2. Chapter 4 Syntax I Course: Linguistics Lecturer: Phoenix Xu E-mail: phoenixu78@yahoo.com.cn

3. Table of Contents 4.1 The traditional approach 4.1.1 Number, gender and case 4.1.2 Tense and aspect 4.1.3 Concord and government 4.2 The structural approach 4.2.1 Syntagmatic and paradigmatic relations 4.2.2 Immediate constituent analysis 4.2.3 Endocentric and exocentric constructions

4. 4.3 The generative approach 4.3.1 Deep and surface structures 4.3.2 The standard theory and after 4.3.3 Government, binding, etc.

5. 4.4 The functional approach 4.4.1 Functional sentence perspective 4.4.2 Systemic-functional grammar

6. What is “ syntax ” ? syn-(together) + -tax(to arrange) arrangement SYNTAX refers to the study of the rules governing the way words are combined to form sentences in a language, or simply, the study of the formation of sentences.

7. 4.1 The traditional approach Basic assumptions: Sentence: a sequence of words Study of sentence formation (syntax) study of words categories: Ex. parts of speech( 词类 ), functions (e.g. subject, object), properties of units (e.g. noun, verb) Representative: Bloomsfield

8. 4.1.1 Number, gender and case NUMBER E.g. Singular, plural, dual (classical Greek, Arabic), trial (Fijian) Question: Does Chinese have any number?

9. GENDER  Biological gender Ex. actor & actress; hero & heroine  Grammatical gender Ex. un acteur & une femme acteur; le bureau & la table

10. CASE English pronouns: nominative ( 主格 )(e.g. he), accusative ( 宾格 )(e.g. him) and genitive ( 属 格 )(e.g. his) English nouns: general (e.g. John) and genitive (e.g. John ’ s)

11. NOTE: nominative, accusative, dative and ablative  Nominative case  Accusative case Ex. I nominative saw him accusative.  Dative case Ex. I gave a book to him dative.  Ablative case Ex. He opened the door with a key ablative.

12. 4.1.2 Tense and aspect simple present present progressive present perfect present perfect progressive simple pastpast progressive past perfect past perfect progressive simple future future progressive future perfect future perfect progressive simple past future past future progressive past future perfect past future perfect progressive

13. C.f. Time & Tense Time: a universal concept, which every language is capable to express Tense: a linguistic concept, which varies from language to language

14. C.f. Tense & Aspect Tense: relative to the time of utterance (deictic) ( 指别的 ) Aspect: irrelative to the time of utterance (not deictic), but relative to the time of another event described

15. TENSE Past tense (√morphology), present tense (√ morphology), future tense (X morphology) Future tense: will/shall +infinitive, be going to + infinitive, present progressive aspect, etc. E.g. The professor will arrive at ten o ’ clock. The bus is coming.

16. ASPECT In English  Perfective( 完成体 )/Perfect( 完成式 )  Progressive( 进行体 )/Continuous( 持续式 ) NOTE: A completed action is more usually expressed by the tense in English.

17. 4.1.3 Concord and government CONCORD( 一致关系 )/AGREEMENT( 协同 关系 ): Ex. the determiner and the noun it precedes, e.g. these guys; a few questions

18. GOVERNMENT Ex. She gave him a book. governor governed

19. 4.2 The structural approach Basic assumption: linguistic units are interrelated with each other in a structure (or system), not isolated bits. Representatives: Saussure, American structuralists

20. 4.2.1 Syntagmatic and paradigmatic relations C.f. Signified & Signifier SIGNIFIED ( 所指 ): concept SIGNIFIER ( 能指 ): sound image

21. Syntagmatic SYNTAGMATIC Ex. a. The boy kicked the ball. b. * Boy the ball kicked the. c. * The ball kicked the boy.

22. Paradigmatic PARADIGMATIC Ex. The __________ is smiling.

23.  STRUCTURE  SYSTEM  Syntagmatic relation / horizontal relation / chain relation  Paradigmatic relation / vertical relation / choice relation

24. 4.2.2 Immediate constituent analysis C.f. Linear structure & hierarchical structure The relation between a sentence and its component elements is generally known as a relation between a CONSTRUCTION ( 结构体 ) and its CONSTITUENTS ( 成分 ). Ex. The boy kicked the ball.

25. (1) How to do it? IMMEDIATE CONSTITUENTS

26. IMMEDIATE CONSTITUENT ANALYSIS (IC ANALYSIS for short) ( 直接成分分析 ):

27. NOTATION Ex. (a) ((Poor)(John))((ran)(away)) (b) Poor John ran away

28.  Question: how to make the cuts? Criterion: Substitutability (Pp 124)  C.f. traditional parsing & IC analysis Similarities: the first cut comes at the boundary between subject and predicate Differences:Traditional parsing treats the sentence in a linear order; IC analysis emphasizes the function of the intermediate level —— word group, and the hierarchical structure of the sentence.

29. (2) Its advantages To real the internal structure of a sentence, and some possible ambiguities of a structure.

30. Two-way ambiguity (a) Leave the book on the shelf (b) Leave the book on the shelf

31. Three-way ambiguity (a) my small child ’ s cot (b) my small child ’ s cot (c) my small child ’ s cot

32. Labelled tree diagram （带标签树形图） (a) (Is he really) that kind? Det N NP (b) (Is he really) that kind? Adv Adj AP

33. (3) Its problems  1) Not all the sentences could be treated as the binary divisions. E.g. old man and woman.  2) How to interpret the discontinuous constituents? E.g. make it up, turn the light on.  3) How to interpret structural ambiguities by IC analysis? E.g. the love of God.

34. 4.2.3 Endocentric and exocentric constructions ENDOCENTRIC CONSTRUCTION Ex. noun phrases (NP), e.g. the three small children; verb phrases (VP), e.g. will leave

35.  SUBORDINATE CONSTRUCTION  COORDINATE CONSTRUCTION Ex. boys and girls

36. EXOCENTRIC CONTRUCTION Ex. on the shelf

37. 4.3.1 Deep and surface structures  DEEP STRUCTURE  SURFACE STRUCTURE

38. Chomsky, N. 1957. Syntactic structure[M]. The Hague: Mouton. deep surface structure structure Phrase Structure Component Transformational Component Morpho- phonemic Component

39. Phrase Structure Rules S NP + VP VP V + NP NP Det + N Det the, a, etc. N man, ball, etc. V hit, took, etc.

40. S NP VP Det N V NP the man hit Det N a ball

41. Transformational Component The TRANSFORMATIONAL component has transformational rules, which change the deep structures generated by the phrase structure component into surface structures.

42. E.g. Passive transformation NP 1 + Aux + V+ NP 2 John + will + finish + the paper (tomorrow) NP 2 + Aux + be + en + V + by + NP 1 the paper + will + be +en+ finish + by + John (tomorrow)

43. Morpho-phonemic Component The morpho-phonemic component is responsible for the correct spelling and pronunciation of the words in the surface structure.

44. Ex. will, be, en, finish “ Affix Hopping ” A morpho-phonemic rule: finish: en ed and pronounced as / t / copy: en ed and pronounced as / d / write: en en

45. The love of God

46. 4.3.2 The standard theory and after Improvement: A semantic component is added, which serves to describe the ideal speaker- hearer ’ s knowledge of his language.

47. Chomsky, N. 1965. Aspects of the Theory of Syntax[M]. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press. deep surface structure structure Base Component Categorie s Lexicon Transformation al Component Phonological Components Semantic Component

48. categories BASE component Syntactic component lexicon transformational component Semantic component Phonological component

49. Categories C.f. categories & phrase structure rules Phrase structure rules: the rules insert words directly. E.g. N man, ball, etc. Categories E.g. N [+N, + Common, -Count, +Abstract] V [+V, + ----NP, + ----that S ’ ] Categories

50. Lexicon Lexicon( 词库 ):the features of each word are specified. (i) N [+N, ±Common] (ii) [+Common] [±Count] (iii) [+Count] [±Animate] (iv) [-Common] [±Animate] (v) [+Animate] [±Human] (vi) [-Count] [±Abstract]

51. sincerity: [+N, +Common, -Count, +Abstract ] [+N, +Abstract ] elapse: [+V, +---- #] eat: [+V, +----NP, +----#] grow: [+V, +----#, + ----Adjective] believe: [+V, +---- NP, +---- that S ’ ]

52.  Problems of the standard theory The principle that transformation does not change meaning doesn't hold with the passive transformation. Ex. I have been taught physics by Einstein. Einstein has taught me physics. Surface structure also has some bearing on semantic interpretation.  Improvement: the extended version

53. deep surface structure structure Base Component CategoriesLexicon Transformation al Component Phonological Components Semantic Component

54.  Further Improvement TRACE Theory ( 语迹理论 ) TRACE: after the movement of an element there will be a trace left in the original position. (See Pp138-140) Ex. Beavers built dams. Dams are built t by beavers.

55. deep structure surface structure Base Component CategoriesLexicon Transformationl Component Semantic Component Phonological Component

56.  Significance of Trace Theory Ex. (a) Who 1 said Mary kissed him 1 ? (b) * Who 1 did he 1 say Mary kissed? A pronoun will not be bound by its antecedent, i.e. not to be coreferential with the latter, in the lowest NP or S, but may be coreferential with it in a larger structure. (c) who 1 [ s t 1 said Mary kissed him 1 ] (d) * who 1 [ s he 1 said Mary kissed t 1 ] (e) John 1 said Mary kissed him 1. (f) *He 1 said Mary kissed John 1.

57. 4.3.3 Government, binding, etc. Chomsky, N. 1981. Lectures on Government and Binding[M]. Dordrecht: Foris. A grammar includes:

58. lexicon syntax (categorical component & transformational component) rule system phonetic form component logical form component bounding theory government theory θ-theory principle system binding theory case theory control theory

59. D- structure S- structure LF-Structure PF Structure Base Component Categorica l Componen t Lexicon Transformational Component Logical Form Component Phonetic Form Component

60.  Note: lexicon is not part of syntax, but still part of thee base component. Lexicon

61. Transformational Component The transformational component contains only one rule —— Move α. Move α

62. Government GOVERNMENT( 管辖 ): In the generative approach: more rigorously and covers wider area of relations, not just over the form of words.

63. Ex. Speak the language Speak governs the language VP V NP Det N speak the language

64. Ex. speak about the language About governs the language, and speak governs about the language. VP V PP P NP Det N speak about the language

65. CONSTITUENT COMMAND/C-COMMAND γ α β

66. C-command: A B C D E F

67. Question: How to be a governor? 1) αmust c-commandβ.

68. 2) αmust be a head. E.g. on the shelf She put a book on the shelf.

69. 3) αmust be related toβdirectly. Question: Does speak in speak about the language govern the language?

70. In summary, an element governs another if the two are under the same node directly, and the former is the head of the construction.

71. Question Why do we propose the notion GOVERNMENT?

72. Binding Theory A. An anaphor is bound in its governing category. B. A pronominal is free in its governing category. C. An r-expression is free.

73. In the generative approach, BINDING ( 约 束 ) refers to the relations between different referring word and the subject of a sentence containing it.

74. ANAPHOR( 照应语 ) “ To be bound ” Governing category( 管辖语域 )/Local domain( 局部语域 )/Binding domain( 约束语域 )

75. (a) John 1 likes himself 1. (b) They 1 hit each other 1. (c) John 1 doesn't like Bill ’ s 2 criticism of himself 2. (d) John 1 likes him 2. (e) Bill 1 says John 2 likes him 1. (f) Bill 1 says John 2 likes the man 3.

76. Problem 1: An anaphor may coincide with a pronominal. Ex. (a) John 1 pulled the blanket towards himself 1. (b) John 1 pulled the blanket towards him 1.

77. Problem 2: the anaphor is bound outside the governing category. Ex. (a) John 1 thought that Mary 2 knew that paper had been written by Ann 3 and himself 1. (b) John 1 thought that Mary 2 knew that paper had been written by Ann 3 and him 1.

78. Solution: Susumu Kuno (1987): anaphoric reference is not simply a matter of reference, it also involves the point of view taken by the speaker: whether he takes the logophoricity ( 主人公视角 )or not. IF he does, an anaphor would be used, otherwise a pronominal would be chosen.

79. Question: Is it possible to apply Chomsky ’ s Binding Theory to the Chinese reflective 自己 ? (Pp 147)

80. Ex. (a) 小张 1 暗暗埋怨自己 1 。 (b) 小张 1 越想越觉得自己 1 做得不对。 (c) 小张 1 说小李 2 知道自己 1 下午没空。 (d) 小张 1 认为小李 2 太狂妄，总是瞧不起自己 1 。 (e) 小张 1 认为小李 2 太自卑，总是瞧不起自己 1 。

81. Conclusion: 自己 may be in the middle of development from an ordinary pronoun to a reflexive.

82. Lexicon Computational System PF LF

83. Exercises 1. Work out the subcategorisation frame of each of the lexical items listed in (a-d). Make sure you justify your proposals with relevant examples. (a) kick (b) cry (c) put (d) think

84. 2. Assign a tree diagram to the sentences (a-b) and try to specify the syntactic relationship between the elements. (a) Mary remembers the unhappy experience. (b) Bill waits for the bus.

85. 4.4 The functional approach Representatives:  The Prague school  The systemic-functional grammar

86. 4.4.1 Functional sentence perspective Basic assumptions of the Prague Linguistic Circle ( 布拉格语言学会 ): A sentence may be analyzed from the functional side as well as the grammatical side.

87. Vil é m Mathesius C.f.Theme & rheme THEME RHEME

88. In English, word order has a grammatical function, and theme and rheme are often expressed by the grammatical subject and predicate.

89. the duke my aunt that teapot has given my aunt that teapot has been given that teapot by the duke the duke has given to my aunt ThemeRheme

90. Question: Is there an one-to-one correspondence between subject & predicate and theme & rheme?

91. Czech examples (a) Tatinek napsal tenhle dopis. (father wrote this letter) (b) Tenhle dopis napsal tatinek. (this letter wrote father)

92. English counterparts (c) This letter was written by father. (d) It was this letter that father wrote.

93. C.f. objective order & subjective order

94. COMMUNICATIVE DYNAMISM

95. Question: C.f. theme and rheme & CD analysis (See Pp 150)

96. 4.4.2 Systemic-functional grammar Representatives: Michael Alexander Kirkwood Halliday

97.  Systemic Firth: language elements form into systems, and the use of language involves a network of systems of choices.

98.  Functional Malinowski: language is a social phenomenon, and the study of language is related to the functions it performs.

99.  Systemic-Functional Functions of language  Ideational experiential logic  Interpersonal  Textual Grammatical systems  Transitivity  Mood  Theme

100. Ideational

101. Interpersonal

102. Textual

103. Theme Theme ( 主位 ): a function in the clause as a message together with Rheme (See Pp 153)

104. Subject Subject: a function of the mood system Finite verbal operator ( 限定成分 )

105.  Indicative ( 直陈语气 ): the presence of the Subject plus Finite  Declarative S+F ( 陈述语气 ) F+S (yes/no interrogative)  Interrogative S(wh-)+F (wh- interrogative) ( 疑问语气 ) Wh-+ F+S (wh- interrogative)  Imperative ( 祈使语气 ): the absence of the Subject plus Finite

106. Actor Actor: a function in the clause as a representation, both the representation of outer experience and inner experience.

107. Six processes: Material Mental Relational Behavioural Verbal Existential