Dian Ekawati, M.

Pd

 Language

is at the centre of human societies; it

plays a crucial part in the organisation of social
activities, from government through the
workplace to the home. These complex tasks
require complex language, and that requires
syntax. (Miller, 2002)
When we concentrate on the structure and
ordering of components within a sentence, we
are studying the syntax of a language.
(Yule,2006)

A major component of the GRAMMAR of a

language (together with LEXICON, PHONOLOGY,
and SEMANTICS), syntax concerns the ways in
which words combine to form sentences and
the rules which govern the formation of
sentences, making some sentences possible
and others not possible within a particular
language. (Longman Dictionary of Language
Teaching and Applied Linguistics, 2002)

The way words fit together to form sentences or utterances

(Thomas, 1993)
The system of rules and categories that underlie sentence
formation in human language (Grady, et al., 1987)
The part of grammar that concerns the structure of phrases
and sentences (Fromkin , et al., 1992)

The Elements of Syntax

The Grammatical
and
Meaningful
Sentence

Lexicon:

Word
Order

the Major
Word Classes

Nouns

Marked
Word
Order

Morphology

Unmarked
Word
Order

Function
Words:
the Minor Word
Classes

Inflectional
Morphology

Verbs

Prepositions

for Nouns

for Verbs

for Adjectives

for Adverbs

Adjectives

Articles

Case

Tense

Comparison

Comparision

Pronouns

Gender

Aspect

Conjunctions

Number

Modality

Adverbs

Mood

Number

GRAMMAR: a description of the possible arrangements of

words in language
PHONOLOGY, MORPHOLOGY, SYNTAX, SEMANTICS,
PRAGMATICS (GRAMMAR)
STRUCTURE: Relationship between constituents
SYNTAX : How to put words (word arrangements) in the
sentence

word classes are sometimes called word form or parts of

speech
Word Classes

Major Word
Classes

Minor Word
Classes

Major word classes are also called open classes meaning

that their membership is unrestricted and indefinitely large
since they allow the addition of new members.
in English, there are four major four classes:
1. Nouns
2. Adjectives
3. Adverbs
4. Verbs

Within the class of nouns, we can distinguish members which are identifiable as
nouns on the basis of typical derivational suffixes
Derivational
suffixes
-age
-ance
-ation
-dom
-ee
-eer
-ence
-ess
-ette
-hood
-ism
-ist
-ment
-ness
-ship

Examples
Anchorage, coverage, postage
Acceptance, appearance, utterance
Affirmation, information, transformation
Boredom, freedom, kingdom
Divorcee, employee, interviewee
Engineer, mountaineer, profiteer
Difference, existence, preference
Actress, governess, murderness
Cigarette
Childhood, kinghood, parenthood
Idealism, modernism, organism
Marxist, royalist, specialist
Amendment, shipment, government
Bitterness, whiteness, exactness
Friendship, kinship, scholarship

Moreover, most nouns are morphological characterized by

their ability to take typical inflexional suffixes.
Most nouns can take two inflexional suffixes, one to mark
number (plural) and one to mark case (the genitive)
The plural:
/s/
lips
/z/
boys, dogs
/iz/ horses, brushes

The genitive is one of the cases of English noun, the other

being the common (or unmarked) case
Three ways of genitive morpheme:
1. /s/
: after bases ending in voiceless sounds
Dicks car, ships crew
2. /z/
: after bases ending in voiced sounds
firms profit, my brothers cottage
3. /iz/
: horses tail, Georges children

The genitive singular ending: for goodness sake, boys school

Irregular plural
: mens cloth

1.
2.

Common nouns : count nouns and uncountable nouns

Proper Nouns refer to one particular person, country, town,
etc.

To its physical entities, Nouns are classified into:

Concrete and abstract nouns
Concrete nouns refer to people, objects, etc.
abstract nouns refer to qualities, states, etc.
Collective nouns refer to groups of people, animals, or things
(committee, herd)

Many members of adjectives are identifiable on the basis of

typical derivational suffixes
Derivational
suffixes
-able (-ible)
-ful
-ic (-ical)

Examples

reasonable
harmful
Allergic, economical

-ish

Greenish

-ive

Massive

-less

Speechless

-like

ladylike

Many adjectives take inflexional suffixes to form the

comparative (-er) and the superlative degress (-est)
bright
-brighter
-brightest
( adjectives +more/most do not inflect for comparison)

Kinds of Adjectives:
1. Attributive
2. predicative

Attributive adjectives normally precede the noun phrase

head.
a green door
Predicative adjectives normally function as subject/object
complement
The door is green
We paint the door green

Many adverbs can be identified on the basis of typical

derivational suffixes such as ly, -wards, -wise
Derivational
suffixes
-ly
-ward (s)
-wise

Examples
fully
Afterwards, upward(s)
Clockwise, edgewise, lengthwise

Only small number of adverbs inflect for comparison. The

majority of these are identical in form with adjectives.
early
-earlier
-earliest
fast
hard
quick
soon
well
badly
worse
worst


1)
2)

Two functions of Adverb:

Adverbial : the soldiers were punished cruelly
Modifier : very beautiful, hardly ever

Adverbs can also express the attitude of the speaker

towards what he is saying and linking sentence.
Honestly, I dont have any money left.
The Simpsons are very disappointed. So they left early.

There are three derivational suffixes that are typical of the class of
verbs:
Derivational
suffixes
-en

Broaden, darken, lengthen

-ify

Glorify, simplify

-ize/ise

1)
2)
3)
4)

Examples

Economize, nationalise, scandalize

There are four inflexional morphemes to the verb base:

Present
Ed1
: past tense
Ed2
: ed participle
Ing
: ing-participle


1.
2.

Two subclasses of verbs: Auxiliary and lexical verbs

I dont like hamburger.
I will do my assignment tomorrow.
Two kinds of verbs: Transitive and intransitive verbs
Phrasal verbs : (verb + closed word): bring about
Prepositional verbs: (verb + prep) depend on