Chapter 4 （第四章） syntax（句法学）

question With these words, how many grammatical sentences can we construct? e.g. the, the, student, hates, film, new, disgusting. the people, frightened, in the room, the boy

SYNTAX SYNTAX is a branch of linguistics that studies how words are combined to form sentences and the rules that govern the formation of sentences.

1. Some basic concepts Syntactic units Syntactic relations Approaches to syntactic study

1.1 Syntactic units Hierarchical system: (morpheme-)word- phrase--clause—sentence e.g. I met Tom. a (handsome American young) man a (handsome American young) man who always spoke a very heavy dialect.

Phrase PHRASE is a single element of structure containing more than one word, and lacking the subject-predicate structure typical of clauses. the three tallest girls (nominal phrase) has been doing (verbal phrase) extremely difficult (adjectival phrase) to the door (prepositional phrase) very fast (adverbial phrase)

CLAUSE is a group of words which form a grammatical unit and which contain a subject and a finite verb. A clause forms a sentence or a part of a sentence and often functions as a noun, an adjective, or an adverb. E.g. (1)“what I have read is interesting.(functioning a noun). (2) Do you know where I come from? finite and non-finite clause

Sentence a. Definition: Semantically, the minimal form that expresses a complete thought Formally, not included in any larger linguistic form (Bloomfield )

布龙菲尔德 布龙菲尔德（Leonard Bloomfield 1887－1949）美国语言学家。生于芝加哥。1906年毕业于哈佛学院。他不满足已取得的成绩，比以前更加刻苦地学习，计划向更高的目标攀登。终于在1909年在芝加哥大学获得博士学位，圆了他的博士梦。1909－1913年，先后在辛辛那提大学和伊利诺大学教德语。这期间，他深感自己的德语水平有限，满足不了教学与研究的需要，期待着有朝一日到德国进修学习。他的愿望很快就实现了。1913年底，他到了德国，潜心学习德语。由于受历史比较学家布鲁格曼等一大批语言学家的影响，他的思想和学术水平得到了很大提高。回国后，在俄亥俄州立大学、芝加哥大学、耶鲁大学等美国著名的大学任教授，培养出了大批人才。 布龙菲尔德对菲律宾的他加禄语及印欧语系的语言进行过大量的研究，并做出了巨大的贡献。他曾同别人联名倡议设立美国语言学会。由于他做了大量的卓有成效的工作，1924年该学会正式成立，翌年创办会刊《语言》杂志。这个杂志后来发展成了国际上最具权威的语言学科物之一。1933年，他出版了自己的力作《语言论》，受到了世界语言学领域的重视，同时该书成为以后20年间美国语言学家的必读书，其中对形态学的贡献尤为突出。

The traditional approach presents a binary division in terms of structure as follows: simple Sentence complex non-simple compound

The functional approach gives a framework like this: Yes/no Interrogative Indicative wh- Declarative Sentence Jussive (order giving) Imperative Optative (wish expressing)

夸克(Randolph Quirk 1920— )早年曾在伦敦大学、耶鲁大学和密执安大学受过良好的教育，获得文学硕士、哲学博士、文学博士学位。他除有一段时期任德哈姆大学英语教授外，历任伦敦大学学院研究员、英国语言文学奎因讲座教授、伦敦大学校长。他是英国言语矫治委员会主席、《英语丛书》主编、“英语用法调查”研究项目的负责人。近年并荣任英国社会科学院(British Academy)院长。他曾在美国、欧洲、苏联、非洲、印度、澳大利亚等地作过关于英语语法问题的讲演。 夸克的主要著作是他和格林鲍姆、利奇、斯瓦特维克合作编写的《当代英语语法》(A Grammar of Contemporary English,1972)和《英语语法大全》(A Comprehensive Grammar of English Language,1985)。此外，他还与格林鲍姆合编了《大学英语语法》(A University Grammar of English,1974)。 夸克的其它著作有：《英语语法》、《英语古诗中的让步关系》、《英语的用法》、《论英语》、《英语教学》、《语言的可接受性调查》《英语用法与态度研究的征询试验》、《韵律特征系统与副语言特征系统》等。

1.2 Syntactic relations Positional relation (word order, horizontal relations, syntagmatic relations--Hjemslev; chain relations--Halliday) 你怎么打了他？ 你怎么打他了？ 他怎么打了你？ 他怎么打你了？ 他打你怎么了？ 约翰咬狗。 狗咬约翰。

叶尔姆斯列夫（Louis Hjelmslev） 叶尔姆斯列夫（Louis Hjelmslev），丹麦语言学家。哥本哈根学派的创始人和主要理论家。1899年10月3日生于哥本哈根，卒于1965年5月30日。 1917年进入哥本哈根大学学习比较语言学史，1919年发表关于Oscan语铭文的论文并获大学金质奖。1923年毕业于哥本哈根大学，1937年起回母校任教，主持比较语言学系。 1926～1927年，叶尔姆斯列夫开始接触索绪尔的理论，在巴黎跟随梅耶研究普通语法学。1928年，出版第一部重要著作《普通语法学原理》。这本书描写语言的范畴，明显地反映出索绪尔关于语言是符号系统的观点和E.萨丕尔的概念范畴的影响。后来又出版《格的范畴》（2卷，1935～1937）。 1931年，叶尔姆斯列夫发起成立哥本哈根语言学会，自任会长，人们称之为哥本哈根学派。1932年发表题为《波罗的语言研究》的博士论文，主要讨论波罗的语言的历史音位学问题。和H.乌尔达尔（1907～1957）合作，研究语音学和音位学，写出了《音声学原理》，1935年在第二次国际语音学家大会上提出。接着，他们把音声学发展成一般性理论，创立语符学，1936年在国际语言学家大会上提出。1943年，叶尔姆斯列夫用丹麦文出版《语言理论基础》一书，这是语符学理论的代表性著作，讲语言的共时研究。 1935年发表了《论格的范畴--普通语法研究之一》。同一年，在伦敦语音学大会上，他和乌尔达尔一起提出了语言"表现"分析的理论，形成了他的"语言理论"的雏形。1943年，他写成《语言理论导轮》（英译本名为Prolegomena to a Theory of Language），完成了他的语言理论建设。这是哥本哈根学派的一本最权威的代表作。1956年，他亲手创建了哥本哈根大学语言学和语音学学院，并担任院长。1965年5月30日，叶尔姆斯列夫去世，享年65岁。

Thus, syntagmatic relation refers to the sequential or linear arrangement of words in a language. Any language has its patterns of arrangement. Word order determines syntactic relations and sentence meaning, esp. for those analytical languages like Chinese.

Syntactic relations Relation of substitutability (associative relations--Saussure; paradigmatic relations--Hjemslev; vertical relations; choice relations--Halliday) I II III The boy saw the dog. The girl chased the cat. They ran after the girl. John kicked the ball. Mary read the book. We can say that the phrases in each column are in paradigmatic relation.

1.3 Approaches to syntactic study Traditional grammar in traditional grammar, sentence structures are analyzed according to the grammatical functions of the constituents involved in a sentence, and accordingly sentences can be classified into seven types: ( S—Subject, V—verb, C—complement, A—adverb. O—object).

Sentence types in English i) SVC Mary is a nurse/poor. ii) SVA Mary weighs 120 pounds. iii) SV Mary came. iv) SVO Mary cheated me. v) SVOC Mary called me Jim. vi) SVOA Mary put her child down. vii) SVOO Mary lend him some money

B.Structural grammar Bloomfield’s theory of syntax has two central ideas: form classes constituent structure

a. form class: some common recognizable phonetic or grammatical features shared by all the members phonetic features: members of one form class all have the same pitch, pauses etc. e.g John, Smith are in the same form class, run , jump are in the same form clas grammatical feature: members of one form class all have the same grammatical function in a sentence e.g. John left yesterday / Mary came last week here, John and Mary , left and came, yesterday and last week , each pair has the same grammatical function , we can substitute any member for any other members of the same form class in a sentence.

b. constituemt structure structural linguists proposed that sentences are not composed of sequences of words in a simple linear dimension, instead, they are composed of hierarchies of constructions. To illustrate this additional dimension, we need to employ a new method. Structural linguists view sentence as the largest independent grammatical unit which is composed of a sequence of smaller linguistic forms. To find out what these linguistic forms are and how they are combined into a sentence, they propose to do a kind of segmentation, i.e. to divide a sentence into its constituent elements.

IC Analysis ( immediate constituent analysis) IC Analysis: refers to the approach to divide the sentence up into its immediate constituents by using binary cuttings until obtaining its ultimate constituents. E.g. John 1 left 11yesterday. The process of cutting is usually shown in two different ways: either by the tree diagram, or the numbers of slashes or labeled square brackets. E.g. The 11 dog111s 1 may111 bite11 the 111postman. (s (NP (DET The) (N man) ) (VP (V followed) (NP ( DET a) (N girl) ) ) ) IC Analysis can help to account for the ambiguity of certain constructions. E.g. old men and women

C. Transformational-generative grammar Noam Chomsky ◆Noam Chomsky, the most influential linguist in 20th century, some important works are the following: ◇ Syntactic Structure (1957) ◇ Aspects of the Theory of Syntax (1965) ◇ Lectures on Government and Binding (1981) ◇ Barriers (1986) ◇ A Minimalist Program for Linguistic Theory (1993) ◇ The Minimalist Program (1995) ◇ The Minimalist Inquiry: The Framework (1998) Noam Chomsky

Criteria on good grammar Observational adequacy Descriptive adequacy Explanatory adequacy The ultimate goal for any theory is to explain. TG differs from traditional grammar in that it not only aims at language description, but also its explanation.

Chomsky is much more interested in the similarities (language universals) between languages rather than their differences ◇ Linguists should attempt to find a grammatical framework which will be suitable for all languages. ◇ Linguists should concentrate on the elements and constructions that are available to all languages rather than on elements that actually occur in all languages. ◇ There are likely to be universal constraints on the ways linguistic elements are combined. ◇ Chomsky proposed that the grammars of human languages share a common framework (Universal Grammar).

Features of TG One of the characteristics of TG is that it is generative. This means that it can generate all and only the grammatical sentences of a language. It has a finite number of rules which allow people to generate an infinite number of sentences of the language(phrase structure rules). On the other hand, the transformational aspect make it possible to transform one sentence into another,e.g. from active sentence into passive sentence, from affirmative sentence into interrogative sentences. Chomsky has proposed a set of rules to formalize all these transformations.

Components of TG The syntactic component: including the PS grammar , which consist of a set of rewrite rules which set up the basic sentence patterns of the language and the transformational rules, with the former generating basic syntactic structures called deep structures, the latter changing or transforming these basic structures into sentences called surface structures. The phonological component: which gives sentences a phonetic representation, which is said at the surface structure level. The semantic component: which deals with the meaning of sentences

D. Systematic functional grammar 系统功能语法（Systemic-functional grammar）在分析句子的时候是从功能和意义的观点入手的。它把语言看作意义潜势系统，并把句子结构看作选择过程的结果。任何语言的语法系统都是选择系统。语言的形式是功能的实现。功能语法的任务就是要说明功能与形式的复杂关系。

句法分析的两个方面：横组合与纵聚合 当我们以研究其成分或概括句型的方式分析句子时，我们是从形式入手的。我们实际上是研究横向链条关系（也叫作成分的横组合关系。） 如果语言学家对语言的使用感兴趣的话，他/她将探究（纵向）选择关系。看下面的例句： Have you seen a cat ? 每一个占据此句中空位的成分都是选自句法范畴的成员。例如，冠词a选自一类词，包括the, my ,your ,our, that, this, etc。所有这些词都有可占据一个空位而不影响句子的语法性。然而，当我们在交流中提出问题时，只有其中一个是合适的。选择依赖于语境，尤其依赖于谈话对方。假如你问陌生人，该句子就是正确的。如果你问你的家人，你就会这样说，“Have you seen the cat ?” 若问邻居，你便会说：“Have you seen my/our cat?”

三个纯理功能 在系统功能语言学中，语言的功能可高度概括为意义范畴。根据韩礼德的观点（1970），有三种纯理功能（The three macrofunctions）。 概念功能——我们使用语言来谈论人对世界（包括外部世界和内心世界）的经验，用语言来描述事物。 人际功能——我们用语言交流，确立人与人之间的关系，影响人们做事手段，取得别人的帮助与同情。（语言可用来作为人与人之间交流的媒介。） 话篇功能——作为一个系统的语言以统一方式组织信息，这些信息在逻辑上与周围的信息相关联，与口头和书面语境相联系。当使用语言时，上述两种功能最后要由说话人把它们组织成语篇才能实现，这就是语篇功能。

及物性：体现经验功能的句法结构 概念功能（有时也称作经验功能）是通过语言的及物性（Transitivity）系统实现的 . 及物性是一个语义系统，其作用是把人们在现实世界的所见所闻，所作所为分成若干种“过程”（process），即将经验通过语法进行范畴化。这里讲的是代表存在、关系和我们内心世界的语言过程。代表这三个主要的语言过程叫做物质过程，关系过程和心理过程。此外，还有言语过程、行为过程和存在过程。

语气和情态 我们用语言交流设法去实现不同的目的：邀请、下命令、证实、描述、评价、同情、同意、反驳和表示惊讶或恐惧的情感等等。这些基本的人际交往是与三种类型的句法形式相联系的；陈述主要由陈述句来表达的。问题是由疑问句表达的，命令由祈使句表达的 。 语气 (mood) 是由主语和限定成分两者构成的句法成分。主语与限定成分的顺序实现了讲话者陈述，疑问或祈使语气的选择。 人际意义的重要组成部分之一是讲话者对自己讲的命题的成功性和有效性所作的判断，或在命令中要求对方承担的义务，或在提议中要表达的个人意愿。人际意义的这一部分是由语法的情态系统（modality）来实现的。

主位和述位：作为信息排列的句法结构 当我们进行交流时，我们与别人谈论事物或让他们做事，我们建构一种用顺应言语事件或语篇的方式的信息 任何句子（小句）都是以特定方式排列信息的。 代表信息源的成分称为主位，即话语的出发点，是句子的第一个成分。述位是围绕主位所说的话，往往是话语的核心内容，主位必须先于述位。主位的选择不仅直接影响句子结构而且也影响篇章。

2. Category Category refers to 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. The most central categories to the syntactic study are the word-level categories (traditionally, parts of speech) Eight categories in traditional grammar: ⒈noun (N) ⒉pronoun (Pron) ⒊verb (V) ⒋adjective (Adj) ⒌adverb (Adv) ⒍article (Art) ⒎preposition (Prep) ⒏conjunction (Conj)

The non-traditional categories added: determiner (Det, 限定詞) degree word (Deg, 程度詞) qualifier (Qual, 修飾詞) auxiliary (Aux, 助動詞)

2.1 Two kinds of word-level categories: Major lexical categories: N, V, A, P. Minor lexical categories: Det, Deg, Qual, Aux, Con. ★ Difference — Major lexical categories are often assumed to be the heads around which phrases are built.

The criteria on which categories are determined Meaning Word categories often bear some relationship with its meaning. Nouns: entities (human beings, objects, etc. 實體) Verbs: action, sensations and states ◇ The meanings associated with some word categories can be elaborated (闡述) in various ways. Properties / attributes of nouns: adjectives Properties / attributes of actions, sensations and states (verbs): adverbs ◇ It is misleading to assume that a word’s category can be told straightforward (直接的) from its meaning: ①Abstract nouns do not concretely reveal their entities. ②Some words may belong to more than one category. ③Words with the same or similar meanings sometimes belong to different word categories.

Inflection ◇ Words of different categories take different inflections. Nouns: plural affix –s; case affix –’s Verbs: past tense affix –ed; progressive affix –ing Adjectives: comparative affix –er; superlative affix –est Note: Some words do not take inflections.

Distribution---The most reliable criterion of determining a word’s category. What type of elements can occur with a certain word. Nouns: a determiner Verbs: an auxiliary Adjectives: a degree word

2.2 Phrase categories and their structures Phrase categories----the syntactic units that are built around a certain word category are called phrase categories, such as NP(N), VP(V), AP(A), PP(P). The structure: specifier + head + complement Head (中心詞) — the word around which a phrase is formed Specifier (標誌語) — the words on the left side of the heads Complement (補語) — the words on the right side of the heads

3. Phrase structure rules The grammatical mechanism that regulates the arrangement of elements that make up a phrase is called a Phrase Structure Rule, such as: NP → (Det) + N + (PP) … e.g. those people, the fish on the plate, pretty girls. VP → (Qual) + V + (NP) … e.g. always play games, finish assignments. AP → (Deg) + A + (PP) … e.g. very handsome, very pessimistic, very close to. PP → (Deg) + P + (NP) … e.g. on the shelf, in the boat, quite near the station.

3.1 The XP Rule Note: The phrase structure rules can be summed up as XP rule shown in the diagram, in which X stands for N, V, A or P. XP X Complement Specifier Head

3.2 X ’Theory XP  (Specifier)X’ X’ X(complement) specifier XP(Phrase level) X’ specifier X(head) complement

3.3 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. ----Coordination has four important properties: no limit on the number of coordinated categories before the conjunction; a category at any level can be coordinated; the categories must be of the same type; the category type of the coordinate phrase is identical to the category type of the elements being conjoined.

Coordination rule : X → X* Con X the symbol X stands for “a category at any structural level”, indicating that either an X or an XP can be coordinated. The asterisk (*) indicates that one or more categories can occur to the left of the Con (=conjunction).

4. Phrase elements Specifier ⒈Semantically, specifiers make more precise the meaning of the head. ⒉Syntactically, they typically mark a phrase boundary. They are attached to the top level of phrase structures, to the left of the head. ◇ The syntactic category of the specifier depends on the category of the head. Specifiers of Ns: determiners Specifiers of Vs: qualifiers Specifiers of As and Ps: degree words ◆Head

◆Complement Complements themselves can be a phrase; they provide information about entities and locations whose existence is implied by the meaning of head, e.g. a story about a sentimental girl. There can be no complement, one complement, or more than one complement in a phrase: E.g appear, break a code, put the book on the table ◇ The XP Rule (revised) XP → (specifier) X (complement * ) The asterisk (*) indicates that one or more of these elements is permitted. ◆A sentence-like construction may also function as a complement. I believed that she was innocent. I doubt if she will come. They are keen for you to show up. ◇ That / if / for are complementizers (Cs 補語標誌). The clauses introduced by complementizers are complement clause (補語從句). The whole italicized part in each of the above sentences is called a complement phrase (CP補語短語).

5. Modifiers Modifiers (修飾語) specify optionally expressible properties of heads. ⒈The most common modifiers of Ns: AP ⒉The most common modifiers of Vs: AdvP and PP ★ Modifiers in English vary in terms of their position with respect to the head. They can be summarized below. ◇ The XP Rule (expanded) XP → (specifier) (Mod)X (complement * ) (Mod) modifier pisition example AP Precedes the head A very careful girl PP Follows the head Open with care AdvP Precedes or follows the head Read carefully,carefully read

6. Sentences (The S rule) S  NP VP S VP NP NP V Det N Det N boy found evidence A

Sentences (the S rule) S  NP infl VP Many linguists believe that sentences, like other phrases, also have their own heads. Infl is an abstract category inflection (dubbed ‘Infl’) as their heads, which indicates the sentence’s tense and agreement. InflP(=S) NP VP Infl

Infl realized by a tense label InflP（=S） Det N V Infl N Det A boy found Pst evidence the

Infl realized by an auxiliary InflP（=S） NP VP NP Det N Infl V N Det A boy will find the evidence

7. Transformations Auxiliary movement (inversion) Do insertion Deep structure & surface structure Wh-movement Move α and constraints on transformations

Auxiliary movement (inversion) Inversion Move Infl to the left of the subject NP. Inversion (revised) Move Infl to C. CP S C NP Infl V Det N the train will arrive

Auxiliary movement (inversion) CP S C NP Infl V Det N Infl train e arrive Will the

Do insertion Do insertion---- Insert interrogative do into an empty Infl position. S VP NP Infl Birds fly Figure-1 CP S S C Infl VP Infl NP NP Infl VP fly Do birds e Birds do fly Figure-2 Figure-3

Deep structure & surface structure Consider the following pair of sentences: John is easy to please. John is eager to please. Structurally similar sentences might be very different in their meanings, for they have quite different deep structures.

Deep structure & surface structure Consider one more sentence: Flying planes can be dangerous. It can mean either that if you fly planes you are engaged in a dangerous activity or Planes that are flying are dangerous.

Deep structure & surface structure Deep structure----formed by the XP rule in accordance with the head’s sub-categorization properties; it contains all the units and relationships that are necessary for interpreting the meaning of the sentence. Surface structure----corresponding to the final syntactic form of the sentence which results from appropriate transformations; it is that of the sentence as it is pronounced or written.

The organization of the syntactic component The XP rule Deep structure Subcategorization restricts choice of complements transformations Surface structure

Wh-movement Consider the derivation of the following sentences: What languages can you speak? What can you talk about? These sentences may originate as: You can speak what languages. You can talk about what.

Wh-movement Wh-movement---- Move a wh phrase to the beginning of the sentence. What language can you speak ? What can you talk about ?

Wh-movement Wh-movement---- Move a wh phrase to the specifier position under CP. (Revised) CP S C NP VP NP Infl Who e Pst NP V the game won

WH-movement can apply not only to wh-questions but also to relative clauses because relative clause structures are very similar to embedded wh-question. The relative clause itself can be regarded as a CP which modifies the head N

Move α and constraints on transformations The general rule for all the movement rules is referred to as “ move a”, where “alpha” is a cover term for any element that can be moved from one place to another. Inversion can move an auxiliary from the Infl to the nearest C position, but not to a more distant C position. E.G He should know that the train might be late Should he know that the train might be late. (true) Might he should know that the train be late. (false)

No element may be removed from a coordinate structure No element may be removed from a coordinate structure. (the coordinate structure constraint) e.g The little girl will tell us a story or a joke. What will the little girl tell us, a story or_____? (false No element may be removed from a subject phrase. (subject constraint) e.g. A picture of Dracula could frighten John. Who could a picture of frighten John? (false)

Study Questions What are the syntactic theories presented by different linguistic schools? What are the main points of Chomsky’s Transformational Generative Grammar? How to turn a sentence from its active voice into passive voice?

For further reading Fromkin, V., R. Rodman& N. Hyams. “The Sentence Patterns of Language,” in Fromkin, V., R Rodman & N. Hyams. An Introduction to Language. Beijing: Beijing University Press, 2003 O’Grady, W., M. Dobrovolsky& F. Katamba. “Syntax: the Analysis of Sentence Structure.” In O’Grady,W., M. Dobrovolsky& F. Katamba. Comtemporary Linguistics: An Introduction. London: Longman, 1998 Baker, M.C. “Syntax”. In Aronoff, M. & J. Rees-Miller. The Handbook of Linguistics, pp.265-294. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press. 2001.