Qamar Aftab Khokhar BS English 1st Semester

(SYNTAX)
 Defination :
 The Branch of linguistics which deals with the study of how words are combined to form
a grammatical sentence.
 The arrangement of words and phrases to create well-formed sentence in a language.
 It is the set of rules principles, and processes that groven the structure of sentences in a
given language, usually including word order.The term syntax is also refer to the study of
such principles and processes.
 In mathematics, the term syntax is also used to refer to the rules governing the behavior
of mathematical system, such as formal languages used in logic.

 Syntax Structure Examples :

Fundamentally, syntax is about structure. The rules of syntax exist to make sentences
clear and consistent. There are a variety of common syntactical mistakes, and all are easy
to fix once a writer knows what they're doing wrong. For instance
 Incorrect : While watching a movie, people who text on their phone are very
annoying.
 Correct : People who text on their phone while watching a movie are very annoying.
 Incorrect : Happy about her upcoming promotion, the trip home was full of singing.
 Correct : Happy about her upcoming promotion, Sammie sang all the way home.

 Here, the problem is a misplaced modifier. A modifier is a word or phrase intended to

change, or modify, another part of the sentence, typically the subject. Misplaced
modifiers make sentences unclear, because they could be modifying more than one
subject.
 In the second incorrect example, the sentence is stating that the "the trip home" (subject)
was "happy about her upcoming promotion," which doesn't make sense. Instead, it is
"Sammie" who is the happy individual with a promotion, as stated in the correct sentence.
 Punctuation Examples :
Another set of common mistakes have to do with punctuation.
 Incorrect : Come for a visit I have plenty of food.
 Correct : Come for a visit! I have plenty of food.

 The problem here is a run-on sentence. The absence of punctuation makes the statement
appear vague and rushed. Breaking the words into two sentences with an exclamation
point adds clarity and increases the impact of "Come for a visit!"

 Syntactic structure :
Qamar Aftab Khokhar BS English 1st Semester

 Syntactic Structure is a set of words or phrases in a language which share a significant

number of common characteristics.
 Syntactic Structures commonly include :
1. Parts of Speech :
(Noun, Verb, Adjective, Adverb, Pronoun, Determiner, Prepositions, Auxiliary, etc.)
2. Phrase Structure Grammars :
(Noun Phrase, Adjective Phrase, Verb Phrase, Adverb Phrase, Prepositions Phrase)
3. Sentence, as the core of the structure.

 Grammaticality :
 The Sequences of words that conform to the rules of syntax are grammatical
(Well Formed)
o For example: The cat is on the mat.
 Those that violate the syntactic rules are ungrammatical (ill Formed)
o For example: The cat on is the mat.
 The grammaticality is not based on what we learn in school.
 Children acquire most of the syntactic rules of their language even before learning to
read.
 Does not depend on having heard before.
o For example: Enormous crickets in pink socks dance at the prom.
 It does not depend on a structure being meaningful.
o For example: Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.
 There are grammatical sentences that you might think are ungrammatical.
o For example: The horse raced past the barn fell.
 Grammatically does not depend on truth.
o Example: I look like Piola Pascual.

 Deep Structure :
Qamar Aftab Khokhar BS English 1st Semester

 Deep structure is the basic structure of the sentences. It is specified by the “ phrase
structure rules”.
Phrase structure rules create initial syntactic trees.
 Example :
 Charlie broke the window.
 The window was broken by Charlie.
In traditional grammar, the first is called an active sentence, focusing on what Charlie did
and the second is passive sentence, focusing on The window and what happened to it.
 Phrase structure :
S N + VP
VP V + NP
NP Det + N
S

NP VP

Det N V NP

Det N

The girl reads

the book
Qamar Aftab Khokhar BS English 1st Semester

 Transformational Rules :
 Transformational rule is a syntactic rule that applies to an underlying phrase structure tree
of sentence.
 It is a way to capture the relationship between a declaration and question.
o Example: “passive” transformation

NP VP

John V NP

loves Marry

 Move the object to subject position:

NP VP

Mary V PP

loves by John
Qamar Aftab Khokhar BS English 1st Semester

 Passive auxiliary:

NP VP

Mary V PP

Aux V by NP

was loved john

 The passive structure is related to the active structure because it is formed from it.
 Suppose all structures start off with a more abstract underlying from which is then
transformed into the structure we actually see:

Underlying form

Transformations

Surface form
Qamar Aftab Khokhar BS English 1st Semester

 Surface Structure :
 Surface structure is the actual form of sentence.
 It is forms of sentences resulted from modification or transformation.
Surface structure is a form of language that is based on deep structure.
The same deep structure can be the source of many other surface structures such as “It
was Charlie who broke the window and was the window broken by Charlie?
In short, the grammar must be capable of showing how a single underlying abstract
representation can become different surface structure.
 Examples :
o Same deep structure and different surface structure.
 You push the chair (Active Sentence)
 The chair is pushed by you. (Passive Sentence)
 Push the chair! (Imperative Sentence)
 Three Sentences have the same abstract representation (deep structure) which is you as a
person push the chair.
o Same surface structure and different deep structure.
 John saw the man with telescope.
Who has the telescope? John or the Man

 Symbols used in syntactic analysis :

Some symbols are used as abbreviations for syntactic categories.
For examples ( S = Sentence ) , ( NP = Noun Phrase ) , ( N = Noun ) , ( Art = Article )
( V = Verb ) , ( VB = Verb Phrase ) and others, such as ( PP = Prepositional phrase )
There are three more symbols that are commonly used in syntactic description.
 The first is in the form of an arrow . It can be interpreted as ( consist of )
NP Art N
This is simply a shorthand way of saying that a noun phrase ( NP ) such as the dog
consist of or rewrites as ( ) an article ( Art ) the and a noun ( N ) dog.
 The second symbol is pair of round brackets ( ). Whatever occurs inside these round
brackets will be treated as an optional constituent.
 The third symbol is in the form of curly brackets { }. These indicate that only one of the
elements enclosed within the curly brackets must be selected.

 Phrase structure rules :

Qamar Aftab Khokhar BS English 1st Semester

When we use a tree diagram format, we can think of it in two different ways.
 In one way we can simply treat it as a static representation of the structure of the sentence
shown at the bottom of the diagram.
 The second approach is very appealing because it would enable us to generate a very
large number of sentences with what look like a very small number of rules. These rules
are called phrase structure rules.

NP

Art N NP Art N

According to this rule, a noun phrase rewrite as an article followed by a noun.

o The first rule in the following set of simple ( and necessarily incomplete ) phrase
structure rules states that “ a sentence rewrites as a noun phrase and a verb phrase.”
o The second rule states that “ a noun phrase rewrites as either an article plus an optional
adjective plus a noun, or a pronoun , or a proper noun.”

S NP VP
NP {Art (Adj) N, Pro, PN}
VP V NP (PP) (Adv)
PP Prep NP

 Lexical rules :
Phrase structure rules generate structure. In order 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}
Art {a, the}
V {followed, helped, saw}

 Tree Diagram A :
Qamar Aftab Khokhar BS English 1st Semester

S S

NP VP NP VP

Art N V NP Pro V NP

Art N

Pro

A dog followed the boy You saw it

 Movement Rules :
 The very small set of phrase structure rules just described is a sample of what a more
complex phrase structure grammar of English, with many more parts, look like.
 These rules can be treated as a representation of the underlying or deep structures of
sentence in English.
 This type of rule has a special symbol and can be illustrated in the process of one
tree, on the right, being derived from the tree on the left.

S S

NP VP

Aux Aux NP VP

PRO V VP

Pro V NP

PN

You will help PN

Mary Will you help

Mary
Qamar Aftab Khokhar BS English 1st Semester

 Ambiguity :
 An ambiguous sentence is a sentence that has two meanings. Some sentences are
ambiguous because they contain a word that is ambiguous.
 Such cases are called lexical ambiguities ( the lexicon is just the set of words in a
language ).
 By contrast, some sentences are ambiguous without containing any ambiguous words.
These cases can be explained when it is observed that the sentence in question can be
given two distinct syntactic trees, leading to what is called a structural ambiguity.
 Example :
Annie bumped into a man with an umbrella.
This sentence provides an example of structural ambiguity. It has two distinct underlying
interpretations that have to be represented differently in deep structure.
 The phrases can also be structurally ambiguous, as in expressions like small boys and
girls. The underlying interpretations can be either “ small boys and (small) girls” or
“small boys and (all) girls”.

Syntactical Devices

 These are different from the grammar concepts that we have been covering because these
devices manipulate the structure of your sentence. They are not focusing on a “grammar
concept”. Also, these are all forms of repetition
 There are no allusions for these because your sentences will have to be longer to
incorporate these devices.
1) Anaphora :
 The repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive phrases, clauses or
lines.
 The purpose of using Anaphora is to build up to a point or create strong emotional
emphasis.
o Examples :
 We shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall
fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing
strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on
the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the
streets, we shall fight in the hills. We shall never surrender. Churchill.
Qamar Aftab Khokhar BS English 1st Semester

2) Epistrophe :
 This is the same concept as Anaphora except the repeated word, series of words, or
phrase comes at the END of the sentence or sentences.
o Examples :
 "A day may come when the courage of men fails, when we forsake our friends and break
all bonds of fellowship, but it is not this day. An hour of woes and shattered shields,
when the age of men comes crashing down! But it is not this day! This day we fight!
(Viggo Mortensen as Aragorn in The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, 2003)
 the Rings: The Return of the King, 2003)
 "Don't you ever talk about my friends! You don't know any of my friends. You don't look
at any of my friends. And you certainly wouldn't condescend to speak to any of my
friends." (Judd Nelson as John Bender in The Breakfast Club, 1865 )
3) Polysyndeton :
 This is where you use many conjunctions between clauses
 One of the main purposes of this is often to slow the tempo or rhythm.
o Examples :
 I said, "Who killed him?" and he said, "I don't know who killed him but he's dead all
right," and it was dark and there was water standing in the street and no lights and
windows broke and boats all up in the town and trees blown down and everything all
blown and I got a skiff and went out and found my boat where I had her inside Mango
Key and she was all right only she was full of water.
—Ernest Hemingway, "After the Storm."
4) Asyndeton :
 Lack of conjunctions between coordinate phrases, clauses, or words.
 from Gk. a and sundeton “bound together with”
o Examples :
 We shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardships, support any friend, oppose
any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty. J. F. Kennedy, Inaugural
 But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this
ground. Lincoln, Gettysburg Address
Qamar Aftab Khokhar BS English 1st Semester

5) Anadiplosis :
 Repeats the last word of one phrase, clause, or sentence at or very near the beginning of
the next
 It can be generated in series for the sake of beauty or to give a sense of logical
progression
 Examples :
o They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns,
broken cisterns that can hold no water. --Jer. 2:13
o The question next arises, How much confidence can we put in the people, when the
people have elected Joe Doax?
o This treatment plant has a record of uncommon reliability, a reliability envied by every
other water treatment facility on the coast.
o In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
--John 1:1
6) Antimetabole :
 Repetition of words, in successive clauses, in reverse grammatical order.
 Gk. anti “in opposite direction”
and metabole “turning about”
 Examples :
o When the going gets tough, the tough get going. Ask not what your country can do for
you; ask what you can do for your country. —John F. Kennedy
o You can take the gorilla out of the jungle, but you can't take the jungle out of the gorilla.

o Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is
dangerous and dreadful. —Samuel Johnson, Rasselas

o Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light
for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! —Isaiah 5:20