SYNTAX ( Created by : Lily Haytai )

Syntax :

The analysis of sentences structure

Ø  Introduction

sounds and organize them into meaningful units (called morphemes) and words. The study of this level of language is called morphology. Next you organize the words into phrases and sentences. Syntax is the cover term for studies of this level of language. Finally, you takes the sentences and phrases you hear and translate them into thoughts and ideas. This last step is what we refer to as the semantic level of language. Syntax, then, studies the level of language that lies between words and the meaning of utterances: sentences. It is the level that mediates between sounds that someone produces (organized into words) and what they intended to say. Perhaps one of the truly amazing aspect of the study of Language is not the origins of the word demerit, or how to properly punctuate a quote inside parentheses, or how kids have, like, destroyed the English language, eh? Instead it’s the question of how we subconsciously get from sounds to meaning. This is the study of syntax.

The History of Syntax1 (8823/8000 words)

Peter W. Culicover

The history of thinking about and describing syntax goes back thousands of years. But from the perspective of theorizing about syntax, which is our concern here, a critical point of departure is Chomsky’s Syntactic Structures (Chomsky, 1957) henceforth SS.2 I begin with some general observations about the goals of contemporary syntactic theory. Then, after briefly summarizing the main ideas of SS, and discussing methodology, I review some of the more important extensions, with an eye towards understanding where we are today, and how we got here. I touch on some of the more prominent branch points later in the chapter, in order to preserve as much as possible a sense the historical flow. For convenience, I refer to the direct line of development from SS as ‘mainstream’ generative grammar (MGG). This term reflects the dominant role that the Chomsky program has played in the field, both in terms of the development of his proposals and alternatives to them.

Ø  Literature  review

Syntax is one of  branch Linguistics  which study of  logical relation. Category grammar is an approach that attributes the syntactic structure not to rules of grammar, but to the properties of the syntactic categories themselves. For example, rather than asserting that sentences are constructed by a rule that combines a noun phrase (NP) and a verb phrase (VP) (e.g. the phrase structure rule S → NP VP), in category grammar, such principles are embedded in the category of the head word itself. So the syntactic category for an intransitive verb is a complex formula representing the fact that the verb acts as a function word requiring an NP as an input and produces a sentence level structure as an output. This complex category is notated as (NP\S) instead of V. NP\S is read as "a category that searches to the left (indicated by \) for an NP (the element on the left) and outputs a sentence (the element on the right)." The category of transitive verb is defined as an element that requires two NPs (its subject and its direct object) to form a sentence. This is notated as (NP/(NP\S)) which means "a category that searches to the right (indicated by /) for an NP (the object), and generates a function (equivalent to the VP) which is (NP\S), which in turn represents a function that searches to the left for an NP and produces a sentence.

            Lucien Tesnière (1893–1954) is widely seen as the father of modern dependency-based theories of syntax and grammar. He argued vehemently against the binary division of the clause into subject and predicate that is associated with the grammars of his day (S → NP VP) and which remains at the core of all phrase structure grammars.

Ø  Theories of Syntax

The linguistic landscape is littered with literally hundreds  if not thousands of theories of syntax , many with no more than a handful of  adherents. Syntactic theories are commonly  grouped into two broad types , formal and functional.

a.       Formal theory of syntax focus on linguistic form, relegating meaning to peripheral position .

b.      Functional theories by contras tend to focus on the function language serves, and the way that syntax is organized to serve these function like meaning plays and central role.

At the same times it is heavily functional not only are grammatical relation ( sometimes are also called function ) recognized, but they are linked to general functions uses of language, in term of  there types of meaning, experiential, interpersonal, and textural.

This semiotic perspective of syntax is share by a small but, growing group of grammatical theories including : cognitive grammar , applicative grammar, systemic functional grammar, and construction grammar. The theories is differ, however in what they take to be syntactic sign.

Syntactic theories and theorists differ on the other dimension as well. These day, most syntacticians  agree that there are limits on the range of syntactic variations possible among language. Some take a strong universalist stance, arguing that there as a single abstract as a universal system  underlying the syntax of all language. Opinion differ on  the nature of this universal grammar. Even the idea that there is structure above the word and below the clause is not universally accepted. A smallish group of theories including word grammar.

To many people the study of language properly  belongs in the domain of the humanities. That is, the study of language is all about the beauty of its usage in fine (and not so fine) literature. However, there is no particular reason, other than our biases, that the study of language should be confined to a humanistic approach. It is also possible to approach the study of language from a scientific perspective; this is the domain of linguistics. People who study literature often accuse linguists of abstracting away from the richness of good prose and obscuring the beauty of language. Nothing could be further from the truth. Most linguists, including the present author, enjoy nothing more than reading a finely crafted piece of fiction, and many linguists often study, as a sideline, the more humanistic aspects of language. This doesn’t mean, however, that one can’t appreciate and study the mathematics (or rules) of language and do it from a scientific perspective. The two approaches to language are both valid, and neither takes away from the other.

Many of us learned in school that words are grouped into categories like nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc. There is actually a good solid scientific basis for this categorization. Ideally, we want to be able to talk about what kinds of words appear in different positions in a sentence. One can only do this if we have ways of talking about what the “kinds of words” are. For this, we are going to borrow a set of names from traditional grammars. These are the parts of speech (also called syntactic categories). The most important of these are the noun, verb, preposition, and adverb/ adjective.

      for example :

a.                NP

                         D                  AP            AP                N

                                              A               A

                      The       big         yellow       book

Ø  Finding Discussions

                                We identify three activities for this stage:

             preliminary problem description, preliminary

            mental model, and structured problem     

             representation. Domain knowledge, problem

             modeling and communication. skills are required  

             to carry out these activities.

                        We identify three activities for this stage:

            strategy discovery, goal decomposition, and data 

            modeling. Domain, problem, and strategic

            knowledge are required to carry out these

 activities. From a process viewpoint, the major

cognitive activities at this stage are the

 application of knowledge, and problem analysis

and decomposition. Understanding of knowledge

is demonstrated by the appropriate application of

that knowledge. The use of knowledge, facts, and

the application of concepts, theories or principles

to plan a solution are in turn demonstrated by

outlining the steps necessary to reach a solution

by solving simpler, related problem, or by drawing charts and graphs which visually depict a solution.

            In syntactic problems were beginning from what have they ability to know in each part of sentences starts from adjective, auxiliary, noun , modals, adverb, preposition, conjunction, phrase, and so on. They have to find out in each words by words. So that, they have to study more and more until they know and differ in sentences.

For example :

The italicized words in the examples below are called auxiliaries.

(1) Sheila might reconsider.

(2) Your coffee grinder will last longer if you  

                  follow these simple instructions.

(3) I have spoken.

(4) Somebody is sleeping in my bed.

(5) No intelligent person could have made such a

                  statement.

(6) Their behavior has been puzzling me.

The following sentences illustrate so-called yes-no questions in English. (Yes-no because they elicit one of these answers.)

(1) Has she declined the offer?

(2) Will the budget have passed by Tuesday?

(3) Has the earth been getting warmer?

Here are some ungrammatical yes-no questions. You should be able to construct others.

(4) *Will have the budget passed by Tuesday?

(5) *Has been the earth getting warmer?

(6) *Has she might decline the job?

(7) *Passed the budget last week?

(8) *Is the earth has/have gotten warmer?

                     For this assignment it can developed  of children skills in syntactic category based on their ability, they can found something interest from this subject and know how to use a good sentences based from grammatically.

Ø  Conclusions

The “syntax error analysis” concept has been proposed to develop student skills in critically reviewing and checking calculations. Incorporating this type of problem solving technique into the undergraduate curriculum can help students develop the basic skills necessary to solve these types of problems in industry.

Research into teaching and learning programming, as well as the development of computing systems which assist novice programmers, underscores the need for a comprehensive framework for programming which includes not only programming language skills but also problem solving, software engineering concepts, and cognitive skills. The tasks of problem solving and program development form an interdependent process, each stage requiring specific knowledge and cognitive skills. Problem solving skills are essential to understanding the fundamentals of computing, and should be learned while studying programming. Problem formulation, planning and design are essential prerequisite tasks to coding and testing because any difficulties or errors at these earlier stages lead to errors in the final stages.

Ø  References

Bloom, B.S., (Ed.), Taxonomy of Educational Objectives, Handbook I: Cognitive Domain, New York,

New York: McKay, 1956.

Deek, F.P., An Integrated Environment for Problem Solving and Program Development, Unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation, New Jersey Institute of Technology, 1997.

Dewey, J., How We Think, Boston, Massachusetts: Heath, 1910. Ebrahimi, A., “Novice programmer error: language constructs and plan composition” International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 41, pp. 457-480, 1994.

Ennis, D., “Combining problem solving and programming instruction to increase the problem solving abilities in high school students”, Journal of Research on Computing in Education, 26 (4), pp. 488- 496, 1994.

Etter, D.M., “Engineering Problem Solving with ANSI C: Fundamental Concepts”, Englewood Cliffs,

New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1995.

Gagne, R.M., The Conditions of Learning, Fourth edition, New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1985.

Hartman, H., Intelligent Tutoring, preliminary edition, Clearwater, Florida: H&H Publishing

Company, 1996.