Chapter 4 Syntax 语言学教程 胡壮麟.ppt
Chapter 4 From Word to TextnReview:nWe have already considered two levels of description used in the study of language.nFirst, we have described linguistic expressions as sequences of sounds which can be represented phonetically, eg.n lkib?yznVoiced fricative voiceless stop diphthongnSecond, we can describe the same linguistic expression as a sequence of morphemes, eg.n the luck y boy snfunctional lexical derivational n inflectionalnWith these descriptions, we could characterize all the words of a language in terms of their phonetic and morphological make-up.nthe lucky boys n*boys the luckyn*lucky boys thenThird, we need a way of describing the structure of phrases and sentences which will account for all of the grammatical sequences and rule out all the ungrammatical ones. Thus, we introducenSyntax syn- (together)n -tax (arrangement)Definition of SyntaxnSyntax is the study of the rules governing the ways different constituents are combined to form sentences in a language, or the study of the interrelationships between elements in sentence structures.nSyntax is the study of the formation of sentences.nSyntax is the analysis of sentence structure and the relationships between elements in a sentence, then what is a sentence?nA sentence is a sequence of words arranged in a certain order in accordance with grammatical rules.nThe interrelationships between elements in a sentence can be analysed according to syntactic relations.4.1 Syntactic RelationsnSyntactic relations can be analysed into three kinds, namely, positional relations (位置关系位置关系), relations of substitutability (可替换关系可替换关系), and the relations of co-occurrence (同现关系同现关系).n4.1.1 Positional RelationnFor language to fulfill its communicative function, it must have a way to mark the grammatical roles of the various phrases that can occur in a clause. E.g.,nThe boy kicked the ball.nTwo methods to convey the information in a language are through positional relation (or word order) and affixation.nPositional relation, or word order, refers to the sequential arrangement of words in a language. The sequential arrangement of words can either be well-formed or ill-formed (ungrammatical or nonsensical).na) The boy kicked the ball.nb) Boy the ball kicked thenc) The ball kicked the boy.nSometimes two sentences which have the same words in number and form and are both grammatically well-formed have opposite meanings:na) The teacher saw the students.nb) The students saw the teacher.nThis positional relation is a manifestation of “Syntagmatic Relation” proposed by Ferdinand de Saussure.nF. de Saussure, “Father of Modern Linguistics”, proposed “syntagmatic and paradigmatic relations” which was later elaborated in Course in General Linguistics (1916).nHe stressed the importance of language as a system, that is, linguistic units are interrelated with each other in a structure (or system), not as isolated bits.nSaussure proposed that a linguist must try to find the value of a sign from its relations to others, or rather, its position in the system. Thus, the two types of relations are:n1) Syntagmatic relations (structure) the relationship that linguistic units (eg. words, clauses) have with other units because they may occur together in a sequence.n2) Paradigmatic relations (system) the relationship holding between elements replaceable with each other at a particular place in s structure, that is, a word may be said to have paradigmatic relations with words that could be substituted for it in the sentence.nFor example:n I gave Tracy the book. n syntagmaticn passed n handed paradigmaticn threwnThis positional relation is also called horizontal relation or chain relation.nIt is among the three basic ways (word order, genetic and areal classifications) to classify languages in the world. According to this classification, there are six types of language, they are SVO, VSO, SOV, OVS, OSV, and VOS. English is SVO type. n补充：补充：nAreal linguistics the study of languages or dialects which are spoken in a particular area.An example is the study of two neighboring languages to see how they influence each other in terms of grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, etc. 区域区域/地区语言学：对某一地区使用语言地区语言学：对某一地区使用语言或方言进行的研究。例如，研究两种邻或方言进行的研究。例如，研究两种邻近的语言，弄清它们在语法、词汇、发近的语言，弄清它们在语法、词汇、发音等方面的相互影响。音等方面的相互影响。n4.1.2 Relation of SubstitutabilitynFirstly, it refers to classes or sets of words substitutable for each other grammatically in sentences with the same structure. (cf. p. 85)nSecondly, it refers to groups of more than one word which may be jointly substitutable grammatically for a single word of a particular set. (cf. p. 85)nThis is what Saussure called “associative relation”, or in Hjemslevs term, “paradigmatic relation”. It is also called vertical relation or choice relation.nFrom the above analysis we can see that positional relation indicates the structure of the sentence while relation of substitutability indicated the system of the sentence.n4.1.3 Relation of Co-occurrencenThis relation means that words of different sets of clauses may permit, or require, the occurrence of a word of another set or class to form a sentence or a particular part of a sentence. (p. 86)4.2 Grammatical Constructionn4.2.1 Grammatical ConstructionnGrammatical construction/construct can be used to mean any syntactic construct which is assigned one or more conventional functions in a language, together with whatever is linguistically conventionalized about its contribution to the meaning or use the construct contains.nGenerally speaking, construction refers to the sentence, or the phrase, or even the word itself.nOn the syntactic level, the external and internal properties of any construction are distinguished.nThe external syntax of a construction refers to the properties of the construction as a whole, that is to say, anything speakers know about the construction that is relevant to the larger syntactic contexts in which it is welcome. (pp. 86-7)nThe internal syntax of a construction is really a description of the constructions “make-up”, with the terms such as “subject, predicate, object, determiner, noun” etc. (p. 87)nIn the discoursal or textual level, construction refers to a token of a constructional type.nMore about “token”:nIn linguistics, a distinction is sometimes made between classes of linguistic items (eg Phonemes, Words, Utterances) and actual occurrences in speech or writing of examples of such classes.nThe class of linguistic units is called a type and examples or individual members of the class are called tokens.n在语言学中，有时把语言项目的种类，在语言学中，有时把语言项目的种类，如音位、词、话语和这些种类出现在口如音位、词、话语和这些种类出现在口语和文字中的实例加以区分。语言单位语和文字中的实例加以区分。语言单位的种类叫类型的种类叫类型(type)，种类的实例或个种类的实例或个别成分叫标记别成分叫标记(tokens)。nFor example, “hello, hi, good morning” are three different tokens of the type “Greeting”.nExample:nType: Subject + PredicatenType: Noun Phrase + Verb PhrasenTokens: The + girl + is + giggling.n4.2.2 Immediate ConstituentsnConstituents the components within one sentence (a term used for every linguistic unit, which is a part of a larger unit)nImmediate constituents are constituents immediately, or directly, below the level of a construction, which may be a sentence, a word group or even a word (which can be further analyzed into morphemes). (Bloomfield) (p. 87)n Poor John ran away.n Sn The boy ate the apple.nNode (节点节点) each position in a tree diagram where lines (“branches”) meet. At each node is a symbol for a grammatical category.nIC analysis the analysis of a sentence in terms of its immediate constituents word groups (or phrases), which are in turn analyzed into the immediate constituents of their own, and the process goes on until the ultimate constituents are reached (morphemes).nWhen a tree diagram is used to represent the constituent structure of a grammatical unit, syntactic categories are used to label the nodes. (p. 88)n(a) tree diagram (p. 88)n(b) bracketing (p. 89)nHow do we know where to make the cuts?nThe criterion is substitutability: whether a sequence of words can be substituted for a single word and the structure remains the same.nFor example, Poor John can be replaced by John, and ran away can be replaced by ran. They are of paradigmatic relations.nThe importance of IC analysis is that it stresses the function of the intermediate level the word group in the analysis of a sentence, seeing a hierarchical structure of the sentence. nThis is different from the traditional parsing which only emphasizes subject, predicate, object, etc., seeing only a linear structure of the sentences.nThe advantage of IC analysis:n1) The internal structure of a sentence is demonstrated clearly and ambiguity can be revealed. For example,nMy small childs cotn my small childs cotn my small cot for a childn my small childs cotn my cot for a small childn my small childs cotn the cot of my small childnThe son of Pharaohs daughter is the daughter of Pharaohs son.n the son of Pharaohs daughtern the daughter of Pharaohs sonn4.2.3 Endocentric and Exocentric Constructions (向心结构和离心结构向心结构和离心结构)n1. Endocentric construction is one whose distribution is functionally equivalent to that of one or more of its constituents, i.e., a word or a group of words, which serves as a definable center or head. nIn other words, the whole construction has the same grammatical function with one of its constituents (the head).nUsually noun phrases, verb phrases and adjective phrases belong to this type. (p. 89)nThis construction can further be analyzed into two types: nA. CoordinationnCoordination is formed by grouping together two or more categories of the same type with the help of a conjunction such as and, or, but.nIn other words, coordination constructions refer to those in which there are more than one head which are of equal syntactic status, and no one is dependent on the other (both are capable of serving as the head). Examples are boys and girls, coffee or tea, the city RomenEach of the constituents can stand for the original construction functionally. (p. 90)nSince there is no limit on the number of coordinated categories that can appear prior to the conjunction, this construction has one property which is important in the creativity of language: recursiveness.nB. SubordinationnIt refers to the process or result of linking linguistic units so that they have different syntactic status, one being dependent upon the other, and usually a constituent of the other. (p. 91)nThis construction also has the property of recursiveness. Cf. example 4-40 on p. 101.n2. Exocentric construction refers to a group of syntactically related words where none of the words is functionally equivalent to the group as a whole, that is, there is no definable center or head. It usually includes basic sentence, prepositional phrase, predicate construction (verb + object), and connective (be + complement) construction.4.3 Transformational Generative GrammarnAmerican linguist Noam Chomsky nSyntactic Structures (1957)n4.3.1 Five stages of developmentn1) The Classical Theory aims to make linguistics a science (1957)nThe three features:nA. It emphasizes on generative ability of language.nGenerative The rules must automatically generate sentences.nPhrase Structure (PS) Rules (Rewriting Rules)nS NP + VPnNP N (John)n N (men)n Det N (a/the man)n Det Adj N (a/the tall man)n Adj N (tall men)n Det N S (the man that wears glasses)n Det Adj N PP (a tall man with glasses)n Det Adj N PP S (the tall man with glasses that I met)nNP (Det) (Adj) N (PP) (S) nVP V (NP) (PP) (S)n advise him in a writing class that henAP A (PP) (S)ncurious of the results n curious that no one was there.nPP P NPn after the English classnPS rules are recursive.nRecursiveness:n I met a man who had a son whose wife sold cookies that she had baked in her kitchen that was fully equipped with electrical appliances that were new.nCf. pp. 101-2nB. It introduces transformational rules.n PS rules provide explanations on how syntactic categories are formed and sentences generated. However, there are other syntactic phenomena that PS rules are unable to describe, such as sentences involving syntactic movement (Syntactic movement occurs when a constituent in a sentence moves out of its original place to a new position. It is caused by Transformational rules.).nNP movement It occurs when a sentence changes from the active voice to the passive voice. E.g.,ni) The man beat the child.nii) The child was beaten by the man.nWH-movement obligatory in English which changes a sentence from affirmative to interrogativenAux-movement the movement of an auxiliary verb to the sentence-initial position, such as be, have, do, will, can, should etc.nD-structures and S-structuresnWhat syntactic movement suggests for the study of grammar is that a sentence structure may have two levels of syntactic representation, one that exists before movement takes place, and the other that occurs after movement takes place.nDeep structure the abstract representation of the syntactic properties of a construction, i.e. the underlying level of structural relations between its different constituents.nSurface structure the final stage in the syntactic derivation of a construction, which closely corresponds to the structural organization of a construction people actually produce and receive.n PS rules + the lexiconn D-structuren Movement rules (Transformations)n S-structurenC. It makes grammatical description regardless of meaning.nSummary:n1. Writing a TG grammar means working out two sets of rules Phrase Structure rules and transformational rules which are followed by speakers of the language.n2. TG grammar must account for all and only grammatical sentences.n2) The Standard TheorynThis phase deals with how semantics should be studied in a linguistic theory.nAspects of the Theory of Syntax (1965)句法理句法理论问题论问题nThe Standard Theory is introduced to solve some problems in the classical theory:ni) The T-rules are too powerful. A sentence can be transformed at will and without restrictions.nii) The rules may generate ill-formed sentences as well as well-formed ones. E.g.,n Sn NP VPn V NPn John drink wine.n Wine drink John.nThere must be certain selectional rules between the verb and the noun.niii) The T-rules for the passive voice can not be used at will for some English verbs do not have passive structures. E.g.,nJohn married Mary.nMary was married by John. nThe two sentences mean differently. In the second sentence, John is the priest who presided over Marys wedding.nChomsky noted that application of T-rules should not change the meaning of the original sentence, and that the noun must be restricted by the verb.nSo Chomsky says that a generative grammar should consist of three components syntactic, phonological, and semantic. n Base Deep Trans. SurfaceCategories Lexicon Structure Structuren Semantic PhonologicalnThe syntactic component is composed of Base component and Transformational component.nCategories contain rewriting rules more or less the same as the PS rules. The only difference is that a
