Syntax and Semantics
Reading: 6.1, 6.2, 6.4.1, 6.4.2,
6.5.1, 6.5.2, 6.5.3
7.1, 7.2.1, 7.2.2
Syntax
• We have seen how language sounds
combine to form units of meaning
• Syntax studies how such units — words
and phrases — participate in meaningful
utterances in a language
Syntax
• One sometimes hears people say that a
certain language 'has no grammar', but
that is not true of any language.
• Every language has about as many
grammatical principles — rules for forming
utterances — as any other language
Syntax
• Syntax defined
The systematic organizing of the
morphology in utterances —
by which users of the language can
understand each other
Principles of Syntax
1. *Word order
John hit Bill
How do we know who the hitter is?
The hittee?
Word order
Some possible word orders:
S
V
O
John kissed Mary :
English; Chinese
Word order
S
O
V
John Mary kissed :
Japanese; Korean; Chinese
Word order
O
S
V
Mary, John kissed :
Chinese; English?
Word Order
V
S
O
kissed John Mary
Maori
(lg. of indigenous people of New Zealand)
Word order
• The following Chinese sentence
demonstrates principle of word order:
wo gaoxing wo de diannao jiu yao dai hui
I
happy
I
Poss. PC
Gr. will
carry back
lai le
come Gr.
I am glad that [I am] getting my PC back
Principles of Syntax
2. *Morphological concord (agreement)
Marks relations among units in the
utterance
The dog_ eat_ in the kitchen
(how many dogs?)
Concord
Where do we find concord in this sentence:
The girls on the team ran their laps.
Concord
Notice strong dependence on concord in
Spanish:
las casas blancas estan bonitas
Principles of syntax
3. *morphology (function words, inflections,
derivational morphemes, etc.)
John hit Bill
John kissed Mary
What is the time in these?
What tells us that?
Morphology
English:
The leadership collected accurate
information
The morphology participates in this sentence by
identifying word class and contributing to the
meaning of the words
Morphology
• How does morphology play a role in the
following utterances:
They called me names ~
They called my name
Morphology
Latin depends almost entirely on
morphology and concord:
Gallia est omnis in partes tres divisa
Gall
is
all
in parts
three divided
All of Gall is divided in three parts
Principles of Syntax
•
English depends on all three of these
principles to a varying degree:
1. Word order
2. Concord
3. Morphology
Principles of Syntax
• Chinese:
• 我 自己拿 呀， 我
戴走
可以 的
Wo ziji na ya, wo dai zou keyi de
I self take Prt., I carry go ok
Prt.
I can do it, I will take it my self!
particle ya conveys mood, emphatic tone
particle de conveys certainty, reassurance
word order, with modal particles
This use of particles grammaticalizes mood
Principles of syntax
• Syntax includes *lexical categories.
Nouns
Verbs
Adjectives
Adverbs
We will define these descriptively
Lexical categories
•
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Identity lexical categories by syntactic frames
NOUNS:
N + pl (-s)
dogs
N + poss (-s)
Tom’s
Article + N
a dog; the house
Article + Adjective +N a big dog
N + Relative Clause the dog that barked
May be subjects of sentences, objects of
Verbs or Prepositions
Swimming is fun
Lexical categories
• Verb frames
V + tense
wanted; going to eat
V + 3 person singular eats
Auxiliary + V
is eating
Adverb + V
ran slowly
V + Prepositional Phrase
ran up the street
Lexical categories
• Adjectives and adverbs
Adj [+ (-er)/more, (-est)/most] + N
My car is an older Ford
Av [+ (-er)/more, (-est)/most)] + V
Of all of us he runs slowest
Lexical categories
• The result of these lexical categories is
phrases that function as constituents of
utterances
*Constituents
• Constituent defined: a word or phrase in
an utterance that forms a coherent group
Ex. p. 203-4, #1, #2
Identify phrases and constituents
Constituents
• *Syntactic ambiguity (structural
ambiguity) —
occurs where a sentence may be
understood in two or more ways because
of its structure
Ambiguity
• We need more intelligent teachers
Syntactic ambiguity
She collects miniature toys and dolls
Syntactic ambiguity
While growing up his father took him to
baseball games
Ambiguity
• We can use graphic means to
demonstrate the ambiguity of sentences
• Reed-Kellogg diagrams
• Phrase Tree diagrams
• Brackets or Looping diagrams
Principles of Syntax
Colorless green ideas sleep furiously
Semantics features
• Semantics —
the system of meanings in a language
Principles of Syntax
• The lexicon participates in the syntax
because of semantic features of words
Semantic features
• Words collocate —
can be used together —
according to their semantic features
The child asked for a banana
?The tree asked for a banana
*Semantic features
• We think of “meaning” as a circle of
signification, in which are found semantic
features — elements of the meaning.
At the heart of the circle is the basic
meaning
Semantic features
• What are the semantic features of
pregnant?
Semantic features
• Pregnant:
Animate
Vertebrate ? Mammal ?
Alive
Female
Adult ?
Big stomach ?
Happy ?
Married ?
morning sickness
discomfort and swelling
Semantic features
• More examples of semantic features:
animate ~ inanimate
(*a throbbing stone?)
human ~ nonhuman
(*a very articulate tree?)
solid ~ liquid (box ~ bottle)
(*a bottle of erasers?)
Principles of syntax
1.
2.
3.
4.
Word order
Morphological concord
Morphology
Semantic features play a role, in
determining what words may be selected
for what utterance contexts
Exercise
1. What Aerocool can bring you?
2. Emits sweat faster, making you feel cool
& comfortable at all the times.
3. Fast dryness guarantees, you could wear
right after you wash it.
4. The performance will keep going even
after you wash it.
(In what ways are these sentences from a product
label ungrammatical)