4 From word to text

Chapter4Fromwordtotext•4.1Syntacticrelations•4.2Grammaticalconstructionanditsconstituents•4.3Syntacticfunction•4.4Category•4.5Phrase,clauseandsentence•4.6Recursiveness•4.7BeyondthesentenceDefinitionofsyntaxSyntaxisthestudyofhowsentencesarestructuredorhowwordsarecombinedwithotherstoformsentencesandinwhatorder.Syntaxisthestudyoftherulesgoverningthewaysdifferentconstituentsarecombinedtoformsentencesinalanguage,orthestudyoftheinterrelationshipsbetweenelementsinsentencestructures.Thestudyofsentences:syntax•Thestudyofsentences,thatis,howsentencesareformedbywords,makessyntax.•Theknowledgeofhowtoputwordstogether.•Theknowledgeofhowtodistinguishstructuralambiguity•Theknowledgeofhowtotellgoodsentencesfrombadsentences.Keypoints•Syntacticrelations–Positionalrelation–Relationofsubstitutability–Relationofco-occurrence•Grammaticalconstructionanditsconstituents–Immediateconstituents–Endocentricandexocentricconstructions–Coordinationandsubordination•Differencesbetweenphrase,clauseandsentence4.1SyntacticrelationsThedogranDogranthePositionalrelation:horizontal,The____smiles.manboygirlRelationofsubstitutability:verticalThe________.mansmilesboycriesgirlsingsRelationofco-occurrence:horizontalorvertical•Positionalrelation,orWORDORDER,referstothesequentialarrangementofwordsinalanguage.PositionalRelationTheteachersawthestudentsThestudentssawtheteacherTheorderofthewordsisalsoinfluencedbysemanticconsiderations•Wordorderisamongthethreebasicways(wordorder,geneticandarealclassifications)toclassifylanguagesintheworld:–SVO,VSO,SOV,OVS,OSV,andVOS.–EnglishbelongstoSVOtype,thoughthisdoesnotmeanthatSVOistheonlypossiblewordorder.RelationofSubstitutabilityThe______smiles.manboygirl•TheRelationofSubstitutabilityreferstoclassesorsetsofwordssubstitutableforeachothergrammaticallyinsentenceswiththesamestructure.strongmanThetallestboysmiles.prettygirlyesterday.Hewenttherelastweek.thedaybefore.•Italsoreferstogroupsofmorethanonewordwhichmaybejointlysubstitutablegrammaticallyforasinglewordofaparticularset.RelationofCo-occurrence•Wordsofdifferentsetsofclausesmaypermit,orrequire,theoccurrenceofawordofanothersetorclasstoformasentenceoraparticularpartofasentence.(Precededby)NP(followedby)thestrongmansmilestheprettyboycriestheyounggirlsingsForinstance,determiner+adjective(s)+noun(dog)noun(dog)+bark,bite,run,etc.Inshort,co-occurrenceisthesyntacticenvironmentinwhichaconstruction,withitsrelevantelements,canappeargrammaticallyandconventionally.Thusrelationsofco-occurrencepartlybelongtosyntagmaticrelations,partlytoparadigmaticrelations.SyntagmaticrelationPositionalrelationisalsocalledsyntagmaticrelation:Eachelementisarrangedinahorizontaldimension;linear--Theymarriedandhadababy.--Theyhadababyandmarried.•Syntagmaticrelationmustmeetsyntacticandsemanticconditions（a）Jackeatsanapple.（b）*eatsJackanapple.（c）*Jackeatanapple.（d）*eatJackanapple.Paradigmaticrelation•Therelationofsubstitutabilityisalsotheparadigmaticrelation,referringtoclassesorsetsofwordssubstitutableforeachothersyntacticallyinthesamesentencestructure.Hewillgotomorrow.thedayaftertomorrowintwodays’timenextweekAlongtheverticaldimension,wehaveparadigmaticelementsinassociationorsubstitution.Question:•Dothesyntagmaticrelationandparadigmaticrelationexistatthephonologicalormorphologicallevel?Keya.atthephonologicallevel[seif]:[s][ei][f]Syntagmatic[sei_]:[seif]Paradigmatic[seiv]b.atthemorphologicallevelcareless:care+lessSyntagmaticcare-:carelessParadigmaticcarefulc.atthesententiallevel(omitted)4.2Grammaticalconstructionanditsconstituents•Agrammaticalconstructionreferstoanysyntacticconstructwhichisassignedoneormoreconventionalfunctionsinalanguage,togetherwithwhateverislinguisticallyconventionalizedaboutitscontributiontothemeaningoruseconstructcontains.•Grammaticalconstructionwithitstheexternalandinternalproperties.Theboykickedtheball.---anindependentclause---NP+V+NP•Theexternalpropertyispropertyoftheconstructionasawhole.•Theinternalpropertyisthe“make-ups”oftheconstruction,suchas“subject,predicate,object,noun”etc.•Inthecontextofdiscourse/textanalysis,constructionreferstoatokenofaconstructionaltype.“Subject+Predicate”type:ThegirlisgigglingrealizedasThe+girl+is+gigglingConstituentStructureTraditionally,sentencesareassumedtobemadeofsmallerunits(constituents)arrangedbothinalineardirectionandahierarchicalorder.Constituents•Constituentisatermusedinstructuralsentenceanalysisforeverylinguisticunit,whichisapartofalargerlinguisticunit.•Severalconstituentstogetherformaconstruction•Constituentscanbeimmediateconstituentsandultimateconstituents.Forexample•Theboyatetheapple,•S(A)theboy(B)atetheapple(C),•Eachpart,A,B,andC,isaconstituent.•Constituentscanbejoinedtogetherwithotherconstituentstoformlargerunits.•So,B(theboy)andC(atetheapple),arejoinedtoformahierarchicallyhigherconstituentA(“S”,hereasentence),thenBandCaresaidtobeimmediateconstituentsofA.ImmediateconstituentThisreferstothetwopartsthatareyieldedaftereachcut.Animmediateconstituentcanbefurthersegmenteduntilweobtainthesmallestgrammaticalunit.UltimateConstituentThesmallestgrammati