¡Descarga Estudios ingleses y filosóficos y más Apuntes en PDF de Filosofía moderna solo en Docsity! Advanced English Language II Introduction The goal of AEL II is to revise basic concepts of English Syntax from the GB theory (Government-Binding theory), the model of Generative Grammar that covers the decade of the 1980s (and also late 1970s and beginning of the 1990s) and to apply them to (mainly) subordinate clauses The essence of language consists in the ability to put together or combine very simple units that form or make up more complex units. This is what syntax studies. After all, the word syntax comes from the Greek word σύνταξις! σύν – together + τάξις – order To analyze the formal properties of phrases in the English language, we need to deal with the concept of categories. Word-level categories are closely related to phrase-level categories, since the phrases are classified according to the word-level category of their heads. Word-level categories Noun Determiner Verb Auxiliary Adjective Preposition Adverb Inflection Negation Complementizer Phrase-level categories NP DP VP AuxP AP PP AdvP IP NegP CP Functions subject predicate direct object indirect object subject complement object complement adverbial adjunct adverbial disjunct adverbial conjunct Prepositions of English (P) to, from, under, over, with, by, at, above, before, after, through, near, on, off, for, in, into, of, during, across, without, since, until. Prepositions of English (P) An even longer (but still NOT exhaustive list): about, above, across, after, against, along, amid(st), among(st), around, as, at, atop, before, behind, below, beneath, beside, besides, between, beyond, by, circa, despite, down, during, except, for, from, in, inside, into, like, near, notwithstanding, of, off, on, onto, opposite, out, outside, over, past, per, re, round, since, through, throughout, till, to, toward(s), under, underneath, unlike, until, up, upon, versus, via, with, within, without. Determiners of English (D) Articles: the, a, an Deictic articles: this, that, these, those Quantifiers*: every, some, many, most, few, all, each, any, less, fewer, no Constituents and phrases Constituent: A group of words that function together as a unit. [My students] [[loved] [their syntax assignment]]. Constituents have two basic properties: • Recursion. A constituent may be part of a bigger constituent, which in turn... which in turn... [My students] [[loved] [their syntax assignment]]. Constituency Tests • Preposing (fronting) He bought a brand new car. [A brand new car] is what he bought Constituency Tests • Passive voice He bought a brand new car. [A brand new car] was bought by him Constituency Tests • Pro-form replacement (Can the group of words be replaced by a pro-form: pronoun, did so too, one...?) He bought a brand new car. He bought it (=a brand new car). the English teacher from Paris NP
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ING
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N
teacher
y
English
teacher
In this phrase, from Paris is an adjunct to teacher. Adjuncts don’t get a theme role from the head. As many adjuncts as you can imagine... or none! N’ + an adjunct > N’ What if there were no complement? The adjunct is at the same height as before! So this PP goes at the same height as N’, with another N’ on top, no matter whether you have a complement or not. NP
IS
D N'
| HATS
the N' PP
MR AA
AP N from Paris
LD. |
English teacher
