? Native speakers know what element relates to what other element
directly or indirectly. For example, in The boats are not big enough and We don’t have enough boats, the word enough is related to different words in the two sentences.
? Recursion
? The same rule can be used repeatedly to create infinite sentences. For
example, I know that you are happy. He knows that I know that you are happy. She knows that he knows that I know that you are happy.
? Sentence relatedness
? Sentences may be structurally variant but semantically related. ? Syntactic categories
? A syntactic category is a class of words or phrases that can substitute for one another without loss of grammaticality. For example, consider the following sentences:
? The child found the knife. ? A policeman found the knife.
? The man who just left here found the knife. ? He found the knife.
? All the italicized parts belong to the same syntactic category called noun
phrase (NP). The noun phrases in these sentences function as subject. The knife, also a noun phrase, functions as object.
? Traditional grammar
? In traditional grammar, a sentence is considered a sequence of words which
are classified into parts of speech.
? Sentences are analyzed in terms of grammatical functions of words: subjects,
objects, verbs (predicates), predicatives, …
? Compulsory elements of a sentence: subject, verb, object, complement,
adverbial…
? Nouns: number, case, gender… ? Verbs: tense, aspect, voice…
? Adjectives and adverbs: comparative and superlative degrees ? Agreement in number/person/gender
? Parsing: trying to make detailed analysis in structure
? Structural grammar
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? Structural grammar arose out of an attempt to deviate from traditional
grammar. It deals with the inter-relationships of different grammatical units. In the concern of structural grammar, words are not just independent grammatical units, but are inter-related to one another. ? Form class
? Form class is a wider concept than part of speech in traditional grammar. ? Linguistic units which can appear in the same slot are said to be in the
same form class. For example, a(n), the, my, that, every, etc. can be placed before nouns in English sentences. These words fall into one form class.
? These linguistic units are observed to have the same distribution. ? Immediate constituent (IC) analysis
? Structural grammar is characterized by a top-down process of analysis. ? A sentence is seen as a constituent structure. All the components of the
sentences are its constituents. A sentence can be cut into sections. Each section is its immediate constituent. Then each section can be further cut into constituents. This on-going cutting is termed immediate constituent analysis. ? Examples:
? Old men and women: old | men and women, old || men | and women ? The ||| little || girl | speaks || French.
? In this way, sentence structure is analyzed not only horizontally but also
vertically. In other words, IC analysis can account for the linearity and the hierarchy of sentence structure.
? I will suggest | that this || in itself reflects ||| a particular ideology
|||| about gender ||||| that deserves to be re-examined.
? Two advantages of IC analysis:
? It can analyze some ambiguities.
? It shows linearity and hierarchy of one sentence.
? Transformational-generative (TG) grammar
? Background and the goal of TG grammar
? Chomsky (1957) – grammar is the knowledge of native speakers.
? Adequacy of observation ? Adequacy of description
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? Adequacy of explanation
? Writing a TG grammar means working out two sets of rules – phrase
structure rules and transformation rules – which are followed by speakers of the language.
? TG grammar must account for all and only grammatical sentences. ? Syntactic categories
? Noun Phrase (NP) ? Verb Phrase (VP) ? Sentence (S) ? Determiner (Det) ? Adjective (Adj) ? Pronoun (Pro) ? Verb (V)
? Auxiliary Verb (Aux) ? Prepositional Phrase (PP) ? Adverb (Adv)
? Phrase structure (PS) rules
? S → NP VP
(Det) (Adj) N
? NP →
Pro
? VP → (Aux) V (NP) (PP) ? PP → P NP
Tree diagrams (omit)
Recursion and the infinitude of language
? S contains NP and VP and that S may be a constituent of NP and VP. NP
and PP can be mutually inclusive. If phrasal categories appear on both sides of the arrow in phrase structure rules, the rules are recursive. Recursive rules can be applied again and again, and the phrase structure can grow endlessly.
Sub-categorization of the lexicon.
? The process of putting words of the same lexical category into smaller
classes according to their syntactic characteristics is called sub-categorization. Transformational rules (T-rules) ? Particle movement T-rule
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{
? ?
?
?
? John turned the machine off. John turned off the machine. ? Replacement T-rule
? John beat Tom. He beat Tom.
? The house needs repairing (to be repaired). ? Insertion T-rule
? A fish is swimming in the pond. There is a fish swimming in the
pond.
? Deletion T-rule
? They came in and (they) sat down. ? Copying T-rule
? He is coming, isn’t he?
? He has finished his homework, hasn’t he? ? Reflexivization T-rule
? I wash me (myself). ? TG grammar accounts for the mental process of our speaking.
? Systematic-functional grammar
? Background and the goal of systemic-functional grammar
? M. A. K. Halliday
? Language is a system of meaning potential and a network of
meaning as choices.
? Meaning determines form, not vice versa. Meaning is realized
through forms.
? The goal of systemic-functional grammar is to see how function and
meaning are realized through forms. ? The three meta-functions of language
? Ideational function ? Interpersonal function ? Textual function
? The transitivity system of language
? Elements
? Process ? Participants ? Circumstances
? Categorization of reality
? Doing – material process
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? Processes involving physical actions: walking, running,
throwing, kicking, wrapping, etc. ? Actor, goal and circumstance ? Being – relational process
? Processes representing a relation being set up between two
separate entities.
? Be (identifying), have (attributive)
? Carrier/possessor and attribute/possessed ? Sensing – mental process
? Processes of sensing, including feeling, thinking, perceiving,
imagining, wanting, liking, etc. ? Senser and phenomenon
? Less central types of linguistic process
? Verbal processes – saying something
? Sayer and receiver
? Behavioural processes – active conscious processes
? Behaver and range
? Existential processes – existence of an entity
? Existent
? Mood and modality
? Mood expresses the speaker’s attitude and serves for interpersonal
function. It is a syntactic constituent made up of the subject and the finite.
? Modality is the degree of certainty or frequency expressed by the
grammatical forms of finite. It can be categorized by modalization and modulation.
? Theme and rheme
? Theme is the given information, while rheme is the new information. ? Examples:
? John | is my friend.
? He | should have replied to my letter.
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