Chapter-Five-Syntax-(I)-----Syntactic-Relations教学教材.doc

Chapter-Five-Syntax-(I)-----Syntactic-Relations

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Chapter Five Syntax (I) --- Syntactic Relations
0. Introduction
Chapter 4 deals with the smallest meaningful unit at the grammatical level --- morpheme. Chapters 5, 6, 7 are about syntax, which is concerned with the largest meaningful unit at the grammatical level --- sentence.
Two ways to study sentences: In syntax, sentences can be studied in two different ways:
i. The static study（静态研究）of sentences means that we describe the structures of sentences to illustrate the parts of a sentence and relationships among them.
ii. The dynamic study（动态研究）of sentences means that we examine how sentences are generated by syntactic rules.
Two theoretical bases:
i. The static study follows the theory of structural linguistics（结构语言学).
ii. The dynamic study follows the theory of Transformational-Generative Grammar (TG grammar) (转换生成语法).
To make a structural description of sentences, we shall describe various kinds of relations between words and phrases of sentences. There are three kinds of relations between them.
1. Sequential (syntagmatic) relations（顺序／横向关系）
i. Definition: In syntax, sequential or syntagmatic relation refers to the linear ordering of the words and the phrases within a sentence.
ii. Rearrangement of the words of a sentence yields either an ungrammatical sentence or a different sentence.
2. Substitutional (paradigmatic) relations（替换／纵向关系）
i. Definition: substitutional or paradigmatic relation is a kind of relation between linguistic forms in a sentence and linguistic forms outside the sentence. That is to say, if the words or phrases in a sentence can be replaced by words and phrases outside the sentence and the resulting sentence is still grammatical, then we say the replacing forms and replaced forms have paradigmatic relations.
ii. Syntactic category （句法范畴）
A. Definition: The linguistic forms that have paradigmatic relations belong to the same syntactic category.
B. Classification: The syntactic categories can be further divided into two groups: lexical category and nonlexical category.

D. Attention: A phrase often, but not always contains more than one word. Sometimes, it may be a single word.
3. Hierarchical relations（等级关系）
i. Definition: Hierarchical relation shows us the inner layering of sentences.
ii. What means can we use to reveal the hierarchical structure of a sentence? IC analysis.
例如
iii. Three levels or hierarchies: sentence-level, phrases-level, word-level
iv. Three terms: ultimate constituents, immediate constituents, constituents
v. Structural ambiguity（结构歧义）：
The same phrase or sentence may have two or more interpretations depending on the hierarchical arrangement of its constituents. Such a case is called structural ambiguity 结构歧义.例如：　参见课本120页例（6）、（7）
4. Identifying syntactic categories 鉴别句法范畴
4.0 How can we decide to which syntactic category a certain linguistic form belongs?
Answer: As has been said before, the linguistic forms that have substitutional relations belong to the same syntactic category. Thus, if we can label the linguistic forms with appropriate syntactic categories, we then can decide whether they have substitutional relations or not. Then how can we decide to which syntactic category a certain linguistic form belongs? Generally speaking, we may determine it according to morphological 词法特征 and distributional 分布特征 features shared by linguistic forms that belong to the same class. Here, morphological features refer to inflectional and derivational affixes the linguistic forms in question can take; distributional features refer to the syntactic contexts in which the linguistic forms in question can occur.
4.1 Nouns and noun phrases
i. Morphological features
A. inflectional suffixes: ｛z｝1 (plural number marker) and ｛z｝2 (possessive case marker)
B. derivational suffixes: -ment, -ion, -hood, -ship, -ness, -ence, -ance
ii. Distributional features
The test-frames used to test nouns or noun phrases:
A. The _______ was lost.
B. There is a ______ in the room.
C. He saw _______.
D. ________ was in the garden.
4.2 Verbs and verb phrases
i. Morphological features
A. inflectional suffixes: ｛z｝3 (third person singular present tense marker); ｛d｝ (past tense marker); ｛en｝(past participle); and ｛iN｝(present participle)
B. derivational affixes: de-, be-, dis-, en-, -en, -ify, -ize, -ate
ii. Distributional features
The test frames used for verbs and verb phrases:
A. Let us __________.
B. The boy ________.
4.3 Adjectives
i. Morphological features
A. inflectional suffixes: -er, -est
B. derivational suffixes: -ish, -ful, -y, -less, -ary, -ous
ii. Distributional features
The test frames used for adjectives and adjective phrases:
A. The very ________ girl was very ______.
B. Horses are ________ animals.
4.4 Adverbs
i. Morphological features
A. inflectional suffixes: -er, -est
B. derivational suffixes: -ly
ii. Distributional features:
With regard to the distribution of the class Adverb and Adverbial phrase, we cannot describe it in terms of a frame as we did for the other categories because they usually do not have a fixed position in a sentence. They may be used to modify adjectives, other adverbs, verbs or sentences.

Hierarchies and Labeled IC analysis
5.1 句子等级结构的四种表示法：1）直接成分分析；2）标记法直接成分分析；3）短语标记法；4）括号标记法。
（1）直接成分分析：
We have studied the means of IC analysis used to analyze the hierarchical structure of sentences. Now let's compare the hierarchical structures of the following sentences.
1) These apples are very sweet. 2) Little Tom runs very fast. 3) His brother stayed at home.
These sentences may be represented by the following tree-branch diagrams:

These three diagrams appear to be the same. Some people may think they have a common structure. But actually, they differ greatly from each other. So, by using IC analysis, we cannot indicate the radical differences of the hierarchical structures.
（2）标记法直接成分分析：
In order to overcome this problem, we modify IC analysis by labeling each constituent with a syntactic category. The revised method is called Labeled IC analysis（标记法直接成分分析). So the above three sentences can be drawn as follows:

（3）短语标记法：
However, people feel that the diagrams by Labeled IC analysis are too redundant. So we may simplify them by omitting the linguistic forms at sentence-level and phrase-level. Now, we may draw the diagrams again according to this method:

（4）括号标记法：
例如：The girl put the book on the desk.
[S[NP[Det the][N girl]][VP[V put][NP[Det the][N book]][PP[P on][NP[Det the][N desk]]]]]
5.2 本单元概念：
i. Phrase markers may reveal three kinds of syntactic relations simultaneously:
表示法的三个优点
A. the linear ordering of words 句子语言形式的横向线性顺序
B. the syntactic category of each constituent 纵向句法范畴
C. the hierarchical arrangement of constituents等级安排
ii. What is a node? 节
Each branching point in a phrase marker is called a node.
iii. If a phrase only contains a word, it is always labeled first with a phrase category and then with a lexical category.
iv. Two kinds of phrase markers:
A. complete phrase marker: The phrase marker which conveys the entire information on the hierarchical arrangement of sentential constituents is called a complete phrase marker.
B. partial phrase marker: If a phrase marker is abbreviated by using a triangle to represent a larger constituent, it is called a partial phrase marker. 例如：参见131页（28）。
Exercises
1. Use examples to explain the three syntactic relations discussed in Chapter 5.
The first kind of syntactic relation is the syntagmatic relation which indicates the linear ordering of the words and the phrase within a sentence. The second kind is the paradigmatic relation which describes the relation between the linguistic forms in a sentence and those outside the sentence. The third kind is the hierarchical relation that reveals the inner layering of a sentence.
The following examples can illustrate the major difference between the first two kinds of relations:

The following tree diagram can illustrate the third kind of syntactic relations:

2. Give five items that have paradigmatic relations with each of the underlined parts of the following sentences:

(a) (1): the girl, the boy, the old lady, little Tom, he;
(2): saw, found, got, sold;
(3): some books, a new car, a cat, a pair of shoes, them;
(b) (1): Mary, the little boy, the nice girl, he, John;
(2): runs fast, studies hard, sings very well, writes carefully.
3. Label each constituent in the following diagrams with an appropriate category.
(a)

(b)

4. Identify the ultimate constituents, constituents and immediate constituents in the following sentences:
(a) Little Jill sang well.
In Sentence (a), the ultimate constituents are little, Jill, sang and well. The constituents are Little Jill, Jill, sang well, sang and well. Little Jill and sang well are the ICs of Little Jill sang well; Little and Jill, the ICs of Little Jill; sang and well, the ICs of sang well.
(b) John was at home.
In Sentence (b), the ultimate constituents are John, was, at and home. The constituents are John, was at home, was, at home, at and home. John and was at home are the ICs of John was at home; was and at home, the ICs of was at home; at and home, the ICs of at home.
5. Point out the mistakes in the following phrase markers and make corrections if necessary.
(a)

(b)

6. Draw phrase markers for the following sentences:

(Suggestion: If you find it difficult to do, I suggest that you may do it in three steps.)
(i) Carry out an IC analysis;
(ii) Label each constituent with an appropriate syntactic category;
(iii) Remove the constituents at sentence-level and at phrase-level.
Now let us take the sentence: The puppy found the child for example.
Step 1

Step 2

Step 3

(You have to be careful if a phrase only contains a single word. Remember that in this case, you should start with a phrase category and then move to a lexical category.)
7. Consider the two sentences, A and B, given below. Then answer the questions that follow.
A. His crime was hiding something.
(Meaning he hid something, and that was a crime.)
B. His crime was hiding something.
(Meaning: the crime itself actually hid something.)
Answer A or B to each of the following questions.

8. Paraphrase each of the following sentences in two different ways to show that you understand the ambiguity involved:
(a) The men decided on the train.
key:i.The men made the decision on the train.
    ii.The men chose the train.
(b) He looked over the chair.
key:i.He looked at some thing on the other side of the chair.
    ii.He examined the chair.
(c) They are flying planes.
key:i.The people are flying plance.
    ii.They are planes that are flying.

(d) I dislike naughty boys and girls.
key:i.I dislike naughty boys and naughty girls.
    ii.I dislike girls and naughty boys.
(e) They fed her dog biscuits.
key:i.They fed biscuits to her dog.
    ii.The fed dog biscuits to her.
(f) The governor is a dirty street fighter.
key:i.The governor is a street fighter who is dirty.
    ii.The governor is a fighter who fights against dirty streets.
(g) Annie whacked a man with an umbrella.
key:i.Annie used an umbrella to whack a man.
    ii.Annie whacked a man who carried an umbrella.
(h) Mary and Joe or Bill frightened the sheepdog.
key:i.Mary and Joe frightened the sheepdog or Bill frightened the sheepdog.
    ii.Mary and Joe frightened the sheepdog or Mary and Bill frightened the sheepdog.
9. Give labeled bracketed analysis of the following sentences:
(a) The policeman chased a robber.
key:[S[NP[Det The][N policeman]][VP[V chased][NP[Det a][N robber]]]]
(b) He is from Nanjing.
key:[S[NP[Det This][N man]][VP[V is][pp[p from][NP[N Nanjing]]]]]

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