语言学第四章知识点总结胡壮麟版

Chapter 4

4.1 syntactic（句法的） relations

4.1.1 positional relation(位置关系）

For language to fulfill its communicative function, it must have a way to mark the grammatical

roles of the various phrase that can occur in a clause.

Positional relation or word order refers to the sequential（有序的） arrangement of words in a

language.

Positional relation are a manifestation(表现）of one aspect of syntagmatic relations

Word order is among the three basic ways (word order genetic and classification) to classify

language words.

Six possible types of language SVO VSO SOV OVS VOS English is SVO.

4.1.2 relation of substitutability(可代替性）

Firstly relation of substitutability refers to classes or sets of words substitutable of each other

grammatically in sentence with the same structure.

Secondly it refers to groups of more than one word which may be jointly substitutable

grammatically for a single word of a particular set.

This is what Saussure called associative(联想的） relations or in Hjemslev’s paradigmatic(纵聚性的) relation.

4.1.3 relation of co-occurrence(共现）

Means words of different sets of clauses may permit pr require the occurrence of a word of

another set or class to from a sentence or a particular part of a sentence.

Thus relations of co-occurrence partly belong to syntagmatic rations partly to paradigmatic

relations.

4.2 grammatical construction and its constituents

4.2.1 Grammatical construction

Any syntactic string of words ranging from sentences over phrases structures to certain complex

lexemes(词位）

4.2.2 immediate constituents(直接成分）

Constituent is a part of a larger linguistic unit. Several constituents together form a construction:

S

NP VP

De t N V NP

De t N

The girl ate the apple

This is tree diagram. 在句子结构分析中， 成分用来指任何语言单位， 而该单位又是更大语言单位的一部分，如在The girl ate the apple 本身的（A） the boy（B) ate the apple (C）都是

一个成分，成分可以和其他成分组合组成更大的单位， 如果两个成分B（the boy )C (ate the

apple)结合起来形成一个更高的成分A

Word-level

N=noun

A=adjective

V=verb

P=preposition

Det=determiner

Adv=adverb

Conj=conjunction

Phrasal

NP=noun phrase

AP=adjective phrase

VP=verb phrase

PP=preposition phrase

S=sentence or clause

To dismantle a grammatical constructure is this way is called immediate constituents or IC

analysis.

Bracketing is not as common in use, but it is an economic notation in representing the

constituent/phrase structure of a grammatical unit.

(((The) (girl)) ((ate) ((the) (apple))))

2.3 Endocentric and Exocentric Constructions

Endocentric construction is one whose distribution is functionally equivalent to that of one or

more of its constituents, i.e., a word or a group of words, which serves as a definable centre or

head.

Usually noun phrases, verb phrases and adjective phrases belong to endocentric types because the

constituent items are subordinate to the Head.

ntric and Exocentric Constructions

4.2.3.1Endocentric（相信结构）

Endocentric construction is one whose distribution is functionally equivalent to that of one or

more of its constituents, i.e., a word or a group of words, which serves as a definable centre or

head.

Usually noun phrases, verb phrases and adjective phrases belong to endocentric types because the

constituent items are subordinate to the Head.

4.2.3.1 Exocentric（并列结构）

Exocentric construction refers to a group of syntactically related words where none of the words is

functionally equivalent to the group as a whole, that is, there is no definable “Centre” or “Head”

inside the group, usually including

the basic sentence,

the prepositional phrase,

the predicate (verb + object) construction, and

the connective (be + complement) construction.

2.4 Coordination and Subordination

Endocentric constructions fall into two main types, depending on the relation between

constituents:

Coordination （并列）is a common syntactic pattern in English and other languages formed by

grouping together two or more categories of the same type with the help of a conjunction such as

and, but and or .

Coordination of NPs:

[NP the lady] or [NP the tiger]

Coordination of VPs:

[VP go to the library] and [VP read a book ]

Coordination of PPs:

[PP down the stairs] and [PP out the door ]

Coordination of APs:

[AP quite expensive] and [AP very beautiful]

Coordination of Ss:

[S John loves Mary] and [S Mary loves John too].

Subordination（从属） refers to the process or result of linking linguistic units so that they have

different syntactic status, one being dependent upon the other, and usually a constituent of the

other.

The subordinate constituents are words which modify the head. Consequently, they can be called

modifiers.

Clauses can be used as subordinate constituents. There are three basic types of subordinate

clauses:

4.3. Syntactic（句法） Function

The syntactic function shows the relationship between a linguistic form and other parts of the

linguistic pattern in which it is used.

Names of functions are expressed in terms of subjects, objects, predicators, modifiers,

complements, etc.

4.3.1 Subject

In English, the subject of a sentence is often said to be the agent, or the doer of the action, while

the object is the person or thing acted upon by the agent.

In order to account for the case of subject in passive voice, we have two other terms

“grammatical subject” and “logical subject”

Word order

Subject ordinarily precedes the verb in the statement:

Pro-forms

The first and third person pronouns in English appear in a special form when the pronoun is a

subject, which is not used when the pronoun occurs in other positions:

Agreement with the verb

In the simple present tense, an -s is added to the verb when a third person subject is singular, but

the number and person of the object or any other element in the sentence have no effect at all on

the form of the verb

Content questions

If the subject is replaced by a question word (who or what), the rest of the sentence remains

unchanged, as in

4.4Category （范畴）

The term category refers to the defining properties of these general units:

Categories of the noun: number, gender, case and countability

Categories of the verb: tense, aspect, voice

4.4.1 Number

Number is a grammatical category used for the analysis of word classes displaying such contrasts

as singular, dual, plural, etc.

4.4.2Gende(性）

Such contrasts as “masculine : feminine : neuter”, “animate : inanimate”, etc. for the analysis

of word classes.

4.4.3Case（格）

The case category is used in the analysis of word classes to identify the syntactic relationship

between words in a sentence.

4.4.4Agreement.

Agreement (or concord) may be defined as the requirement that the forms of two or more words of

specific word classes that stand in specific syntactic relationship with one another shall also, be

characterized by the same paradigmatically marked category (or categories).

4.5Phrase, Clause and Sentence

4.5.1phrase

Prase is a single element of structure containing more than one word, and lacking the

subject-predicate structure typical of clauses.

Clause

Finite Non-finite

Subject Object Infinitive

Adverbial Relative Participial

Appositional Complement Gerundial

4.5.3Sentence

Basic sentence types: Quirk

SVC Mary is kind.

a nurse.

SVA Mary is here.

in the house.

SV The child is laughing.

SVO Somebody caught the ball.

SVOC We have proved him wrong.

a fool.

SVOA I put the plate on the table.

SVOO She gives me expensive presents.

4.6Recursiveness(递归性）

Recursiveness mainly means that a phrasal constituent can be embedded within another

constituent having the same category, but it has become an umbrella term such important

linguistic phenomena as coordination and subordination, conjoining and embedding, hypotactic

and paratactic.

Theoretically, there is no limit to the embedding of one relative clause into another relative clause,

so long as it does not become an obstacle to successful communication.

4.6.1Conjoining

Conjoining: coordination.

Conjunctions: and, but, and or.

联系一个小句或者其他并列或链接的过程，通过这种过程组成的句子即并列

4.6.2Embedding（嵌入）

Embedding: subordination.

Main clauses and subordinate clauses.

Three basic types of subordinate clauses:

Relative clause:Complement clause:Adverbial clause: