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Syntax 1 Wiki

Words

Syntax deals with the question of how the phrases of a language are built up from smaller phrases and words.

Parts of Speech

The Noun

Tests to identify nouns

• semantic test:
  • Nouns name persons, things or places
• morphological test:
  • Nouns can combine with a plural morpheme (-(e)s)
• syntactic test
  • Nouns can occur with the possessive 's, i.e. in the environment:
• __ 's
  • Nouns can occur between a determiner and a verb, i.e. in the environment: Det __ V

Determine the part of speech of the words in the sentence.
Use the following part of speech labels: A, Adv, Cj, C, D, N, P, V

Alex/ talked/ to/ my/ best/ friend/ .

Determine the part of speech of the words in the sentence.
Use the following part of speech labels: A, Adv, Cj, C, D, N, P, V

You/ might/ suspect/ that/ Pat/ is/ a/ genius/ .

Determine the part of speech of the words in the sentence.
Use the following part of speech labels: A, Adv, Cj, C, D, N, P, V

The/ title/ of/ a/ book/ largely/

determines/ whether/ it/ will/ be/ successful/ or/ a/ flop/ .

Semantic analysis of sentences into predicates and arguments

Note: Many of the sentences in this section are taken from or based on examples in Hornby, A.S. (1975) Guide to Patterns and Usage in English. Second Edition. Cornelsen & Oxford University Press.

Fill in the gaps!

Example: You surprised them.

Predicate:

x =

y =

z =

Fill in the gaps!

Example: We went to Wales.

Predicate:

x =

y =

z =

Fill in the gaps!

Example: The plane landed.

Predicate:

x =

y =

z =

Fill in the gaps!

Example: Steven met my most favorite teacher.

Predicate:

x =

y =

z =

Fill in the gaps!

Example: She said that it would rain.

Predicate:

x =

y =

z =

Fill in the gaps!

Example: Many of his friends consider Joe somewhat arrogant.

Predicate:

x =

y =

z =

Fill in the gaps!

Example: We need to talk to Lilly about her behavior.

Predicate:

x =

y =

z =

Fill in the gaps!

Example: The plane landed.

Predicate:

x =

y =

z =

Fill in the gaps!

Example: I talked to her.

Predicate:

x =

y =

z =

Fill in the gaps!

Example: We gave Lilly a bike.

Predicate:

x =

y =

z =

Fill in the gaps!

Example: Someone pushed Lilly into the flowers.

Predicate:

x =

y =

z =

Establishing the head of a phrase

Establish what phrase the words below form and identify the head of the phrase!

Example: surprised them.

The words above form a . The head of this phrase is the .

Example: with a friend.

The words above form a . The head of this phrase is the .

Valence

2. Kim needs new shoes. 3. Kim talked to the student. 4. Kim sent the student to Robin. 5. Kim lent Robin a bicycle. 6. Kim told Robin that the student likes her. 7. Kim suggested to Robin that the student likes her. 8. Kim wants [to eat an apple.] 9. Kim believes Robin to like the student. 10. Kim seems to like the student. 11. Kim is intelligent. 12. Kim found the movie interesting. 13. Kim talked to Robin about the student. 14. Kim saw Robin talk to the student. 15. The student amuses Kim. 16. Kim came out of the room.

Words

Verb	SUBJ	COMPS
snore	<NP>	<>
own	<NP>	<NP>
put	<NP>	<NP,NP>

Verb         SUBJ         COMPS

snore        <NP>         <>
own          <NP>         <NP>
put          <NP>         <NP,PP>

When you look up the word scissors in the Oxford Learner's Dictionary, you are given the following information about it:

Phonology	scissors
Part of speech	noun
Number	plural
Content	a tool for cutting paper ...

The following representation shows how we will structure the information in a word in this course:

Determine the syntactic categories of the following groups of words in the sentences.
Use the following labels: AP, AdvP, NP, PP, VP. Write "-" if the group of words does not form a constitutent.
Example: [S: Pat [VP: will [VP: wait [PP: for Alex]]]]

a. [ Alex [ talked [ to [ my best friend]]]]

b. [ [ The president] [ announced [CP: that [ there [ will [ be [ no further taxes]]]]]]].

Analyze the following phrases:

read the paper

Head: Category:

Complement 1: Category:

Complement 2: Category:

http://www.ello.uos.de/field.php/Syntax/Syntax

Parts of the clause

A video on constituent tests

A video on the concept grammar

Sentence meaning

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Quiz question types