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CHAPTER II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
2.1. A BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF SYNTACTICAL THEORY
2.1.1. The Understanding of Syntax
The study of the structure of a sentence and its ordering elements is what syntax is all about. It is a branch of linguistics that is concerned with the study. There
are some definitions about Syntax according to some language dictionary. “Syntax is the study of rule where by words or other elements of structure
are combined to form grammatical sentences” Home Library Dictionary.
“Syntax is the way in which words are put together to form phrase, clauses or sentences” Webster’s New College Dictionary, 1975.
Some linguists also gave definition about Syntax. “Syntax studies the organization of words into phrases and phrases into
sentences” Dwight, 1975:171.
“Syntax is the part of grammar dealing with the other types of grammatical units” Douglas, 2002:13.
“Syntax is the grammatical tool that deals with how sentences are put together and the relationship between words” Bryan, 2009.
“Syntax is the grammatical arrangement of words in a sentence. It concerns both word order and agreement in the relationship between words. Syntax is
primarily concerned with structure of sentences.” Knowsley, 2004.
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“Syntax is the rules of sentence formation. Also, syntax represents the component of the mental grammar that represents speakers’ knowledge of
the structure of phrases and sentences” Chomsky, 1965
From some definitions previously the writer concluded that Syntax is the branch of grammar which is concerned with:
• Word syntactic structure • Phrase syntactic structure
• Clause syntactic structure • Sentence syntactic structure
2.1.2. The Analysis of Syntactical Theory
Linguists used some general theories in analyzing all parts and elements of language parallel with the development of linguistic science itself. The theories will be
arranged historically from the oldest theory to the modern theory.
• Traditional Analysis word class rules
This course is part of a long tradition of grammatical analysis which stretches back two thousand years to the grammarian of Ancient Greece and Rome.
They were describing the structures of Greek and Latin, where they discovered all the basic ideas of grammar- word- classes, dependency links, coordination, dependent type
such as subjects and objects and form- based contrast like finiteness. This is so- called ‘traditional grammar’ which you will find alive and well in most modern books that deal
with grammar, especially dictionaries and grammars of foreign languages. It is also the foundation on which all modern thinking about grammar rest.
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•
The Structural Theory or Linier Arrangement Analysis Neo-Grammar
The structural theory of language was the first major new approach to descriptive linguistics in the twentieth century. This school was introduced by the
famous Swiss linguist Fernard de Saussure in Europe and by Leonard Bloomfield in America. This school flourished for about thirty years, until the early 1960s.
The structuralist school emphasized on the investigation of concrete linguistic data, and logically followed the late nineteenth century neo-grammarian
school. Structuralism was geared towards ‘descriptive linguistics’. It involved isolating, classifying, analyzing and segmenting the observed linguistic data. Structural linguistics
has been criticized for making no attempt to deal with the relationship between language and mind. That is, the way humans understand and interpret the meanings of
sentences. That is why structuralism is often linked with the psychological theory of ‘behaviorism’.
•
Transformational Generative Grammar.
The term Transformational Generative Grammar is used to Noam Chomsky’s theories about Syntax. These theories were first rut forward in a book
entitled Syntactic Structure which has published in 1957. In this Chomsky tried to find certain rules which would create well-formed sentence of a language. According to
Chomsky, his grammar is Generative, since it can generate or create an infinite number of sentences. It is called Transformational since a basic or simple sentence like
I read the book Can be changed or transformed into a number of sentences with either the same
meaning
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The book is read by me. or with different meanings.
Do I read the book? I read the book, don’t I?
I do not read the book. What has been done is that the basic sentence has been transformed by
adding words, deleting words, and by the movement of words. These changes are also take place through specific rule, which are called Transformational Rule. Thus,
Grammar generates and transforms sentences. Therefore, it can be called Transformational Generative Grammar. In generative transformational grammar there
are three important aspects of sentence structure: 1 The linear order of words from left to right
2 The categorization of words into parts of speech 3 The groupings of words
In the framework of transformational- generative grammar, the structure of a sentence is represented by phrase structure trees, otherwise known as phrase
markers or tree diagram. Such trees provide information about the sentences they
represent by showing the hierarchical relations between their component parts. For an instance:
John hit the ball.
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S NP
VP V
NP Det
N John
hit the ball
2.2. THE BASIC STRUCTURE OF ENGLISH SYNTAX 2
Kategori