Chapter 4 From word to Text (Syntax)Syntax (grammar)•Syntax refers to the study of the rules governing the way different constituents are combined to form sentences in a language, or the study of the interrelationships between elements in sentence structures.4.1 Syntactic relations•Syntactic relations can be analyzed into three kinds:–4.1.1 positional relation–4.1.2 relations of substitutability–4.1.3 relations of co-occurrence4.1.1 Positional Relation•For language to fulfill its communicative function, it must have a way to mark the grammatical roles of the various phrases that can occur in a clause.•The boy kicked the ballNP1 NP2Subject Object•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. For example, The boy kicked the ball–*Boy the ball kicked the–*The ball kicked the boy•The teacher saw the students•The students saw the teacher•Positional relations are a manifestation of one aspect of Syntagmatic Relations observed by F. de Saussure.–They are also called Horizontal 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.•There are 6 possible types of language:–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. 4.1.2 Relation of Substitutability•The Relation of Substitutability refers to classes or sets of words substitutable for each other grammatically in sentences with the same structure.–The ______ smiles.manboygirl•It also refers to groups of more than one word which may be jointly substitutable grammatically for a single word of a particular set.strong man–The tallest boy smiles.pretty girlyesterday.–He went there last week.the day before.•This is also called Associative Relations by Saussure, and Paradigmatic Relations by Hjemslev.•To make it more understandable, they are called Vertical Relations or Choice Relations.4.1.3 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.•For instance, a nominal phrase can be preceded by a determiner and adjective(s) and followed by a verbal phrase.•Relations of co-occurrence partly belong to syntagmatic relations, partly to paradigmatic relations.4.2 Grammatical construction and its constituents4.2.1 Grammatical Construction•Any syntactic string of words ranging from sentences over phrasal structures to certain complex lexemes.–an apple–ate an apple–Mary ate an apple4.2.2 Immediate Constituents•Constituent is a part of a larger linguistic unit. Several constituents together form a construction:–the girl (NP)–ate the apple (VP)–The girl ate the apple (S)Immediate Constituent Analysis(IC Analysis)In the case of the above example, if two constituents B (the girl) and C (ate the apple) are jointed to form a hierarchically higher constituent A (here a sentence S), then B and C are said to be the immediateconstituents of A. To dismantle a grammatical construction in this way is called IC analysis.A (Sentence)B CThe boy ate the appleTwo ways: tree diagram and bracketingTree diagram:Bracketing•Bracketing is not as common in use, but it is an economic notation in representing the constituent/phrase structure of a grammatical unit.•(((The) (girl)) ((ate) ((the) (apple))))•[S[NP[Det The][N girl]][VP[V ate][NP[Det the][N apple]]]]4.2.3 Endocentric and Exocentric Constructions•Endocentric construction is one whose distribution is functionally equivalent to that of one or more of its constituents, i.e., a word or a group of words, which serves as a definable centre or head.–Usually noun phrases, verb phrases and adjective phrases belong to endocentric types because the constituent items are subordinate to the Head.•Exocentric construction refers to a group of syntactically related words where none of the words is functionally equivalent to the group as a whole, that is, there is no definable “Centre” or “Head” inside the group, usually including–the basic sentence,–the prepositional phrase,–the predicate (verb + object) construction,–the connective (be + complement) construction.•The boy smiled.(Neither constituent can substitute for the sentence structure as a whole.)•He hid behind the door.(Neither constituent can function as an adverbial.)•He kicked the ball .(Neither constituent stands for the verb-object sequence.)•John seemed angry.(After division, the connective construction no longer exists.)4.2.4 Coordination and Subordination•Endocentric constructions fall into two main types, depending on the relation between constituents: 1) Coordination•Coordination is a common syntactic pattern in English and other languages formed by grouping together two or more categories of the same type with the help of a conjunction such as and, but and or . –These two or more words or phrases or clauses have equivalent syntactic status, each of the separate constituents can stand for the original construction functionally.•Coordination of NPs:–[NP the lady] or [NP the tiger]•Coordination of VPs:–[VP go to the library] and [VP read a book ]•Coordination of PPs:–[PP down the stairs] and [PP out the door ]•Coordination of APs:–[AP quite expensive] and [AP very beautiful]•Coordination of Ss:–[S John loves Mary] and [S Mary loves John too].2) Subordination•Subordination refers to the process or result of linking linguistic units so that they have different syntactic status, one being dependent upon the other, and usually a constituent of the other.–The subordinate constituents are words which modify the head. Consequently, they can be called modifiers.•two dogsHead•(My brother) can drink (wine).Head•Swimming in the lake (is fun).Head•(The pepper was) hot beyond endurance.Head3) Subordinate clauses•Clauses can be used as subordinate constituents. There are three basic types of subordinate clauses:–complement clauses–adjunct (or adverbial) clauses–relative clauses•John believes [that the airplane was invented by an Irishman].(complement clause)•Elizabeth opened her presents [before John finished his dinner].(adverbial clause)•The woman [that I love] is moving to the south.(relative clause)4.3. Syntactic Function•The syntactic function shows the relationship between a linguistic form and other parts of the linguistic pattern in which it is used.–Names of functions are expressed in terms of subjects, objects, predicators, modifiers, complements, etc.4.3.1 Subject•In some languages, subject refers to one of the nouns in the nominative case（主格）.•The typical example can be found in Latin, where subject is always in nominative case, such as pater and filius in the following examples.–pater filium amat (the father loves the son)–patrum filius amat (the son loves the father)•In English, the subject of a sentence is often said to be the agent, or the doer of the action, while the object is the person or thing acted upon by the agent.–This definition seems to work for these sentences:–Mary slapped John.■ A dog bit Bill.•but is clearly wrong in the following examples:–John was bitten by a dog.–John underwent major heart surgery.•In order to account for the case of subject in passive voice, we have two other terms “grammatical subject” (John) and “logical subject” (a dog).•Another traditional definition of the subject is “what the sentence is about” (i.e., topic). •Again, this seems to work for many sentences, such as–Bill is a very crafty fellow.•but fails in others, such as–(Jack is pretty reliable, but) Bill I don’t trust.–As for Bill, I wouldn’t take his promises very seriously.•All three sentences seem to be “about” Bill; thus we could say that Bill is the topic of all three sentences.•The above sentences make it clear that the topic is not always the grammatical subject.What characteristics do subjects have?A. Word order•Subject ordinarily precedes the verb in the statement:–Sally collects stamps.–*Collects Sally stamps.B. Pro-forms•The first and third person pronouns in English appear in a special form when the pronoun is a subject, which is not used when the pronoun occurs in other positions:–He loves me.–I love him.–We threw stones at them.–They threw stones at us.C. Agreement with the verb•In the simple present tense, an -s is added to the verb when a third person subject is singular, but the number and person of the object or any other element in the sentence have no effect at all on the form of the verb:–She angers him.–They anger him.–She angers them.D. Content questions•If the subject is replaced by a question word (who or what), the rest of the sentence remains unchanged, as in–John stole the Queen’s picture from the British Council.–Who stole the Queen’s picture from the British council?–What would John steal, if he had the chance?–What did John steal from the British Council?–Where did John steal the Queen’s picture from?E. Tag question•A tag question is used to seek confirmation of a statement. It always contains a pronoun which refers back to the subject, and never to any other element in the sentence.–John loves Mary, doesn’t he?–Mary loves John, doesn’t she?–*John loves Mary, doesn’t she?4.3.2 Predicate•Predicate refers to a major constituent of sentence structure in a binary analysis in which all obligatory constituents other than the subject were considered together.•It usually expresses actions, processes, and states that refer to the subject.–The boy is running. (process)–Peter broke the glass. (action)–Jane must be mad! (state)•The word predicator is suggested for verb or verbs included in a predicate.4.3.3 Object•Object is also a term hard to define. Since, traditionally, subject can be defined as the doer of the action, object may refer to the “receiver” or “goal” of an action, and it is further classified into Direct Object and Indirect Object.–Mother bought a doll.–Mother gave my sister a doll.IO DO•In some inflecting languages, object is marked by case labels: the accusative case (受格) for direct object, and the dative case （与格）for indirect object.–In English, “object” is recognized by tracing its relation to word order (after the verb and preposition) and by inflections (of pronouns).–Mother gave a doll to my sister.–John kicked me.•Modern linguists suggest that object refers to such an item that it can become subject in a passive transformation.–John broke the glass. The glass was broken by John.–Peter saw Jane. Jane was seen by Peter.•Although there are nominal phrases in the following, they are by no means objects because they cannot be transformed into passive voice.–He died last week.–The match lasted three hours.–He changed trains at Manchester. (*Trains were changed by him at Manchester.)4.4. Category•The term category refers to the defining properties of these general units:–Categories of the noun: number, gender, case and countability–Categories of the verb: tense, aspect, voice4.4.1 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 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)4.4.2 Gender•Such contrasts as “masculine : feminine : neuter”, “animate : inanimate”, etc. for the analysis ofword classes.–Though there is a correlation between natural gender and grammatical gender, the assignment may seemquite 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 aremainly of the natural gender type.–he: she: it–prince: princess–author: authoress•In French, gender is manifested also both in adjectives and articles.–beau cadeau (fine gift)–belle maison (fine house)–Le cadeau est beau. (The gift is good.)–La maison est belle. (The house is beautiful.)•Sometimes gender changes the lexical meaning as well, for example, in French:–le poele (the stove)–la poele (the frying pan)–le pendule (the pendulum)–la pendule (the clock)4.4.3 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.•In English, case is a special form of the noun which frequently corresponds to a combination of preposition and noun, and it is realized in three channels:–inflection–following a preposition–word order•as manifested in–teacher : teacher’s–with : to a man–John kicked Peter : Peter kicked John4.4.4 Agreement•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 （照应）, 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.SentenceClausePhraseWord•the three tallest girls (nominal phrase)•has been doing(verbal phrase)•extremely difficult(adjectival phrase)•to the door (prepositional phrase)•very fast(adverbial phrase)•The best thing would be to leave early.•It’s great for a man to be free.•Having finished their task, they came to help us.•John being away, Bill had to do the work.•Filled with shame, he left the house.•All our savings gone, we started looking for jobs.•It’s no use crying over spilt milk.•Do you mind my opening the window?Sentence: (traditional approach)simpleSentence complexnon-simplecompoundSentence: (functional approach)Yes/noInterrogativeIndicative wh-DeclarativeSentenceJussiveImperativeOptativeBasic sentence types: (Bolinger)•Mother fell.(Nominal + intransitive verbal)•Mother is young.(Nominal + copula + complement)•Mother loves Dad.(Nominal + transitive verbal + nominal).•Mother fed Dad breakfast.(Nominal + transitive verbal + nominal + nominal)•There is time.(There + existential + nominal)Basic sentence types: (Quirk)•SVC Mary is kind.a nurse.•SVA Mary is here.in the house.•SV The child is laughing.•SVO Somebody caught the ball.•SVOC We have proved him wrong.a fool.•SVOA I put the plate on the table.•SVOO She gives me expensive presents.4.6 Recursiveness•Recursiveness mainly means that a phrasal constituent can be embedded within another constituent having the same category, but it has become an umbrella term such important linguistic phenomena as coordination and subordination, conjoining and embedding, hypotactic and paratactic.–All these are means to extend sentences.–How long can a sentence be?•Theoretically, there is no limit to the embedding of one relative clause into another relative clause, so long as it does not become an obstacle to successful communication.•The same holds true for nominal clauses and adverbial clauses.–I met a man who had a son whose wife sold cookies that she had baked in her kitchen that was fully equipped with electrical appliances that were new …•John’s sister•John’s sister’s husband•John’s sister’s husband’s uncle•John’s sister’s husband’s uncle’s daughter, etc.•that house in Beijing•the garden of that house in Beijing•the tree in the garden of that house in Beijing•a bird on the tree in the garden of that house in Beijing4.6.1 Conjoining 连接•Conjoining: coordination.•Conjunctions: and, but, and or.–John bought a hat and his wife bought a handbag.–Give me liberty or give me death.4.6.2 Embedding嵌入•Embedding: subordination.•Main clauses and subordinate clauses.•Three basic types of subordinate clauses:–Relative clause: I saw the man who had visited you last year.–Complement clause: I don’t know whether Professor Li needs this book.–Adverbial clause: If you listened to me, you wouldn't make mistakes.4.7. Beyond the sentence(Text and discourse)•The development of modern linguistic science has helped push the study of syntax beyond thetraditional sentence boundary.•Linguists are now exploring the syntactic relation between sentences in a paragraph or chapter or the whole text, which leads to the emergence of text linguistics and discourse analysis.4.7.1 Sentential Connection•Hypotactic 主次(subordinate clauses):–You can phone the doctor if you like. However, I very much doubt whether he is in.–We live near the sea. So we enjoy a healthy climate.•Paratactic 并联(coordinate clauses):–In Guangzhou it is hot and humid during the summer. In Beijing it is hot and dry.–He dictated the letter. She wrote it.–The door was open. He walked in.4.7.2 Cohesion衔接•Cohesion is a concept to do with discourse or text rather than with syntax. It refers to relations of meaning that exist within the text, and defines it as a text.•Discoursal / textual Cohesiveness can be realized by employing various cohesive devices:–Conjunction 连接–Ellipsis 省略–lexical collocation 词汇搭配–lexical repetition 词汇重复–Reference 指称–Substitution 替代, etc.•“Did she get there at six?”“No, (she got there) earlier (than six).”(Ellipsis)•“Shall we invite Bill?”“No. 1 can’t stand the man.”(Lexical collocation)•He couldn’t open the door. It was locked tight.(Reference)•“Why don’t you use your own recorder?”“I don't have one.”(Substitution)•I wanted to help him. Unfortunately it was too late.(Logical connection)。
