CONSTRUCT A GRAMMAR FOR NOUN PHRASES IN INDONESIAN
A). CONSTRUCT A GRAMMAR FOR NOUN PHRASES IN INDONESIAN
NP→{N(AP)(DP)}
The two languages are similar because in both English and Indonesian noun phrases, the lexical category ‘N’should be present. The NP in both Indonesia and English contains other categories that are optional such as AP, AdvP and PP. However, the arrangement of the various lexicons in the NP is different in the two languages.
In English, adjectives are mostly placed before the nouns they modify but in Indonesia, modifying adjectives are placed after nouns. In addition, demonstrative pronouns and possessive pronouns come after the noun they modify in Indonesia but in English, these come before the noun.
[B] EXPANSION I
S→NP VP
NP→{N (AP)(DP)}
VP→ V (PP)
(NP)(DP)
PP→(NP)(AP)(DP)
This expansion generates all the grammatical sentences by ensuring that all the lexical categories fall at the right place of the sentence structure. Ungrammatical sentences, such as *Minum anak kecil ini cannot be generated by this expansion since it would call for a change in the position of the VP to generate this kind of a sentence.
[C] EXPANSION II
S→N AP
NP
PP
NP→N (AP) (DP)
AP→P
PP→P(NP)(DP)
The grammar in Expansion II shows that the NP in Indonesian sentences can expand to include the VP. Therefore, the phrase VP is not included in the structure tree as it is represented by the NP. This is different from the English sentence where S→NP VP. In English, it is not possible to merge the VP into the NP. Further, the structure of the English sentence is always represented by S→NP VP but the Indonesian sentence structure is more flexible than the English sentence as it is possible to have different structures such as, S→NP VP; S→NP AP; S→NP PP and S→NP NP.
[D] EXPANSION III
S→NP AP
NP
PP
NP→N (AP) (DP)
AP→P
PP→ (Advdeg)P(NP)(DP)
This expansion adds the lexicon Advdeg to the PP to accommodate the sentences with this lexical category. The VP can also be included in the phrase that follows the NP so that it carries the meaning of both the VP and the original meaning of the phrase.
[E] CONCLUSION
The phrase structure rules are similar to the ones arrived at in class for English in that they have similar lexical categories as those in the English sentence. The sentence structure is always represented by S→NP VP. However, this is not always the case in the Indonesian sentences as the VP can be replaced by NP, AP or PP. In English, this is not possible as the phrase structure rule requires that S→NP VP always.
The position of various lexical categories in the phrase structure differs in both languages. In English, adjectives precede the nouns that they modify while in the Indonesian sentences, adjectives come after the nouns. Moreover, determiners in English also come before the nouns they introduce.
