

Definition
of
Syntax
(1)
“syntaxis” (Greek) = “arrangement”
The rules of sentence formation; the study of
the structure of sentences.
Language Structure
Phonology
Grammar
morphology
Semantics
syntax
(the specific sense; more traditional)
Definition of Syntax (2)
Popularized by Chomsky (the general sense)
Grammar
Phonology (Morphology) Syntax Semantics
II. Hierarchical Structure (1)
Concepts of hierarchy
e.g.1: John is easy to please
John is eager to please
Q: Do the two sentences have the same
sentence structure (the same syntax)?
Paraphrase:
It’s easy for somebody to please John.
John is eager to please somebody.
A.
Maslow’s hierarchical nature of
the needs
II. Hierarchical Structure (2)
Analogy:
A. University school board, principle, vice presidents,
dean of academic affairs, dean of student affairs,
dean of general affairs, dean of research and
development, dean of each college, dept. chairs….
B. Country president, vice- president, legistrative
yuan (立法院), executive yuan (行政院), control
yuan (監察院), judicial yuan (司法院).

University
School board
President, Vice presidents
教務長 學務長 總務長 研發長
外語 理工 文 法 民生 醫 管理 藝 社科
院長
院長
:
:
系主任
院長 院長 院長 院長 院長 院長 院長
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
系主任 系主任 系主任 系主任 系主任 系主任 系主任 系主任
country
president
legistrative yuan
(立法院)
:
:
vice- president
executive yuan control yuan
judicial yuan
(行政院)
(監察院)
(司法
院)
:
:
Hierarchy
 Hilary
couldn’t open the windows.
VP
NP
sentence phrases words morphemes
Constituent: part that makes up something; a
linguistic unit which is part of a larger construction.
 e.g. Can you identify the construction and
constituents in the sentence, “the boy jumped” ?

II. Hierarchical Structure (3)
Modal of syntactic investigation: Five-rank
hierarchy (Crystal 95)
Sentences
Sentences
are analyzed into
are used to build
Clauses
Clauses
are analyzed into
are used to build
Phrases
Phrases
are analyzed into
are used to build
Words
Words
are analyzed into
are used to build
Morphemes
Morphemes
Upward Expansion
 Phrases
 e.g.
cars  the cars  the big cars  all
the big cars  all the big cars in the garage
(premodification)
 Upward
(head)
(postmodification)
expansion:
Tom couldn’t find his notes, and Davie couldn’t find
his textbook, and (repeat the structure) . . . but he still
lectured for three hours.
Hierarchy
 Another
way to look at “hierarchies”:
construction and constituents
 The
young must respect the old people.
(A) the young
(C) the
(B) must respect the old people
(D) young
(G) must
(E) must respect
(H) respect
(F) the old people
(I) the
(J) old people
(K) old
(L) people
Clauses
Clause Types:

S+V
(The dog + is running)
S+V+O
(The dog + bites + him)
S+V+C
(The car + is + ready)
S+V+A
(The picture + lays +on the ground)
S+V+O+O (I + give + him + a pen)
S+V+O+C (He + calls + John a fool)
S+V+O+A (Mary + saw + John +yesterday)

Note: subject (S), verb (V), complement (C), object (O), adverbial (A).






Formats of the Hierarchy
 Tree
Diagram different levels in analysis
 Phrase Structure (in tree diagrams)
 Recursiveness (Recursion)
 Deep and Surface Structure
Transformational Generative Grammar:
e.g.1. Imperative Transformation
e.g.2. Reflexive Transformation and
Imperative Transformation
e.g.3. Passive Transformation
e.g.4. Particle Movement
1.Tree Diagrams (1)
“The girl chased the dog.” (Crystal 96)
a.
b.
c.
The girl chased the dog
Identify the 2 major constituents (The girl + chased
the dog)
Divide the next-biggest constituent into 2: chased
+ the dog
Continue dividing constituents into 2 units until we
can go no further.
e.g. the + girl, the + dog, chase + -ed
1.Tree Diagrams (2)


Tree Diagrams: Different levels in analysis
The tree diagram format may be viewed as:
a. A static representation of the structure of the
sentence at the bottom of the diagram.
b. A dynamic format, representing a way of
“generating” a very large number of sentences
with similar structures (by the use of phrase
structure rules).
2. Phrase Structure
S
NP
ART
(DET)
the
VP
N
girl
V
chased
NP
ART
N
the
dog
Phrase Structure Rules
 Phrase
structure rules (Nash 75-77): present
the information of the tree diagram in an
alternative format
S
NP + VP
VP V + (NP) + (PP) + (ADV)
(ART) + (ADJ)* N
NP
PRO
PP
P + NP

Note: see Yule 105 for symbols and abbreviation definition.
3. Recursiveness (Recursion)
Recursive rule: VP VS (Yule 107)
e.g.: John said [ Cathy thought (Mary helped George)].
 Another e.g. of recursiveness
The Rose in My Garden
This is the rose in my garden.

This is the bee that sleeps on the rose in my garden.
These are the holly hocks high above ground, that
give shade to the bee that sleeps on the rose in my
garden.
4. Deep and Surface Structure
 Deep and surface structure: “the form of a sentence
we produce and understand is very often not the same as the
basic form which shows its meaning” (Nash 79)
A. Deep Structure: the abstract, underlying level, but basic
form of the sentence
B. Surface Structure: the superficial, syntactic form that
we produce in reality
e.g. old men and women
e.g. Annie whacked a man with an umbrella. (Yule 103)
same surface structure form, two underlying interpretations
(deep structures)
Other examples:
1. Look! 2. *Help herself. 3. The runner broke the world record.
Syntactic processing: linking segments
Syntactically ambiguous constructions

old men and
women
Flying planes
can be
dangerous
Garden path sentences
What problems do you have when you read this?
• The girl told the boy the dog bit Mary was coming.

The horse raced past the barn fell.
When we read such sentences
and find our initial syntactic
interpretation wrong, we can
only get back to the beginning
for another possibility.
“To be led down the garden path”
means to be confused
(purposely).
Transformational-generative
grammar
 Transformations: processes that change the deep
structure into surface structure.
 Generative: using phrase structure rules, we can
produce (generate) infinite sentences.
 Surface
Structure:
S
NP
VP
V
eat
NP
ART
N
the chou tofu

Deep Structure:
S
NP
pro
V
imperative
VP
NP
ART
you
eat
transformation
the
N
chou tofu
 Surface
structure: Help yourself!
 Deep Structure:
S
S
NP
VP reflexive NP
VP
pro
V
NP
transformation
pro
V
NP
pro
(reflexive pro)
you
help
you
you
help yourself
S
NP
Pro
VP
V
imperative
NP
transformation
(reflexive pro)
You help
yourself
Help yourself
 Transformation:
important criteria
A. Some transformations are required;
some are optional.
B. Transformation is in a certain order.
e.g. “Help yourself!”
reflexive transformation is required.
imperative transformation is optional.
 Passive
transformation
NP1 V NP2 and changes it into
NP2 BE V-EN BY NP1
e.g. The runner broke the world record.
The world record was broken by the runner.
Transformational Process
In this process: won’t change the relationship
and the meaning of the sentence
1. Combination e.g.: You have
You’ve
2. Substitution e.g.: You
Yourself
3. Deletion
e.g.: You
X
4. Movement e.g.: Put…on
Put on…
5. Additione.g.: relative clause

Important Contribution of TGG
 Not
everything we know about a sentence is
revealed in the actual form we produce—the
surface structure. We must look for deeper
structural information.
 The deep—surface structure idea=a very
important contribution.
Relative clause (1)
S
NP
VP
NA
(+N)
(+definite)
(-human)
lecture
S
NP
N
V
VP
V NPx
(+N) gave N
(-common)
Nash
confused
(+N)
(+definite)
(-human)
lecture
NP
ART
N
the students
Relative clause (2)

1st TRNAS: relative clause transformation
S
NP
VP
NP
S
+ART
(+DEF)
(-Human)
N1
lecture
(+N)
(+DEF)
(-Human)
NP
(+ART)
(+DEF)
(-Human)
(+WH)
(+PRO)
N
NP
lecture
(+N)
N
(+DEF)
(-Human) Nash
(+WH)
(+PRO)
VP
V
gave
Problems of TGG
1. Theory is unwieldy. (too cumbersome,
too clumsy—too many transformations)
2. Not universal (It’s language specific, not
conform to all languages).
3. Psychological unreal (Semantics
should be applied first, then comes the
syntax)
Ambiguity
 Children
are nice to understand.
1. It’s nice for someone to understand children.
 2. It’s nice for children to understand something.
 S-structure:


Children are nice [ Ø to understand Ø ]

D-structure:

Children are nice [ Ø to understand Ø ]
D-Structure and S Definition: Structure
D-structure—in which the basic order of
phrases is represented.
S-structure—in which the actual linear
order of
phrases is
observed; deep
structure
positions of phrases are
represented by empty categories.
 What will Frances drink [Ø] ?
 Drano,
he drank [Ø] !
D-structure
i=identical index
S
S
NP
N
he
VP
V
drank
NP
N
Drano
NPi
N
Drano
S-structure
S
S
NP VP
N
V
NP
he drank ti
T=trace “an inaudible copy of the
moved NP is left in the D-structure
position of the moved phrase”

D-structure
S
S
NP
I

S-structure
S
NPj
VP
S
Willi
S
NP
I
N
N
V
VP
N
Frances will drink what
VP
V NP
What Frances ti drink tj
Language Ambiguity
1. Sentence Ambiguity:
e.g.: Visiting relatives can be a nuisance.
2. Word Ambiguity:
e.g.: The man put his straw on the floor.
Grammatical Hierarchy
Grammar is the structural system of a language . The
grammar of the English language is organized into
five ranks:the sentence, the clause, the phrase, the
word and the morpheme. Each rank is composed
of one or more than one grammatical unit of the
immediate lower rank,thus the sentence is a
grammatical unit that consists of one or more than
one clause…the sentence is the highest of
grammatical unit while the morpheme is the
minimum or the lowest rank .（Zhang, 2004：1）
Ex. 1C Page 24
Combine each group of sentences into a single
sentence, using coordination, subordination or both.
2. Almost every summer night the cooling
northeast wind swept through our bedroom
windows. /It made air conditioning unnecessary./It
made a light blanket welcome.
 Almost every summer night the cooling northeast
wind swept through our bedroom windows,
making air conditioning unnecessary and a light
blanket welcome.
 Sweeping through our bedroom windows almost
every night, the cooling northeast wind made air
conditioning unnecessary and a light blanket
welcome.

4. This is a good spot for a picnic. /A river
flows on one side. /A large tree provides
shade. / We can spread our blanket on the
grassy knoll.
 ＊ This is a good spot for a picnic that /where
a river flows on one side and a large tree
provides shade and we can spread one
blanket on the grassy knoll.
 With the river on one side and a large tree
providing shade, this is a good spot for a
picnic, and we can spread our blanket on the
grassy knoll.

5. Mr. Wood ran up the stairs. /He was panting
for breath. /He stood at his neighbor’s door. /He
knocked again and again . / Then someone
opened the door.
 ＊ Panting for breath, Mr. Wood ran up the
stairs where he stood at his neighbor’s door
and knocked again and again and then
someone open the door.
 Panting for breath after running up the stairs, Mr.
Wood stood at his neighbor’s door and knocked
again and again till someone opened the door.

7. Jim stood in front of the mirror. He looked at
his image. He wondered at the big change. It had
come over him in recent years.
 ＊ Jim stood in front of the mirror where he
looked at his image and wondered at the big
change which had come over him in recent years.
 ＊ Jim stood in front of the mirror, looking at his
image , wondering at the big change which had
come over him in recent years.
 Standing in front of of the mirror, Jim looked at
his image, wondering at the big change that had
come over him in recent years.

10. John was covered with mud. He was
shivering . He sat hunched over a bowl of hot
broth. The broth had been prepared by his
father to drive off the chill.
 ＊John was covered with mud, he was
shivering and sat hunched over a bowl of hot
broth which had been prepared by his father to
drive off the chill.
 ＊ John who was shivering was covered with
mud and sat hunched over a bowl of hot broth
which had been prepared by his father to drive
off the chill.
 Mud-covered and shivering, John sat hunched
over a bowl of hot broth prepared by his father
to drive off the chill.

11. Far above the waters of a beautiful lake
stand five pavilions. The pavilions are in
Chinese style.They stand over the tops of the
tall pine trees. The pine trees grow on the
steep slopes of a hill.
 ＊ Far above the waters of a beautiful lake
stand five pavilions which are in Chinese style
and stood over the tops of the pine trees
which grow on the steep slopes of a hill.
 Far above the waters of a beautiful lake and
over the tops of the tall pine trees growing on
the steep slopes of a hill stand five Chinese
pavilions.

13. Sarah sank in the nearest chair. She was
completely exhausted. Her limbs were stiff with
cold. Her mind was a piece of blank.
 ＊ Sarah, whose limbs were stiff with cold and
mind was a piece of blank, was completely
exhausted and sank in the nearest chair.
 ＊ Sarah was completely exhausted so she
sank in the nearest chair, her limbs were stiff
with cold and mind was a piece of blank.
 Sarah sank in the nearest chair, completely
exhausted, her limbs stiff with cold, her mind a
piece of blank.

15. Mr. Jacob was Tony’s former employer. He had
promised Tony a half-day employer. The job would
give Tony 20 pounds a week. It was necessary to
break this news to his family, Tony thought.
 ＊ It was necessary to break the news that his
former employer Mr. Jacob had promised him a
half-day job which would gave him 20 pounds a
week to his family, Tony thought .
 ＊ Tony thought it was necessary to break the
news that his former employer, Mr. Jacob had
promised him a half-day job which would give
Tony 20 pounds a week to his family.
 Tony thought it necessary to break the news to his
family , that Mr. Jacob, his former employer, had
promised him a half-day job at 20 pounds a week.

17. The men of the disbanded royal bodyguard
were a potentially dangerous element. The men
were suddenly turned onto the street of a capital.
The capital was seething with unrest. The men
were unemployed. The men were perhaps
disgruntled at their abrupt dismissal.
 ＊ The men of the disbanded royal bodyguard
were suddenly turned loose onto the street of a
capital that was seething with unrest were
potentially dangerous element since they were
unemployed and perhaps disgruntled at their
abrupt dismissal.
 The men of the disbanded royal bodyguard,
suddenly turned loose onto the street of a capital
seething with unrest , unemployed and perhaps
disgruntled at their dismissal, were a potentially

19. He was nearing the top. His eyes were
already glowing with triumph. He was climbing
faster and faster. He climbed recklessly fast. He
suddenly slipped and fell. He tumbled to the
ground. He lay motionless there. He was a
crumpled pile of arms and legs.
 ＊ He suddenly slipped and fell , tumbled to the
ground, lay motionless there , and was a
crumpled pile of arms and legs, because his eyes
were already glowing with triumph as he was
nearing the top and climbed recklessly fast.
 Nearing the top, he climbed recklessly faster and
faster , his eyes already glowing with triumph, but
suddenly he slipped and fell, tumbling to the
ground and lying motionless there, a crumpled
pile of arms and legs.


20. Bertrand Russell was one of the very few persons. The
very few persons have received the Order of Merit. They
have received the Nobel Prize for literature. The British
government conferred the Order of Merit on Bertrand
Russell. It was conferred in 1949. The Nobel Prize was
conferred in M\Norway. It was conferred in 1950.

＊ Bertrand Russell who was conferred the Order of Merit

by the British government in 1949 was one of the very few
persons who have received it, since they have received the
Nobel Prize for literature which was conferred in Norway in
1950.
Bertrand Russell was one of the very few persons who have
received both the Order of merit , which was conferred on
him by the British government in 1949, and the Nobel Prize
for literature, conferred in Norway in 1950.
Word / Compound word
 Conceptions
 Classifications
 Parts
of speech
Attention to the underlined parts
I
placed the cup on the table.
 Jane sent a letter to her mother .
 He doesn’t have much patience.
 The store close early on Saturday.
 He saw a flying saucer last night.
 David could use some excitement.
 He likes me.
I
already salted the vegetables.
 There are millions of sleep in New Zealand
 I was given advice on how to apply.
 He is married to Henry.
 He’s a very handsome man.
 She is too soft with the students. This is a
very soft pencil.
a pretty girl, pretty soon,
Polysemy
 Pretty is polysemous, and therefore we need to
know that this same word can have different
meanings in different contexts. While pretty is
often used in the semantic field of beauty, it can
also be used as an intensifier with words like soon,
quickly, or good. It is not as strong as very but
belongs to the same semantic field .

A theory, to theorize , to be
theoretical
 Mary
is very _______ about everything. She
has just developed a new_______. She
_______ that the less one works, the more
one will succeed at a certain tasks.
The Definition of Word
The word is the minimum free form (Bloomfield
1933:37).
A word can possess a certain degree of
autonomy:
it can be preceded and followed by a pause;
it can bear stress;
it is fairly unselective with regard to adjacent
elements;
it can move independently of its host;
under appropriate conditions words can be
moved around in a sentence.
Morphemes
The morpheme is the minimum or smallest
grammatical unit, also the smallest meaningful
element of speech. e.g. care, -ful, re-, -ness
 Root the part of the word left when all the affixes
have been removed, care in careful
 Morphemes fall into two categories: free
morphemes and bound morphemes.
 A free morpheme has a complete meaning and
can stand by itself as a simple word such as kind,
friend, book and take . It can sometimes act as a
complete utterance in connected speech.
 Bound morphemes cannot stand by itself: it only
exists as an inflectional or derivational affix.

 affix:
Affixes are meaningful, but the
meaning is not complete in itself unless it
is attached to some other form .It can
change the semantic content and /or the
syntactic function of a word, but cannot
stand alone . e.g. inedible ,counteract,
pseudo-science or
enslave,refusal,happiness and un-, -s, ed, -ful.etc.
Stem/root : the part of the word to which affixes of
any kind can be added, e.g. care, in careless and
carelessness
 derivational morpheme: affix added to a word to
create a new word,e.g. –ness and- less in
carelessness . The verb-forming –ize in
characterize and the negative-forming un- in untidy.
 inflectional morpheme:affix attached to the end of
a word according to its syntactic role in a sentence
to indicate grammatical meaning e.g. dogs,
watches and John’s and reads , working , and
supervised
 relationships, e.g.-s ; -ed; -ing

Inflectional Affixes
Watching ,Walks ,Jumped, Eaten ( for verbs)
 John’s ,books ( for nouns )
 clearer; faster (for the comparatives of adjectives
and adverbs)
 Clearest, fastest
 内部元音的变化mouse-mice, ring-rang-rung
 没有变化one deer-several deer, hit-hit
 替补形式go-went, be-was

bad-worse-worst

good-better-best

Affixes
the ,a word or an affix?
In spite of some affix-like
properties,it is best considered a
word.

Allomorphs and Allophones
one morpheme may have several morphological
or phonological forms. Each is an allomorph or
allophone of the same morpheme
 Allomorph---the same morpheme in different
contexts may take different morphological
forms:inactive, immature, irregular,illegal
 Allophone --- the same morpheme in different
contexts may take different phonological forms:
cats [ts],dogs [z]; fast, breakfast;head, forehead;
day, Monday

English morphemes
Free
Lexical Grammatical
Grammatical
content
function
function
Bound
Lexical
content
Major parts Minor parts Derivational
Inflectional
of speech
of speech morpheme
morpheme
root
ceed, cede, cess: go; move forward
(走)
Family members
exceed v. 超过, 越过
proceed v. 前进, 进行
excess n. 过度, 过分
excessive adj. 过多的,
过分的
excessively adv.
过分地，非常地
procedure n. 步骤, 手续
process n. 过程
procession n. 行进的行
列, 队伍
succeed v. 继承，接续
simplify: vt. make sth. easy to do or
understand; make simple 使易懂；简化
Family members:
simple + -fy
simplify 简化
pure + -fy
purify 净化
solid + -fy
solidify加固
beauty + -fy
beautify 美化
clear + -fy
clarify 使明确
Look at the following nouns and choose from them
to fill in the blanks of the sentences that follow.
excellent - t + ce
brilliant
- t + ce
competent - t + ce
- t + ce
consequent
ignorant - t + ce
indifferent - t + ce
intelligent - t + ce
- t + ce
magnificent
significant - t + ce
excellence
brilliance
competence
consequence
ignorance
indifference
intelligence
magnificence
significance
Exercises—Word Building
1. Examinations are not necessarily the best
intelligence/competence
way to measure ___________________.
2. The power station was shown to be
dangerous and, as a ___________,
consequence was
closed down.
3. This discovery was of greatsignificance
__________, but
few people realized that.
4. In the “I to you” approach, the workers were
in complete _________
ignorance of the management’s
plans.
Exercises—Word Building
5. I don’t like the department chairman’s
___________
indifference to the teachers who are not in
his favor.
excellenceof your
6. I hear on all sides of the _________
establishment.
7. The sun has both _________
brilliance and heat.
8. There is calm and joy, too, when the mind
magnificenceand beauty
can focus on the ____________
of nature.
Look at the following words that come from word
building and choose from them to fill in the blanks.
Remember to change the form where necessary.
co- + director
co- + operate
co- + author
co- + exist
co- + pilot
co-director
cooperate
co-author
coexist
copilot
coexistswith war.
1. We must be aware that peace _______
2. He was the __________
co-director of that film which was
half criticized and half praised.
3. The couple spoke about how they would
cooperate
_________ in the raising of their child.
4. The pilot was seriously injured and the ______
copilot
took over.
co-author with Andrew Blowers, of
5. He is the _________,
The International Politics of Nuclear Waste.
返回
Word Building, build up your vocabulary
gratitude: n. the feeling of being grateful
or thankful 感激，感谢
-itude：表示抽象名词的后缀
altitude 高度
multitude 众多
aptitude 才能
solitude 孤独
fortitude 刚毅
plentitude充分
latitude 纬度
longitude 经度
attitude 态度
decrepitude 衰老
exceedingly: adv. to an unusual degree
非常地，极度地
prefix
ex-: out; beyond (向外，超出)
Family members:
export 出口, 输出
expose 展开, 揭露
exit
出口
exhale 呼气
exclude 排外，排斥
excavate 挖出，发掘
expel 赶出，逐走
extract 抽出，拔出
Sub-classification of words
open-class words: the membership is infinite,e.g.n.,v.
closed-class words: the membership is fixed,e.g. prep
grammatical:
/functional
whose role is largely grammatical,e.g. this,
the , when
lexical words: carries the semantic content, e.g. book,
grammatically different word forms
arise, e.g. look--looks, looked, looking
invariable words: no grammatically different
forms, e.g. since,in, hello
variable:
Category
A, the
boy
often
teach
very
small
must, should
and, but, or
determiner (Det.)
noun
(n.)
qualifier
verb (v.)
degree word (Deg)
modifier
auxiliary (Aux.)
conjunction (Con.)
Charade
There is a word of seven letters, take away five,
a male remains,take away four, a female, take
away three, you will have a brave man, while the
whole is a brave woman.
 Answer :heroine
 My first means equality; My second
inferiority,And my whole superiority
 Answer: Matchless(match, less, matchless)
 A notice : Professor Blackie will meet his
classes tomorrow.
 Professor Blackie will meet his lasses tomorrow.
 Professor Blackie will meet his asses tomorrow.
(decapitation)

Content Words
They,sometimes also called “lexical words”
belong to the major parts of speech: nouns,
verbs, and adjectives, etc. These categories
are said to be “open categories” in the sense
that they each have a large number of
members and languages readily add new
members to these categories through
borrowing from other languages borrowed or
loan words or invention or coining of new
words.
Coining New Words
 Compounds
are the combination of two
independent words, i.e. free morphemes,
like guesthouse (<guest+house), while
affixation a bound morpheme is added to a
base, as a prefix(e.g.un.like) or
suffix(like.ness)
Compound
Features: a word which is composed of two or
more roots
 When the two words are in the same grammatical
category, e.g. n.+n.= n. Landlady
 When the two words are in different categories, the
class of the second or final word will be the
category of the compound,e.g. adj. +n. =n.
gentleman.
 Compounds often have different stress patterns
from non-compounded word sequences,
e.g.`hotdog, hot dog
 the meaning of a compound is not always the sum

Word Coinage Patterns
Conversion (or ‘zero derivation’), change of
word class without addition of a formal suffix,
as from verb to noun .
 Clipping syllables are cut off from a word. As
in pub<public house, bike< bicycle.
 Blends are formed from parts of existing words.
Such as brunch (<breakfast+ lunch)
 Acronyms i.e. full words formed from the initial
letters of other words, such as radar(radio
detecting and ranging AIDS, IBM

Function Words
They are called“grammatical words” or “closed
categories”, resistant to borrowing or inventing
anew. Such categories as determiners (e.g. the ,
a\n, this, that these\those,sometimes also called
“articles” ), pronouns, and prepositions, and
quantifiers (e.g. “some”, “many” ) are function
word categories. Function words show how the
content words in a phrase, or sentence relate to
each other, or how pieces of information fit into
an on-going communication.
Classes/Parts of Speech
 maximum
homogeneity within the
class’(Gleason 1965:130)
 Noun : a word or group of words that refers to
a person, place or a thing or any syntactically
similar word (Collins English Dictionary)
 Teacher ,table ;sky, doorway: red, height,
happiness; have a swim or his arrival>
representatives (prototype) to peripheral
 on pure semantic grounds, we would have to
recognize a gradience of nounhood.
 Three properties as criteria:
Phonological,morphological, distributional
characteristics
Phonological
suspect (n.) vs suspect(v.)
blackboard , black board
Morphological modern/modernize;hair/hairy;
able/enable;study,studied as a verb’s
tense-marker.Nouns’singular or plural forms
such as book vs book ox vs oxen etc.
Distributional
Typically, certain slots in a
syntactic construction are reserved for
words of a particular form.
Verb Classes
In terms of verb construction
Main Verb
Auxiliary( Primary Auxiliary,
Modal
Auxiliary,
Semi-auxiliary)
In terms of complementation
linking verbs
intransitive verbs
mono-transitive verbs
di-transitive verbs
In terms of semantics
Dynamic verbs
Static verbs
Active knowledge of verbs such as Make
God made the country, and man made the town.
 Mother made me a new suit.
 She made herself a new dress.
 I’ll make you some tea.
 I made it a rule(Object complement) to take a nap
after lunch every day.
 He made her happy.
 She made him a good husband because she
made him a good wife.

Verbs followed by an infinitive or
a noun or both?
A travel agency announced not to accept any
more bookings for tourist travel to China.(?)
 A travel agency announced that it would not
accept any more bookings for tourist travel to
China.
 A travel agency announced its decision not
to accept any more bookings for tourist travel
to China.
 It had been decided,a travel agency
announced, not to accept any more bookings
for tourist travel to China.

Verbs’ Unshared Properties
Not all transitive verbs undergo agentive
nominalization
(a) John is one who imports rugs .John is an
importer of rugs.
(b) John was one who knew the fact. ＊John
was the knower of the fact.
 Not all verbs undergo able-substitution:
(a) His handwriting can be read. His handwriting
is readable.
(b) The lighthouse can be spotted.
 ＊ The lighthouse is spottable.

Verbs’ Unshared Properties
Not all transitive sentences of the form NP V
NP undergo passivization.
(a) John kicked the ball.
The ball was kicked by
John.
(b) John owes two dollars.
＊Two dollars are owed by john.
Millions of dollars are currently owed by thirdworld governments

McCawley’s Comparison

Parts of speech are much more like biological
species than has generally been recognized.
Within any part of speech, or any biological
species, there is considerable diversity. Parts of
speech can be distinguished from one another,
just as biological species can be distinguished
from one another, in terms of characteristics that
are typical for the members of that part of speech
(or species), even though none of those
properties need be instantiated by all members of
the parts of speech(or species).
( McCawley1986:12)
Assignment
 Read
Chapter Two and Chapter Three
Subject and Verb agreement and do the
related exercise.