ENG 221 AN INTRODUCTION TO SYNTACTIC MODELS
ENG 221 AN INTRODUCTION TO SYNTACTIC MODELS
Classes of words exist to perform functions. Some classes perform only
one. For example, the class of correlative conjunctions and and or (perhaps including either, neither, nor and whether) serves just one purpose: to join together elements of equal rank. Usually the two things
joined are themselves members of a single class: Mary and John (two
nouns), to be or not to be (two verbs), it’s slimy and wet (two adjectives).
More often, a class performs two or more functions. Then it becomes necessary to name the syntactic operations both in terms of the class that performs the function and the function that it performs. In sentences (1)
and (2) above, our boss and we respectively exhibit a grammatical pattern: ‘Subject-as-Actor’. Description of this pattern consists in (i) identifying a position or slot; (ii) associating a structural meaning with
the slot; and (iii) correlating this slot with a morpheme class within the lexical level.
The combination of class and function is sometimes called a ‘slot-class
correlation’, and the term for it is tagmeme, and the class of items grammatically acceptable in each slot is called fillers. Tagmemes are the
particles of syntax. The adjective in: one sure thing, one thing sure and the thing is sure occurs in three different tagmemes, since each of those
positions represents a different function – the meanings are not the same. The adverb clearly in clearly he can’t see and He can’t see clearly occurs in two tagmemes: adverb-as-sentence-modifier and
adverb-as-verb-modifier.
As with other levels, particles are ranged in strings. A typical string in syntax is ‘noun-as-subject plus verb plus noun-as-object’: Monkeys love
bananas. Syntactic strings are called syntagmemes, that is, tagmemes taken together. A number of other simple sentence syntagmemes can be
mentioned: noun-as-subject plus linking verb plus adjective-as- complement (Lead is soft); interrogative-pronoun-as-complement plus linking verb plus noun-as-subject (who is that man?).
Syntagmemes are the different syntactic patterns that a language provides for. Besides sentence syntagmemes, there are subordinate syntagmemes, like noun phrases and prepositional phrases. In the prepositional phrase by the author, we find an additional noun tagmeme:
noun-as-preposition-object. In the noun phrase: the visible stars we find adjective-as-premodifier, whereas in the noun phrase: the stars visible
we find adjective-as-postmodifier: the functions are different because normally the first means ‘stars whose magnitude is great enough to make them visible’ while the second means ‘stars that can be seen because conditions (the weather, for example) are favourable’.
ENG 221 AN INTRODUCTION TO SYNTACTIC MODELS
Identical tagmemes can be arranged in different syntagmemes. The result then ‘means the same’ but the ‘style’ is different. I didn’t see John
and John I didn’t see contain the same noun-as-direct-object, but it
occurs at the end of the first sentence and at the beginning of the second.
The gate is straight and straight is the gate are different syntagmemes with identical tagmemes in reverse order.
We have tried to give a summary of the kinds of patterning that are
attributed to language in this theory and examined briefly some of the formal ways of accounting for this patterning.
Tagmemic grammar is well suited for describing morphology, and it is
adequate for describing syntactic patterns that have been identified in the data the linguist has collected. But the scheme is incapable of going
beyond the immediate corpus. Assume, for example, that in a language the subject slot is filled by a noun. If an expanded corpus shows that this slot can also be filled by a pronoun, we must either revise the original
statement, formulate an additional statement, or somehow redefine nouns and pronouns so that both are members of some larger class that
can be taken as filler for the subject-slot.
Because of the great variety of alternative patterns available in the
syntax of most languages, any stem of tagmemic notation quickly
becomes more complex. The question of course is not really the
complexity of the descriptive system as such. If a language has
complexities, a description of it will also have complexities. The problem therefore is to find a way to describe syntactic structures so that
systematic patterns are discernible in the maze of variety that engulfs the investigator.
Although many structuralists have approached syntax in terms of tagmemic description, it has often seemed just as reasonable to offer a
simple description of a few typical sentence patterns. A few examples,
often in the form of a sample text, have served to illustrate the most common sentence types. The goal has been to exemplify the typical rather than to provide an exhaustive account of all possible sentence types. The typical grammar has usually contained a listing of phonemes,
an extensive discussion of morphology and a mere hint of syntax.
SELF ASSESSMENT EXERCISE 2
(a) What are the aims of Tagmemic Grammar?
(b) How useful is it in the analysis of language?
ENG 221 AN INTRODUCTION TO SYNTACTIC MODELS