Chapter Four From Word to Text

Chapter Four From Word to Text What is syntax?

1. Syntactic relations syntactic relations Syntactic relations can be analysed into three kinds: positional relations relations of substitutability relations of co-occurrence syntactic relations

1.1 Positional Relation I left the classroom after I finished my homework. After I finished my homework, I left the classroom . The learners are having an English lesson.

Our beautiful country is developing quickly. The girl reading newspaper in the classroom is Mary.

Had you helped me yesterday, I would have finished my work. If it rains tomorrow, we will put off our meeting.

On the top of hill stands a big house. Only in this way can you pass the exam.

5 basic sentences 1. Subject (主语) ＋ Verb (谓语) He smiled

2. Subject(主语) ＋ Verb (谓语) ＋ Object (宾语) Tom is watching TV.

3. Subject (主语) ＋ Link. V(系动词) ＋ Predicate(表语) He is a worker. My job is to look after children.

4. Subject(主语)＋Verb(谓语)＋ Indirect object(间接宾语)＋Direct object (直接宾语) My mother bought me a book.

5. Subject(主语)＋Verb (动词)＋Object (宾语)＋Complement(补语) He asked me to close the window. Tom made the whole class laugh.

1.2 Relation of Substitutability Example.

1.2 Relation of Substitutability The ______ smiles.  boy girl

What’s the definition of substitutability.

The RELATION OF SUBSTITUTABILITY refers to classes or sets of words substitutable for each other grammatically in sentences with the same structure.

1.3 Relation of Co-occurrence Example

Definition 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.

1.3 Relation of Co-occurrence For instance, a nominal phrase can be preceded by a determiner and adjective(s) and followed by a verbal phrase.

2. Grammatical construction and its constituents GRAMMATICAL CONSTRUCTION or CONSTRUCT

2.2 Immediate Constituents The girl ate the apple, S (A), (B), the girl (C) ate the apple

CONSTITUENT is a term used in structural sentence analysis for every linguistic unit, which is a part of a larger linguistic unit. Several constituents together form a construction: for example, in the sentence

A (Sentence) B C The girl ate the apple

Constituents can be joined together with other constituents to form larger units. If two constituents, in the case of the example above, B (the girl) and C (ate the apple), are joined to form a hierarchically higher constituent A (“S” , here a sentence ), then B and C are said to be immediate constituents of A.

A (Sentence) B C The girl ate the apple

This tree contains three Nodes. The top-most node, A, is the mother of the two lower nodes, B and C. B and C are daughters of the same mother, and so we refer to them as sister nodes. (P87)

To dismantle a grammatical construction in this way is called IMMEDIATE CONSTITUENT ANALYSIS or IC analysis.

The immediate constituents themselves can be constructions of specific types, for instance, the nominal phrase “The girl” can be further analysed into “The (Determiner) + girl (Noun)”. Thus, “The girl” is the construction of a nominal phrase, whereas “The” and “girl” are its constituents.

Word-level Phrasal N= noun A=adjective V=verb P=preposition Det=determiner Adv=adverb Conj=conjunction NP=noun phrase AP=adjective phrase VP=verb phrase PP=preposition phrase S=sentence or clause

Tree diagram S NP VP Det N V NP Det N The girl ate the apple

The whole class are reading textbooks. Tom watches live games. The teacher gave a wonderful speech.

Bracketing (((The) (girl)) ((ate) ((the) (apple))))

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.

Tom watched the wonderful program. The teacher bought a beautiful clothes.

Classroom exercise.

Taking Lijiang College of Guangxi Normal University as an Example Consideration of Ideological and Political Theory Course Teaching Based on Postgraduate Entrance Examinations: Taking Lijiang College of Guangxi Normal University as an Example

[Abstract] The ideological and political theory belongs to the public course of postgraduate entrance examinations, whose assessment principle is based on what to learn. The evaluation covers compulsory courses and elective courses，focusing on the core content of the course，checking the student understanding, applying and analyzing ability combining the social hot spots.

So politics theory class teaching should take the characteristics and requirements of graduate entrance examinations into account, cultivating the ability and laying a good foundation for students.

Review What is syntax?

Review How many kinds can syntactic relations be analyzed? What are they?

1. Syntactic relations syntactic relations Syntactic relations can be analysed into three kinds: positional relations relations of substitutability relations of co-occurrence syntactic relations

1.2 Relation of Substitutability Example.

1.2 Relation of Substitutability The ______ smiles.  boy girl

What’s the definition of substitutability.

The RELATION OF SUBSTITUTABILITY refers to classes or sets of words substitutable for each other grammatically in sentences with the same structure.

1.3 Relation of Co-occurrence Example

Definition 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.

2. Grammatical construction and its constituents GRAMMATICAL CONSTRUCTION or CONSTRUCT

2.2 Immediate Constituents The girl ate the apple, S (A), (B), the girl (C) ate the apple

CONSTITUENT is a term used in structural sentence analysis for every linguistic unit, which is a part of a larger linguistic unit. Several constituents together form a construction: for example, in the sentence

A (Sentence) B C The girl ate the apple

Constituents can be joined together with other constituents to form larger units. If two constituents, in the case of the example above, B (the girl) and C (ate the apple), are joined to form a hierarchically higher constituent A (“S” , here a sentence ), then B and C are said to be immediate constituents of A.

A (Sentence) B C The girl ate the apple

This tree contains three Nodes. The top-most node, A, is the mother of the two lower nodes, B and C. B and C are daughters of the same mother, and so we refer to them as sister nodes. (P87)

To dismantle a grammatical construction in this way is called IMMEDIATE CONSTITUENT ANALYSIS or IC analysis.

The immediate constituents themselves can be constructions of specific types, for instance, the nominal phrase “The girl” can be further analysed into “The (Determiner) + girl (Noun)”. Thus, “The girl” is the construction of a nominal phrase, whereas “The” and “girl” are its constituents.

Word-level Phrasal N= noun A=adjective V=verb P=preposition Det=determiner Adv=adverb Conj=conjunction NP=noun phrase AP=adjective phrase VP=verb phrase PP=preposition phrase S=sentence or clause

Tree diagram S NP VP Det N V NP Det N The girl ate the apple

The whole class are reading textbooks. Tom watches live games. The teacher gave a wonderful speech.

Bracketing (((The) (girl)) ((ate) ((the) (apple))))

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.

Tom watched the wonderful program. The teacher bought a beautiful clothes.

Classroom exercise.

Taking Lijiang College of Guangxi Normal University as an Example Consideration of Ideological and Political Theory Course Teaching Based on Postgraduate Entrance Examinations: Taking Lijiang College of Guangxi Normal University as an Example

[Abstract] The ideological and political theory belongs to the public course of postgraduate entrance examinations, whose assessment principle is based on what to learn. The evaluation covers compulsory courses and elective courses，focusing on the core content of the course，checking the student understanding, applying and analyzing ability combining the social hot spots.

So politics theory class teaching should take the characteristics and requirements of graduate entrance examinations into account, cultivating the ability and laying a good foundation for students.

Review Chapter Four From Word to Text

2.2 Immediate Constituents What is Immediate Constituent Analysis?

2.3 Endocentric and Exocentric Constructions endocentric & exocentric

Endocentric Construction Example:

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.

Give examples of endocentric.

NP the college students the tall boy sitting in the corner Mary’s two brothers

VP Will have completed Will be reading Have been given

AP Very comfortable Completely confused

Exocentric examples

EXOCENTRIC The boy smiled. He hid behind the door. He kicked the ball. John seemed angry.

EXOCENTRIC construction is just the opposite of endocentric construction. It 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.

Exocentric construction usually includes basic sentence, prepositional phrase, predicate (verb + object) construction, and connective (be + complement) construction.

Give examples of exocentric. Tom is running He gave me a book He is reading in the classroom Our teacher completely confused

2.4 Coordination and Subordination

[NP the lady] or [NP the tiger] [VP go to the library] and [VP read a book ] [PP down the stairs] and [PP out the door ] [AP quite expensive] and [AP very beautiful] [S John loves Mary] and [S Mary loves John too].

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 . This phenomenon is known as coordination.

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.

two  dogs           Head (My brother) can drink (wine). Head Swimming in the lake (is fun). (The pepper was) hot beyond endurance.

Thus the subordinate constituents are words which modify the Head, as shown in the underlined parts of the constructions. Consequently, they can be called modifiers.

Subordinate clauses Clauses can be used as subordinate constituents, the three basic types of subordinate clauses are: complement clauses adverbial clauses relative clauses

John believes [that the airplane was invented by an Irishman]. Elizabeth opened her presents [before John finished his dinner]. The woman [that I love] is moving to the south. subordinate clause

3. Syntactic Function

3.1 Subject In some languages, SUBJECT refers to one of the nouns in the nominative case.

the father loves the son the son loves the father

In English, the subject of a sentence is often said to be the doer of the action, Mary slapped John . A dog bit John.

but is clearly wrong in the following examples: John was bitten by a dog. 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).

3.2 Predicate The boy is running. Peter broke the glass. Jane must be mad! 99

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. 100

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?

Nobody phoned while I was out Everyone has been there Somebody borrowed my pen yesterday Everything has been done on how to prevent the pollution Nothing is wrong with the machine He was unsuccessful Your mother dislikes seeing you with me I am late

She says that I did it I suppose that she is careful I think he is a thief I don’t believe she has gone home You had to take the early bus He used to smoke three cigarettes a day Help me to do it Let’s go skating Let us have a look at your book

He had better do more speaking It is the first time that he has gone there He must be Mr. Chen He must have stayed at home yesterday It can’t have snowed last week The boy ought to be punished

Predicate Definition of predicate

Agreement with the verb In the simple present tense, an -s is added to the verb when a third person subject is singular. However, 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. 106

Agreement Exercise Alice, together with two boys, ____for having broken the rule in the class. A. was punished B. punished C. were punished D. being punished

No bird and no beast ____ in the lonely island. A. are seen B. is seen C. see D. sees Here ____a new pair of shoes for you. A. is B. are C. have D. has When and where to go for the on-salary holiday ____ yet. A. are not decided B. have not been decided C. is not being decided D. has not beendecided

The assistant and graduate student ____ check the exercise books. A. help B. helping C. helps D. to help He is the only one of the students who _________ a winner of scholarship for three years. A. is B. are C. have been D. has been

3.3 Object Mother bought a doll. Mother gave my sister a doll. Ind. Obj.  Dir. Obj.

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.

He died last week. The match lasted three hours. He changed trains at Tianjin.

4. 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.

4.1 Number

4.2 Gender

4.3 Case