英语语言学：第 4 章 2015年7月15日星期三 2015年7月15日星期三...

2023年4月19日河南大学外语学院姜玲

英语语言学：第 4 章

Chapter 4 Syntax


英语语言学：第 4 章outline

4.1 Introduction4.2 Word Classes 4.3 The Prescriptive Approach 4.4 The Descriptive Approach 4.4.1 Structural analysis 4.4.2 Immediate constituent analysis4.5 Constituent Structure Grammar 4.6 Transformational Grammar 4.7 Systemic Functional Grammar



4.1 Introduction Syntax: study of the internal structures

of sentence and the rules for the combination of words.

Difference between morphology and syntax

Morphology: the internal structure of words

Syntax: the combination of words


英语语言学：第 4 章Syntactic rules

(1) a. The hunter fears the cries of the blackbirds. b. The blackbirds fear the cries of the hunter. (2) a. Jack looked up the word. b. Jack looked the word up. (3) *Cries fear the the of hunter blackbirds the. Conclusion: The structure of sentence such as w

ord order can change the meaning. Every sentence is a sequence of words but not every sequence of words is a sentence. Sentence formation has rules, so that we have well/ill formed or (un)grammatical sentences.



4.2 Word Classes Nouns are words used to refer to people,

objects, creatures, places, events, qualities, phenomena and abstract ideas as if they were all things. cats, dogs, war, wedding, courage, beauty, rain, love, hatred

Adjectives are words that describe the thing, quality, state or action which a noun refers to. beautiful, red

Verbs are words used to refer to various actions and states involving the “things” in events. run, walk, seem


英语语言学：第 4 章4.2 Word Classes

Adverbs are words that describe or add to the meaning of a verb, an adjective, another adverb, or a sentence, and which answers the questions introduced by how, where, when, etc. carefully, slowly, then, now

Prepositions are words used with nouns in phrases providing information about time, place and other connections involving actions and things.

Pronouns are words which may replace nouns or noun phrases.

Conjunctions are words used to connect and indicate relationships between events and things.

Articles, Exclamations, Numerals



The definitions above are useful for identifying most forms, but they are never completely accurate. A different approach might focus on some other properties of the word classes. For example, a noun can be defined as a form that comes after an article (a, an and the) and can take inflections for possessive (-’s) and plural (-s). Of course, not all nouns (eg. information and mud) have all these characteristics.



Phrase structure rules Representation:

The hunter fears the cries of the blackbirds

Art + N + V + Art+N+ Prep+Art + N

The rules which govern the structure of phrases

are known as phrase structure rules or rewrite ru

les.



4.3 The Prescriptive Approach Definition: An approach taken by some

grammarians, mainly in eighteenth-century England, who lay down rules for the correct or “proper” use of English by following Latin.

(a) You must not split infinitives. (b) You must not end a sentence with a

preposition. To boldly go. →To go boldly. Preposition is not a word you can end a

sentence with. (funny) Mary runs faster than me. →Mary runs faster

than I. Who do you see? →Whom do you see?



4.4 The Descriptive Approach

Definition: An approach taken

throughout the 20th century which

attempts to describe the regular

structures of the language as it is used

by collecting samples. Various

techniques may be employed.



4.4.1 Structural analysis A descriptive approach studying the distribution

of linguistic forms in a language by means of test frames, which can be sentences with empty slots in them.

(4) The _____ makes a lot of noise. (nouns: car, radio, child, dog)

(5) I heard a _____ yesterday. (nouns: car, radio, child, dog)

(6) _____ makes a lot of noise. (noun phrases: it, the car, a dog, Peter, a new car, the scholar with an American accent)

(7) I hear _____ yesterday. (noun phrases: it, the car, a dog, Peter, a new car, the scholar with an American accent)



4.4.2 Immediate constituent analysis Language is linear and hierarchical. We can

analyze language from its largest level to the smallest level, that is from its construction to its constituents by means of substitutability and expansion. The first divisions or cuts of a construction are called immediate constituents and the final cuts as the ultimate constituents. The approach to divide the sentence up into its immediate constituents by using binary cutting until obtaining its ultimate constituents is called immediate constituent analysis (IC).



Tree diagram

(8) The man bought a car.



Brackets

Brackets can also be used but are arguably less easy to read.

9) a. [the man bought a car] b. [[the man] [bought a car]] c. [[[the] [man]] [[bought] [a car]]] d. [[[the] [man]] [[bought] [[a] [car]]]]



Disambiguity

old men and women


英语语言学：第 4 章4.5 Constituent Structure Grammar

A grammar which analyzes sentences using only the idea of constituency, which reveals a hierarchy of structural levels. The main principle is labeling and bracketing based on the idea that linguistic units can be parts of larger constructions or can themselves be made up of smaller parts. (binary and verb-centered)


英语语言学：第 4 章 Tree diagram

Binary

Verb-centered



Generative Rules The syntax of a language is then seen as a s

et of rules which generate sentences in that language.

S→NP ＋ VP VP→Vtr. ＋ NP NP→Art ＋ N Vtr. →buy, sell, build, repair, wash, etc. N→man, woman, car, house, bicycle, etc. Art→a, an, the



Sentences generated

(12) a. The man bought a car.

b. The man sold a car.

c. The woman repaired the bicycle.



More complex rules

There is a large number of sentences in English that such rules cannot produce. This set of rules has very limited generative power. The above rules only deal with simple noun phrases and transitive verbs. They do not allow us to deal with any part of the verb structure such as tense, modals or aspect.



More complex rules



Sentences generated

(13) a. The man sells the car in the garage.

b. The woman washes the bicycle in the

street.

c. The boy repairs the bicycle in the

house.


英语语言学：第 4 章Disambiguity

PP

S

NP VP

Art N

VNP

Art NPrep

Art N

The boy repairs the bicycle in the house



Recursion (PP rule, CP rule) PP: in the house around the corner CP: Mary helped George. Cathy thought Mary helped George. John said Cathy thought Mary helped George. A children’s rhyme: This is the house that Jack built. This is the cat that lived in the house that Jack built. This is the dog that chased the cat that lived in the house

that Jack built. This is the man that keeps the dog that chased the cat

that lived in the house that Jack built. This is the woman that married the man that keeps the

dog that chased the cat that lived in the house that Jack built.



Some problems Lexical selection restriction With simple constituent structure rules, any nou

n can be introduced in a combination with any verb. This does not happen in natural language. We cannot say:

(17) *The belief washed an apple. Discontinuousness The boy cleaned the room up. The student looked the word up in the dictionary. Relation between sentences that seem to be clos

ely related structurally and semantically Brian hit George→George was hit by Brian.



Noam Chomsky, (1928--) ， founder of Transformational Grammar

4.6 Transformational Grammar



4.6 Transformational Grammar

Grammar: in the broadest way, a theory of grammar including phonology and semantics. a linguistic theory

We shall only focus on the syntactic aspect of transformational grammar.



Classical theory Three parts: phrase structure rules, transfor

mational rules and morphophonemic rules. S→NP+VP; simple active declarative kernel s

entences; negative, passive or interrogative sentences passive transformation (17) NP1 ＋ Aux ＋ V ＋ NP2→NP2 ＋ Aux ＋

be ＋ en ＋ V ＋ by ＋ NP1 The boy has repaired the bicycle →The bicyc

le has been repaired by the boy.



The morphophonemic rules The morphophonemic rules would apply to the o

utput of the transformational rules. Their function is to provide the correct morphological shape to the various parts of the structure and finally to give the appropriate phonological description.

en + repair → repair + en → repair + ed[d] en +write→ write + en→ writt[rit] + en



Standard theory

competence and performance (Chapter 1) deep structure and surface structure The deep structure of a sentence is its most

basic structure both semantically and syntactically. The surface structure is the form that people can actually say. It is fairly arbitrary. Two superficially similar structures may convey a substantially different message.



deep structure and surface structure

Consider the following pair of sentences: (18) a. John is easy to please. b. John is eager to please. In the first sentence John is doing the

pleasing, and in the latter he is on the receiving end.

Structurally similar sentences might be very different in their meanings, for they have quite different deep structures.



Standard theory



Different stages of generative grammar

Extended Standard Theory Revised Extended Standard Theory Government and Binding Theory (GB) Principles and Parameters Approach

(P&P) Minimalist Program (MP)



Other branches of GG Throughout the development of transformational

grammar, Chomsky has maintained the centrality of syntax. The syntactic component of transformational grammar is the generative core. Other components are interpretive and dependent on the basic and deep syntactic structure.

Not everyone agreed with him on this point. Generative semantics: give semantics the central

generative role Case grammar: see syntax as central but prefer to

work with “case” structures and dependency relations.



4.7 Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG)

Linguists who adopt this view are interested in relating the various kinds of structures and patterns that language shows to the functions that language fulfills and to the social settings in which it is used.Difference from TG: function and contextual, purposefulHalliday’s three meta-functions : ideational, interpersonal, textual M.A.K Halliday



Ideational Ideational: the function in which we

conceptualize the world as a representation of experience

(19) The boy kicked the post. (The post was kicked by the boy)

(20) The man liked the new house. (21) The child is homeless. (22) The girl laughed. (23) The visitor said “hello”. (24) There is a girl over there.


英语语言学：第 4 章Transitivity

Process type

Subcategory

Nuclear participants Example

Material Event(i.e. happening)Action(i.e. doing)

Actor, Goal, (beneficiary/recipient, range/circumstance)

She built the house (for the kids)She climbed (the mountain)

Mental PerceptionCognitionAffection

Senser, Phenomenon

She saw the carShe forgot his nameShe liked his music

Relational AttributiveIdentifying

Carrier, AttributeToken, Value

Maggie was strongMaggie was our leader

Behavioural Behaver She laughed

Verbal Sayer She replied

Existential Existent There was a beautiful princess



Interpersonal Interpersonal: set up and maintain social and

personal relations, including communication roles such as questioner and respondent, and express the language user’s own attitudes and comments on the content of an utterance.

Traditionally declarative, interrogative and imperative

Declarative: give information and perform the function of statement

Interrogative: request something and perform the function of question



Interpersonal Imperative: give instructions and

perform the function of commands However, exact correlation between

form and function only occurs in idealized sentences. We can use declarative to ask questions, and to issue instructions.

You are going out.



Mood Demand for, and offer of, goods or services Demand for, and offer of, linguistic information Politeness increases (27) a. Pass the salt. b. Please pass the salt. c. Can you pass the salt? d. Could you possibly pass the salt? e. You couldn’t possibly pass the salt, could

you? The more indirect the demand, the more polite it

is felt to be.


英语语言学：第 4 章Textual

Textual: enable the speaker or writer to construct a text, and the listener or reader to distinguish a text from a random set of sentences.

We have to decide how to order the parts of the message so as (a) to make it clear to our audience, and (b) to emphasize, or make prominent, the essential elements of it.



Information structure

given (old, known) + new (unknown) marked vs unmarked There is a bird on the tree. (unmarked) A bird is on the tree. (marked) (28) a. James enjoys tennis more than John. (less cumbersome) b. James enjoys tennis more than John enjoys tennis.


英语语言学：第 4 章Textual

The items that are semantically close are syntactically close.

(29) a. The day came at last when we were due to leave. (more marked)

b. The day when we were due to leave came at last.



thematic relation

theme: the first constituent, the starting point of the clause ---- what it is going to be about.

rheme: the rest of the clause (30) a. Gas explosion killed thousands. b. Thousands were killed by gas ex

plosion. (31) a. The rain came down. (unmarked) b. Down came the rain. (marked)



Textual

The book is on a table

Thematic theme rheme

Information old new

Functional approaches concentrating on textual

aspects feature quite highly in discourse analysis

and we will be returning to them in Chapter 7.


英语语言学：第 4 章Summary

4.1 Definition4.2 Word Classes(ten:5+5) 4.3 The Prescriptive Approach 4.4 The Descriptive Approach 4.4.1 Structural Analysis (with slots) 4.4.2 Immediate constituent analysis (tree)4.5 Constituent Structure Grammar (tree, rules,

merits, features, problems) 4.6 Transformational Grammar (grammar, classic,

standard, stages, other branches) 4.7 Systemic Functional Grammar (ideational,

interpersonal, textual)



Exercise 1. Define the following terms. syntax, word class, prescriptive approach,

descriptive approach, IC analysis, ultimate constituent, transformational grammar, ideational function, interpersonal function, textual function

2. Draw two tree diagrams for the following sentence to show the different relationship of in the car.

The dog bit the man in the car.


英语语言学：第 4 章Questions for chapter three

and chapter four

1. How many types of morphemes are there in the English language? State what they are and illustrate how they work.

2. Give examples to tell the difference between derivation and compounding.

3. Give examples to illustrate the distinction between deep structure and surface structure.


英语语言学：第 4 章Questions for chapter three

and chapter four 1. How many types of morphemes are there in t

he English language? State what they are and illustrate how they work.

There are two types of morphemes in the English language: free morphemes and bound morphemes. Free morphemes are independent units of meaning and can be used freely all by themselves such as help, table, room, etc.; bound morphemes are those that cannot be used independently but have to be combined with other morphemes, either free or bound, to form a word such as un-, diss-, anti-, -ful, -ish.



Questions (continued) 2. Give examples to tell the difference between

derivation and compounding. They’re two important ways of forming new wor

ds in the English language. In terms of morphemic analysis, derivation can be viewed as the addition of affixes to stems to form new words. For example, we add affix “-ly” to a free morpheme “quick” and we will get a derivative “quickly”. Compounding is the combination of two or sometimes more than two words to create new words, e.g. when the adjective “dead” is added to a free morpheme “line”, we get a compound “deadline”.



Questions (continued) 3. Give examples to illustrate the distinction

between deep structure and surface structure. The deep structure represents the basis for the

meaning of a sentence and the surface structure represents what a sentence sounds like. One surface structure may represent several meanings, which are expressed by different deep structures. One deep structure may also be expressed in different surface structures. For example the same surface structure “the shooting of hunter is terrible” may have two deep structures which may mean “the hunter is terribly shot” or “the hunter’s shooting is terrible” respectively.

英语语言学：第 4 章 2015年7月15日星期三 2015年7月15日星期三...

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