LINGUA INGLESE 1 modulo A/B Introduction to English Linguistics prof. Hugo Bowles Lesson 8 Syntax 1 1

Syntactic analysis – building a tree For your exam you need to be able to analyse a simple sentence into its component parts and illustrate it as a tree structure The aim of this lesson is to get you from words to sentences So we start with words and build from there

Sentences Sentences, like the morphology of individual words, can be analysed using trees to illustrate their phrase structure In order to be able to analyse a sentence you need to understand the main grammatical categories

Grammatical categories Nouns (N) dog, cat, apple, park etc. Determiners (Det.) a, the, this, that etc. Verbs (V) walk, come, go Adjectives (A) big, black, hairy etc. Adverbs (Adv) quickly, slowly etc. Pronouns (PRO) he, she etc. Prepositions (P) in, on, under, over etc.

From words to categories Words have to be attached to their grammatical category dog the walks hairy park quickly in the NDetVAAdvPNDet

… and then they have to be put in order the hairy dog walks quickly in the park DetANVP AdvN

The base of the tree words and categories are the base of the tree the hairy dog walks quickly in the park DetANVP AdvN

From categories to phrases to sentences words are connected to categories categories combine to form phrases phrases combine to form sentences What kind of phrases are there?

Types of phrase Noun phrase (NP) Verb phrase (VP) Prepositional phrase (PP) Adverb phrase (AdvP) Adjective Phrase (AP)

Phrases Each sentence contains a subject and a predicate the hairy dog walks quickly in the park Syntactically these correspond to: a and a the hairy dog walks quickly in the park noun phraseverb phrase

The top of the tree So the tree for any sentence (S) should start like this: This means that every sentence is made up of a noun phrase and a verb phrase S VPNP

The base of the tree words and categories are the base of the tree the hairy dog walks quickly in the park DetANVP AdvN

Connecting the tree What we need to do is to connect: the structure at the top of the tree TO the words of the sentence at the bottom of the tree the hairy dog walks quickly in the park S VP NP DetANVAdvPDetN

Connecting top and base You need to start at the base of the tree and build more phrases on to the categories. These phrases could be: Noun phrases Adverb phrases Prepositional phrases Adjective phrases

What about? The dog ? The park?

A simple noun phrase (NP) Determiner (Det.) + Noun (N) = Noun Phrase (NP) thedogthepark Det NP N Det.N

Noun phrase (NP) A name is also a noun and attaches to a noun phrase Romeo NP N

What about ? in the park

Prepositional Phrase (PP) Preposition + NP = Prepositional Phrase (PP) in + = the park in the park NP DetN P PP P NP DetN

What about ? quickly

Adverb Phrase (Adv.P) When there is just one adverb, it attaches to an Adverb Phrase (Adv.P) quickly Adv Adv.P

What about hairy

Adjective Phrase (AP) A single adjective attaches to an Adjective Phrase (AP) hairy A AP

More on adjectives Adjectives are often found in sentences as modifiers of nouns: the hairy dog modifier of noun In this case they form part of a more complex noun phrase …

More complex noun phrases … and they are analysed like this: thehairydog Det NP N A AP

Now we go back to the sentence and start to decorate the tree ………

Inserting the phrases The subject NP is easy to insert……………….……………… but the VP is more difficult the hairy dog walks quickly in the park S VP NP DetANVAdvPDetN AP

First you attach the Verb the hairy dog walks quickly in the park S VP NP DetANVAdvPDetN AP

Then you attach the AdvP the hairy dog walks quickly in the park S VP NP DetANVAdvPDetN AP AdvP

Then you attach the PP the hairy dog walks quickly in the park S VP NP DetANVAdvPDetN AP AdvP NP PP

What a complete tree looks like a sentence divides into a noun phrase ……………….. and a verb phrase these attach to phrases or and categories categories attach to words the hairy dog walks quickly in the park S VP NP DetANVAdvPDetN AP AdvP NP PP

How to analyse the syntactic structure of a simple sentence It’s a bit like decorating a Christmas tree: Write SNP + VP at the top Write the words of the sentence at the bottom Write the categories above the words Where necessary put the categories into phrase structures (NP, Adv,P, AP, PP) Attach the phrase structures to the main NP and VP

Step 1 – write S NP+VP at the top S VP NP

Step 2 – write the words at the bottom the hairy dog walks quickly in the park S VP NP

Step 3 – write the categories of the words the hairy dog walks quickly in the park S VP NP DetANVAdvPDetN

Step 4 – put the categories into phrase structures where necessary the hairy dog walks quickly in the park S VP NP DetANVAdvPDetN AP AdvP NP PP

Step 5 – attach the phrase structures to the main NP and VP the hairy dog walks quickly in the park S VP NP DetANVAdvPDetN AP AdvP NP PP

Juliet N

loves V

Romeo N

Romeo/Juliet loves Juliet/Romeo Juliet loves Romeo Romeo Juliet N N NP V S VP

Romeo/Juliet loves Juliet/Romeo Juliet loves Romeo Romeo Juliet N N NP V S VP

6. He loves carrots He loves carrots PRO N NP V S VP

7. The lamb followed Mary The lamb followed Mary Det N NP V S VP N

8. Beavers build dams Beavers build dams N NP V S VP N

9. The cat killed the mouse The cat killed the mouse Det N NP V S VP NDet

10. Jack killed the giant Jack killed the giant N NP V S VP NDet

11. She solved the mystery She solved the mystery N NP V S VP PRODet

12. The witnesses helped her The witnesses helped her PRO NP V S VP DETN

13. Alice followed the rabbit Alice followed the rabbit N NP V S VP N Det.

14. Alice followed the white rabbit Alice followed the white rabbit N NP V S VP N Det. A. AP.

15. Alice slowly followed the white rabbit Alice slowly followed the white rabbit N NP V S VP N Det. A. AP. Asv Adv.P

HOMEWORK Please analyse the remaining sentences on your handout as trees and bring them to the Syntax 2 lesson