SYNTAX

Syntax: The arrangement of words and phrases to create well-formed sentences in a language. It comes from the Greek word meaning "to put together."

Natural Language Processing: A field of computer science and artificial intelligence concerned with the interaction between computers and human (natural) languages.

Structure: The way in which elements are organized within a sentence, crucial for understanding its meaning.

Interpretation: The process of understanding or explaining the meaning of sentence structures.

Comparison Between English and Vietnamese

Syntax in Both Languages: Both English and Vietnamese rely on specific structures to convey meaning, but the syntax may differ due to unique grammatical conventions in each language.

Interpretation and Ambiguity: Both languages can experience ambiguity based on structure. However, Vietnamese may have more complex rules concerning word order and context, which can either clarify or obfuscate meaning differently than in English.

Evolution of Grammar: Both languages undergo similar changes in grammatical analysis, transitioning from linear descriptions to exploring underlying rules, although the specific methodologies and frameworks used may differ culturally and linguistically.

SYNTACTIC RULES

English Syntax Rules: When forming prepositional phrases in English, the initial observation may suggest using a preposition before a noun (e.g., "near London"). However, this needs refinement to include the possibility of noun phrases.

Example: "near London" (correct) vs. "*near tree" (incorrect).

Improved Rule: The correct rule should state that a preposition comes before a noun phrase instead of just a noun. This accommodates all forms of noun phrases.

Example: "with me," "near a tree," and "with the dog" are grammatical structures that follow the revised rule.

Comparison Between English and Vietnamese

Prepositional Phrase Formation: In English, the structure "preposition + noun phrase" helps create prepositional phrases, while in Vietnamese, the structure typically follows the format "giới từ + danh từ" (preposition + noun) but may also accommodate specific rules for noun phrases.

Example: "on the table" (correct); "*on table" (incorrect).

Grammaticality and Rules: Both English and Vietnamese exhibit the need for careful syntax rules to avoid creating ungrammatical structures, but the specific rules and their applications may vary based on linguistic nuances.

=> Overall, while both languages employ similar grammatical principles in forming phrases, the specific rules and their applications can differ significantly, highlighting the unique characteristics of each language's syntax.

A GENERATIVE GRAMMAR

Prepositional Phrase:

Meaning: A grammatical unit consisting of a preposition followed by a noun phrase.

Example: "in the park"

Noun Phrase:

Meaning: A group of words that functions in a sentence as a noun.

Example: "the big dog"

Syntactic Analysis:

Meaning: The study of the structure of sentences and their components.

Generative Grammar:

Meaning: A set of grammatical rules that can generate an unlimited number of sentence structures based on a small and finite set of rules.

Well-formed Structures:

Meaning: Sentences or phrases that adhere to the grammatical rules of a language.

Comparison Between English and Vietnamese

Finite Rules, Infinite Structures: Both languages allow a small set of grammatical rules to create a vast number of phrases. The structures themselves show flexibility in both languages, enabling various phrases to be formed.
Relationship Between Phrases: In both English and Vietnamese, phrases can appear different while sharing underlying grammatical relationships. The examples provided in both languages illustrate this similarity.
Differences Among Similar Phrases: Both languages demonstrate that superficial similarities in phrases can lead to different interpretations or meanings. This showcases the nuanced nature of syntax in both English and Vietnamese, highlighting the importance of understanding contextual and grammatical distinctions.

DEEP AND SURFACE STRUCTURE

Active Sentence: A sentence where the subject performs the action of the verb (e.g., "Charlie broke the window").

Passive Sentence: A sentence where the subject receives the action of the verb (e.g., "The window was broken by Charlie").

Surface Structure: The outward form of a sentence, including its specific syntactic arrangement.

Deep Structure: An abstract level of sentence organization that shows the underlying syntactic relationships regardless of the surface representation.

Structural Interpretation: Understanding the grammatical relationship and meaning behind the arrangements of words in sentences.

e.g: Charlie broke the window (active)

The window was broken by Charlie (passive)

-> Appear different on the surface but closely related, even identical, at a less superficial level.

Comparison Between English and Vietnamese

Both English and Vietnamese differentiate between active and passive sentences similarly, using grammatical structures to highlight subject-verb relationships.
The concept of deep structure applies in both languages, demonstrating that despite surface level differences, the underlying grammatical relationships remain consistent.
The flexibility of deriving multiple surface structures from a single deep structure is present in both languages, showing a shared linguistic characteristic.

STRUCTURAL AMBIGUITY

Structural Ambiguity: A situation where a sentence can be understood in multiple ways due to its structure. It arises from the same surface structure leading to different deep structures.

Lexical Ambiguity: Ambiguity that arises from a word having multiple meanings, as illustrated with the word "foot."

Syntactic Analysis: The process of examining the structure of a sentence to understand its grammatical components and interpretations.

Examples

"Annie bumped into a man with an umbrella."

- One interpretation: "Annie had an umbrella, and she bumped into a man while holding it."
- Another interpretation: "Annie bumped into a man who was carrying an umbrella.

Comparison between English and Vietnamese

Structural Ambiguity: Both English and Vietnamese exhibit structural ambiguity with similar sentence forms. The interpretation relies on context and understanding of the syntax.
Syntactic Structure: The underlying structures that lead to the ambiguity are often similar between the two languages, but the surface structures can vary due to differences in grammar and vocabulary, requiring distinct syntactic analysis in each language.
Lexical Ambiguity: While both languages can exhibit lexical ambiguity (e.g., words having different meanings), structural ambiguity tends to be more apparent and nuanced in English, perhaps due to varied syntactic structures that can create more interpretations from the same sentence. In Vietnamese, the ambiguity may be less common or pronounced, depending on syntactic simplicity and clarity.

SYNTACTIC ANALYSIS

Phrases:

NP (Noun Phrase): A phrase that has a noun (and possibly other modifiers).

VP (Verb Phrase): A phrase that consists of a verb and its arguments.

Syntactic Rules:

→ (Consists of / Rewrites as): A symbol used to illustrate how one structure is made from another.

Curly Brackets { }: Indicate that only one of the elements enclosed must be chosen.

Round Brackets ( ): Indicate that a constituent is optional.

Common abbreviations :

Sentence
N: Noun
PN: Proper Noun
NP: Noun Phrase
PRO: Pronoun
V: Verb
VP: Verb Phrase
DCT: Determiner (my, your, his, her, its, our, their ,I, you, he, she, it, we, they )
CONJ: Conjunction (for, and, nor, but, or, yes, so )
C: Complementizer
CP: Complementizer Phrase
PREP: Preposition (At, in, on, before, after, during, until, for, since,…

Giới từ chỉ địa điểm: In, on, under, beside, among, above, below, behind,…

Giới từ chỉ chuyển động: Toward, out of, across, along, onto, into, up, down,… )

PP: Prepositional Phrase
ART: Article (a,an,the)
ADJ: Adjective
ADJP: Adjective Phrase
ADV: Adverb (Always,often, Usually ,Frequently ,Sometimes ,Occasionally , Rarely ,Seldom )
ADVP: Adverb Phrase
AUX: Auxiliary (do, have, be, can, could, may, might, must, should, will, would, shall, ought to, used to, need, dare. )
CI: Clause

Verb Phrase (VP) Structure:

In English, a VP typically consists of a verb (V) followed by a noun phrase (NP).

For example, in the sentence "The dog barks," "barks" is the verb and "the dog" is the noun phrase.

Representing Syntactic Structure:

Arrows (→) are used to represent the "rewrites as" relationship between phrases and their constituent parts.

For example, "NP → Art N" means a noun phrase (NP) can be rewritten as an article (Art) followed by a noun (N).

Optional Constituents:

Round brackets () are used to indicate optional constituents within a phrase.

For example, "NP → Art (Adj) N" means a noun phrase can include an optional adjective (Adj) between the article and noun.

Multiple Choices:

Curly brackets {} are used to indicate that only one of the enclosed elements must be selected.

For example, "NP → {Art (Adj) N, Pro, PN}" means a noun phrase can be either an article followed by an optional adjective and a noun, a pronoun (Pro), or a proper noun (PN).

Comparison between English and Vietnamese

Articles vs. Markers:

English Uses: Articles (e.g., "the", "a") to specify nouns.

Vietnamese Uses: Classifiers and markers (e.g., "một" for "a") are used.

Noun Phrase Composition: In both languages, noun phrases can include adjectives, but English adjectives generally precede the noun, while in Vietnamese, adjectives typically occur after the noun or the classifier.
Optional Elements: Both languages utilize optional elements in noun phrases, using equivalent symbols (brackets) to denote optionality in rules. However, Vietnamese may use different syntactic structures to express these options.

=> Overall, the syntactic constructs between English and Vietnamese share similarities but also have distinct typological features, particularly in their treatment of articles, adjectives, and the structuring of phrases.

PHRASE STRUCTURE RULES

Phrase Structure Rules: Rules that define how phrases are constructed in a language, indicating the order and combination of various constituents to form a complete phrase.

Sentence (S): A grammatical unit that expresses a complete thought, typically made up of a subject and a predicate.

1.General Sentence Rule (S → NP VP):

This rule states that every English sentence (S) consists of a noun phrase (NP) followed by a verb phrase (VP). This is the basic framework for sentence formation.

2.Noun Phrase Rule (NP → {Art (Adj) N, Pro, PN}):

A noun phrase (NP) can consist of:
- An article (Art), an optional adjective (Adj), and a noun (N).
- A pronoun (Pro).
- A proper noun (PN).

3.Verb Phrase Rule (VP → V NP):

A verb phrase (VP) is composed of a verb (V) followed by a noun phrase (NP). This structure dictates that verbs are often followed by noun phrases to complete the thought.

Examples

For the sentence "The big dog barks":

- S (Sentence) = NP (The big dog) + VP (barks)
- NP = Art (the) + Adj (big) + N (dog)
- VP = V (barks) + NP (no additional noun phrase here)

Comparison between English and Vietnamese

Sentence Structure: Both English and Vietnamese follow a structure where a sentence typically consists of a subject (noun phrase) followed by a predicate (verb phrase). However, Vietnamese often allows for more flexibility in word order compared to English.
Noun Phrase Formation: In both languages, the noun phrase can include articles and adjectives, but Vietnamese does not always require the use of articles, which are more essential in English.
Verb Phrase: The construction of verb phrases generally follows a similar pattern in both languages. However, verb placement and auxiliary verbs may differ, with Vietnamese sometimes using fewer auxiliary verbs than English.

=> Overall, the syntactic rules governing phrase structures provide a foundational understanding of how sentences are constructed in both English and Vietnamese, despite variances in flexibility and specific grammatical requirements.

LEXICAL RULES

Lexical Rules: These rules specify which words or lexical items can replace constituents (like proper nouns) in generated structures, thus allowing for recognizable language use.
Constituent: A constituent is a component of a phrase or sentence, such as a noun, verb, or adjective that can stand alone or combine with others.

Proper Noun Rule (PN → {John, Mary}):
- This rule limits the possible proper nouns to John or Mary. In actual application, this would be expanded to include many more names, but this simplified version shows how lexical rules work.
Article Rule (Art → {a, the}):
- Articles are restricted to a and the in this rule, which are the two common articles in English.
Noun Rule (N → {girl, dog, boy}):
- Nouns can be rewritten as girl, dog, or boy in these rules, specifying what objects or people the sentence is referring to.
Adjective Rule (Adj → {big, small}):
- Adjectives can be rewritten as big or small, indicating the size of the noun being described.
Verb Rule (V → {followed, helped, saw}):
- The verb in the sentence can be rewritten as followed, helped, or saw, showing the action performed in the sentence.
Pronoun Rule (Pro → {it, you}):
- Pronouns are limited to it and you for simplicity in these examples.

e.g: He built a house. Correct

Pro + V + Art + N

He house built. Incorrect

Comparison Between English and Vietnamese

Both English and Vietnamese utilize phrase structure rules to form grammatical sentences. However, the specific structures may differ, as Vietnamese can have a more flexible subject-verb-object (SVO) structure depending on context.
Lexical rules in both languages function to identify appropriate replacements for constituents. While English often uses proper nouns directly in sentences, Vietnamese might have additional contextual markers or particles (like "của") that help clarify relationships in sentences.
In terms of constituent formation, both languages recognize nouns, verbs, and the necessity of structural rules, but Vietnamese might employ different word orders or additional modifying particles within its phrase structure, showcasing variations in how constituents are organized within sentences.

TREE DIAGRAMS

Tree Diagram: A visual representation that illustrates the syntactic structure of phrases, showing how different components fit together hierarchically.

Comparison Between English and Vietnamese

Hierarchical Structure: Both English and Vietnamese utilize hierarchical structures in their syntax, with similar components categorized as VP and NP. However, the specific terms and placements may vary based on language-specific rules.
Visual Representation: While both languages can be described using tree diagrams, the linguistic elements might differ in structure and order. For instance, English often has a fixed Subject-Verb-Object (SVO) order, while Vietnamese might exhibit flexibility depending on context, influencing how tree diagrams are constructed.

=> Overall, both English and Vietnamese can effectively illustrate grammatical structures through tree diagrams, though specific syntactical rules and relationships may differ between the languages.

TREE DIAGRAMS OF ENGLISH SENTENCES

Hierarchical Organization: The arrangement of sentence components in levels, with each level representing a different order of complexity (e.g., phrases, clauses).

Comparison between English and Vietnamese

Structural Similarities: Both English and Vietnamese utilize tree diagrams to illustrate hierarchical structures within sentences, emphasizing how constituents are organized.
Variability of Constituents: In both languages, the constituents can vary in number and type; however, the overall foundational structure remains similar, allowing for a comparable analysis of sentence formation.
Language Structure: Although the languages differ in grammar and syntax, the concept of breaking a sentence down into tree diagrams applies to both, facilitating a deeper understanding of sentence construction.

JUST SCRATCHING THE SURFACE

Generative Power of Phrase Structure Rules
Need for a Larger Analytic Framework
Incorporating Meaning in Syntactic Analysis

Comparison Between English and Vietnamese

Generative Power: Both English and Vietnamese exhibit generative power through their syntactic structures, allowing for transformations like active to passive voice. The underlying concepts of sentence formation are comparable across both languages.
Analytic Framework: Both languages require a more extensive framework for analyzing complex sentences, though the specific rules may vary according to linguistic norms and structure.
Meaning Incorporation: Understanding meaning is critical in both English and Vietnamese. While the method of analysis might differ due to language structure, the importance of semantic understanding remains a common element in both languages' syntactic analysis.

=> Overall, despite structural differences, both English and Vietnamese share foundational concepts in their syntactic analysis that emphasize the relationship between surface structures, deep structures, and the integration of meaning.

RECURSION

-> Rules can be applied more than once in generating sentences.

Repeat prepositional phrase more than once

e.g: The gun was on the table near the window in the bedroom on the first floor in the pink house...

Put the sentence inside sentences

e.g: This is the cat that ate the rat that ate the cheese that was sold by the man that lived in the city that was on the river...

-> no end to recursion -> produce longer complex sentences.

STUDY QUESTIONS

1 What was the original literal meaning of syntax in Greek?

Syntax originally meant "arrangement" or "ordering" in Greek. It referred to the way words were put together to form sentences.

2 What is wrong with the following rule of English syntactic structure? “A prepositional phrase rewrites as a preposition followed by a noun.”

This rule is overly simplistic and doesn't account for the complexity of prepositional phrases. While it's often true that a prepositional phrase consists of a preposition and a noun, it can also include adjectives, pronouns, or even other prepositional phrases. A more accurate rule would be: "A prepositional phrase rewrites as a preposition followed by a noun phrase."

3 Which of the following expressions are structurally ambiguous and in what way?

(a) These are designed for small boys and girls.

(b) The parents of the bride and groom were waiting outside.

(d) We met an English history teacher.

(e) Flying planes can be dangerous.

(f) The students complained to everyone that they couldn’t understand.

(a) These are designed for small boys and girls. - This sentence can be interpreted either as meaning that the items are designed for both small boys and small girls, or for boys and girls of all sizes.
(b) The parents of the bride and groom were waiting outside. - This sentence can be interpreted either as meaning that the parents of both the bride and groom were waiting outside, or that there was only one set of parents waiting.
(c) How come a bed has four legs, but only one foot? - This sentence is not structurally ambiguous but rather plays on the different meanings of the words "leg" and "foot" to create a humorous effect.
(d) We met an English history teacher. - This sentence is not structurally ambiguous.
(e) Flying planes can be dangerous. - This sentence can be interpreted either as meaning that flying planes is dangerous, or that planes that are flying are dangerous.
(f) The students complained to everyone that they couldn’t understand. - This sentence can be interpreted either as meaning that the students complained to everyone about something that they couldn't understand, or that the students complained to everyone about not being understood.

4 What part of speech is lovely in the following sentence?

We saw a lovely rainbow yesterday.

In the sentence "We saw a lovely rainbow yesterday," lovely is an adjective modifying the noun "rainbow."

5 How many noun phrases are there in the following sentence?

George saw a small dog in the park near the fountain and it followed him when he left the park.

There are six noun phrases in the sentence:

George
a small dog
the park
the fountain
him
the park

6 Which part of the following sentence is the VP?

None of the people in the building supported the proposed rent increase.

The VP (Verb Phrase) in the sentence "None of the people in the building supported the proposed rent increase" is supported the proposed rent increase.

7 Which of the following expressions would be generated by this phrase structure rule: NP → {Art (Adj) N, Pro, PN}?

(a) a lady

(b) the little girl

(d) Annie

(e) the widow

(f) she's an old woman

Only options (a), (b), (c), (d), and (e) can be generated by the given rule. Option (f) is incorrect because it contains a verb phrase ("she's") that is not part of the rule.

8 What kind of generative rule is this: N → {girl, dog, boy}?

The rule N → {girl, dog, boy} is a lexical rule. It specifies the terminal symbols (words) that can be generated by the non-terminal symbol N (noun).

9 Do phrase structure rules represent deep structure or surface structure?

Phrase structure rules represent deep structure. Deep structure is the underlying syntactic representation of a sentence before transformations have applied. Surface structure is the final syntactic representation of a sentence after transformations have applied.

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