Examples
book, boy, love, sheep run, read, play happy, tall, clear about, over, on Examples the, a, this, those quite, very, more, so often, always, seldom, almost must, should, can, might and, but, or
Auxiliary unchanged, trace and head movement 2. Do insertion 3. Deep structure and surface structure

Deep structure & surface structure
Deep structure----formed by the XP rule in accordance
Example
A very careful girl open with care read carefully; carefully read
★ The expanded XP rule: XP (Spec) (Mod) X (Complement *) (Mod)
(Note: difference between complement and modifier)
Lecture 5
Syntax
I.

II.
Definition It’s a kind of micro linguistics that studies how words are combined to form sentences and the rules that govern the formation of sentences. (Transformational syntax to be introduced in the book.) Word-level categories Category refers to a group of linguistic items which fulfill the same or similar functions in a particular language. Traditionally, category is termed as “parts of speech”.
V.

Sentences (The S rule)
The S rule S NP VP InflP (=S) (following the XP rule, with an internal structure)
Sentences (the S rule)
S NP VP
S
NP Det A N boy V found VP NP Det the N book
XP (Specifier)Xˉ
Xˉ X(complement)
XP(Phrase level) Xˉ
specifier
X(headlements
Specifier: specify the meaning of head, top level of
Inversion Move Infl to the left of the subject NP. Inversion (revised) Move Infl to C.
CP
S C
Det the NP N Infl train will V arrive
Auxiliary movement (inversion)
XP rule
The XP rule: XP (specifier) X (complement) X ˉ Theory a. XP (specifier) X ˉ b. X ˉ X (complement) Coordination rule X X * Con X
The XP rule
Sentences (the S rule)

S NP infl VP InflP(=S) NP VP
Infl
Infl realized by a tense label
InflP （ =S ）
NP
VP
NP
N Infl boy Pst V found Det the N book
Det A
Infl realized by an auxiliary
Examples of some As, Ns, and Ps permitting CP complements
Items
Adjectives Nouns
Heads
Examples
afraid, certain, aware I was afraid that nobody would believe me. fact, claim, belief She can’t believe the fact that she would fail in the exam. They argued over whether she had come to class.
III.

Phrase categories Definition: Categories which are built around a certain word category. Types:
Noun phrase (NP): the pretty girl Verb phrase (VP): often dream Adjective phrase (AP): very pessimistic Prepositional phrase (PP): in the house Adverbial phrase (ADVP): very quickly (Wen, p. 118)
Major lexical categories and minor lexical
categories Examples of some lexical categories
Major lexical categories
Noun (N) Verb (V) Adjective (A) Preposition (P) Minor lexical categories Determiner (Det) Degree word (Deg) Qualifier (Qual) Auxiliary (Aux) Conjunction (Con)
Prepositions over, about
(Note: complementizier – that, whether, if; CP – complement phrase)
Modifiers
Modifier position in English
Modifier Position
AP PP AdvP precedes the head follows the head precedes or follows the head
A word’s distributional facts together with
information about its meaning and inflectional capability help identify its syntactic category.
Meaning: John, pen, book, pretty lady, left quietly Inflection: plural affixes, tenses, degrees Distribution: the girl, a card, should stay, will help

Many linguists believe that sentences, like other phrases, also have their own heads. Infl is an abstract category inflection (dubbed ‘Infl’) as their heads, which indicates the sentence’s tense and agreement.
with the head’s sub-categorization properties; it contains all the units and relationships that are necessary for interpreting the meaning of the sentence. Deep structure: XP rule which determines the internal structure of the phrasal categories.
CP
S
C NP
Infl Det Will the
N Infl train e
V arrive?

One application
* The teacher wonders [CP if should his student _____ stay].
(Note: complementizers and auxiliaries are mutually exclusive)
phrase structures, syntactic category may be different Complements: provide information about entities and locations, a word’s complement is included in the head, e.g. a story about a sentimental girl ( phrase + subcategorization) Revised XP rule: XP (specifier) X (complement *) Verbs like appear, cut, put