Unit4,Syntax,The definition of syntax,A subfield of linguistics that studies the sentence structure of language. Specifically, it studies the combination of words to form sentences and the rules that govern the formation of sentences.,句法学简介,In generative linguistics, syntax, phonology and semantics are the major constituents of grammar. Syntax consists of various generative syntactical rules: s-rule，phrase rule and transformational rule. Syntactical construction is composed of syntactic classes and syntactic categories. Syntactical analysis is based on lexical items and syntactic relationships.,Basic Concepts,Constituent 组构成分: grammatical units that enter syntactically or morphologically into a construction at any level immediate constituent（IC）直接成分: constituents directly below the level of a construction ultimate constituent (UC) 最终成分: last level of constituents,Immediate Constituent Analysis (IC Analysis) ---by Leonard Bloomfield (1887-1949),Breaking a sentence down to its constituent elements until the smallest grammatical unit, i.e. morphemes, e.g. Poor|| John| ran|| away.,,constituent,immediate constituents,,,ultimate constituents,poor John, ran away,poor, John, ran, away,Advantages of IC analysis It helps to account for the ambiguity of certain constructions. e.g. The son of Pharaohs daughter is the daughter of Pharaohs son. It clearly demonstrates that sentences are not mere left-to-right linear sequences of elements. Instead, elements come into relationships of great complexity and varying kinds. (胡壮麟，P125-126),The son of Pharaohs daughter is the daughter of Pharaohs son =（1）The daughter of Pharaohs son 法老儿子的女儿 =（2）The daughter of Pharaohs son 法老女儿的儿子,,,Disadvantages of IC Analysis 1. It results in technical problems due to discontinuous constituents. E.g. Leave + the book+ on the shelf. 2. It results in ambiguity problems. E.g. the love of God, the shooting of the hunters (胡壮麟，P128),Exercise,Work in pairs to answer the question: What are the advantages and disadvantages of IC analysis?,Basic components of a sentence,Sentence Subject Predicate a referring expression comprises a finite verb or a verb phrase and says something about the subject,,,,,Lexical item 语项 --labels attached to “words”. “Lexical item” is a term associated with dictionaries or lexicons. It takes an abstract view of words. --a word has more or less consistent meaning, but can differ because of grammatical function. e.g. do/did/done/doing/does are particular forms of the lexical item do.,Introduction,Lexical categories词汇范畴,The name given to classes into which lexical items are grouped. --There are traditionally 8 classes: Noun, Pronoun, Verb, Adjective. --Modern linguistic theories have more, ranging from 12-140+! -- They are also known as parts of speech and word classes,Classification of Lexical Items,How are words classified into classes? --Phonological criteria “To inCREASE the number of students, we need an Increase in funding.” --Semantic criteria, structural ambiguity “Flying planes can be dangerous” if you live under the flight path. if you havent got a pilots license.,--Notional criteria Class Denotation Noun entity (car, house, Mr. Bean) Verb action (eat, push, sleep) Adjective state (green, happy, sleepy) Adverb manner in which the action is done (smoothly, quickly) Preposition denotation of position (from the back) Determiner a word which specifies (this lecture),,,,,,,,,--Morphological criteria Some words have a similar pattern of inflection as others: word words computer computers people peoples Words that have a similar morphological behavior are grouped. There will be exceptions, but this does not invalidate the general method.,--Distributive criteria Evidence is found by examining the position in which words can occur in a sentence: known as the distribution of words. All words of a similar class should seem naturally intuitive and words that dont fit can be used to construct other classes. So, Everyone likes bear. Everyone likes cars. Everyone likes Harry Potter. *Everyone likes eats.,But, be careful! Colourless green ideas sleep curiously.,Oops!,Open and Closed Classes,Lexical items can be grouped into “open” and “closed” classes. --Open classes New members are frequently added and they are generally content words. --Closed classes These have a relatively fixed membership and they are generally function words.,Recapture,IC Analysis Lexical Categorization Criteria,Lexical categories 词汇范畴,The name is given to formal objects that are allowed to appear as a node in a tree (phrases are described as trees).,Syntactic categories 句法范畴,Common monadic categories are: 1. S Sentence -The largest category capable of syntactic categorization --I saw the big aeroplane. --How large is the plane? --Rob was flown by the aeroplane which Jane saw.,2. Phrase Structure,N V A P word level NP VP AP PP phrase le。