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Basic exercises in syntax: 1. Draw a labelled tree diagram for the following English phrases. (Hint: what part of speech is the leader for the phrase?) a. ancient pyramids b. in the early evening c. concocted a potion d. bought the books that the course required e. the fascinating members of the reptile kingdom a.

NP / \ Adj N ancient pyramids

b.

PP \ P NP | / | \ P Det Adj N /

in the early evening c.

VP / \ V NP | / \ V Det N concocted a potion

d.

VP / V

\ NP / \ NP CP / \ / \ Det N C S' / \ NP VP

/ \ | Det N V bought the book that the course required e.

NP / NP / | \ Det Adj N

\ PP /

\ P

NP / | \ Det Adj N

the fascinating members of the reptile kingdom 2. Phrase Structure Rules Rewrite the following sentences with Phrase Structure Rules. Hint: Locate your principal NP and VP before beginning. a) Miriam swims. b) The dog is barking. c) Peter told the truth. d) The wicked witch spilled the potion. e) The runner with the best time won the prize. f) The witch said that Sleeping Beauty took the potion. answers: a) Miriam swims. S -> NP VP NP -> N VP -> V b) The dog is barking. S -> NP VP

NP -> Det N VP -> Aux V c) Peter told the truth. S -> NP VP NP -> N VP -> V NP NP -> Det N d) The wicked witch spilled the potion. S -> NP VP NP -> Det Adj N VP -> V NP NP -> Det N e) The runner with the best time won the prize. S -> NP VP NP -> Det N PP PP -> P NP NP -> Det Adj N VP -> V NP NP -> Det N f) The witch said that sleeping beauty took the potion. S -> NP VP NP -> Det N VP -> V CP

CP -> C S' S' -> NP VP NP -> Adj N VP -> V NP NP -> Det N

Syntax and tree diagrams- the two seem to belong to different worlds altogether. Interestingly, the fact is that syntax tree diagrams can help you understand the grammatical structure of a sentence in a better and easier way. Syntax is an important part of language and is usually difficult to grasp. Let us find out how can a tree diagram be used to understand the rules of language. Syntax tree diagrams are very much similar to family tree diagrams, the difference being that these are used to talk about the construction of a language rather than a family. A family tree contains family members whereas a syntax tree diagram contains nodes. Syntax basically refers to the rules for the arrangement of words into phrases and phrases into sentences. It is a part of the science of linguistics and deals with the sentence structure. This definition leads to the fact that until you understand syntax you cannot make proper use of any language. A syntax tree diagram has to accomplish a very important task. It usually encodes two types of relations between the various nodes. These are: precedence and dominance. The rules of syntax can be easily understood by assigning an individual tree diagram to each rule. Thus, a sentence can be proved to be grammatically appropriate with the help of structural description. A syntax tree diagram can also be used to understand the different types of sentence structure in a language. Sometimes you find that a sentence is an ambiguous one and the meaning is not clear. A syntax tree diagram can help you understand these ambiguous sentences too. A syntax tree diagram consists of a number of nodes. Each tree constitutes one root node and often more than one terminal nodes. If you see a syntax tree diagram, you will find that the root node is easily distinguishable from the terminal nodes. The other nodes present in such tree diagrams are referred to as intermediate nodes. All these nodes in a tree diagram are connected to each other, either directly or indirectly, with branches.

If you want to take help of these syntax tree diagrams to understand the concepts of sentence formation in a better way, you can do the following. You can take help of a number of software available to make such tree diagrams. The Internet can be a great source for finding such software. The Internet can also provide you with a number of samples of syntax tree diagrams. This way you can easily decide the format for your tree diagram to get the most out of it. So, go ahead and make dig into your Internet search engine to find appropriate software. This will help you make syntax tree diagrams and your problems related to syntax will be solved. Bryan Wayne owns and operates http://www.treediagramspedia.com Tree Diagrams Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Bryan_Wayne