语言学_Chapter 4

Chapter 4 Syntax
A
4.1 Syntax
—The definition of syntax
—Approaches to the study of sentences
-The traditional approach
-The structural approach
-The generative approach
-The functional approach
4.2 Categories
4.2.1 Word-level categories
—The definition of syntactic categories
—Two kinds of word-level categories
-Major lexical categories
‐Noun (N)
‐Verb (V)
‐Adjective (A)
‐Preposition (P)
-Minor lexical categories
‐Determiner (Det)
‐Degree words (Deg)
‐Qualifier (Qual), Auxiliary (Aux)
‐Conjunction (Con)
‐Complementizer (C)
4.2.2Phrase categories and their structures
—The definition of phrase
—Phrasal categories
-Noun phrase (NP)
-Verb phrase (VP)
-Adjective phrase (AP)
-Prepositional phrase (PP)
—The elements of phrases
-Head
-Specifier
-Complement
4.3 Phrase structure rule
—The definition of phrase structure rules
—The phrase structure rule for NP, VP, AP, PP
-NP (Det) N (PP) ...
-VP (Qual) V (NP) ...
-AP (Deg) A (PP) ...
-PP (Deg) P (NP) ...
4.3.1 XP rule
The XP rule: XP (specifier) X (complement)
4.3.2 Coordination rule
—The definition of coordinate structures
—The coordination rule: X X* Con X
4.4 Phrase elements
4.4.1 Specifiers
4.4.2 Complements
The XP Rule (revised) XP (Specifier) X (Complement*) —Complementizer
—Complement clause
—Complement phrase (CP)
—Matrix clause
4.4.3 Modifiers
The Expended XP rule: XP (Spec) (Mod) X (Complement*) (Mod)
4.5 Sentences (The S Rule)
The S rule: S NP VP
4.6 Transformations
—Deep structure (D-structure) and surface structure (S-structure)
—Some transformation rules
-Auxiliary movement
-Do insertion
‐Do insertion rule: Insert interrogative do into an empty Infl position -Wh movement
‐Wh Movement: Move the wh phrase to the beginning of the sentence
‐Wh movement (revised): Move a wh phrase to the specifier position under CP
-Move αand constraints on transformations
Introduction of a linguist----Leonard Bloomfiel
Leonard Bloomfield (April 1,1887—April 18,1949)
was an American linguist who led the development of
structural linguistics in the United States during the 1930s
and the 1940s. His influential textbook Language,
published in 1933, presented a comprehensive description
of American structural linguistics. He made significant
contributions to Indo-European historical linguistics, the
description of Austronesian languages and description of
languages of the Algonquian family.
Bloomfield’s approach to linguistics was characterized by its
emphasis on the scientific basis of linguistics, adherence to
behaviorism especially in his later work and emphasis on formal
procedures for the analysis of linguistic data. The influence of
Bloomfieldian structural linguistics declined in the late 1950s and
1960s as the theory of Generative Grammar developed by Noam
Chomsky came to predominate.
Immediate constituent analysis or IC analysis is a method of sentence analysis that was first mentioned by Leonard Bloomfield and developed further by Rulon Wells. The process reached a full blown strategy for analyzing sentence structure in the early works of Noam Chomsky. The practice is now widespread. Most tree structures employed to represent the syntactic structure of sentences are products of some form of IC-analysis. The process and result of IC-analysis can, however, vary greatly based upon whether one chooses the constituency relation of phrase structure grammars (= constituency grammars) or the dependency relation of dependency grammars as the underlying principle that organizes constituents into hierarchical structures.
IC Analysis refers to division of a sentence up into immediate constituents by using binary cutting until obtaining its ultimate constituents.
Immediate constituents: the two parts that are yielded after a sentence is cut into its constituent elements .
Ultimate constituent: the smallest grammatical unit obtained through the division, or segmentation or the forms at the word-level.
B
4.1 Syntax
Syntax: a branch of linguistics that studies the rules that govern the formation of sentences.
The traditional approach takes a sentence as a sequence of words. It studies sentence formation by studying words in terms of categories and their interrelationships.
The structural approach regard linguistic units as interrelated with each other in a structure (system), not as isolated bits. This approach to grammar, based on Saussure’s ideas of language, studies the interrelationships between words.
The generative approach is mainly referred to transformational-generative grammar proposed by Noam Chomsky. Chomsky proposes that the grammars of all human languages share a common framework.
The functional approach offers an alternative to structuralism (formalism).Systemic-functional approach starts from clause and extends itself to discourse. It involves what language can show (ideational function), what kind of relation can it establish (interpersonal function), and in what way (textual function).
4.2 Categories
Category: a group of linguistic items which fulfill the same or similar functions in a particular language such as a sentence, a noun phrase or a verb.
Syntactic category（句法范畴）：
refer to the linguistic forms that have paradigmatic relations, which can generally substitute for one another without loss of grammaticality.
Word level category can be divided into two kinds: major lexical categories and minor lexical categories.
Major lexical categories(实义语类）：Noun, Verb, Adjective and Preposition
Minor lexical categories(功能语类）：
Determiner(Det)限定词: the, a, this, those
Degree words(Deg)表程度: quite, very, more, so
Qualifier (Qual)表频率: often, always, seldom, almost
Auxiliary (Aux)助动词: can, will, do, do, be, have
Conjunction (Conj)连词: and, or, but
Complementizer(C)补语化成分: that, if, for, whether
Phrase is a single element of structure containing more than one word, and lacking the subject-predicate structure typical of clauses.
4.2.2Phrase categories and their structures
Phrasal categories
Noun phrase(NP): the pretty girl
Verb phrase(VP): often dream
Adjective phrase(AP): very pessimistic
Prepositional phrase(PP): mainly about
Phrases are usually contain the following elements:Head, Specifier and Complement.
The word around which a phrase is formed is termed head
The word on the left side of the head is said to function as specifier
The word on the right side of the head is complement.
4.3 Phrase structure rule
Phrase structure rule:grammatical mechanism that regulates the arrangement of elements that make up a phrase.
-NP (Det) N (PP) ...
-VP (Qual) V (NP) ...
-AP (Deg) A (PP) ...
-PP (Deg) P (NP) ...
NP can consist of a determiner(Det), an N head and a PP complement,
for instance: those people, the fish on the plate, pretty girls
VP can be composed of a qualifier, a V and an NP complement,
for instance: always play games, finish assignments
AP can be composed of a degree word, a A and a PP complement
for instance: very handsome, very pessimistic, familiar with, very close to
PP can consist of a degree word, a P and an NP complement,
for instance: on the shelf, in the boat, quite near the station
The XP rule: XP (specifier) X (complement)
Coordination rule:
Coordination structures-----the structures that are formed by joining two or more elements of the same type with the help of a conjunction such as and, or, etc.
The coordination rule: X X* Con X
4.4 Phrase elements
Words which introduce the sentence complement are termed complementizers ( shortened as Cs) The sentence introduced by the complementizers is called a complement clause.
Sentence complement is called complement phrase (shortened as CP)
The construction in which the complement phrase is embedded is called matrix clause.
Modifiers in English vary in terms of their position with respect to the head.
XP (specifier)(Mod) X (complement*) (Mod)
The new rule allows a modifier to occur either before or after the head.
Where there is a complement, a modifier that occurs after the head will occur to the right of the complement as well.
E.g., a careful girl, read carefully, read a book carefully, open the can with care
4.5 Sentences (The S Rule):
A sentence combines an NP (often called the subject) with a VP.
Linguists take an abstract category inflection as a sentence’s head. Inflection takes an NP(the subject) as its specifier and a VP category as its complement.
Inflp(=S）：NP + Infl+VP
IC Analysis (直接成分分析法): refers to division of a sentence up into immediate constituents by using binary cutting until obtaining its ultimate constituents.
Immediate constituents（直接成分）: the two parts that are yielded after a sentence is cut into its constituent elements .
Ultimate constituent （最终成分）: the smallest grammatical unit obtained through the division, or segmentation or the forms at the word-level.
4.6 Transformations
Inversion: move inflection to the left of the subject NP, for instance,
The train will arrive--------Will the train arrive?
Do insertion: insert interrogative do into an empty inflection position,for instance,
Birds fly-------- birds do fly
After the auxiliary do is inserted into the inflection position,the inversion transformation can be made by moving the interrogative do into the C position.
Birds do fly-----Do birds fly?
Deep structure is formed by the XP rule in accordance with the head’s subcategorization properties.
Surface structure corresponds to the final syntactic form of the sentence which results from appropriate transformation.
C
This chapter is about Syntax. Syntax is a branch of linguistics that studies the rules that govern the formation of sentences. (According to the text book)
As for rules, the sequence of words informing the sentences is also an important part of syntax. This book mainly focuses on English syntax. And the sequence of words in a sentence matters. For example, sentence
“ Mike ate the apple. ” and “ The apple ate Mike. ” is very different in their meanings.
If we just see the elements of these two sentences, we can find that they are identical in the words part. The only difference between them is the words sequence. So we can realize how important the sequence of words is. However, it is not always true if we broad our scale to all the languages in the world.
For some of the languages, however, the sequence of words is not that important than English. They do have some rules of the sequence of words, but not that serious. Because my second foreign language is German, I thought of it as soon as I encountered this part. And I decide to have a brief look of it.
In German, sentences with different words sequence can have the same meanings. Here is the rules of German’s sentences:
“ subject + V + object + others .”
The only rule is that V should be put in the second place. And no matter how you deal with the other parts, this sentence can only have one certain meaning. And I think this is because in German, there is four different declension. Not only subjects and objects have their form of declension, but also verbs and adjectives. This declension makes German a more difficult language to learn. But at the same time, this declension also makes German more accurate and precise.
So syntax is a complicated which relate to not only language rules but also the inner characteristics of a certain language. English、German and Chinese are all different.
D
7. Indicate the category of each word in the following sentences.
a) The old lady got off the bus carefully.
Det A N V P Det N Adv
b) The car suddenly crashed onto the river bank.
Det N Adv V P Det N
c) The blinding snowstorm might delay the opening of the schools.
Det A N Aux V Det N P Det N
d) This cloth feels quite soft.
Det N V Deg A。