Syntax, the study of structure of phrase and sentence

1. Unit 6
▪Syntax, the study of structure of
phrase and sentence

2. Sentence and phrase
▪ Syntax is the set of rules principles and processes that govern
the structure of sentence in a specific language.
▪ The Phrase: it’s a group of words which has no subject, no verb
and no complete idea and it usually consists of article
preposition of noun(noun/adj/adv)ex: on a table (no completed
idea, no subject, no verb)
▪ Sentence First:The sentence is a group of words that are put
together to mean something (with subject and predicate ,and it
expresses the complete thought )
▪ ex:I like you.

4. The nominative and the accusative
▪ In English the subject typically occur in the nominative case(I,she)
whereas objects occur in the accusative case (me,him)Now what the
difference between the nominative and the accusative:The
Nominative case is the case that contains the subject of a sentence
while the Accusative case is the case that contains the direct object
of a sentence.

6. ▪ grammatical function: Actually the terms subject,
predicate,object(direct and indirect),adverbial,attribute ,
complement and adjunct, (Its all refer to grammatical
function)
▪ the syntactic categories: wherase the syntactic categories its
contains (adverb phrase, (adverb phrase +adjective phrase),
(adverb phrase +verb phrase), adjective phrase ,(adjective
phrase +noun phrase ),noun phrase, (noun phrase +verb
phrase),verb phrase

7. Representation

8. REPRESENTATION
▪ The constituent structure of sentences can be represented in essentially two ways:
by means of labelled tree diagrams, and by means of labelled bracketings.
▪ In this presentation we focus on tree diagrams because they help visualise
structure better than bracketings.
▪ Tree diagrams are like uprooted trees, with branches and nodes.The nodes in a
tree diagram are the topmost point, the bottom points, and all those intermediate
points at which the tree branches.The labels are the abbreviated names of the
categories to which the constituents belong.

9. The constituent structure of sentences
Tree Diagrams Bracketings

10. Tree diagrams
Nodes:
are the topmost point, the
bottom points, and all those
intermediate points at which
the tree branches.
The labels:
are the abbreviated names of
the categories to which the
constituents belong

11. S, D, Pron, Aux, and DegP; these stand for Sentence, Determiner, Pronoun,
Auxiliary, and Degree Phrase, respectively

14. ▪ An expensive car, Mary, apples, home, are sisters of the verb, while the adjuncts,
viz. on Tuesday and very quickly in (7e) and (7f), are adjoined to theVP, with which
they form a higherVP.
▪ In the last example, (7f), the auxiliary will stands as a separate constituent outside
theVP, although we may intuitively think the auxiliary should be part of theVP
▪ although we may intuitively think the auxiliary should be part of theVP. One of the
reasons why we analyse it as being outside theVP is that theVP may be deleted
independently of the Aux, see e.g. (8).

15. ▪ (8) SpeakerA:Will he go home very quickly?
▪ Speaker B:Yes, he will go home very quickly.
▪ if, for any reason, we wish to ignore the internal structure of theVP go home very quickly in (7f), we
may use a triangle for this part of the sentence, see (7f’, to be read as “seven-ef-prime”).
▪ One of the reasons why we analyse it as being outside theVP is that theVP may be deleted
independently of the Aux, see e.g. (8). (8) SpeakerA:Will he go home very quickly? Speaker B:Yes, he
will go home very quickly.

17. Definitions
▪ A node in a tree is said to dominate (i.e. contain) all the nodes below it that are linked to it by a line
▪ A string of words (which consists of minimally one word) is a constituent in a tree if there is a node which
exclusively dominates it, i.e. dominates all and only the words in that string.
▪ Immediate constituent (IC) in a tree when there is a node which immediately dominates all and only the
words in that string. When a node dominates lower nodes without the intervention of intermediate
nodes, we speak about immediate domination.

18. ▪ The immediate constituents of the sentence in (7f) are He, will, and go home very quickly,
because these are the NP,Aux andVP which are immediately dominated by the sentence.The
sentence is “mother” to its immediate constituents, the immediate constituents are “daughters”
to the sentence, and “sisters” to each other.The immediate constituents (i.e. daughters) of theVP
go home very quickly are the lowerVP go home and the AdvP very quickly.The immediate
constituents of the lowerVP go home are theV go and the AdvP home, and those of the AdvP
very quickly are the DegP very and the Adv quickly.

19. ▪TYPES OF SENTENCES

20. Simple sentences
Compound sentences
** ( It’s important to use each of these structures , because it makes our writing more engaging for the
reader) .
Complex sentences

21. What is a simple sentence ?
A simple sentence has one independent clause.
It has at least one subject and one verb and it is completed thought .
Ex : Khaled reads a book
There are two forms of simple sentences. Based on the structure , they include :
Single subject and single verb:
One subject and one verb
Compound subject and compound verb
The course starts next Sunday James and John climbed to the top of the hill “
compound subject “
Julie talks very fast The teacher taught and left
“ compound verb “

22. What is a compound sentence?
Compound sentences are a combination of two or more independent clauses joined
together by a coordinating conjunction .
Coordinating conjunction
Ex: Julie opened the
door and she looked
outside.
It was raining so I
took an umbrella.

23. 1: I like pizza and burger
2: I like pizza and he likes burger
What is the difference between “ and “ in the first sentence and second
sentence?

24. Compound Sentence types :
1: Additive sentence 3: Adversative sentence 2: Disjunctive sentence
She went to the mall
and she went to
school
I asked him but he
refused
I can go to my
friends or my friends
can come to me
I study English and
he studies Arabic
Everyone went but
Ahmad stayed home
I might go to Egypt
or visit Jordan next
year

25. Complex sentences
Complex sentence are composed of independent
clause and a dependent clause.
Dependent
clauses
are not a
completed
thought
Ex: when he won the award , everyone cheered
It always has a subordinator : Although , Because
, Since , When , After
Or relative pronoun : Who , Which ,That
Independent clauses
Dependent clauses
Everyone cheered when he won the award

26. Simple , Compound or
Complex sentences ?
1: His room was a mess, but he was too tired to clean it.
5 : I have read this book a hundred times.
4: Because it was so hot, he went swimming.
2: Chris and his friends walked quickly home from school.
3: Sarah was late, even though she had left home early.

27. sentence and
utterance

28. What is a Sentence
▪ A sentence is a complete thought or statement which conveys a complete
meaning.This can either be in the spoken or written form.Thus, a sentence
at least primarily consists of a subject, a verb, and an object. Addition to this
fundamental parts in a sentence, there may be phrases and clauses as well.
However, what should be kept in mind is that a sentence is a group of words
that give a complete meaning.
▪ In linguistics, sentence structures with regard to varied languages are
learned. In the English language, the structure of a sentence is as
follows:
Subject + Verb + Object
▪ Accordingly, a sentence should consist at least these three
fundamental components in order to categorize it as a sentence, or it
must at least have a main clause to stand independently.

29. What is an Utterance
▪ An utterance is considered the smallest unit of speech. It can be defined
as “a natural unit of speech bounded by breaths or pauses.” Thus, it
necessarily doesn’t covey a complete meaning. An utterance can,
therefore, be a clause, a single word, pause, and even a meaningful
statement.
▪ However, unlike a sentence that can exist in both oral and written form,
utterance exists only in the oral form. However, they can be represented
in the written form using many ways.
▪ Hence some examples for utterances can be:
• “Umm, what I …. No, don’t mind.”
• “Well.. you know…. Errr”

30. Difference Between Sentence and Utterance

31. Similarities Between Sentence and Utterance
Both a sentence and utterance convey
a meaning to the reader or listener,
either complete or incomplete.

32. Difference Between Sentence and Utterance
A sentence is a group of words that convey
a complete meaning. On the contrary, an
utterance is a natural unit of speech
bounded by breaths or pauses, thus usually
not conveying a complete meaning.

33. Conclusion
Both sentence and utterance bear significance in linguistics and
in communication among humans. Though they appear similar,
they have distinct differences between them. The main
difference between sentence and utterance is that sentence
coveys a complete meaning expressed either in the spoken or
written form whereas utterance usually does not convey a
complete meaning and it is primarily expressed in the spoken
form.