Introduction to Linguistics, Session 10, Thursday 2007-01-11

Introduction to Linguistics, Session 10, Thursday 2007-01-11


SYNTAX
(Parts of speech categories & subcategories)



OVERWIEW on SYNTAX:

-Structural relations
-syntagmatic relations
-paradigmatic relations

-Sentence structure
Terminology
-"syntax"
-"phrasal syntax"

-Syntactic categories
-parts of speech (POS)
-subcategories
-phrasal categories



Types of lexical information: Focus on SYNTAX

Types of lexical information are given in the microstructure of a dictionary!
Whereas Grammar is about the order of words in a sentence, syntax is about the structure of single words (word syntax: morphology), sentences (phrasal syntax which is generally analysed, texts (text syntax) and dialogues.
Syntactic categories can therefore be parts of speech (f.ex. lexical words [nouns, verbs, adjectives] vs. function words), subcategories and phrasal categories.



The structure of language

Language consists of constitutive relations which can be both structural or semiotic.
Structural relations are meant to be syntagmatic or paradigmatic.
Semiotic relations can be defined as interpretation relations and realisation relations.

→ WHAT IS STRUCTURE?
Language structure is determined by following kinds of CONSTITUTIVE RELATION:


1.) STRUCTURAL RELATIONS:

-syntagnmatic relations: combinatory relations which create larger signs (and their realisations and interpretations) from smaller signs (and their realisations and interpretations).
-paradigmatic relations: classificatory relations of similarity and difference between signs.


2.) SEMIOTIC RELATIONS:

-realisation: the visual appearance or acoustic representation of signs (other senses may also be involved).
-interpretation: the assignment of meaning to a sign.




STRUCTURAL RELATIONS:

1.) Paradigmatic relations

Paradigmatic relations can be defined as a relation of CHOICE.
We can classify these relations as a relations of similarity and difference of SIGNS concerning their internal structure (simple vs. complex stems), external structure (Functions in different word orders/ positions), meaning (synonymy, antonymy, hyponymy, etc.) and their appearance (shared versus different distinctive features).

There are different sets of words/ different parts of speech:

DETERMINERS like: the, this, etc.------ → a closed set of items
PREPOSITIONS like: under, of, etc. -----→ a closed set of items

NOUNS like: boy, girl, etc. ---------------→ an indefinite number
VERBS like: swim, walk, etc.------------- → an indefinite number




2.) Syntagmatic relations

Syntagmatic relations are the linguistic "glue". They create larger signs from smaller signs.

Examples:

PHONOLOGY: consonants and vowels are glued together as core and periphery of syllables.

MORPHOLOGY:
-lexical morphemes and affixes are glued together into derived stems.
-Stems are glued together into compound stems.
-Stems and inflections are glued together into words.

SYNTAX:
- nouns and verbs are glued together as subjects and predicates of sentences.




SYNTAX
Start off with SENTENCE SYNTAX!

A sentence consists of words that are in relation to each other. Words therefore do not only have an internal structure, but also an external, context bound structure.


Paradigmatic relations in syntax

------------------------------------Syntactic categories
-------------------------.--...----↓-------------------- ↓
-----------..----Lexical categories -----------------Glue categories
------------ ↓---------------------↓ ----------↓-------------- ↓ -------------↓
------Nominals -----------------Verbals --Prepositions Conjunctions Interjections
.......↓---------↓ ----------------↓ --------↓
Nouns ------Pronouns --.....-Main- Auxiliary
---------↓ ↓ -----------------verbs --verbs
Adjectives ---Determiners



Syntagmatic relations in syntax


--------------------------------SENTENCE
-------------------------------↓ -------------↓
-----------------------Subject ----------Predicate
--------------------------------------↓ -----------↓
------------------------------------verbal ------object
------------..↓ ----↓ -------↓ --------↓---- ↓ -----↓ ----↓
-------------the loud speaker ------is -being ---a -nuisance



WORDS: context, external structure
Parsing: the analysis of sentences in to parts (Latin: pars)


Prostitutes deaths inquests open
Inquests into the deaths of four women who were killed in Suffolk have been opened and adjourned. The hearing at Ipswich Coroner’s Court found no clear cause of death for Tania Nicol and Annette Nicholls. Anneli Alderton was asphyxiated and Paula Clennell died from compression of the neck, coroner Dr. Peter Dean said. The inquest into the death of another victim, Gemma Adams, was opened last week. Police are continuing to question two men about the murders. The first suspect, Tom Stephens, 37, was arrested on Monday.
A second man being held was named locally as 48- years- old Stephen Wrigth. Both are suspected of killing all five women.


Words an their part of speech in this text:

Prostitutes:Noun
Deaths:Noun
Inquests:Noun
Open:Noun category: adjective
Into:Adverb, direction
The:Noun category: determiner, definite article
Of :Preposition
Four:Noun category: quantifier, cardinal number
Women:Noun
Who:Noun category: relatives, interrogatives
Were killed: Verb category:Auxiliary + simple past form the main verb:-passive
In: Preposition
Suffolk:Noun category:-Proper noun, place
Have been opened: Verb category:Auxiliary + 3. past form + past form of the main verb: passive
And:Glue category: conjunction
Adjourned:verb, passiv
Hearing:Noun
At:Preposition
Ipswich Coroner’s Court: Noun Category: proper noun
Found:Verb, irregular past tense form
No:Negation
Clear:Noun category: adjective
Cause:Noun
For:Preposition
Tania Nicol:Noun category: Proper noun, personal name
Annette Nicholls:Noun category: Proper noun, personal name
Anneli Alderton:Noun category: Proper noun, personal name
Was asphyxiated:Verb category: Auxiliary + simple past form the main verb: passive
Paula Clennell:Noun category: Proper noun, personal name
Died:Verb in simple past form
From: Adverb, direction
Compression:Noun
Neck:Noun
Dr Peter Dean: Noun category: Proper noun, personal name + title
Said:Verb in simple past form
Another:Quantifier
Victim:Noun
Gemma Adams:Noun category: Proper noun, personal name + title
Last: temporal adverb
Week:Noun
Police:Noun
Are continuing:Verb category: auxiliary in present tense + progressive
To: Preposition
Question:Noun
Two:Noun category: quantifier, cardinal number
Men: Noun
About:Preposition
Murders:Noun
First:Adjective: ordinal adjective
Suspect: Noun
Was arrested: Verb category: Auxiliary + simple past form the main verb:passive
On: Preposition
Monday: Noun
A:Noun category: determiner, indefinite article
Second:Adjective: ordinal adjective
Man:Noun
Being held: Progressive, past form
As been named:Verb category: Auxiliary + 3. past form + past form of the main verb: passive
Locally:Adjective
As: Conjunction
Both: Dual
Are suspected: Auxiliary+ verb in past tense form: passiv
Killing:Noun
All: Quantifier
Five: Noun category: quantifier, cardinal number







PART OF SPEECH

The different word categories!

There are different parts of speech which we are going to examine more closely:
-Noun categories
-Determiners
-Adjectives
-Nouns
-Pronouns
-Verb categories
-Verbs (main verbs, auxiliary verbs)
-Adverbs
-Glue categories
-Prepositions
-Conjunctions
-Interjections


I.) NOUNS CATEGORIES

1.) DETERMINERS

Articles
definite article: the
indefinite article: a
● Possessives
- my, your, his, her, its, our, their
● Demonstratives
proximal (to the speaker): this
distal (to the speaker): that
● Quantifiers
cardinal numbers: one, two, etc.
existential: some, several, few, many, etc.
dual: both
universal: each, every, all, etc.
● Relatives, interrogatives
what
which
whose


2.) NOUNS

● Proper nouns
-names:
personal
place
product, etc.
● Common nouns
countable nouns such as: knife, fork, spoon, etc.
● Mass nouns (uncountable nouns)
bread (a slice of bread)
butter (a piece of butter)
jam (a spoonful of jam)


3.) ADJECTIVES

● There are different types of adjectives:
-Scalar adjectives:
Can be arranged on a kind of scale: → small... big
→ cold... hot
→ hairless... hairy
→ Special feature of scalar adjectives:
They can emerge with different adverbs of degree, whereas polar adjectives don’t!
For instance: very, highly, extremely, incredibly

-Polar adjectives
Cannot emerge in combination with adverbs of degree. They describe whether one feature or the other!
→ alive vs. dead
→ married vs. unmarried
→ pregnant vs. not pregnant

-Appraisive adjectives
→ good, great, wonderful, etc.

-Ordinal adjectives
→ first, second, etc.


4.) PRONOUNS

● Personal Pronouns
I/ me, you, he/him, she/her, we/us, they

● Possessive Pronouns
mine, yours, his, hers, its, ours, theirs

● Demonstrative pronouns
-proximal: this
-distal: that, yonder (an archaic form)

● Quantifier pronouns
-cardinal numbers: one, two, etc.
-existential: some, several, few, many, etc.
-dual: both
-universal: each, every, all, etc.

● Relative pronouns
→ are more like conjunctions!


II.) VERB CATEGORIES

1.) VERBS

● Main verbs:
finite forms:
-person (1st, 2nd, 3rd)
-number (singular, plural)
-tense (The English language has two tenses: present, past)

non- finite forms
-infinitive
-participle: present, perfect

● Periphrastic verbs (auxiliary verb + non- finite main verb):
-modal: can, may, will, shall, ought, etc.
-aspectual: be + present (continuous)
------------have + past participle (perfect)
------------passive: be + past participle

Example:
------------It -might ---have ---been ------being -----repaired
---------------modal --perfect continuous --passive ---main verb


2.) Adverbs

● Deictic
here, there; now, then

● Time
soon, immediately, yesterday, etc.

● Place and direction
upwards, into, towards

● Manner (how)
slowly, quickly
cleverly, stupidly
well

● Degree
→ better dealt in connection with adjectives


III.) GLUE CATEGORIES/ FUNCTION WORDS

1.) PREPOSITIONS

● Glue categories basically make nominal expressions into adverbial expressions
→ they transform many categories into adverbs, except of the "all purpose preposition" of

The meaning of the preposition of is in fact very large and differentiated:

For example:
- a bottle of water (relation)
- because of... (of in relation with a certain conjunction)
- to think of... (fixed expression: a verb is employed in combination with a
---------------certain preposition in order to express a certain idea)
- in front of ... (of is part of a fixed expression: preposition which indicates a
---------------certain direction)


2.) CONJUNCTIONS

● Co-ordinating conjunctions
and, but

● Subordinating conjunctions
conjunction- like relative pronouns: make sentences (clauses) into adjective- like noun modifiers
basically: make sentences (clauses) into adverb- like verb modifiers



3.) INTERJECTIONS

● Interjections link parts together
Examples: "Hi!", "er", "huh?"

● They may also be expressions of subjective reactions
-"Ouch!", "Wow!"

Examples:
-"yeah"
-"mmmm" (delicious)
-"mhm?"





PHRASAL CATEGORIES

Noun Phrases: definitions
The noun Categories from larger units:

Adjective Phrase = (Degree Adverb) Adjective
Nominal Phrase = -(Adjective Phrase) Noun
Noun Phrase......= -(Determiner) Nominal Phrase (Relative Clause)
Note: --------------Linguistics has developed relatively independently in different places,
--------------------so there are different terminology systems.


Example:

-----------------------------NP
_________________________________________
Det
______
------------------------------------------NomP
------_____________________________________________________
----------AdjP ---------AdjP A-----------AdjP------ AdjP -----AdjP ---N
----____________ ______ _______________ ______ ______ _____
-------D-Adv C-Adv ---Q-Adv ----D-Adv -----Adj ---Adj ---Adj
____ _____ -____ -________ --_____ ---_____ ____
The ---very ---first --twenty-five -extremely young -smart yellow--- ducks






THE STRUCTURE OF LANGUAGE

OVERVIEW:

The structure of language: constitutive relations:

-Structural relations
-syntagmatic relations
-paradigmatic relations

-Semiotic relations
-interpretation relations
-realisation relations

-Ranks
-phoneme
-morpheme
-word (simplex, derived, compound)
-sentence
-text
-dialogue

-Text structure
"text syntax"



The sign hierarchy: RANKS

Signs are structured in terms of their position in a size hierarchy; the positions in the hierarchy are sometimes referred to as RANKS.

The MAIN RANKS are:
-dialogue
-monologue/ text
-sentence
-word
-morpheme
-phoneme
Signs at each of these ranks have got an internal and an external structure and possess semiotic relations (functions and realisations).


RANKS

SIGN rank -----Internal Structure ---------External Structure -------Interpretation -------------Realisation
Dialogue: ------turns, texts ------------------social interaction ---------communication ------------prosody, gesture
Text: ------------sentences --------------------dialogue components -----speech acts ------------------prosody, gesture
Sentence:------phrases, words --------------parts of narrative, ---------propositions ----------------prosody, gesture
---------------------------------------------------Argumentative texts
Word: ----------stems, affixes ---------------functional parts of --------complex states---------------Phonemes: ---------------------------------------------------sentences -------------------properties, ------------------word prosody ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------events
Morpheme:----phonemes, -------------------syllables---------------------parts of words ---------------simple states
Phoneme: ----distinctive features ---------syllables --------------------encoding of ------------------Phonetic ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------morphemes -----------------segments, allophones
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------allophones
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------into sounds------------------






STRUCTURE AND CONSTITUTIVE RELATIONS

What is structure?

Language structure is determined by following kinds of constitutive relations:

● Structural relations:
syntactic relations
→ Function words are the "glue" between lexical words
→ Combinatory relations which create larger signs (and their realisations and
interpretations) from smaller signs (and their realisations and interpretations)

● Paradigmatic relations
there is a choice of words
classificatory relations of similarity and difference between signs.

● Semiotic relations
realisation: the visual appearance or acoustic representation of signs (other senses may also be involved)
interpretation: the assignment of meaning to a sign


SYNTAGMATIC RELATIONS

Syntagmatic relations can be defined as linguistic "glue":

combinatory relations which create larger signs (and their realisations and interpretations) from smaller signs (and their realisations and interpretations)

Examples of relations on different ranks:

Phonology:
- Consonants and vowels are glued together as core and periphery of syllables.
Morphology:
- lexical morphemes and affixes are glued together into stems
- stems are glued together into compound stems
- stems and inflections are glued together into words
Syntax:
- nouns and verbs are glued together as the subjects and verbs of sentences



STRUCTURES AND SYNTAGMATIC RELATIONS/
SYNTAGMATIC RELATIONS IN PHONOLOGY

Phonological rank:


----------------------------------SYLLABLE
________________________________________________________


------------------------------------------------------RHYME
-------------------------------------_______________________________

ONSET ----------------------------------NUCLEUS --------CODA
_________________________ ______________ _________________
/ s t r------------------------------------- ε ŋ ---------------¨ s /





OTHER SYNTAGMATIC REALTIONS

Syntagmatic relations are very often hierarchical.
Therefore to some extent, structures in phonology, morphology and syntax can be similar, if they are hierarchical.


MORPHOLOGICAL SYNTAGMATIC RELATIONS



--------------------------------stem
_________________________________________________________
------------------------------------------predicate
---------------------___________________________________________
c-stem -------------------verbal ------------object
_________________ _____________ _______________
day to day ---------------bath room --------clean er





SYNTACTIC SYNTAGMATIC REALTIONS



----------------------sentence
_______________________________________
----------------------------------predicate
--------------------------_____________________
subject----------------------verbal --------object
__________________ ________ ____________
The loud smoker -----------is being -----a nuiscance




PARADIGMATIC RELATIONS

Paradigmatic relations can be defined as classificatory relations of similarity and difference between signs.
The similarity and difference concerns the:
-internal structure
-external structure
-meaning
-appearance



Homework on language structure:

Identify the syntagmatic relations in the following constructions:

-/frIdÿ /, /streIts/, /prεər/:
External structure of phonemes, a chain of single phonemes that are related to each other.

-"department store detective":
Combination of three single lexical words that form an lexical union-

-"three people saw a woman and her dog in the shop"
Sentnence syntax: the lexical words are related by funtion wores: conjunction (and),
preposition (in)

Identify the paradigmatic relations in the following sets (describe similarities and differences):

-/p/, /t/, /k/:
These consonants are all voiceless plosives, but they have a different palce of articulation: /p/: bilabila plosive, /t/ alveolar plosive, /k/ velar plosive

-"object", "furniture", "chair", "table"
These terms object, furniture, chair and table can be put into an taxonomy, because they have got a relation of hyperonyms and hyponyms. But "chair" and "table" are co-hyponyms of the same level.

-"walk", "drive", "run", "ride"
These verbs are all verbs that indicate a movement.

Analyse the components of the following item into units of different ranks:

Her step-mother bought her a pre-paid phone card

Her: Possessive pronoun
step-mother: noun, compound
bought: verb, irregular past tense morpheme
a: determiner, indefinite article
pre-paid: compound: preposition+ passive verb form
phone: noun
card: noun
pre-paid phone card: lexical unit