语言学 第四章 树形图 句法教程文件.docx

语言学 第四章 树形图 句法教程文件.docx

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语言学第四章树形图句法教程文件

语言学第四章树形图句法

Chapter4FromwordtoText（Syntax）

Syntax（grammar）

•Syntaxreferstothestudyoftherulesgoverningthewaydifferentconstituentsarecombinedtoformsentencesinalanguage,orthestudyoftheinterrelationshipsbetweenelementsinsentencestructures.

4.1Syntacticrelations

•Syntacticrelationscanbeanalyzedintothreekinds:

–4.1.1positionalrelation

–4.1.2relationsofsubstitutability

–4.1.3relationsofco-occurrence

4.1.1PositionalRelation

•Forlanguagetofulfillitscommunicativefunction,itmusthaveawaytomarkthegrammaticalrolesofthevariousphrasesthatcanoccurinaclause.

•Theboykickedtheball

NP1NP2

SubjectObject

•Positionalrelation,orWORDORDER,referstothesequentialarrangementofwordsinalanguage.

•Ifthewordsinasentencefailtooccurinafixedorderrequiredbytheconventionofalanguage,onetendstoproduceanutteranceeitherungrammaticalornonsensicalatall.Forexample,

Theboykickedtheball

–*Boytheballkickedthe

–*Theballkickedtheboy

•Theteachersawthestudents

•Thestudentssawtheteacher

•PositionalrelationsareamanifestationofoneaspectofSyntagmaticRelationsobservedbyF.deSaussure.

–TheyarealsocalledHorizontalRelationsorsimplyChainRelations.

•Wordorderisamongthethreebasicways（wordorder,geneticandarealclassifications）toclassifylanguagesintheworld.

•Thereare6possibletypesoflanguage:

–SVO,VSO,SOV,OVS,OSV,andVOS.

–EnglishbelongstoSVOtype,thoughthisdoesnotmeanthatSVOistheonlypossiblewordorder.

4.1.2RelationofSubstitutability

•TheRelationofSubstitutabilityreferstoclassesorsetsofwordssubstitutableforeachothergrammaticallyinsentenceswiththesamestructure.

–The ______smiles. 

man

boy

girl

•Italsoreferstogroupsofmorethanonewordwhichmaybejointlysubstitutablegrammaticallyforasinglewordofaparticularset.

strongman

–Thetallestboysmiles.

prettygirl

yesterday.

–Hewenttherelastweek.

thedaybefore.

•ThisisalsocalledAssociativeRelationsbySaussure,andParadigmaticRelationsbyHjemslev.

•Tomakeitmoreunderstandable,theyarecalledVerticalRelationsorChoiceRelations.

4.1.3RelationofCo-occurrence

•Itmeansthatwordsofdifferentsetsofclausesmaypermit,orrequire,theoccurrenceofawordofanothersetorclasstoformasentenceoraparticularpartofasentence.

•Forinstance,anominalphrasecanbeprecededbyadeterminerandadjective（s）andfollowedbyaverbalphrase.

•Relationsofco-occurrencepartlybelongtosyntagmaticrelations,partlytoparadigmaticrelations.

4.2Grammaticalconstructionanditsconstituents

4.2.1GrammaticalConstruction

•Anysyntacticstringofwordsrangingfromsentencesoverphrasalstructurestocertaincomplexlexemes.

–anapple

–ateanapple

–Maryateanapple

4.2.2ImmediateConstituents

•Constituentisapartofalargerlinguisticunit.Severalconstituentstogetherformaconstruction:

–thegirl（NP）

–atetheapple（VP）

–Thegirlatetheapple（S）

ImmediateConstituentAnalysis

（ICAnalysis）

Inthecaseoftheaboveexample,iftwoconstituentsB（thegirl）andC（atetheapple）arejointedtoformahierarchicallyhigherconstituentA（hereasentenceS）,thenBandCaresaidtobetheimmediateconstituentsofA.TodismantleagrammaticalconstructioninthiswayiscalledICanalysis.

A（Sentence）

BC

Theboyatetheapple

Twoways:

treediagramandbracketing

Treediagram:

Bracketing

•Bracketingisnotascommoninuse,butitisaneconomicnotationinrepresentingtheconstituent/phrasestructureofagrammaticalunit.

•（（（The）（girl）） （（ate） （（the）（apple））））

•[S[NP[DetThe][Ngirl]][VP[Vate][NP[Detthe][Napple]]]]

4.2.3EndocentricandExocentricConstructions

•Endocentricconstructionisonewhosedistributionisfunctionallyequivalenttothatofoneormoreofitsconstituents,i.e.,awordoragroupofwords,whichservesasadefinablecentreorhead.

–Usuallynounphrases,verbphrasesandadjectivephrasesbelongtoendocentrictypesbecausetheconstituentitemsaresubordinatetotheHead.

•Exocentricconstructionreferstoagroupofsyntacticallyrelatedwordswherenoneofthewordsisfunctionallyequivalenttothegroupasawhole,thatis,thereisnodefinable“Centre”or“Head”insidethegroup,usuallyincluding

–thebasicsentence,

–theprepositionalphrase,

–thepredicate（verb+object）construction,

–theconnective（be+complement）construction.

•Theboysmiled.

（Neitherconstituentcansubstituteforthesentencestructureasawhole.）

•Hehidbehindthedoor.

（Neitherconstituentcanfunctionasanadverbial.）

•Hekickedtheball.

（Neitherconstituentstandsfortheverb-objectsequence.）

•Johnseemedangry.

（Afterdivision,theconnectiveconstructionnolongerexists.）

4.2.4CoordinationandSubordination

•Endocentricconstructionsfallintotwomaintypes,dependingontherelationbetweenconstituents:

1）Coordination

•CoordinationisacommonsyntacticpatterninEnglishandotherlanguagesformedbygroupingtogethertwoormorecategoriesofthesametypewiththehelpofaconjunctionsuchasand,butandor.

–Thesetwoormorewordsorphrasesorclauseshaveequivalentsyntacticstatus,eachoftheseparateconstituentscanstandfortheoriginalconstructionfunctionally.

•CoordinationofNPs:

–[NPthelady]or[NPthetiger]

•CoordinationofVPs:

–[VPgotothelibrary]and[VPreadabook]

•CoordinationofPPs:

–[PPdownthestairs]and[PPoutthedoor]

•CoordinationofAPs:

–[APquiteexpensive]and[APverybeautiful]

•CoordinationofSs:

–[SJohnlovesMary]and[SMarylovesJohntoo].

2）Subordination

•Subordinationreferstotheprocessorresultoflinkinglinguisticunitssothattheyhavedifferentsyntacticstatus,onebeingdependentupontheother,andusuallyaconstituentoftheother.

–Thesubordinateconstituentsarewordswhichmodifythehead.Consequently,theycanbecalledmodifiers.

•two dogs

         Head

•（Mybrother）candrink（wine）.

Head

•Swimminginthelake（isfun）.

Head

•（Thepepperwas）hotbeyondendurance.

Head

3）Subordinateclauses

•Clausescanbeusedassubordinateconstituents.Therearethreebasictypesofsubordinateclauses:

–complementclauses

–adjunct（oradverbial）clauses

–relativeclauses

•Johnbelieves[thattheairplanewasinventedbyanIrishman].

（complementclause）

•Elizabethopenedherpresents[beforeJohnfinishedhisdinner].

（adverbialclause）

•Thewoman[thatIlove]ismovingtothesouth.

（relativeclause）

4.3.SyntacticFunction

•Thesyntacticfunctionshowstherelationshipbetweenalinguisticformandotherpartsofthelinguisticpatterninwhichitisused.

–Namesoffunctionsareexpressedintermsofsubjects,objects,predicators,modifiers,complements,etc.

4.3.1Subject

•Insomelanguages,subjectreferstooneofthenounsinthenominativecase（主格）.

•ThetypicalexamplecanbefoundinLatin,wheresubjectisalwaysinnominativecase,suchaspaterandfiliusinthefollowingexamples.

–paterfiliumamat（thefatherlovestheson）

–patrumfiliusamat（thesonlovesthefather）

•InEnglish,thesubjectofasentenceisoftensaidtobetheagent,orthedoeroftheaction,whiletheobjectisthepersonorthingacteduponbytheagent.

–Thisdefinitionseemstoworkforthesesentences:

–MaryslappedJohn.

■AdogbitBill.

•butisclearlywronginthefollowingexamples:

–Johnwasbittenbyadog.

–Johnunderwentmajorheartsurgery.

•Inordertoaccountforthecaseofsubjectinpassivevoice,wehavetwootherterms“grammaticalsubject”（John）and“logicalsubject”（adog）.

•Anothertraditionaldefinitionofthesubjectis“whatthesentenceisabout”（i.e.,topic）.

•Again,thisseemstoworkformanysentences,suchas

–Billisaverycraftyfellow.

•butfailsinothers,suchas

–（Jackisprettyreliable,but）BillIdon’ttrust.

–AsforBill,Iwouldn’ttakehispromisesveryseriously.

•Allthreesentencesseemtobe“about”Bill;thuswecouldsaythatBillisthetopicofallthreesentences.

•Theabovesentencesmakeitclearthatthetopicisnotalwaysthegrammaticalsubject.

Whatcharacteristicsdosubjectshave?

A.Wordorder

•Subjectordinarilyprecedestheverbinthestatement:

–Sallycollectsstamps.

–*CollectsSallystamps.

B.Pro-forms

•ThefirstandthirdpersonpronounsinEnglishappearinaspecialformwhenthepronounisasubject,whichisnotusedwhenthepronounoccursinotherpositions:

–Helovesme.

–Ilovehim.

–Wethrewstonesatthem.

–Theythrewstonesatus.

C.Agreementwiththeverb

•Inthesimplepresenttense,an-sisaddedtotheverbwhenathirdpersonsubjectissingular,butthenumberandpersonoftheobjectoranyotherelementinthesentencehavenoeffectatallontheformoftheverb:

–Sheangershim.

–Theyangerhim.  

–Sheangersthem.

D.Contentquestions

•Ifthesubjectisreplacedbyaquestionword（whoorwhat）,therestofthesentenceremainsunchanged,asin

–JohnstoletheQueen’spicturefromtheBritishCouncil.

–WhostoletheQueen’spicturefromtheBritishcouncil?

–WhatwouldJohnsteal,ifhehadthechance?

–WhatdidJohnstealfromtheBritishCouncil?

–WheredidJohnstealtheQueen’spicturefrom?

E.Tagquestion

•Atagquestionisusedtoseekconfirmationofastatement.Italwayscontainsapronounwhichrefersbacktothesubject,andnevertoanyotherelementinthesentence.

–JohnlovesMary,doesn’