Summary of Syntax
Summary of Syntax
Summary of Syntax
What is Phrase ? A group of words that express a concept, functioning as a unit within a sentence.
Types of Phrase :
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Noun Phrase: Is a result of combining noun (or pronoun/number) that functions as head of that
phrase with one or more modifiers
Verb Phrase: Verb phrase is a syntactic unit consisting of an auxiliary (helping) verb preceding the main
verb
Subject and Predicate: Something or someone that the sentence is called the subject, while predicate
contains information about the someone or something that is the subject
Phrase Structure Tree
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Adjectives : Adjective itself means adjective. Adjectives can be inserted for a subject or an object to
describe the nature of the item or person. E.g.: He is handsome.
Adverb Adjective
M H
Attributive Adjective
Attributive Adjective is used to describe a noun. This phrase is placed before the noun.
Subject Complement: A subject complement (sC) follows a linking verb (be, seem, appear, look, etc),
it is normally an adjective or a noun that renames or defines in some way the subject.
S P sC
Object Complement: An object complement follows and modifies or refers to a direct object. It can
be a noun or adjective or any word acting as a noun or adjective.
S P dO oC
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Transitive Verb: A transitive verb is a verb followed by a direct object to take the action of the
subject. For example : -Kate hugged the baby
-Kate hugged
S P dO
Intransitive Verb: An intransitive verb is defined as a verb that does not take a direct object.
Ken snores
S P
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Intensive Verb: are verbs that decribes and focus on one thing; the subject.
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Complex-transitive verbs
When a verb takes both of a direct object and an object compliment it’s called a complex transitive
verbs
(noun phrase)
S complex- DO OC
trans verb
(adjective phrase)
S complex- DO OC
trans verb
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These verb groups (hug, hugged, and hugging) carries the meaning = Lexical Verb (V).
The Lexical Verb can appear alone as in 1. Or with additional as in 2 (was), and 3 (has been).
These additional (was, has been, etc.) elements are called Auxiliaries (AUX).
Auxiliaries verbs modify the lexical verb by indicating modality, or aspect, or voice.
1. VP = verb group + dO
2. Vgp = AUX + V
3. dO = NP
MODAL AUXILIARIES:
Modality allow us to express whether a state of affairs is likely, possible, necessary and so on.
The modal auxiliaries are: will, would, can, could, may, might, shall, should, must, ought to and
marginally: need, dare, used to.
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Auxiliary Verbs: An auxiliary verb is a verb that is used to modify the lexical verb by indicating
Modality, Aspect, Voice, and Tense. (helping Verbs)
Primary auxiliary:
Auxiliary verbs which are used to form different tenses or not modals are known as Primary
Auxiliaries. I.e.: have, be, do There are two kinds of aspect: PERFECT and PROGRESSIVE
Perfect Aspect: Perfect aspect (PERF) is indicated by the presence of the auxiliary verb have.
e.g. :Sally has finished this book Sue had given the dog a bone
Passive Voice : Voice refers to whether a sentence or utterance is in the active or the passive
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PRONOUNS: A pronoun is a word that is used to replace a noun (noun) which can be a person,
object, animal, place, or abstract concept.
Distributive adjectives (this, that, those, these) : This guy, that girl, these boys
Possessive adjectives (My, your, his, her, their, our) : My car, Your friend, his mother
Quantifiers (some, many, a few, the few, a lot of, several etc.) : a lot of people , several students
NOUN PHRASE USING PRE MODIFIERS - Adjectives
Adjectives are words that describe or modify other words that making more specific one
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POST MODIFICATION: As stated before, constituents which modify the head noun can also appear
after the noun. here look at the two ways to post modify a noun 1.Prepositonal phrase : the dog
chased the cat with three legs 2.Relative clause : the cat which is laying on the mat hates dogs
Prepositional Phrase: We have already looked at prepositonal phrase with regard to other
function. now we come to a further function, that post-modifying example :
1. The dog chased the cat with tree legs (S) (P) (dO)
RELATIVE CLAUSE:
A relative clause is a bit different from anything we have looked at so far, because it introduce a kind
of subsidiary sentence into the main one.eg : 1. The cat which is lying in the mat loves dog.
pre-modifier DET eg. a game AP eg. a new game N eg. a new computer game
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