What is syntax?
Syntax is the study of the structure of sentences.
Syntax analyzes how words combine to form sentences.
Sentences are made up of smaller units, called phrases (which in turn are made up of words).
Why is syntax important?
We speak in sentences not in words. To understand the structure of a language it is necessary to study the structure of sentences.
If we learn to analyze the structure of sentences, we will also learn to analyze their meaning.
The study of syntax is the study of the function of words, which is necessary to understand the structure and the meaning of a language.
The basic functions
Subject: obligatory element; it specifies the entity about which we will say something (the doer of the action, the entity described, etc.)
Object: obligatory element, it completes the meaning of a word or sentence.
Subject or Object Complement: obligatory element that adds a description of the subject or the object. These function also receive the names of Attribute and Predicative.
Modifier: optional element; adds additional information that specifies a noun
Adverbial: optional element; modifies a verb, adjective or adverb
What is a sentence?
Although everyone knows or thinks they know what a word is and what a sentence is, both terms defy exact definition. The sentence as a linguistic concept has been defined in over 200 different ways, none of them completely adequate. Here are the most important attempts at defining the sentence:
The traditional, or common sense definition states that a sentence is a group of words that expresses a thought . The problem comes in defining what a thought is. The phrase an egg expresses a thought but is it a sentence? A sentence like I closed the door because it was cold expresses two thoughts and yet it is one sentence.
A sentence is basically a string of words that follow the grammatical rules of a language.
A sentence expresses a complete thought
A sentence is made up of phrases. At the very least a sentence contains a verb phrase (also known as the predicate) and a subject.
We will use the terms SENTENCE and CLAUSE indistinctively.
What is a phrase?
A phrase is a part of a sentence. It does not express a complete thought.
A phrase is a group of words that function as a single unit. Usually they can be substituted by a pronominal form.
All phrases have one word which is the nucleus, the head. The head of a phrase determines the kind of phrase we have: Noun Phrase, Adjective Phrase, Adverb Phrase, Prepositional Phrase or Verb Phrase.
A phrase is a small group of words that forms a meaningful unit within a clause.
A clause is a group of words that contains a verb (and usually other components too). A clause may form part of a sentence or it may be a complete sentence in itself.
A sentence is a group of words that makes complete sense, contains a main verb, and begins with a capital letter.
Sentence must:
have a subject and a verb (predicate)
MUST have a complete though
Begins with a capital letter
Ends with punctuation
have intonation
Sentences are used:
Syntactic atoms
The basic unit of syntax is not the word, but the syntactic atom, defined as a structure that fulfills a basic syntactic function. Syntactic atoms may be either a single word or a phrase that fulfills a single syntactic function.
Fido ate the bone.
The dog ate the bone.
The big yellow dog ate the bone.
Our dog that we raised from a puppy ate the bone.
Simple sentence
A simple sentence normally contains one statement (known as a main clause). For example:
The train should be here soon.
His father worked as a journalist.
Compound sentence
A compound sentence contains two or more clauses of equal status (or main clauses), which are normally joined by a conjunction such as and or but. For example:
| Joe became bored with teaching | and | he looked for a new career. |
| [main clause] | [conjunction] | [main clause] |
| Boxers can be very friendly dogs | but | they need to be trained. |
| [main clause] | [conjunction] | [main clause] |
Complex sentence
A complex sentence is also made up of clauses, but in this case the clauses are not equally balanced. They contain a main clause and one or more subordinate clauses. For example:
| The story would make headlines | if it ever became public. |
| [main clause] | [subordinate clause] |
| He took up the project again | as soon as he felt well enough. |
| [main clause] | [subordinate clause] |
A clause is a group of words that contains a verb (and usually other components too). A clause may form part of a sentence or it may be a complete sentence in itself. For example:
| He was eating a bacon sandwich. |
| [clause] |
| She had a long career | but she is remembered mainly for one early work. |
| [clause] | [clause] |
Main clause
Every sentence contains at least one main clause. A main clause may form part of a compound sentence or a complex sentence, but it also makes sense on its own, as in this example:
| He was eating a bacon sandwich. |
| [main clause] |
Compound sentences are made up of two or more main clauses linked by a conjunction such asand, but, or so, as in the following examples:
| I love sport | and | I’m captain of the local football team. |
| [main clause] | [conjunction] | [main clause] |
| She was born in Spain | but | her mother is Polish. |
| [main clause] | [conjunction] | [main clause] |
Subordinate clause
A subordinate clause depends on a main clause for its meaning. Together with a main clause, a subordinate clause forms part of a complex sentence. Here are two examples of sentences containing subordinate clauses:
| After we had had lunch, | we went back to work. |
| [subordinate clause] | [main clause] |
| I first saw her in Paris, | where I lived in the early nineties. |
| [main clause] | [subordinate clause] |
A phrase is a small group of words that forms a meaningful unit within a clause.
Types of Syntactic Relations
One of the most important problems of syntax is the classification and criteria of
distinguishing of different types of syntactical connection.
L. Barkhudarov (3) distinguishes three basic types of syntactical bond:
subordination,
co-ordination,
predication.
Subordination implies the relation of head-word and adjunct-word, as e.g. a tall boy, a red pen and so on.
The criteria for identification of head-word and adjunct is the substitution test. Example:
1) A tall boy came in.
2) A boy came in.
3) Tall came in.
This shows that the head-word is "a boy" while "tall" is adjunct, since the sentence (3) is
unmarked from the English language view point. While sentence (2) is marked as it has an invariant meaning with the sentence (1).
Co-ordination is shown either by word-order only, or by the use of form-words:
4) Pens and pencils were purchased.
5) Pens were purchased.
6) Pencils were purchased.
Since both (5), (6) sentences show identical meaning we may say that these two words are
independent: coordination is proved.
Predication is the connection between the subject and the predicate of a sentence. In predication none of the components can be omitted which is the characteristic feature of this type of connection, as e.g.
7) He came ...
8) *He ...
9) * ... came or
10) I knew he had come
11) * I knew he
12) * I knew had come
Sentences (8), (9) and (11), (12) are unmarked ones.
H. Sweet (42) distinguishes two types of relations between words: subordination, coordination.
Subordination is divided in its turn into concord when head and adjunct words have alike inflection, as it is in phrases this pen or these pens: and government when a word assumes a certain grammatical form through being associated with another word:
13) I see him, here "him" is in the objective case-form.
The transitive verbs require the personal pronouns in this case.
14) I thought of him. “him” in this sentence is governed by the preposition “of”. Thus, “see” and “of” are the words that governs while “him” is a governed word.
B. Ilyish (15) also distinguishes two types of relations between words: agreement by which he means "a method of expressing a syntactical relationship, which consists in making the subordinate word take a form similar to that of the word to which it is subordinated". Further he states: "the sphere of agreement in Modern English is
extremely small. It is restricted to two pronouns-this and that ..." government ("we understand the use of a certain form of the subordinate word required by its head word, but not coinciding with the form of the head word itself-that is the difference between agreement and government")
e.g. Whom do you see
This approach is very close to Sweet's conception.
As one can see that when speaking about syntactic relations between words we mention the terms coordination, subordination, predication, agreement and government
It seems that it is very important to differentiate the first three terms (coordination, subordination and predication) from the terms agreement and government, because the first three terms define the types of syntactical relations from the standpoint of dependence of the components while the second ones define the syntactic relations from the point of view of the correspondence of the grammatical forms of their components. Agreement and government deals with only subordination and has nothing to do with coordination and predication. Besides agreement and government there is one more type of syntactical relations which may be called collocation when head and adjunct words are connected with each-other not by formal grammatical means (as it is the case with agreement and government but by means of mere collocation, by the order of words and by their meaning as for example: fast food, great day, sat silently and so on).
subordination – подчинение
coordination –согласованность
predication – предикация
agreement- согласование
Согласование (agreement) имеет место тогда, когда подчиненное слово принимают форму, сходную с формой ядерного слова, например: this boy, these boys; the child plays, the children play; в английском языке слова согласуются только по категории числа в некоторых контекстах.
Управление (government) имеет место тогда, когда некая форма адъюнкта требуется при присоединении к ядерному слову, но не совпадает с ним по форме, например: to see him; to talk to him. Rely on him, to be proud of her.
Примыкание(adjoinment)- не предполагает никакого формального признака связи, слова объединяются просто на основе контакта друг с другом, например: to go home, to nod silently, to act cautuiosly.
Замыкание(enclosure) имеет место тогда, когда адъюнкт располагается между двумя частями аналитической формы ядерного слова, например: to thoroughly think over, the then government, an interesting question , a pretty face, your pretty man, on good essay.
Theme and Rheme
Theme-functions as the ‘starting point for the message’ (M. A. K. Halliday, 1985a, p. 39),the element which the clause is going to be ‘about’ has a crucial effect in orienting listeners and readers. Theme is the starting point of the clause, realised by whatever element comes first.
Rheme
is the rest of the message, which provides the additional information added to the starting point and which is available for subsequent development in the text. The different choice of Theme has contributed to a different meaning and English uses firstclausal position as a signal to orient a different meaning of the sentences. For example,
Li Ping read a very good book last night.
Li Ping- theme
read a very good book last night.- rheme
A very good book,Li ping read last night.
A very good book- theme
Li ping read last night.- rheme
Last night Li ping read a very good book.
What Li Ping read
Last night was a very good book.
Li Ping,he read a very good book last night.
In each case above, the writer starts the message from a different point, that is, to choose a different Theme for the clause. As Halliday (1994, p.38) mentioned Theme as the‘starting-point for the message’ or ‘the ground from which the clause is taking off’.
And also, the different choice of Theme has contributed to a different meaning. What makes these sentences different is that they differ in their choice of theme and they tell us what
Li Ping, Avery good book, Last night or What Li Ping read
is going to be about.
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