syntax句法学

1、SyntaxLiu Sihuiwhat is syntax?Syntax refers to the study of the rules governing the way words are combined to form sentences in a language or simply, the study of the formation of sentences.Sentences are composed of discrete units that are combined by rules. This system of rules explains how speaker

2、s can store infinite knowledge in a finite space-our brain.FromGreek: syn(together)+tax(arrangement)Both the study of morphology and the study of syntax may be grouped together as grammar.Contents1. Syntax as opposed to Morphology.2. The traditional apporach.3. The structural apporach.4. The generat

3、ive apporach.5. The functional apporach.1. Syntax as opposed to morphologySyntax is about principles of forming and understanding correct sentences.The form or structure of a sentence is governed by the rules of syntax. These rules specify word order, sentence organization and the relationship betwe

4、en words, word classes and other sentence elements.syntax as opposed to morphologyA principle distinction between morphology and syntaxthe former is concerned with the internal composition of a word, whereas the latter is concerned with combinations of words.Poole: derivation, being concerned with t

5、he creation of new lables, draws morphplogy towards lexis while inflection, being concerned with function, draws morphology towards syntax.2. the traditional approachIt takes a sentence as a sequence of words.It studies sentence formation by studying words in terms of categories and their interrelat

6、ionships.2. the traditional approach2.1 Lexical categories2.2 Phrasal categories2.3 Syntactic functions2.4 Syntactic features2.5 Sentence types1. Lexical categoriesIt refers to a group of linguistic items which fulfill the same or similar functions in a particular language such as a sentence, a noun

7、 phrase or a verb.Major lexical categoriesNoun, Verb, Adjective, Adverb, PrepositionMinor lexical categoriesDeterminer, Auxiliary, Conjunction, Infinitive, Negative2. Phrasal categoriesThe syntactic units that are built around a certain word category are called phrase categories, such as NP.Word lev

8、el categories can be extended to phrasal categories with heads :3. Syntactic FunctionsSyntactic function shows the relationship between a linguistic form and other parts of the linguistic pattern in which it is used.Subject: Semantically, subject refers to the noun which serves as the doer or agent

9、of the action. 3. Syntactic FunctionsThe traditional approach to syntactic function identifies constituents of the sentence, states the part of speech that each word related to the others.According to the relation to other constituents, a constituent may serve certain syntactic function in a clause.

10、There are five function categories of clause constituents:Subject, verb, object, complement, and adverbialS-subjectV-verbO-object-direct object, indirect objectC- complementA-adverbial 4. Syntactic FeaturesTraditionally, a sentence is seen as a sequence of words. The study of sentence formation, the

11、refore, involves a great deal of the study of words1. number, gender, case2. tense, aspect3. concord and government4.1Number/gender/case(Ns, Vs)Number: a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions. nouns and pronounssingle or plural I,

12、 We, You, They. a book V.S some books verbs I speak English. He speaks English.Gender the category of nouns and pronouns a grammatical category dividing nouns into classes basically characterizable by reference to sex.gender displays such contrasts as masculine:feminine:neuter, animate: inanimate, e

13、tc. for the analysis of word classes. eg. actor/actresscaseThe case category is used in the analysis of word classes to identify the syntactic relationship between words in a sentence.In English, case is a special form of the noun which frequently correspnd to a combination of preposition and noun,

14、and it is realized in three channels.a. inflectionb. following a prepositionc. word ordercase nominative (subject form) accusative 直接受格(direct object form) dative 间接受格(indirect object form) genetive属格 (possessive form)Case: pronouns nominative (I, he, she) genitive(my, his, her) accusative (me, him,

15、 her) nouns general (John, boys) genitive ( Johns, boys)名词的主宾格看语序4.2 Tense and aspect(体) the category of verbsTense: indicating time related to the time of utterance. Aspect: the internal temporal structure of a verb.E.g I am reading a book. He went to the concert last night.Based on the tense syste

16、m of Latin, English used to have 16 tenses. English TensesPresent: simple/progressive/perfect/perfect progressive Past: simple/progressive/perfect/perfect progressive Future: simple/progressive/perfect/perfect progressive P a s t F u t u r e : s i m p l e / f u t u r e progressive/perfect/perfect pr

17、ogressiveEnglish Aspects Perfective aspect 完成体 Prograssive aspect 进行体4.3 Concord and GovernmentConcord (agreement): the forms of two or more words in a syntactic relationship should agree with each other in terms of some categories.eg. a book two books John went to his Uncles. He speaks French. They

18、 speak English. Government(支配关系): a word of a certain class governs the form of others. Usually the verb or the preposition determines the form of pronoun after it. In traditional grammar, the term government has typically been used to refer to the relationship between verbs and nouns or between pre

19、positions and nouns.eg. She gave him a book She gave a book to him. 5. Sentence types: traditional approachSentencesimplenon-simple complex compoundsentence typessimple sentence: a single clause that stands alone as its own sentence Sam did his homework. His uncle bought him a nice present.coordinat

20、e sentence: two or more clauses joined by a conjunction in a coordinate relationship John did the cooking and Mary washed the plex sentence: combining two or more clauses in such a way that one clause function as a grammatical part of the other one. That the prisoner escaped shocked everyone. I wond

21、er if you could help.5. the functional approach1. The Prague School2. The London School3. Systemic Functional Grammar 3.1 Ideational metafunction (system of transitivity) 3.2 Interpersonal metafunction ( mood modality) 3.3 Textual metafunction (theme&rhyme cohesion)5.1 the prague schoolThe pragu

22、e school with Mathesius as its founder analyze sentences from both grammatical and functional sentence perspective.From a grammatical perspective, the sentence is sequenced as S+P.From a functional perspective, the sentence can be divided into two parts, theme+rheme.Functional approach was first sta

23、rted by Prague School and then developed by the London School.5.2 The London SchoolMalinowski: He considered language as a social phenomenon and human behavior and he concerned the function of language. According to him, the meaning of an utterance does not come from the ideas of the words comprisin

24、g it but from its relation to the situational context.With this understanding, Malinowski distinguished 3 types of context of situation. 1. situations in which speech interrelates with bodily activities;2. narrative situations;3. situations in which a speech is used to fill a speech vacuum - phatic

25、communionFirth: The founder of London School.He regarded language as a social process, as a means of social life and a mode of action.Meaning of an utterance is what it does. Sohe focused on the study of language in action.To him, language is a means of doing thingsand of making others do things. Me

26、aning is to be interpreted as acceptability according to that context.他坚持的一个分析原则是区别“结构”（structure）和“系统”（system）。结构包括内部句法结构的成分，这些成分在相互可以预期的顺序的情况下各有位置。可通用的项目或单位的系统用来说明这些成分的聚合价值。由于弗斯把“系统”一词重新定义为聚合关系，他的学生后来发展了系统语法（systemicgrammar）。弗斯把语言的聚合关系叫做“系统”，把组合关系叫做“结构”。Malinowskys idea of context of situation and

27、 Firths idea of systemic grammar have been applied to the analysis of discourse by their successors like M.A.K Halliday.5.3 Systemic Functional GrammarSystemic functional grammar (SFG) or systemic functional linguistics (SFL) is a model of grammar developed by Michael Halliday in the 1960s.1 It is p

28、art of a broad social semiotic approach to language called systemic linguistics. The term systemic refers to the view of language as a network of systems, or interrelated sets of options for making meaning;2 The term functional indicates that the approach is concerned with the contextualized, practi

29、cal uses to which language is put, as opposed to formal grammar, which focuses on compositional semantics, syntax and word classes such as nouns and verbs Systemic GrammarIt aims to explain the internal relations in language as a system network, or meaning potention. And this network consists of sub

30、systems from which language users make chices.系统语法的目标是要说明语言作为系统的内部底层关系，它是与意义相关联的可供人们不断选择的若干子系统组成的系统网络。在表达意义时，人们特意在系统网络中进行选择。在此基础上，选择就是意义。韩李德认为，在不同的层次间存在着体现关系。“意义”的选择（在语义层面上）被“形式”的选择（在词汇语法层面上）所体现；而“形式”的选择又被音系层上“实体”的选择所体现。换言之，就是“能干什么”体现于“能意味着什么”，“能意味着什么”体现于“能说什么”。根据体现的观点，我们可以把语言看作一个多重代码系统，在这个系统里一个子系统包

31、含于另一个系统中。Functional GrammarIt aims to reveal that language is a means of social interraction, based on the assumption that language system and the forms that make it up are inescapably determined by the users or functions which they serve.功能语法的目标是要说明语言是社会交往的手段，其基础是语言系统及其构成成分不可避免地由它们所提供功能和使用者所决定。Lang

32、uage is functional:three metafunctions of language ideational function 概念功能达意功能 interpersonal function and 人际功能 textual function 语篇功能IDEATIONAL METAFUNCTION 达意概念功能“Language serves for the expression of content: that is, of the speakers experience of the real world, including the inner world of his o

33、wn consciousness.” (Halliday 1970) 概念部分描写句子的语意内容。语言如何捕捉现实和我们对世界的体验，即语言指称人、物、动作、事件、状态等，主要由经验和逻辑两个网络系统组成。 Experiential system is concerned with the choice of meaning, which is realized through transitivity system（及物性系统） of language 经验系统解决意义的选择问题。这主要由及物性网络来完成。Transitivity describes the relationship bet

34、ween the Process of the verb, Participants and Circumstances.The transitivity system views the world in terms of processes- -material, mental, verbal, existential, relational, and behavioural及物系统表示参与某种交际的人之间的某种关系，以及参与者的活动、状态或环境之间的关系。说话时往往要包含一种过程。A. The man kicked the dog.B. The woman hated the old c

35、lothes.C. David is homeless.D. The girl laughed.E. The visitor said “Hello”.F. There is a cat over there.1. The man kicked the dog.KICK is a material process. Material processes are characterized by “doing” verbs, such as running, dressing, climbing, etc.Halliday describes the man as the actor (the

36、person responsible for the action), and the dog as the goal (the thing which is acted upon).Material 物质过程- the process of doing and happening.（包括动作过程和事件过程）2. The woman hated the old clothes.The predicator has something to do with feeling and thinking, which is internal rather than external, thus the

37、 name mental process.Verbs such as hate, love, know, think and understand belong to this category.Halliday: sensor + phenomenonMental-the process of thinking and sensing.3. David is homeless.It is relational in that its main purpose is to relate the two participants together.Relational verbs are be,

38、 become, appear, etc.Halliday: carrier + attributeRelational关系过程 - the process of being involving states of being.4. The girl laughed.The predicator falls into a category of verbs such as cough, yawn, and smile which Halliday calls them as behavioral. The behavioral processes are similar to material

39、 processes in that they describe physical actions of some kind but they are different in that the action is not performed on anything.Halliday: behaver.Behavioural 行为过程- the process of behaving.5. The visitor said “Hello”.Halliday calls this category as the verbal process.Verbal processes include wo

40、rds like say, report, claim, question, and explain.Halliday: sayer + targetVerbal 表达过程- the process of saying and expressing.6. There is a cat over there.Existential process.Hailliday: the existentExistential 存在过程- the process of existence involving only existential constructions.The interpersonal metafunction “Language serves to establish and maintain social relations: for the expression of social roles create