STRUCTURE OF ENGLISH
PSYCHOLINGUISTICS, SEMANTICS, SOCIOLINGUISTICS, SYNTAX
In
Partial fulfillment
Of the requirements for
Structure of English
Researched by:
Baladjay, Bernadette
Bicar, Christina
Culmo, Christine
Dela Paz, Rellian Babes
Hiyan, Christian Joseph
Mayordomo, Erica
Roman, Ann Christle
Salazar, Justine
Zuñiga, Joy
Submitted to:
Dr. Francisca Reyes
October 2019
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PSYCHOLINGUISTICS
Overview of topics:
•
Definition of Psycholinguistics
•
Central Themes in Psycholinguistics
•
Cognitive Processes
1
Definition of Psycholinguistics
Psycholinguistics is a branch of study which combines the disciplines of psychology and
linguistics. It is concerned with the relationship between the human mind and the language as it
examines the processes that occur in brain while producing and perceiving both written and
spoken discourse. Psycholinguistics as a separate branch of study emerged in the late 1950s and
1960s as a result of Chomskyan revolution.
The three primary processes investigated in Psycholinguistics:

Language Comprehension

Language Production

Language Acquisition
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1.1 Language Comprehension
Understanding what other people say and write (i.e., language comprehension) is more
complicated than it might at first appear. Comprehending language involves a variety of
capacities, skills, processes, knowledge, and dispositions that are used to derive meaning from
spoken, written, and signed language. Comprehension is mainly thought to occur in the
Wernicke’s area of the brain which is located in the left temporal lobe. Language comprehension
is a complex process that occurs easily and effortlessly by humans. It develops along with the
brain and is able to be enhanced with the use of gesture. Though it is unknown exactly how early
comprehension is fully developed in children, gestures are undoubtedly useful for understanding
the language around us.
1.2 Language Production
Language production is the production of spoken or written language. It describes all of
the stages between having a concept, and translating that concept into linguistic form.
1.3 Stages of production
The basic loop occurring in the creation of language consists of the following stages: 
Intended message  Encode message into linguistic form  Encode linguistic form into speech
[motor system]  Sound goes from speaker's mouth to hearer's ear [auditory system]  Speech is
decoded into linguistic form  Linguistic form is decoded into meaning
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1.4 Language Acquisition
Language acquisition is the process by which humans acquire the capacity to perceive
and comprehend language, as well as to produce and use words and sentences to communicate.
Language acquisition usually refers to first-language acquisition, which studies infants'
acquisition of their native language. This is distinguished from second-language acquisition,
which deals with the acquisition (in both children and adults) of additional languages. Language
acquisition is just one strand of psycholinguistics which is all about how people learn to speak
and the mental processes involved.
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Central Themes in Psycholinguistics
What knowledge of language is needed for us to use language? Knowledge on how to
perform something but not aware of full rules. It is gained through incidental activities, or
without awareness learning is occurring. Some examples of implicit knowledge are knowing
how to walk, run, rode a bicycle or swim. Explicit knowledge on the other hand, is a knowledge
of process of mechanism in performing that thing. It can be readily articulated, codified, stored
and accessed. It can be readily transmitted to others. Most forms of explicit knowledge can be
stored in certain media.
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Cognitive Processes
The six types of cognitive processes that I will describe are attention, perception, memory,
language, learning, and higher reasoning. The processes are interdependent and occur
simultaneously. They play a role in experiential and reflective modes of cognition. Here is a
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description
of
each
process
along
with
a
few
related
implications.
3.1 Attention
It is the process for selecting an object on which to concentrate. Object can be a physical
or abstract one (such as an idea) that resides out in the world or in the mind.
Design implications: Make information visible when it needs attending to; avoid cluttering the
interface
with
too
much
information.
3.2 Perception
This refers to the process for capturing information from the environment and processing
it. Enables people to perceive entities and objects in the world. Involves input from sense organs
(such as eyes, ears, nose, mouth, and fingers) and the transformation of this information into
perception
of
entities
(such
as
objects,
words,
tastes,
and
ideas).
Design implications: All representations of actions, events and data (whether visual, graphical,
audio, physical, or a combination thereof) should be easily distinguishable by users.
3.3 Memory
This is the process for storing, finding, and accessing knowledge. Enables people to recall
and recognize entities, and to determine appropriate actions. Involves filtering new information
to identify what knowledge should be stored. Context and duration of interaction are two
important
criteria
that
function
as
filters.
Design implications: Do not overload user’s memory; leverage recognition as opposed to recall
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when possible; provide a variety of different ways for users to encode information digitally.
3.4 Language
This processes for understanding and communicating through language via reading,
writing, speaking, and listening. Though these language-media have much in common, they
differ on numerous dimensions including: permanence, scan-ability, cultural roles, use in
practice,
and
cognitive
effort
requirements
Design implications: Minimize length of speech-based menus; accentuate intonation used in
speech-based
systems;
ensure
that
font
size
and
type
allow
for
easy
reading.
3.5 Learning
This refers to the process for synthesizing new knowledge and know-how. Involves
connecting new information and experiences with existing knowledge. Interactivity is an
important
element
in
the
learning
process.
Design implications: Leverage constraints to guide new users; encourage exploration by new
users; link abstract concepts to concrete representations to facilitate understanding.
3.6 Higher reasoning
This refers to the processes that involve reflective cognition such as problem-solving,
planning, reasoning, decision-making. Most are conscious processes that require discussion, with
oneself or others, and the use of artifacts such as books, and maps. Extent to which people can
engage in higher reasoning is usually correlated to their level of expertise in a specific domain.
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SEMANTICS
Overview of topics:
•
Definition of Semantics
•
What is Meaning?
•
Other Terms and Distinctions in Semantics
•
Phrases Structure Grammar, Phrase Structure Rules and Phrase Structure Tree
•
Syntax Terminologies and Relationship of Grammar and Syntax
1
Definition of Semantics
Semantics is the study of meaning in language. It can be applied to entire texts or to
single words. For example, "destination" and "last stop" technically mean the same thing, but
students of semantics analyze their subtle shades of meaning. it comes from the Greek
semantikos which means to show or give signs. It is the most abstract level of linguistic analysis,
since we cannot see or observe meaning as we can observe and record sounds. Semantics
concerns itself with 'giving a systematic account of the nature of meaning' (Leech, 1981).
Furthermore, Semantics involves the deconstruction of words, signals, and sentence
structure. It influences our reading comprehension as well as our comprehension of other
people's words in everyday conversation. Semantics play a large part in our daily communication,
understanding, and language learning without us even realizing it.
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2
What is Meaning?
In semantics and pragmatics, meaning is the message conveyed by words, sentences, and
symbols in a context. Also called lexical meaning or semantic meaning. Meaning is what a word,
action, or concept is all about — its purpose, significance, or definition. If you want to learn the
meaning of the word meaning, you just need to look it up in the dictionary. All the dictionary can
do when we 'look up the meaning of a word' is to suggest aids to the understanding of sentences
in which it occurs. Hence it appears correct to say that what 'has meaning' in the primary sense is
the sentence.
Meaning represents something's intent or purpose. That something can be a book, a
conversation, a television show, or life itself (as in, "the meaning of life"). When you read a
poem, you try to figure out the author's intended meaning by interpreting the words he has
chosen. For example, if a poet describes love as "a prison," you might interpret the meaning as
his feeling confined by his love.
There are at least seven types of meaning (many linguists state their different categories of
meaning) in semantic according Geoffrey Leech (1974), those are:
2.1 Conceptual meaning (logical, cognitive, or denotative content)
It refers to the dictionary meaning which indicates the concepts. In reading we can find
many different words have the same conceptual meanings. Take the word walk as an example,
the conceptual meaning or the primary dictionary meaning is to move forward by placing one
foot in front of the other. There are also a few other words that, according to the dictionary, mean
to move forward on foot, etc.
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2.2 Connotative meaning (what is communicated by virtue of what language refers to)
It refers to the associations that are connected to a certain word or the emotional
suggestions related to that word. The connotative meanings of a word exist together with the
denotative meanings. The connotations for the word snake could include evil or danger.
2.3 Social meaning (what is communicated of the social circumstances of language use)
It refers to the usage of language in and by society which has big proportions in
determining the meaning that certain speaker has to use and wants to convey, those factors
include social class of the speaker and hearer and the degree of formality. Only part of the social
meaning of a conversation is carried by words. Take saying hello or talking about the weather.
Often such talk has little dictionary meaning. It is a way of being friendly or polite.
2.4 Affective meaning (what is communicated of the feeling and attitudes of the
speaker/writer)
It refers to the speaker’s feeling / attitude towards the content or the ongoing context.I t is
important to remember that each individual will have a different affective meaning for a word.
As such, only the person using a word will be aware of the particular affective meaning that they
hold with the word. For example, we can discuss the word winter further. The word winter
denotatively refers to a time period during which either the northern or southern hemisphere is
furthest away from the sun. Different use of stress and intonation also provides a striking contrast
in the feelings and attitudes communicated through an utterance.
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2.5 Reflected meaning (what is communicated through association with another sense of
the same expression)
It refers to terms which have more than one meaning surfaces at the same time, so there is
a kind of ambiguity. It is as if one or more unintended meanings were inevitably thrown back
rather like light or sound reflected on a surface. For instance, on hearing the Church service, the
synonymous expressions, The Comforter and The Holy Ghost both refer to the Third Trinity, but
the Comforter sounds warm and comforting, while the Holy Ghost sounds creepy.
2.6 Collocative meaning (what is communicated through association with words which tend
to occur in the environment of another word)
It refers to the associations a word acquires on account of the meanings of words which
tend to occur in its environment. In other words, it is that part of the word-meaning suggested by
the words that go before or come after a word in question, for instance, heavy news (a piece of
sad news); heavy schedule (a very tight schedule); fast color (the color that does not fade); fast
friend (a reliable friend); fast woman (a lady of easy virtue), etc.
2.7 Thematic meaning (what is communicated by the way in which the message is
organized in terms of order and emphasis).
Thematic meaning is the meaning that is communicated by the way in which the speaker
or writer organizes the message, in terms of ordering, focus, and emphasis. It is often felt an
active sentence such as (1) below has a different meaning from its passive equivalent (2)
although in conceptual content they seem to be the same (Leech. 1974)
Ex.
Mrs. Bessie Smith donated the first prize.
The first prize was donated by Mrs. Bessie Smith
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We can assume that the active sentence answers an implicit question “what did Mrs.
Bessie Smith donate?”, while the passive sentence answer the implicit question “who donates the
first prize?”, that in other words (1) in contrast to se (2) suggest that we know who Mrs. Bessie
Smith.
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Other Terms and Distinctions in Semantics
3.1 Lexical and grammatical meaning
A lexical item (lexical word) is what we normally recognize as "the ordinary word". A
lexical item can also be a part of a word or a chain of words. Lexical items are the basic building
blocks of a language's vocabulary (its lexicon, in other words).

cat (single word)

traffic light (words together meaning one thing)

take care of (a verbal phrase)

by the way (an idiomatic phrase)

It's raining cats and dogs (a chain of words)
A grammatical word (aka. function word) is a word that in itself has either (1) little or no
actual meaning (lexical meaning) or (2) ambiguous or uncertain meaning, but functions to
indicate grammatical relationships with other words in a sentence. The usual grammatical words
are
auxiliaries (am, are, be, do, got, is, have, etc)

conjunctions (and although, or, that, when while, etc)

determiners (a, either, more, much, neither, my, that, the, etc)
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
particles (as, no, nor, not, etc)

prepositions (at between, in, of, without, etc)

pronouns ( you, he, she, it, we, they, anybody, one, etc)
In other words, lexical words are the ordinary words to denote things whereas grammatical
words are the words that operate the grammar. There is clearly some degree of overlap between
the two.
3.2 Sense and reference
Sense and reference are at the core of language, it allows us to use a finite vocabulary
carrying a finite number of senses, to refer to an infinite variety of things. Example: for the word
"number" there are endless references. Words cover a wide range of references (defined as
vagueness)
3.2.1 Reference
Reference is ‘meaning ‘tied to a specific instance and deals with the relationship between
language and the world. It is a relationship between parts of language and the things outside the
language (in the world).
Example: “The red house” and “The house at the end of the block”
They do not have the same meaning in terms of sense but they could refer to the same house.
3.2.2 Sense
Sense is concerned with the intra-linguistic relations, i.e. relations within the system of
the language itself, such as similarity between words, opposition, inclusion, and pre-supposition.
Sense relations include homonymy, polysemy, synonymy and antonymy.
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3.2.3 Homonyms
Homonyms are different items (lexical items or structure words) with the same phonetic
form. They differ only in meaning, e.g. the item 'ear' meaning 'organ of hearing' is a homonym of
the item 'ear' meaning 'a stem of wheat.
Homonymy may be classified as:

Homography: a phenomenon of two or more words having the same spellings
but different pronunciation or meaning (e.g led /līd/ (either verb or the metal
object)).

Homophony: a phenomenon of two or more words having the same
pronunciation but different meanings or spellings (e.g sea/see, knew/new,
some/sum, sun/son).
It is difficult to distinguish between homonymy and polysemy. Polysemy and Homonymy
are two similar concepts in linguistics. Both of them refer to words having multiple meanings.
Polysemy refers to the coexistence of many possible meanings for a word or phrase. Homonymy
refers to the existence of two or more words having the same spelling or pronunciation but
different meanings and origins.

Polysemy refers to words or phrases with different, but related meanings. A word
becomes polysemous if it can be used to express different meanings. The difference
between these meanings can be obvious or subtle. It is sometimes difficult to determine
whether a word is polysemous or not because the relations between words can be vague
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and unclear. But, examining the origins of the words can help to decide whether a word is
polysemic or homonymous.
Ex.
He drank a glass of milk - He forgot to milk the cow.
The enraged actor sued the newspaper - He read the newspaper.
His cottage is near a small wood - The statue was made out of a block of wood.
He fixed his hair - They fixed a date for the wedding.
Besides Homonymy, there are also other sense relations as follow:
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3.2.4 Hyponym (inclusion of the meaning of one within the other)
It is the state of phenomenon that shows the relationship between more general term
(lexical representation) and the more specific instances of it.
Ex.
Red, yellow, green, blue, are called "color(s)," Thus, we can say that "red" is the
hyponym of "color"
Clarinet, guitar, ukulele, violin, are hyponyms because they are "musical
instrument"
There is also the so called "taxonomy" in which the relationship between the general
term and the specific instances is often described using a hierarchical diagram.
3.2.5 Synonym (similar meaning)
It is the state of phenomenon in which the words that sound different (different in
pronunciation) but has the same or identical meaning as another phrase.
Ex.
Small= Little, Tiny, Petite
Big Humongous, Large, Huge
Mother & Father= Parents
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3.2.6 Antonym (opposite meaning)
It is the state in which the word involves the opposite of meaning. The word pairs of antonym
can be divided into several types:

Implicity Gradable Pairs (Graded Antonym)
Words related to the object they modify. The words themselves do not provide an
absolute scale. For example, "A small elephant is much bigger that a big mouse."

Complementary Pairs (Complimentarily)
This refers to the existence of the pairs that the denial of the one implies the assertion
of the other. For instance, if one is not male, then it is certainly a female: if one is not
present, then that person must be absent; when i say green, it is simply not red, blue, nor
yellow.

Relational Pairs (Converseness)
This refers to the pair of words that displays symmetry in their meaning. For example:
buy-sell, old-new, ugly- pretty, good-bad, and so on.
3.3 Sentence-meaning and utterance-meaning
A sentence is a string of words put together by the grammatical of rules of a language
expressing a complete thought. It is neither physical event nor a physical object. For example, I
am a student.
An utterance is any sound of talk, that human produce. The characteristics of utterance are:

It is spoken

Physical event

May be grammatical or not (utterances do not focus on the grammatical aspect)
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
Meaningful or meaningless

By specific person (in particular accent)

By specific time or on particular occasion

A piece of language (a single phrase or even a single word)
To differentiate utterance and sentence, we usually use quotation mark (“….“) in written
form of utterance. For example, a piece of utterance that is spoken by certain person “I’m a
student”
3.4 Entailment and presupposition
When we hear an utterance, we usually try to understand not only what the words mean,
but what the speaker of those words intends to convey. Entailment and presupposition are two
pragmatic elements that help us in this. The key difference between entailment and
presupposition is that entailment is the relationship between two sentences whereas
presupposition is an assumption made by the speaker prior to making an utterance.
3.5 Entailment
Entailment is the relationship between two sentences/propositions, where the truth of one
proposition implies the truth of the other since both of them are involved with the meaning of
words. It’s the sentences, not speakers that have entailments. Entailments also depend on the
meaning of the sentence, not the meaning of the context.
Ex.
The terrorists assassinated the king.
The king died.
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Terrorists assassinated someone.
3.6 Presupposition
Presupposition is something that the speaker assumes to be the case prior to making an
utterance. It’s the speakers, not the sentences that have presuppositions. For example, if someone
tells you, ‘Jane’s sister got married’, there’s an obvious presupposition that Jane has a sister.
There are several types of presuppositions as follows:

Existential Presupposition.
The speaker presupposes the existence of the
entities.
Example: Marie’s house is new >> Marie exists >> Marie has a house.

Factive Presupposition. Certain verbs or constructions indicate that something is
a fact.
Example: I regret believing him >> I believed him.
I’m glad it’s over >> It’s over.

Lexical Presupposition. The speaker can convey another meaning using one
word
Example: He called me again >> He called me before.
She gave up smoking >> She used to smoke.

Structural Presupposition. Use of certain words and phrases makes some
presuppositions.
Example: When did you call her? >> You called her.
Why did you buy this dress? >> You bought a dress.
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
Non-factive Presupposition. Certain words indicate that some things are not true.
Example: I pretended to agree with her >> I did not agree with her.
She dreamt she was rich >> She is not rich.

Counterfactual Presupposition. It implies that what is presupposed is not true,
and the contrary is true.
Example: If he hadn’t been my friend, I wouldn’t have helped him >> he is my
friend.
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SOCIOLINGUISTICS
Overview of topics:
 Definition of Sociolinguistics
 Development and Pioneer of Sociolinguistics
 Methodology in Sociolinguistics
 Language Codes
 Sociolinguistic Variables
 Fundamental Concepts in Sociolinguistics
1
Definition of Sociolinguistics
Sociolinguistics is the descriptive study of the effect of any and all aspects of society,
including cultural norms, expectations, and context, on the way language is used, and society's
effect on language.
It studies how lects differ between groups separated by certain social variables, (e.g.,
ethnicity, religion, status, gender, level of education, age, etc,). And how creation and adherence
to these rules is used to categorize individuals in social class or socio-economic classes.
Sociolinguists also study the grammar, phonetics, vocabulary, and other aspects of this
sociolect much as dialectologists would study the same for a regional dialect.
Sociolinguistics is the effect of the society on the language, while the latter’s focus is on
the language’s effect on the society.
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2
Development and Pioneer of Sociolinguistic
Sociolinguistics in the West first appeared in the 1960s and was pioneered by linguists
such as William Labov in the US and Basil Bernstein in the UK. In the 1960s, William
Stewart and Heinz Kloss introduced the basic concepts for the sociolinguistic theory
of pluricentric languages, which describes how standard language varieties differ between
nations.
3
Methodology in Sociolinguistic
As intruduced by William Labov, the method used in sociolinguistics is the quantitative
study of language into language variation and change. There are five different styles, ranging
from formal to casual, namely:
 (MP) Minimal Pair Reading, this refers to the pairs of words that differ in only one
phoneme, such as cat and bat.
 (WL) Word List Reading, having the subject read a word list will elicit a formal register,
but generally not as formal as MP.
 (RP) Reading Passage Style, this style is next down on the formal register.
 (IS) Interview Style, it’s when an interviewer can finally get into eliciting a more casual
speech from the subject.
 (CS) Casual Style, this type of speech is difficult if not impossible to elicit because of the
Observer's Paradox.
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4
Language Codes
4.1 Restricted Codes

Spoken in the family, amongst friends, in tightly knit communities;

Characterized by economical use of language; doesn’t spell everything out; conveys a
vast amount of meaning with few words; and

Used in circumstances that allow speakers to ‘condense’ and this requires background
information and prior knowledge.
4.2 Elaborated Codes
5

Works well where more thorough explanation is required;

Can ‘stand on its own’: complete and full of details;

Understandable for those overhearing a conversation; and

It has to be elaborate because the circumstances don’t allow the speakers to condense.
Sociolinguistic Variables
Studies in the field of sociolinguistics typically take a sample population and interview
them, assessing the realisation of certain sociolinguistic variables.
A commonly studied source of variation is regional dialects. Dialectology studies
variations in language based primarily on geographic distribution and their associated features.
Sociolinguists concerned with grammatical and phonological features that correspond to regional
areas are often called dialectologists.
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There are several different types of age-based variation one may see within a
population. They are vernacular of a subgroup with membership typically characterized by a
specific age range, age-graded variation, and indications of linguistic change in progress.
Variation may also be associated with gender. Men and women, on average, tend to use
slightly different language styles. These differences tend to be quantitative rather than
qualitative. That is, to say that women use a particular speaking style more than men do is akin to
saying that men are taller than women (i.e., men are on average taller than women, but some
women are taller than some men).
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Fundamental Concepts of Sociolinguistics
6.1 Speech Community
This refers to the discrete group of people who use language in a unique and mutually
accepted way among themselves.
6.2 Social Network
A particular speech community in terms of relations between individual members in a
community
6.3 High/Low Prestige Variety
Speech habits are assigned a positive or a negative value which is then applied to the
speaker.
6.4 I-Language and E-Language
By Chomsky: Internal Language applies to the study of syntax and semantics in
language on the abstract level. External Language applies to language in social contexts.
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SYNTAX
Overview of topics:
1

Definition of Syntax

Immediate Constituent Analysis

Syntactic Category

Phrases Structure Grammar, Phrase Structure Rules and Phrase Structure Tree

Syntax Terminologies and Relationship of Grammar and Syntax
Definition of Syntax
In an article of ThoughtCo (2019), it consisted a statement, stating that, “Syntax refers to
the rules that govern the ways in which words combine to form phrases, clauses, and sentences.
The term “syntax” comes from the Greek, meaning “arrange together.” The term is also used to
refer to the study of the syntactic properties of a language.”
Another definition from the article, “What is Syntax? Definition, Examples of English
Syntax,” defined syntax as, “the grammatical structure of words and phrases to create coherent
sentences.”
Based on the statement of Hana (2011), syntax is, “not defined by meaning, for sentences
can have no sense and still be grammatically correct.”
Its structure:

Word order:
Ex.
I want these books.; *want these I books.
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
Agreement – subject and verb, determiner and noun, … often must agree:
Ex.

How many complements, which prepositions and forms (cases)
Ex.

He wants this book.; *He want this book.
I see her.; *I see she.
Hierarchical structure – what modifies what
Ex.
We need more (intelligent leaders). – (more of intelligent leaders)
We need (more intelligent) leaders. – (leaders that are more intelligent)

Grammaticality:
Ex.
Colorless green ideas sleep furiously. – nonsense, but grammatically
correct
*Sleep ideas colorless furiously green. – grammatically incorrect
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Immediate Constituent Analysis
Structural linguists thought of dividing a sentence into its Immediate Constituents (ICs).
This process cuts a sentence into two, further cutting these two parts into another two, and
continue the segmentation until the smallest unit.
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These constituents can also be labeled according to each one’s grammatical constituents
such as: Noun Phrase, Verb Phrase, Adverbial Phrase, etc. which can be further divided into
syntactic categories: Noun, Adjective, Verb, and Tense.
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Syntactic Category
Syntactic Category is a set of words and/or phrases in a language, which share a significant
number of common characteristics. This commonly include:
3.1 Parts of Speech
This indicates how a word functions in meaning as well as grammatically within the
sentence. Its parts are also called lexical categories. In addition, this is further divided into two
classes: Open class and Closed class.
3.1.1 Open class
This refers to a class wherein new items or words are being added as time passes by.

Noun, a word used for the name of a person, place, thing or idea (New Era University,
woman, mall, joy).

Verb, a word that expresses an action or being (painting, run, become, is).

Adjective, a word that modifies or describes a noun or a pronoun (outstanding,
wonderful, clever, pink).

Adverb, modifies or describes a verb, an adjective, or another adverb (gently,
smoothly, well, extremely).
3.1.2 Closed class
This refers to a class that contains a small number of words; limited.
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
Preposition, a word placed before a noun or pronoun to form a phrase modifying another
word in the sentence (by, with, beside, until, about).

Conjunction, joins words, phrases or clauses (for, and, but, or, while, etc.).

Determiner, also called determinative, is a word that introduces a noun (the, his, her,
their, whose, these, etc.).

Auxiliary verb, used in forming tenses, moods and voices of other verbs (can, shall, be,
have, must, etc.).
The Syntactic Category also includes syntactic labels.
SYNTACTIC
CATEGORIES
SYNTACTIC
LABELS
Sentence
S
Determiner
Det
Adjective
Adj
Adverb
Adv
Noun
N
Pronoun
Pro
Preposition
P
Verb
V
Auxiliary verb
Aux
Preposition Phrase
PP
Adverb Phrase
AdvP
Adjective Phrase
AdjP
Noun Phrase
NP
Verb Phrase
VP
Table 1 presents the Syntactic Categories and their syntactic labels.
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4
Phrase Structure Grammar, Phrase Structure Rules and Phrase Structure Tree
4.1 Phrase Structure Grammar
Phrase Structure Grammar is a type of generative grammar in which constituent
structures are represented by phrase structure rules or rewrite rules. This includes:

Noun Phrase, refers to a phrase that built upon a noun which functions as the
headword of the phrase.
Ex.
The young man threw the old dog a bone.
(NP)
(NP)
(NP)
Pretty girls whispered softly.
(NP)
This may also contain the following modifiers:
MODIFIERS
WORDS
Restrictor
Pre-determiners
Determiners
Ordinals
Quantifiers
Adjective Phrase
Classifier
Especially, only, merely, just, almost, particularly, even
Half, double, both, one-third, twice, all of
(a) Articles: a/an, the
(b) Demonstratives: this, that, these, those
(c) Possessives: my, his, own, Ram’s
First, third, last, next
Many, several, few, less
Good, long, tall
a city college; a leather summer; a summer dress
Table 2 presents the modifiers and the words.

Adjective Phrase, refers to a phrase that modifies a noun. It builds upon an
adjective which functions as the headword of the phrase.
29
Ex.
She seemed extremely pleasant.
(AdjP)
You are much quicker than I.
(AdjP)

Adverb Phrase, refers to a phrase that often plays the role of telling when, where,
why or how an event occurred.
Ex.
We are expecting him to come next year.
(AdvP)
He ran very quickly.
(AdvP)

Preposition Phrase, refers to a phrase that begins with a preposition.
Ex.
He arrived by plane.
(PP)
Do you know that man with the scar?
(PP)

Verb Phrase, refers to a phrase that is composed of at least one verb.
Ex.
He has been singing.
(VP)
The child found the puppy.
(VP)
This also contains a main verb and an auxiliary that are divided into the following:
(a) Modal, marked by words such as can, may, will, shall, must;
(b) Perfective, marked by have + en, where en is a marker of the past
participle morpheme; and
(c) Progressive, marked by be + ing.
30
4.2 Phrase Structure Rules
This consist of four phrase structure rules that breaks down a sentence into its constituent
parts, also known as syntactic categories.
(a) S = NP + VP
Ex.
The boy found the ball.
Jasmine passed the UPCAT.
Johnny went back to his hometown.
(b) NP = (Det) (Adj) N (PP)
Ex.
The beautiful girl on the piano.
The little boy down the streets.
The old man near the river.
(c) VP = V (NP) (PP) (Adv)
Ex.
blew the boat into the water suddenly.
31
took the book near the computer slowly.
arrested the two men after the brutal fight quickly.
(d) PP = P + NP
Ex.
of the people; for the people; by the people
in the candy store; before the fall; against the wind
toward the door; under the couch; through the tunnel
4.2.1 Characteristics of Phrase Structure Rules

Generativity
The rules do not list the sentences of the language, instead, this describe
the way how to build them. This is essential, for languages contain an infinite
number of sentences.

Ambiguity
Some sentences can be built in more than one way, such as starting with
the S rule and ending with the words in the sentences. This also shows that
sentences are more than just simple strings of words.
This also has two types: lexical (semantic) ambiguity and structural
(syntactic) ambiguity.
-
Lexical (semantic) ambiguity, a word or an expression can be
interpreted in more than one way, for it has multiple definitions.
Ex.
This will make you smart.; You will become clever.
He bought a pen.; He purchased an instrument to write with.
32
Ryan went to buy arms.; Ryan went to buy weapons.
This also has two types: Polysemy and Homophony.
-
Polysemy, a word has two or more meanings.
Ex.
Bright – shining – intelligent
To glare – shine intensely – to stare angrily
-
Homophony, a word has two or more distinct meanings.
Ex.
Club – a social organization; a blunt weapon
Bear – to tolerate; an animal
-
Structural (syntactic) ambiguity, permits different structures for the
same linear order of words.
33

Infinite Recursion
This allows to produce an infinite number of sentences using a finite number of
rules.
4.3 Phrase Structure Tree
This is also known as the constituent structure tree, a tree diagram with syntactic
category information provided. This also shows that a sentence is both a linear string of words
and a hierarchical structure with phrases nested in phrases (combination of phrase structures).
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5 Syntax Terminologies and Relationship of Grammar and Syntax
5.1 Syntax Terminologies
Sentence, considered as the highest and largest syntactical unit.
Word, considered as the lowest and smallest syntactic unit.
Phrase, a group of words functioning as an intermediate syntactical unit.
Phrasal Head, the central word of a phrase whose grammatical category defines the type of
phrase.
Ex. Noun – Noun Phrase (NP) ; Verb – Verb Phrase (VP)
Adjective – Adjective Phrase (AdjP) ; Adverb – Adverbial Phrase (AdvP)
Preposition – Prepositional Phrase (PP)
Adnominal Prepositional Phrase, occurs in Noun Phrases, where they modify the head N.
Ex. The old desk by the window suddenly collapsed. (= which desk?)
Adrian quickly grabbed the book that is near the computer. (= which book?)
Adverbial Prepositional Phrase, occurs in Verb Phrases, where they modify the head V.
Ex. The fire alarm rang before class. (= when?)
The fire spread slowly. (= how?)
Transitive verbs (Vt), has two characteristics: it functions as a verb and it has a direct object.
35
Ex. Sylvia kicked Juan under the table.; Anthony ate two slices of pizza.
Intransitive verbs (Vi), has two characteristics: it functions as a verb and it has no direct object
Ex. Kirk went to the campus to pass his papers.; Rose always eats before leaving.
Function words, have no clear lexical meanings but these have grammatical functions.

Pronouns – it, that, they, him, her, etc.

Prepositions – by, for, in, etc.

Determiners – the, a, an, their, etc.

Auxiliary verbs – has, can, will, may, etc.

Conjunctions – but, and, for, etc.

Degree words – really, very, rather, terribly, etc.
5.2 Relationship of Grammar and Syntax
Grammar and Syntax are different yet they are two disciplines that overlap each other for
they both deal with the rules and the structures governing any language.
Grammar
Syntax
A whole system and a structure of The arrangement of words and
rules that governs how sentences, phrases in a language to create a
clauses, words and phrases in a well-structured sentence
language are constructed
A general term used in every day’s
language consumption
An essential discipline in the field
of linguistics
Prescriptive, for it is strict on how
the rules should be done
Descriptive, for it observes the
rules
Table 3 presents the comparison table between grammar and syntax.
36
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