1. Chapter 4 Syntax
Part II

2. Sentence Structure
p. 122
Sentences have a hierarchical organization, i.e.,
the words in a sentence are grouped into natural
Units, called constituents.

3. The tree diagram A structure tree is used to represent graphically
the constituent structure of a phrase or a
Sentence.

4. Constituents pp. 122-124 1. definition:
natural groupings of a phrase or sentence
2. Every sentence in a language is associated with
one or more constituent structures. If a
sentence has more than one constituent
structure, it is structurally ambiguous, and
each tree will correspond to one of the possible
meanings.

5. Example:
I bought an antique desk suitable for a lady
with thick legs and large drawers.
Two phrase structure trees:
[a lady with thick legs and large drawers]
[[a desk for a lady] [with thick legs and large drawers]]

6. Constituency tests p
Tests to reveal the constituents of a sentence:
The “stand alone” test
The “replacement by a pronoun” test
The “move as a unit” test

7. Syntactic categories 詞類
p. 124
1. definition:
a family of expressions that can substitute for one another without loss of grammaticality
2. also called ‘grammatical categories’ or ‘parts of speech’
3. Kinds: (a) lexical categories
(b) phrasal categories

8. (a) lexical categories
p. 126
Noun (N)
Verb (V)
Adjective (Adj)
Adverb (Adv)
Preposition (P)
Conjunction (Conj)
Determiner (Det)
Auxiliary verb (Aux)
** Functional categories: Conj ,Det, Aux

9. Determiners (Det) 限詞 (a) articles: a, an, the
(b) demonstratives (指示詞):
this, that, these, those, …
(c) quantifiers (量詞):
each, every, one, all,…
(d) possessive case of nouns and pronouns:
my, his, John’s, …

10. Auxiliary verbs (Aux)助動詞
(a) modal auxiliaries (語氣助動詞):
can, may, shall, will, …
(b) helping verbs:
be in passives (be + p.p.) and
progressives (be + v-ing)
do in negatives and emphatic sentences
have in perfect (have, has, had + p.p.)

11. (b) phrasal categories
Sentence (S)
Noun phrase (NP)
Verb phrase (VP)
Adjective phrase (AP)
Prepositional phrase (PP)

12. Phrase structure trees (PS trees)
The PS tree:
(1) The PS tree is a phrase structure tree diagram
which provides labels (syntactic category
information) for each of the constituents of a
sentence; it is also called a constituent structure tree.
(2) A PS tree can represent every sentence of English
and of every human language.
(3) PS trees are explicit graphic (圖像式)
representations of a speaker’s knowledge of the
structure of the sentences of his language.

13. Three aspects of speakers’ syntactic knowledge represented in PS trees
(a) The linear order of the words in the sentence
(b) The groupings of words into syntactic
categories
The hierarchical structure of the syntactic

14. Example (1) (p. 127) The child found the puppy.S
NP VP
Det N V NP
Det N
The child found the puppy

15. Example (2): (p. 130) The puppy played in the garden.S
NP VP
Det N V PP
P NP
Det N
The puppy played in the garden

16. Example (3): (p. 130) The professor said that the student passed the exam.
NP VP
Det N V CP
C S
NP VP
Det N V NP
Det N
The professor said that the student passed the exam

17. Relationships within a PS tree
Where categories meet is a node.
Every higher node dominates all the other categories beneath it.
A node immediately dominates the categories one level below it.
Categories that are immediately dominated by the same node are sisters.

18. PS rules p. 131 1. S → NP VP 2. NP → Det N 3. VP → V NP 4. VP → V
5. VP → V PP
6. PP → P NP
7. VP → V CP
8. CP → C S

19. p. 132
Draw tree diagrams for the following sentences:
1. The boys left.
2. The wind blew the kite.
3. The senator hopes that the bill passes.