The

The Major
Major Principles
Principles of
of Syntax
Syntax
The Operations of the Lexicon,
Morphology,
and Word Order in the
Understanding of Language
Daniel Kies
College of DuPage

04/18/15

The
The Three
Three Components
Components of
of
Syntax
Syntax
T h e B a s ic s o f S y n ta x
T h e G r a m m a tic a l
a n d M e a n in g fu l
S e n te n c e
L e x ic o n :
T h e M a jo r
W o r d C la s s e s

College of DuPage

W o rd O rd e r:
M a rk e d a n d
U n m a rk e d

04/18/15

In fle c tio n a l
M o r p h o lo g y :
F u n c tio n W o r d s
& W o rd E n d in g s
2

Role
Role of
of Lexicon
Lexicon in
in Syntax
Syntax

The lexicon adds meaningful (semantic)

components to the sentence.
The lexicon also plays a major role in determining
the grammatical structure of the sentence.
Selection restrictions are governed by the lexical
items chosen in each clause.
The water evaporated quickly.
*The boy evaporated quickly.
*The water evaporated the dog.

College of DuPage

04/18/15

The
The Elements
Elements of
of the
the Lexicon
Lexicon
T h e L e x ic o n
L e x ic o n :
T h e M a jo r
W o r d C la s s e s
N ouns
V e rb s
A d je c ti v e s
A d v e rb s
College of DuPage

04/18/15

The
The Role
Role of
of Word
Word Order
Order

UNMARKED WORD ORDER

functions to distinguish the grammatical and semantic roles of
sentence constituents.
Grammatical roles include subject, verb, object, complement,
& adverbial.
Semantic roles include agent, action, goal, beneficiary,
instrument, location, and more.
MARKED WORD ORDER
allows us to choose the point of view in the sentence
and allows us to emphasize various parts of our message.

College of DuPage

04/18/15

The
The Grammatical
Grammatical Roles
Roles in
in
Word
Word Order
Order
Word order helps us understand the
grammatical function of each constituent.
Subjects in English for example are usually
at the beginning of the clause.
John left yesterday after he gave his lecture.
Objects in English occur after the verb.
Close the door, she yelled, kicking it shut.

College of DuPage

04/18/15

The
The Semantic
Semantic Roles
Roles in
in Word
Word
Order
Order
Constituents also serve semantic roles in
sentences, such as agent, action, goal,
instrument, location and many more.
John
opened the door with a key.
agent action
goal
instrument
subject verb
object
adverbial
In most cases, grammatical & semantic roles
overlap, but not always.

College of DuPage

04/18/15

Interplay
Interplay of
of Grammatical
Grammatical &
&
Semantic
Semantic Roles
Roles

Semantic roles realize grammatical functions.

In the usual, unmarked case, agents are realized by
subjects, actions are realized by verbs, etc.
Occasionally, language users do not choose to use
some semantic roles, resulting in a marked
realization of semantic roles.
The key
opened
the door. instrument
action
goal
subject
verb
object

College of DuPage

04/18/15

Marked
Marked Word
Word Order
Order &
& Point
Point
of
of View
View
Marked word order not only allow us to
promote unusual semantic roles to
unexpected grammatical functions, it can also
allow us to choose a point of view.
Elizabeth helped Emily.
Emily was helped by Elizabeth.
This is called voice; the 1st example is called
active voice, the 2nd passive voice.

College of DuPage

04/18/15

Marked
Marked Word
Word Order
Order &
&
Emphasis
Emphasis
Marked word order also allows us to
emphasize the most relevant portion of our
sentence, our message. Compare:
John sent the letter to Mary.
It was the letter that John sent to Mary.
This variation allows us to emphasize the
relevant portion of our sentence as message;
the 2nd example is called a cleft sentence.

College of DuPage

04/18/15

10

The
The Role
Role of
of Morphology
Morphology
Morphology provides us with two
additional sets of language clues about the
structure of a sentence:
Function words
Inflectional morphemes (which usually
occur as word endings in English)

College of DuPage

04/18/15

11

Function
Function Words
Words &
& Syntax
Syntax
Function words are minor word classes.
In English, those are prepositions,
pronouns, articles, and conjunctions.
These function words provide valuable
grammatical information: how easily can
you read the following text for example?

College of DuPage

04/18/15

12

Examples
Examples of
of Function
Function Words
Words
Was walking front door, dropping bags
going.
It was me -- walking out of my front door,
dropping my bags and going back in. (O. J.)
Function words provide important
information about the grammatical &
semantic roles played by the constituents in
a sentence.

College of DuPage

04/18/15

13

Grammatical
Grammatical Morphemes
Morphemes &
&
Syntax
Syntax
Other grammatical morphemes (primarily
word endings in English) serve a similar
function:
English uses grammatical inflections to
provide different kinds of grammatical
information on the major word classes -nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs.

College of DuPage

04/18/15

14

Grammatical
Grammatical Inflections
Inflections in
in
Nouns
Nouns
English uses the grammatical morphemes to
mark case
This is Johns book,
number
He owns several rare book s,
and gender
Adrienne Rich hates being called a poet ess.

College of DuPage

04/18/15

15

Grammatical
Grammatical Inflections
Inflections in
in
Verbs
Verbs
English uses grammatical morphemes to mark
tense
Liz walked with her sister.
aspect Liz has helped her often.
voice
Liz was pleased by her cleverness.
modality Liz must be smarter than Dad.
mood
God bless this ship & all who sail
in her.

College of DuPage

04/18/15

16

Grammatical
Grammatical Inflections
Inflections in
in
Adjectives
Adjectives &
& Adverbs
Adverbs
English uses grammatical morphemes on
adjectives and adverbs to mark
grammatical function
Ingenious Liz can do this easily.
comparison (degree)
Liz is smarter than her father. She learns
faster than he does.

College of DuPage

04/18/15

17

All
All the
the Elements
Elements of
of Syntax
Syntax
T h e E le m e n ts o f S y n ta x
T h e G r a m m a tic a l
and
M e a n in g fu l
S e n te n c e

L e x ic o n :

W o rd
O rd e r

th e M a jo r
W o r d C la s s e s

N ouns

M a rk e d
W o rd
O rd e r

M o r p h o lo g y

U n m a rk e d
W o rd
O rd e r

F u n c tio n
W o rd s :
t h e M in o r W o r d
C la s s e s

In fle c tio n a l
M o r p h o lo g y

V e rbs

P r e p o s itio n s

fo r N o u n s

fo r V e rb s

fo r A d je c tiv e s

fo r A d v e r b s

A d je c tiv e s

A r tic le s

C ase

Tense

C o m p a ris o n

C o m p a ris io n

P ro n o u n s

G ender

A spect

C o n ju n c tio n s

N um ber

M o d a lity

A d v e rb s

M ood
N um ber

College of DuPage

04/18/15

18

The
The Entire
Entire Syntax
Syntax System
Systemin
in Concert
Concert

There was me, that is Alex, and my three droogs, that is Pete, Georgie, and Dim, Dim
being really dim, and we sat in the Korova Milkbar making up our rassoodocks what
to do with the evening, a flip dark chill winter bastard though dry. The Korova
Milkbar was a milk-plus mesto, and you may, O my brother, have forgotten what
these mestos where like things changing so skorry these days and everybody very
quick to forget, newspaper not being read much neither. Well, what they sold there
was milk plus something else. They had no license for selling liquor, but there was
no law yet against prodding some of the some of the new veshches which they would
put into the old moloko, so you could peet it with vellocet or synthemesc or drencrom
or one or two other veshches which would give you a nice quiet horrorshow fifteen
minutes admiring Bog And All His Holy Angels And Saints in your left shoe with
lights bursting all over your mozg. Or you could peet it with knives in it, as we use
to say, and this would sharpen you up and make you ready for a bit of dirty twentyto-one, and that was what we were peeting this evening Im starting off the story
with.
Anthony Burgess, A Clockwork Orange

College of DuPage

04/18/15

19

Finding
Finding Nouns
Nouns in
in AAClockwork
Clockwork Orange
Orange

There was me, that is Alex, and my three droogs, that is Pete, Georgie, and Dim,
Dim being really dim, and we sat in the Korova Milkbar making up our
rassoodocks what to do with the evening, a flip dark chill winter bastard though
dry. The Korova Milkbar was a milk-plus mesto, and you may, O my brother,
have forgotten what these mestos where like things changing so skorry these days
and everybody very quick to forget, newspaper not being read much neither.
Well, what they sold there was milk plus something else. They had no license for
selling liquor, but there was no law yet against prodding some of the some of the
new veshches which they would put into the old moloko, so you could peet it
with vellocet or synthemesc or drencrom or one or two other veshches which
would give you a nice quiet horrorshow fifteen minutes admiring Bog And All
His Holy Angels And Saints in your left shoe with lights bursting all over your
mozg. Or you could peet it with knives in it, as we use to say, and this would
sharpen you up and make you ready for a bit of dirty twenty-to-one, and that was
what we were peeting this evening Im starting off the story with.

College of DuPage

04/18/15

20

Finding
FindingVerbs
Verbs in
in AAClockwork
Clockwork Orange
Orange

There was me, that is Alex, and my three droogs, that is Pete, Georgie, and Dim,
Dim being really dim, and we sat in the Korova Milkbar making up our
rassoodocks what to do with the evening, a flip dark chill winter bastard though
dry. The Korova Milkbar was a milk-plus mesto, and you may, O my brother,
have forgotten what these mestos where like things changing so skorry these days
and everybody very quick to forget, newspaper not being read much neither.
Well, what they sold there was milk plus something else. They had no license for
selling liquor, but there was no law yet against prodding some of the some of the
new veshches which they would put into the old moloko, so you could peet it
with vellocet or synthemesc or drencrom or one or two other veshches which
would give you a nice quiet horrorshow fifteen minutes admiring Bog And All
His Holy Angels And Saints in your left shoe with lights bursting all over your
mozg. Or you could peet it with knives in it, as we use to say, and this would
sharpen you up and make you ready for a bit of dirty twenty-to-one, and that was
what we were peeting this evening Im starting off the story with.

College of DuPage

04/18/15

21

Finding
Finding Modifiers
Modifiers in
in AAClockwork
Clockwork Orange
Orange

There was me, that is Alex, and my three droogs, that is Pete, Georgie, and Dim,
Dim being really dim, and we sat in the Korova Milkbar making up our
rassoodocks what to do with the evening, a flip dark chill winter bastard though
dry. The Korova Milkbar was a milk-plus mesto, and you may, O my brother,
have forgotten what these mestos where like things changing so skorry these days
and everybody very quick to forget, newspaper not being read much neither.
Well, what they sold there was milk plus something else. They had no license for
selling liquor, but there was no law yet against prodding some of the some of the
new veshches which they would put into the old moloko, so you could peet it
with vellocet or synthemesc or drencrom or one or two other veshches which
would give you a nice quiet horrorshow fifteen minutes admiring Bog And All
His Holy Angels And Saints in your left shoe with lights bursting all over your
mozg. Or you could peet it with knives in it, as we use to say, and this would
sharpen you up and make you ready for a bit of dirty twenty-to-one, and that was
what we were peeting this evening Im starting off the story with.

College of DuPage

04/18/15

22

In
In Summary
Summary
Despite the apparent, incredible variety of
sentence structure in any one language, not to
mention the 5200+ languages around the world,
syntax in all human languages is realized by the
simultaneous work of three systems:
the lexicon
word order
inflectional morphology

College of DuPage

04/18/15

23

Doing
Doing Syntax;
Syntax; Doing
Doing Linguistics
Linguistics
In a literal way, syntax -- like all of linguistics -is something we do. We do linguistics every time
we make or decode a sentence.
Despite the enormous variety of human language,
we make or decode every linguistic act with just a
few elements: those elements are used in a
system and we recognize the patterns. Doing
linguistics is learning to see and understand those
patterns of human language.

College of DuPage

04/18/15

24