was looking forward to meeting you.
His usual reaction was surprise at any new development.
He did not look much interested in the matter.
- prepositional obj can not transform into direct object
Ex: I' m appealing to you to help us.
We have often spoken of this matter.

Paratactic and hypotactic relations between clauses

I. The paratactic
- are relations of equality for phrases or clauses
- can be classified in: juxtaposition and coordination

Coordination is achieved by means of compounds. 2 clauses that are coordinates may

form a compound sentence. (fraza prin coordonare)
Ex: I often tease my pet dog (NP, DO) and my pet cat. (NP, OD)
Bill saw Jane and greeted her.
Grandfather is old and hard of hearing. (predicatives = nume predicativ)
We have lessons on Monday and Friday. (adverbials of time )

Reversibility in case of coordination

Coordinated clauses are reversible. However syntactic and pragmatic characteristics
make reversibility sometimes impossible.
- if the second coordinated clause contains that refers to a term in the first clause
Ex: Hundreds of Parisians have seen the exhibition/ and many visitors are expected
to see it in the next weeks./

- if the second clause contains an item which makes it cohesive with the first
Ex: There was no moon that night and as a result they took the wrong turning.
He made a fortune and bought an oil- tanker.
He bought an oil-tanker and made a fortune.

- coordination is achieved by conjunctions and adverbs

Types of Conjunctions

Copulative conjunctions - they denote addition

Ex: and, not only….but also, neither ..nor, now, then, furthermore, besides,
likewise, moreover, again , in addition
First he did his homework/ then he went to the cinema./ (then-adverbial of time)
The car is almost new besides it is in excellent condition.

Disjunctive conjunctions - indicating choice

Ex: or, either..or, else, otherwise
Either come in or go out.
Come home early otherwise you’ll be punished.

Adversative conjunctions - denoting contradiction or contrast

Ex: but, yet, still, however, all the same, on the other hand, whereas, while
She tried to sleep but was too restless.
He drove badly yet he passed his test.

Resultative coordinators - denoting conclusion

Ex: so, therefore, then, thus , hence, accordingly, consequently
It was late so I went to bed.
We had worked all day therefore we were tired.

II. Juxtaposition
- no coordinators conjunction present
Ex: The moon went down, the stars grew pale, the cold day broke, the sun rose.

The relationship of subordination

 If a sentence contains 1 or several subordinate clauses then we have a complex
sentence.
There are two types of subordination relationships: embedding and dependency.
Embedding - is a clause functioning as a constituent of another clause which is called
the main root clause.
Ex: [[Why he gave up his job] was a mystery for all of us.]
[[She explained [that the machine was out of order.]

Dependency - the subordinate clause brings only additional information to the main
clause.
Ex: [While Mary was parking the car, [John bought the tickets.]]
[They advised me to emigrate [which is the last thing I’d do.]]

Classification of subordinate
- nominal clauses > embedded clauses
- relative clauses > embedded clauses
- adverbial clauses > dependent clauses