Phrase Structure Rules & Tree Diagram Study Notes

wsKnowing a Language

• Four intertwined competences:

  • Sound system: Ability to recognize, produce and interpret the phonological inventory of the language.

  • Words: Lexical knowledge—meanings, forms, morphological behaviour.

  • Sentences: Competence in syntax; ability to arrange words into admissible structures.

  • Appropriacy: Pragmatic judgement—knowing when, where and to whom a given utterance is suitable.

Glossary & Conceptual Foundations

• Syntax (McGregor, 2017)

  • Study of how words combine into larger units (phrases, clauses, sentences).

  • Concerns internal relationships among words.

  • Illustrative lexical polysemy & combinatorial flexibility:

  • She cooks. / She cooks regularly. / She cooks the meal. / She is a cook.

  • The sweet girl sweetened her sweetened coffee with sweetener.

• Sentence (RPW 255)

  • Largest grammatical unit containing SUBJECT + PREDICATE.

  • Encompasses parts of speech & grammatical classes.

• Clause

  • Group of words with a SUBJECT and a finite verb.

  • Can stand alone (independent / main) or depend on another clause (subordinate).

• Finite verb

  • Agrees in Person/Number with the subject and shows Tense.

Subject vs. Predicate (Malmkjaer; RPW)

• Subject (NP):

  • Precedes the main verb; controls agreement.

  • Denotes the entity about which something is asserted.

• Predicate:

  • Says something about the subject.

  • Built around the main finite verb and may include objects, complements, adverbials.

Grammaticality & Well-Formedness

• Not every word sequence is a sentence: Dancing his them on slow not very walk (ungrammatical).

• Judging grammaticality does not require:

  • Semantic meaningfulness.

  • Truthfulness.

  • Prior exposure.

Generative Perspective: Phrase Structure Rules (PSR)

• Also called rewrite rules.

• Together with the lexicon constitute the base component of Generative–Transformational Grammar.

• Yield an underlying / deep structure that can be represented by tree diagrams.

• Ambiguity & operations like passivisation are captured by subsequent transformational components, producing the surface structure.

• Procedural mantra: "Start from the largest unit (Sentence), end with the smallest (lexical items)."

Syntactic Categories

• Phrasal: NP, VP, AP, PP, AdvP.

• Lexical: N, V, A, P, Adv.

• Functional:

  • Determiner (Det): articles, demonstratives, quantifiers (each, every…).

  • Tense (+Modal) (T/Aux layer).

  • Complementiser (Comp): that, for, if, whether.

• Category test: Members of the same category can substitute for one another without harming grammaticality.

Core Phrase Structure Template (Celce-Murcia & Larsen-Freeman)

• $S \; (sm) \;\rightarrow\; SUBJ\;PRED$

  • OPTIONAL sentence-modifier (sm) may precede $S$.

• Recursion permitted via $S'$ (= another sentence as complement/clausal modifier).

Selected NP rules (Rules 3 & 4)

• $NP \rightarrow (Det)^3\; (AdjP)\; (-pl)\; N\; (PrepP) \ | \ pro$

  • Det, AdjP, plural marking, PP all optional; whole NP may be realized by a pronoun.

• Example expansions (complexity gradually increases):

  • $NP = pro \;\Rightarrow\; She$

  • $NP = Det\;N \;\Rightarrow\; the\;lady$

  • $NP = Det\;AdjP\;N \;\Rightarrow\; the\;old\;lady$

  • $NP = Det\;Det\;AdjP\;-pl\;N\;PrepP \;\Rightarrow\; All\;the\;five\;young\;men\;in\;red\;shirts$

AdjP rule (Rule 5)

• $AdjP \rightarrow (intens)\; (PrepP)\; n\;Adj$

  • Intensifiers can iterate ($n$ times).

  • Examples: very old, very very new, extremely fond of the girl.

PrepP rule (Rule 6)

• $PrepP \rightarrow Prep\;NP$

  • "on it", "in Sydney"…

VP within Predicate (Rule 7)

• $PRED \rightarrow AUX\;VP\;(Advl)^n$

• Optional multiple adverbials allowed.

Adverbial rules (Rules 8-10)

• $Advl \rightarrow AdvP \ | \ PrepP \ | \ CL$

  • $AdvP \rightarrow (intens)^n\;Adv$

  • $CL \rightarrow Adv_{sub}\;S$ (subordinating adverbial clause, e.g. "as it is beautiful").

Auxiliary System (Rules 11-14)

• Hierarchy inside $AUX$ (obligatory first): $AUX \rightarrow T \; M\;(pm)\;(perf)\;(prog)\;(-imper)$

  • $T$ (Tense) obligatory unless replaced by Modal or imperative marker.

  • $M$ = central modal (may, can…).

  • $(pm)$ = phrasal modal (be able to, have to…).

  • $perf$ = HAVE $…$ -en.

  • $prog$ = BE $…$ -ing.

• Tense feature rule 12: $T \rightarrow -past \;|\; -pres$

Combinatorial examples

• Present Perfect: $AUX = T(-pres)\;perf \Rightarrow has\;given$.

• Past Progressive: $T(-past)\;prog \Rightarrow was\;giving$.

• Modal Perfect Progressive: $M(may)\;perf\;prog \Rightarrow may\;have\;been\;taking$.

Verb Phrase Rule 15

• $VP \rightarrow cop\;(NP\;|\;AdjP\;|\;PrepP) \ | \ V\;(NP)^2\;(PrepP)$

  • Captures

  • Copular constructions: "be + NP/AdjP/PP".

  • Intransitive verb (IV): "Ali slept".

  • Transitive verb (TV): "Din watches the movie".

  • Ditransitive: "I give her my watch" (NP NP) / "I gave my watch to her" (NP PrepP).

Worked-Out Tree Samples

• "We love our children"

  • $S\rightarrow NP(Pro) + PRED$

  • $AUX: T(-pres)$ → Ø (null form in simple present plural).

  • $VP \rightarrow V(love) + NP(det=-pl)$ → our children.

• Copular illustrations:

  • "I am him" → $am$ = AUX (T(-pres)); VP = cop NP.

  • "They are on campus" → VP = cop PrepP.

• Complex sentence:

  • "He loves his house in Sydney very much as it is beautiful."

  • Multiple adverbials: PP "in Sydney", AdvP "very much", CL "as it is beautiful".

  • Rule sequence: 7 (AUX VP Advl¹ Advl² Advl³) + embedded S in CL.

Procedure for Drawing a Tree Diagram

1. Identify entire Sentence boundary.

2. Split into SUBJ (NP) and PRED.

3. Within PRED, expand AUX (if any) following Rules 11-14.

4. Expand VP per Rule 15 to reveal complements or copular structures.

5. Attach Advl branches (Rules 8-10) as needed.

6. Break remaining phrasal nodes (NP, PP, AdjP, AdvP) with their internal rules.

7. Terminate at lexical level: words are the leaves sourced from the lexicon.

Connections, Relevance & Implications

• PSR framework mirrors Chomsky’s concept of generative adequacy—finite rule set producing infinite sentences.

• Distinction deep vs. surface structure underpins analyses of ambiguity (e.g. "Flying planes can be dangerous").

• Auxiliary rule ordering reflects tense-aspect-modality hierarchies crucial for ESL pedagogy.

• Knowledge of tree building aids parsing, error diagnosis and language-technology applications (e.g., syntactic parsers).

• Ethically, prescriptive judgements about correctness should acknowledge that PS rules model competence, independent of dialectal variation.

Quick Reference Formulae

• Basic rewrite shorthand: $X \rightarrow Y\;Z$ means “Replace node $X$ with ordered daughters $Y, Z$.”

• Bracket conventions in notes:

  • ( ) = optional element.

  • { } = choice among alternatives.

  • $n$ = element may repeat $n$ times.

Summary

• Mastery of phrase structure rules enables systematic decomposition of English sentences into hierarchical constituents.

• Subjects and predicates form the backbone; auxiliaries and verb complements create tense-aspect meanings.

• The rule system, though abstract, has immediate classroom and computational relevance.