In the name of Allah, the most Beneficent, the most Merciful.

Syntactic RelationsPresented to: Miss Madeeha KhanPresented by: Asif Ali Razaasifalirazzza@yahoo.com+92-300-4626234

Points to be discussed What are Syntactic Relations? What is Tree Diagram? Basic Terms regarding Tree Diagram Constituent Command or C-Command C-Command condition on binding

What are Syntactic Relations? In linguistics, syntactic relations

(= grammatical functions, grammatical roles, syntactic functions, grammatical relations) refer to functional relationships between constituents in a clause or phrase.

Relation between the constituents of various types of phrases or sentences is called Syntactic Relations.

What is Tree Diagram? A tree diagram is a way of representing

the hierarchical nature of a structure in a graphical form. It is named a "tree diagram" because the classic representation resembles a tree, even though the chart is generally upside down compared to an actual tree, with the "root" at the top and the "leaves" at the bottom.

Tree diagram provides us visual representation of the constituents of the corresponding expression.

It looks like a family tree.

What is Tree Diagram? E.g. The child can kick a

football.

Tree diagrams are referred to in the relevant literature as Phrase Markers (P-Markers)A child can kick footballa

S

NP Aux

VP

N V NPArt

NArt

What is Tree Diagram? E.g. The child can kick a

football.TP

DP T'

D N T VP

V NP

The child can kick footballTree diagrams are referred to in the relevant literature as Phrase Markers (P-Markers)

NV

a

Terms regarding Tree Diagram Constituent Sub-Constituent Root/Mother, Sister, Daughter, Grand

Daughter etc Node, Terminal Node, Non-terminal Node,

Labeled Node Branch/Solid Line

Terms regarding Tree Diagram

A

B E

C D F G

H J

Labeled Nodes

Solid Lines/Branches

Terms regarding Tree Diagram

A

B E

C D F G

H J

i-Constituentii-Non-Terminal Nodei-Sub-Constituentii-Non-Terminal Node

Terminal Nodes Terminal Nodes contain any lexical item

Terms regarding Tree Diagram

A

B E

C D F G

H J

Terminal Nodes Terminal Nodes contain any lexical item

The president may blame himself.TP

DP T'

D N T VP

V

The president may blame himself

NP

Terms regarding Tree Diagram

A

B E

C D F G

H J

Mother/Root

i-Daughters of Aii-Sisters

i-Grand Daughters of Aii-Sisters—CD (daughters of B) and FG(daughters of E)iii-Cousins CD to FG and FG to CD

i-Daughters of Gii-Sisters to each otheriii-they have no cousiniv-Grand grand daughters of Av-Grand daughters of E

Who can command in a Family (in Tree Diagram)?

A

B E

C D F G

H J

Mother or Root A dominates everyone.

Who can command in a Family (in Tree Diagram)?

A

B E

C D F G

H J

B commands E, F, G, H and J

Who can command in a Family (in Tree Diagram)?

A

B E

C D F G

H J

E commands B, C and D

Who can command in a Family (in Tree Diagram)?

A

B E

C D F G

H J

C and D command each otherF commands G, H and JG commands F

What is CONSTITUENT COMMAND or C-COMMAND?

From the above examples, C-Command can be defined as follows:

A constituent X c-commands its sister Y and any constituent Z which is contained within Y.

Explanation of CONSTITUENT COMMAND or C-COMMAND

We can give example of importance of C-Command relation in syntactic description by looking at ANAPHORS (especially REFLEXIVES and RECIPROCALS)

• He must feel proud of himself. (“He” is antecedent of “himself” and “himself” is bound by “He”)

• The people help one another. (“The people” is antecedent of “one another” and “one another” is bound by “The people”.)

Explanation of CONSTITUENT COMMAND or C-COMMAND

We can give example of importance of C-Command relation in syntactic description by looking at ANAPHORS (especially REFLEXIVES and RECIPROCALS)

• He must feel proud of herself. (“He” is antecedent and requires singular masculine reflexive--himself to form grammatical structure but here is “herself” and forms an ungrammatical structure.)

• The two men help one another. (“The two men” is antecedent and requires reciprocal—each other to form grammatical structure but here is “one another” and forms an ungrammatical structure.)

C-Command condition on binding

Can you recall this?A

B E

C D F G

H J

The president may blame himself.TP

DP T'

D N T VP

V PRN

The president may blame himself

C-Command condition on binding

Can you recall this?A

B E

C D F G

H J

Supporters of the president may blame himself.

TP

NP T'

N PP T VP

V PRN

Supporters of the president may blame himself.

P DP

ND

Query Session

Thanks

Wish you best of luck in every sphere of life!

You may download this presentation form here:

http://www.slideshare.net/AsifAliRaza/syntactic-relations

Readings English Syntax by Andrew Radford English Syntax and Argumentation by Bas Aarts Syntax by Andrew Carnie An Introduction to English Syntax by Jim Miller Ling 201 – Basic Concepts of Linguistics Jirka Hana – March 25, 2006 How Many Word-Classes Are There After All? István Kenesei Research

Institute for Linguistics, HAS, & University of Szeged IMM14, Budapest, May 13-16, 2010

INTRODUCTION TO LINGUISTICS BA Modul 1 Institut für Anglistik nd Amerikanistik Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

Bauer, L. 1983. English Word-Formation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; 13-18; 20-22.

Brown, K. & J.E. Miller 19912. Syntax: a Linguistic Introduction to Sentence Structure. London: Harpercollins; 155-172.

Matthews, P.H. 19912. Morphology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; 24-40.