英语语言学概论
授课时间
授课方式
（请打√）
第 六、七 周 周 二
课程教案
第 1-3/6-8 节
理论课 √ 讨论课 √ 实验课□ 习题课□ 其他 √
课次
6-7
课时
安排
6
授课题目（教学章、节或主题）： IV Grammar: Clause
教学目的、要求（分掌握、熟悉、了解三个层次）：
学生应掌握语法与句子的关系；熟悉词群、词序在句法中的重要作用，了解小句概
念及类型，掌握语法范畴，了解各个小句组成成分的在整个句子意义中的语义角色
（作用），掌握句子分类。
教学重点及难点：
重点：词群、词序；小句概念及类型；小句组成成分的的语义角色（作用）
难点：组合关系与聚合关系， 语义角色（作用）
教 学 基 本 内 容
IV Grammar: Clause
What is syntax?
Syntactic Relations
Grammatical Construction & its Constituents
Syntactic Function
Category
Phrase, Clause and Sentence
Semantic Roles of Clause Elements
方法及手段
介绍说明
课堂讨论
课件展示
举例讲解
作业、讨论题、思考题： 参见习题 4
课后小结：基本讲解清楚了语法与句子的关系；词群、词序在句法中的重要作用；小句概念及
类型；语义角色（作用）和句子分类等主要授课内容，完成了既定的教学任务，对于难点和重
点部分讲解基本到位，学生课堂表现基本比较活跃。
英语语言学概论
授课时间
第六、七周 周 二
课程讲稿
第 1-3/6-8 节
课次
6-7
教 学 主 要 内 容
CHAPTER IV Grammar: Clause
I. What is syntax?
Express the same meaning of the following sentences in another way:
England’s Queen is Elizabeth II.
The Queen of England is Elizabeth II.
He loves books.
He is a lover of books.
The planes which fly are red.
The flying planes are red.
He is hungrier than she.
He is more hungry than she.
Knowledge of a Language includes the ability to construct phrases and sentences out
of morphemes and words. The part of the grammar that represents a speaker’s
Knowledge of these structures and their formation is called Syntax.
Syntax is a subfield of linguistics that studies the sentence structure of language.
The term syntax came originally from Greek which literally meant arrangement. What
that means is that sentences are structured according to a particular arrangement of
words. Well-arranged sentences are considered grammatical sentences. Grammatical
sentences are formed following a set of syntactic rules.
So syntax refers to the study of the rules governing the way words are combined
to from sentences in a language, or simply, the study of the formation of sentences.
II．Syntactic Relation
I). Syntaqamatic and paradigmatic relations：
1. Positional Relations
e.g. the, girl, the, chocolate, ate,
The girl ate the chocolate.
The chocolate ate the girl.
*The girl chocolate ate the.
*…
Positional relation, or WORD ORDER, refers to the sequential arrangement of words
in a language.
If the words in a sentence fail to occur in a fixed order required by the convention of
a language, one tends to produce an utterance either ungrammatical or nonsensical at all.
Part of what we mean by sentence structure is word order. The meaning of a sentence
depends to great extent on the order in which words occur in a sentence. For example:
1
I sing because I am happy. I am happy because I sing.
Brazil defeated Germany.
Germany defeated Brazil.
However, sometimes a change of word order has no effect on meaning:
The Chief Justice swore in the new President.
The Chief Justice swore the new president in.
Positional relations are a manifestation of one aspect of SYNTAGMATIC
RELATIONS observed by F. de Saussure. They are also called HORIZONTAL
RELATIONS, SEQUENTIAL RELATIONS or simply CHAIN RELATIONS.
Word order is among the three basic ways (word order, genetic and areal
classifications) to classify languages in the world: SVO, VSO, SOV, OVS, OSV, and
VOS.
English belongs to SVO type, though this does not mean that SVO is the only possible
word order.
2. Relation of Substitutability
The RELATION OF SUBSTITUTABILITY refers to classes or sets of words (or
groups of words) substitutable for each other grammatically in sentences with the
same structure.
The ______________ smiles.
man
boy
girl
fair lady
serious teacher
hard-working worker
…
This is what Saussure called ASSOCIATIVE relations, or in Hjemslev's term,
PARADIGMATIC relations.
To make it more understandable, they are called VERTICAL relations or CHOICE
relations.
II）． Relation of Co-occurrence
It means that words of different sets of clauses may permit, or require, the
occurrence of a word of another set or class to form a sentence or a particular part of
a sentence.
e.g.
A
B
C
The girl
chased
the cat.
They
played
basketball.
Poor John
sold
his house.
The man who…
.
.
.
Relations of co-occurrence partly belong to syntagmatic relations, partly to
2
paradigmatic relations.
III．Grammatical Construction and its Constituents
1 Grammatical Construction
A. external properties
a. Clausal type
Subject + Predicate + Object + Adverbial
The boy found the ball in the house.
b. Phrasal type
Preposition + Noun (phrase)
In
the house
B. internal properties
The boy found the ball in the house.
subject verb
object
adverbial
In
the
house
Preposition
Determiner
Noun
2. Immediate constituent analysis
A (Sentence)
B
C
The boy
ate the apple
The hierarchical arrangement of morphemes within a word can be analyzed by IC
analysis.
The boy kicked the ball.
The boy
The
kicked the ball.
boy
kicked
the ball
the ball
The forms at the word-level are ultimate constituents.
The forms at the word-level and the phrase-level are the constituents of a sentence.
The constituents connected by the two lines that are branching from the same point
are called the immediate constituents (ICs)of the form above that point.
When a tree diagram is used to represent the constituent structure of a grammatical
unit (e.g. a phrase or sentence), syntactic categories are used to label the nodes; the
most common of these are listed in the following:
Word-level
Phrasal
N= noun
NP=noun phrase
3
A=adjective
V=verb
P=preposition
Det=determiner
Adv=adverb
Conj=conjunction
AP=adjective phrase
VP=verb phrase
PP=preposition phrase
S=sentence or clause
S
Tree diagram
NP
Hierarchical
relations:
Sentences
Phrases
Words
(Morphemes)
Det
VP
N
V
NP
Det
N
The
boy
ate
the apple
The
boy
ate
the apple
Bracketing
In contrast to tree diagram, BRACKETING is not so common, but it is an economic
notation in representing the constituent structure of a grammatical unit.
(((The) (boy)) ((ate) ((the) (apple))))
[[[The] [boy]] [[ate] [[the] [apple]]]]
We can use IC to analyze structural ambiguity
e.g. The tall men and women left.
a) The tall men and the tall women left.
b) The tall men and the women (who were not tall) left.
Displaying by use of tree diagrams:
a) The tall men and the tall women left.
S
NP
NP
The tall
VP
NP
men
and
the tall women
left.
b) The tall men and the women (who were not tall) left.
4
S
NP
VP
NP
The tall men
NP
and
the women
left.
3. Endocentric and exocentric constructions
1) Endocentric constructions
Centre or Head
noun phrases
verb phrases
adjective phrases
2) Exocentric constructions
basic sentence
prepositional phrase
verb-object phrase
be-complement phrase
4. Coordination and Subordination
Endocentric constructions fall into two main types, depending on the relation between
constituents:
1) Coordination
and but
or
2) Subordination
words (phrases) modifying the Head
nominal clauses
adjunct (or adverbial) clauses
relative clauses
IV. Syntactic Function
I). The SYNTACTIC FUNCTION shows the relationship between a linguistic form and
other parts of the linguistic pattern in which it is used.
1. Subject
one of the nouns in the nominative case
1) Grammatical Subject
2) Logical Subject
3) Characteristics of subject
A. Word order
B. Pro-forms
5
C. Agreement with verb
D. Content questions
E. Tag questions
2. Predicate
3. Object
4. Modifier
II). The Relation between Classes and Functions
V. Category
The term CATEGORY refers to the defining properties of these general units:
the categories of the noun, for example, include number, gender, case and
countability;
and of the verb, for example, tense, aspect, voice, etc.
1. Number
NUMBER is a grammatical category used for the analysis of word classes
displaying such contrasts as singular, dual, plural, etc.
In English, number is mainly observed in nouns, and there are only two forms:
singular and plural, such as dog: dogs.
Number is also reflected in the inflections of pronouns and verbs, such as He
laughs: They laugh, this man: these men.
In some of other languages, for example, French, the manifestation of number can
also be found in adjectives and articles.
le cheval royal (the royal horse)
les chevaux royaux (the royal horses)
What about Chinese?
“们”
人们， 孩子们，朋友们，兄弟姐妹们
2. Gender
GENDER displays such contrasts as “masculine: feminine: neuter”, “animate:
inanimate”, etc. for the analysis of word classes.
When word items refer to the sex of real-world entities, we are talking about natural
gender. The opposite is grammatical gender.
Though there is a correlation between natural gender and grammatical gender, the
assignment may seem quite arbitrary in many cases, for instance, in Latin, ignis
‘fire’ is masculine, while flamma ‘flame’ is feminine.
English gender contrast can only be observed in pronouns and a small number of
nouns, and, they are mainly of the natural gender type.
he: she: it
prince: princess
author: authoress
In French, gender is manifested also both in adjectives and articles.
6
beau cadeau (fine gift)
belle maison (fine house)
Le cadeau est beau. (The gift is good.)
La maison est belle. (The house is beautiful.)
What about Chinese?
他们，她们，它们；其他，其它， *其她， 伊人，…
3. Case
The case category is used in the analysis of word classes to identify the syntactic
relationship between words in a sentence.
In Latin grammar, cases are based on variations in the morphological forms of the
word, and are given the terms “accusative”, “nominative”, “dative”, etc.
There are five cases in ancient Greek and eight in Sanskrit. Finnish has as many as
fifteen formally distinct cases in nouns, each with its own syntactic function.
4. Tense and aspect
Tense and aspect are two important categories of the verb.
The difference between tense and aspect is that the former is DEICTIC, i.e.
indicating time relative to the time of utterance; while the latter is not deictic, the
time indicated is not relative to the time of utterance, but relative to the time of
another event described, or implied, in the narrative.
Only two tense recognized now: past and present.
What about the future?
5. Agreement (or Concord)
AGREEMENT (or CONCORD) may be defined as the requirement that the forms of
two or more words of specific word classes that stand in specific syntactic
relationship with one another shall also, be characterized by the same
paradigmatically marked category (or categories).
This syntactic relationship may be anaphoric, as when a pronoun agrees with its
antecedent,
Whose is this pen? --Oh, it’s the one I lost.
or it may involve a relation between a head and its dependent, as when a verb agrees
with its subject and object:
Each person may have one coin.
Agreement of number between nouns and verbs:
This man runs.
The bird flies.
These men run.
These birds fly.
VI. Phrase, Clause and Sentence
1. Phrase
PHRASE is a single element of structure containing more than one word, and
lacking the subject-predicate structure typical of clauses.
Traditionally, it is seen as part of a structural hierarchy, positioned between clause
7
and word.
Therefore, first, a phrase must be a group of words which form a constituent.
Second, a phrase is lower on the grammatical hierarchy than clauses.
More precisely, simple clauses may (and usually do) contain phrases, but simple
phrases do not (in general) contain clauses.
the three tallest girls (nominal phrase)
has been doing (verbal phrase)
extremely difficult (adjectival phrase)
to the door (prepositional phrase)
very fast (adverbial phrase)
However, there is a tendency to make a distinction between WORD GROUP and
PHRASE.
2. Clause
A constituent with its own subject and predicate, if it is included in a larger sentence,
is a CLAUSE.
Clause can also be classified into FINITE and NON-FINITE clauses, the latter
including the traditional infinitive phrase, participial phrase, and gerundial phrase.
For example
3. Sentence
Traditionally, SENTENCE is the minimum part of language that expresses a
complete thought.
Bloomfield (1935) defined the sentence as one “not included by virtue of any
grammatical construction in any larger linguistic form”.
Sentences may be classified along the intersecting dimensions of structure and
function.
Types of sentences
Two ways of classifying sentence
A. Structural approach
A.1 The simple sentence
A simple sentence consists of a single clause which contains a subject and a
predicate and stands alone as its own sentence.
A clause that takes a subject and a finite verb, and at the same time stands
structurally alone is known as a finite clause
A.2 The coordinate sentence
A coordinate sentence contains two clauses joined by a linking word called
coordinating conjunction, such “and ,” “but,” “or.”
A.3 The complex sentence
A complex sentence contains two, or more, clauses, one which is incorporated into
the other. That is, the two clauses in a complex sentence hold unequal status, one
subordination the other. The incorporated, or subordinate, clause is normally called an
8
embedded clause, and the clause into which it is embedded is called a matrix clause.
B. Functional approach
B.1 The declarative sentence
B.2 The interrogative sentence
B.3 The imperative sentence
B.4 The exclamatory sentence
Other approaches
VII. Semantic Roles of Clause Elements
Identifying the subject
The duke gave my aunt this teapot.
Change it into passive voice.
This teapot was given to my aunt by the duke.
My aunt was given this teapot by the duke.
This teapot my aunt was given by the duke.
Every clause describes a situation in which a number of participants are involved.
Mary bought a computer
Mary and computer are two semantic roles or participant roles in this clause.
Mary
bought
a computer.
AGENT
PATIENT
AGENT: the entity instigating or causing a happening
PATIENT : the participant directly affected by an action
The duke gave my aunt
this teapot.
AGENT
RECIPIENT
AFFECTED
RECIPIENT: the entity that is implicated by the happening
Two aspects of analyzing a clause:
1. Grammatical Sentence Pattern (GSP)
Mary
bought
a computer.
Subject
Verb
Object
2. Semantic Sentence Pattern (SSP)
Mary
bought
a computer
Agent
Action
Patient
Which semantic roles can the Subject take on?
AGENT:
Mary bought a computer.
External CAUSER:
The earthquake destroyed several houses.
INSTRUMENT:
A stone broke the window.
AFFECTED:
Jack fell down.
9
EXPERIENCER:
Mary always liked eggplant.
LOCATIVE:
Los Angeles is foggy. This tent sleeps four.
TEMPORAL:
Yesterday was a holiday.
LOCATIVE and TEMPORAL: typically no
progressive, no passive
EVENTIVE:
The dispute over the inheritance lasted a decade.
What about clauses such as
It‘s ten o‘clock.
It‘s raining.
It‘s a long way to Chicago.
It-Subject has no semantic content
Such an it-subject also called empty Subject or dummy Subject.
10