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SYNTAX and NOAM CHOMSKY
The generative/transformational or Chomskyan school of grammar is not just one
among many. It has revolutionized the scientific study of language. Chomsky is a
linguist, not a traditional grammarian. As such he approaches language with the
intention above all of developing a theory from his observations. In addition that
theory is intended to have the widest possible power of explanation of linguistic
phenomena.
Chomsky's point of departure is his observation that fluent speakers of a
language possess the ability:
1) to produce sentences that they have never heard before [as they speak
children will produce utterances that they have never heard nor produced
before themselves]
2) to understand sentences that they have never heard before.
Chomsky calls this ability to utter sentences not heard before nor said before
the competence of the native/fluent speaker. The actual production of sentences by a
person he calls her/his performance. The distinction between competence and
performance is an important one in the Chomskyan system.
Competence is lodged in the human psyche and it exists prior to
and independently of performance.
He also observes that native/fluent speakers can purely by intuition decide that
certain sentences are well-formed/ grammatical and that others are ill-formed/
ungrammatical. This reality of the intuitive judgement of the native/ fluent speaker
lies at the very heart of the Chomskyan analysis of the sentence.
Definitions of Grammar
Since sentence formation is the most obvious and frequent manifestation of creativity
in any language, the syntactic rules of a language are often referred to as the
grammar of the language. But morphology and phonology are also part of the
grammar in that they, too, are creative tools.
Here it might be pertinent to mention a few other definitions of the term grammar
that are widely used.
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a) A descriptive grammar is a description of the structure of a language in all its
aspects--morphology, syntax, phonology--which attempts do portray the language
as accurately as possible in terms of how it is naturally used by speakers.
b) A prescriptive grammar is a description of a language which assigns value
judgments to competing ways native speakers use in forming words or sentences.
Prescriptive grammars do not attempt to describe the language as it is naturally
spoken, but rather to tell the speakers how they best should speak it.
c) A third type, grammars of foreign languages written for second language learners
fall in between the other two types. They represent attempts to describe a language
as it is spoken by natives in order to tell non-natives how to speak it.
Generative Grammar (sentences can be generated infinitely)
The kind-hearted boy had many girlfriends.
The kindhearted, intelligent boy had many girlfriends.
The kindhearted, intelligent, handsome boy had many girlfriends.
How could you continue creating sentences of this genre?
By adding adjectives (modification).
John went to the movies.
John went to the movies and ate popcorn.
John went to the movies, ate popcorn, and drank a coke.
How could you continue creating sentences of this genre?
By adding a noun connected by and (coordination).
The cat chased the mouse.
The cat chased the mouse that ate the cheese.
The cat chased the mouse that ate the cheese that came from the cow.
The cat chased the mouse that ate the cheese that came from the cow that grazed in the
field.
How could you continue creating sentences of this genre?
By adding a relative clause (clause insertion).
Sentence formation can go on forever using mechanisms like those seen above
(modification, coordination, clause insertion) and therefore the number of sentences that
are possible are limitless. However, all of these sentences are composed of discrete
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units that are all combined by rules. Why do these rules exist? Well, so that our finitely
spaced brain can easily store these infinite combinations (of discrete units and rules).
Syntax: the rules of sentence formation. Also, syntax represents the
component of the mental grammar that represents speakers’
knowledge of the structure of phrases and sentences.
Grammatical or *Ungrammatical?
Grammatical (well-formed): Describes a well-formed sequence of words, one
conforming to the rules of syntax.
*Ungrammatical (ill formed): Ill-formed structures (sequence of words) that do not
conform to the rules of grammar/syntax.
A native/fluent speaker will judge intuitively that a
sentence to be grammatical and the other one to be
ungrammatical *.
Intuitive knowledge belongs to the linguistic
competence of the native/fluent speaker.
In generative/transformational grammar there are
three important aspects of sentence structure:
1) the linear order of words from left to right
2) the categorization of words into parts of speech
3) the groupings of words
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Grammaticality is not based on:
1) Grammaticality does not depend on having heard the sentence before.
Example: Enormous crickets in pink socks danced at the prom.
2) Grammaticality does not depend on whether the sentence is meaningful or not.
Example: Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.
Although the sentence does not make sense, it is syntactically well formed.
However, it sounds “funny”.
Compare: Colorless green ideas sleep furiously. (sounds funny)
*Furiously sleep ideas green colorless. (ungrammatical)
3) Grammaticality does not depend on the truth of the sentence.
Example: Pregnant men are happy.
Unicorns live in the forest.
Linguists try and show how syntactic rules account for
our knowledge of language.
Therefore a theory of grammar (developed by linguists)
must provide a complete characterization of what
speakers implicitly know about their language.
Now... here is the discussion that will lead to
PHRASE STRUCTURE TREES
Syntax:
Hierarchical Structure: the groupings and subgroupings of the parts of a sentence into
syntactic categories.
Example: the bird sang [[the][bird][sang]]
We already saw these groupings and subgroupings with morphemes:
Example: unlockable [[un][lock][able]]
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Ambiguity: will happen when a sentence has multiple meanings (as we saw with the
word unlockable).
For sale: an antique desk suitable for ladies with thick legs and larger drawers.
We will oil your sewing machine and adjust tension in your home for $25.
These structures are ambiguous because of the grouping,
therefore causing structural ambiguity.
One approach to analyzing a sentence is to divide the words of a sentence into
phrases (defined as words closely associated with one another syntactically). This
technique is known as parsing. The most fundamental division is between subject and
predicate (verb).
Sometimes a sentence or phrase allows for two different syntactic interpretations.
Parsing using parentheses to show syntactic relations can disambiguate such a phrase
as:
old men and women
Other sentences do not lend themselves to such a linear approach. Sometimes the
words that belong to the same syntactic unit are separated by other words
(embedded sentences):
The book that was lying under all the other books is the most interesting.
The book (that was lying under all the other books) is the most interesting.
(Here we have an embedded relative/adjective clause.)
Tree diagrams can be used to show such "long distance" grammatical relations.
Consider also the sentence:
The fish is too old to eat.
Here, parsing and even tree diagramming cannot separate out the two potential
meanings. In such cases of semantic ambiguity, paraphrases can be used to express
two meanings hidden in a single linear form:
The fish is too old for the fish to eat.
The fish is too old to be eaten.
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Tree Diagrams: Hierarchical structures are generally depicted in
a tree diagram. Tree diagrams make it easier to see the parts
and subparts of a sentence.
Example: The child found the puppy.
How would you group the words in this sentence?
(the child) (found the puppy)
(the child) ((found) (the puppy))
((the)(child)) ((found) ((the) (puppy)))
it’s easier to visualize this with a tree
The child found the puppy
the child
the
child
found the puppy
found
the puppy
the
puppy
Constituents: refer to the natural groupings of a sentence. It is a
syntactic unit in a phrase structure tree.
Example: The child found the puppy.
The child = noun phrase (NP)
found the puppy = verb phrase (VP)
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Here is a summary of the different types of
CONSTITUENTS:
(1) Noun Phrase (NP): may function as the subject or as an object in a
sentence. They often contain some form of a noun or proper noun,
but may consist of a pronoun alone, or even contain a clause or a
sentence.
See page 127 #1: identify the NPs.
(2) Verb Phrase (VP): it always contains a verb and may contain other
categories (NPs, PPs) etc. see p. 127 #2: identify the VPs
(3) Sentence (S): contains an NP, AUX, and an VP
OR Inflectional Phrase (IP): contains NP, INFL, VP
(This is for Spanish and French)
(4) Adjective Phrase (AdjP):
(5) Preposition Phrase (PP):
(6) Complementizer Phrase (CP): An embedded clause or subordinate
clause
These larger syntactic categories (NP, VP, PP, etc)
are called NODES.
Nodes, contain the following information
(parts of speech):
(7) Determiner (Det): is found in a NP
(8) Adjective (Adj): is found in an AdjP
(9) Noun (N): is found in a NP
(10) Preposition (P): is found in a PP
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(11) Adverb (Adv)
(12) Auxiliary Verb (Aux) will, has, is, may, might, would, could, can,
etc.
OR Inflection (Infl) this holds the inflectional information (tense,
mood, gender, number) of RICH inflectional languages (Spanish,
Italian, French-somewhat)
p. 128 PHRASE STRUCTURE TREES
nodes, immediately dominate, dominate
Phrase structure trees represent:
1) the linear order of the words in the sentence
2) the groupings of words into syntactic categories
3) the hierarchical structure of the syntactic categories
NOTE: What we will see in this class is historical in
the sense that it is NO LONGER USED. What is now
used is X’-theory (Government and Binding). What
we will see here forms the basis for X’-theory.
Some Phrase Structure Rules
Sets of rules like the these make up phrase structure grammar.
S
→
NP
Aux
S
→
S
NP
→
(Det) (Adj) (AdjP) N (PP)
Pro
conj
VP
Aux = will hold helping verbs
And inflection information
S
conj = conjunction (and, or)
Pro = Pronoun (We, it, los, se, )
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NP conj NP
CP
VP
→
V
Cop
V
(NP) (PP) (CP) (Adv)
PNom
(PP) (CP) Cop = copula, helping verb (links N
CP
in first NP to the N in the NP
under VP) (is)
PNom=Predicate Nominal
(I am a student, I am happy)
CP
→
COMP
PP
→
P
S
COMP= Complementizer (that, etc.)
NP
PNom →
NP
AdjP
AdjP* →
(Deg) Adj (PP) (NP)
CP
Deg=adverbial degree (very)
Det
Art
Poss
Dem
Art= Article (the)
Poss = Possessive (my)
Dem = Demonstrative (that, these)
→
*Note: In the text AdjP is referred to as AP.
( ) = denotes OPTIONAL information
Nodes specifically contain:
HEADS and COMPLEMENTS
[[The child]NP [[put]V [the puppy]NP [in the garden.]PP]VP]S
DRAW!
V (put) is the head of VP
All the other constituents in the VP are the complements (NP, PP, etc).
NPs are headed by _______?
PPs are headed by _______?
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AdjPs are headed by _______?
SELECTION
Example: [[The boy]NP [[found]V [the ball]NP]VP]S.
*The boy found quickly.
*The boy found in the house.
What can we say about the verb found? What does it need?
Example: [[Sam]NP [[put]V [the milk]NP [in the
refrigerator]PP]VP]S
*Sam put the milk.
*Sam put in the refrigerator.
What can we say about the verb put? What does it need?
Transitive Verb: is a verb that requires a Noun Phrase direct object
complement. This additional information is called “selection”.
Example: [[Michael]NP [slept]VP]S.
*Michael slept a fish.
What can we say about the verb sleep? What does it NOT need?
Intransitive Verb: verbs that cannot take an NP complement.
The table below summarizes properties that can be said to characterize languages which are
consistently head-final or consistently head-initial.
Head-final (JAPANESE)
verb occurs last, following
subject, object, adpositional
phrases, adjuncts, adverbs
postpositions
noun occurs last in noun
phrase
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modifiers in general precede
the modified element (English)
Head-initial (ENGLISH, SPANISH, FRENCH)
verb precedes object,
adpositional phrases,
adjuncts, adverbs, though
not necessarily the subject (Spanish, English, French)
prepositions (Spanish, English, French)
noun occurs first in noun
phrase
modifiers in general follow
the modified element (Spanish, French)
English, French and Spanish are predominantly head-initial. It has SVO word order in basic,
declarative sentences. The head of a verb phrase, e.g. won, precedes the object NP the race. The head P
of a prepositional phrase precedes the object NP: of (P) Queen Elizabeth (NP). The head N of a noun
phrase precedes the possessive NP: the daughter (NP)of Queen Elizabeth (possessive NP). The head N
of a noun phrase precedes the relative clause: the daughter(NP), who was born to Queen Elizabeth
(relative clause); and so forth. As a warning, things are not totally consistent in English (and in many
languages for that matter). English has some head-final patterns. To give you one example, English has
both the head-initial of-possessive I have been giving as an example and a head-final possessive, i.e.
the possessive s genitive. In the possessive s genitive, the head NP follows the rest of the phrase:
Queen Elizabeth's (possessive s NP) daughter(head). First and foremost, however, keep in mind that
speakers of head-final languages are more likely to make word order errors in English than speakers of
head-initial languages.
Grammatical Terms with SPANISH/FRENCH examples.
Term
Abbreviati French Example
Spanish Example
on
Sentence
S
J’apprends le franais.
Aprendo español.
Noun Phrase
NP
Je cherche un livre.
Busco un libro.
Verb Phrase
VP
Elle viendra demain.
Ella vendrá mañana.
Prepositional Phrase
PP
Tue s avec lui?
¿Estás con él?
Adjective Phrase
AdjP
Il est très content.
Está muy contento.
Predicate Nominal
PNom
Je suis ètudiante.
Soy estudiante.
Pronoun
Pro
Nous te regardons.
Nosotros te miramos.
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Determiner
Det
Particles that modify a noun – articles, possessives,
demonstratives
Article
Art
La salle est vide.
La sala está vacía.
Possessive
Poss
Mon ami est ici.
Mi amigo está aquí.
Demonstrative
Dem
Ce garon parle.
Ese niño habla.
Complementizer
Comp
Je pense que tu as tort.
Creo que estás
Introduces subordinate
or embedded clause
Copula
equivocado.
Cop
Il est triste.
Connects the subject
with a certain attribute
Es/está triste.
Ser, estar, quedar, parecer
Degree
Deg
Il est très triste.
Es/está muy triste.
Negation
Neg
Je n’aime pas les fleurs
No me gusta correr.
Draw
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
5)
6)
7)
8)
9)
trees for the following ENGLISH sentences:
The man fled from the police.
The baby slept happily.
A girl laughed at the clown.
The boat sailed up the river.
The boys are happy children. (copular)
The boy saw the man with the telescope. (ambiguous)
Pretty girls and happy ladies whispered softly. (coordinated)
The tall girls are happy and the noisy boys are tired. (cop & coordinated)
The teacher believes that the student knows the answer. (subordinate)
The teacher that teaches small children ate lunch with her mom. (embedded)
PP. 166-167 3, 4, 7 – more practice with ENGLISH sentences
SPANISH:
1) Tu hermano vino por la autopista.
2) Nosotros vivimos en la tercera casa a la derecha.
3) Los jugadores de fútbol son personas importantes en el mundo del deporte.
(copular)
4) Pablo habló a los estudiantes de lingüística. (ambiguous)
5) Marta y yo salimos a las cuatro. (coordinated)
6) Las chicas son contentas y los chicos están cansados. (cop & coordinated)
7) Yo sé que ustedes compraron la casa. (subordinate)
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8) La universidad mexicana que ofrece clases de español tiene cuatro profesores
de Oaxaca. (embedded)
FRENCH:
1) Elle arrive de la gare.
2) Nous habitons à la troisième maison sur la droite.
3) Les joueurs de football sont des gens importants dans le monde du sport. (cop)
4) Paul a parlé aux étudiants de linguistique. (ambiguous)
5) Ma petit amie et moi parlons bien l’anglais. (coordinated)
6) (cop & coordinated)
7) Je sais que vous voulez acheter la maison. (subordinate)
8) Les fleurs qu’ils ont apportées sont très jolies. (embedded)
Sentence Relatedness: sentences may be related in various ways:
a) Sentences may have the same phrase structure but differ in
meaning because they contain different words
b) they may have different meanings but contain the same words in the
same order and only differ in structure (ambiguous sentences)
c) they may differ in structure (w/small differences in grammatical
morphemes) but with no difference in meaning
The father wept silently. vs. The father silently wept.
Mary hired Bill. vs. Bill was hired by Mary.
d) they may have structural differences that correspond systematically
to meaning differences
The boy is sleeping. Is the boy sleeping?
The boy will sleep. Will the boy sleep?
The above sentences in c) and d) are not accounted for
by the phrase structure rules presented.
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Chapter 4 – Syntax
This leads to our discussion about
TRANSFORMATION RULES
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Chapter 4 – Syntax
TRANSFORMATIONAL RULES (a.k.a. T-Rules)
Noam Chomsky noticed that languages contain systematic ways of
paraphrasing sentences:
a) Active sentences can regularly be turned into passives:
The boy kicked the ball.--> the ball was kicked by the boy. (passive
transformation)
b) Statements can be regularly turned into questions: He is there? Is he
there? (interrogative transformation)
He came to believe that such parallel syntactic means of
expressing the same meaning were simply
surface manifestations of
deeper structural units of language.
To study and describe such deep structures, he devised
the theory of transformational grammar.
The three main tenets of this theory are:
1) The surface forms of a language are reducible to a limited number of deep
structures. The same deep structure is manifested in several different ways in actual
sentences. This is similar to the use of the principle of allomorphs to describe
morpheme variants.
2) These deep structures are universal--in other words, the same for all languages
of the world; only the rules for deriving the surface forms from the deep structures
differ from language to language.
3) The reason these deep structures are universal is that they are inborn, part of the
human genetic code; being inborn they help children discover the surface forms of
language so quickly.
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These Transformational Rules are syntactic rules that apply to an
underlying phrase structure tree (deep structure) of a sentence and
derive a new structure (surface structure)
by moving or inserting elements into the tree.
For example, in ENGLISH, a way to capture the relationship between a
declarative and a question is to allow the phrase structure rules to
generate the structure corresponding to the declarative sentence, and
have another formal device (i.e. Transformation Rules) that move the
auxiliary in front of the subject. Therefore....
Transformation-rule: MOVE Aux move the first auxiliary verb following
the subject NP to the left of the subject.
In the declarative sentence, MOVE Aux moves the auxiliary to the front
of the subject (NP) to form the question.
Example:
The boy is sleeping → Is the boy ____ sleeping.
S
NP
Det
The
N
boy
Aux
VP
is
V
sleeping.
DEEP STRUCTURE
S
Aux
is
NP
VP
Det
N
the
boy
V
---
sleeping.
SURFACE STRUCTURE
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The T-rule of MOVE Aux related the deep structure sentence
The boy is sleeping.
to the surface structure
Is the boy sleeping?
So…what happened?
1) The phrase structure rules generate a basic structure (deep structure).
2) Aux-movement applied to produce the derived structure (surface structure).
Surface structure: the structure that results from applying transformational rules to a
deep structure. It is syntactically closest to the actual utterance.
Deep structure: Any phrase structure tree generated by the phrase structure rules of
a transformational grammar. The basic syntactic structure of the grammar.
Spanish:
Move-aux doesn’t exist in Spanish since you never separate auxiliary and verb:
está comiendo, he hablado
However, let’s see how a question is formed:
El niño está durmiendo (deep) = ¿Está durmiendo el niño? (surface)
(draw)
SPANISH Language specific transformation: MOVE -VP
French:
Move-aux doesn’t exist in French either since you never separate auxiliary and verb:
J’ai dormi (I have slept)
However, let’s see how a question is formed:
John dort. (deep) = Est-ce que John dort? (surface)
(draw)
Le garon dort. (deep)
= Est-ce que le garon dort ? (surface)
(John is sleeping, John sleeps, John does sleep).
FRENCH Language specific transformation: Insert – "est-ce que" infront of subject.
Back to English:
English has something very similar to the French Transformation Rule: Insert “est-ce
que”. When forming “yes/no” questions in English, we insert “do” before the subject.
In English we have the Transformation Rule: Insert “do”.
The boy sleeps. = Does the boy sleep?
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HERE ARE OTHER SENTENCE TYPES THAT ARE
TRANSFORMATIONALLY RELATED:
T-rule: there sentences (“dummy” pronoun filling subject position)
There was a man on the roof → A man was on the roof
English: Doesn’t allow “empty” subjects because the information can not be gained
elsewhere. Therefore, a “dummy” subject pronoun (pro) is used to make sure that
spot is filled. This is also true for “it” with weather verbs (It is raining.) (Draw)
French: Is similar to English in that Il y a, Voilà insertion (there is, there are). The
first is used to state that a person, place, or thing exists (statement of fact). The
second is used to point out the location of a person, place, or thing (exclamation or
identifying of facts). In addition, il, il y a are used with weather verbs.
Voilà/Il y a deux policiers dans la place. (there)
Il pleut. (it’s raining)
Il fait froid. (it’s cold)
Il y a un orage. (There’s a storm.)
Spanish: Doesn’t have the need to use “dummy” pronouns since it has RICH
inflectional morphemes and the information about the subject can be gathered from
the verbal inflections. So, in the PRO spot under NP, you simply use a “null” symbol
().
____ Hay dos policías en la plaza.
____ Llueve.
____ Hace calor.
 This lead to the discussion of another Spanish Transformation Rule: eliminate Pro
Yo hablo español = ____ hablo español.
This happens for the same explanation as above: Spanish has a rich verbal inflection
system and that eliminated information (pro) can be recuperated from the verbal
inflection.
***The Transformation Rule: eliminate PRO doesn’t exist in French and English to the
same extent as it exists in Spanish. Because both have weak inflectional
morphology, the eliminated information (pro) can not be recuperated. HOWEVER,
you can eliminate pro in French and English only when the subject is found in an
embedded clause…more specifically a relative clause (not with a subordinate).
The girl, that has blond hair, is nice. La fille qui a les sheveux blonds est gentille.
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T-rule: active-passive in a passive sentence, the direct object of a
transitive verb in deep structure functions as the subject in surface structure.
The cat chased the mouse → The mouse was chased by the cat
Spanish: Same as English.
French: Same as English.
T-rule: PP preposing moves any PP immediately under VP.
The girl saw the boy with the telescope →
With the telescope, the girl saw the boy.
Spanish: Same as English.
French: Same as English.
T-rule: that omission allow “that” to be omitted when it precedes a sentence
complement (CP) but not in subject positions.
I know that you know.
That you know bothers me.
I know you know.
*You know bothers me.
Spanish: doesn’t exist with sentences
French: doesn’t exist
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Chapter 4 – Syntax
SOME more Language Specific Transformation Rules
that don’t have ENGLISH equivalents
French
1) ne – pas INSERTION
around conjugated form of aller,
ne before reflexive/reciprocal pronoun and pas after verb
insert ne pas around the helping verb to form the passé compose
insert ne pas around the auxiliary verb to form the negative.
2) Yes-no questions
If subject is a pronominal noun, you can move it after conjugated verb or leave
it in-front of the verb
if subject is NP or Pro, leave it in-front of conjugated verb and
insert ‘est-ce que’ before sentence
3) Transposition (inversion) – not mandatory to form questions (yes/no) S – V
Spanish
1) Negation deletion and transposition (No vino nadie Nadie vino.)
2) Insertion – personal “a”, (indirect object marker “a” is a preposition)
3)
All of the previous transformations act on structures without regard to
the words that they contain because they are structure dependent.
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Sentences are organized according to two principles:
(1) constituent structure -the hierarchical organization of the subparts
of a sentence- Phrase structure rules..
(2) syntactic dependencies -the dependencies that exist among the
elements in the sentence. That is, the presence of a particular word
or morpheme can depend on the presence of some other word or
morpheme in a sentence. For example:
a) Selection (transitive vs. intransitive verbs)
b) Agreement (the features in Aux and on the verb must match the
features of the subject)
c) Wh-questions
Let’s look at some sentences:
i) What will Max eat?
“eat” is a transitive verb, so where is the direct object?
ii) Where has Pete put his ball?
“Put” selects a direct object and a preposition phrase, so where is the PP
following “his ball”?
iii) Which dog do you think loves bones?
“Loves” carries the third-person –s inflectional morpheme, so where is
the subject to trigger this agreement?
These are all gaps where the wh-phrase is assumed to be at the
beginning of the sentence. The wh-phrase in:
(i) acts as the D.O.,
(ii) acts as the PP, and
(iii) acts as the subject.
We have here another Transformational Rule: Move -wh
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T-rule: move -wh wh questions are moved up to a new CP.
Deep structure of What will Max eat?
CP
Comp
S
NP
Aux
Max will
VP
V
eat
NP
what
The surface structure representation of this sentence is:
CP
Comp
S
Aux
what will
Jorge come qué.
NP
Aux
Max ---
VP
V
eat
NP
---
Spanish:
= ¿Qué come Jorge?
In Spanish, in addition to the T-Rule Move –wh, there is an additional rule present:
Move VP
George mangera que
=
French:
Qu’est ce que George mangera?
In French, in addition to the T-Rule Move-wh, there is an additional rule present:
Insert “qu’est ce”
This insertion is similar to the English T-Rule: Insert “do”.
John saw who?
= Who did John see?
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Some Cross-linguistic syntactic variations
1) French & Spanish mark future and conditional tense on the main verb
(inflectional morphology), while English requires an auxiliary verb to mark the
future.
2) The adjective follows the noun it modifies in French & Spanish, while in
English an adjective precedes the noun it modifies.
3) The adjective agrees in number with the noun in modifies in French & Spanish,
while in English it does not.
4) The definite article agrees in number with the noun in precedes in French &
Spanish, while in English it does not.
5) French and Spanish adverbs (of the type never, always, often) follow the verb,
whereas in English they precede the verb.
7) “se” in Spanish:
1) indirect object “se”
2) reflexive/reciprocal “se”
3) passive “se” found only with transitive verbs in the 3rd person
Se pintaron las paredes.
4) impersonal “se” occurs with intranstive verbs (this will function as PRO)
Se vive mejor aquí.
5) Mixed passive or impersonal “se”
always singular
(se + transitive verb + a) – verb is
Se llama a los perros con un silbido.
6) Non-fault “se”
Se me perdieron mis libros.
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OPTIONAL INFORMATION
Transformational grammar has maintained its popularity since 1957 when Noam
Chomsky published his first book, Syntactic Structures. But major problems continue
to dog the theory. The main problems are:
1) Transformational rules only work for sentences composed of separate noun
and verb phrases. We have seen that not all sentences are of this type.
2) Mainly English data was used to find these supposedly universal deep
structures. Usually one of the paraphrases is taken as the basic one and the
other derived from it: cf. active and passive. But active is not more basic in all
languages; Japanese uses the passive as its more basic form.
3) No deep structures have been described that would apply across all languages.
There seem to be universal tendencies in syntax, but no universal has yet been
proven to exist that would be more specific than the general creativity in
humans.
Thus, no real progress has been made in writing a universal grammar that would be
applicable to all human languages. In chemistry we have the Periodic table of
Elements--all substances on earth can be seen as compounds of a finite set of
elements. Human language doesn't seem to work this way, and no such table of
universal grammar elements has been found.
In previous summaries we have slowly worked our way upwards from smaller to ever larger building blocks
of human language. Initially, we discovered that there are meaning-distinguishing units of sound
(phonemes), followed by meaning-bearing parts of words (morphemes). What, then, is the next larger
unit of measurement in linguistic analysis? The following list gives an indication:
1. sentences contain
2. clauses contain
3. phrases contain
4. words contain
5. morphemes
one
one
one
one
or
or
or
or
several
several
several
several
While some languages blur the boundaries between words and longer expressions to some extent due to
their morphology, English allows a fairly clear segmentation into phrases, clauses and sentences. The
structural relations of these units with one another fall into the domain of syntax. Just like morphology,
syntax is not concerned with what a sentence means, in the sense of what it tells us about the world, but
with the internal structure of units and their relations to one another. In other words, syntax asks which
sentences are in accord with the grammatical rules imposed by a particular language and which aren’t.
When talking about sentences as units in grammar, it is important to recognize that we idealize their status
to some extent. Spoken language often consists of incomplete utterances and seemingly disjointed pieces,
but this does not make it ‘less grammatical’.
Two simple sentences demonstrate aptly what sort of relations are covered by syntax:
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John likes pie
*John pie likes
The words used in both sentences are identical and common expressions in English. But clearly there is a
problem with John pie likes. While in Persiansuch a sentence structure would be acceptable, it cannot be
considered grammatically well-formed in English, because it does not conform with thecanonical word
order of English (Subject – Verb – Object, or SVO). Clearly the words themselves would also be different
in Persian, but what counts in the context of syntax is that what is grammatical in one language may well
beungrammatical in another and that this dimension is detached from meaningas we frequently
understand it.
A famous example sentence helps to exemplify this last aspect of language:
Colorless green ideas sleep furiously
The sentence may not ‘make sense’ in that ideas cannot be colorless, do not have the ability to sleep and
are not able to do so furiously. But grammatically the sentence is perfectly acceptable, because every word
is in a place where it can potentially be, something that is not the case with *John pie likes or *Furiously
sleep ideas green colorless.
Two central questions from the vantage point of syntax are therefore ‘What are the building blocks of a
sentence?’ and ‘How do they interact with one another in a particular language?’
Constituency
Those elements in a sentence that form structural units are calledconstituents. From a functional
perspective (in other words, when asking what the constituents in a sentence do), it is possible to
distinguish between two basic building blocks that exist in any complete sentence: a referring
expressionand a predication.
referring expression predication
Mary
ate an apple
I
don’t like Mondays
The car
crashed into the wall with a bang
It
rained steadily all day long
The referring expression is essentially something (a person, thing, emotion, state or abstract concept) that
we make a statement about (for example, that it went somewhere, did something, has a certain quality and
so forth).
Phrases
If we turn from function to grammar we can make another observation: the referring expression is always
a noun phrase (NP), while the predication is averb phrase (VP). A complete English sentence will always
contain these components.
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NP
VP
Mike
likes pizza
Many people decided not to vote
These two examples demonstrate why we use the terms noun phrase and verbphrase, instead of just
speaking of nouns and verbs: Mike and Many people fill the same syntactic slot, while likes
pizza and decided not to vote fill another (they are constituents). Phrases can vary a great deal in terms of
length and complexity and they can themselves contain other phrases. For example, the verb phrase likes
pizza contains the noun phrase pizza.
Constituency tests
It is possible to test whether part of a sentence is a constituent via several relatively simple tests. Three of
the most common tests are substitution,movement and question-forming.
When the fire broke out, the girl on the roof cried for help
In the example above, replacing the noun phrase the girl on the roof with the pronoun she yields a
grammatical sentence.
When the fire broke out, she cried for help
If we replaced only the girl with she, the result would not be a grammatical sentence: *When the fire broke
out, she on the roof cried for help. The fact that we can substitute a pronoun for the girl on the roof proves
its status as a constituent of the sentence.
Another possibility is to move the assumed constituent to the front of the sentence:
When the fire broke out, the girl on the roof cried for help
The girl on the roof cried for help when the fire broke out
Moving only parts of the noun phrase would not result in a well-formed sentence because it would destroy
its structural integrity (*The girl when the fire broke out on the roof cried for help).
Forming questions that ask specifically for the constituent is another approach:
Q: Who cried for help when the fire broke out?
A: The girl on the roof
Headedness
The element that gives a phrase its name (a noun phrase, verb phrase, prepositional phrase) is commonly
called the head. To give an example, in a noun phrase the head noun may be preceded by a determiner,
adjective or another noun (e.g. the crowded football field) and followed by a prepositional phrase or relative
clause (the book on the table; the girl who called the police). If we replace a noun phrase with with
something else, it must be another noun or a pronoun – all other words in the noun phrase are optional.
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All sorts of people love pizza
Sue loves pizza
I love pizza
*The loves pizza
*Green loves pizza
*But loves pizza
While this kind of endocentric headedness generally applies to noun phrases and verb phrases,
prepositional phrases frequently behave in a different way. For example, the prepositional phrase in The
keys are on the table cannot be replaced with only on or the table – *The keys are on and *The keys are
the table are both ungrammatical.
If we examine the constituency of sentences (in other words, their phrase structure) we find that
frequently units are grammatically ‘packaged’ inside other units, producing a hierarchical structure. One
way of expressing said structure is by using brackets (note that in the example S stands for sentence, not
subject):
The
old
man’s
cat
slept
= (S (NP (NP The old man ’s) cat) (VP slept) )
Another, very popular method of expressing a phrase structure is the use of tree diagrams, as in the
example below
One good approach when looking at the phrase structure of a sentence is to identify the main clause’s
noun phrase and verb phrase and then break down the sentence into smaller units, one constituent at a
time.
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Verb arguments
Two terms related to grammar that you have probably already encountered in school
are subject and object. While the constituents of a sentence are its components, subject and object are
specific syntactic roles that define the relationship of constituents to the verb (in other words, they are the
verb’sarguments). In the example above, John lost his pants, John is a noun phrase that fills the role of
subject in relation to lost which is the main verb of the sentence, while his pants is the direct object. We
use the term transitivity to describe what arguments a particular verb assigns.
Transitivity
Verbs assign specific argument slots to constituents according to the predication they express.
Sue yawned
S
V
Sue likes
cookies
S
O(d)
V
Sue gave
John
a beer
S
O(i)
O(d)
V
In the first example, the verb yawn is intransitive – it does not permit an object (*Sue yawned John is not
grammatical). By contrast, a direct object is required in the second sentence (*Sue likes does not work),
making the verb likemonotransitive. Finally, the third sentence has a so-called double object construction.
The subject is followed by two objects, the indirect one inserted before the direct one. Because of this, we
refer to give as a ditransitive verb. Note that many verbs permit multiple argument configurations: John
bought a beer (montransitive) and John bought Sue a beer (ditransitive) both work.
Two additional syntactic roles, which are in turn associated with subjects and objects, are those
of complement and adverbial.
Complements
Complements are associated with either subjects (subject complements) or objects (object
complements). They provide more information about the thing they are associated with
(they predicate the subject or object) and are often required in order for the clause they appear in to be
grammatically well-formed. Several examples help to illustrate this behavior:
Subject complements:
The cookies taste
delicious
S
C(s)
V
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John
is
a teacher
S
V
C(s)
Ruth
seemed tired
S
V
C(s)
The role of complement is closely tied to specific verbs, sometimes calledcopula or linking
verbs, because they link the subject or object and its complement. The notable difference between a
subject-complement construction and a subject-object construction is that the complement ‘completes’ the
subject. A teacher specifies something about John, just asdelicious is how the cookies taste and tired is
the state that Ruth is in. By contrast, in Jane pushed her sister, her sister does not complement Jane but is
the direct object of pushed.
Object complements function very much like subject complements:
They
found
the movie disappointing
S
V
O
I
consider Susie
a genius
S
V
O
C(o)
The party made
him
prime minister
S
O
C(o)
V
C(o)
Just as subject complements predicate subjects, object complements predicate objects. Complements are
generally not optional but required – *They found the movie, *I consider Susie and *The party made
him are each incomplete without the object complement (the same thing holds true for the subject
examples above). Typically complements are noun phrases, predicative adjectives, or participles that
behave similar to predicative adjectives (They found the moviedisappointing).
Adverbials
In contrast to complements, adverbials can generally be described as predicating either the verb or the
entire clause. They are usually adverb phrases, temporal noun phrases or prepositional phrases.
He
ate
the cake
slowly
S
V
O
A
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She
drops the eggs
every time
S
V
A
O
The keys are
on the table
S
A
V
While in the first two examples the adverbial is optional (He ate the cake andShe dropped the eggs are
grammatical), the last example looks a little like a subject complement at first sight. However, looking more
closely reveals that on the table answers the question of where the keys are. It modifies the entire clause
and not just the keys.
It is important to point out is this context that terms in syntax in general and the
terms complement and adverbial in particular are used with a variety of meanings by different linguists with
different theoretical backgrounds. The relatively traditional terminology (which we use) poses certain
problems, especially in cases that are fuzzy.
Clauses
Looking beyond phrases, the next larger structural unit we encounter are clauses. A clause is generally
defined as consisting of a referring expression and a predicate (or NP + VP), which makes it possible to
use the terms clauseand sentence synonymously when dealing with simple sentences.
John likes pizza
John likes pizza and Mary likes pasta
John likes pizza because it tastes awesome
The first is an example for a simple sentence, the second for a compound sentence and the third for
a complex sentence.
A simple sentence contains a single independent clause. Note that the clause may be quite long and
contain a number of phrases, i.e. The old miner’s fantastically rich cousin frequently traveled to South
Africa many years ago is still a simple sentence.
Compound sentences contain multiple clauses that are strung together via coordinating conjunctions (and,
but, or) or parataxis (connection without a conjunction).
Coordination:
John likes pizza and Mary likes pasta
Parataxis:
John likes pizza, Mary likes pasta
Finally, complex sentences combine an independent clause with one or more dependent (or subordinate)
clauses. Dependent clauses are generally signaled by subordinating conjunctions such as because,
since, after, while, althoughor when, or by relative pronouns such as who, which or that. While they
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Chapter 4 – Syntax
always contain a referring expression and a predication, they often don’t make much sense on their own.
Many textbook definitions therefore state that independent clauses represent ‘complete thoughts’, while
dependent clauses do not.
After he had called Mary, John picked up the pizza that he had ordered earlier
The example sentence begins with the dependent clause After he had called Mary, followed by the
independent clause John picked up the pizza which is in turn followed by the relative clause that he had
ordered earlier. Only the independent clause sounds right on its own, while the dependent clauses seem
incomplete by themselves.
Relative clauses may be either restrictive or non-restrictive and provide more information about the subject
or object of the main clause.
Restrictive
relative
The man who had lost his wallet decided to call the police
clause:
Non-restrictive
relative
The man, who had lost his wallet, decided to call the police
clause:
The difference between the two examples in one of meaning. The first sentence implies that a specific man
(the one who lost his wallet) decided to call the police. By contrast, the second sentence is about a man
who called the police – the information that he has also lost his wallet is given on the side.
Clauses may be part of phrases. For example, restrictive relative clauses like the one above (who had lost
hist wallet) are always part of a noun phrase. This embedding of clauses is also the reason why we can
always assume the basic structure NP -> VP: the verb phrase will often contain other phrases and clauses.
Finite vs. non-finite clauses
Dependent clauses exist in two basic varieties: finite and non-finite. In a non-finite clause the verb shows
no inflectional agreement with the subject, while in the finite variant it does.
When he saw the mess in the kitchen, John took a deep breath (finite dependent clause)
When seeing the mess in the kitchen, John took a deep breath (non-finite dependent clause)
Verb inflection
English has three basic varieties of non-inflected verbals: participles, gerunds and infinitives. While
participles act similar to adjectives, gerunds behave like nouns:
Staring at the empty box, John took a deep breath (participle)
Arguing will not help (gerund)
To-infinitives can fill subject and object roles (i.e. behave like nouns), or modify existing subjects or objects:
To study is the smart thing to do before an exam (to-infinitive as subject)
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John was asked to leave (to-infinitive as object)
He started to talk (to-infinitive as adverb)
Key terms










grammatical – ungrammatical
referring expression – predication
constituents
constituency tests
o substitution
o movement
o question-forming
phrases
o noun phrase
o verb phrase
o prepositional phrase
o headedness
o phrase structure
clause
o dependent – independent
o finite – non-finite
o relative clause
 restrictive – non-restrictive
o coordination – subordination
sentences
o simple – compound – complex
transitivity
verb arguments
syntactic roles
o subject
o direct object
o indirect object
o complement
o adverbial
Written by Cornelius in: Summaries,Syntax |
Mar
10
2008
-Session 8: Grammatical Categories and Relations
People have many associations with the term grammar and not all of them are necessarily positive.
Grammar is often understood as something that one has to painfully acquire in school, while carefully
avoiding all sorts of ‘mistakes’. A piece of conventional wisdom states that ‘language exists without the
permission of grammarians’ and many people believe that certain uses of language are instances of ‘bad
grammar’, that everyday spoken language and youth slang ‘lack grammar’ and that the grammar of their
native language is deteriorating.
From a strictly linguistic perspective, all of this is rubbish.
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Languages change over time, as do the needs of their speakers, and while a conversation with your
friends may be linguistically different from a political speech, a piece of poetry or a newspaper article, it is
neither ‘less grammatical’ nor ‘less meaningful’ in the linguistic sense of these terms.
Just like any other aspect of language, linguists approach grammar descriptively – in other word, in the
same way that a biologist approaches an organism or a physicist looks at molecules. Grammar is not a
checklist of arbitrary dos and don’ts that educators, writers or the editors of the Duden have agreed on, but
a set of mental rules that every unimpaired native speaker of a language has perfect command of.
Whenever you open your mouth, you combine morphemes and words into highly systematic sequences,
and this is what makes what you say comprehensible to others. To the linguist, ‘grammar’ is the invisible
system that is at work every time a speaker formulates an utterance – a system without which
communication would be impossible.
Word classes
One of the oldest fundamentals of grammatical description (well over 2,000 years old, in fact) is the
division of words into groups according to their meaning and function. These groups are called word
classes, lexical categories,lexical classes, or, in traditional grammar, parts of speech. The traditional
repertoire used to describe Indoeuropean languages like German an English includes eight, sometimes
nine word classes:









verbs
nouns
pronouns
adjectives
adverbs
prepositions
conjunctions
determiners
interjections
A basic division frequently made when looking at these categories is betweencontent words and function
words (also sometimes described as lexical vs. grammatical word classes). The distinction can be
explained by examining the meaning of words such as girl (a noun), run (a verb) and happy (an adjective)
vs. but (a conjunction) and the (an article). While girl, run and happy point to something in the world (a kind
of person, a kind of activity, a state) but and thedo not point to anything – their meaning is purely languageinternal (= grammatical). This difference is also noticeable when looking at what new words enter a
language. Speakers come up with new nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs quite frequently, but when
was the last time you heard that a new article or conjunction had been coined? Although new function
words are also introduced into languages, this does not happen as often and usually takes much more
time than the introduction of new content words. For this reason, linguists sometimes call content words
an open set, whereas function words are considered a closed set.
Verbs
Verbs, along with nouns, form the most basic building blocks of the world’s languages and are generally
considered to exist universally, though their form varies from one language to another. Verbs come in two
basic varieties,transitive and intransitive, depending on the arguments they require (for more on verb
arguments, see the summary for Session 9).
John saw Mary (see needs an object – transitive)
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John slept (sleep does not accept an object – intransitive)
Depending on the kind of semantic information they convey, verbs can be classified as stative (which
describe states, perceptions or cognitions) ordynamic (which describe processes, actions or activities).
Sue plays tennis (dynamic)
The wildfires destroyed the forest (dynamic)
Mike likes apple pie (stative)
It seems like yesterday that I took this class (stative)
Stative verbs can generally not be marked for progressive aspect (*Mike is liking apple pie, *It is seeming
like yesterday).
In English, the main verb is inflected for past tense (typically via the -ed suffix), progressive aspect (via the
present participle, formed with the -ing suffix) and perfect aspect (via the past participle). On the third
person, verb inflection also marks the combination of singular number and present tense (John likes Mary).
Auxiliary verbs play an important role in English grammar. Be + full verb is used to indicate passive voice
(The authorities were notified by Sue) and progressive aspect (Sue is notifying the authorities),
while have + full verb is used to indicate perfect aspect (We have lived in this house for over ten years).
Another type of auxiliary are the modal verbs can, could, may, might, shall, should, will,
would and must which express the speaker’s intent and different degrees of certainty about the future.
They are classified as auxiliaries because they can never act as the main verb of a sentence.
Nouns
Often defined as a word that describes ‘a person, place or thing’, nouns are the quintessential content
word class. English nouns as a lexical category can be subdivided into proper nouns and common
nouns, the former pointing to specific and distinct people, places or institutions (George W.
Bush,Copenhagen, Greenpeace, The Queen of England) while the latter describes generic entities
(car, boy, word, boredom). Those common nouns that can be grammatically marked for plural via an
allomorph of the plural morpheme (such as -s, -en, -Ø) are called count nouns, whereas nouns which
cannot be marked in this fashion are known as mass nouns. Mass nouns lack the ability to take a numeral
article (compare five cars with *five informations) and are usually quantified with much and less instead
of many and fewer. They should not be confused with count nouns that are plural-marked with a zero (Ø)
such asfive sheep, where sheep is clearly a countable entity.
Pronouns
The name ‘pronoun’ suggests any word that can take the place of noun in a sentence, but the differences
between pronoun subtypes are so pronounced that they are sometimes classified as separate word
classes. Types of pronouns include:





personal pronouns
demonstrative pronouns
interrogative pronouns
relative pronouns
indefinite pronouns
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Personal
pronouns
such as I, you, he, she, it and they are
marked
for
thegrammatical
category of person (see below), in other words they identify who is speaking (first person), who is being
addressed (second person) and who is being spoken about (third person). They are also marked for
gender (he – she,him – her), number (I – we, he/she – they) and case (I – me, he/she – him/her,John’s).
Demonstrative pronouns refer to things which are close by (this, these) or far away (that, those), in
relative proximal distance to the speaker. This distance must not necessarily be literal, but can also mark
the speaker’s perception or attitude.
Interrogative pronouns are used to ask questions such as who, what, why,when and where (and how,
which is also considered a ‘wh-word’ in this context).
Relative pronouns such as who, that and which signal relative clauses (see summary for Session
9). Who and which lead dual existences as both interrogative pronouns and relative pronouns:
Who saw him? (interrogative pronoun)
Those who saw him waved (relative pronoun)
Indefinite pronouns stand for unclear or semantically ‘empty’ referents. Examples for indefinite pronouns
are anyone, everyone, no one, anybody, nobody, somebody, something and nothing.
Note
that
pronouns
stand
by
themselves
and
do
not
modify
nouns.
In
the
utterance Whose is this? whose and this are both pronouns, but in Whose t-shirt is this black one? they are
determiners.
Adjectives
Adjectives describe nouns and can occur either attributively or predicatively, depending on whether they
come before or after the noun they modify (the tallgirl vs. the girl was tall). They may be gradable (big –
bigger – biggest) or non-gradable (beautiful – *beautifuller – *beautifullest) and can usually themselves
be modified with very or too. Finally, only adjectives can be used in constructions such as It seems
___ or He/she seems ___ .
Adverbs
Adverbs are a very heterogeneous word class and while many of its members can be identified via the
suffix -ly (as is loudly, quickly etc) this isn’t always a reliable indicator of adverb-hood. Adverbs can modify
verbs, adjectives and other adverbs and frequently indicate when, where, or to what degree something
happens.
He quickly opened the door (adverb modifying verb)
John read the unbelievably exciting novel (adverb modifying adjective)
Very soon, we will be out of marshmallows (adverb modifying adverb)
Prepositions
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Prepositions typically provide semantic information about the spatial or temporal relation of something to
something else. In English, they normally precede the noun they modify, while in other words they follow it
(postpositions), which is why the more general name for this word class is adposition. Prepositions are
invariant in form (compare with adjectives) and constitute a relatively small category.
Conjunctions
Conjunctions are used to tie together clauses, either by coordination (John went to the movies and Mary
came along) or subordination (Mary came alongbecause she wanted to see the movie). Coordinating
conjunctions tie
together
elements
that
are
categorically
similar
(bread and butter, left or right,tired but happy) while subordinating conjunctions express conditions
(If you do well on the test, let me know how you prepared for it), cause and effect (We didn’t see the
show since we didn’t go to Boston) or temporal contrast (He took off his shoes before he entered the
apartment).
Determiners
Determiners precede nouns and in English they provide restrictive information about possession and
definiteness. Like pronouns, they can be divided into subclasses:




definite and indefinite articles (the, a, an)
demonstratives (this, that, these, those)
possessives (my, our, your, her, his, its their)
interrogatives (which, what, whose)
Interjections
Interjections are expressions such as hey, wow, ouch, umm, yeah and hmmwhich are a vital part of everyday spoken language, but have no strictly semantic content. They are often excluded from grammatical
classification because they primarily serve an emotive function and are in no immediate relation to the
surrounding elements. One reason why they are often overlooked is their fairly low frequency in traditional
written language, though they are popular in instant messaging and SMS.
Grammatical categories
The term grammatical category broadly refers to a set of syntactic features that is conceptually similar and
applies systematically to a linguistic expression. More concretely, grammatical categories that are salient in
English are








tense
aspect
person
number
gender
case
voice
mood/modality
Tense
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Tense allows speakers to express information about temporal relations, typically by marking the verb. In
strictly morphosyntactic terms, English has only two tenses: present and past tense. Futurity is expressed
in English analytically viawill or going to auxiliaries. Note that what is generally considered the English
tense system in school books is more precisely the combination of present, past and future tense with
simple, progressive, perfect and perfect-progressive aspect.
Tense Simple Aspect Progressive Aspect Perfect Aspect Perfect Progressive Aspect
Present take/s
took
Past
am/is/are taking
have/has taken have/has been taking
was/were taking
had taken
Future will/shall take will be taking
had been taking
will have taken will have been taking
Aspect
In English, the category of aspect allows speakers to mark actions expressed by verbs as completed,
ongoing, recurrent or habitual. Note that aspect concerns the action expressed by the verb as a process
and not its temporal location in the past, present or future. While many school grammars treat the present
perfect as a sort of past tense, an utterance such as I have eaten strictly only implies that this action has
occurred and that it was completed, not when it took place. Temporal relations are expressed by tense,
leaving aspect to add information about the status of something as ongoing or completed.
Person
The participant role of an individual in discourse is signaled via grammatical person, in English specifically
via the personal pronouns of the first, second and third person (see also pronouns – personal pronouns).
English lacks certain marked distinctions in the pronominal system made by many other languages, for
example the distinction between a formal and a more familiar second person (vous – tu, Sie – Du) and
between singular and plural on the second person.
Singular
Plural
Subjecti Objectiv Possessiv Reflexiv Subjecti Objectiv Possessiv
Reflexive
ve
e
e
e
ve
e
e
First
Second
I
me
mine
myself
you
you
yours
yourself you
him
his
himself
her
hers
herself
it
its
itself
Masculin
he
e
Thir
Feminin
she
d
e
Neuter
it
we
they
us
ours
ourselves
you
yours
yourselve
s
them
theirs
themselv
es
Note that the paradigm reproduced above represents standard Modern English – the pronominal system
shows considerable dialectal variation.
Number
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The grammatical category of number describes count information (one, more than one, in some languages
additional cases) that is encoded via inflection. In English, nouns, pronouns and verbs can indicate
number. Due to its mixed vocabulary, English nouns of Latin and Greek origin form irregular plurals
(alumnus – alumni), while some nouns are marked with a zero (deer – deer,sheep – sheep) or via umlaut
(foot – feet, woman – women).
Gender
Grammatical gender is a form of noun classification that is common in many Indoeuropean languages.
Some languages encode two genders (French), others three (German, Latin), but in other language
families even wider systems of classification exist (for example, see the four-way distinction made
in Dyirbal, spoken in Australia). Gender marking, which was relatively similar to German during the Old
English period, has been lost to a large extent in Modern English. Exceptions are: personal pronouns (he –
she – it), possessive determiners (her car, his shirt), relative pronouns (who/whom – which) and gendered
nouns (prince – princess, heir – heiress, actor – actress). In those relatively few cases where English
retains gender marking, grammatical and biological gender coincide relatively closely, whereas in
languages with full grammatical gender the choice is often more idiosyncratic (e.g. German: der Junge –
das Mädchen).
Voice
Voice is a category that describes the relationship of verb arguments to one another. English distinguishes
between active and passive voice and uses a periphrastic construction (be + past participle) to realize the
passive. In a passive construction, the direct object becomes the subject of the verb while the former
subject is either omitted or moved into an adverbial:
John likes pie (active voice)
Pie is liked by John (passive voice)
Mood/Modality
Grammatical mood describes certainty, world-knowledge and the intent of speakers regarding what they
express. In English, mood and modality, which is the expression of inference (epistemic modality) or
conviction that something should be done (deontic modality), are largely identical, but other languages
encode other semantic information through this category.
Sally is a teacher (indicative)
Sally must be a teacher (potential)
Semantically, the example illustrates the inference encoded in the second sentence: the speaker is
assuming that Sally is a teacher. As with other categories, the stricter definition of mood assumes
morphosyntactic encoding, as it exists in the German subjunctive:
Er ist müde (indicative)
Es sagt, dass er müde sei (subjunctive)
However, there is a strong tendency in German to avoid this kind of usage and it is rare in spoken
language:
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Er sagt, dass er müde ist (‘implied’ subjunctive)
Key terms




descriptive vs. prescriptive grammar
content words – function words, open set – closed set
word classes
o verbs
 transitive – intrasitive
 dynamic – stative
 full – auxiliary
o nouns
 proper – common
 count – mass
o pronouns
 personal
 demonstrative
 interrogative
 relative
 indefinite
o adjectives
 attributive – predicative
 gradable – non-gradable
o adverbs
o prepositions
o conjunctions
 coordinating – subordinating
o determiners
 definite and indefinite articles
 demonstratives
 possessives
 interrogatives
o interjections
grammatical categories
o tense
o aspect
o person
o number
o gender
o case
o voice
o mood/modality
Written by Cornelius in: Summaries,Syntax |
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