ANG 353.
2 Semester 1 (2022-2023) Mrs Khady Tamba Ndao
Dr Khady Tamba Ndao
UCAD- English department
L3 (ANG 353.2)
English Syntax
A. Draw tree diagrams to show the structure of the following sentences
1. Awa sat by the beach
2. Awa opened a car.
3. The dog ran.
B. Adjectives
- Adjectives modify nouns
- If the adjective modifies the noun, then it is sister to the noun.
“The handsome boy”
NPDet N’
N’AdjN
- Use tree diagrams to show the structure of these sentences:
4. The tall girl left
5. Awa lives in a big apartment
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ANG 353.2 Semester 1 (2022-2023) Mrs Khady Tamba Ndao
C. Adverbs
Consider the following sentences:
(1) The wind completely destroyed the house.
- This sentence contains a category which is referred to as: adverb. The latter is a
modifier that can specify how an event happens.
- For this reason, the adverb (Adv) modifies the element linked to the event (represented
by the VP).
- In English, adverbs can also occur in a position where they precede the VP (as shown
in (2) and (3)).
(2) S (3) S
eo ep
NP VP NP VP
eu eo eu ep
Det N Adv VP Det N VP Adv
g g g ei g g ti g
the dog completely V NP the dog V NP completely
g ty g ru
destroyed Det N destroyed Det N
g g g g
the house the house
D. Auxiliaries (helping verbs)
1. They always appear with a main verb
2. They belong to a closed class.
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ANG 353.2 Semester 1 (2022-2023) Mrs Khady Tamba Ndao
E. Complementizer Phrase (CP)
CPs are headed by a complementizer (that, if, whether etc.)
They are complements of verbs.
In this example, the CP (that the teacher saw her) is the complement of V
(thinks).
The student thinks [that the teacher saw her].
• VP VCP
• CP CPS
Practice exercises:
F. For each of the following sentence, draw a tree diagram showing its underlying
structure:
a) “the nice woman thought that the girls would come for dinner”
b) “The student bought the shoes at the mall”
c) “The brown bird pecked the bagel”
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ANG 353.2 Semester 1 (2022-2023) Mrs Khady Tamba Ndao
d) Awa thinks that the tall lady should walk slowly.
G. Consider this truncated tree and fill in the following blanks:
VP
wo
V NP
In this tree, V and NP are _______________, they are under the same ____________.
We can also say that the NP in this sentence is the ____________________ of the verb.
H. Do the underlined words in each of the following sentences form a constituent?
Circle Yes or No. Use a constituency test to support your answer.
a. The sick girl ran two miles.
- Constituent: Yes No
- Test:
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ANG 353.2 Semester 1 (2022-2023) Mrs Khady Tamba Ndao
b. The smith thinks that the boy left.
- Constituent: Yes No
- Test:
c. Two boys stole the key
- Constituent: Yes No
- Test:
d. The wind completely destroyed the house.
- Constituent: Yes No
- Test:
