Chapter Four Syntax 句法学
2007-12-25 14:53阅读：
Syntax
句法学
1.Syntax
定义is a subfield of linguistics
that studies the sentence structure of language. Sentences are
structured according to particular arrangement of words.
2、Syntax as a system of
rules. as a major component of grammar, syntax
consists of a set of abstract rules that allow words to be combined
with other words to form grammatical sentences
3、Sentence
structure
Subject all language have ways of referring to some entity, such as
a person , a place, a thing, an idea, or an event, this referring
expression is grammatically called subject. A subject may be a noun
or a noun phrase in a sentence that usually precedes the
predicate.
2.Type of
sentence
英语的句子中的三种基本类型是什么？
Traditionally, three major types of sentences are distinguished.
They are simple sentence, coordinate or compound sentence and
complex sentence.
A simple sentence consists of a single clause which
contains a subject and a predicate and stands alone as its own
sentence. For example, ① John reads
extensively. the sentences contains a single clause and can stand
structurally independent.
A coordinate sentence并列句
contains two clauses joined by a linking word called
coordinating conjunction, such as “and”, “but”, “or”. The two
clauses in a coordinate sentence are structurally equal parts of
the sentence; neither is subordinate to the other. For
example, ③ John is reading a linguistic
book, and Mary is preparing for her history exam.
A complex sentence contains two or more
clauses, one of which is incorporated into the other. The two
clauses in a complex sentence have unequal status, one
subordinating the other. The incorporated, or subordinate, clause
is normally called an embedded
clause子句,
and the clause into which it is embedded is called a
matrix sentence主句. For
example, ⑤ Mary told Jane [that John
liked linguistics]. In the above examples, the clauses in the
square brackets are embedded clauses. They are subordinate to the
clauses outside the brackets which are called matrix
clauses.
A complex sentence
的特征：Some conclusions can be
drawn from the complex sentence.
1、an embedded clause functions as a
grammatical unit in its matrix clause.
2.most embedded clauses require an introductory word called a
subordinator, such as “that”,” if ”.
3.an embedded clause may not function as a grammatically
well-formed sentence if it stands independently as a simple
sentence unless it form changes.
3、linearly- and
hierarchically-structured.(线形结构和层次结构
Language is a highly structured system of communication.
Sentences are not formed by
randomly(随意)combining lexical items, but
by following a set of syntactic rules that arrange linguistic
elements in a particular order to make a string of words not only
meaningful but also linearly- and
hierarchically-structured.(线形结构和层次结构)
Hierarchical structure: the sentence structure that groups
words into structural constituents and shows the syntactic
categories of each structural constituent, such as NP and VP.
5、Syntactic
categories: 句法类型
1.lexical categories词类 (four major
lexical categories and six minor lexical categories)
2. Phrasal categories 短语类(lexical
items have certain combinational properties that allow them to
combine with words of different categories to form phrase. NP VP PP
AP)
6、Grammatical
relations(语法关系)
The structural and logical relations of constituents are
called grammatical relations. It concerns the way each noun phrase
in the sentence relates to the verb. (who does what do whom).
Structural vs. logical subject, object. (**)
7、Combinational
rules组合规则
1、
Phrase structural rules The combinational
pattern in a linear formula may be called a phrase structural rule,
or rewrite rule. It allows us to better understand how words and
phrases form sentences, and so on.
2、Syntactic movement and
movement rules Syntactic movement occurs when a
constituent in a sentence moves out of its original place to a new
position, the sentence involving which cannot be described by
phrase structure rules. It was governed by transformational rules,
the operation of which may change the syntactic representation of a
sentence (句法的表达方式).
3、什么是X-标杆理论?
X-bar theory is a general and highly abstract
schema that collapses all phrasal structure rules into a single
format: X″→ (Spec) X (Compl). In this
format, Spec stands for specifier while Compl stands
for complement. This theory is capable of reducing the redundancies
of individual phrasal structure rules and may well capture certain
basic properties shared by all phrasal categories, i.e. NP, VP, AP,
PP, across the languages of the world.
4、Syntactic
movement and movement rules
Syntactic
movement occurs when a constituent in a sentence moves out of its
original place to a new position, the sentence involving which
cannot be described by phrase structure rules. It was governed by
transformational rules, the operation of which may change the
syntactic representation of a sentence
(句法的表达方式).
1 NP-movement and WH-movement
NP-movement occurs when,
for example, a sentence changes from the active voice to the
passive voice (postpose, prepose).
WH-movement is obligatory in English. It changes a sentence from
affirmative to interrogative.
2 Other types of movement
AUX-movement
(auxiliary)
3 D-structure and S-structure
The syntactic component of
the grammar:
Phrase Structure Rules + the Lexicon
(词汇)
（generate）―――D-structure
(deep structure) ―――
Movement Rules （
transform）―――― S-structure (Surface
structure)
A sentence may not look different when it is at different syntactic
levels. Since syntactic movement does not occur to all sentences,
the D-structure and S-structure of some sentences look exactly the
same at different levels of representation.
4 More α-a general
movement rule
There is a general movement
rule accounting for the syntactic behavior of any constituent
movement, called Moveα(or Move Alpha),
which means “move any constituent to any place”. The problem is
Moveαis too powerful and the grammar
should include some conditions which will restrain this power and
stimulate that only “certain constituents” move to “certain
positions”.
7、Toward a theory of
universal grammar
Since early 1980s, Noam
Chomsky and other generative linguists proposed and developed a
theory of universal grammar (UG) known as the principles and
parameters theory. According to Chomsky, UG is a system of
linguistic knowledge and a human species-specific gift, which
exists in the mind or brain of a normal human being. According to
principles-and-parameters framework, UG consists of a set of
general conditions, or general principles, that generate phrases
and at the same time restrain the power of
Moveα, thus preventing this rule from
applying in certain cases. UG also contains a set of parameters
that allow general principles to operate in certain ways, according
to which particular grammar of natural languages vary.
