CURS I

Pr. D.Dobos

ENGLISH SYNTAX

An important feature of language is central and is that language makes an

infinite use of a finite set of rules or principals. This is an observation which
develops the generative linguistics. Its father is N. Chomsky-Aspects of the
theory of syntax (1965).
A language is a system for combining its constituents in infinitely many ways
and one piece of evidence of this system is word order restrictions.
E.g: man, ball, a, the, kicked
1.How many possible combinations are there?
2. Are all of these combinations grammatical?
-number of combinations of 5 words is 5 factorial-120 instances
-among these 120 combinations only 6 form grammatical English sentences:
1.A man kicked the ball.
2. The man kicked a ball.
3.The ball kicked the man.
4. A ball kicked the man.
5. The ball, a man kicked..
sentences.

* The sentences number 5,6 are marked

6. The man, a ball kicked..

Unacceptable=ungrammatical
Ungrammatical structures are marked by an asterix ( *), and are not acceptable
for the native speakers.
More evidence of this finite set of rules ( can be used to generate a potentially
infinite number of structures), can be found in cognitive creative abilities. Native
speakers are unconscious of the rules. Native speakers of a language have no
difficulty in producing and understanding sentences they never heard before.
In generative linguistics this is known as a linguistic competence. A related part
of this competence is that native speakers can produce potentially infinite number
of grammatical sentences.

CURS I

Pr. D.Dobos

ENGLISH SYNTAX

Memorization appears implausible. Native speakers can generate an infinite

number infinitely long of sentences. In addition, there is a limit in the amount of
information the human brain can process. A more plausible hypothesis is the
following: all native speakers have a grammatical competence which can generate
an infinite set of grammatical sentences from a finite set of rules. This grammatical
competence is internalized knowledge of language and in generative linguistics
this competence is related to performance(actual usage of this knowledge). This
hypothesis has been accepted by most theorists and has been taken as subject
matter of syntactic theory. The grammatical competence is hypothesized to
characterize a generative grammar ( a grammar that can generate an infinite
number of grammatical English sentences from a finite set of rules).
The job of syntax is to discover and formulate the rules.
In generative theory, rules does not refer to prescriptive rules , but
descriptive rules.
E.g of prescriptive rule: Dont conclude a sentence in a preposition!
Prescriptive rules disfavor certain usages. Prescriptive rules prescribe forms
which are generally in use. Descriptive rules characterize the forms speakers
actually use.
From general humanistic or behavioral motivation ( to help us illustrate the
patterns of English more clearly) to enable us to analyze and interpret the
structure of English sentences in systematic and explicit way.
The practice of syntax analysis (parsing) will improve students understanding
of the structure of English, it will facilitate their comprehension and production of
the language.
The ability to compare structures is a very important and useful skill for the
students.
E.G: head refers to the essential element in a phrase . In
Romanian , phrase=grup.
A short infinite rules for English subject verb agreement:
-the main verb agrees with the head element of the subject . This informal rule can
pinpoint what is wrong with the sentence such as the following:

CURS I

Pr. D.Dobos

ENGLISH SYNTAX

*The recent strike by pilots have cost the country a great deal of money from
tourism. (strike=head)
The essential element is not pilots, but strike. Thus the head is singular , so is
the whole phrase.
*Despite of his limited educational opportunities , Abraham Lincoln became
one of the greatest intellectual in the world.
*A pastor was executed , notwithstanding on many applications in favor of
him.
The words despite and notwithstanding are prepositions. The canonical
English prepositions combine only with noun phrase (NP). In these examples , they
combine with prepositional phrases ( PP), headed by of or on.
More examples:
Visiting relatives can be boring.
I saw that gas can explode. ( can as noun/modal)
Each example has more than one interpretation. The meanings can be easily
identified.
e.g: He said that that that that that man used was wrong.
1

1-complementizer
4-complementizer
2,5-determiners
3-noun
All of these examples lead us to a more or less previous conclusion. Syntax
provides a generalized account of syntax structure. Often , when we engage in
studying a discipline, we want to find a definition.
Syntax is one of the components of grammar.
Inflectional morphology is the other major component.
Syntax is the study of the structure of sentences.

CURS I

Pr. D.Dobos

ENGLISH SYNTAX

a) It is determining the relevant component parts of the sentence (S).

b) Describes these parts grammatically
The component parts of S are called constituents. Consequently , involves 2
closely related tasks:
1. breaking down the S into its constituents
2. assigning some grammatical label
1.What type of grammatical category is label?
2.What grammatical function it has?
In syntactic analysis for parsing, we start with the sentence and proceed to the
smallest meaningful unit. The system of English grammar can be described in
terms of a rank scale from the largest to the smallest unit.
Sentence

Clause

Phrase

Word/Lexeme

Morpheme (the minimal indivisible units in syntax.

There are several constituents phoneme (distinctive (|e| |oe|) sounds) .
In syntax , we accept the morphemes as the minimal units . Sentences combine
to form texts.
Labeled bracketing
[[ I] should have noticed [that[[ Zoltan] does not like [Zelda.]]]]
-the second clause is introduced by the complementizer that.
NP, S, VP,N, V, determiners, adjectives-are category labels.
An alternative method is that of tree diagrams also known as PHRASE
MARKERS.

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Pr. D.Dobos

ENGLISH SYNTAX

E.G: [[The terrorists assassinated the ambassador]].

S-->NP-->VP, VP->V->NP, NP->DET->N
The sentence constituents as immediate constituents( NP&VP).
The tree diagrams provides an analysis down to word level, to the level of
morphemes.
Ed- inflectional morpheme, shows past tense.
Tense is the obligatory constituent in all VP. If we compare the syntactic
information provided y the tree diagram, is the same as that provided by label
bracketing.
-tree diagrams take more space
-provide a very clear picture
-label bracketing is faster
The system of expending one unit to more units phrase structure rule-PSRs
The category labels are attached to the nodes of these 3.
S-is set to dominate NP&VP
The next level down is called immediate dominance.
The lexical items are attached to terminal nodes .The tree diagram shows
constituents very clearly. In traditional grammar, lexical category are called parts
of speech.
Criteria used in determining the class a word belongs to:
1. semantic( based on meaning)- are only tendencies , are not absolute rules.
2. Morphological and distributional criteria are more reliable than semantic
ones. Nouns can take a plural affix and are often preceded by determiners.

CURS I

Pr. D.Dobos

ENGLISH SYNTAX

3. Syntactic criteria: nouns can be modified by adjectives, verbs by adverbs

and so on. Verbs may be followed by a noun or a preposition. Nouns may be
followed by verbs.
In English , nouns can be easily used as verbs and vice-versa. Words which can
appear in the same context, are said to have the same distribution.