Definition of syntax Noun phrase and verb phrase Phrase structure rules / Tree diagrams

PREPARED BY: KHAIRUL FAIZAL BIN HALIM MUHAMMAD AFHAM BIN BIDIN NADZRUL REDUAN BIN KAMARUDIN

the set of rules that language uses to combine words and morphemes to create sentences. For example, in some languages adjectives come before the noun, and in others after the noun. Some languages use prepositions, others use postpositions.

Start with a basic classification of words, the parts of speech Nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, - prepositions These then combine into phrases.

Syntax = Sentence Formation

Morphemes combine into Words combine into Phrases combine into Clauses combine into Sentences

In everyday speech, a phrase may refer to any group

of words. In linguistics, a phrase is a group of words (or sometimes a single word) that form a constituent and so function as a single unit in the syntax of a sentence.

A phrase is lower on the grammatical hierarchy than a

clause.

PHRASES

phrase is a collection of words that may have nouns or verbals, but it does not have a subject doing a verb. The following are examples of phrases: -leaving behind the dog -smashing into a fence

-before the first test

CLAUSES A clause is a collection of words that has a subject that is actively doing a verb. The following are examples of clauses: -since she laughs at diffident men - I despise individuals of low character

Semantically: refer to persons, places and things Syntactically:

1. May occur after Determiners this book, the water, an idea *this excite, *the somber, *an exactly

2. May be modified with Adjectives this funny book, the bad water, a slippery idea

Also, nouns can be plural:

the dogs, the cats, *the sombers, *the exactlys

 A noun phrase consists of a noun and all its modifiers - i.e. determiner, adjectives, and any clauses or prepositional phrases that modify the noun. Traditionally, the noun is called the head of the noun phrase, because it determines the syntactic function of the phrase - that is, the phrase acts as if it were a noun. Examples: "Bob", "the cat in the hat", "the man who came to dinner", etc.

These are all the same types of phrase:

the sentence that boy a dog that large bicycle some dirty water women David Queensland happiness elderly men they

Det N

Det Adj
N

Adj N Pron

The simplest NPs contain only a noun (proper noun

[+proper] such as John, pronoun [+pron] such as

he, mass noun [-count] such as water, or plural

noun [+plural] such as cats)

In the previous examples, the most important word is a noun or pronoun. Noun/pronoun cannot be omitted

Noun/pronoun may be the only element in a phrase

So, since nouns are the most important words in the phrases, we call these phrases noun phrases.

In English, a noun phrase may be made up of: determiner + noun = NP (Det) N determiner + adjective + noun = NP noun adjective + noun pronoun

Det Adj N

We use phrase structure rules to represent these structures, for example:

NP Det N This rule says that a noun phrase (NP) is made up of (arrow) a determiner (Detv) followed by a noun (N).

 Semantically: refer to events and states of affairs Syntactically: may appear after Auxiliaries

he can go, she will stay, I have walked

Verbs also take specific inflectional affixes: He runs, She plays, It works. He is running, She is playing, It is working.

 A verb phrase consists of a verb and all its modifiers i.e. adverbs, auxiliary verbs, prepositional phrases, and adverbial clauses. Most linguists would also include noun phrases such as the object and complements, in the definition of a verb phrase. The verb is, of course, the head of the verb phrase. Examples: "stop!", "walk carefully", "will soon greatly regret", "came in the middle of the night", "hurt his pride", "put out the cat"

The girl left The girl went to the shops The girl kissed the boy The girl kissed the boy after lunch The girl kissed the boy after lunch under the tree The girl gave the boy a book The girl gave the boy a book after lunch The girl gave the boy a book after lunch under the tree

The girl left (V) The girl went to the shops (V + PP)

The girl kissed the boy (V + NP)

The girl kissed the boy after lunch (V + NP + PP)

The girl kissed the boy after lunch under the tree (V + NP + PP + PP) The girl gave the boy a book (V + NP + NP) The girl gave the boy a book after lunch
(V + NP + NP + PP)

The girl gave the boy a book after lunch under the tree (V + NP + NP + PP + PP) Although these look like very complex structures, we can write them using one phrase structure rule: VP V (NP) (NP) (PP)

Sentence Structure : Syntactic rules determine the order of words in a sentence, and how the words are grouped. The words in the sentence
The child found the puppy

may be grouped into (the child) and (found the puppy), corresponding to the subject and predicate of the sentence. A further division gives ((the)(child)) ((found) ((the)) (puppy))). It is easier to see the parts and subparts of the sentence in a tree diagram

Possesive pronoun mine,yours,his, hers, its,ours,yours,theirs Demonstrative pronoun this,that,these, those

Determiners a. identifiers a / an, the, possessive pronouns, demonstrative pronouns b. quantifiers much, many, a lot, few, several, little, most, all, less, enough, every, .

Coordinator- for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so. Subordinator-because, since, after, although, or when or a relative pronoun such as that, who, or which.

The child found the puppy

PP

Det the

N winter

http://web.cn.edu/kwheeler/gram_clauses_n _phrases.html http://www.myenglishpages.com/site_php_fi les/grammar-lesson-noun-phrases.php http://www.mhhe.com/mayfieldpub/tsw/phra ses.htm http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/syntax.html