1. Syntax
Report by:
Aileen F. Nicasio

2. Contents
• What is syntax?
• What is Grammar and its types?
• What is Generative Grammar?
• Deep and Surface Structure
• Structural Ambiguity
• Tree Diagram
• Symbols used in Syntactic Analysis
• Phrase structural rules
• Lexical rules
• Transformational rules
• Complement phrase
• Recursion

3. What is Syntax?
The word ‘syntax’ has been derived from the Greek
word syntaxis literally means “a putting together” or
“arrangement” It implies the way in which words are
arranged so as to reveal relationships of meanings
within sentences and often between them. It studies
combinations of words including word-structure and
sentence-structure.

4. What is Grammar?
Grammar is a word that confuses considerably. It has
been approached and defined differently by different
scholars and schools of linguistics. Etymologically, the
term Grammar goes back (through French & Latin) to
Greek word Grammatika or Grammatkia which may be
translated as the art of ‘writing’. But for a long time, this
term has been used very closely to incorporate the whole
study of language.

5. Types of Grammar
Prominent types of grammar are discussed below:
• Traditional Grammar
• Prescriptive Grammar
• Descriptive Grammar
• Sentence-Interpretative Grammar
• Sentence-Producing Grammar
• Reference Grammar
• Contrastive Grammar
• Theoretical Grammar
• Structural Grammar
• Phrase-Structure Grammar
• Generative Grammar
• Transformational Grammar
• Stratificational Grammar
• Communicative Grammar

6. Generative Grammar
Generative Grammar is a grammar in which a set of formal rules
are used to generate or define the membership of an infinite set
of grammatical sentences in a language. Instead of analyzing a
single sentence, this grammar devises a set of rules of
construction that may help in generating sentences or structures
in an infinitely large number. This grammar attempts to produce
all and only grammatical sentences of language.
(all and only means that our analysis must account for all the
grammatical correct phrases and sentences and only those
grammatical correct phrases and sentences in whatever language
we are analyzing.)
We have a rule such as “a prepositional phrase in English
consists of a preposition followed by a noun phrase”. We can
produce a large number of (infinite) phrase using this rule.
e.g. in the zoo, on the table, near the window

7. Deep and Surface Structure
• Charlie broke the window. (Active Voice)
• The window was broken by Charlie. (Passive Voice)
Some linguists, in particular Noam Chomsky, have tried to
account for this similarity by positing that these two
sentences are distinct (different) surface forms that derive
from a common deep structure.

8. Deep and Surface Structure
• Charlie broke the window. (Active Voice)
• The window was broken by Charlie. (Passive Voice)
The distinction between them is a difference in their
surface structure. They have different syntactic forms of
individual sentence. This superficial difference is called
surface structure.

9. Deep and Surface Structure
The sentences can have deep structure like this:
• It was Charlie who broke the window.
• Was the window broken by Charlie?
This ‘underlying’ level, where the basic components
(noun phrase + verb + noun phrase) shared by two
sentences can be represented, is called deep structure.
The deep structure is an abstract level of structural
organization in which all the elements determining
structural interpretation are represented.

10. Structural Ambiguity
• Annie bumped into a man with an umbrella.
• Small boys and girls are playing hide and seek.
Explanation can show in the first sentence two ideas:
i. Annie had an umbrella and she bumped into a man.
ii. Annie bumped into a man when he happened to be
carrying an umbrella.
Explanation can show in the first sentence two ideas:
i. Small boys are playing with young girls.
ii. Small boys and all girls are playing.
Distinct underlying interpretations that have to be represented
differently in deep structure is called Structural Ambiguity.

11. Tree Diagram
• A tree diagram is a way of representing
the hierarchical nature of a structure in a graphical
form. It is named a "tree diagram” because the
classic representation resembles a tree, even though
the chart is generally upside down compared to an
actual tree, with the "root" at the top and the "leaves"
at the bottom.
• Tree diagram provides us visual representation of the
constituents of the corresponding expression.

12. Tree Diagram
• E.g. A child can kick a football.
A child can kick footballa
S
NP Aux VP
N V NPArt
NArt

13. Symbols used in Tree Diagram
• S - Sentence
• NP- Noun Phrase
• PN- Proper Noun
• N-Noun
• VP-Verb Phrase
• Adv-Adverb
• V-Verb
• Adj-Adjective
• Prep-Preposition
• Art-Article
• Pro-Pronoun
• PP-Prepositional Phrase
• * Ungrammatical Sentence
• Consists of / rewrites as
• ( ) Optional Constituent
• { } Only one of these constituents
must be selected

14. Phrase Structure Rules
This second approach is very appealing because it would enable
us to generate a very large number of sentences with what look
like a very small number of rules. These rules called phrase
structure rules. As the name suggests, these rules state that the
structure of a phrase of a specific type will consist of one or more
constituents in a particular order.

15. Phrase Structure Rules
• TP/S • NP VP
• NP • {Art (Adj+) N, Pro, PN}
• VP • V NP (PP) (Adv)
• PP • P NP
Tree Diagrams
S
NP VP
NP
Art N
VP
V NP
PP
P NP
Phrase structure rules generate structures.

16. Lexical Rules
As we know, phrase structure rules generate
structures. To turn those structures into recognizable
English, we also need lexical rules that specify which
words can be used when we rewrite constituents such
as N.
• PN • { Mary, George }
• N • { Girl, Dog, Boy }
• Pro • { It, you, he }
• Art • { A, An, the }
• V • { Help, run, play }
We can rely on these rules to generate the grammatical sentences but not
ungrammatical sentences.

17. Transformational rules
It is easy to represent Declarative forms in tree diagrams.
e.g. You will help Mary.
S
NP Aux VP
Pro V NP
You will help Mary
S NP Aux VP

18. Transformational rules
It is easy to represent Declarative forms in tree diagrams.
e.g. You will help Mary.
BUT HOW CAN YOU REPRESENT THIS
ONE?
Will you help Mary?

19. Transformational rules
Simply Will you help Mary?
S
NPAux VP
Pro V NP
youWill help Mary
S Aux NP VP

20. Transformational rules
You will help Mary. Will you help Mary?
S
NP Aux VP
Pro V NP
You will help Mary
S NP Aux VP
 S
NPAux VP
Pro V NP
youWill help Mary
S Aux NP VP

21. Recursion
Notice these:
• Mary helped George.
• Cathy knew that Mary helped George.
• John believed that Cathy knew that Mary helped George.
The rules of grammar will also need the crucial property of
recursion. In this, we can put sentences inside other sentences and
these sentences can be generated inside another sentences.

22. Complement Phrase
• Mary helped George.
• Cathy knew that Mary helped George.
• John believed that Cathy knew that Mary helped George.
Traditionally, such sentences are called clauses (that-clause)
In the above examples, that is called complementizer (C).
We can say that sentences with that are Complement Phrase (CP).
Complement Phrase Rule S NP VP
VP V CP
CP C S

23. Complement Phrase
John believed that Cathy knew that
Mary helped George.
S
NP VP
V CP
C S
NP VP
V CP
C S
NP VP
PN PN PN V NP
PN
John believed that Cathy knew that Mary helped George.

24. Thanks