Ling 1 First Video

Syntax and Sentence Structure

Introduction to Syntax

  • Syntax refers to the structure of sentences, and is concerned with how words are arranged.

  • Important components to discuss include grammaticality, word order, and lexical categories.

Word Order

  • Example Sentence: "James threw the ball."

    • Verbs occur in the middle of the sentence.

    • Subjects occur at the beginning of the sentence.

    • Objects occur at the end of the sentence.

  • English Word Order: Subject-Verb-Object (SVO).

Possible Word Orders in Languages

  • There are six potential combinations of subject (S), verb (V), and object (O):

    1. SVO (e.g. English)

    2. SOV (Object before Verb)

    3. VSO (Verb before Subject)

    4. VOS

    5. OVS

    6. OSV

Example: Japanese

  • Japanese follows SOV order:

    • Japanese sentence: "boku ni ku o ta."

    • Translation breakdown:

      • "boku" means "I" (subject).

      • "ni" as a topic marker.

      • "niku" means "meat" (object).

      • "o" is the object marker.

      • "ta" means "eat" (verb).

    • Readable translation: "I eat meat."

    • Conclusion: Japanese word order is SOV; SVO and SOV are the two most common word orders worldwide.

Grammaticality

  • Shift in mindset from prescriptive to descriptive views of language:

    • Prescriptive: Judgments about how language should be used (rules).

    • Descriptive: Observations of how language is actually used (the way people speak).

Examples of Prescriptive vs Descriptive Statements

  1. Prescriptive Example: "Be sure to use 'one' instead of 'he' or 'she'."

    • It implies that it is incorrect to use gender-specific pronouns, highlighting a rule in formal writing.

  2. Descriptive Example: "In Texas English, some people say 'I might could leave that on'."

    • This emphasizes acceptance of regional dialect variations, rather than declaring it as improper usage.

  3. Another example includes the statement "I ain't never done that" which denotes a double negative but is acceptable in certain dialects, illustrating a descriptive approach.

Lexical Categories

  • Major lexical categories include:

    • Nouns: Words that represent people, places, or things (e.g., "dog", "Jim").

    • Testing Nouns: Can the word take "his/her" or "the" before it? If yes, it’s a noun (e.g., "his happiness", "his dog").

    • Verbs: Words that indicate actions (e.g., "run", "die").

    • Adjectives: Words that describe nouns (e.g., "happy dog", "quick dog").

    • Prepositions: Words that indicate location or direction (e.g., "before", "under", "to").

    • Adverbs: Words that modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs (e.g., "happily ran", "quickly ran").

Functional Categories

  • Functional categories typically accompany one of the lexical categories and include:

    • Determiners: Articles like "the" that pattern with nouns.

    • Qualifiers: Modify adverbs (e.g. "very quickly") or prepositions (e.g. "more into it").

    • Auxiliary Verbs: Supporting verbs (e.g. "could", "have", "been").

    • Conjunctions: Join sentences (e.g. "and", "but").

Word Category Identification Exercise

  • Example sentences are analyzed for word categories:

  1. Sentence: "I would like cereal for breakfast."

    • "I" (noun), "would" (modal auxiliary), "like" (verb), "cereal" (noun), "for" (preposition), "breakfast" (noun).

  2. Sentence: "The balloon could have popped."

    • "The" (determiner), "balloon" (noun), "could" (modal auxiliary), "have" (auxiliary), "popped" (verb).

  3. Sentence: "Jim ran very quickly to a store."

    • "Jim" (noun), "ran" (verb), "very" (qualifier), "quickly" (adverb), "to" (preposition), "a" (determiner), "store" (noun).

Phrases and Grouping of Words

  • Words can group into phrases that represent functional units.

    • Noun Phrase: Typically consists of a determiner and a noun (e.g., "the dog").

    • Verb Phrase: May consist of a verb and can include adverbs (e.g., "ran very quickly").

    • Prepositional Phrase: Consists of a preposition and its object (e.g., "under the table").

Construction of Phrases

  • It is essential to understand that the existence of a verb necessitates the presence of a verb phrase in a sentence to convey a complete thought.

  • Examples of possible phrases:

    • A noun phrase may consist solely of a noun, such as "Jim."

    • A verb phrase may just consist of a verb, such as "runs."

Conclusion

  • Understanding the components and structure of syntax helps in analyzing and constructing language.

  • For further practice, users are encouraged to identify lexical categories in their own sentences and seek feedback from peers or instructors.