Syntax 句法学

1.Syntax 定义is a subfield of linguistics that studies the sentence structure of language. Sentences are structured according to particular arrangement of words.
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 grammatical sentences
3、Sentence structure
Subject all language have ways of referring to some entity, such as a person , a place, a thing, an idea, or an event, this referring expression is grammatically called subject. A subject may be a noun or a noun phrase in a sentence that usually precedes the predicate.
 2.Type of sentence英语的句子中的三种基本类型是什么？
Traditionally, three major types of sentences are distinguished. They are simple sentence, coordinate or compound sentence and complex sentence.

A simple sentence consists of a single clause which contains a subject and a predicate and stands alone as its own sentence. For example, ① John reads extensively. the sentences contains a single clause and can stand structurally independent.

A coordinate sentence并列句 contains two clauses joined by a linking word called coordinating conjunction, such as “and”, “but”, “or”. The two clauses in a coordinate sentence are structurally equal parts of the sentence; neither is subordinate to the other. For example, ③ John is reading a linguistic book, and Mary is preparing for her history exam.

A complex sentence contains two or more clauses, one of which is incorporated into the other. The two clauses in a complex sentence have unequal status, one subordinating the other. The incorporated, or subordinate, clause is normally called an embedded clause子句, and the clause into which it is embedded is called a matrix sentence主句. For example, ⑤ Mary told Jane [that John liked linguistics]. In the above examples, the clauses in the square brackets are embedded clauses. They are subordinate to the clauses outside the brackets which are called matrix clauses.

A complex sentence 的特征：Some conclusions can be drawn from the complex sentence.

1、an embedded clause functions as a grammatical unit in its matrix clause.

2.most embedded clauses require an introductory word called a subordinator, such as “that”,” if ”.

3.an embedded clause may not function as a grammatically well-formed sentence if it stands independently as a simple sentence unless it form changes.
3、linearly- and hierarchically­-structured.(线形结构和层次结构

Language is a highly structured system of communication. Sentences are not formed by randomly(随意)combining lexical items, but by following a set of syntactic rules that arrange linguistic elements in a particular order to make a string of words not only meaningful but also linearly- and hierarchically­-structured.(线形结构和层次结构)
Hierarchical structure: the sentence structure that groups words into structural constituents and shows the syntactic categories of each structural constituent, such as NP and VP.
5、Syntactic categories: 句法类型

1.lexical categories词类 (four major lexical categories and six minor lexical categories)

2. Phrasal categories 短语类(lexical items have certain combinational properties that allow them to combine with words of different categories to form phrase. NP VP PP AP)
6、Grammatical relations(语法关系) The structural and logical relations of constituents are called grammatical relations. It concerns the way each noun phrase in the sentence relates to the verb. (who does what do whom). Structural vs. logical subject, object. (**)
7、Combinational rules组合规则
 1、 Phrase structural rules The combinational pattern in a linear formula may be called a phrase structural rule, or rewrite rule. It allows us to better understand how words and phrases form sentences, and so on.
2、Syntactic movement and movement rules Syntactic movement occurs when a constituent in a sentence moves out of its original place to a new position, the sentence involving which cannot be described by phrase structure rules. It was governed by transformational rules, the operation of which may change the syntactic representation of a sentence (句法的表达方式).

3、什么是X-标杆理论?
 X-bar theory is a general and highly abstract schema that collapses all phrasal structure rules into a single format: X″→ (Spec) X (Compl). In this format, Spec stands for specifier while Compl stands for complement. This theory is capable of reducing the redundancies of individual phrasal structure rules and may well capture certain basic properties shared by all phrasal categories, i.e. NP, VP, AP, PP, across the languages of the world.

4、Syntactic movement and movement rules
Syntactic movement occurs when a constituent in a sentence moves out of its original place to a new position, the sentence involving which cannot be described by phrase structure rules. It was governed by transformational rules, the operation of which may change the syntactic representation of a sentence (句法的表达方式).
1 NP-movement and WH-movement
NP-movement occurs when, for example, a sentence changes from the active voice to the passive voice (postpose, prepose).
WH-movement is obligatory in English. It changes a sentence from affirmative to interrogative.
2 Other types of movement
AUX-movement (auxiliary)
3 D-structure and S-structure
The syntactic component of the grammar:
Phrase Structure Rules + the Lexicon (词汇)