Syntax by George Yule

1. 1. In the name of Allah, the most Beneficent, the most Merciful.

2. 2. Presented by: Group 7 Presented to : Sir Irfan Abbas
3. 3. Contents • What is syntax? • What is Grammar and its types? • What is Generative Grammar? •
Deep and Surface Structure • Structural Ambiguity • Tree Diagram • Symbols used in Syntactic
Analysis • Phrase structural rules • Lexical rules • Movement rules • Complement phrase • Recursion
4. 4. What is Syntax? The word „syntax‟ has been derived from the Greek word syntaxis which means
„arrangement‟. It implies the way in which words are arranged so as to reveal relationships of
meanings within sentences and often between them. It studies combinations of words including word-
structure and sentence-structure.
5. 5. What is Grammar? Grammar is a word that confuses considerably. It has been approached and
defined differently by different scholars and schools of linguistics. Etymologically, the term Grammar
goes back (through French & Latin) to Greek word Grammatika or Grammatkia which may be
translated as the art of „writing‟. But for a long time, this term has been used very closely to
incorporate the whole study of language.
6. 6. Types of Grammar Prominent types of grammar are discussed below: • Traditional Grammar •
Prescriptive Grammar • Descriptive Grammar • Sentence-Interpretative Grammar • Sentence-
Producing Grammar • Reference Grammar • Contrastive Grammar • Theoretical Grammar • Structural
Grammar • Phrase-Structure Grammar • Generative Grammar • Transformational Grammar •
Stratificational Grammar • Communicative Grammar
7. 7. Generative Grammar Generative Grammar is a grammar in which a set of formal rules are used to
generate or define the membership of an infinite set of grammatical sentences in a language. Instead of
analyzing a single sentence, this grammar devises a set of rules of construction that may help in
generating sentences or structures in an infinitely large number. This grammar attempts to produce all
and only grammatical sentences of language. (all and only means that our analysis must account for all
the grammatical correct phrases and sentences and only those grammatical correct phrases and
sentences in whatever language we are analyzing.) We have a rule such as “a prepositional phrase in
English consists of a preposition followed by a noun phrase”. We can produce a large number of
(infinite) phrase using this rule. e.g. in the zoo, on the table, near the window
8. 8. Deep and Surface Structure • Charlie broke the window. (Active Voice) • The window was broken
by Charlie. (Passive Voice) • Jack loves his brother. (Active Voice) • His brother is loved by Jack.
(Passive Voice) Some linguists, in particular Noam Chomsky, have tried to account for this similarity
by positing that these two sentences are distinct (different) surface forms that derive from a common
deep structure.
9. 9. Deep and Surface Structure • Charlie broke the window. (Active Voice) • The window was broken
by Charlie. (Passive Voice) • Jack loves his brother. (Active Voice) • His brother is loved by Jack.
(Passive Voice) The distinction between them is a difference in their surface structure. They have
different syntactic forms of individual sentence. This superficial difference is called surface structure.
10. 10. Deep and Surface Structure The sentences can have deep structure like this: • It was Charlie who
broke the window. • Was the window broken by Charlie? • It is Jack loves his brother. And so on…
An abstract level of structural organization in which all the elements determining structural
interpretation are represented is called deep structure. OR The underlying level where the basic
components can be represented is called their deep structure.
11. 11. Structural Ambiguity • Annie bumped into a man with an umbrella. • Small boys and girls are
playing hide and seek. Explanation can show in the first sentence two ideas: i. Annie had an umbrella
and she bumped into a man. ii. Annie bumped into a man when he happened to be carrying an
umbrella. Explanation can show in the first sentence two ideas: i. Small boys are playing with young
girls. ii. Small boys and all girls are playing. Distinct underlying interpretations that have to be
represented differently in deep structure is called Structural Ambiguity.
12. 12. Tree Diagram • A tree diagram is a way of representing the hierarchical nature of a structure in a
graphical form. It is named a "tree diagram” because the classic representation resembles a tree, even
though the chart is generally upside down compared to an actual tree, with the "root" at the top and the
 "leaves" at the bottom. • Tree diagram provides us visual representation of the constituents of the
corresponding expression.
13. 13. Tree Diagram • E.g. A child can kick a football. S NP Art Aux VP V N NP Art A child can kick a
N football
14. 14. Tree Diagram • E.g. A child can kick a football. TP DP D T' N T VP V NP V The child can kick a
N football
15. 15. Symbols used in Tree Diagram • S - Sentence • Pro-Pronoun • NP- Noun Phrase • PP-
Prepositional Phrase • PN- Proper Noun • * Ungrammatical Sentence • N-Noun • • VP-Verb Phrase • (
) Optional Constituent • Adv-Adverb • V-Verb • Adj-Adjective • Prep-Preposition • Art-Article
Consists of / rewrites as • { } Only one of these constituents must be selected
16. 16. Phrase Structure Rules Phrase structure rules generate structures. • TP/S • NP VP • NP • {Art
(Adj+) N, Pro, PN} • VP • V NP (PP) (Adv) • PP • P NP Tree Diagrams S NP NP VP Art PP VP N V
NP P NP
17. 17. Lexical Rules As we know, phrase structure rules generate structures. To turn those structures into
recognizable English, we also need lexical rules that specify which words can be used when we
rewrite constituents such as N. • PN • { Mary, George } • N • { Girl, Dog, Boy } • Pro • { It, you, he }
• Art • { A, An, the } • V • { Help, run, play } We can rely on these rules to generate the grammatical
sentences but not ungrammatical sentences.
18. 18. Movement rules It is easy to represent Declarative forms in tree diagrams. e.g. You will help
Mary. S NP Aux VP V Pro You NP Aux VP S will help NP Mary
19. 19. Movement rules It is easy to represent Declarative forms in tree diagrams. e.g. You will help
Mary. BUT HOW CAN YOU REPRESENT THIS ONE? Will you help Mary?
20. 20. Movement rules Simply Will you help Mary? S Aux NP VP Pro Will Aux NP VP S V you help
NP Mary
21. 21. Movement rules You will help Mary. Will you help Mary?  S NP Aux V Pro You S VP will
help S NP Aux NP Mary NP Aux VP VP Pro you Will S V help Aux NP VP NP Mary
22. 22. Recursion Examples: • a. ab • b. aabb • c. aaabbb • a. The man [who the girl saw is my friend • b.
The man [who the girl [who sneezed] saw] is my friend. • c. The man [who the girl [who Peter [who
knows] met] saw] is my friend.
23. 23. Recursion The rules of grammar will also need the crucial property of recursion. In this, we can
put sentences inside other sentences and these sentences can be generated inside another sentences.
Notice these: • Mary helped George. • Cathy knew that Mary helped George. • John believed that
Cathy knew that Mary helped George.
24. 24. Complement Phrase • Mary helped George. • Cathy knew that Mary helped George. • John
believed that Cathy knew that Mary helped George. Traditionally, such sentences are called clauses
(that-clause) In the above examples, that is called complementizer (C). We can say that sentences with
that are Complement Phrase (CP). Complement Phrase Rule S NP VP VP V CP CP C S
25. 25. Complement Phrase S John believed that Cathy knew that Mary helped George. VP NP CP V C S
NP VP CP V C S NP PN PN PN John believed that Cathy knew that Mary helped VP V NP PN
George.
26. 26. Query Session
27. 27. Thanks
28. 28. Bibliography •http://www.personal.unijena.de/~x4diho/FORM.Generative%20grammar%20theory
.pdf •https://linguistics.stonybrook.edu/files/undergrad_theses/ mcadams.pdf
•http://linguistics.arizona.edu/sites/linguistics.arizona.edu/fi
les/3.Carnie%20Chapter1%20Introduction.pdf
•http://dingo.sbs.arizona.edu/~massimo/publications/PDF/ MPPCecchetto1.pdf
•http://philosophy.fas.nyu.edu/docs/IO/1176/SchifferMeani ngAndFormalSemantics.pdf
•http://lohndal.com/wp-content/uploads/lasniklohndal.pdf
•http://wac.colostate.edu/jbw/v6n2/noguchi.pdf •http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generative_grammar
•http://lingo.stanford.edu/sag/papers/harman63.pdf •The Study of Language by George Yule •Some
aspects of Linguistics by Famous Products •An Intrduction to Linguistics by V.S.Parsad •An
Intoductory Text Book for Linguistics by Famous Products •Language on Target by NKM •An Easy
Approach to Linguistics by NKM •A Handbook of Linguistics by Famous Products
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