Syntax

Here we’ll talk about syntax, discussing parts of speech in English.

If you’d like to dig deeper into these concepts, check out Chapter 5 of How English Works.

 

 

Why do parts of speech matter?

Like IPA, parts of speech help us describe and analyze what is happening with language – particularly sentence structure.

Parts of speech (aka “lexical categories”) explain the roles and relationships of words within a sentence/phrase.

 

Sometimes, linguists use diagrams to model sentence structure, and parts of speech make up the components of that structure.

 

The concept of parts of speech in linguistics is probably slightly different than what you’ve learned before. Instead of just memorizing a part of speech along with a word’s definition, we’re going to focus on how a word is used – which means that the same word could have different parts of speech, depending on the sentence!

We’ll look to clues in a word’s morphological form and syntactic position within a sentence to figure out its part of speech.

We’ll go through each category, talking about clues/common features of each.

 

 

What is a noun?

Form:

• Can be made plural (end in –s) (example: giraffes)
• Might have certain derivational endings (example: happiness, government, worker, etc.)

Syntactic position:

• After: determiners (example: the giraffe)
  determiners + adjectives (example: the tall giraffe)
  or just adjectives (example: tall giraffes)
• Can function as subjects, objects, and complements (more on this later!)

 

Examples:

The cat meowed.
Artists are creating a sculpture.
Fast swimmers took over the pool.

What are some other sentences that contain nouns?

 

 

What is an adjective?

Form:

• Might have certain derivational endings (examples: -ish, -ful, -y)
• Comparative/superlative (-er, -est)

Syntactic position:

• Before a noun (and after a determiner):
  Delicious bread
  The stinky shoes
• After a “linking verb” (aka “be”):
  The dragon is hungry
  I was afraid

 

Examples:

This book is powerful.
Greedy people ruin everything.
A sneaky squirrel ran up the tree.

What are some other sentences that contain adjectives?

 

 

What is a verb?

Form:

• It’s complicated! Depends on tense/mood/aspect, person/number, and voice:
  -s (listens), -ed (cooked), -ing (whispering), -en (past participle – written)

Syntactic position:

• After auxiliary verb (aka “helping verb”)
  A mosquito is biting me (is = aux, biting = verb)
  The judge has decided (has = aux, decided = verb)
• After a subject, between subject and object

 

Examples:

• Greedy people ruin everything.
• A sneaky squirrel ran up the tree.
• The cat meowed.
• Artists are creating a sculpture.

What are some other sentences that contain verbs?

 

 

Subjects and Objects

A subject does the action; the object “receives” the action.

The boy kicked the can.
The cat meowed.
Artists are creating a sculpture.

Subjects: boy, cat, artists
Objects: can, sculpture

 

Not all verbs involve an object – these are called intransitive verbs. They only have a subject.

The cat meowed.
An elephant sneezed.
The apple tree died.

Subjects: cat, elephant, apple tree

Other examples of sentences with intransitive verbs?

 

Transitive verbs have a subject AND an object:

The player threw the ball.
That man loves rainbows.
I learned Urdu.

Subjects: player, man, I
Objects: ball, rainbows, Urdu

 

Be careful with passive voice – it changes the typical order of the subject and object:

The ball was kicked by the player.

Subject: player
Object: ball

 

Other examples of sentences with transitive verbs?

 

 

Ditransitive verbs have a subject and TWO objects:

He gave the mouse a cookie.
The wizard taught the apprentice a spell.
My mom mailed me a package.

Subjects: he, wizard, mom
Objects: mouse, cookie; apprentice, spell; me, package

 

Other examples of sentences with ditransitive verbs?

 

 

What is an adverb?

Three general categories, in terms of meaning: temporal (when), manner (how), discourse (stance)

Form:

• Often end in –ly (examples: quickly, angrily)
• Beware of –ly adjectives, like “friendly” or “lovely”

Syntactic position:

• All over the place!
  “Quickly I read through the chapter” or…
  “I quickly read through the chapter” or…
  “I read quickly through the chapter” or…
  “I read through the chapter quickly”

 

Examples:

The panda quietly ate the bamboo.
Frankly, he is a liar.
My friend arrived late.

What are some other sentences that contain adverbs?

 

 

What is a preposition?

Indicates location, direction, time, duration, manner, and other relationships

Syntactic position:

• Before nouns/noun phrases
  He went to Mississippi
  The dog played in the salty water.
• After a verb, an adjective, or noun
  The cow jumps over the moon.
  The lawyer waited for 20 minutes.
  He is bored by television.
  I kicked the ball down the hill.

 

Be careful with phrasal verbs!

Phrasal verbs like “call up” or “freak out” contain words that sometimes act as prepositions but are just part of the verb in these examples.

What are some other sentences that contain prepositions?

 

 

What is a conjunction?

Coordinating conjunctions: connect words or phrases of the same category

Examples:
I want to swim or surf.
Doctors and nurses work in hospitals.

 

Correlative conjunctions: come in pairs – either/or, neither/nor, not only/but also

Examples:
Neither linguistics nor math is interesting.
I have climbed not only Kiliminjaro but also Everest.

 

Subordinating conjunctions: Connect a main clause and a dependent/subordinate clause – because, although, when, after, unless, if

Examples:
Flamingos are pink because they eat shrimp.
The werewolf arrived after the sun set.

 

Complementizers are a special kind of subordinating conjunction – they embed a full sentence into another.

The most common complementizer in English is “that”:
He knows that she is smart.
The veterinarian said that ferrets eat eggs.

 

**Not every “that” is a complementizer!
It can also be a determiner (That lizard is spiky) or a pronoun (I cooked that).

 

What are some other sentences that contain conjunctions?

 

 

What is a pronoun?

Pronouns have the same syntactic position as nouns/noun phrases.

Personal pronouns (Examples: I, you, them)

Indefinite pronouns (Examples: everything, nobody, someone)

Interrogative pronouns (Examples: who, what)

Demonstrative pronouns (Examples: that, these)

 

Examples:

The koala snuggled with him.
Who ate the pizza?
I am looking for something.
This is beautiful.

 

What are some other sentences that contain pronouns?

 

 

What is a determiner?

Syntactic position:

• Before a noun/noun phrase
• Can combine with other determiners: “all these books”

 

Examples:

Everyone needs a friend.
The senator loves that movie.

 

What are some other sentences that contain determiners?

 

What is an auxiliary verb?

Syntactic position:

• Before main verbs (see above)

Primary auxiliaries: be, have, do

Modals: can, could, may, might, shall, should, will, would, must

Do you use any other auxiliary verbs?

 

 

Practice with Jabberwocky

`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

 

Let’s start with “the slithy toves”

We can guess that “slithy” is an adjective because:

• It ends in –y (common derivational ending for adjectives)
• It comes after a determiner (“the”), and before something that looks like a noun (“toves”)

We can guess that “toves” is a noun because:

• It ends in plural –s
• It comes after a determiner (“the”) + adjective

 

Now you try with the rest of the lines!

We’ll review in our (optional) Zoom meeting!

 

Up Next

Next week, more syntax!