SYNTAX

Dosen Pengampu : Diana Oktavia, S.Pd., M.A.

By
Nur Saumi (181014288203013)

PENDIDIKAN BAHASA INGGRIS

SEKOLAH TINGGI KEGURUAN DAN ILMU PENDIDIKAN
MUHAMMADIYYAH MUARA BUNGO
2019-2020
 CHAPTER II
DISCUSSION
Syntax is a part of linguistics that is involved in the study of sentence
structure. It is based on three elements of a sentence: word order, word agreement,
and hierarchical structure of a sentence (Hana, 2011). Learners of a language must
know how to arrange words which they know to make a sentence. If one wants
some books and knows that they are called books, a sentence may be constructed
as “Want these I books.” It is not grammatically correct, and the listener may not
understand the message. The words should be arranged as, “I want these books.”
A learner of a language should also ensure that there is word agreement in a
sentence; subject and verb, determiner and noun, and other words have to agree
between each other (Hana, 2011). The sentence “He want his ball” does not have
proper subject-verb agreement. The sentence “He wants his ball” is correct since
the subject is singular. The use of proper prepositions in a sentence is also
important; the learner should know which preposition agrees with the subject of a
sentence. A sentence like “I gave she a book” is not acceptable since the
preposition is wrong (Hana, 2011). Hierarchical structure of a sentence is also
very important. A good example is the following sentences: “We need focused
leaders” and “More leaders who are focused are needed”. The sentences have the
same meaning but different word arrangement (Hana, 2011).
Semantics deals with the meaning of words in a sentence. In its turn,
Syntax defines the meaning of the sentence. Some sentences can be
grammatically correct but make no sense; these sentences lack the correct use of
syntax (Hana, 2011). A good example is a sentence like ‘Colorless red decisions
sleep well.’ This sentence makes no sense, but it is grammatically correct,
although the agreement of words is not right. Some sentences make sense but are
not grammatically correct, as in a sentence like, “My big ball I will play today”. It
shows that the person will play his or her big ball today, but it is not
grammatically correct. The problem results from the lack of word order in the
sentence (Hana, 2011).
 Syntax is an aspect of linguistics that gives meaning to a sentence. Most
sentences are ambiguous when they lack syntax properties (Yule, 2006). One may
construct a sentence like, ‘John had a walking stick, and he bumped into an old
man with it’, and another person may construct a sentence like ‘John bumped into
an old man, and the old man happened to be carrying a walking stick’. These two
sentences would have the same meaning as the one initially constructed as ‘John
bumped into an old man with a walking stick’. It creates structural ambiguity; it is
open to diverse interpretations by the reader or the listener. The message could be
intended for various listeners and differential understanding of the sentence leads
to confusion. This shows that sentences that are not well structured could lead to
misunderstanding of the message. The main purpose of syntax in a sentence is to
show the structural distinction between the parties represented in a sentence
(Yule, 2006).
Syntax also enables learners to construct sentences that show recursion
which is important in the construction of grammatically correct sentences (Yule,
2006). It enables the construction of one sentence from many phrases that relate to
one subject or object. A good example is in the description of the location of an
object. The sweet is on the floor, the sweet is near the door, and the sweet is in the
kitchen. These phrases shold be cobined to construct a complex sentence that the
reader or listenener should understand. The prepositional phrase has to be
repeated in the complex sentence, and the words must be well arranged to make
sense. Recursion and proper arrangement of the words will change the sentence
as, ‘The sweet is on the floor, near the door, and in the kitchen’. The insertion of a
sentence within another sentence also requires proper arrangement of the words to
make a grammatically correct and logical sentence (Yule, 2006). It would be less
tedious and time savin g to read one sentence other ythan two sentences to get the
same meaning. An example can be the following: ‘Ken saw Ian’ and ‘Joan knows
that Ken saw Ian.’ The first sentence is represented in the second one. One can get
the meaning of the first sentence from the second one, and this is use of
syntactical skills.
 There are many rules involved in the study of syntax, and the easiest way
to understand it is learning through the tree diagrams formed using the syntax
rules. Many people have used this method to learn a different language and they
have proved that it is successful. (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2011).
Learners have to understand syntax rules to draw the tree. Without knowledge of
the rules, it can be difficult to understand them, but the rules help to make the
construction of sentences an easy task.
A. The Components of Grammars
The grammar of a language has several components. These can be
described as follows:
a) The phonetics that governs the structure of sounds;
b) The morphology that governs the structure of words;
c) The syntax, which governs the structure of sentences
d) The semantics that governs the meanings of words and sentences.
The word syntax derives from the Greek word syntaxis, which means
arrangement. Morphology deals with word formation out of morphemes;
syntax deals with phrase and sentence formation out of words.
The study of syntax in linguistics is quite challenging since the learner
has to know how to put words in a sentence to make it sensible and avoid
ambiguity (Smith, 2015). Many people know the meanings of many words,
but it is difficult to put the words in a sentence that makes grammatical and
logical sense. A sentence is supposed to communicate something to the
listeners. Words arranged in a sentence can give a particular meaning; the
same words rearranged can give a different message to the listeners. To
become proficient in a language, syntax is one of the most important aspects
to be considered.
The choice of the topic on syntax is influenced by the difficulty that is
experienced while learning a foreign language (Smith, 2015). Most of the
learners of a language have problems in the topic of syntax than all other
topics in the study of any language. Syntax is the learner’s first attempt to
understand creativity in language and its limits. An English learner may know
 the meaning of words football, take, watch and match, but the meaning of a
message depends also on the structure of a sentence. The learner may say,
“Take me football match watch.” This sentence is not acceptable as when one
would try to figure out its meaning, it might come out ambiguous. The learner
has to know syntax to come up with a sentence like “Take me out to watch
the football match.” Syntax soundness in a sentence makes the sentence
easier to understand for the reader and the listener and the message is passed
on to the reader without any confusion. Thus, people learning languages
should take into consideration the use of syntax (Yule, 2006).

B. The Representations of Syntax 

In Linguistics, the syntax of sentences can be described by different

methods, for instance, for the following sentence:

"The boy kicked the ball"

The syntax can be described, by the following methods:

A statement of the correct sequence of the parts of speech (or Syntactic

Categories):

Subject is followed by verb is followed by object.

In the above example,

subject = "The boy" (article followed by noun)

verb = "kicked"

object = "The ball" (article followed by noun)

1. By a series of transformational rules

For example:
 Sentence  Noun Phrase + Verb Phrase

Verb Phrase  Verb + Noun Phrase

Noun Phrase  Article + Noun Phrase

Where in the above example,

 Means “it transform into”

Verb phrase  “kicked the ball”
Noun phrase  “ the boy” “the ball”
2. By parsing diagrams

Here, the parts of a sentence are shown in a graphical way that emphasises the
hierarchical relationships between the components of a sentence. For
example:

Where:

Subject = “the boy”

(article + noun)

Verb = “kicked”

Object = “the ball”

(article + noun)

The above structure is the basic syntactic structure for a sentence in the
English language. As more complex sentences are considered, it is easy, by
this method, to see how these different structures relate to each other, by
further breaking down the branches of the structure. The syntax of the
language contains the rules which govern the structure of phrases and how
 these can be joined together. The structures and associated rules vary from
one language to another.

Parsing diagrams are capable of representing not just one particular

language’s grammar but are capable of representing any kind of grammar.
For instance, they can be used to represent the rules of invented languages
such as computer programming languages.

C. Examples of More Complex Syntactic Structures in language

1. Embedding

It is possible to construct sentences which are more complex than the

example above. This is done by embedding further phrases within the basic
structure. For example, in the sentence:

"The boy with red shorts kicked the ball."

"with red shorts" is a prepositional phrase that further describes “the

boy” .

This can be represented, within the basic sentence structure, as

follows:
 .

Here we can see how the Prepositional Phrase (PP) “with red shorts”
is embedded within the subject Noun Phrase (NP) so that the subject is
subdivided into a Noun Phrase and Prepositional Phrase (PP). The
Prepositional Phrase itself contains a further Noun Phrase. The parsing
diagram clearly shows the hierarchical relationship between the sentence and
its components. There are many other ways of extending this structure by
embedding subordinate phrases at different parts of the basic structure.

2. Conjoining.
 It is also possible to extend sentences by joining together complete
structures or complete and incomplete structures, for example:

"The boy with red shorts kicked the ball and scored a goal"

The conjunction “and” joins together the complete sentence:

"The boy with red shorts kicked the ball"

and the verb phrase:

“scored a goal"

This could be represented as follows:

D. ACTUAL EXAMPLES AND CASES OF SYNTAX USES

If one wants some books and knows that they are called books, a
sentence may be constructed as “Want these I books.” It is not grammatically
correct, and the listener may not understand the message. The words should
be arranged as, “I want these books.” A learner of a language should also
ensure that there is word agreement in a sentence; subject and verb,
determiner and noun, and other words have to agree between each other
(Hana, 2011). The sentence “He want his ball” does not have proper subject-
verb agreement. The sentence “He wants his ball” is correct since the subject
is singular. The use of proper prepositions in a sentence is also important; the
learner should know which preposition agrees with the subject of a sentence.
A sentence like “I gave she a book” is not acceptable since the preposition is
wrong (Hana, 2011). Hierarchical structure of a sentence is also very
important. A good example is the following sentences: “We need focused
leaders” and “More leaders who are focused are needed”. The sentences have
the same meaning but different word arrangement (Hana, 2011). Not only
English, other language also has its own syntax concept.

1. Syntax variances between French and English

Words are put together to form sentence in different ways in different
languages. This area of investigation is referred to as ‘syntax’. Syntacticians
are interested in the sequences of the parts in a sentence. For example, in
English we say “there is a red apple” with the adjective ‘red’ coming before
the noun ‘apple’, whereas in French, the sentence would be “il y a une
pomme rouge” where the adjective ‘rouge’ comes after the noun ‘pomme’.

2. Syntax variances between Korean and English

Intensive English syntax study begins in middle school for Korean
students. Korean students begin to study the grammatical differences in
detail between Korean syntax (subject-object-verb) and English syntax
(subject-verb-object) (Shoebottom, 2004). This major difference in sentence
pattern becomes more challenging when students begin to learn about
morphemes that need to change in order to have proper subject-verb
agreement. Since Korean is a non-linear writing system, spelling is also a
difficult challenge as they learn English’s linear letter arrangement (Wang et
al., 2006). Most Korean words follow the consonant-vowel-consonant letter
position (e.g., 김 /kim), where as English words can have consonant-
consonant-consonant-vowel letter position (e.g., THRee). This variance also
amplifies the pronunciation challenges Korean students have as they learn
complex English sound phonemes. Another contrast is the absence of
English morphemes like indefinite and definite articles ‘a’ and ‘the’.
Students struggle with the placement of ‘a’ and ‘the’ in English sentences and
often leave them out since there are no equivalent in Korean language
(Amuzie & Spinner, 2012). Korean students also struggle with vocabulary
usage, which is usually corrected with native English speaker help. Public
schools, private English academies and universities employ native English
speakers from around the world to expose students to Western culture.

3. Syntax variances between Spanish and English

Because Spanish and English are Indo-European languages—the two
have a common origin from several thousand years ago from somewhere in
Eurasia—they are alike in ways that go beyond their shared Latin-based
vocabulary. The structure of Spanish isn't difficult for English speakers to
understand when compared with, for example, Japanese or Swahili.
Both languages, for example, use the parts of speech in basically the
same way. Prepositions (preposiciones) are called that, for instance, because
they are "pre-positioned" before an object. Some other languages have
postpositions and circumpositions that are absent in Spanish and English.
Even so, there are distinct differences in the grammars of the two languages.
a. Placement of Adjectives
One of the first differences you're likely to notice is that Spanish
descriptive adjectives(those that tell what a thing or being is like)
typically come after the noun they modify, while English usually places
them before. Thus we would say hotel confortable for "comfortable
hotel" and actor ansioso for "anxious actor."
 Descriptive adjectives in Spanish can come before the noun—but
that changes the meaning of the adjective slightly, usually by adding
some emotion or subjectivity. For example, while an hombre pobre
would be a poor man in the sense of one not having money, a pobre
hombre would be a man who is poor in the sense of being pitiful. The
two examples above could be restated as confortable hotel and ansioso
actor, respectively, but the meaning might be changed in a way that isn't
readily translated. The first might emphasize the luxurious nature of the
hotel, while the second might suggest a more clinical type of anxiety
rather than a simple case of nervousness—the exact differences will vary
with the context.

The same rule applies in Spanish for adverbs; placing the adverb
before the verb gives it a more emotional or subjective meaning. In
English, adverbs can often go before or after the verb without affecting
the meaning.

b. Gender
The differences here are stark: Gender is a key feature of Spanish
grammar, but only a few vestiges of gender remain in English.

Basically, all Spanish nouns are masculine or feminine (there also

is a less-used neutergender used with a few pronouns), and adjectives or
pronouns must match in gender the nouns they refer to. Even inanimate
objects can be referred to as ella (she) or él(he). In English, only people,
animals, and a few nouns, such as a ship that can be referred to as "she,"
have gender. Even in those cases, the gender matters only with pronoun
use; we use the same adjectives to refer to men and women. (A possible
exception is that some writers differentiate between "blond" and "blonde"
based on gender.)

An abundance of Spanish nouns, especially those referring to

occupations, also have masculine and feminine forms; for example, a male
president is a presidente, while a female president is traditionally called a
presidenta. English gendered equivalents are limited to a few roles, such as
"actor" and "actress." (Be aware that in modern usage, such gender
distinctions are fading. Today, a female president might be called a
presidente, just as "actor" is now often applied to women.)

c. Conjugation
English has a few changes in verb forms, adding "-s" or "-es" to
indicate third-person singular forms in the present tense, adding "-ed" or
sometimes just "-d" to indicate the simple past tense, and adding "-ing" to
indicate continuous or progressive verb forms. To further indicate tense,
English adds auxiliary verbs such as "has," "have," "did," and "will" in
front of the standard verb form.

But Spanish takes a different approach to conjugation: Although it

also uses auxiliaries, it extensively modifies verb endings to indicate
person, mood, and tense. Even without resorting to auxiliaries, which also
are used, most verbs have more than 30 forms in contrast with the three of
English. For example, among the forms of hablar (to speak) are hablo (I
speak), hablan (they speak), hablarás (you will speak), hablarían (they
would speak), and hables (subjunctive form of "you speak"). Mastering
these conjugated forms—including irregular forms for most of the
common verbs—is a key part of learning Spanish.

d. Need for Subjects

In both languages, a complete sentence includes at least a subject
and a verb. However, in Spanish it is frequently unnecessary to explicitly
state the subject, letting the conjugated verb form indicate who or what is
performing the verb's action. In standard English, this is done only with
commands ("Sit!" and "You sit!" mean the same thing), but Spanish has no
such limitation.
 For example, in English a verb phrase such as "will eat" says
nothing about who will be doing the eating. But in Spanish, it is possible to
say comeré for "I will eat" and comerán for "they will eat," to list just two
of the six possibilities. As a result, subject pronouns are retained in
Spanish primarily if needed for clarity or emphasis.

e. Word Order
Both English and Spanish are SVO languages, those in which the
typical statement begins with a subject, followed by a verb and, where
applicable, an object of that verb. For example, in the sentence "The girl
kicked the ball," (La niña pateó el balón), the subject is "the girl" (la niña),
the verb is "kicked" (pateó), and the object is "the ball" (el balón). Clauses
within sentences also usually follow this pattern.

In Spanish, it is normal for object pronouns (as opposed to nouns)

to come before the verb. And sometimes Spanish speakers will even put
the subject noun after the verb. We'd never say something like "The book
wrote it," even in poetic usage, to refer to Cervantes writing a book but the
Spanish equivalent is perfectly acceptable, especially in poetic writing: Lo
escribió Cervantes. Such variations from the norm are quite common in
longer sentences. For example, a construction such as "No recuerdo el
momento en que salió Pablo" (in order, "I don't remember the moment in
which left Pablo") is not unusual.

Spanish also allows and sometimes requires the use of double

negatives, in which a negation must occur both before and after a verb,
unlike in English.

f. Attributive Nouns
It is extremely common in English for nouns to function as
adjectives. Such attributive nouns come before the words they modify.
Thus in these phrases, the first word is an attributive noun: clothes closet,
coffee cup, business office, light fixture.

But with rare exceptions, nouns can't be so flexibly used in

Spanish. The equivalent of such phrases is usually formed by using a
preposition such as de or para: armario de ropa, taza para café, oficina de
negocios, dispositivo de iluminación.

In some cases, this is accomplished by Spanish having adjectival

forms that don't exist in English. For example, informático can be the
equivalent of "computer" as an adjective, so a computer table is a mesa
informática.

g. Subjunctive Mood
Both English and Spanish use the subjunctive mood, a type of verb
used in certain situations where the verb's action isn't necessarily factual.
However, English speakers seldom use the subjunctive, which is necessary
for all but basic conversation in Spanish.

An instance of the subjunctive can be found in a simple sentence

such as "Espero que duerma," "I hope she is sleeping." The normal verb
form for "is sleeping" would be duerme, as in the sentence "Sé que
duerme," "I know she is sleeping." Note how Spanish uses different forms
in these sentences even though English does not.

Almost always, if an English sentence uses the subjunctive, so will

its Spanish equivalent. "Study" in "I insist that she study" is in the
subjunctive mood (the regular or indicative form "she studies" isn't used
here), as is estudie in "Insisto que estudie."

REFERENCE
Hana, J. (2011). Intro to Linguistics – Syntax 1.Germany: Springer.Stanford
Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Hawkins, Rogers. (2001). A Framework for Studying Second Language Syntax.
Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.
Smith, J. (2015). What students say about linguistics: Why study syntax?
Retrieved August 28th, 2019
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. (2011). Philosophy of Linguistics.
Retrieved August 28th, 2019, from Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy:
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/linguistics/
Yule, George. (2006). The Study of Language. Third Edition. United Kingdom:
Cambridge University Press.