SYNTAX
SENTENCE STRUCTURES

Scheme of today’s Lecture
 Definitions of Syntax
 Generative Grammar
 Deep and Surface Structure
 Syntactic Structure (Morpheme, Word, Phrases,
Clauses and Sentence)
 Structural ambiguity

Definitions of Syntax
 The word ‘Syntax’ comes originally from
the Greek which literally means ‘a
putting to gather or arrangement’.
 In earlier approaches, there was an
attempt to produce an accurate
description of the sequence or ordering
‘arrangement’ of elements in the linear
structure of sentence.
 SUBJECT+ VERB+ OBJECT

SYNTAX
 In more recent attempts, to analyze
structure, there has been a greater
focus on the underlying rule system that
we use to produce or generate
sentence.
 George Yule,
 (The Study of Language, 6th Edition)
 Syntax deals with the tools available in
languages for putting words together in
sequences and make sentences. Thus,
we could say Syntax is the study of

Syntax
 Sentence is opposite to morpheme
being the smallest grammatical unit.
 American linguist Leonard Bloomfield
(1887—1949) defines sentence as
‘
 a string of words that express a
complete thought and not included in
any larger linguistic form’

Syntactic Rules or Generative
Grammar
 Syntactic rules combine words into
phrases and phrases into sentences.
 The set of rules a well formed structure
is sometimes described as Generative
grammar.
 English is a Subject +Verb + Object
(SVO) Language.
 For Example: The Fisherman hung the net on
the fence.
 The hung fisherman fence on the (ungrammatical)

Deep and Surface Structure
 The terms deep structure and surface
structure were introduced by Noam
Chomsky as a part of his work on
transformational grammar.
 Deep structure is concerned with
meaning.
 Surface Structure is concerned with
grammar.
 a. Ali broke the window.
 b. The window was broken by Charlie.

Deep and Surface Structure
 Deep structure refers to concepts, thoughts,
ideas & feelings.
 Whereas surface structure refers to the words
/ language we use to represent the deep
structure.
 Have you ever experienced a situation where
you felt words were not enough to express
what you had in mind?
 Deep structure is what you wish to express.
 Surface structure how you express it in with
the help of words and sentences.

Deep and Surface Structure
 Deep structure is the abstract structure which
allows to know what the sentence means.
 Surface structure is actually produced
structure. It refers to the sentence as it
produced or written.
 It may then be said that the deep structure
express the semantic contents of a sentence.
 Whereas the surface structure of determines
its phonetic form.
 Some linguists, particularly Noam Chomsky ,
state that drive from a common deep surface
structure (meaning)

Syntactic Analysis
 Syntactic units are grammatical items. Words,
morphemes, phrases, clauses and sentences
are grammatical units in a language.
 Morphemes Words Phrases Clauses
Sentences
 This is the order from the smallest structure to
the longest structure in a language.

Morpheme
 It is the smallest meaningful unit in a
language.
 For Example
 Unkindness = Un+ Kind + ness
Word Three Morphemes
Un = not
Kind = soft hearted
ness = added to adjectives to form nouns
that refer to a quality or a condition

Words & Phrases
Word: It is the combination letters.
 a. A phrase is group of words which cannot
convey a complete thought.
 b. It does not contain a Subject and Predicate
Combination.
 For Example:
 Ali teaches (not a phrase)
 My Cousin Ali eats cakes daily
(phrase)

Kinds of phrases
1. Noun Phrase: Acts like a Noun in a
sentence
2. Noun+ other associated words which
modifies Noun or Pronoun.
For Example:
A woman in the window shouted for help
Noun + Phrase
She bought a decent black shirt

Phrasal Verb
 It is consist of an action verb plus an adverb
or preposition or both an adverb and a
preposition.
 For Example:
 Please sit down
 Come back and see us sometime.
 She blew out the candles of her birthday
cake.
 The horse suddenly broke into a gallop

Clause
 A clause is a group of words .
 It contains a Subject and Predicate
combination
 It conveyed a complete thought by itself.
 For Example:
 Aafan graduated last year
 Subject + Predicate

Kinds of Clauses
 Two kinds of a clause.
 1. Independent 2. Dependent Clause
 Independent Clause: without or with
coordinating conjunctions
 FANBOYS (for, and, nor, but , or ,yet ,
so).
 It could stand itself.
 Does not need any other clause for its
existence.
 i.e. You may sit.
 I Believe yet.

Dependent Clause
 With subordination conjunction and other
connectors (if, when, because etc)
 It could not stand itself . It depends upon
independent clause
 It doesn’t give complete thought.
 i.e. You may sit whenever you may like
 Independent + Dependent Clause

Sentence
 It is combination of clauses together.
 There are four types of sentences
 1. Simple Sentence ( one independent clause)
i.e. I bought a new home.
 2. Compound Sentence (two or more independent
Clause)
 i.e. I helped him and he got happy
 Independent + Independent Clause
 3. Complex Sentence (one indep, clause +at least
one dependent clause)
 i.e. He is wearing a shirt which is awesome
 Independent Clause + Dependent Clause

Sentence
 4. Compound Complex Sentence
 (one independent clause and at least one
dependent clause)
 i.e.
 Although he was sick, he scored well in
examinations
 Dependent clause + Independent Clause

Structural Ambiguity
 A single stretch of speech or writing can
have two or more than two distinct
meanings.
 For Example:
 The ambassador is one who lies abroad for the
good of his country.
 1. The ambassador is one who serves his country
by living his life out of his motherland.
 2. The ambassador is one who tell lies to other
countries for the benefit of his own motherland.