Dian Ekawati, M.Pd

Language is at the centre of human societies; it

plays a crucial part in the organisation of social

activities, from government through the

workplace to the home. These complex tasks

require complex language, and that requires

syntax. (Miller, 2002)

When we concentrate on the structure and

ordering of components within a sentence, we

are studying the syntax of a language.

(Yule,2006)

A major component of the GRAMMAR of a

language (together with LEXICON, PHONOLOGY,

and SEMANTICS), syntax concerns the ways in

which words combine to form sentences and

the rules which govern the formation of

sentences, making some sentences possible

and others not possible within a particular

language. (Longman Dictionary of Language

Teaching and Applied Linguistics, 2002)

The way words fit together to form sentences or utterances

(Thomas, 1993)

The system of rules and categories that underlie sentence

formation in human language (Grady, et al., 1987)

The part of grammar that concerns the structure of phrases

and sentences (Fromkin , et al., 1992)

The Elements of Syntax

Lexicon:

the Major

Word Classes

Nouns

Verbs

Adjectives

Adverbs

Marked

Word

Order

Unmarked

Word

Order

Word

Order

Conjunctions

Pronouns

Articles

Prepositions

Function

Words:

the Minor Word

Classes

Number

Gender

Case

for Nouns

Number

Mood

Modality

Aspect

Tense

for Verbs

Comparison

for Adjectives

Comparision

for Adverbs

Inflectional

Morphology

Morphology

The Grammatical

and

Meaningful

Sentence

GRAMMAR: a description of the possible arrangements of

words in language

PHONOLOGY, MORPHOLOGY, SYNTAX, SEMANTICS,

PRAGMATICS (GRAMMAR)

STRUCTURE: Relationship between constituents

SYNTAX : How to put words (word arrangements) in the

sentence

word classes are sometimes called word form or parts of

speech

Word Classes

Major Word

Classes

Minor Word

Classes

Major word classes are also called open classes meaning

that their membership is unrestricted and indefinitely large

since they allow the addition of new members.

in English, there are four major four classes:

1. Nouns

2. Adjectives

3. Adverbs

4. Verbs

Within the class of nouns, we can distinguish members which are identifiable as

nouns on the basis of typical derivational suffixes

Derivational suffixes

Examples

-age Anchorage, coverage, postage -ance Acceptance, appearance, utterance -ation Affirmation, information, transformation -dom Boredom, freedom, kingdom -ee Divorcee, employee, interviewee -eer Engineer, mountaineer, profiteer -ence Difference, existence, preference -ess Actress, governess, murderness -ette Cigarette -hood Childhood, kinghood, parenthood -ism Idealism, modernism, organism -ist Marxist, royalist, specialist -ment Amendment, shipment, government -ness Bitterness, whiteness, exactness -ship Friendship, kinship, scholarship

Moreover, most nouns are morphological characterized by

their ability to take typical inflexional suffixes.

Most nouns can take two inflexional suffixes, one to mark

number (plural) and one to mark case (the genitive)

The plural:

/s/ lips

/z/ boys, dogs

/iz/ horses, brushes

The genitive is one of the cases of English noun, the other being the common (or unmarked) case

Three ways of genitive morpheme:

1. /s/ : after bases ending in voiceless sounds

Dick’s car, ship’s crew

2. /z/ : after bases ending in voiced sounds

firm’s profit, my brother’s cottage

3. /iz/ : horse’s tail, George’s children

The genitive singular ending: for goodness’ sake, boys’ school

Irregular plural : men’s cloth

1. Common nouns : count nouns and uncountable nouns

2. Proper Nouns refer to one particular person, country, town, etc.

To its physical entities, Nouns are classified into:

Concrete and abstract nouns

Concrete nouns refer to people, objects, etc.

abstract nouns refer to qualities, states, etc.

Collective nouns refer to groups of people, animals, or things

(committee, herd)

Many members of adjectives are identifiable on the basis of

typical derivational suffixes

Derivational suffixes

Examples

-able (-ible) reasonable

-ful harmful

-ic (-ical) Allergic, economical

-ish Greenish

-ive Massive

-less Speechless

-like ladylike

Many adjectives take inflexional suffixes to form the

comparative (-er) and the superlative degress (-est)

bright -brighter -brightest

( adjectives +more/most do not inflect for comparison)

Kinds of Adjectives:

1. Attributive

2. predicative

Attributive adjectives normally precede the noun phrase

head.

a green door

Predicative adjectives normally function as subject/object

complement

The door is green

We paint the door green

Many adverbs can be identified on the basis of typical

derivational suffixes such as –ly, -wards, -wise

Derivational suffixes

Examples

-ly fully

-ward (s) Afterwards, upward(s)

-wise Clockwise, edgewise, lengthwise

Only small number of adverbs inflect for comparison. The

majority of these are identical in form with adjectives.

early -earlier -earliest

fast

hard

quick

soon

well

badly worse worst

Two functions of Adverb:

1) Adverbial : the soldiers were punished cruelly

2) Modifier : very beautiful, hardly ever

Adverbs can also express the attitude of the speaker

towards what he is saying and linking sentence.

Honestly, I don’t have any money left.

The Simpsons are very disappointed. So they left early.

There are three derivational suffixes that are typical of the class of verbs:

There are four inflexional morphemes to the verb base:

1) Present

2) Ed1 : past tense

3) Ed2 : ed participle

4) Ing : ing-participle

Derivational suffixes

Examples

-en Broaden, darken, lengthen

-ify Glorify, simplify

-ize/ise Economize, nationalise, scandalize

Two subclasses of verbs: Auxiliary and lexical verbs

1. I don’t like hamburger.

2. I will do my assignment tomorrow.

Two kinds of verbs: Transitive and intransitive verbs

Phrasal verbs : (verb + closed word): bring about

Prepositional verbs: (verb + prep) depend on