Syntax

1,Syntax

Syntax is a subfield of linguistics. It studies the sentence structure.句法学是语言学的一个分支，它研究的是语言的句子结构。

 

2,Syntax as a system of rules

As a major component of grammar, syntax consists of a set of abstract rules that allow words to be combined with other words to form grammtical sentences.句法学是语法的重要组成部分，它由一套抽象的规则组成，这些规则能够使词相互结合构成合乎语法的句子。

Linguistic competence: Universally found in the grammars of all human languages, syntactic rules comprise the system of internalized linguistic knowledges of a language speaker known as linguistic competence.句法规则在所有人类语言中都普遍存在，这些规则包括讲某种语言的人内在的语言知识体系，这种语言知识体系被称为语言能力。

 

3,Sentence structure

The basic components of a sentence句子的构成

A sentence is a structurally independent unit that usually comprises a number of words to form a complete statement, question or command. Normally, a sentence consists of at least a subject and its predicate which contains a finite verb phrase.句子在结构上是一个独立的单位，通常包括许多词用以构成一个完整的陈述，提问或者命令。通常一个句子至少包括主语和谓语，谓语包含限定动词或动词词组。

Suject: All languages have ways of referring to some entitu, such as a person, a place, a thing, an idea or an event. This referring expression is grammarically called subject.所有的语言都有指称某种实体的方法，比如人物、地点、事物、概念或者事件。这种被指称的对象在语法上叫做主语。

Predicate: The part of a sentence which comprises a finite verb or a verb phrase and which says something about the subject is grammartically called predicate.句子中由限定动词或者动词词组构成并对主语进行表述的这一部分在语法上叫做谓语。

 

4,Types of sentences

Traditionally, there are there major types of sentences. They are simple sentence, coordinate(compound) sentence and complex sentence.

The simple sentence

A simple sentence consists of a single clause which contains a subject and a predicate and stands alone as its own sentence.

A clause that takes a subjecr and a finite verb, and at the same time stands structurally alone is known as a finite clause.包含有一个主语和一个限定动词同时在结构上能够独立存在的字句叫做定式子句。

The coordinate sentence

A coordinate sentence contains two clauses joined by a linking word that is called coordinating conjunction, such as “and”, “but”, “or”.并列句包含两个子句，由被称作并列连词的连接词连接在一起，比如and，but和or。

The complex sentence

A complex sentence contains two or more clauses, one of whch is incorporated into the other. The two clause in a complex sentence do not have equal status, one is subordinate to the other. The incorporated or subordinate clause is normally called an embedded clause, and the clause in which it is embedded is called a matrix clause.复合句包含两个或更多子句，其中一个子句被并入另一个子句中。也就是说，复合句中的两个子句在地位上是不同的，其中一个子句从属于另一个子句。被合并的子句或者说居于从属地位的子句通常叫做从属子句，而包纳从属子句的这个子句被称为主句。

Subordinator: most embedded clauses require an introductory word that is called a subordinator，such as “that”, “if”, “before”.大多数子句都有个引导词，这个词叫做从属连词。

 

5,The linear and hierarchical structures of sentences句子的线性排列与层次结构

The linear word order of a sentence句子的线性次序排列

When a sentence is uttered or written down, the words of the sentence are produced one after another in a sequence. Meanwhile, they are heard or read as arranged one after another in a sequence. Therefore, the structure of a sentence is linear.在说或者写一个句子时，句子中的词是按先后次序一个接一个出现的，同时，听或读也是按先后顺序一个接一个地进行。句子中词的这种先后顺序表明句子结构是线性结构。

The hierarchical structure of a sentence句子的层次结构

The superficial arrangement of words in a linear sequence does not, however, entail that sentences are only linearly-structured. In fact, sentences are also hierarchically structured. That is to say, sentences are organized by grouping together words of the same syntactic category, such as noun phrase(NP) or verb phrase(VP).词的这种表面上的线性次序排列并不意味着句子只是线性结构。事实上，句子还具有层次结构。也就是说，相同句法类型的词，如名词词组或动词词组，组合在一起构成了句子。

 

6,Tree diagrams of sentence structure句子结构树形图

The hierarchical order can be best illustrated with a tree diagram of constituent structure, so called because such a diagram looks like an inverted tree.句子结构的层次性可以用成分结构树形图加以充分说明。这种图看起来像一棵倒置的树，因此叫做树形图。

 

7,Syntactic categories

Syntactic categories-----lexical categories-----major lexical categories

{noun, verb, adjective, adverb}

-----minor lexical categories

{determiners, auxiliary, preposition,

pronoun, conjunction, interjection}

                -----phrasal categories-----noun phrase, verb phrase,

prepositional phrase, adjective phrase

句法类型——词类——主要词类/开放性词类——名词，动词，形容词，副词

                ——次要词类/封闭性词类——限定词，助动词，介词，代词，连词，感叹词

        ——词组类——名词词组，动词词组，介词词组，形容词词组

Words and phrases are organized according to the syntactic categories they belong to. Apart from sentences(S) and clauses(C), a syntactic category usually refers to a word (called a lexical category) or a phrase (called a phrasal category) that performs a particular grammatical function, such as the subject in a sentence. Constituents that can be substituted for one another without loss of grammaticality belong to the same syntactic category.词和词组是根据它们所属的句法类型组织起来的。除了句子和子句以外，句法类型通常是指在句中起一定语法作用的词（称做词类）或者词组（称做词组类），比如句中的主语。可以相互替换而又不改变语法属性的成分属于同一句法类型。

Lexical categories: Words are organized into groups of lexical categories, commonly known as part of speech. A language has major and minor lexical categories of a finite set. Major lexical categories are open categories in the sense that new words are constantly added. Minor lexical categories are closed categories because the number of lexical items in these categories is fixed and no new members are allowed for. There are four major lexical categories and six minor lexical categories in English.词可以归入不同的类型，通称为词类。语言中的词分为主要词类和次要词类，且数量有限。主要词类属于开放性词类，可以不断纳入新词；次要词类属于封闭性词类，因为这些词类中的词的数量是固定的，不能添加新的成分。英语中有四种主要词类和六种次要词类。

Phrasal categories: Except for a very few number, lexical items have certain combinational properties that allow them to combine with words of different categories to form phrases. In English syntactic analysis, four phrasal categories are commonly recognized and discussed. They are noun phrase(NP), verb phrase(VP), prepositional phrases(PP), adjective phrase(AP). NP and VP are essential components of a sentence. They form the two major syntactic categories, that is, the subject and the predicate of a sentence.大多数的词都有一定的组合特性，这些特性能使它们和其他类别的词组成词组。在英语句法分析中，人们通常认为有四类词组，即名词词组，动词词组，介词词组和形容词词组。名词词组和动词词组是句子中最重要的词组，它们构成句子中两个主要的句法类型，即主语和谓语。

 

8,Grammatical relations

The structural and logical functional relations of constituents are called grammatical relations. The grammtical relations of a sentence concern the way each noun phrase in the sentence relates to the verb. In many case, grammatical relations in fact refer to “who” does “what” to “whom”.语法关系是句子构成成分之间的结构关系和逻辑关系之间的区别。句子的语法关系涉及句子中名词词组与动词词组的链接方式，在很多情况下，语法关系实际上指的是 “谁”对“谁”做了“什么”。

 

9,Combinational rules

What is actually internalized in the mind of a native speaker is not a complete list of words and phrases but a rule system of grammatical knowledge, such as the combinational rules that group words and phrases to form grammatical sentence.讲本族语的人大脑中所内化的实际上并不是所有的词和词组，而是一套有关语法知识的规则系统，比如将词和词组组合起来构成合格句的组合规则。

Phrase structural rules: The combinational pattern in a linear formula may be called a phrase structural rule or rewrite rule. 用线性式对这种组合模式进行重写并把它称作短语结构规则或重写规则。

The recursiveness of phrase structure rules: These rules can generate an indefinite number of sentences, and sentences with infinite length, due to their recursive properties.由于它们具有循环特征，可以生成无数个长度无限的句子来。

X-bar theory: We can find a common pattern with these rules: N, V, A and P in each phrase is a required lexical item for the phrase concerned. That is, NP must contain N, VP must contain V, AP must contain A, and PP must contain P. We realize that it is this obligatory word that gives the phrase its name. This word is called the phrasal head, and believe that each phrasal category must have a head. To use a more general and abstract term, we call any phrase XP or X-phrase, and its head X. This means that XP must contain X, and XP stands respectively for NP, VP, AP, or PP, and X stands respectively for N, V, A, or P. This widely recognized and highly abstract X-bar schema is commonly known as the X-bar theory.我们发现这些词组都有一个共同模式：N，V，A和P分别是有关词组中所必须有的词项，也就是说，NP中必须有N，VP中必须有V，AP中必须有A，PP中必须有P。正是这些强制词赋予了这些词组不同的名称，我们把这些强制词叫做核心词，而且我们认为每一个词组类都必须有一个核心词。我们可以用一个更具概括性、抽象性的词语把任何一个短语称作XP，或者X短语，把核心词称作X。这就是说XP必须包含X。XP分别表示NP，VP，AP或PP，X分别表示N，V，A或P。这种得到广泛认可、高度初象化的X标杆表达法通称为X标杆理论。

X-bar theory is capable of reducing the redundancies of individual phrasal structure rules and may well capture certain basic properties shared by all phrasal categories across the languages of the world.X标杆理论能够充分简化一条一条的短语结构规则，可以充分概括出世界上所有语言中的词组类所具有的某些基本特征。

 

10,Syntactic movement and movement rules  句法移位和移位规则

Syntactic movement: Syntactic movement occurs when a constituent in a sentence moves out of its original place to a new position. Syntactic movement is governed by transformational rules. The operation of the transformational rules may change the syntactic represention of a sentence.句子中的某个成分从它原来所处的位置移至新的位置就产生句法移位。句法移位是受传统上被称为转换规则的这些规则所支配的，转换规则的运用会改变句子的句法表达方式。

(1)NP-movement and WH-movement

There are two major types of syntactic movement in English. One involves the movement of a noun phrase, and the other(WH-movement) involves the movement of a WH-word, such as “what”, “who”, “when” and “where”. Np-movement occurs when a sentence changes from the active voice to the passive voice.英语中句法移位主要有两种，一种是涉及名词词组的移位，另一种是涉及“what”，“who”，“when”，“where”等WH词的移位。

注：

（1）a.  The man beat the child.

b.  The child was beaten by the man.

That is, “the man” is postposed后移 to the right and the “the child” is preposed前移 to the left.

（2）WH-movement is obligatory in English. It changes a sentence from affirmative to interrogative.英语中WH移位对肯定句变疑问句是属于强制性的。

Other types of movement

General questions in English may also involve syntactic movement with AUX-movement. AUX-movement is the movement of an auxiliary verb, such as “be”, “do”, “will”, “can” and “should”, to the sentence-initial position.英语中一般疑问句也可以引起句法移位，这种移位称为助动词移位，也就是将助动词移至句首位置。比如be，have，do，will，can 和should。

(2)D-structure and S-structure深层结构与表层结构

A sentence may have two levels of syntactic representation. One exists before movement takes place, the other occurs after movement takes place. In formal linguistic exploration, these two syntactic representations are commonly termed as D-structure(or the deep structure) and S-structure(roughly meaning the surface structure). 对语法研究来说，句法移位表明了句子结构可以有两个层面的句法表现形式，一个是句法移位前的表达方式，一个是句法移位后的表达方式。在正式的语言研究中，这两种句法表现形式通称为D-结构（或者深层结构）和S-结构（大概是指表层结构）。

Transformational-generative: It is believed that phrase structure rules, with the insertion of the lexicon, generate sentences at the level of D-structure, while the application of syntactic movement rules transforms a sentence form the level of D-atructure to that of S-structure. This is called transformational-generative.人们认为这些短语结构规则咋填入词项后可以生成深层结构的句子，而句法移位规则的应用使句子由深层结构转换到表成结构，这叫做转换生成分析法。

(3)Move α—a general movement rule

There is a general movement rule accounting for the syntactic behaviour of any constituent movement. This movement rule is called Move α(Move Alpha). ,α is a Greek symbol used here to represent any constituent, and what Move α says is “move any constituent to any place”.句法移位也有一条普遍规则来解释所有的句法成分移位现象，这种移动规则叫做移动α规则。α是一个希腊字母，用在这里代表任何成分。移动α规则是说“移动任何称为到任何位置”。

It seems that the grammar should include some conditions which will restrain the movement power of the Move α rule and which will stimulate that only “certain constituents” can move to only “certain positions”.看来语法应该包含一些条件来限制移动α规则的应用范围并规定只有某些成分可以移到某些位置。

 

11,Toward a theory of universal grammar普遍语法理论

Since early 1980s, Noam Chomsky and other generative linguists proposed and developed a theory of universal grammar(UG) known as the principles-and parameters theory.从20世纪80年代早期开始，诺姆*乔姆斯基和其他一些生成语言学家就提出并发展了一套普通语法理论（UG），称为原则及参数理论。

According to the principles-and-parameters framework, UG consists of a set of general conditions, or general principles, that generate phrases and at the same time restrain the power of Move α, thus preventing this rule from applying in certain cases. UG also contains a set of parameters that allow general principles to operate in certain ways, according to which particular grammars of natural languages vary.根据原则及参数理论，普遍语法由一组条件或原则构成，这一组原则生成词组，同时限制移动α原则以防其在某些情况下的应用。普遍语法还包括一组参数，这些参数保证原则在某些情况下操作，自然语言的个别语法据此而变化。

(1)General principles of Universal Grammar普遍语法原则

Case Condition: One general principle, or condition, is the Case Condition. The Case Condition principle requires that a noun phrase have Case and Case is assigned by V(verb) or P(preposition) to the object position, or by AUX(auxiliary) to the subject position.格条件是普遍语法原则或条件之一。格条件要求名词词组必须有格，而格被动词或介词指定在宾语位置，或者被助动词指定在主语位置。

Adjacency Condition: Another condition is the Adjacency Condition on Case assignment. This Condition states that a Case assignor and a Case recipient should stay adjacent to each other.另外一个条件是关于格的指定的毗邻条件。这个条件是说格的指定者和格的受体应该相互毗邻（它可以解释为什么在动词和其直接宾语之间不能插入其他词组类）。

(2)The parameters of Universal Grammar普遍语法参数

Parameters are syntactic options of UG that allow general principles to operate in one way or another and contribute to significant linguistic variations between and among natural languages.普遍语法参数是一组句法选项，能使普通语法的广义原则以不同的方式进行操作，因而使自然语言之间呈现出明显的语言学差异。

Adjacency Parameter: With English-type languages, the Adjacency Parameter is set to the [+strict adjacency] value, while for French-type languages, the parameter is set to the [-strict adjacency] value.毗邻参数值——同英语相类似的语言，毗邻参数值设定为“正绝对毗邻”，而类似法语的语言，毗邻参数值设定为“负绝对毗邻”。

Directionality parameter: Another parameter, the one that involves word order, concerns the directionality of Case assignment, the Directionality parameter.方位参数——另外一个涉及语序的参数和格的指定方位有关，称为方位参数。

注：

Indeed, UG principles and parameters reflect some general properties of human language and at the same time, elucidate the linguistic complexities of specific grammars of individual languages. 普遍语法原则和参数反映了人类语言的某些普遍特征，同时也揭示了各种语言中的语法复杂性。