Syntactic Structures

							Syntactic Structures
       Meeting 4
   In English, words are combined into larger
    structures to convey more various
    meaning. Words can be lexical and
    functional. The combination of (no) more
    than two words will produce various
    structural meaning. The structures can be
    divided into four principal groups.
What are the four groups?
 Hungry people
 Home town
 Easily superior
As examples of structure of …………..

It is formed by the combination of:
…………… + …………………..
Structure of ….
   Money talks
   Soldiers have been killed
   Snow kept falling

It is formed by the combination of:
…………… + …………………..
Structure of …
   Speak truth
   Be careful
   Love your neighbour
Structure of …
   Pins and needles
   Hope and pray
   Neither war nor peace
   These are the basic structures as the
    bases for more complex structures.
   They can be used as the main outlines and
    provide a framework of ideas and a basic
    terminology
These structures are based on:
1.   English syntax is a many-layered
     organization of relatively few types of
     basic units
2.   Every structure may be divided into its
     immediate consituents (ICs) and ten
     subdivided until the ultimate consituents
Structure of Modification
   It consists of two components:
    Head + Modifier
   Possible meanings of modifier:
    - to broaden
    - to qualify
    - to select
    - to change
    - to describe
    - to affect
    the meaning of the head.
   The head can be:
    - noun
    - verb
    - adjective
    - adverb
   Unlike the head, the modifiers are limited
Noun as Head
The modifiers can be:
1. ADJECTIVE:           good book
                        great work
                        remarkable tales
     The rule is: Adj + Noun
 Rarely Adjective follows the Noun (Noun + Adjective) in:
   - technical terms or quotations: court-martial, darkness
                                                visible
   - when adjectives is a part of a larger structure: a figure
   vague and shadowy, a man taller than I thought
2. Nouns:
   - in possessive:
     my father’s house meaning house of my father
     that woman’s doctor meaning doctor of that woman
   - in noun-adjuct:
     a father image meaning an image like father
      that woman doctor meaning that doctor who is a woman
Adjuncts
   Post-head dependents which are not complements in a VP
    are adjuncts
   Adjuncts are never obligatory
   Adjuncts modify some aspect of the possible reference of
    the VP
   Different types of phrases can act as an adjunct in a VP (XP
    is an abbreviation for an unspecified type of phrase)
   Adjuncts can be fronted to pre-Subject
   Some characteristics of noun modifiers:
    1. noun adjunct is almost always singular
       Ex.: dog days vs dog’s life
    2. Certain noun-determiners (this/these and that/those) exhibit the
    phenomenon of concord
       Ex.: that boy’s book = book of that boy
            that boys book = that book for boys
            those boys’ book = book of those boys
            those boys’ books = books of those boys
            those boys books= those books for boys
    3. Most nonpersonal nouns do not have the (-‘s) inflection
       Ex.: communications officer, reparations agreement,
    4. A few nouns have certain irregular forms which can help identify
    the possessive and plurality of the noun
       Ex.: woman doctor (noun adjunct) vs woman’s doctor
    (possessive)
          women doctors (noun adjunct) vs women’s doctors
    (possessive)
Appositive
   Appositive is a noun, noun-headed structure of modification, or a
    structure of coordination made up of nouns or noun-headed
    structures modifying a noun head which it follows.
    ex.: - His brother, a doctor, was there also
          - Mr. Jones, the art critic, praised the
    painting
          - The children, both boys and girls, received    presents
          - the poet, Chaucer, …
          - the product, cellophane, …
          - Professor Jones …
          - Vice-President Smith …
          - The River Duddon
3. Verbs as modifiers
  verbs can function as modifiers in the
  following forms:
  - present participle (pre or post head)
  - past participle (pre or post head)
  - to infinitive (always post head)
Present/past participle modifiers
   Pre-Head (if they are by-itself).
    Examples: - running water
                   - baked potatoes
   Post-head (if they are parts of a larger
    structure)
    Examples: - water running in the street
                   - potatoes baked slowly
To infinitives
   Examples:    - Money to burn
                - The man to see

What about the following:
a. A pleasing table
b. A rotting table
c. A dining table
Can you discriminate each of those?
4. Adverbs as Noun modifiers
In English it seldom occurs as noun modifiers. If so, it occurs
   immediately after the noun modified. They are adverbs of
   then (today, daily, seldom, etc.) and there (outside, ahead,
   backward, etc.) groups.
Example: - the people here
                - The temperature outside
                - Heavens above
And the thus/so-class (easily, slowly, aloud, etc) groups only
   modify present participle verbs, such as his speaking rapidly,
   our acting together.
5. Prepositional Phrases as Noun modifiers
This phrase consists of prepositions and lexical words.
   Preposition can be simple prepositions: one-morpheme
   preposition (after, as, at, etc), two-morpheme prepositions
   (about, above, across), and three-morpheme prepositions (
   against, concerning, considering), compound prepositions
   (adverb+preposition) such as across from, along with, apart
   from, and phrasal prepositions (simple preposition, a noun,
   and another simple preposition) such as in regard to, in spite
   of, by means of, etc.
   Example of Prepositional phrase as
    modifiers:
    - a way of doing
    - a mile from here
    - a book from under the table
Verbs as the Heads
   Head: V
   Dependents:
       Pre-head modifier: AdvP
       Post-head modifier: AdvP/PP
       (Post-head) complement: NP/PP/AdvP/clause
               S


Subject:NP Tense:AUX    Predicate:VP

                        head:V PtHdMod:AdvP

The boy        has      run    very quickly

                S


 Subject:NP Tense:AUX    Predicate:VP

                         PrHdMod:AdvP     V

The boy        has      very quickly     run
Adjective as the Head

• Head
• Dependents:
   • Prehead Modifier (PrHdMod)
   • Posthead Complement (Comp)
                       AdjP


  PrHdMod:AdvP       Head:Adj     Comp:PP



so very improbably   keen         on that movie
                     crazy      about that movie
Adverb as the Head

• head: Adv
• dependents:
   • prehead modifier: AdvP
   • posthead complement: PP / clause

more          carefully   than Jo
so very       quickly     that he fell over
              quickly     *than Jo/ that he fell over
PrHdMod:      Head:       Comp:
AdvP          Adv         PP/Clause
Preposition as the Head

• head: P
• Prehead modifier: AdvP
• Posthead complement: NP/PP

                     PP

 PrHdMod:AdvP       Head:P     Comp:NP
 straight           though     the intersection
 almost right       into       the crowd
 barely             in         the water