Syntax and Phrasal Structure

Report By:
Barroga, Hazel Anne
Omega, Alpha Fe
Pacete, Rosalyn
Pattalitan, Edmarie Joyce
Vea, John Caes
Vidal, Catherine
Objectives:
• to understand the way sentences are structured,
as well as discover the deep meaning of the intended sentence.
• identify sentence components and describe their functions
• Describe the modes upon which sentences can be analyzed
• Be familiar with devices for abbreviating sentence structures.
 What is Syntax?
-refers to the rules that govern the ways in which words combine to form phrases, clauses,
and sentences.

-The term "syntax" comes from the Greek, meaning "arrange together."

-Syntax is a tool used in writing proper grammatical sentences.

-the term is also used to mean the study of the syntactic properties of a language.
Syntactic Rules
English parts of speech often follow ordering patterns in sentences and clauses, such as:
• compound sentences are joined by conjunctions (and, but, or)
• multiple adjectives modifying the same noun follow a particular order according to their class
(such as number-size-color, as in "six small green chairs").

The rules of how to order words help the language parts make sense.

Sentences often start with a subject, followed by a predicate (or just a verb in the simplest sentences)
and contain an object or a complement or both.

for example: "Beth slowly ran the race in wild, multicolored flip-flops."
 Syntactic Category
It is a set of words /or phrases in a language which share a significant number of common characteristics.
The classification is based on similar structure and sameness of distribution and not on meaning.
In generative grammar, a syntactic category is symbolized by a node label in a constituent structure tree.

Syntactic Categories Include;

1. Parts of Speech - (determiner, adjective, noun, pronoun, adverb, auxiliary, verb, etc.

2. Phrase Structure Grammar- (noun phrase, adjective phrase, verb phrase, preposition phrase and adverb phrase)

3. Sentence as the core of the structure

The syntactic categories are illustrated in a tree diagram called “Phrase Structure Tree”.
 -is something of many parts that is put together.

-A structure can be a skyscraper, an outhouse,

your body, or a sentence.

- Structure is from the Latin word

What meant by structura which means "a fitting together, building."

Structure? Example:
I dance because I am happy.
I am happy because I dance.
 Types of Sentence Structure

1. Simple sentence: Subject-verb structure.

example: "The girl ran."

2. Compound sentence: Subject-verb-object-conjunction-subject-verb structure.

example: "The girl ran the marathon, and her cousin did, too."

3. Complex sentence: Dependent clause-subject-verb-object structure.

example: "Although they were tired after the marathon, the cousins decided to go to a celebration at the park."

4. Compound-complex sentence: Four clauses, dependent and independent structures.

example: "Although they weren't fond of crowds, this was different, they decided,
because of the common goal that had brought everyone together."
 Syntactic Category

It is a set of words /or phrases in a language which share a significant number of common characteristics.
The classification is based on similar structure and sameness of distribution and not on meaning.
In generative grammar, a syntactic category is symbolized by a node label in a constituent structure tree.

Syntactic Categories Include;

1. Parts of Speech - (determiner, adjective, noun, pronoun, adverb, auxiliary, verb, etc.

2. Phrase Structure Grammar- (noun phrase, adjective phrase, verb phrase, preposition phrase and adverb phrase)

3. Sentence as the core of the structure

The syntactic categories are illustrated in a tree diagram called “Phrase Structure Tree”.
 Constituents

 The proper subparts of sentences.

 A constituent can be a morpheme, word, phrase, or clause.
 The study of syntax is the analysis of the constituent parts of a sentence:
– their form (the types of elements, the internal arrangement of elements,
and the relation among elements within the constituent),
– their (external) positioning in respect to other constituents, and
– their function.
How can we determine what is a constituent in a particular sentence?

Constituents can be identified by a number of different “constituency tests”.

Constituency tests are based on the principle that only entire constituents may be manipulated by syntactic operations.
They can be replaced (by pronominal forms), they can be moved, they can be conjoined, or they can stand alone.

For example, the constituent “beautiful flowers”

replaced by pro-forms
I received them for my birthday.
What did you receive for your birthday?

moved It was beautiful flowers that I received for my birthday.

What I received for my birthday was beautiful flowers.
Did you receive beautiful flowers for your birthday?

conjoined I received beautiful flowers and chocolates for my birthday.

interrogated (What did you receive for your birthday?) Beautiful flowers
Two basic relationships possible between the members of a constituent:
1. modifier-head or one-way dependency. Can be omitted, but the other, the head, cannot.
The head is the essential center of the constituent and is obligatory; the modifier depends upon the
head and
cannot occur without it.
The modifier expresses some quality or aspect of the head.
The relation of adjective to noun is one example of modifier-head.

example: blue eyes

the modifier is blue and modifies the head is eyes

2. Governor-complement or mutual dependency. The first “governs” or controls the presence of the
second, and the second “completes” the first. The relation between the subject and the predicate of
sentence is a special case of mutual dependency (as in The weather/is improving). Other relations of
governor to complement hold between:
a. a preposition and its complement (as in on/the shore),
b. an adjective and its complement (as in dear/to me),
c. a verb and its complement (as in be/a fool), and
d. a verb and its object (as in swim/a race).
 Phrase Structure in Grammar
Phrase structure grammar
-is a type of generative grammar in which constituent structures are represented by
phrase structure rules or rewrite rules.
-

Grammar are set of rules that generate the valid sentences in a language.
The form of phrase structure rules
A phrase structure grammar consists of a set of ordered rules known as rewrite rules,
which are applied stepwise. A rewrite rule has a single symbol on the left and one or more
symbols on the right:
A→B+C
C→D

More than one symbol on the right constitutes a string. The arrow is read as ‘is rewritten as’,
‘has as its constituents’, ‘consists of’, or ‘is expanded as’. The plus sign is read as ‘followed
by’,
but it is often omitted. The rule may also be depicted in the form of a tree diagram:
 A

B C B and C are called labeled nodes; a node is a point on the tree diagram.

Two metaphors are used:

1. Family tree metaphor, B and C are daughters of A and they are sisters of each
other; less often, A is referred to as the “mother” or “parent” of B and C. (The view
taken here is entirely matriarchal!) Also, in the tree metaphor, A is seen as a branching
node, as opposed to C, which is a nonbranching node.

2. Domination metaphor, a distinction is made between immediate domination

and domination: a node dominates everything below it (hence, A dominates B, C, and
D); a node immediately dominates those nodes for which there are no intervening
nodes (hence, A immediately dominates B and C, but not D).

Finally, B and C form a constituent: a constituent is all and only the nodes dominated by a
single node, in this case, A.
The phrase structure rules also allow for choices. The optional choices are indicated
with parentheses:
A → (B) C

This rule reads that A is expanded as optionally B and obligatorily C. In every rewrite rule,
at least one element must be obligatory. There may also be mutually exclusive choices of
elements in a string; these are indicated with curly braces:

A → {B,C} or A →｛B｝
｛C｝
This rule states that if you choose B, you can’t choose C, but you must choose one – either B
or C, but not both. Whether the mutually exclusive items are written on one line separated
by commas or on separate lines does not matter, as long as they occur within braces.
These two types of choices can be combined:

A → ({B, C}) D
Phrase structure rules account for the linear order of elements in a sentence in D-structure, as well as for the
hierarchical arrangement of sentence structure.
They can also account for the infinite generating capacity of language.

If a symbol introduces itself, it is known as a recursive symbol, as A in the following rule:

A → B + C + (A)

Or if A introduces a symbol, and that symbol later introduces A, we also call A recursive, as in the following:

A → B + C B → (A) + D

(Note that if we don’t make the second occurrence of A optional, there would be no end to our expansion.)
Recursiveness leads to the “nesting” property of language, the embedding of elements within other elements.

Thus, recursiveness, along with the options provided by the parentheses and curly braces formalism and with
the choices to be made among a large number of lexical items, accounts for the infinite nature of language.
 Subject and Predicate

In constructing our phrase structure grammar of English, we begin with the initial symbol S = sentence. We all have an intuitive
idea of what counts as a sentence. It is a tenet of both traditional and generative grammar that S consists of two constituents:

1. the subject (Su) - is variously defined as the topic, the actor, or that which is spoken about.

2. the predicate (pred) - is defined as the comment, the action, or that which is said about the subject; it says something true
or false about the subject. Usually begins with a verb.

Two tests for identifying subject:

1. subject–auxiliary inversion, or the “question test”.
Ex. Was [the chocolate] later confiscated?
Must [Angelo] leave?

2. the “tag question” test, in which the pronoun in the tag agrees with the subject in
gender, number, and person.
Ex. [It] is possible to overdo jargon, isn’t [it]?
[You're] Jhay aren't [you]?
The main element constituting the subject appears to be the noun with its accompanying modifiers; (we will see
below that this is the phrasal category of the noun phrase.)

Note that a noun may stand alone as subject (wrinkles above);

a pronoun may also stand alone as subject since it replaces an entire noun phrase (they above).
It and there are special kinds of “dummy” subjects called “expletives”; structurally they fill the position of subject
but are lexically empty.

Two kinds of meaningless it:

1. the impersonal it in It’s snowing in summer, where there is no personal subject.
2. the anticipatory it in It is possible, where the real subject to overdo the jargon occurs at the end of the
sentence and it fills the normal subject position.
The predicate is generally what remains of a simple sentence after the subject is removed.

As you can see in the sentences above, a verb stands alone in the predicate (disappeared) in one example and
is the main element constituting the predicate in the other examples. The category of the predicate is thus the
verb phrase.

A test for predicate is to see whether the sequence may be replaced by so do/do too:

Wrinkles disappeared, and so did the brown spots.

We can formalize our recognition of the subject and predicate as key elements in the sentence in the following
phrase structure rule:

S → NP + VP (This gives us a formal definition of subject and predicate)

The subject is the NP immediately dominated by S and the predicate is the VP immediately dominated by S.
The rule will account for declarative sentences, but not for imperatives, which have no subject
(Example: Remove the pan from the fire!)

nor for interrogatives, which have a different word order. (Example: Are you hungry?).

It is important to keep in mind that subject and predicate are functions, not categories;
not all noun phrases serve the function of subject.

Two phrasal categories:

NP (Noun Phrase)

VP (Verb Phrase)

these two perform the major functions of the sentence, subject and predicate.
example: (Su) ( )
Jilliane .
( NP) ( )
 Noun Phrase
The noun phrase (NP) can be expanded in many different ways.

Noun phrases are groups of words that function like a noun. Typically, they act as subjects, objects, or prepositional objects in
a sentence.

Expansions of Noun Phrase (NP)

NP → N dogs
Det N the dogs
Det A N the large dogs
Det AP N the loudly barking dogs
Det N PP the dog in the yard
Det A N PP the ferocious dog behind the fence
Det AP N PP the wildly yapping dog on the sofa
Pro He
PN Goldy
The noun (N) is the only obligatory element in the first seven expansions of NP below and serves as head; the other elements
are all optional.

The adjective (A) or adjective phrase (AP) precedes the N and the prepositional phrase (PP) follows the N;
both serve as modifiers of the noun (modifier of N), expressing a quality of the noun, answering the question “which dogs?”.

“Det” here stands for determiners, a set of grammatical words that are somewhat like modifiers, but actually serve the function
of specifier of N (a one-way dependency), making more precise or definite the phrase that follows.

Det includes quite a diverse set of grammatical words: demonstratives (Dem), articles (Art), wh-words (Wh-),
possessives (Poss), and quantifiers (Q).
We can write a rule for Det as follows:
Det → {Dem, Art, Wh-, Poss, Q}
Dem → {this, that, these, those}
Art → {a, an, the}
Wh- → {which, what, whose}
Poss → {my, our, their, John’s, the man’s …}
Q → {some, any, every, each, neither, more …}
The ellipses (…) indicate that these are not complete listings of the members of the sets Poss and Q.
Note that Poss includes both possessive adjectives such as my and possessive nouns such as John’s or Sally’s.
(It may even include an entire noun phrase, as in that angry man’s (dog), where the -’s inflection is being attached to the end
of the noun phrase that angry man.)
We can account for this phenomenon by the following rule:
Poss → NP -’s
my, our, their …

Our rule for NP, therefore, must indicate the optionality of Det, AP, and PP and the mutual
exclusiveness of Pro and PN with the other elements.
 Adjective Phrase
Adjective (A) is a part of speechwhich modifies a noun, usually making its meaning more specific. Adjectives are
sometimes called “describing words” in that, as far as meaning is concerned, they define attributes characteristics.
Commonly occur with nouns.
For example:The dog chased a girl
the dog could have the adjective fat added to it:
The fat dog chased a girl

Adjectives are used in:

1. an attributive manner (precede the noun for example: a long letter)
2. a predicative manner (follow a linking verb for example: the letter was long)

An adjective phrase (AP) like all other phrases can consist of one or more than one word.

For example, The fat dog chased a girl.

The (very) fat dog chased a girl.

The inclusion of an adverb phrase is optional, so that the constitution of an adjective phrase is:
AP -> (AdvP) + A
 AP

AdvP A

deg
fat

very

When adjectives and adjective phrase work in this way to modify nouns,
they form part of the noun phrase.
NP = the fat dog

It is, of course, possible to modify a noun with more than one adjective as in:
The fat brown dog chased the girl.
Function of Adjective Phrases:
1. Subject Complement (sC)- follows a lingking verd (be, seem, appear, look, and etc.)
It normally an adjective or a noun that renames or defines in some way the subject.
example:
Sally seems unhappy.
S P sC

2. Object Complement (oC)- follows and modifiers or refers to a direct object.

it cab be a noun or adjective or any word acting as a noun or adjective.

example:
Mark called Eduardo stupid
S P dO oC

3. Pre-modifier within NP- Adjective phrase are also used to pre-modify nouns.
example:
The fat dog chased a girl
S P dO
 Adverb Phrase
An Adverb Phrase is simply a group of two or more words that function as an adverb in a sentence. Just as
an adverb can modify a verb, adjective or another adverb, an adverb phrase of more than one word can further
describe a verb, adverb, or adjective.
This refers to phrases that often plays the role of telling us when, where, why, or how an event occured.
in which the adverb function as the headwork of the phrase.

Example:
We are expecting her to come next month.
AdvP

She ran very quickly.

AdvP
The adverb phrase (AdvP) can be expanded. We note that Deg is an optional modifier and that the Adv is head;
our rule for AdvP is thus formulated as follows:
AdvP → (Deg) Adv
Expansion of (a) AdvP and (b) PP

(a) AdvP → Adv quickly

Deg Adv very quickly
(b) PP → P NP on the beach
PP NP from behind the door
P PP NP out from under the table
 Prepositional Phrase
Prepositional Phrase
A prepositional phrase is a group of words that lacks either a verb or a subject, and that functions as a
unified part of speech. It normally consists of a preposition and a noun or a preposition and a pronoun.
-it also refers to a phrase that begins with a preposition, in which the preposition functions as the headword
of the phrase.

Example: He arrived by plane.

(PP)
Do you know that man with the scar?
(PP)

The cupcake with sprinkles is yours.

The cupcake with colorful sprinkles is yours.

We climbed up the very steep hill.

 Prepositional Phrase
Prepositional Phrases That Modify Verbs or acts as an Adverb Phrase

When a prepositional phrase acts upon a verb, we say it is behaving adverbially because adverbs
modify verbs. A prepositional phrase that behaves adverbially is called an adverbial phrase.

To find the person who stole the last cookie, look behind you.

Harry drank his Butterbeer with fervor.

In the first sentence, behind you answers the question “Look where?” In the second, with fervor answers the
question “Drank how?”
 Prepositional Phrase
Prepositional Phrases That Modify Verbs or in conjuction with Adverb Phrase

When a prepositional phrase functions as an adverb phrase, it is letting us know the relationship between the
object of the preposition and the verb (the action or state of being).

Karen stepped onto the boat.

The object of the preposition is "boat". The preposition "on" is telling us the relationship between boat and
"stepped". "Stepped" is a verb, so the prepositional phrase is an adverb phrase. The phrase tells us where Karen
stepped.
 Conjunction
Conjunction are words that link other words, phrases, or
clause together. And allow you to form a complex elegant
sentences with the use of and, but, yet, because, nor, since,
unless, while, where etc.

Example:
I like cooking and eating, but I don't
like washing dishes afterwards.
 Verb Phrase
VERB PHRASE
 A verb phrase refers to a phrase that includes two or more words that work together
to create a verb.
 Consists of a helping verb and a main verb.

Example:

She is helping her friend.

VERB COMPLEMENTATION
 Refer to the syntactic patterns made up by configuration of the clause elements.
 In other words, complement is a part of sentence that completes the meaning of the
verb.
Based on the type of complement a verb takes, a number of subcategories of verbs can be identified:

1. Intransitive Verb
 There is no complementation of the verb. It only has a subject and a
verb.
Example:
The package has arrived.
(S) (V)

Jane is smiling.
Sandra is sleeping.
2. Transitive
Verb (or Monotransitive)
 A sentence with a transitive verb has a subject, a verb, and a direct object.
 A direct object is the person or a thing that is acted upon by the subject.

Example:
Reginald broke the vase.
(S) (V) (dO)

My brother is taking tea.

Mark is writing a letter.
3.Ditransitive Verb
 A verb that takes direct object and indirect object in the sentence.
 These verbs denote actions which involve someone (indirect object) in addition
to the people or things that are the subject and the object of the sentence.

Example:
Henk sent Olga roses.
(V)

His dad promised him a birthday party.

(V) (iO) (dO)

Jayden handed his mother the phone.

4. Copulative Verb (or Copula)
 A verb that links the subject and complement of a clause/linking verb.
 The complement serves the function of subject complement.
 A subject complement characterizes the subject: it identifies, locates, or
describes the subject. (adj. or noun)

Example:
Bill is a leader.
(S) (V) (sC)

Priyan is a chemist.
Martina became a leader.
5. Complex Transitive Verb
 When a verb takes both a direct object and an object complement (oC).
 An object complement also known as an object(ive) predicative of a sentence
provides either identifying or descriptive information about the direct object its
current state or resulting state.

Example:
She made him unhappy.
(S) (V) (dO) (oC)

She laid the baby in the crib.

We consider him a fool.
6. Prepositional
Verb
 A prepositional verb is a combination of a verb and a preposition. It is simply a
verb followed by a preposition.
 Prepositional Verb = Verb + Preposition

Example:
We believe in God.
The dog is barking at a stranger.
She is suffering from fever.
7. Diprepositional Verb
 It is a verb complemented by two prepositional phrases.
 Discussed a specific topic.

Example:
We talked with our parents about buying a house.
I argued with the officers about the little things.
I talked with the coach about the exercise.
 Review of phrase structure rules

The following are the phrase structure rules for English which we have established so far:
S → NP VP
NP → {(Det) N–, PN, Pro}
N– → {(AP) N– (PP), N}
Det → {Art, Dem, Poss, Q, Wh-}
Dem → {this, that, these, those}
Art → {a, an, the}
Wh- → {which, what, whose}
Poss → {NP-’s, my, our, their …}
Q → {some, any, every, each, neither, more …}
AP → ({Deg, AdvP}) A (PP)
AdvP → (Deg) Adv
PP → (PSpec) P {NP, PP}
VP → V
gp ({NP ({NP, PP, AP}), AP, PP (PP)})
We have identified the following grammatical functions:

Subject (Su) Object of the Preposition (OP)

Direct Object (dO) Prepositional Complement (pC)
Indirect Object (iO) Modifier of Noun (Mod of N)
Subject Complement (sC) Specifier of Noun (Spec of N),
Specifier of Preposition (Spec of P) Object Complement (oC)
Complement of Adjective (Comp of A)
The phrasal categories we have studied can serve the following functions:

NP: Subject, Direct Object, Indirect Object, Subject Complement, Object Complement, Object of Preposition
AP: Modifier of Noun, Subject Complement, Object Complement
PP: Modifier of Noun, Subject Complement, Object Complement, Indirect Object, Prepositional Complement
of Verb, of Preposition, or of Adjective
AdvP: Modifier of Adjective
references:

https://grammar.yourdictionary.com/parts-of-speech/nouns/noun-phrases.html

https://www.slideshare.net/rubenzapatad/syntax-tree-diagrams

https://www.gingersoftware.com/content/grammar-rules/conjunctions/

https://www.gingersoftware.com/content/grammar-rules/preposition/prepositional-phrases/
Thank you for listening