Syntax

Gramma

A speaker's knowledge of their language
− phonological, morphological, syntactic and semantic information
− A set of rules to create well-formed sentences and the study of that set of rules
− A book which describes the rules of a language

Synatctic constituent

A constituent is "a string of words which syntactically behaves as a unit" (Aarts 2001:289)
- words that "belong together"
− constituents behave as structural units
=  such syntactic constituents are called phrases

phrases

syntactic units/constituents
− consist of one or more words
− phrase status can be tested
− are part of the syntactic hierarchy
exp. the students

tests for constituents: (5)

• pronominalization test

• movement test

• coordination test

• capping test

• sentence- fagment test

  → test is positive= probaby a constituent, all test negative= probably not

PRONOMINALIZATION (SUBSTITUTION) TEST

Whole constituents can be replaced by one word (usually a pronoun, but sometimes by other forms).

Movement test

Constituents can be moved into other positions within the sentence

coordination test

Whole constituents can be co-ordinated by and, or, but.

capping

Attaching a tag question that leaves a gap into which whole constituents can be inserted.

sentence-fragment test

Whole constituents can serve as an answer to a question

Types of phrases (5)

− noun phrases (NP)
− verb phrases (VP)
− prepositional phrases (PP)
− adjective phrases (AP)
− adverb phrases (AdvP

→phrases labled according to head of the phrase

head of a phrase

The semantics (meaning) of the phrase
− The phrase obtains/inherits syntactic and semantic properties of the head

word class determinded by :

• semantic criteria (nouns: things, persons; verbs: actions,)
• morphological criteria(derivational & inflectional affixes)
• syntactic criteria (position of the words in a sentence)

form vs function

form: word class, phrases : nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, determiners, cojunctions, prepositions, pronouns, auxillary verbs

function: subject, verb, object, adverbial, complement

direct vs indirect object

indirect; recipient, beneficiary, goal (always 1st)

direct: undergoes a process (always 2nd)

ADVERBIALS / ADJUNCTS

provide (additional) information about circumstances ofthe action (e.g., place, time, manner)

− can occur in several positions in the clause

− are always optional

Adverb vs adverbial

SUBJECT

semantic criteria:

− entity that performs action denoted by verb

− tells us what the sentence is about

agreement:

− agrees with verb regarding number and person

- can be replaced by pronoun in subject case

OBJECT

usually follows the verb (SVO)

− usually obligatory

- becomes subject in passive sentence

- can be replaced by a pronoun in object case

COMPLEMENTS

− some verbs occur with constituents that do not fit the category object− (e.g. seem, become, appear)

− these verbs have a predicative complement instead

− predicative complements cannot be passivized