Introduction
Intended Audience
This website is intended for linguistics students that have some background knowledge of syntax. The goal of this website is to provide a basic understanding of how sentences are diagramed in syntax and introduce x' theory.
This instruction manual will cover the basic terminology used in syntax, the skeleton of the basic as well as X’ tree structure and how to diagram a sentence using Tree-form (a tool used to diagram syntax trees on the computer.)
What is syntax?
•Linguistics is the study of language structure and function. Syntax is the branch of linguistics that analyzes the structure of sentences, how the sentences are formed, and the relationship between different phrases that create a well-formed (grammatical) sentence. The main goal of syntax is to generate a grammar that accounts for grammatical sentences in a language and does not allow ungrammatical sentences.
Why is syntax important?
•Syntax is important because it provides the rules and principles for how sentences are formed in a language. It generates the grammar of a language and important information about word order and the way various phrases relate to each other.
Syntax indicates what sentences are grammatical in a language and which are not grammatical.
For example:
1. Aliyah writes a book.
2.*Writes a book Aliyah.
3.*Book writes Aliyah.
* Ungrammatical
what makes (1) grammatical and (2)-(3) ungrammatical? The word order of (1) matches the English word order, subject, verb, object (SVO), whereas (2)-(3) do not have the correct word order for English.
•Having an understanding of Syntax will enable a linguist to understand the structure of sentences in various languages and analyze the grammar of various languages. Having an understaning of Syntax helps language teachers to explain grammar to students and have a visual representation of how the grammar of a language works. Second language teachers must understand deeply the sentence structure inorder to teach students the language.
Principles and Parameters
•All languages share similar principles such as subject, verb, and object which are formed with nouns and verbs, and modified by adjectives and prepositions.
•Languages differ on word order, which is a parameter that must be set depending on the language. English has SVO (subject verb object) word order whereas Arabic and other Semitic languages have VSO (verb subject object). Spanish follows SVO word order and can have VSO when the verb inflects and the subject is dropped, the pronoun serves as the object.
Spanish VSO word order in cases where the pronoun serves as the object
Spanish: (yo) te amo
Gloss: I you love
Translation: I love you
Spanish SVO word order
Spanish: Yo escribo la carta.
Gloss: I write the letter.
Translation: I write the letter.
Arabic: VSO
Arabic: yaktub Ahmedu ar-risala
Gloss: write Ahmed the-letter
Translation "Ahmed writes a letter"
Universality
•Syntax attempts to generalize rules that can be applied across the world's languages and be modified to fit various parameters.