1. University of the Punjab
Department of English Language & Literature
Lahore, Pakistan

2. Syntax
The study of:
• Grammatical relations between words and
other units within the sentence
• Word order
• Sentence formation

3. Syntax
• Languages differ not only in sounds, but also the ways in
which words can be put together into larger units this is Syntax
• Rules about how words can be put together differ according to
language , dialect, social group, time frame etc
• “They know not what they do”
– does not follow the rules we use
– for modern English, but was totally normal in the 17th
Century
• Even though the word meanings haven’t changed, the syntax
has

4. Syntactic Theory
• Syntactic theory is about the rules and principles that
determine:
– how people combine words to make meaningful sentences
• Sentences are not just strings of words
– in the same way that words are not just strings of
morphemes
• There are strict syntactic rules about the structure of sentences
– how to combine words in specific way to reach a certain
meaning
• Structure at a phrasal and sentence level

5. Bag of words
• Consider these words: Bit A The Dog Cat
–A cat bit the dog
–The cat bit a dog
–A dog bit the cat
–The dog bit a cat
• All of these have specific, and different meanings
• These different meanings come about solely from our
combinations of words

6. Syntactic Categories
Lexical categories
• Noun (N)
• Verb (V)
• Adjective (A)
• Preposition (P)
• Adverb (Adv)
Examples
• moisture, policy
• melt, remain
• good, intelligent
• to, near
• slowly, now

7. Syntactic Categories
Non-lexical categories
 Determiner (Det)
 Degree word (Deg)
 Qualifier (Qual)
 Auxiliary (Aux)
 Conjunction (Con)
Examples
 the, this
 very, more
 always, perhaps
 will, can
 and, or

8. Phrase Structure
• We have rules in syntax about what word classes can pattern
together in phrases
• NP -> (Det) N
• This means that Noun Phrases can be made up of Determiners and
Nouns. Determiners are optional
The girl
Ayesha
• Both of these are NPs - they each contain a N,
• and the first also has a determiner

9. NP Rule
• First, DET means determiner
– Function words like the, a, this, several
• NP  (DET) N
– That means a noun phrase can have a determiner, and it
must have a noun
– S  NP VP
– VP  V NP
– NP  (DET) (ADJ) N

10. Phrases
• NP : Noun Phrase
The car, a clever student
• VP : Verb Phrase
study hard, play the guitar
• PP : Prepositional Phrase
in the class, above the earth
• AP : Adjective Phrase
very tall, quite certain
• AdvP:
quite happily

11. Noun Phrase Structure Rules
• NP (Det) N (PP)
• PP P NP
The bus (NP)
The
NDet
bus
The bus in the yard
NP
The
NDet
bus
PP
in
NPP
the
Det N
yard

12. Verb Phrase Structure Rules
• VP V (NP) (PP)
• S NP (Aux) VP
took the money (VP)
took
NPV
took the money from the bank
VP
took
NPV PP
from
NPP
the
Det N
bank
the
Det N
money
the
Det N
money

13. PP
P NP
from Det N PP
a boy P NP
in Det N
a bubble
Prepositional Phrase Structure Rules

14. Sentence

15. Sentence structure
• This allows us to build up sentences from phrases
• If we want to analyze the sentence “the cat sat on the mat”, we
look at the internal phrases
• The cat sat on the mat
• Det N V P Det N
• NP VP PP NP
• However, there are rules in syntax (as is morphology) about
what order these interact in
• It’s not just a bag of words!

16. Constituency
• A sentence is divided into groups of words
• The connections between words in one group is closer than
between words belonging to different groups
• A group of words that cling together is called a constituent
– To test whether a group of words is a constituent, we have
3 tests:
• Replacement/Substitution:
– a constituent can be replaced by a single word
• Movement:
– a constituent as a whole, can be placed in a different
• position in a sentence
– Clefting: Change sentences to “it was...”

17. All languages have constituents
• Sentences are not just strings of words, have a more
complex structure
• which linguists call: CONSTITUENT STRUCTURE
• We can call the sentence S, and label the syntactic
categories N and V
S
N
Johnny
V
danced

18. The Main Structure Rules
1. S NP (Aux) VP
2. NP (Det) (AP) N (PP)
3. VP V (NP) (PP) (Adv)
4. PP P NP
5. AP A (PP)

19. The Analysis of Sentence Structure

20. Example
The old tree swayed in the wind
old
V PP
in
NPP
the
Det N
windThe
N
swayed
S
NP VP
Det Adj
tree
Aux
past

21. Example
The children put the toy in the box
V PP
in
NPP
the
Det N
boxThe
N
put
S
NP VP
Det
children
NP
the
Det N
toy

22. Ambiguity: a word, phrase or
sentence with multiple meanings
Synthetic buffalo hides (NP) Synthetic buffalo hides (NP)
Synthetic buffalo hides Synthetic buffalo hides
Buffalo hides that are synthetic. Hides of synthetic buffalo.

23. Ambiguities often lead to humorous
results
• For sale: an antique desk suitable for lady with
thick legs and large drawers
 what does “thick legs and large drawers”
refer to?
The desk or the lady?

24. Structural Ambiguity
The boy saw the man with the telescope
V PP
with
NPP
the
Det N
telescopeThe
N
saw
S
NP VP
Det
boy
NP
the
Det N
man
Aux
past

25. Structural Ambiguity
The boy saw the man with the telescope
V
PP
with
NPP
the
Det N
telescopeThe
N
saw
S
NP VP
Det
boy
NP
the
Det N
man
Aux
past

26. Declarative – Interrogative
• Move the auxiliary to the left of the subject.
The boy will leave.
S
VPNP
Det
Aux
N
The boy will leave
Will the boy leave?
S
VPNP
Det
Aux
N
the boyWill leave
The deep structure The surface structure
V V

27. Reasons for studying syntax
• Our knowledge of a language consists of:
– A finite number of words
– Rules (the grammar of the language)
• Infinity of expressions:
– an infinite number of possible utterances in every language
– all these utterances cannot be stored in our brains
• It is the job of the syntactician to find out what these
rules are

28. Language Acquisition
• Understanding syntax helps to understand:
– how young children learn their native language
– how to use the rules
• But nobody can really state exactly what the
rules are!
– it is amazing that children can do it so fast

29. Universal Grammar
Theory of Chomsky UG has Principles + Parameters:
• Principles, true of all languages
– All languages have the same underlying structure
• e.g. all languages have nouns and verbs
• Parameters, whose setting varies from language to language
– English and Chinese SVO; Japanese SOV

30. Basic Word Order
WORD ORDER ENGLISH EXAMPLE
PORPORTION OF
LANGUAGE (%)
SOV I YOU LOVE 45
SVO I LOVE YOU 42
VSO LOVE I YOU 9
VOS LOVE YOU I 3
OVS YOU LOVE I 1
OSV YOU I LOVE 0

31. Basic Sentences Patterns
Sentence Pattern Example
SV JOHN SLEEPS.
JILL IS EATTING
SVO I LIKE RICE.
SHE LOVES HER JOB.
SV Adj HE IS FUNNY .
THE WORKERS ARE LAZY.
SV Ad JIM IS HERE.
FLOWERS ARE EVERYWHERE.
SVN SHE IS MY MOM.
THE MEN ARE DOCTORS