SYNTAX
Syntax is the branch
of linguistics that deals with the grammatical arrangement of words and morphemes
in the sentences of a language or of languages in general.
Syntax concerns
the possible arrangements of words in a language. The basic unit is the sentence
which minimally consists of a main clause (containing at least a subject and
predicate). Nouns and verbs are the major categories and combine with various
others, such as adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, etc. to form
more complex sentences.
WHAT IS A SENTENCE?
A
sentence (which must have both a subject and a verb) is a unit of meaning that
expresses a "complete thought".
Sentences are essential for clear and
unambiguous communication. This is why experts advise the use
"compete sentences", even when writing outlines or creating teaching
materials.
Sentence complexity reflects cognitive
complexity so it may help to analyze a student's writing by counting the
average number of phrases and clauses they use in their sentences. Simple
sentences, without a lot of grammatical complexity, may be best for some
purposes, such as providing step-by-step directions. For other purposes, such
as developing an argument or a compare-and-contrast essay, sentences with more complex
structure may be most appropriate.
WHAT IS A PHRASE?
A
PHRASE is a syntactic structure that contains one or more words but does not
contain both a subject and a verb (so it is not a sentence). A phrase has
one central element, referred to as the head of the phrase.
Heads
of phrases can be:
1) Noun Phrases
Noun phrases always contain a noun or a
pronoun as the head. Noun phrases may be single nouns or pronouns or they may
begin with a determiner. Determiners include:
·
Articles
(e.g., a, an, the)
·
Possessives
(e.g., my, his, man's, Sam's)
·
Demonstratives
(e.g., that, this, those)
·
Quantifiers
(e.g., every, another, some)
·
Wh-words
(e.g., what, whatever, which)
Noun phrases can serve different grammatical
functions in a sentence:
·
Subject (e.g., The boy was very small.)
·
Object (e.g., The girl read some
books.)
·
Complement (e.g., This is what I like.)
·
Adverbial (e.g., We went yesterday.)
2) Verb Phrases
Verb phrases serve as the main
structure of the predicate and include a main verb and any auxiliary verb forms
and modifiers that might be attached to it.
For example “I should have told you
about the problem.”
(The verb forms infinitives, participles
and gerunds can also serve as phrases.)
3) Adjective Phrases
Adjective phrases have adjectives as
the head of the phrase, although there may be one or more modifiers attached to
it.
For example “He has really unsafe
habits”
4) Adverb Phrases
An
adverb phrase is simply two or more words that act as an adverb. It can modify
a verb, adverb, or adjective and can tell “how”, “where”, “why”, or “when.”
An adverb clause which also modifies verbs, adverbs
and adjectives; but, an adverb clause also includes a subject and a verb.
For example “Meet me at the mall.”
5) Prepositional Phrases
Prepositional phrases begin with a preposition
and the preposition is considered the head of the phrase.
For example “She did really well on the
final”
Some argue that the object of the
proposition, the noun to which the preposition refers, should be considered the
head of the phrase, but we will consider the preposition the head].
WHAT IS A CLAUSE?
A
CLAUSE is a syntactic structure that contains both a subject and a predicate.
There are two types of clauses:
- independent (main)
- dependent (subordinate)
1) Independent
(main) clauses may stand alone (and when they do stand alone they are the
same as a simple sentence) or they may be joined to other clauses by:
a) a coordinating
conjunction (e.g., and, or, nor, for, but, yet, so)
b) a conjunctive adverb
(e.g., however, therefore, after, because, if)
for example ” The beach is a lot of fun, but the
mountains are even better.”
2) Dependent (subordinate)
clauses can not stand alone (i.e., must be attached to an independent
clause) either because they begin with a subordinating conjunction (e.g., if,
unless, because) or a relative pronoun (e.g., that, whose, what).
a) While dependent clauses
add meaning to the main clause to which they are attached, they can be deleted
without changing the meaning of the main clause.
b) Some types of dependent
clauses include:
i) Noun (or nominal)
clauses for ex: This is what he wants.
ii) Adjective (relative)
clauses for ex: This is the exercise that we need to do
iii) Adverbial clauses for ex: Do this exercise before the week is over.
iv) Comparative clauses
for ex: This exercise is harder than the one I did last week.
