UGC NET ENGLISH UNIT 5 LANGUAGE - Syntax & Grammar

COMPLETE SYNTAX & GRAMMAR MASTER GUIDE FOR UGC NET 2024

SYNTAX: The scientific study of sentence structure, governing how words combine to form grammatical sentences in human languages.

GRAMMAR: The complete system of structural rules that includes syntax, morphology, phonology, and semantics.

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1. FUNDAMENTAL CONCEPTS

1.1 Grammatical Hierarchy

Unit	Definition	Examples	UGC NET Relevance
Morpheme	Smallest meaningful linguistic unit	- Free: book, teach - Bound: -ing, un-	JRF 2018 Q12, 2020 Q25
Word	Minimal free form carrying meaning	cat, running, happiness	2019 Q41 (Word classes)
Phrase	Group of words forming constituent	NP: the big book VP: has been reading	2021 Q37 (Phrase types)
Clause	Subject + predicate unit	When she arrived That he left	2022 Q19 (Clause analysis)
Sentence	Complete independent utterance	Declarative: It's raining. Interrogative: Is it raining?	2023 Q8 (Sentence types)

1.2 Constituency Tests

Stand Alone Test

Q: What did you see?
A: [The big dog] (NP constituent)
*A: [The big] (non-constituent)

Movement Test

Original: She [read the book] yesterday
Moved: [Read the book], she did yesterday (VP constituent)
*[Read the], she did book yesterday (non-constituent)

Replacement Test

Original: The student [in the corner] is sleeping
Replaced: The student [there] is sleeping (PP constituent)
*The [there] in the corner is sleeping (non-constituent)

Coordination Test

Valid: [The dog] and [the cat] (NP coordination)
Invalid: *[The] and [dog cat] (non-constituent coordination)

2. PHRASE STRUCTURE GRAMMAR

2.1 Rewrite Rules (PS Rules)

Standard Phrase Structure Rules

1. S → NP VP (Sentence rewrites as Noun Phrase + Verb Phrase)
2. NP → (Det) (AdjP*) N (PP*) (Noun Phrase structure)
3. VP → (Aux) V (NP) (PP*) (AdvP*) (Verb Phrase structure)
4. PP → P NP (Prepositional Phrase structure)
5. AdjP → (AdvP) Adj (Adjective Phrase structure)
6. AdvP → (AdvP) Adv (Adverb Phrase structure)

Tree Diagram Analysis: "The clever student will study linguistics in the library"

S
/ \
NP VP
/ \ / \ \
Det Adj N Aux V NP PP
| | | | | / \
The clever student will study N P NP
| | / \
linguistics in Det N
| |
the library

2.2 X-bar Theory (Advanced)

Universal X-bar Schema

1. XP → (Spec) X' (Maximal projection with optional specifier)
2. X' → X (Complement) (Intermediate projection with head and complement)
3. X → Head (Lexical category: N, V, Adj, P)

X-bar Structure for NP

NP (MaxP)
/
Det (Spec)
\
N' (InterP)
/ \
N' PP (Comp)
/ / \
N P NP
| | / \
student of Det N'
| |
the N
|
linguistics

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3. TRANSFORMATIONAL GRAMMAR

3.1 Deep vs Surface Structure

Deep Structure

Underlying form:
"The police arrested the thief"
(Basic word order, no transformations applied)

Properties:

• Contains all semantic information
• Generated by phrase structure rules
• Input to transformational rules

Surface Structure

Transformed form:
"The thief was arrested by the police"
(After passive transformation)

Properties:

• Reflects actual spoken form
• Result of applying transformations
• Input to phonological component

3.2 Key Transformations

Transformation	Description	Example	UGC NET Relevance
Passivization	Object becomes subject, verb changes to passive form	Active: The cat chased the mouse Passive: The mouse was chased by the cat	2021 Q15, 2019 Q28
Wh-Movement	Wh-phrase moves to sentence-initial position	D-structure: You saw what? S-structure: What did you see?	2022 Q42, 2020 Q17
Do-Support	Insertion of 'do' in questions/negations	Statement: She likes coffee Question: Does she like coffee?	2018 Q33
Extraposition	Heavy NP shift to end of sentence	Basic: [That he was late] is obvious Extraposed: It is obvious [that he was late]	2023 Q21

4. GOVERNMENT AND BINDING THEORY

4.1 Binding Theory

Binding Principles

1. Principle A: Anaphors (himself, themselves) must be bound in their governing category
2. Principle B: Pronouns (him, them) must be free in their governing category
3. Principle C: R-expressions (John, the book) must be free everywhere

Examples:
A: *[John] likes [himself]_GC ✓ (Principle A satisfied)
B: *[John] likes [him]_GC ✗ (Principle B violated)
C: *[He] likes [John] ✓ (Principle C satisfied)

4.2 Theta Theory

Theta Roles: Semantic roles assigned by verbs to their arguments

Theta Role	Description	Example
Agent	Doer of the action	[John]Agent kicked the ball
Theme	Entity affected by action	John kicked [the ball]Theme
Goal	Endpoint of motion	John sent [Mary]Goal a letter
Experiencer	Entity experiencing state	[She]Experiencer loves music

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5. MINIMALIST PROGRAM

5.1 Core Concepts

Merge Operation

Basic Merge:
Merge(V, NP) → VP
Example: Merge('read', 'the book') → [read the book]

External Merge: Combines two separate items
Internal Merge: Moves item within structure (movement)

Feature Checking

Example:
"She reads books"
- 'reads' has [Present] feature
- 'she' has [3rd, Singular] features
- Features checked in T(ense) position

5.2 Phrase Structure in Minimalism

CP (Complementizer Phrase)
/ \
C TP (Tense Phrase)
/ \
NP T'
| / \
| T VP
| | / \
| | V NP
| | | |
John will read books

6. SYNTAX PRACTICE (50+ QUESTIONS)

Section A: Basic Concepts

Q1. Which test proves that "the big dog" is a constituent but "the big" is not?

1. Substitution test
2. Movement test
3. Coordination test
4. All of the above

Answer: D (All tests confirm this constituency)

Q2. In X-bar theory, what does X' represent?

1. Maximal projection
2. Intermediate projection
3. Lexical head
4. Specifier position

Answer: B (Intermediate projection between X and XP)

Section B: Advanced Analysis

Q3. What explains the ungrammaticality of *"Himself saw John"?

1. Case Filter
2. Binding Principle A
3. Theta Criterion
4. Empty Category Principle

Answer: B (Anaphor 'himself' not bound in its governing category)

Q4. In "What did you say __?", the gap represents:

1. PRO
2. pro
3. Wh-trace
4. NP-trace

Answer: C (Trace left by Wh-movement)

Pro Tip: For UGC NET Paper 2, focus on:

• Drawing accurate tree diagrams for complex sentences
• Identifying violations of binding principles
• Analyzing movement operations in questions and passives
• Comparing traditional vs generative approaches

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UGC NET Practice Questions

2023 Solved Question

Question: In the sentence "What did John eat?", the gap after 'eat' is analyzed as:

1. PRO
2. Pro
3. Trace
4. Wh-trace

Answer: D (Wh-trace) - Created by movement of 'what' from object position

2022 Solved Question

Question: Which principle explains the ungrammaticality of *"Himself likes John"?

1. Case Theory
2. Binding Principle A
3. Theta Criterion
4. Subjacency Condition

Answer: B (Binding Principle A) - Anaphors must be bound in their governing category

Exam Tip: For UGC NET, focus particularly on:

• Drawing and analyzing tree diagrams (especially X-bar structures)
• Identifying movement operations in questions and passives
• Applying Binding Theory principles to pronoun/anaphor distribution
• Comparing different syntactic models (Traditional vs Generative)