introduction to syntax 大学英语语言学课件.ppt

syntax What is syntax? Study of how words are combined to form sentences Study of the rules that govern the formation of sentences e.g. * I don’t like these book. * My favorite is for coffee, but I also drink tea. * I got many informations from the book. Definition of Categories（范畴） a group of linguistic items, such as a sentence, a noun phrase or a verb, which fulfill the same or similar functions in a particular language. (特定语言中执行相同或者类似功能的一类或者一组的句子成分) related groups of words such as nouns, verbs, and adjectives (单词的相关群组如名词,动词,形容词) Word of the day Syntactic categories Lexical categories (i.e. word-level categories): noun, verb, adjective, preposition, etc. Phrasal categories: NP, VP, AP, PP, etc. Word-level categories major lexical categories (head) 主要词汇范畴 e.g. noun, verb, adjective, preposition minor lexical categories 次要词汇范畴 e.g. determiner, degree word, qualifier, auxiliary, conjunction Eight categories in traditional grammar (parts of speech) （词类） open class (content words) nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs closed class (function words) pronouns, conjunctions, auxiliary verbs, and prepositions e.g.? with the content words (function words deleted): __ broom __ sweeping __ floor belongs ___ closet. ? with the function words (content words deleted): The ____for ____the _____ in the ______. Addition of non-traditional categories determiners (Det)限定词 --- articles (a, an, the) --- demonstratives (this, that, these, those) ---possessives (my, your, his, her, its, our, their) degree words (Deg) 程度词 e.g. quite, very, more, so, too, etc. qualifier (Qual) 修饰词 e.g. often, always, seldom, almost, usually, etc. Word-level Categories The boy sees some very pretty flowers. perceives lovely smells small He puts the flowers on a green table. purple hydrangeas under pink poster Noun Verb Preposition Adjective There are four major syntactic categories of open-c