chapter 4 (the first half)SS.ppt

Chapter 4 Syntax There are four periods for this chapter. The first two periods is about 4.1(What is syntax?), 4.2 (categories), 4.3 (phrase structure rule) and 4.4 (phrase elements). Period 3 and 4 is about 4.5 (The S rule) and 4.6 (Transformations). 4.1 What is syntax? Syntax is a branch of linguistics that studies the rules that govern the formation of sentences. What we are going to introduce here is the simple version of transformational syntax (转换句法/转换句式) in 4.6（p. 51）. 句法是语言学的分支；它研究制约句子构成的规则。 转换句法的简写版本 4.2 Categories （范畴） Category refers to a group of linguistic items which fulfill the same or similar functions in a particular language such as a sentence, a noun phrase or a verb. 范畴是指在具体语言中诸如句子、名词或动词具有相同或相似功能的一组语言单位。 Category refers to (1) a class or division in a scheme of classification or (2) any of the various concepts into which all knowledge can be classified. (Webster’s New Dictionary p.221) 注：This is a book 属于句子范畴；book, boy, dog, desk, etc属于名词范畴；beautiful, ugly 属于形容词范畴。范畴就是分大类。 4.2.1 Word-level categories A fundamental fact about words in all human languages is that they can be grouped together into a relatively small number of classes, called syntactic categories, which can generally substitute for one another without loss of grammaticality. This is a book. Mary loves Jim. This is a desk. Mary hates Jim This is a tomb. Mary likes Jim. There are eight categories (called parts of speech) in traditional grammar. They are nouns (名词), pronouns (代词), adjectives (形容词), adverbs (副词), verbs (动词), numerals (数词), articles (冠词), prepositions (介词), conjunctions (连词) and interjections (感叹词)。 注：英文单字依其在句中的作用可分为八大词类-名词,代名词, 形容词, 动词, 副词, 介系词, 连接词, 感叹词等 .tw/tp/teacher/TE104/%AFZ%AF%C5%B8g%C0%E7/%AD%5E%A4%E5%A4%E5%AAk%AA%BA%B0%F2%A5%BB%B7%A7%A9%C0.doc It is necessary to add such non-traditional categories as determiner (Det 限定词、限定成分), degree words (Deg程度词、等级词) and qualifier (Qua限定语、修饰语). Three criteria to determine a word’s category 1. meaning