Chapter 4
From Word to Text

1．Define the following terms.

syntax：the study of the rules governing the ways different constituents are combined to form sentences in a language，or the study of the interrelationships between elements in sentence structures.

co-occurrence：It means that words of different sets of clauses may permit，or require，the occurrence of a word of another set or class to form a sentence or a particular part of a sentence．For instance，what can precede a noun（dog）is usually the determiners and adjectives，and what can follow it when it takes the position of subject will be predicators such as bark，bite，run，etc．In short，co-occurrence is the syntactic environment in which a construction，with its relevant elements，can appear grammatically and conventionally．Thus relations of co-occurrence partly belong to syntagmatic relations，partly to paradigmatic relations.

construction：it refers to any syntactic construct which is assigned one or more conventional functions in a language，together with whatever is linguistically conventionalized about its contribution to the meaning or use construct contains．It can be further divided into the external and internal properties．Take the sentence The boy kicked the ball as an example，we will determine the external syntax as an independent clause，while NP（“the boy”），VP（“kicked”）and NP（“the ball”）will be assigned respectively to the different elements in this clause.

constituent：Constituent is a term used in structural sentence analysis for every linguistic unit，which is a part of a larger linguistic unit．Several constituents together form a construction：for example，in the sentence The boy ate the apple，S（A），the boy（B），ate the apple（C），each part is a constituent．Constituents can be joined together with other constituents to form larger units．If two constituents，in the case of the example above，B（the boy）and C（ate the apple），are joined to form a hierarchically higher constituent A（“S”，here a sentence），then B and C are said to be immediate constituents of A.

endocentric：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．In the phrase two pretty girls，girls is the Centre or Head of this phrase or word group.

exocentric：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．Exocentric construction usually includes basic sentence，prepositional phrase，predicate（verb+object）construction，and connective（be+complement）construction．In the sentence The boy smiled ，neither constituent can substitute for the sentence structure as a whole.

subordination：Subordination 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．Thus the subordinate constituents are words which modify the Head．Consequently，they can be called modifiers．In the phrase swimming in the lake，swimming is the head and in the lake are the words modifying the head.

category：The term category in some approaches refers to classes and functions in its narrow sense，e.g.，noun，verb，subject，predicate，noun phrase，verb phrase，etc．More specifically，it refers to the defining properties of these general units：the categories of the noun，for example，include number，gender，case and countability；and of the verb，for example，tense，aspect，voice，and so on.

coordination：A common syntactic pattern in English and other languages is formed by grouping together two or more categories of the same type with the help of a conjunction such as and，but or or．This phenomenon is known as coordination．In the construction the lady or the tiger，both NPs the lady and the tiger have equivalent syntactic status，each of the separate constituents can stand for the original construction functionally.

agreement：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）．For instance，the syntactic relationship between this pen and it in the following dialogue：

—Whose is this pen ？

—Oh， it 's the one I lost

embedding：Embedding refers to the means by which one clause is included in another clause in syntactic subordination．E.g.，I saw the man who had visited you last year.

recursiveness：it mainly means that a constituent can be embedded within（i.e.，be dominated by）another constituent having the same category，but it can be used to any means to extend any constituent．Together with openness，recursiveness is the core of creativity of language．For example，“I met a man who had a son whose wife sold cookies that she had baked in her kitchen that was fully equipped with electrical appliances that were new”.

cohesion：Cohesion refers to relations of meaning that exist within the text，and that define it as a text．The cohesive devices usually include：conjunction，ellipsis，lexical collocation，lexical repetition，reference，substitution，and so on．In the following example，the cohesive device is“Reference”，that is，“it”refers back to the door：He couldn't open the door. It was locked tight.

grammatical subject ＆ logical subject：Grammatical and logical subjects are two terms accounting for the case of subject in passive voice．Take the sentences a dog bit John and John was bitten by a dog as examples．Since the object noun（John in this case）sits in the slot before the verb in the passive，it is called grammatical subject，for the original object noun phrase occupies the grammatical space before a verb，the space that a subject normally occupies；the subject（a dog），now the object of a preposition（by a dog），is called a logical subject，since semantically the subject still does what a subject normally does：it performs an action.

2．Indicate the category of each word in the following sentences（Hint：It may help to refer back to section 4.2.2）

（1）The instructor told the students to study.

（2）The customer requested for a cold beer.

（3）The pilot landed the jet.

（4）These dead trees must be removed.

（5）That glass suddenly broke.

（1）[NP（det.+n.）+V+NP（det.+n.）+inf.]

（2）[NP（det.+n.）+V+PP（prep.+det.+adj.+n.）]

（3）[NP（det.+n.）+V+NP（det.+n.）]

（4）[NP（det.+adj.+n.）+mv（modal verb）+be（auxiliary verb）+Past Participle]

（5）[NP（det.+n.）+adv.+V]

3．Put brackets around the immediate constituents in each sentence.

Ex．（（I）（（rode）（back）））（（when）（（it）（（was）（dark））））.

（a）The boy was crying.

（b）Shut the door.

（c）Open the door quickly.

（d）The happy teacher in that class was beaming away.

（e）He bought an old car with his first pay cheque.

（a）（（The）（boy））（（was）（crying））.

（b）（Shut）（（the）（door））.

（c）（（Open）（（the）（door）））（quickly）.

（d）（（The）（（（happy）（teacher））（（in）（（that）（class）））））（（was）（（beaming）（away）））.

（e）（He）（（（bought）（（an）（（old）（car））））（（with）（（his）（（first）（（pay）（cheque））））））.

4．For each of the underlined constructions or word groups，do the following.

—State whether it is headed or non-headed.

—If headed，state its headword.

—Name the type of constructions.

Ex．His son will be keenly competing.

Answer：headed，headword—competing；verbal group

（a） Ducks quack.

（b）The ladder in the shed is long enough.

（c）I saw a bridge damaged beyond repair．

（d） Singing hymns is forbidden in some countries.

（e） His handsome face appeared in the magazine.

A lady of great beauty came out.

（g）He enjoys climbing high mountains.

（h） The man nodded patiently.

（i）A man roused by the insult drew his sword.

（a）（non-headed，independent clause）

（b）（non-head，prepositional phrase）

（c）（headed；headword—damaged；adjectival group）

（d）（headed；headword—singing；gerundial phrase）

（e）（headed；headword—face；nominal group）

（f）（non-headed；prepositional phrase）

（g）（headed；headword—climbing；gerundial phrase）

（h）（non-headed；independent clause）

（i）（headed；headword—roused；adjectival phrase）

5．In the pairs of sentences that follow，indicate with“N”those that need not follow a particular order when they are joined by“and”．Indicate with“Y”those that need to be ordered．Aside from the examples below，in your opinion，which type is more relevant.

6．Combine the following pairs of sentences．Make the second sentence of each pair into a relative clause，and then embed it into the first.

（a）The comet appears every twenty years．Dr．Okada discovered the comet.

（b）Everyone respected the quarterback．The quarterback refused to give up.

（c）The most valuable experiences were small ones．I had the experiences on my trip to Europe.

（d）Children will probably become abusers of drugs or alcohol．Children's parents abuse alcohol.

（e）Many nations are restricting emissions of noxious gases．The noxious gases threaten the atmosphere.

（a）The comet that Dr．Okada discovered appears every twenty years.

（b）Everyone respected the quarterback who refused to give up.

（c）The most valuable experiences that I had on my trip to Europe were small ones.

（d）Children whose parents abuse alcohol will probably become abusers of drugs or alcohol.

（e）Many nations are restricting emissions of noxious gases which threaten the atmosphere.

7．Use examples to illustrate different ways to extend syntactic constituents.

In this chapter，several ways to extend syntactic constituents are brought under the category of recursiveness，including coordination and subordination，conjoining and embedding，hypotactic and paratactic and so on．Coordination and conjoining are the different names for the same linguistic phenomenon，that is，to use and，but or or to join together syntactic constituents with the same function．For instance，the sentence A man got into the car could be extended into a sentence like this“[ _NP A man，a woman，a boy，a cat and a dog] got into the car”．While subordination and embedding can be understood as the extension of any syntactic constituent by inserting one or more syntactic elements with different functions，into another．I saw the man who had visited you last year is an extended sentence by changing the independent clause The man had visited you last year into a dependent element（here a relative clause）.

However，hypotaxis and parataxis are the two traditional terms for the description of syntactic relations between sentences．In the examples below，the former is hypotactic，while the latter is paratactic：

We live near the sea． So we enjoy a healthy climate.

He dictated the letter．She wrote it.

8．Mark the underlined parts of the sentences in Ex.4-37 with the terms such as participial phrase，gerundial phrase，and so on.

（a）The best thing would be to leave early .

（b）It's great for a man to be free.

（c） Having finished their task， they came to help us.

（d） Xiao Li being away， Xiao Wang had to do the work.

（e） Filled with shame， he left the house.

（f） All our savings gone， we started looking for jobs.

（g）It's no use crying over spilt milk．

（h）Do you mind my opening the window？

9．Explain the main characteristics of subjects in English.

The grammatical category“subject”in different language possesses different characteristics．In English，“subject”may have the following characteristics：

A．Word order：Subject ordinarily precedes the verb in a statement such as“Sally collects stamps.”

B．Pronoun forms：The first and third person pronouns in English appear in a special form when the pronoun is a subject．This form is not used when the pronoun occurs in other positions：

He loves me.

I love him.

We threw stones at them.

They threw stones at us.

C．Agreement with verb：In the simple present tense，an -s is added to the verb when a third person subject is singular．However，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：

She angers him.

They anger him.

She angers them.

D．Content questions：if the subject is replaced by a question word（who or what），the rest of the sentence remains unchanged，as in（b）But when any other element of the sentence is replaced by a question word，an auxiliary verb must appear before the subject．If the basic sentence does not contain an auxiliary verb，we must insert did or do（es）immediately after the question word，as in（d，e）

（a）John stole/would steal Mrs．Thatcher's picture from the British Council.

（b）Who stole/would steal Mrs．Thatcher's picture from the British Council？

（c）What would John steal，if he had the chance？

（d）What did John steal from the British Council？

（e）Where did John steal Mrs．Thatcher's picture from？

E．Tag question：A TAG QUESTION is used to seek confirmation of a statement．It always contains a pronoun which refers back to the subject，and never to any other element in the sentence：

John loves Mary，doesn't he？ hllVAa9mL34WsKEo6iW9WQQSfwq4WWsh0egSlIQuzJREYQFw1huVZubVF+uCfYbf