ROSLINA KAMALDIN 1102499 NORSHAM NASIR

AZINAH
ABD AZIZ

1102489

GROUP MEMBERS
ROSLIEZA ISMAIL 1102497

1102505

ANASTASI A NOR AZAMI 1102502

ASLIZA ALI 1102486

SYNTAX : THE SENTENCE STRUCTURE

Syntax
study of the structure or arrangement of the components in phrases or sentences. Also concerns looking at the structural and functional relationships of the elements in a phrases or sentences ( the order of the words in a phrase or sentence contributes to its interpretation and meaning. By looking at the order of the words, the reader would get the information on who is doing what to whom. Example:
The cat chased the mouse. The mouse chased the cat. Both sentences contain similar words. The order of the words in the sentences allow the readers to interpret the different meaning of the sentences.

Syntactic Structure
Words in a phrase or a sentence could be group together to form meaning. The group of words refer as syntactic unit or constituent. It is crucial to study the syntactic unit in learning a particular language to interpret the meaning related by the structure. Example : the phrase old man with a knife on the table can be group as:
1st : [old man with a knife] [ on the table] 2nd : [old man] [with a knife on the table]

The syntactic structure in the1st and the 2nd phrases have different meanings based on how the words are group. 1st means the old man carries a knife and the old man is on the table 2nd means the knife is on the table and not the old man.

By grouping the words phrases can be interpreted in two different ways base
on how the words are group. - because the phrase can be divided into two different syntactic structures - this phrase is categorized as having structural ambiguity.

Syntactic structures is the knowledge of the arrangement of words into groups

and the relationship of these words to form meaning.

Constituents
Refers to the structural units of a sentence that represent particular organization in a sentence. The grouping of words in a sentence into constituents are done using several linguistics tests;

a)Stand Alone Test

a group of words that can stand alone can be consider as a constituent. example- a set of words that form an answer to a question.

Question : Who will Jimmy see?

Answer : Jimmy will see [the boy]. The answer, the boy is consider as a constituent because it can stand alone as a unit. Jimmy a unit because it can answer the question Who will see the boy? will see and see the are not constituents they cannot stand alone.

b) A Movable Unit Test

a group of words is a constituent when it can be move to the beginning of a

sentence.
example ; the boy can be moved to the beginning of the sentence. the boy is a constituent. Jimmy will see [the boy]. [The boy], Jimmy will see.

c) Substitution With A Pronoun

when a pronoun can be use to substitute the group of words the unit is consider a constituent. example ; the boy can be substitute with the pronoun him Jimmy will see [the boy].

Jimmy will see [him].

SUMMARY
a group of words in a sentence can stand on its own a group of words can be move to the beginning of a sentence a group of words can be substitute with a pronoun

a constitute

A group of words may be consider as a constitute even if they do not fulfill the tests above

Syntactic Categories
A group of expressions or phrases that can be use interchangeably and the structure remains grammatically correct

i. Noun Phrase (NP)

can be function a subject or an object in a sentence consist f determiners like a and the. proper name like Sarah, pronoun he, she, it and a noun without determiners like Girls also NPs because they can be placed as a subject or an object or other NP positions. examples of NPs and their position as a subject or an object in a sentence.
Ariff (NP- subject) drew the painting (NP- object). Girls (subject) like dolls (object).

ii. Verb Phrase (VP)

Sentence above contains a verb phrase - drew the painting

A verb phrase contain a verb and other syntactic categories like a noun phrase (NP) and ;
prepositional phrase (PP), contains a preposition and follow by a noun phrase such as on the floor.

Example; drew the painting drew is a VP (verb phrase) and the painting is a NP (noun
phrase).

iii. Prepositional Phrase (PP)

represented by a preposition and follow by a noun phrase. Example ; The man put his wallet [on the counter] (PP). Lisa ran [around campus] (PP). other phrasal categories are present below; Noun (N) Verb (V)

Ahmad, toys, computer play, jump, report, shout, present

Preposition (P)
Adjective (Adj) Adverb (Adv) Determiner (Det)

on, in, at, after, during, into, with

clean, pink, beautiful, adorable carefully, never, very, too, slowly a, an, the, that, this, these, those

Auxiliary (Aux)
Modals

is, are, was, were, has, have, had

may. can., could, should, might

The following table shows a list of symbols and abbreviations commonly found in syntactic descriptions: S sentence

N
Pro V Adj

noun
pronoun verb adjective

Adv
Art Prep NP

adverb
article preposition noun phrase

VP
PP

verb phrase
prepositional phrase

Use to label constituents in a sentence. Labeling one way to analyze a sentence in an explicit way by categorizing the constituents according to hierarchy in form of tree diagram

Tree Diagrams
Linguists see that the string of words in a sentence can be group into groups of words that are called constituents

Believe that constituents as a syntactic structure can be represents

with a tree diagram to show its structural organization and syntactic relationships and how they can be hierarchically organized. Example;

The girl buys the flowers.

NP

VP

Det

Noun

Verb

NP

The

girl

buys

Det

Noun

the

flowers

These women plan the wedding.

s

NP

VP

Det

Noun

Verb

NP

These

women

plan

Det

Noun

the

wedding

THANK YOU