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 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. …
Homework for Week 2
1. Work through the following sections of the Wiki:
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.
4. Do the Exercises on Predicates and Arguments.
5. Find 3 new sentences with new verbs and analyze them in the way of the exercises above. Do this with a word processor and upload the result to Olat.
Phrases
1. Work through the following sections of the Wiki: Phrases
Navigation: