Scribd
Upload
197 views

Syntax: Categories

This document discusses sentence structure and categorization of parts of speech. It defines nouns, proper nouns, count nouns, non-count nouns. It also defines adjectives, adverbs, prepositions and how they form phrases. Key points made include: - Nouns name people, places or things. Count nouns can be pluralized and modified by articles while non-count nouns cannot. - Adjectives modify nouns and adverbs modify verbs, adjectives or other adverbs. They typically end in -ly. - Prepositions indicate spatial or temporal relations and link nouns/pronouns to other words in a sentence to form prepositional phrases.

Uploaded by

Maulana Mualim
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
197 views

Syntax: Categories

This document discusses sentence structure and categorization of parts of speech. It defines nouns, proper nouns, count nouns, non-count nouns. It also defines adjectives, adverbs, prepositions and how they form phrases. Key points made include: - Nouns name people, places or things. Count nouns can be pluralized and modified by articles while non-count nouns cannot. - Adjectives modify nouns and adverbs modify verbs, adjectives or other adverbs. They typically end in -ly. - Prepositions indicate spatial or temporal relations and link nouns/pronouns to other words in a sentence to form prepositional phrases.

Uploaded by

Maulana Mualim
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 23

SENTENCE STRUCTURE:

CATEGORIES
their rather dubious jokes
their rather jokes
rather has a function only in respect of dubious

But
if you omit dubious, rather is left without a function.
why is rather left without a function?
rather just isn’t the kind/category of word that can modify jokes
What is the category of

tactics, extremely, subtle


Which of these are correct? [2a] *their extremely
[1a]  their tactics [2b] *their dubious extremely
[1b]  their dubious tactics [2c] *their extremely jokes
[2d] their extremely dubious jokes
[1c]  *their rather tactics
[2e] *their rather extremely jokes
[1d]  *their tactics dubious jokes
[1e]  *their rather tactics jokes

What is the correct formation of [tactics, extremely, subtle]?


Add “their”?

Their extremely subtle tactics


Nouns
• A noun is the name of a person, place, or
thing
• Thing: concrete and abstract
Example:
January, Frankenstein, Bugsy, Jessica,
Java, Portsmouth, gorilla, university, jam,
theory, inspector, nationalisation, gremlin,
joke, tactic, gallon, furniture, year, couple.
Proper nouns vs. common nouns
• Proper nouns are names, spelt with an
initial capital. Examples: January,
Frankenstein, Bugsy, Jessica, Java,
Portsmouth
• Common nouns are all other nouns.
• Examples: gorilla, university, jam, theory,
inspector, nationalisation, gremlin, joke,
tactic, gallon, furniture, year, couple
Count nouns vs. non-count nouns
• Count nouns are those that can be counted
• (a)  can combine with a/an (the indefinite article) to form a
Noun Phrase (e.g. a stream, an accident)
• (b)  can combine with numerals (one, two, three . . . ) to form a
Noun Phrase, and with expressions like several, many, etc..
• (c)  can be marked for plural. The regular marking for plural is the
suffix -s (singular nouns lack this suffix). But there are several
irregular plural markers:

singular plural
accident, accidents,
man, foot, analysis, sheep men, feet, analyses, sheep.
Non-count nouns (mass nouns)
• Non-count nouns refer to ‘things’ that cannot be counted
Examples: butter, foam, cutlery, furniture, honesty, grace.
• Non-count nouns don’t normally display any of the above
possibilities. They cannot normally appear in:
• plural form (*foams, *butters, *honesties).
• follow a/an (*a foam, *a butter, *a furniture),
• numerals or similar expressions (*one foam, *nine furnitures).
• But they follow some (some foam, some furniture).
• Many nouns are both mass and count. For example, theory can
stand alone or with some (cf. we need to do some theory) as a
mass noun, but it can also be preceded by a and by numerals
and be plural as a count noun (a theory, theories, three
theories). Other examples are suspicion, egg, cake, and charity.
Lexical and phrasal categories
(Noun and Noun Phrase)
• A NP is a phrase that contains, and is centred on, a noun
Their rather dubious jokes
• Why can’t it be of the same category as their or rather or
dubious? The answer crucially involves the notion of head
• Noun Phrases, of course, may contain more than one
noun. But only one noun in a Noun Phrase can function as
its head
• identify the subject NP, then indicate which is the head
noun
• The man devouring the plums is grinning broadly.
• The comedy actress John met in the foyer seemed
excited.
• In an NP, constituents that modify the head noun are
typically optional – they can be omitted without affecting
the well-formedness of either the NP itself or the
sentence in which it appears.
• Their extremely subtle tactics confuse me.
• Their tactics confuse me.
• Tactics confuse me.
• On the one hand, tactics is a noun. On the other hand
wherever possible, sentences should be analysed into a
two-part, NP + VP, structure.
• When single words have the functions that full phrases
have, we need to treat them as full phrases of the
appropriate category. After all, words are just words, but
phrases are sequences, or strings, of words.
Adjectives and adverbs
• Dubious and subtle are adjectives. Any word that has the same
distribution as those words is an adjective. Many adjectives have
characteristic endings, such as -able, -al, -ate, -ful, -ic, -ing, -ish,
-ive, -less, -ous, -y. Examples are:
• capable, economical, Italianate, beautiful, microscopic,
surprising, priggish, inventive, hopeless, eponymous, fluffy.
• More common adjectives tend not to have characteristic endings
(e.g. nice, old, hot, short, tight, full, long, quick) and this goes for
the colour adjectives (blue, yellow, etc.)
• Many adjectives have the morphological possibility of taking a
comparative (-er) and a superlative (-est) suffix, as in newer and
newest, subtler and subtlest. Some others are modified by the
comparative and superlative degree adverbs more and most, less
and least.
• Identify the adjectives and the degree adverbs in the following
passage.
The great architectural interest of the royal
palace didn’t strike William at that precise
moment, grotesque and flamboyant though
it was. He had eyes only for Millie’s
gorgeous purple hair. Could it be artificial? It
was difficult to believe she was so edgy as
to have dyed it such a fantastic hue. She
seemed too modest and shy for that. In
silent admiration, he decided it was entirely
natural.
Adjective Phrases and Adverb
Phrases
• Rather dubious, extremely subtle, and too modest are
Adjective Phrases since they are are centred on adjectives.

• Other constituents can appear in adjective phrases, i.e.


adverbs (degree adverb or general adverb).
Examples: frankly, potentially, oddly, enthusiastically,
immediately, suspiciously, awkwardly, theoretically.

• As these examples illustrate, the vast majority of general


adverbs (and, you will have noted, some of the degree
adverbs) are formed from adjectives by the addition of
-ly, and so are easily identified.
• General adverbs differ from degree adverbs in
specifying a much wider range of concepts than
just degree. Furthermore, general adverbs can
themselves be modified by degree adverbs, to
form adverb phrases (AdvP) – for example, very
oddly, quite frankly.

• Draw the tree diagram of

more obviously artificial


Prepositions and Prepositional Phrases

beside a stream

• What is this phrase? What is the head? What is


the function of “a stream”?

• Within a PP, the relation between a preposition


and the following Noun Phrase is a head-
complement relation.
• Prepositions are generally short words that express
relations, often locational relations in space or time.
Other examples are: to, at, from, with, towards, within,
off, by, up, down, since, before, after, during, until, like.

• Prepositions don’t always express locational concepts,


though. Example: IN an accident, IN a blue coat, OFF
work, UNDER pressure, AT great speed, ON the make,
LIKE a maniac.

• The most commonly used preposition in the English


language – of – does not express a location.
• Two basic forms of PP: (a) PP in which the preposition (P) is
complemented by an NP (e.g. beside a stream and to Max)
and (b) PP consisting of just a P.

• beside a stream  there or here


• Old Sam sunbathed there

• They are prepositions that count as Prepositional Phrases in


their own right – they don’t need a complement NP to express
a location. The same goes for upstairs and downstairs.
• in those days and at the moment can be replaced by the single
words then, now, yesterday, tomorrow.
Co-ordinate Phrases
• Discussing nouns and Noun Phrases, it is mentioned that, in an
NP, only one noun can be head of the phrase. There is an
important exception to this, illustrated in the following
examples.
• Max and Adrian are being melodramatic.
• The clowns and the acrobats declined to co-operate.

• Such phrases are called co-ordinate phrases.


• Co-ordinate NPs have as many heads as there are nouns co-
ordinated in them.
• Other co-ordinators are but and or
• Which of the following strings are well-formed phrases
and which are not?
a) Max and quickly
b) the acrobats and quite incomprehensible
c) the actress that John met in the foyer and the
acrobats
d) in the foundations and under the rafters
e) obviously intelligent and to Newcastle
f) moderately cheap and extremely nasty
g) rather and inconsistent

• any constituent, of any category, can consist of a co-


ordination of constituents of the same category.
• Compere these two!
a. Stuffy and too hot.
b. Too hot and stuffy.
• What about these?
a. Up and down the staircase
b. in the foundations and under the rafters
Exercises
• Draw the phrase markers for the following expressions
• for you and Pete.
• rather nervous but very excited.
• Fernandez drank espresso and
smoked cheroots.
• Identify the lexical categories of (a) nouns, (b) adjectives, (c)
degree adverbs, (d) general adverbs, and (e) prepositions.

On the court, she openly displayed a


perfectly outrageous cheek towards
officials recently appointed by the club.
At home, she was an incredibly warm
and loving human being, full of
sensitivity for people’s feelings.
• Nouns 8 / 9 / 10
• Adj = 4
• Deg =2
• Adv=2
• Prep = 6

You might also like