Syntax 1 Wiki: Week 1

The English Language and its Grammar

1. For the purposes of Syntactic Theory, a string consists of one or more words:
dog, Hunde, einkaufen gehen, to go shopping, the student of Linguistics,...

2. For the purposes of English Syntax, we distinguish between two kinds of strings:

• a. Strings which native speakers would accept as English: dogs, to go shopping, loves Jill, waiting for the bus, it is raining, happy cats, …
• b. Strings which native speakers would not accept as English: Hunde,einkaufen gehen, go to shopping, waiting for bus the …

3. It is the task of English syntax to explain in a precise and principled fashion which strings of words native speakers of English accept as well formed English and which not.

4. This task would be easy to accomplish, if one could simply list all the English strings. But, unfortunately, one cannot do that, since there are infinitely many well formed English strings:

a. Mary is tired. Mary is very tired. Mary is very, very, very tired.,...

b. Mary went to the store. Mary went to the store but Jill stayed home. Mary went to the store but Jill stayed home and Sue had the flu.,...

5. So, it is impossible to list all and only the well formed strings of English words. But what is possible, is to find a property that all and only the strings of English have in common: they and only they are grammatical according to the Grammar of English! All other strings are ungrammatical according to the Grammar of English.
6. So, we need to concern ourselves with the Grammar of English. This is what this course is all about!
7. For the purposes of English syntax, the Grammar of English consists of two parts:

• a. The English Lexicon:a, aardvark, able, abut … …
• b. The English Phrase Structure Rules: S -> N(P) V(P), NP -> D N(P)…

8. With the Grammar of English at our disposal, it is now easy to define what it means for a string of words to be grammatical English: a string of words is grammatical English, if the English grammar licenses a well formed phrase structure tree for that string. Otherwise, the string is ungrammatical in English. Example: File:Example.jpg

Homework for Week 2

1. Work through the following sections of the Wiki:

Words

2. Do the Exercises on Parts of Speech.
3. Find 3 authentic examples from books or newspapers and annotate the words with their part of speech. Do this with a word processor and upload the result to Olat.

Phrases

1. Work through the following sections of the Wiki: Phrases

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