Definition of Parsing

Indira Ahmed Fernandez | May. 2022
Bachelor of Hispanic Letters

The study of syntactic analysis represents the first step to delve into a text, since it allows us to understand the structure of each sentence. In this way, it is possible to have a broad knowledge of the speech, both considering the intention based on the content, and understanding the way in which it was written.

Phrase Articulation

The articulation of sentences, in general, is based on the presence of a subject and a predicate, which give the statement a complete meaning. Each of these parts has several elements, whose function is performed by different classes of words.

For example, the noun can perform various functions within the sentence, which means that several of them can be found in the same sentence, without being considered a sentence compound. However, in a grammatical sentence, only one verb form (or construction verbal), which will perform the function of the core of the predicate. The subject is who is being talked about (or what is being talked about -according to Amado Alonso and Pedro Henríquez Ureña, the subject can be made up of a proposition, not just about a person or object-) and the predicate is understood as what is said about the subject.

Example. the boy ran.

SubjectPredicate
the boy ran

In this case we speak of "the child" and it is said that he ran. But the predicate does not always present such simple structural characteristics, since the action described can be complemented by giving more details about it.

Subject noun phrase and predicate verb phrase

It has already been established that sentences are made up of a subject and a predicate, but these structures in turn contain others that reinforce the meaning of the sentence. communication and they make the sentence more and more complex and complete. The more complex the construct, the more elements it will contain in its syntax.

The subject, in its simplest form, is composed of an article and a noun, but there are other structures that can make up the subject and therefore This is known as a subject noun phrase (the noun phrase is a group of words that fulfills a function, in this case its nucleus is a noun). Other elements of the subject:
1. head + prepositional complement (another noun phrase preceded by a preposition)
2. core + adjective
3. noun in apposition (another structure that explains or specifies the meaning of the subject)

examples:
1. The child from the neighboring house ran to his house.
2. The short boy ran to his house.
3. The child, the one with beautiful green eyes, he ran to his house.

The core of the subject will always be the noun being talked about (although it can be replaced by a personal pronoun or be implied) and always agrees in number and person with the head of the predicate.

The predicate is a more complex structure since it is also made up of noun phrases. However, its main characteristic is that it contains a verb form (conjugated, in the Spanish language -other languages ​​do not have conjugations, for example English, where the verb remains invariable regardless of the grammatical person to which it refers-), which is why it is known as a phrase verbal.

The verb is always the core of this construction, but it also contains complements, which can be:

- Direct (CD): receives the action of the verb directly. It generally answers the question: what is it???
- Indirect (CI): receives the action of the verb indirectly. Many times it is introduced by the prepositions "to" or "para".
- Circumstantial (CC): indicates the circumstance in which the action is performed. It can be of: mode, place, and time.

Example. The boy ran quickly. In this case, the action of running is complemented with "quickly", which indicates the way in which the action of running is developed. to run. Thus, a circumstantial mode complement is configured. Syntactic analysis allows us to recognize each of these elements.

examples

The boy quickly ran a great distance.
Subject: The child
subject core: the child
Predicate: quickly ran a long distance
predicate core: ran
CD: a great distance
DC (mode): quickly
Subject core and predicate core agreement: 3rd person singular.

The boy bought a beautiful gift for his mother.
Subject: The child
subject core: the child
Predicate: bought a beautiful gift for his mother
predicate core: I buy
CD: a beautiful gift
IQ: for her mother
Subject core and predicate core agreement: 3rd person singular.

generative grammar

In addition to the structuralist method, followed in the previous examples and based on a single grammatical formalism, Others have been developed that allow the identification of a large number of analysis variants for each sentence that is processes.

One of the most notable is Transformational Generative Grammar, developed by Noam Chomsky and which he regards as outstanding component to syntax, due to its generative and transformational possibility that can be applied to the description of sentence structure.

According to Chomsky, the syntactic component is capable of creating new structures in a sentence, which determines the ability to create unlimited messages in a sentence. language. The syntactic analysis applying this method is based on the relationships that are generated from the words that make up the sentence in the different levels of the language, taking into account that the components described by the author are: syntactic, phonological, semantic and lexicon.

This theory has been of great importance not only within the linguistic field, but in artificial intelligence and computing. This is fundamentally due to the fact that the analysis of the structure of the language has made possible the development of languages ​​of programming and understanding of various linguistic models.

Bibliography

Chomsky, N.: Syntactics and semantics in generative grammar.

De la Cueva, O.: Manual of Spanish Grammar.

Galicia-Haro, S. and Gelbukh, A.: Research in syntactic analysis for Spanish.

Seco, M.: Essential Grammar of the Spanish Language.