syntaxical process
TRANSCRIPT
Syntactic process 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 superiorAs 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:…………… + …………………..
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.
Noun as HeadThe modifiers can be:1. ADJECTIVE: good book
great workremarkable 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
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
Adjuncts
Some characteristics of noun modifiers:1. noun adjunct is almost always singular
Ex.: dog days vs dog’s life2. 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
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)
3. Verbs as modifiers
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 seeWhat about the following:a. A pleasing tableb. A rotting tablec. A dining tableCan 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 aboveAnd 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
The boy has run very quickly
head:V PtHdMod:AdvP
S
Subject:NP Tense:AUX Predicate:VP
The boy has very quickly run
PrHdMod:AdvP V
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