ENG502 Treasure

Topic- 123: Introduction

The word ‘syntax’ comes originally from Greek and literally means ‘a putting together’ or arrangement. There was an attempt to produce an accurate description of the sequence or ordering ‘arrangement’ of elements in the linear structure of the sentence. In the more recent attempts to analyze syntactic structure, there has been a greater focus on the underlying rule system that we used to produce or ‘generate’ sentences.

A prepositional phrase in English consists of a preposition followed by a noun phrase and a noun phrase consists of an article and a noun. For example, ‘near London’ is a correct prepositional phrase as London is a proper noun and does not need an article; on the other hand, ‘with dog’ is not a correct prepositional phrase as ‘dog’ should have article ‘a’ with it. So, the correct prepositional phrase is ‘a dog’.

Another Goal of Syntactic Analysis

A small and finite (i.e., limited) set of rules that will be capable of producing a large and potentially infinite (i.e., unlimited) number of well-formed structures. The small and finite set of rules is sometimes described as a ‘generative grammar’ because it can be used to ‘generate’ or produce sentence structures and not just describe them.

Topic- 124: Generative Grammar

Generative grammar is a linguistic theory that regards grammar as a system of rules that generates exactly those combinations of words that form grammatical sentences in a given language. The generative school has focused on the study of syntax, but has also addressed other aspects of a language's structure, including morphology and phonology. Early versions of Chomsky's theory were called transformational grammar, which is still used as a general term that includes his subsequent theories. Generativists have argued that many of the properties of a generative grammar arise from a universal grammar that is innate to the human brain, rather than being learned from the environment. Noam Chomsky opposed the earlier theories of structuralism by rejecting the idea that each language is different from the other.

The basic concept sets forth the rules to recognize grammatical sentences in a language. These rules differentiate the correct structures from improper sequences of words or ungrammatical sentences in the same language. The sentence is represented as a tree having branches denoting the subordinate and superordinate elements rather than just a sequence of words. Generative grammar attempts to formalize the implicit rules that a person uses while speaking his native language. The rules of generative grammar may appear to be useful only in language studies.

Topic- 125: Properties of Generative Grammar

Noam Chomsky has argued that many of the properties of a generative grammar arise from an ‘innate’ universal grammar, which is common to all languages. The grammar must generate all the wellformed syntactic structures (i.e., sentences) of the language and fails to generate any ill-formed structures. The grammar will have a finite (i.e., limited) number of rules but will be capable of generating an infinite number of well-formed structures. The productivity of language would be captured within the grammar. Rules of this grammar also need the crucial property of recursion. The grammar will have to capture the fact that a sentence can have another sentence inside it.

Topic- 126: Well-Formed Syntactic Structures

Well-formedness is the quality of a clause, word, or other linguistic element that conforms to the grammar of the language of which it is a part. Well-formed words or phrases are grammatical, meaning they obey all relevant rules of grammar. A form that violates some grammar rule is illformed and does not constitute part of the language. A word may be phonologically well-formed. A word, phrase, clause, or utterance may be grammatically well-formed. A semantically well-formed utterance or sentence is one that is meaningful. Grammatical well-formedness and semantic wellformedness do not always coincide, e.g., colorless green ideas sleep furiously. This sentence is grammatically correct but semantically incorrect. Sometimes, native speakers of a language do not agree whether a particular word, phrase, or clause is well-formed. The problem of well-formedness is a problem for generative linguistics. Grammatic generator follows some universal patterns that should not vary among speakers.

Topic- 127: Finite Number of Rules

‘A small set of rules operating on a large but finite set of words generates an infinite number of sentences.’ The problem with this definition is that it assumes a very bound and discrete view of all elements: rules, lexical items, and sentences. Language is not organized in sentences and the difference between words and rules is likely to be an artifact of dictionary making and grammar writing. Similarly, there is no guarantee, that the actual number of possible sentences is infinite rather than just unimaginably and practically inexhaustibly large (as was argued by Pullum and Scholtz in 2010). As a matter of practical fact, the set of possible expressions in a given language may or may not be infinite; the actual set of all expressions ever uttered is going to be finite.

The set of expressions actually produced by humans (or even machines) is going to be too large to enumerate practically by current (and possibly any) technology but it is going to be finite. Therefore, it really does not matter whether language is infinite or not. The thing that matters is that any language is to allow a set of expressions that is sufficiently large for any purpose a human language can be put toward.

Topic- 128: Recursion

The Crucial Property of Recursion

Recursive (‘repeatable any number of times’) rules have the capacity to be applied more than once in generating a structure. For example, The gun was on the table. The above sentence has one prepositional phrase describing location i.e., ‘on the table’. We can also add ‘near the window’ and ‘in the bedroom’ in this sentence. Then it will be The gun was on the table near the window in the bedroom. Sentences are put inside other sentences e.g., ‘Mary helped George.’ can become ‘Cathy knew that Mary helped George.’ In addition, two sentences can be generated inside another sentence such as: John believed that Cathy knew that Mary helped George.

Principally, there is no end to recursion. Grammar will have to capture the facts that:

•  A sentence can have another sentence inside it.
•  A phrase can be repeated as often as required.
•  Recursion is a feature of grammar.
•  It is an essential part of a theory of cosmic structure.

Topic- 129: Surface Structure

In transformational and generative grammar, surface structure is the outward form of a sentence. Surface structures are derived from deep structures by a series of transformations. Deep and surface structures are often used as terms in a simple binary opposition, with the deep structure representing meaning, and the surface structure being the actual sentence we see. The final stage in the syntactic representation of a sentence provides the input to the phonological component of grammar. It corresponds to the structure of the sentence we articulate and hear.

Topic- 130: Deep Structure

The ‘underlying’ level, where the basic components (Noun Phrase +Verb +Noun Phrase) shared by the two sentences can be represented, is called their ‘deep structure’.

The grammar must be capable of showing how a single underlying abstract representation can become different surface structures.

Topic- 132: Symbols Used in Syntactic Description

Three more symbols that are commonly used in syntactic description are the following:

•  First: an arrow → typically used in the following type of rule:

NP → Art N The dog (→) an article (Art) the and a noun (N) dog

•  Second: a pair of round brackets ()

‘the dog’ and ‘the small dog’

(NP) NP → Art (Adj) N

The above shorthand notation expresses the idea that a noun phrase rewrites as (→) an article (Art) and a noun (N), with the option of including an adjective (Adj.) in a specific position between them.