Unidad 2

Recursos de
aprendizaje

Unidad 2: Análisis Lingüístico: De la frase al texto

Ideas claves de la Unidad 2.

 Unidad 2
Recursos de
aprendizaje

Índice
• Tabla de contenido

Contents
Syntax ............................................................................................................................................................... 2
Phrases ......................................................................................................................................................... 3
Sentences ..................................................................................................................................................... 4
Phrase structure rules .................................................................................................................................. 4
Semantics ......................................................................................................................................................... 5
Lexical semantics .......................................................................................................................................... 5
Compositional or structural semantics ......................................................................................................... 5
Pragmatics ........................................................................................................................................................ 6
Speech acts ................................................................................................................................................... 6
Deixis ............................................................................................................................................................ 6
Presupposition ............................................................................................................................................. 7
Maxims of Conversation ............................................................................................................................... 7

• Desarrollo

Aquí deben realizar una síntesis con los aspectos fundamentales del
contenido de cada unidad (textos, gráficos, imágenes etc)

Syntax
Syntax is a level of grammar that specifically refers to the arrangement of words and morphemes (the
lexicon) in the construction of structures such as phrases, clauses, and sentences.

Syntax can also be seen as the way in which the basically subconscious rules and categories that are part of
each person’s linguistic competence are used to construct sentences.

Syntax deals with the interrelationship of the elements that make up sentences, and how different rules of
arrangement are used to construct statements, questions, commands, and other types of utterances.
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When linguists and anthropologists study syntax, they are interested in describing the subconscious
knowledge that people possess about the syntax of their language, not prescribing how they should construct
sentences. This is called descriptive syntax or descriptive grammar.

What a language teacher does in a grammar class by telling students that there is a correct or incorrect way
to write or speak is called prescriptive syntax or prescriptive grammar.

Sentences are not randomly combined morphemes but structures built on the basis of rules of combination.
The units being combined are called constituents.

The smallest constituents of a sentence are the morphemes that make it up. Morphemes make up words. A
lexicon for a specific language is a list of all of the morphemes that are used in that language to form words.
The lexicon specifies whether each morpheme is a prefix, suffix, or root. If it is a root, then the part of speech
(lexical category) can also be included.

Each word can be labeled, but it is possible that the same word can be used in more than one lexical category.

A phrase is any constituent of a clause. Phrases are commonly named for one of their main elements: noun
phrases, verb phrases, adjective phrases, adverb phrases, and prepositional phrases. Technically, a phrase
may be a string of words or just one word (although in teaching and everyday life we only usually say phrase
when there are two or more words combined).

Phrases
The head of a phrase is the word that determines the syntactic or phrasal category of that phrase—whether
the phrase functions as a noun phrase, verb phrase, prepositional phrase, and so on.

All parts of a phrase that are not the head are called the phrase’s dependents. In some approaches to syntax,
these dependents are further broken down into specifiers and complements.

Noun Phrases Among other functions, a noun phrase (often called a nominal phrase) can function in a
sentence as the subject, direct object, and indirect object. A noun phrase could be a single noun or pronoun
or a variety of longer forms.

All English sentences contain a noun phrase (NP) and a verb phrase (VP). Verb phrases often include a noun
phrase. Verbs that combine with a noun phrase are called transitive verbs.

In addition to noun phrases and verb phrases, other important phrasal categories are adjective phrases
(AdjP), adverb phrases (AdvP), and prepositional phrases (PP). Adjective phrases are headed by an adjective
but might also include adjective modifiers (elements that add a property to another lexical item). Adjective
phrases in turn modify nouns. Adverb phrases are headed by an adverb and might also include other adverbs
and an adjective phrase or phrases. Prepositional phrases are headed by a preposition and include a noun
phrase.

The phrase constituent structure, along with labels of each word, can also be represented in a tree diagram.
Each point at which branching occurs is called a node. Notice that tree diagrams are upside down. What
should be the root is at the top, and what would be the top is represented by the most specific constituents
(the individual words). The aim is to represent the hierarchical structure of language. That is, one constituent
is often a constituent of a higher level or is a dominant constituent. All constituents are part of the highest-
level or most dominant constituent, the sentence (=clause) itself.
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Sentences
In traditional approaches to grammar, a sentence is seen as having at least two main constituents; one is
called a subject, and the other is called a predicate. In these traditional approaches the subject is the topic
of the sentence and the predicate is a comment or assertion made about the topic. Everything that is not the
subject can be labelled as the predicate (including words which come before the subject).

When a sentence consists of only one subject (topic) and one predicate, it is called a simple sentence

Simple sentences can be combined to form compound sentences. The two simple sentences in a compound
sentence are said to be independent clauses.

A second type of clause used to construct sentences is the dependent clause. A dependent clause cannot
stand alone as a simple sentence, but must be attached to an independent clause. A dependent clause often
begins with a relative pronoun or a subordinating conjunction. A sentence that contains a simple sentence
and one or more dependent clauses is called a complex sentence.

Sentences can also be classified on the basis of their meaning, purpose (function), or voice. The following are
some of the most common sentence types classified in these ways:

Declarative—These sentences make a statement. Christine just arrived.

Interrogative—These sentences ask a question. Has Andrew just arrived?

Imperative—These sentences express a command or make a request. Aaron, come here.

Exclamatory—These sentences show strong or sudden feeling. Oh, if Jan were only here!

Phrase structure rules specify how constituents of an utterance are arranged and what constituents
can occur as parts of other constituents (the hierarchical structure of a sentence).

Transformational rules (T-rules) relate the spoken form of sentences to their underlying meaning. More
technically, transformational rules relate the surface structure of sentences to their deep structure.

Transformations explain movement, deletion, insertion, and substitution.

Fluent speakers of a language possess enormous subconscious knowledge, known as linguistic competence,
of the rules of their own language. There is more knowledge of language in the mind of a fluent speaker than
in all the grammar texts combined. On the other hand, we know nothing about the rules of a language we do
not understand. If you are a fluent speaker of a language, your subconscious knowledge allows you to
produce grammatical or well-formed sentences. A sentence is grammatical if the sequence of words and the
relationship between words conforms to the syntactic knowledge (rules) of fluent speakers of a language and
if the sentence contains all of its required components. A fluent speaker also will immediately recognize that
certain sentences are ungrammatical or ill-formed. A sentence is ungrammatical if the sequence of words
and the relationship between words does not conform to the syntactic knowledge (rules) of native speakers
of a language or if the sentence does not contain all of its required components. You cannot just randomly
arrange lexical items to create a sentence.

Word-order rules are relative to each language. Linear word order is often specific for the type of sentence.

Case indicates the function of nouns, pronouns, and adjectives within a sentence and the relationship of
those words to verbs and other words within the sentence.
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Semantics is the study of meaning.

Lexical semantics deals with the meaning of words. There is a lexicon or dictionary in each person’s brain
that contains the definitions of all the words the person knows. The referent of each word is the concrete
object or abstract concept to which the word refers. Semantic properties are the elements of meaning that
make up the mental image of the word in the mind of the speaker. Semantic properties can be analyzed using
the + and – system of distinctive feature analysis. Words that share semantic properties can be considered
members of a semantic domain. Markedness, the concept that some members of a semantic domain are
more common or usual than others, gives us an idea of
how the native speakers of a language think about their world.

Words that are similar to each other in meaning or in sound are hyponyms, synonyms, homonyms, and
antonyms. Hyponyms are words that form a subclass of another word. Words that have similar meanings,
that share the same semantic properties, are called synonyms. These are the words that sound different but
mean the same. Synonyms have the same denotation, or dictionary definition, but different connotations, or
shades of meaning. In contrast to synonyms, homonyms (or homophones) are words that sound the same
but have very different meanings. Polysemous words have more than one meaning. Words that have the
opposite meaning are called antonyms, which can be classified as complementary pairs, gradable pairs, and
relational opposites.

Compositional or structural semantics is the study of how the structure of sentences contributes to
meaning.

Sentences make “claims” or “propositions” about the world. A proposition can be true or false. It has a truth
value. To understand a proposition we must understand the sense of all the words. We must have mental
representations of the “content words” and also know how they are syntactically combined. We must be
able to determine the reference of the proposition, which means to understand what the world would have
to be like for the proposition to be true. These are the truth conditions.

We use these propositions to get a sense of meaning. Propositions can be related. They can be different types
of entailment. They can also be incompatible.

We need to use some logic to consider entailment. In the following two examples, the truth of a guarantees
the truth of b. If a is true, b is true.
A All dogs bark.
B Sally’s dog barks.
Entailment can be mutual, but not always.

Words convey meaning but syntactic structure also has an effect.

Herman loves Pauline
Pauline loves Herman
The two sentences have the same words, but they are different propositions and they are not necessarily
both true.

It is impossible to memorize all sentence meanings, so a person must compute word meanings and apply
mental grammar in order to “figure out” the meaning of novel sentences. However, compositionality fails
when we encounter idiomatic expressions since the entire phrase has to be stored in the lexicon.
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Semantics is the study of the meaning of linguistic expressions, such as morphemes, words, phrases, clauses,
and sentences. Often semantics is more narrowly defined as the meaning of expressions divorced from the
context in which these utterances are produced, and from various characteristics of the sender or receiver
of the message. The study of meaning derived from context and features of the communicators is
called pragmatics.

Pragmatics is also about the practical use of language. It includes the study of how people use language
to establish their identities through social meaning, to express their emotions through affective meaning, to
perform speech acts with performative sentences, and to carry on conversations with others.

The social meaning of an utterance tells us about the social identity of the speaker. In fact, it tells us more
information about the speaker than about the referent. People often consciously and deliberately consider
the social meaning of their speech when they change from one manner of speaking to another, according to
their circumstances, in order to give an appropriate impression. This is called code switching. Many African
Americans often use the Standard American variety of English when conducting business outside of the
African American community, but switch to African American English to show solidarity when speaking within
the African American community. Americans wishing to sound more elegant or educated may use a British-
sounding dialect.

The affective meaning of an utterance conveys the emotions of the speaker. By the choice of synonyms, the
speaker describes an event while giving an emotional reaction to it.

Speech acts

Other sentences actually do something and in doing so exhibit the force of language; they are speech acts.
By pronouncing these sentences the speaker is performing an action.
I now pronounce you husband and wife.
I promise to do it.
These performative sentences not only convey information, but in the correct context, they also perform
the act of pronouncing and promising. Performative sentences can also perform the act of requesting
information, as in the question
Are you ready?

Discourse analysis is the process of discovering the rules that govern a series of connected utterances (a
discourse), such as a conversation, story, lecture, or any other communication event. One of the rules of
English discourse governs the choice between the indefinite articles a/an and the definite article the,
depending on what has been stated before in the discourse. For example, look at the use of the articles in
the following: Once upon a time there was a princess, who was very sad. You see, when the princess was
born, an evil witch cast a spell. The spell could only be broken by the evil witch, if the princess did as she was
told.
Within this little story fragment, there is new information and old (or given) information. The new
information is information that the speaker believes is being introduced to the listener for the first time. It
must be identified by the article a or an. Notice that the first time the princess, the evil witch, and the spell
are mentioned, the words are preceded by the article a or an. However, the second time these items are
mentioned, they are considered old (or given) information and must be preceded by the article the.

Deixis

English pronouns are also used according to the rules of discourse. Pronouns are one of the categories of
words that exhibit deixis /dayksɪs/, a property of words that shift reference, that change meaning according
to the context. Pronouns are deictic /dayktɪk/ in that they change meaning according to the rule of discourse.
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Richard: I have a lot of work to do. Do you?
Ed: Yes, I do.
Richard: Does Phil have a lot to do?
Ed: Yes, he does.
When Richard uses the word I, the meaning of the word is “Richard,” but when Ed uses the same word, it
means “Ed.” On the other hand, Richard uses the word you to mean “Ed” and as the conversation continues,
Ed might use you to mean “Richard.” They can both use he to refer to “Phil.” In fact, he can refer to any man,
boy, or male animal. So to make the referent clear, the first time Phil is mentioned in the discourse his name
must be used (new information). The pronoun can only be used at the second mention because now the
referent is clear; it is old information.
Other words can be deictic in regard to place: this or that, here or there, go or come. English distinguishes
between two distances or positions in pairs such as these. This house is brown, but that house is blue.
In the preceding sentence, the use of this and that indicates that the speaker is standing closer to the brown
house than the blue house. But if she walks closer to the blue house, then the blue house becomes this house
and the brown one becomes that house.

Presupposition is the set of assumptions that the speaker makes about the listener’s knowledge or
circumstances. These assumptions are necessary in order to make an utterance meaningful. It is another way
in which the context of the utterance, within the discourse, affects how it is stated and what words are
chosen. If two people are speaking about a mutual acquaintance, they can simply use the friend’s name with
no further explanation:
Allan told a great joke today at lunch.
But if a person is speaking to someone who does not know Allan, further explanation is required:
Allan, a colleague of mine who has a great sense of humor, told a great joke at lunch today.

Maxims of Conversation
The maxims of conversation are the cultural expectations that guide people when they are conversing. They
are based on the cooperative principle, which assumes that each person is trying in good faith to
communicate and understand.

The following are some of the conversational maxims in English.

Quantity—Say neither more nor less than is required.
Quality—Say only what you believe to be the truth.
Relevance—Say only what is appropriate for the topic.
Manner—Be brief, concise, and clear.

The maxims of conversation are different in other cultures; the maxim of manner is particularly variable from
one culture to another.

• Bibliografía (usar APA 7ª edición)

eds. Dawson, H. & Phelan, M. (2016) Language files: Materials for an introduction to language. The Ohio
State University, The Ohio State University Press, Columbus

Fromkin, V., Rodman, R., & Hyams, N. (2017). An Introduction to Language. 11th ed. Cengage Learning,
Boston.

Rowe, B. M., & Levine, D. P. (2018). A concise introduction to linguistics. Routledge.