chapter 4 from word to text.doc

Chapter Four From Word to Text1. Syntactic relations（句法关系）Syntax is 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.1.1Relations of PositionPositional relation, or WORD ORDER, refers to the sequential arrangement of words in a language. If the words in a sentence fail to occur in a fixed order required by the convention of a language, one tends to produce an utterance either ungrammatical or nonsensical at all. Positional relations are a manifestation of one aspect of Syntagmatic Relations（横组合关系） observed by F. de Saussure. They are also called Horizontal Relations or simply Chain Relations. 1.2. Relation of Substitutability （替换关系）The Relation of Substitutability refers to classes or sets of words substitutable for each other grammatically in sentences with the same structure. It also refers to groups of more than one word which may be jointly substitutable grammatically for a single word of a particular set.This is also called Associative Relations by Saussure, and Paradigmatic Relations（纵聚合关系）by Hjemslev（叶尔姆斯列夫） To make it more understandable, they are called Vertical Relations or Choice Relations. 1.3 Relation of Co-occurrence （同现关系/纵横关系）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. Relations of co-occurrence partly belong to syntagmatic relations, partly to paradigmatic relations. 2. Grammatical construction and its constituents 2.1 Grammatical Construction GRAMMATICAL CONSTRUCTION （语法结构体）or CONSTRUCT can be used to refer 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 the construct contains.On the level of syntax, we distinguish for any construction in a language its external and its internal properties. The external syntax of a construction refers to the properties of the construction as a whole, that is to say, anything speakers know about the construction that is relevant to the larger syntactic contexts in which it is welcome.The internal syntax of a construction is really a description of the constructions “make-up”, with the terms such as “subject, predicate, object, determiner, noun”.2.2 Immediate Constituents(直接成分)Constituent（成分）is a part of a larger linguistic unit. Several constituents together form a construction: To dismantle a grammatical construction in this way is called IMMEDIATE CONSTITUENT ANALYSIS or IC analysis (直接成分分析法)，the analysis of a sentence in terms of its immediate constituents-word groups (phrases), which are in turn analyzed into the immediate constituents of their own, and the process goes on until the ultimate constituents are reachedL.Bloomfield2.3 Endocentric and Exocentric Constructions (向心结构和离心结构)The syntactic constructions analysed are of two main types: endocentric and exocentric constructions, depending on their distribution and the relation between their constituents. 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.其整体功能与其某个或某些组成成分（单个词或词组）相同或相似，这个词组是整体的核心或中心。因此向心结构也叫做中心结构 。Typical endocentric constructions are noun phrases (the three small children), verb phrases(will have been leaving), adjective phrases (really very late).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 group2.4 Coordination and Subordination Endocentric constructions fall into two main types, depending on the relation between constituents: Coordination AND subordinationCoordination 并列结构Coordination is a common syntactic pattern in English and other languages formed by grouping together two or more categories of the same type with the help of a conjunction such as and, but and or . These two or more words or phrases or clauses have equivalent syntactic status, each of the separate constituents can stand for the original construction functionally. Subordination 从属结构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. The subordinate constituents are words which modify the head. Consequently, they can be called modifiers. 3. Syntactic Function 句法功能The syntactic function shows the relationship between a linguistic form and other parts of the linguistic pattern in which it is used.Names of functions are expressed in terms of subjects, objects, predicators, modifiers, complements, etc. 4.3.4 The Relation between Classes and Functions Classes and functions determine each other, but not in any one-to-one relation.A class item can perform several functions. For instance, a noun or a nominal phrase can function as the subject, object, modifier, adverbial and complement of a sentence. A function can also be fulfilled by several classes. For instance, the subject of a sentence can be realized by a noun, pronoun, numeral, infinitive, etc.4. Category 范畴The term category refers to the defining properties of these general units: Categories of the noun: number, gender, case and countability Categories of the verb: tense, aspect, voice4.1 Number 数Number is a grammatical category used for the analysis of word classes displaying such contrasts as singular, dual, plural,(单数，双数，复数) etc. Number is also reflected in the inflections of pronouns and verbs, such as He laughs: They laugh, this man: these men.4.2 Gender 性Such contrasts as “masculine : feminine : neuter”, “animate : inanimate”, etc. for the analysis of word classes. English gender contrast can only be observed in pronouns and a small number of nouns, and, they are mainly of the natural gender type.he: she: it prince: princess author: authoress4.3 Case 格The case category is used in the analysis of word classes to identify the syntactic relationship between words in a sentence.4.4 Agreement 一致关系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). This syntactic relationship may be anaphoric（照应的）, as when a pronoun agrees with its antecedent （先行语）, 5. Phrase, Clause and Sentence 5.1 PhrasePHRASE is a single element of structure containing more than one word, and lacking the subject-predicate structure typical of clauses. Traditionally, it is seen as part of a structural hierarchy, positioned between clause and word. Distinction between WORD GROUP and PHRASE. A word group is an extension of word of a particular class by way of modification with its main features of the class unchanged. Thus we have nominal group, verbal group, adverbial group, conjunction group and preposition group (e.g. right behind, all along). “To the door” is still accepted as a prepositional phrase which consists of a preposition plus a nominal group, and is, consequently, no longer a preposition.5.2 ClauseA constituent with its own subject and predicate, if it is included in a larger sentence, is a CLAUSE.Clause can also be classified into FINITE and NON-FINITE clauses, the latter including the traditional infinitive phrase, participial phrase, and gerundial phrase.A finite clause（限定性分句） has a finite verb. A finite verb has tense. A non-finite clause（非限定性分句） has a verb without tense. 5.3 SentenceBloomfield (1935) defined the sentence