第四章预习材料.docx

第四章预习材料.docx

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第四章预习材料

Syntax:

TheSentenceStructureofLanguage

4.1Whatissyntax?

Theword“syntax”isfromtheAncientGreeksýntaxis,whichliterallymeans“arrangement”or“settingouttogether”.Inlinguistics,syntaxisthestudyofhowwordscombinetoformsentencesandtheruleswhichgoverntheformationofsentences.Mostlanguageshaveafinitenumberofbasicwords,butthesewordscanbeputtogethertomakeaninfinitenumberofsentences.Thisisbecausetherearerulesandpatternsthatcanbeusedinarecursivewaytocreatenewsentences.Syntaxstudiestheserulesgoverningthewaywordsarecombinedtoformsentencesinalanguage.Generally,therearefourmajorapproachestosyntax,namely,thetraditionalapproach,thestructuralapproach,thetransformational-generativeapproach,andthefunctionalapproach.

Whatistherelationshipbetweensyntaxandgrammar?

AccordingtoLyons（1968）,theterm“grammar”goesback（throughFrenchandLatin）toaGreekwordwhichmaybetranslatedas“theartofwriting”.QuiteearlyinthehistoryofGreekscholarshipthiswordacquiredamuchwidersenseandcametoembracethewholestudyoflanguage.Morerecently,theterm“grammar”hasdevelopedanarrowerinterpretation:

ittendstoberestrictedtothatpartoftheanalysisoflanguagewhichwashandledinclassicalgrammarundertheheadingsofinflexionandsyntax.Accordingtothetraditionaldistinction,inflexiondealswiththeinternalstructureofwords,andsyntaxaccountsforthewayinwhichwordscombinetoformsentences.Thus,inarestrictedsense,grammarreferstoalevelofstructuralorganizationwhichcanbestudiedindependentlyofphonologyandsemantics,andgenerallydividedintothebranchesofsyntaxandmorphology.Inthissense,grammaristhestudyofthewaywords,andtheircomponentparts,combinetoformsentences.Thisistheusualpopularinterpretationoftheterm“grammar”,whichiscontrastedwithageneralconceptionofthesubject,wheregrammarisseenastheentiresystemofstructuralrelationshipsinalanguage,andthussubsumesphonologyandsemanticsaswellassyntax.

4.2Sentencestructure

4.2.1Definitionofsentence

Mostsyntacticstudieshavefocusedonsentencestructure,forthisiswherethemostimportantgrammaticalrelationsareexpressed.

Inthetraditionalandpopularview,asentenceis“aseriesofwordsinconnectedspeechorwriting,formingthegrammaticallycompleteexpressionofasinglethought”（Matthews,1981）.Modernsyntaxavoidsthissemanticdefinitionbasedonthoughtsorideas,becauseofthedifficultiesinvolvedinsayingwhat“thoughts”are.Forexample,anapplecanexpressathought,butitwouldnotbeconsideredasacompletesentence;Hecamelate,becauseheoversleptisonesentence,butitcouldeasilybeanalyzedastwothoughts.

MostlinguisticdefinitionsofthesentenceshowtheinfluenceofAmericanstructuralism:

asentenceisthelargeststructuralunittowhichsyntacticrulesapply.Thatis,asentenceisthemaximalunitofsyntax,“anindependentlinguisticform,notincludedbyvirtueofanygrammaticalconstructioninanylargerlinguisticform”（Bloomfield,1933）.Thisdefinitionalsohasitsproblems.Inparticular,itdoesnotallowforellipticalsentencessuchasTotownastheanswertoWhereareyougoing?

andminorsentencessuchasYes,Allaboard!

HappyBirthday!

Inreactiontotheproblemconcerningthenotionofcompleteness,somelinguistsclassifysentencesintotwotypes:

completeandincomplete.Otherlinguistsproposetomakeasystematicdistinctionbetweensentenceandutterance:

sentenceisatheoreticalunit,definedbyagrammar,whileutteranceisaphysicalunit,amatterofspeechproduction,orperformance.Inthisview,utterancescanbeanalyzedintermsofsentence,bututterancesdonot“consistof”sentences.

Mostanalystsagreeontheneedtorecognizeafunctionalclassificationofsentencesintostatement,question,commandandexclamatorytypes.Althoughsentencesmaybeincomplete,normallyasentenceconsistsofatleastonesubjectanditspredicate.Mostanalysesalsorecognizetheclassificationof“sentencepatterns”intosimpleversuscomplexorcompoundtypes,i.e.consistingofonesubject–predicateunit,asopposedtomorethanone.

4.2.2Thelinearstructureofsentence

Thelinearstructureofsentenceisconcernedwiththewordorderofsentences:

thesequenceinwhichgrammaticalelementssuchassubject,verb,andobjectoccurinsentences.Sentencesarenotjuststringsofwordswhichoccurinarandomorder.AsFromkin&Rodman（1983）putit,sentencesaremorethanmerelywordsplacedoneafteranotherlikebeadsonastring.Therearesyntacticrulesdeterminingthecorrectorderofwordsinasentence.Thesesyntacticrulesaccountforhowdifferentpartsofasentencearerelated,thatis,“who”does“what”to“whom”.Thesearegrammaticalrelationsofasentenceandtheyrevealhoweachpartofthesentencefunctionsgrammatically,orsyntactically.Grammaticalrelationsareusuallyreferredtoas“subjectof”and“objectof”,etc.InIttastesnicetherelationshipofittotastesisthatofasubjecttoapredicator.Thepronounisthesubjectoftheverb.Therelationshipoftastestoniceisthatofapredicatortoitscomplement.Theadjectiveisthecomplementoftheverb.Thissentencecanthenbesaidtohavea“subject–predicator–complement”construction,whoseelements（subject,predicator,complement）aresuccessivefunctionsestablishedbytheindividualgrammaticalrelations.

Differentmodelsofanalysisusedifferenttermsincharacterizingthelinearstructureofsentence.Forexample,generativegrammaruses“NP+VP”,andsystemic-functionalgrammarusestermslike“actor–process–goal”.

4.2.3Thehierarchicalstructureofsentence

Sentencesdemonstratealinearstructurebecausewordsofasentencearearrangedoneafteranotherinasequencebymeansofgrammaticalrelations.However,grammaticalrelationscanalsobeconsideredaspartsofalargerunit.Forexample,inIttastesnicethepronounisthe“subjectof”theverb,butitcanalsobedescribedas“thesubject”withintheclauseorsentenceasawhole.Inthesameunit,theadjectiveisatoncethe“complementof”theverb（relationofparttopart）andalso“thecomplement”withintheclause（relationofparttowhole）.Thelinearstructure“NP+VP”canalsoberegardedasalargerunitmadeupofthesmallerunitsNPandVP.Inotherwords,asentencecanbeanalyzedintoconstituents.Conversely,constituentsatdifferentlevelscancombinetoformincreasinglylargerunits.

4.3Thetraditionalapproach

Traditionally,syntaxreferstothebranchofgrammardealingwiththewaysinwhichwords,withorwithoutappropriateinflections,arearrangedtoshowconnectionsofmeaningwithinthesentence（Matthews,1981）.Oftenknownastraditionalgrammar,thetraditionalapproachreferstotherangeofattitudesandmethodsfoundintheprelinguisticeraoflanguagestudy.TraditionalgrammargoesbacktoGreeceofthefifthcenturybeforeChrist,andincludestheworkofclassicalGreekandRomangrammarians,Renaissancegrammarians,and18th-centuryprescriptivegrammarians.Thisapproachemphasizessuchmattersascorrectness,linguisticpurism,literaryexcellence,theuseofLatinmodelsandthepriorityofwrittenlanguage.

Thetraditionalgrammarisessentiallyagrammarofprescription.Theterm“prescriptive”isusedbylinguiststocharacterizeanyapproachwhichattemptstolaydownrulesofcorrectnessastohowlanguageshouldbeused.Usingsuchcriteriaaspurity,logic,historyorliteraryexcellence,prescriptivismaimstopreserveimaginedstandardsbyinsistingonnormsofusageandcriticizingviolationsofthesenorms.PrescriptiverulesforEnglishsentences,forexample,mainlycomefromthefollowingsources:

●GreekandLatin,whichareregardedasmodelsoflinguisticexcellence.AccordingtotheLatinstandards,forexample,youshoulduseItisIorHerunsfasterthanIandnotItismeorHerunsfasterthanme;YouarenotallowedtosplitaninfinitiveasinHewantstoquicklyfinishthework,norareyouallowedtoendasentencewithaprepositionasinWhatdidyoudothisfor?

●Thewrittenlanguage,whichismorecareful,prestigiousandpermanentthanspeech.YoushouldsayWhomdidyoumeet?

insteadofWhodidyoumeet?

●Logic,whichmeansthatlanguageshouldfollowtheprinciplesoflogic.YoushouldsayIdidn’teatanythingorIatenothingandnotIdidn’teatnothingbecausedoublenegativesmakeapositive.

Modernlinguisticsowesalargedebttotraditionalgrammar,becausemanybasicconceptsusedbymodernlinguistscanbetracedbacktotraditionalgrammar.Modernlinguisticsisespeciallyindebtedtotraditionalgrammarforthefollowing:

●Themodernnotionofsentence,whichistypicallydefinedintraditionalgrammarasanindependentgroupofwordsexpressingacompletethought.Itiscustomaryintraditionalgrammartobeginwithnotionaldefinitionsofthesentenceanditscomponents.

●Grammaticalcategory,whichisaclassorgroupofitemswhichfulfillthesameorsimilarfunctionsorshareacommonsetofgrammaticalpropertiesinalanguage.Traditionalgrammarprovidedmodernlinguisticswithanumberofgrammaticalcategoriesincludingthepartsofspeech,number,person,tense,voice,gender,subjectandpredicate.

●Thenotionofconcordoragreement,whichisassociatedwiththerequirementthattheformsoftwoormorewordsinasyntacticrelationshipshouldagree,orbeinconcord,witheachotherintermsofsomegrammaticalcategories.Forexample,inthesentenceTheboyspeaksgoodEnglish,theverbspeaksagreeswiththenounboy.Theagreementisbasedonthegrammatic