ENGL 390: The Linguistic Structure of Modern English
Fall 2005
Dr. J. Rubba
© Johanna Rubba 2005

English Syntax

Sentences: English Syntax

+Syntax: Patterns for constructing phrases and sentences

+Building blocks of syntax: Words, phrases, clauses and sentences.

+In other words, items larger than one word are used to build phrases and sentences.

• Phrases can occur inside of phrases (words in blue are heads of their phrases):

(nested-boxes diagram of phrases inside of phrases)

Function of Syntax in Language

+ Groups words together in the way our thoughts come together.

+ Groups instruct listeners/readers to blend meanings as we desire

+ Words whose meanings blend together generally appear as constituents of a phrasal unit

• A blue shirt lay on the table.

(Images of blue dot, white shirt, and blue shirt)

Phrase structure

+ Syntactic structures = phrases, clauses, sentences

+ Constituents = building blocks for syntactic structures; may be one or more than one word.

+ Syntactic structures consist of slots.

+ Each slot is assigned a grammatical role.

+ Grammatical roles: head, modifier, subject, predicate, direct object, adverbial, etc.

+ Noun phrase roles:

Parsing: Subject and Predicate

+ Using the tag-question test to find the subject of a sentence:

• Use the pronoun in the tag to “erase” the matching phrase in the base sentence:

• Karen plays the piano. (no tag)

• Karen plays the piano, doesn’t she? (doesn’t she is tag)

(Animated demo of tag as eraser of base subject)

Finding other phrases: The “Eraser Technique”

+ A general technique for finding phrases in sentences is to use various substitute forms to “erase” the phrase that occupies a particular grammatical-role slot.

+ Substitute forms include pronouns (they, she, it, he), or other substitute-forms such as there, then, that way, like that, such or interrogative pronouns who, what, when, where, why, how.

• The dog ate my homework last night.

Sentence patterns and parsing

+ “Sentence pattern” approach to verbs and grammatical roles

+ Sentence patterns derive from the kind of verb in the sentence (transitive, copular, etc.)

+ Each pattern has typical predicate roles (direct/indirect object, etc.)

+ The patterns:

• Transitive patterns

F 1. Subject - verb - direct object

] Doer - action - person/thing done to; person thing action is direct towards

] The police officer handcuffed the suspect.

] Doer action done to Technical terms:

] Agent patient

F 2. Subject - verb - indirect object - direct object

] Doer action receiver/beneficiary - object exchanged/given to indir. object

] The children gave their mother a jade necklace.

F 3. Subject - verb - direct object - object complement (adj. phrase or noun phrase)

] Doer action target of action quality/category of direct object

] The class elected Nguyen class president. (Noun phrase)

] The chef judged his assistant’s work inadequate. (Adj. phrase)

Sentence patterns and parsing - cont’d

• Intransitive patterns:

F 1. Subject - intransitive verb (or transitive verb used without any objects)

] Doer/experiencer state/event/action

] The baby slept.

] The house collapsed.

] My brother read. (transitive verb used without any objects)

F 2. Subject - copular (linking) verb - subject complement (Adj. or noun phrase)

] Person/thing non-action verb category/quality of subject

] The election was a farce. (Noun phrase)

] The prisoner became apprehensive. (Adj. phrase)

] The audience seemed/looked bored. (Past participle used adjectivally)

F 3. Subject - copular (linking) verb - adverbial phrase of location or time

] Person/thing form of “be” place or time expression

] Our gun collection is in the closet. (Prep. phrase of place)

] The final exam will be next week. (Noun phrase used adverbially)

F 4. Passive: Subject Passive marker + past participle of action verb

] Undergoer of action “be” or “get” -ed or -en form

] The building was destroyed.

] The poor kid got beaten up.

Sentence patterns and parsing - cont’d

+ Any sentence pattern can have adverbial modifiers in the predicate in addition to other grammatical roles.

+ Adverbials answer questions such as when, where, how, why, in what manner, to what degree, for what purpose.

F The baby slept soundly. (Adverb phraseof manner)

F The children gave their mother a jade necklace on her birthday. (Prep. phrase/time)

F The prisoner suddenly became apprehensive. (Adverb phrase/time)

F The police officer handcuffed the suspect expertly. (Adverb phrase/manner)

F The audience seemed/looked bored the whole time. (Noun phrase used adverbially/time [duration])

+ Passives can have an agent by-phrase or other adverbial.

F The building was destroyed by the demolition crew. (agent by-phrase)

F The poor kid got pretty badly beaten up. (Adverb phrase of degree)

+ Use the patterns for help with parsing/sentence analysis.

Sentence types (discourse function) - text pp. 109-110

+ We use different arrangements of sentence syntax to signal different discourse functions/purposes.

+ K-12 pedagogical grammars usually describe only the basic variety of each type. More types should be taught as grade level progresses.

• Assertions (“declarative”) of various sorts:

F Basic: We had heavy rain yesterday.

F Emphatic: I did pay the fine.

F Cleft: It was Rove who revealed the agent’s name.

F Etc.

• Questions (“interrogative”) of various sorts:

F Yes/no questions: Are there any termites in the attic?

F Wh- questions: When is the exam?

F Indirect questions: Wh-word is in front, but theAUX does not move.

] I don’t know when the exam is.

] Ask her how we can get to the Performing Arts Center.

• Commands (“imperative”)

F Stop being silly!

F You come here right now!

• Exclamations (“interjections”)

F What a stupid thing to do!

F How terrific your performance was!

Child language: Acquisition of Syntax

+ Preschool years: (time periods approximate)

• One-word stage Two-word stage Telegraphic stage Adult-like

• ca. 12-18 mos. ca. 18-24 mos. ca. 24-36 mos. Late 3’s onwards

• wawa! yum wawa! What Daddy doing? What is Daddy doing?

• ‘I want water.’ ‘Water tastes good.’ ‘What is Daddy doing?’ ‘What is Daddy doing?’

+ By school age (5-6 years)

• Children have deeply internalized a variety of sentence patterns.

• Complex sentences (with embedded clauses) appear in the preschool years.

F When we get home, you can rest. (Nadia, age 2)

F Common: embeddings with if, when, because and time conjunctions like when, after, before

• Some children produce long sentences more slowly and with effort

+ During the school years:

• Widen variety of types (e.g., passive)

Child language: Acquisition of Syntax

+ Preschool years: (time periods approximate)

One-word stage Two-word stage Telegraphic stage Adult-like

ca. 12-18 mos. ca. 18-24 mos. ca. 24-36 mos. Late 3’s onwards

wawa! yum wawa! What Daddy doing? What is Daddy doing?

‘I want water.’ ‘Water tastes good.’ ‘What is Daddy doing?’ ‘What is Daddy doing?’

+ By school age (5-6 years)

• Children have deeply internalized a variety of sentence patterns.

• The begin using complex sentences (with embedded clauses) in the preschool years.

F When we get home, you can rest. (Nadia, age 2)

+ During school years (1st-12th grade):

• Their comprehension of written text usually ahead of complexity of their writing

• Widen variety of sentence types (e.g., passive)

• Expand phrase structure: more information in phrases rather than separate sentences

F I have a puppy named Sally. Her tail is long and it has a curve.

F My puppy, Sally, has a long, curved tail.

• General shift away from “and”, “so” chaining to more varied clause connectors and more embedding

F One day when we went to moro bay and it was on a day that was way to crowded so we went to avala peir and we went fishing ther and we set up our pols ...

F We went to Morro Bay on a day when it was way too crowded. So we went to Avila Pier, where we set up our poles to go fishing.

Child language: Acquisition of Syntax

+ Sample child essays (4-5-6 graders) (September of new school year)

+ Spelling, punctuation and capitalization as in original essay. [?] indicates an unclear word. Clause-joining expressions are in boldface type; subordinate (embedded) clauses are in italics & underlined.

+ One day when we went to moro bay and it was on a day that was way to crowded so we went to avala peir and we went fishing ther and we set up our pols and for my little brother I put a wight on an a big fat hook a a squid head and cast it for him and 5 min later he siad he had somthing so I began reling it up and ther was a bunch of scwid on the hook and I began taking it of and I puld my and back becuse there before me was a live oreng octapus and I showd it to a old cupl I siad lok what I cout and the [?wher] shaked and my dad was amasd and when he relist it the octapus it left a big inck tral that spred out after that we went and got a big donjanos crab and the we went home.

+ When I was about six my dad was working a outage and his truck was broken and so my mom took him down to meet his freind criss down att the bottom off the road. She thought that I was sleeping but I woke up. I was scared off the dark so I went to see my mom (who I thought was sleeping upstairs.) So I when up the stairs to see her. But my brother herd me so he got out of bed thinking It was my mom. Meanwhile I was upstairs in my mom and Dad’s room. Suddenly I herd this THUD! And then I herd ----’s voice scream! “I’m coming!” I yelled I ran down stairs. I tried to help him but he hit me and I stared cring. Just then me and ---- herd a car pull into the grage! My mom came in and helped us get an Ice pack for ----’s head. And helped us get into bed.

Child language: Acquisition of Syntax

+ Implications for grammar instruction:

• Give children credit for their already-broad subconscious knowledge of grammar.

• Understand that children have acquired the syntax of their home dialect, not necessarily standard English.

• Use their subconscious knowledge through native-speaker-intuition tricks (tests for part of speech, subject-finding using tag questions, complete-sentence test, etc.) as age-appropriate (experiment)

• Focus on grammar teaching as a process of

F 1. Discovering what they know about language

F 2. Learning terminology and analysis techniques so they can talk with you about language

F 3. Use their developing conscious knowledge of grammar to expand writing skills

F 4. For example, sentence-combining (expanding phrase/sentence structure)

F 4. Use grammar knowledge to examine style in literature and everyday texts (e.g., menus, instruction manuals, etc.)

F 5. Teach correctness through comparison of spoken/written, formal/informal, standard/nonstandard grammar.

F 6. Emphasize social appropriateness of grammar to context, rather than “one right way” to construct sentences. Continually note that the usages called “mistakes” in their grammar lessons are mistakes from the point of view of formal “school English”, not kinds of English used in casual conversations or distinct regional or social gropus.

F 7. Relate grammar to text.

END Syntax slides