英语语言学讲义Chapter4-Syntax

《语言学教程》讲义第四章“句法学”潘登共12页1Chapter4SyntaxTeachingaims1.Overviewofsyntaxasasystemofrulesthatgoverntheformationofgrammaticalsentences.2.Overviewthefourphrasesofsyntacticstudyinthehistory3.Examinethecompositionofsentencesintermsofcategoryandstructure4.Discussgrammaticalrelationsbetweeneachnounphraseandtheverbinasentence.5.IntroduceICanalysisandfivephrasesofgenerativeapproach.4.1IntroductiontosyntaxSyntaxconsistsofasetofabstractrulesthatallowwordstobecombinedwithotherwordstoformgrammaticalsentences.Grammaticalsentences&Syntacticrule1)Sentencesarestructuredaccordingtoaparticulararrangementofwords.Well-arrangedsentencesareconsideredgrammaticalsentences.2)GrammaticalsentencesareformedfollowingasetofsyntacticrulesIntroductiontosyntaxAccordingtotraditionalapproachgrammarisdividedintotwoparts:morphologyandsyntax.Asamajorcomponentofgrammar,Syntaxisasubfieldoflinguisticsthatstudiesthesentencestructureoflanguage.Grammatical&ungrammaticalsentencesAsentenceisconsideredgrammaticalwhenitconformstothegrammaticalknowledgeinthemindofnativespeakers.Ontheotherhand,asentenceviolatesaruleaccordingtowhichwordsareorganized,thennativespeakerswilljudgeittobeanimpossiblesentenceoftheirlanguage.Syntaxconsistsofasetofabstractrulesthatallowwordstobecombinedwithotherwordstoformgrammaticalsentences.Grammaticalsentences&Syntacticrule1)Sentencesarestructuredaccordingtoaparticulararrangementofwords.Well-arrangedsentencesareconsideredgrammaticalsentences.2)Grammaticalsentencesareformedfollowingasetofsyntacticrules4.2SyntaxasssystemofrulesDiscussion:Canwemakeadictionaryofsentences?Whyorwhynot?《语言学教程》讲义第四章“句法学”潘登共12页2Universallyfoundinthegrammarsofallhumanlanguages,syntacticrulescomprisethesystemofinternalizedlinguisticknowledgeofalanguagespeakerknownaslinguisticcompetence.Atheoryofgrammarmustprovideacompletecharacterizationoflinguisticutterancesthatspeakersimplicitlyconsiderwell-formed,orgrammatical,sequences..Universallyfoundinthegrammarsofallhumanlanguages,syntacticrulescomprisethesystemofinternalizedlinguisticknowledgeofalanguagespeakerknownaslinguisticcompetence.Atheoryofgrammarmustprovideacompletecharacterizationoflinguisticutterancesthatspeakersimplicitlyconsiderwell-formed,orgrammatical,sequences..Themajorgoaloflinguisticsis,then,toshowwithaconsistentandexplicitgrammaticaltheoryhowsyntacticrulesaccountforthisgrammaticalknowledgeTheinfinitenumbersofsentences&Syntacticrule1)Foranynaturallanguage,asetofsyntacticrulesarecapableofyieldinganendlessnumberofsentencesinthatlanguage.2)Thatis,thesyntacticrulesofanylanguagearefiniteinnumber,andyetthereisnolimittothenumberofsentencesnativespeakersofthatlanguageareabletoproduceandcomprehend.4.3.1Lexicalcategories---WordClassAlanguagehasmajorandminorlexicalcategoriesofafiniteset.1)Majorlexicalcategoriesareopencategoriesinthesensethatnewwordsareconstantlyadded.2)Minorlexicalcategoriesareclosedcategoriesbecausethenumberofthelexicalitemsinthesecategoriesisfixedandnonewmembersareallowedfor.Englishhasfourmajorlexicalcategoriesandsixminorlexicalcategories,givenbelowwithexamples:EnglishFourMajorLexicalCategories•Noun(N):student,linguistics,lecture,John•Verb(V):like,read,go•Adjective(Adj):tall,lovely,red•Adverb(Adv):loudly,constantly,hardEnglishhasfourmajorlexicalcategoriesandsixminorlexicalcategories,givenbelowwithexamples:•EnglishSixMinorLexicalCategories•Determiner(Det):the,a,this,his•Auxiliary(Aux):can,will,do,be,have•Preposition(Prep):in,at,to,on•Pronoun(Pron):he,she,us,mine•Conjunction(Conj):and,or,but,while•Interjection(Int):oh,ah,eh4.3.2Phrasalcategories---PhrasalClassExceptforaveryfewnumber,lexicalitemshavecertaincombinationalpropertiesthatallowthemtocombinewithwordsofdifferentcategoriestoformphrases.InEnglishsyntacticanalysis,fourphrasalcategoriesarecommonlyrecognizedanddiscussed,namely,nounphrase(NP),verbphrase(VP),prepositionalphrase(PP),andadjectivephrase(AP)《语言学教程》讲义第四章“句法学”潘登共12页3Thecharacteristicsofphrasalcategories1.NPandVPareessentialcomponentsofasentence,comprisingthetwomajorsyntacticcategories,thatis,thesubjectandthepredicateofasentence.2.NoticealsothatVPinasentencemaycontainjustaverb,withanoptionalnounphraseand/oraprepositionalphrase;3.NPmaycontainjustanoun,andAPjustanadjective.4.NP:atallman,thestudent5.VP:hitthestudent,walkwithastick6.PP:withastick,inthepark7.AP:quiterudeWordsandphrasesareorganizedaccordingtothesyntacticcategoriestheybelongto.•Apartfromsentences(S)andclauses(C),asyntacticcategoryusuallyreferstoaword(calledalexicalcategory)oraphrase(calledaphrasalcategory)thatperformsaparticulargrammaticalfunction,suchasthesubjectinasentence.•Constituentsthatcanbesubstitutedforoneanotherwithoutlossofgrammaticalitybelongtothesamesyntacticcategory.Forexample:Whichsentencesaregrammaticalsentences?(1)a.Thestudentlikedthelinguisticslecture.••b.Thelinguisticslecturelikedthestudent.••c.*Likedthestudentthelinguisticslecture.(2)a.Johnhituponanidea.•b.AnideahituponJohn.•c.*AnhitJohnuponidea.4.4Sentencestructure(Traditionalapproach))Discussion:Sincesyntaxdealswiththesentencestructureoflanguage,wewillthen