An introduction to language

Chapter 1: Language: signs + conventional meaning

-> Arbitrary for the most past.
3 yếu tố tạo nên ngôn ngữ: sounds, meaning, rule.

Linguistics: the scientific study of language.

Phân loại Linguistics:
1. Phonetics ( ngữ âm học); “[ ]” ( Exact)
2. Phonology ( âm vị học): “{ }” ( fluency)
3. Semantics ( ngữ nghĩa học): nghĩa đen ( denotative meaning).
4. Pramantics ( Ngữ dụng học): nghĩa bóng, thể hiện sắc độ của câu nói
( contextual meaning)
Eg: if I directly say “ you go to school very early ” to someone in a irony
voice, I mean that I criticize them for being late.
5. Morphology ( hình thái học): xét về mặt chữ. The internal structure of
words.
6. Syntax ( cú pháp học): how words group together to make sentences.

Knowing a language ( Linguistic knowledge) : includes knowledge of

the sounds, the meaning of words and sentences, how to create a new
sentence.
- We can speak and be understood by others.
- We know how to combine the sounds: ( đầu + giữa + cuối) and identify
what sounds or not.
- We know how to relate sounds and meaning. (we have to learn)
- Knowing a language is that we can combine between words, phrases, and
collocations to produce a new sentence which we never spoke before and
understood from simple to complicated sentences which we haven’t heard
 before. It means that we can understand what others are saying and make
others to figure out what we say.

What are differences between language and

linguistics:
Language:
- It’s easy to learn.
- Being able to know a language unconsciously if we live in an environment
just using that language.
EG: tôi là người việt nam và tôi sống ở VN nên là tui có thể nói tiếng việt
một cách vô thức mà kh cần phải học vì tui đã nghe tieng việt xung quanh
tôi từ nhỏ.
- Who: native speakers
- Purpose: communication.
Linguistics:
- It’s hard for us to learn because we have to attend some language classes.
- Who: a person wants to know another language and become a master of a
language. -> Foreigners.
- Purpose: doing research + teaching + further understanding.

Linguistic competence # linguistic

performance:
Linguistic competence:
- Thinking words and sentences in mind without showing outside.
Linguistic performance:
- Using a language to express your ideas (speaking, writing) and then
others judge your performance.
Grammar ( Văn phạm trong ngôn ngữ)
Definition: the system of rules in a language ( we have to obey and learn)
Origin: the rules come from
 Rules nature social

government(
ppl(culture)
laws)

Kinds of grammar:
1. Mental grammar: when we were a child, we have been hearing other ppl
saying something and we copied with them( nhại theo). Therefore, we
could naturally make a sentence which others can understand us even
though it’s not as correct as the system of rules of grammar in a
language(100%) -> native speakers.
2. Descriptive grammar: How we actually use in a society is not accurate
about an aspect of the grammar of a language, but nó đúng theo số đông.
Even though we know that we use in a wrong way, we still use.
Eg: what’s up? Or want to, going to(Perscriptive grammar)-> whatssup?,
wanna, gonna( descriptive grammar).
3. Perscriptive grammar: ngược lại với descriptive grammar. EG: We must
obey the rules to pass an exam and become more well-educated ( sử dụng
trong nhà trường) ( chính xác hơn trong speaking and writing).
4. Teaching grammar
Native speaker: mental grammar -> descriptive grammar -> prescriptive
grammar -> teaching.
Foreigners: Perscriptive grammar -> descriptive grammar -> mental grammar.
Câu hỏi ôn tập: Question 1: What is language? What is linguistics? Học gì? Ai
học?( what are differences between language and linguistics?)(what do you
know about language)(what is linguistic knowledge?)
Answer: Language is the structured system of communication in community.
In addition, it consists of grammar, meanings, sound, and pronunciation used
by human to differentiate/symbol(country, culture, and so on) other countries,
cultures, and so on. Besides that, Linguistics is the scientific study of language.
In the aspect of language, there are several things we learn. First, (1) we learn
a new meaning of a word and phrase. (2) Second, we learn sounds of language
such as consonants and vowels. Finally, we learn rules of a language such as
grammar (1). (Ex: some basic tenses) (Parts of speech: Noun, verb, Object)
(form a basic simple: S V O) Therefore, (1) we know how to produce a new
sentence from simpleness to complication creatively which we have not ever
spoken ad heard before and (2) we know how to pronoun and combine
between the sounds as well. For example, the initial consonant /t/, the
vowel /e/, and the last consonant /n/ we have /ten/. Thanks to knowing a
language, we can communicate and understand what others are saying. Plus,
we will be able to recognize what sounds are pronounced wrongly or not.
When it comes to who should learn, the main purpose of learning a language is
communication, so it is quite easy for people to learn, especially native
speakers who live in the environment that they just use that language
unconsciously.
In the aspect of linguistics, we will learn about phonetics, phonology,
morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics. Thanks to knowing linguistics,
we will know how to produce a sound exactly and get fluency due to phonetics
and phonology. For example, a bilabial stop voiceless sound is /p/ based on
phonetics. Shwa /e/ is one of the sound changes of phonology to help us get
fluency when speaking. Thanks to morphology, syntax, we know how to create
a new word and combine a string of words to make a new sentence
grammatically and guess new meanings of words and sentences. (VD) Thanks
to semantics and pragmatics, we know what words and sentences are
nonsense or sense and how ambiguity in meaning is. For example, the
sentence “he is a woman” is nonsense (vẽ). On the other hand, it is so hard to
learn, so it is suitable for who wants to do research and be professional in
language/ become a master of a language, teaching, and further
understanding.
To sum up, in language, we can know the knowledge of meanings, sounds, and
rules. In linguistics, there are 6 main points we can study: phonetics,
phonology, morphology, syntax, and pragmatics.
Question 2: different between linguistic competence and linguistic
performance (spoken and written (errors, misunderstanding, mispronounce,
false..)?
Answer:
Introduction:
Paragraph 1 : def linguistic competence and performance.
Paragraph 2: Phân tích sự khác biệt: linguistic competence
Paragraph 3: Performance (convey a certain message, errors in written and
spoken, misunderstanding, mispronunciation, false…)
To sum up.

Chapter 2: Phonetics: the sounds of language

Sound segments = Individual sounds: The study of the speech sounds that are
utilized by all human languages to represent meanings is called phonetics.
Eg: cat: /t/, /ae/, /k/ we can segement the sound because we know english.
Classification of sounds
1. Airstream mechanisms: All the sounds in English are produced by a
pulmonic egressive airstream mechanism.
- Pulmonic airstream:
- Glottalic airstream:
- Velaric airstream:
2. Vocal cord = layrnx
- Voiceless and voiced
3. Places of articulation: (consonants)
- Bilabial: 2 môi (p,ph ,b, m)
- Labiodental: Răng dưới môi trên ( f,v)
- Interdental: đầu lưỡi giữa ranggs (Th)
- Alveolar: nướu (t, th , d,n,s,z,r,l,l(dark)
- Hard palate: ngà cứng
- Velum(soft palate): ngà mềm
- Glottis: cổ họng
Places of articulation: vowels
- Tongue: lưỡi (front, back, high, low, length)
 Oral cavity( khoang miệng) + epiglottis+ teeth+lips + uvula ( mở thì nasal
cavity)( đóng oral cavity).
4. Manner of articulation: ( consonants)
- Stop( oral + nasal) ( tắt)
+ Voiceless unaspirated
+ Voiceless aspirated
+ Voiced
- Fricative: (xát: sự ma sát giữa luồng hơi, có thể kéo dài được)
+ Voiceless
+ voiced
- Affricative : tắt xát ( voiceless + voiced)
- Glides: bán nguyên âm can be called âm lướt
- Laterals: duy nhất âm [ l ]
+ clear: ở đầu
+ dark: cuối
Eg: Voiceless stop (oral): P
The organization of speech
- Lungs: phổi
- Glossts: họng
- Larynx: thanh quản
- Pharynx: hầu
- Oral cavity
- Nasal cavity

Outline for the question

1. Introduction:
- Xác nhận: I agree
- Thesis statement: nhắc lại đề bài but paraphase
- Chỉ ra reasons
2. Body:
- Phonetics and phonology sự khác nhau (1)
+ definition: Phonetics is concerned with a scientific study of speech sounds
and their production EX articulation, acoustic, au…
+ Purpose: produce sounds correctly and are perceived or perceive what
others say, teaching. EX
+ kí hiệu: […]
+ definition: Phonology is concerned with the study of sound system of a
particular language. EX phonemes, allophone, intonation,stress, and syllables.
+ purpose:….
+ kí hiệu: /…/
- phonetics học gì? Nghiên cứu về cách hình thành âm thanh. How to
describe the sounds and to classify the sounds? The organs of speech(2)
+ vocal cord:… Ex
+ Place of articulation:….Ex
+ Manner of articulation:….Ex
+ Airstream:….Ex
- Phonology học gì: học sound changes, rules, how differences between the
sounds are. Ex(2)
- (3) get fluency
+ definition: …
+Phonetics: more exactly and easily understand
+ Phonology: sound changes and the rule

CHAPTER 3: PHONOLOGY
Câu hỏi ôn tập:
Question 1: What is the organs of speech?
Organs of speech are the organs of human body to produce sounds. It
includes lungs, larynx, glottis, pharynx, nasal cavity, and oral cavity. Each
organ has their own function and then work together to produce sounds.
 First, Lungs are parts of the organ of speech. Voice is generated by airflow
from the lungs. When the air from the lungs blows through the vocal folds at a high
speed, the vocal folds vibrate. The vibrations lead to sounds we call voice. These
sounds are shaped to form speech. Next, when it's time to speak, the air pressure
below the larynx increases until it blows the vocal folds apart (them). In addition,
the glottis can be closed. Then, no air can pass. Or it can have a narrow opening which
can make the vocal folds vibrate producing the “voiced sounds”. Finally, it can be wide
open, as in normal breathing, and, thus, the vibration of the vocal folds is reduced,
producing the “voiceless sounds”. For example , the consonant (V) is a voiced sound because
it is produced by pushing airflow from lungs through a narrow opening of the glottis.
Second, Pharynx which is the cavity located in the throat immediately behind the mouth. It
has uvular. When the uvular is lowered, the airstream goes through the nose to make nasal
sounds. When the uvular is raised, the airstream goes through the mouth to make oral sounds.
Finally, Oral which is in the mouth. This is where sounds produced in the larynx are
resonated. The size and shape of this resonance chamber can be changed according to the
tongue and the lips. Nasal cavity which is on the top of the oral cavity and is separated from the
oral cavity by the palate It can act as a resonance chamber.
To sum up, the organs of speech play an important role to produce sounds including lungs,
larynx, glottis, pharynx, oral and nasal cavity.
Question 2: Classification of sounds? Và cách mô tả?
In phonetics, to classify sounds such as consonant and vowel we can describe about place of
articulation, manner of articulation, and what sounds is voiced or voiceless. Knowing them can
help us pronounce exactly and clearly.
First, voicing plays a role to distinguish between vowels and consonants. Voiced sounds are
when air is passing through vibrating vocal cords or folds. For example, (Z) is a typically voiced
sound (+ Voice). Plus, Voiceless sounds are when air is not obstructed by glottis which can open,
and they don’t vibrate in vocal folds. For example, (S) is a voiceless sound (-voice).
Second, place of articulation is an essential way to produce and classify sounds. There are
several places of articulation including bilabial, labiodental, interdental, alveolar, palatal, velum,
and glottis. When it comes to the first place, bilabial is when we put two lips together like (p),
(b), (m). Next, Labiodental is when our teeth are placed on our lower lip. For instance, (f) and (v)
are voiced labiodental sounds. Furthermore, interdental is where the tongue is placed in the
middle of upper and lower teeth. For example we have two consonants (th)(dô viết sau).
Moreover, alveolar is where the tongue is placed right behind the front teeth and moved back
such as (t) (d). In addition, palatal sounds are basically produced with the roof of our mouth. For
example, these are sounds (j)(3)(..). Plus, velum can be called soft palatal sounds where we
move our tongue farther back in your mouth, past the hard palatal, and we will notice that it
becomes soft tissue. These are sounds like (k)(and g). The last one is glottis, we have the sound
(h). To talk about high vowels, these are produced with the tongue positioned close to the roof
of the mouth. Examples include /I/ as in “fit” and /u/ as in “book”. Besides that, mid vowels are
produced with the tongue positioned between high and low such as /e/ as in “set” and /o/ as in
“pot”. When the tongue moved back in the mouth, we will have low vowels like /ae/ as in “bat”
and /a:/ as in “car”.
 Finally, Manners of articulation contribute to a process of producing sounds. These are
manners including stop, fricative, affricative, lateral, and glottis. To begin with stops, they are
described how the airflow is constricted, and stops are a complete closure. These are sounds like
/p/,/b/,/k/, and /g/. Also, they involve voiceless unaspirated as in /ph/, voiceless aspirated as
in /p/ /, and voiced stop /b/. To continue with “fricative”, there is a kind of bottlenecking of the
airflow around the place of articulation. These are sounds like /f/ and /v/. Next, Affricates are a
combination of stops and fricatives. These are sounds like /tj/ and /d3/. Another thing, there is
only one sound of lateral that is /l/. It has two ways to pronounce such as dark lateral in the end
and clear lateral in the beginning. The last one is glides which are vowel-like. We have two
sounds /w/ and /j/.
To sum up,….tự viết đượ
Question 3: Transcription? Có bao nhiu loại và tầm quan trọng?
Answer:
Definition: Transcription is the representation of speech sounds by means of symbol and the
relation between sounds and symbols in written and spoken as well to pronounce speech
sounds. There are two kinds of transcription such as phonemic transcription and phonetic
transcription.
First, Phonemic transcription is a general symbol of sounds. Plus, it is symbolized by slant lines.
For example, the word “lake” we can not know how to correctly pronounce the word through its
spelling, but it is easier when represented by the symbol “/leik/” for 4 sounds. Therefore, it is
used for low level of learning another language.
Second, Phonetic transcription is a detailed chart of symbols of speech sounds/ the detailed
pronunciation of speech sounds. Also, it is written in square brackets (..). For instance, (little)
Besides that, it is used for higher level of learning another language and for who want to study
specialized knowledge of pronunciation.
Finally, transcription plays an important role in a language. Because , it allows learners to
visualize and practice the correct articulation of sounds, helping them speak more
fluently and accurately.

CHAPTER 4: MORPHOLOGY: Rules within vocabulary.

1. The class of words:
- Content words (opened words): những từ có nghĩa, consist of nouns, verbs,
adjectives, adverbs.., can create new words.
- Functional words (closed words): những từ thể hiện chức năng ngữ pháp,
vd: prepositions, conjunctions, pronouns( the set of pronouns: I, We, You,
He, She, It, They), cannot create new words, Pronouns can be replaced by
another word but no changing the meaning, Ex: they -> anyone or everyone
which is considered either singular or plural.
2. Morpheme(s): is(are) the smallest unit of meaning
3. Three criterias of morpheme:
- A part of word having individual meaning.
 - Related to the original meaning of a word
- Recurs in different ways or environment.
4. Classification of morphemes:
4.1. (form: hình thái bên ngoài)
- Free morpheme: have a meaning, can stand alone, lexical meaning.
- Bound morpheme: can’t stand alone, consist of affixes: prefix, suffix, infix
(no in English), grammatical meaning ( vẫn tính là 1 morpheme).
VD: butterfly (1 morpheme).
Holiday (1 morpheme).
Unkind (2 morpheme).
4.2. Meaning:
- bases(or roots) and affixes:
+ is the most important part of a word.
+ Nếu bỏ đi sẽ mất nghĩa. Cannot be omitted.
Ex: unfriendliness: un-friend-ly-ness (4 morphemes)
+ Classification of bases(or roots): Free bases and bound
Free bases (or roots): the most important part of a meaning of a word, can
stand alone.
Bound bases: Phần quan trọng không thể bỏ, đóng phần quan trong cho nghĩa
cả từ, but cannot stand alone, it has to be attached to other bound
morphemes.
- Affixes: Prefix, Suffix, infix ( bound morphemes)
+ Inflectional affix (inflectional morphemes): is grammatical function, often
suffixes like -ed, -s, -es, and – ing ( thể hiện chức năng ngữ pháp).
There are only 8 inflectional suffixes in English:
+ {-S}: plural nouns
+ {-S}: singular verb for the third point of view like he, she, it.
+ {-S}: possessive noun like Chloe’s DH
+ {-ed}: past simple
+ {-ed}: past participle
+ {-ing}: progressive and present participle.
+ {- est}: superlative comparison
+ {-er}: comparative.
 Only grammatical function, cannot change the word class, maintain a
meang of a word.
+ Derivational affixes (derivational morphemes): consists of prefixes and suffixes,
lexical function, can create new words by addition.
There are two kinds of derivation:
+Class - Changing the word class of the word. (prefix and suffix, but often suffix).
Either change or not change the meaning of word.
For example: “conditional” has two morphemes, condition(noun)(free root)-
al(bound derivational suffix), -al is attached to – condition, so the word class of
the word is changed into an adjective.
+ Class-maintaining the word class of the word -> changing the meaning of word.
(prefix)

5. Allomorphs: Definition: is any of the different forms of a morpheme.

- Kí hiệu: { } a representative morpheme because it recurs in much different
environment. Ex: {-S}- /s/,/z/,/iz/ or {-ED}- /t/,/d/,/id/. ( phonological
conditioned allomorph)
- Classifications of allomorphs:
+ Phonological conditioned allomorphs
+ Morphological conditioned allomorphs. Ex: Ox- {-S}- Oxen- /en/. Ex: {In-} –
il-, ir-, im-,..
- Types of allomorph:
+ replacitive allomorphs: a sound is used to replace the old in a word. Ex: /I/
in the word “drink” is changed /ae/ - past simple drank.
 + Additive allomorphs: something is added to a word
+ Subtractive allomorphs
+ Suppletive allomorphs: completely change in a shape of a word. Ex: go -
went
+ The zero Allomorph: no changing the shape of word. Ex: fish -> fish.
6. Rules of word formation: morphological rules mean is how to
combine morphemes to form a new word.
- Derivational morphology: is the formation of new words by adding affixes
either prefixes or suffixes to another word or morpheme, ngữ nghĩa, 2
dạng, must consider what morphemes are the original meaning ( có trước)
WHEN determining a word form ( tree diagram).
- Inflectional morphology: ngữ pháp, noun inflection, verb inflection,
adjective inflection, adverb inflection…
- Derivational paradigms ( them ): ex: break -> breakable, unbreakable,
breakability, unbreakability, breaker -> form derivational paradigms of
“break”. All of affixes attached to another word or morpheme is called
derivational paradigm.
- Inflectional paradigms: (them)… Ex: break – breaking, broke, broken, breaks
-> form inflectional paradigms of “break”.
7. Ways to form new words:
- Derivational process: the formation of a word by adding prefixes or suffixes
to another words or morphemes( free or bound base).
- Loaning or borrowing process: the formation of a new word by borrowing a
word from other languages (Japanese, Turkey,..). Ex: Yogurt from turkey.
- Arbitrary process: ???
- Word coinage: the invention and creation of new words by naming a
product or material of a company to make it easier to pronounce, “slang”.
Ex: Teflon.
- Compounds: combining or joining two words together. Ex: Bittersweet –
bitter is an adjective and sweet is also one. There is no limitation of this.
Therefore, we can form a new word by compounding two words in different
speeches. The primary Stress of a compound word is often the first syllable.
 - Blends: The formation of new words by taking parts of two words and
combine them into another words. Ex: Informercial is formed by the
combination of “information and commercial”.
- Back-formation: like conversion. Ex: editor is a noun, and edit is a vern.
- Abbreviation: is also called the clipping, taking long forms into shorter
forms. Ex: Flu (influenza).
- Acronyms: the formation of new words by being derived from the initials of
words, it can be pronounced as the spelling indicate. We have
“Alphabetism” but it has to be spelled letter by letter.
- Words from names: …(đọc lại)

Câu hỏi ôn tập:

Question 1: What are Morphemes? What is inflectional morpheme and role? The
impor..
Paragraph 1: def of morpheme + kinds of morpheme: free and bound (giải thích) – bound mor:
affixes( pre, infix, suffix)
Para 2: def of inflectional morpheme ( bound morpheme, suffixes: S, Ed, Er, Est, Ing, )+ function:
grammatical meaning, not changing meaning of word and part of speech+ 8 roles:
Para 3: S – plural – example books (phân tích)
S – singular verb – example likes (phân tích: he, she..)
S – possession noun – example chloe’s dog (giải thích)
Ed – past simple – example liked (giải thích)
Ed – past participle – example have invented (giải thích)
Ing – present participle – example reading ( giải thích)
Er – comparison – example longer than..( giải thích)
Est – superlative – example tallest (giải thích)
Para 4: the importance of inflectional morphemes: giúp tạo câu văn phạm = example a lot book
is wrong because add s to book -> books is correct and people will phân biệt khi nào nhiều or
khi nào ít.
Question 2: what is a new word? How to form a new word?
Para 1: def of word: a single unit of language that has meaning and can be spoken or
written. a new word is a new form of words with new lexical meaning.
Para 2: there are 9 ways to form new words:

- Derivational process: the formation of a word by adding prefixes or suffixes

to another words or morphemes( free or bound base).
- Loaning or borrowing process: the formation of a new word by borrowing a
word from other languages (Japanese, Turkey,..). Ex: Yogurt from turkey.
- Arbitrary process: quá trình tự ý, thích thì tạo without reasons, example:
table -> chair.
- Word coinage: the invention and creation of new words by naming a
product or material of a company to make it easier to pronounce, “slang”.
Ex: Teflon.
- Compounds: combining or joining two words together. Ex: Bittersweet –
bitter is an adjective and sweet is also one. There is no limitation of this.
Therefore, we can form a new word by compounding two words in different
speeches. The primary Stress of a compound word is often the first syllable.
- Blends: The formation of new words by taking parts of two words and
combine them into another words. Ex: Informercial is formed by the
combination of “information and commercial”.
- Back-formation: ngắn có trước dài có sau like conversion. Ex: editor is a
noun, and edit is a vern.
- Abbreviation: is also called the clipping, taking long forms into shorter
forms. Ex: Flu (influenza).
- Acronyms: the formation of new words by being derived from the initials of
words, it can be pronounced as the spelling indicate. We have
“Alphabetism” but it has to be spelled letter by letter.
- Words from names: …(đọc lại)(khỏi)

To sum up,…
Question 3: sự khác biệt giữa phonemes and
morphemes
Para 1: def of phonemes and morphemes + example
Para 2: phoneme: /../ ; morpheme: ô vuông + example
Para 3: Morpheme has meaning, but phoneme doesn’t
have one. What mor helps: biết nghĩa từ mới, tạo nghĩa
từ mới. what phoneme helps: nhận dạng nghĩa của từ
To sum up,….

Chapter 5: Syntax (cứu mị): trật tự của words and

morphemes, ungrammatically and grammatically,
syntactic rules how to combine words and morphemes
to express specific meanings.
- Definition: The study of the arrangement of words and phrases to create well-
formed (grammar) sentences in a language. (1)
+ (2) a set of rules for or an analysis of the syntax of a language.
+ (3) the branch of linguistics that deals with syntax.
- What grammaticality is not based on: meaning, nonsense strings, the truth of
sentences -> unconscious knowledge of the syntactic rules of grammars permits speakers to
make grammatically judgment.
- Ambiguity of sentences within a language: is that expression has two or
more two ways to understand a sentence.
- Kinds of ambiguity:
+ Lexical ambiguity: a word or a morpheme has many meanings.
 + Structural ambiguity: the potential of multiple interpretations for a piece of written or
spoken language because of the way words or phrases are organized . ( thể hiện về
mặt ngữ pháp).
- Grammatical sentence is a string of word or morpheme that conform to syntactic
rules.
- Syntactic rules:
1. The grammaticality of sentences
2. The ordering of words and morphemes
3. Structural ambiguity.
4. The fact that sentences with different structures can have the same meaning.
5. The grammatical and logical relations within a sentence
6. Speaker’s creative ability to understand and produce any of an infinite set of possible
sentences.
- Types of sentence:
+ Simple
+ Compound
+ Complex
+ Compound – Complex
- Sentence patterns:
+SVO
+SVC
+ S V IO DO
+SVOC
+ S V.

Sentence structure:
- Definition: Words of a sentence can be divided into two or more groups, and within
each group the words can be divided into subgroups and so on, until only single words
remain. ( a sentence is created by a group and subgroup of words including S, V, O).
- A tree diagram is called a constituent structure tree including structural constituent and
hierarchical (tầng bậc) structure.
- Drawing a tree diagram/ a constituent structure tree can clarify the structural ambiguity
which means that a sentence has the same structure, but it can have two ways for
listeners to understand causing ambiguity.
- Syntactic categories: Noun phrase (subject and object) ((Det) (art)Noun, pronoun),
Verb phrase (Verb, noun phrase), PP (P NP), other categories (S, Art, N, V, and A)=
parts of speech.
- Three aspects of the syntactic knowledge of sentence structure:
+ The linear order of the words
 + The grouping of the words into structural constituents
+ The syntactic category of each structural constituent.
- A constituent includes all the smaller constituents beneath it in the tree. Each branching
point in the tree is called Node – its label.

A group of sentence: is a string of words.

Phrase structure rules:

- Definition: these are the grammatical combinations and linear order of
words in a sentence. Plus, S (sentence) can be divided into constituents (Noun
phrase, Verb phrase) which are substituted by smaller constituents (nouns,
determiners (a, an, the)..)
- Consist of:
+ Noun phrase: Art + N, N + PP, N
+ Verb phrase: V NP, V NP PP, V, V NP (PP)
+ Preposition phrase: P NP
+ S: NP + VP.
+ Adjective phrase: degree adjective.

Trees won’t grow:

- khi mà trật tự từ sai. VD: VP -> N V
- Khi mà thiếu thành tố trong câu: VD: The man ( lacks a VP).

More phrase structure rules:

- N’ is a category intermediate between N and NP. It is thought that a noun phrase
doesn’t have an article or other premodifiers.
- That belongs to a very small class of words representing the category
Complementiser (Comp) . The category Comp + S is called S’ (S-
Bar). ( if a sentence has a clause connected by a connector (That, Who, Which,..).
- These are the phrase structure rules:
+ S -> NP VP
+ S’ -> comp S (recursive rule)
+ NP -> ( Art) N’
+ N’ -> AP N’ (recursive rule)
+ AP -> (Deg) A
 + N’ -> N (PP)
+ VP -> V (NP) (PP)
+ VP -> V S’
+ PP -> P NP.

X-Bar theory: (Học sau)

The lexicon:
Word class:
- Open classes: từ mang nghĩa và có chức năng quan trọng như: Noun,
Adjective, Verb, Adverb.
+ Form: The class of a word may be apparent from its form (derivational
morphemes and inflectional morphemes).
+ Function: The class of a word may be indicated by the way it functions in a
phrase or sentence.
+ Meaning: it is the secondary criterion in checking grammatical criteria of form
and function. Words have different classifications of semantic type.
- Closed classes: từ mang chức năng, không mang nghĩa.
+ Conjunctions
+ Prepositions
+ Articles
+ Pronouns
+ Auxiliaries

Subcategorization:
- Definition: is a concept by which differences in syntactic valency between words is
expressed. Subcategorization of heads (in particular V) in terms of the phrasal categories
(NP, PP, etc.) which they select as a complement. Sometimes strict subcategorization is
equated with c-selection.
- 2 loại: Complement (compulsory or can be omitted if a phrase has complete meaning)
and adjunct ( modifier -> optional).
- Some most common cases:
+ Verb phrase: VP -> V(transitive verb) NP (PP). It is not essential to take a
subcategorization for an intransitive verb like “ sleep”. But, sometimes a verb can be
regarded as a transitive and intransitive verb.
+ Noun phrase: NP -> N PP(complement)/CP.
 Beside noun phrase and verb phrase, we have other categories: Adjective phrase,
prepositional phrase, and so on.
- Subcategorization takes place between the head of a phrase.

The infinitude of language:

1.The length of sentences: we can make a sentence longer and
longer (an infinite set of sentence) by/with recursive rules and syntactic categories.
There is no longest sentence.
- Syntactic recursive rules represent our linguistic ability to construct and understand
longer complex sentences that comply with the rules of grammar.
- VD: you mean (that) you didn’t know (that) I knew she didn’t know you knew that?
- S -> NP VP
- VP -> V S’
- S’ -> NP VP
- … so on

The function of constituents:

- Constituent: is a larger syntactic unit that exists within a sentence.
- Function: structural and logical functional relations of constituents -> grammatical
relations.
- 2 ways to contrast and focus on a subject or object ( structural constituents):
+ Changing in word order.
+ stressing a word phonologically.
- Sentence: Topic (structural subject of a sentence which was already mentioned)(old
information) and comment (structural object of a sentence) – ( new information)
- Watch out: sometimes topic and a structural subject are possible to be different.

Transformational rules: (học sau)

1. Câu hỏi yes/no question and wh-word
2. There tobe
3. Passive
4. Invert

Trả lời các câu hỏi của syntax:

Question 1: what is gramm sen? What is sen?
Sentence: có S V O
Gramma sen: is a string of word or morpheme that conform to syntactic rules +
example: Tom likes bear

Meaningless and meaningful: có constituent

Def of con: words, phrases, clauses, sentences.

Certain functions of constituent: there are two kinds of functions: cấu trúc và ngữ nghĩa function:

Cấu trúc function -> gramm sent

Thỏa nghĩa – sem

Roles – agent, experiencer, theme, instrument, patient,..