MAKALAH LINGUISTIC : SYNTAX

Syntax

Syntax is the study of the structure of phrases and sentences. Included within it The study of sentence formation, Subconscious grammatical knowledge, Word order .

            Though we use sentences all the time, we don’t normally think about how they are structured. However, a little consideration reveals that the principles by which words are organized into sentences are, in fact, quite complex. In this part, we will explain two basic principles of sentence organization : Linear Order, and Hierarchical Structure.

A.    Linear Order

The most obvious principle of sentence organization is linear order, the words in a sentence must occur in a particular sequence  if the sentence is to convey the desired meaning. For example:

a)      John glanced at Mary

b)      Mary John at glanced

c)      Mary glanced at John

The example of number (a) and (c) has different meaning, but for number (b), is nonsense and ungrammatical expression.

So, the ordering of the words in sentences determines, in part , whether a sentence is grammatical or not and what the sentence means.

B.     Hierarchical Structure

Although linear order is an important principle of sentence organization, sentences are more than just ordered sequences of words, they have internal hierarchical structure as well. That is, the individual words in a sentence are organized into natural, semantically coherent groupings, which are themselves organized into larger groupings, the largest grouping of all being the sentence itself. These groupings within a sentence are called constituents of that sentence. The relationship between constituents in a sentence form the constituent structure of the sentence. For example:

d)      Many executives eat at really fancy restaurants

We can easily distinguish a number of meaningful groups of words in this sentence: many executives and eat at really fancy restaurant, for instance, clearly have meanings of their own, and each makes a coherent contribution to the meaning of example as a whole. For these reasons, they are constituents of this sentence. On the other hand, some groups of words in sentence (d) is not constituent, for instance executives eat at and eat at really.

1.      Constituent Tests

Constituent within a sentence are not always so easy to identify. However, there are a number of useful tests for distinguishing constituents, which are syntactic units, from mere strings of words, which are not constituent and therefore do not behave as a single unit.

v  Ability to stand alone

Constituent can often be sensibly used alone, for example as answers to questions:

e)      What do many executive do?

Eat at really fancy restaurants

This is not true of nonconstituent : if we were asked “ Do fancy restaurant do much business?” we coul not sensibly answer “executives eat at”.

v  Substitution by Pro-form

It is often possible to replace a constituent with a single word having the same meaning as that constituent. For example, if someone asked “ What do many executives do?” we ccould answer that question with (example (d)) Many executives eat at really fancy restaurants. Or use this sentence: (f) They eat at really fancy restaurant. So the constituent many executives is replaced with the single word they. Note that it is a certain category of word which is used for the substitution test, namely a pro-word (pro-form). Pronouns are one type ofr pro-form (e.g., he, she, it, they, us, her, and that). There are pro-verb such as do, be, and have. Pro-adverbs such as there and then as well as a pro-adjective such. You may use pro-form when attempting to determine constituency.

v  Movement

If some part of a sentence can be moved around – usually to the beginning or end of the sentence – it is a constituent. For example:

g)      At really fancy restaurants, many executives eat.

2.      Other issues concerning constituents

Two points must be kept in mind regarding constituens. First, given a group of word, we cannot say once and for all whether or not it is a constituent; rather, we can only say whether or not it is a constituent relative to a particular sentence. The second thing that must be kept in mind is that constituent structure is hierarchical- that is one constituents may be part of another. What this means, in turn, is that sentence are composed of parts that have been grouped together before they are grouped into sentence. For example:

Really fancy is constituent, but it is also part of a larger constituent, namely, really fancy restaurant; this in turn is part of  a larger constituent, at really fancy restaurants, which is itself larger constituent eat at really fancy restaurants, to show this structure, we can use tree diagram : branching structures in which each constituents form a “branch”. For example

 

Many executives eat at really fancy restaurant

C.     Ambiguity

In every human language we can find individual expressions that have two or more distinct meaning. For example the italicized portions of the following sentence of English can be interpreted in more than one way:

a.       Larry raises miniature badgers and raccos

b.      We need more intelegent leader

c.       The cranes were transported by boat to Minneapolis

In (a), miniature badgers and raccons can mean either miniature badgers and miniature raccons’ or miniature badgers and raccons (normal size). This property of having two or more distinc meanings is called Ambiguity. and an expression that is ambiguous because it has more than one possible constituent structure is said to be structurally ambiguous