Syntax Trees: Basic Structure of English Sentences

Updated 27 October, 2914

S ---》 NP VP

“A sentence is made of a Noun Phrase and a Verb Phrase”

Most English sentences are made of (at least) a Noun Phrase and a Verb Phrase.  Other things can be added to the sentence.

英文句子（陳述句）的基本結構是：

名詞組 （NP, Noun Phrase) + 動詞組 （VP, Verb Phrase)

（有個別例外）

The following sentences come from the beginning of One Way Ticket (Oxford Graded Readers). Syntax trees show the sentence structure from top to bottom:

1A "Bill laughed" only has two words, a noun and a verb, the smallest possible declarative sentence.

1B "The two children were hot and bored" has seven words, but the structure is the same: NP VP

1C "The man in the brown hat talked and talked" has even more words, but the structure doesn't change: NP VP

1D "The  children  ate  their  oranges  and  were  quiet  for  a minut" is still NP VP, but the VP part is actually TWO VPs linked with "and"

The NPs and VPs can be expanded to show the complete structure. The complete trees below use some short forms:

DT = DeTerminer

CD = Cardinal Number

NN = NouN

NNP = proper noun (name of a place, a person etc.) 
NNS = plural noun

NP = Noun Phrase

JJ = adJective

ADJP = Adjective Phrase

VB = VerB

VBD = past tense (-ed) verb

PP = Prepositional Phrase (介詞組)

IN = preposition（用最具代表性的介詞當縮略語）

CC = Coordinating Conjunction (並列連詞)

Guji Guji--Syntax Trees

Guji Guji is a funny story about a crocodile who thinks he is a duck. Watch Robert Guillaume read the story on YouTube:

At the beginning, a crocodile egg rolls into a duck's nest. The baby crocodile hatches (= comes out of the egg) and thinks he is a duck.

Try to make a syntax tree for these sentences:

An egg was rolling on the ground.

It was a crocodile egg.

The crocodile egg rolled into a duck's nest.

Guji Guji learned quickly.

Crocodiles can hide under water.

You can see the answers below:

Me and My Cat--Syntax Trees

{Updated on 26 October, 2014} {A colored syntax tree was added at the bottom}

Watch Elijah Wood reading Me and My Cat on YouTube.

Elijah Wood as Frodo Baggins (screenshot from DVD).png

Elijah has played many roles, including Frodo Baggins in Lord of the Rings. If you have trouble understanding the story, this blog post from last year can help you.
Elijah Wood（伊莱贾·伍德）演過許多角色，包括魔戒電影三部曲的佛羅多·巴金斯。他在YouTube講 Me and My Cat。如果這篇故事聽不太懂，可以參考本部落格去年的這一篇文章。

In this very creative story, a witch turns a boy into a cat, and his cat becomes him. One of the first sentences says: "The old lady in the pointed hat came in through my bedroom window." Let's make a syntax tree for this sentence step by step. 這個富有創意的故事敘述巫婆把小男孩變成貓以後所發生的事情，開頭有一句話說 "The old lady in the pointed hat came in through my bedroom window."我們來為這句話畫樹狀圖吧：

First, we need to mark the Parts of Speech:

Next, we need to put the words into groups. Let's look at the nouns first. There are two ADJ-N groups and one N-N group. These are bigger than nouns, but smaller than Noun Phrases, so we'll mark them N' (N-Bar):

Syntax Tree for a Compound Sentence： My name is Herbert and I will be your monster for the evening

One of the first sentences in I Need My Monster is "My name is Herbert and I will be your monster for the evening." Let's make a syntax tree for this sentence.

The first step is to mark all of the parts of speech:

Parts of Speech: My name is Herbert and I will be your monster for the evening

My and your are determiners (a, the, this and some are other determiners), so they are marked DET

The four nouns are marked N: N1~N4

The two verbs are marked V: N1~N2

The conjunction "and" is marked CONJ
A conjunction is a word that "conjoins," brings together two similar things: two nouns, two adjectives, ... even two sentences.

The auxiliary verb (also called a "helping verb") "will" is marked AUX

The preposition "for" is marked PREP

A preposition is a word that is put [= pos] before [= pre] a noun.

"My name is Herbert and I will be your monster for the evening." is really TWO sentences.

1) "My name is Herbert."

AND

2) "I will be your monster for the evening."

We could put them together like this, but it would not help us understand them:

It is much more helpful if we put related words into groups: Noun Phrases (NP), Verb Phrases (VP), Prepositional Phrases (PP) and so on. Let's analyze sentence 1:

I Need My Monster--Introduction to Syntax Trees

Many small children are afraid to sleep at night. They think there are monsters under their bed or in their closet. If they go to sleep, the monsters might come out and eat them!

I Need My Monster, written by Amanda Noll, is different and funny. You can read this story as a Kindle book or a regular book.

You can also listen to Rita Moreno read you the story on Youtube or on Storylineonline.net. Very important! If you click on [CC] at the bottom of the YouTube video, you can see the words when she says them.
 
In this story, Gabe is the name of a little boy's monster. Gabe is gone for a few days, so the boy can't sleep. "I need my monster," he says. Other monsters come to replace Gabe, but he is not afraid of them. We will use this story to talk about the grammar of English sentences.

Herbert is the first monster who comes that night. He says: "My name is Herbert and I will be your monster for the evening." Let's make a syntax tree for this sentence. First, we need to mark the part of speech (Is it a noun, verb, adjective ...?) for each word.

Only marking the parts of speech is not very useful. Next, we will make a syntax tree for this sentence. A syntax tree is a picture of the parts of the sentence: