ENGLISH SYNTAX ANALYSIS

SYNTACTIC ANALYSIS OF ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF SURAH AN-NASR VERSE 1-3

1.     INTRODUCTION

An-Nasr is chosen by the writers to be analyzed syntactically. In this surah Allah SWT  informed His Messenger (upon whom is peace) that when Islam attained complete victory in Arabia and the people started entering Allah's religion in great numbers, it would mean that the mission for which he had been sent to the world, had been fulfilled. Then, he was enjoined to busy himself in praising and glorifying Allah by Whose bounty he had been able to accomplish such a great task, and should implore Him to forgive whatever failings and frailties he might have shown in the performance of the service. The English translation of this surah is quite interesting to be analyzed syntactically because the structure of the sentences allows the writers to analyze it in details.

English translation of the surah from the noble Quran taken from http://www.imaanstar.com accessed on 2/27/2010 can be seen below

1.      When comes the Help of Allâh (to you, O Muhammad (Peace be upon him) against your enemies) and the conquest (of Makkah),

2.      And you see that people enter Allâh's religion (Islâm) in crowds,

3.      So glorify the Praises of your Lord, and ask for His Forgiveness. Verily, He is the One Who accepts the repentance and forgives.

The surah has three verses. When we try to find how many sentences there are, we should merge the whole verses, and finally we know that it has two sentences. The first sentence is the first and the second verse. The second sentence is the third verse.

When comes the Help of Allâh (to you, O Muhammad (Peace be upon him) against your enemies) and the conquest (of Makkah), and you see that people enter Allâh's religion (Islâm) in crowds, so glorify the Praises of your Lord, and ask for His Forgiveness. Verily, He is the One Who accepts the repentance and forgives.

Taking a look at the passage above, the writers find some problems in the sentence structure. In the passage we can see that there are some connectors which make the readers feel confused to decide which the main clause is, and how many sentences there are actually. It shortly can be said that there are some problems in the sentence structure. Therefore, in this paper the writers try to answer those questions. The writers will try to describe the syntactic functioning and syntactic categories of the surah.

The research will be done using the theory of syntax concerning English. By doing it, we will know exactly the syntactic structure of the text.

2.   DISCUSSION

English syntactic analysis or English sentence analysis is made to distinguish the different level of analysis at the sentence, clause, phrase, and word level. It is also made exactly to know the traditional terminology for sentence constituent such as subject, predicate, object, subject attribute, object attribute, and adverb. In addition to knowing the sentence constituent, the analysis is also made to know the phrase constituents such as head, determiner, premodifier, and postmodifier. Last, it is made to know the word class of each word which constructs the sentence such as noun, verb, adjective, adverb, etc.

v  The analysis of the sentence

The surah described contains two sentences. The first sentence is a complex sentence with compound parts. The sentence contains two main clauses, and they are modified by two adverbial clauses which are connected to each other by and. The second sentence is a complex sentence. There is one main clause which is modified by one adjective clause with compound predicates which are connected to each other by and. The analysis of the sentences can be seen below

v  The analysis of each level can be described below

A.    Sentence 1

1.      Level 1

When comes the Help of Allâh (to you, O Muhammad (Peace be upon him) against your enemies) and the conquest (of Makkah), and you see that people enter Allâh's religion (Islâm) in crowds, A:AdvP / so _connector /glorify P:VP /the Praises of your Lord, DO:NP/ and _connector /ask P:VP /for His Forgiveness A:PP.

If we look at the adverb; we can see that it is built by two dependent clauses. At level 2, these two adverbial clauses functioning as adverb of a clause can be analyzed further. Besides, a noun phrase functioning as DO of the first independent clause, and a PP functioning as A of the second independent clause can also be analyzed further and further at the second level.

2. Level 2

2.1 AdvC functioning as A of the clause

When subordinate/ comes P:VP/ the Help of Allâh (to you, O Muhammad (Peace be upon him) against your enemies) and the conquest (of Makkah), S:NP/ and coor/ you S:NP/see P:VP/that people enter Allâh's religion (Islâm) in crowds DO:FC

Adverb

                                                                                                                     

First, NP functioning as S of the first dependent clause of adverbial clause can be analyzed further at the third level. Second, the DO of the second dependent clause which is realized by FC can also be analyzed further. At the third level, this FC functioning as DO of the second dependent clause of the adverbial clause.

2.2 NP functioning as DO of the first independent clause analysis.

The det:art/Praises head:noun/of your Lord postmod-PP

NP

The preposition phrase functioning as post-modifier of NP can be analyzed further in the third level.

2.3 PP functioning as A of the second independent clause

For head: prep/ his forgiveness complement:NP

PP

                                                                                                      

The NP functioning as complement of PP can be analyzed further in the third level.

3.      Level 3

3.1  NP functioning as S of the first dependent clause analysis.

the det:art /Help head:noun/ of Allâh postmod:PP/and connector/ the det:art/conquest head:noun.

NP

The PP functioning as post-modifier of NP can be analyzed further at the level 4.

3.2  FC functioning as DO of the second dependent clause

that connector /people S:NP/enter P:VP/Allâh's religion DO:NP/ in crowds A:PP

FC

If we look at the DO, it contains NP. At level 4, NP functions as DO of a finite clause. The PP functioning as A of this finite clause will be analyzed at the next level.

3.3  PP functioning as post-modifier of NP

of head: prep/your Lord complement: NP

PP

The NP functioning as complement of PP will be analyzed further at the fourth level.

3.4  NP functioning as complement of PP

His det: pronoun/ forgiveness head:noun

NP

4.      Level 4

4.1  PP functioning as post-modifier of NP

Of head:prep/Allah comp:noun

PP

4.2  NP functioning as DO of FC

Allah’s det: sp.genetive/ religion head;noun

NP

4.3  PP functioning as A of FC

In head:prep/ crowds comp:noun

PP

4.4  NP functioning as complement of PP

Your det:pronoun/ Lord head:noun

NP

B.     Sentence 2

1.      Level 1

Verily, A/ He S:NP /is P:VP/ the One Who accepts the repentance and forgives SA:NP.

If we look the SA, it is realized by NP.  At level 2, it is an analysis of the NP functioning as SA of the clause.

2.      Level 2

NP functioning as SA of a clause

the det:art/One head:noun/ Who accept the repentance and forgives postmod:FC

NP

                                                              i.       

At the next level, there will be further analysis of FC functioning as post-modifier of NP.

3.      Level 3

NP functioning as DO of post-modifier: FC

The det: art/repentance head:noun

NP

In addition to the syntactic analysis above, the translation of the surah is actually a little bit out of the rule in English sentence structure. The connector so in the first sentence should not be written since the sentence already has an adverbial clause. So is a coordinator which combines two independent clauses, whereas the sentence starts with a dependent clause. Therefore, the use of so is a mistake when it is used to combine unparallel elements as seen in the sentence.  Moreover, in the first sentence, there is also a wrong subject-verb agreement. The subject doesn’t agree with the predicator. The NP the Help of Allâh (to you, O Muhammad (Peace be upon him) against your enemies) and the conquest (of Makkah) is a plural noun which means it needs V1 as the predicator not V1+s/es. Therefore, the predicator should be come not comes.

2.   CONCLUSION

From the sentence analysis of surah An-Nasr verse 1-3 which has been above, it can be concluded that the surah contains two sentences. The first and the second verse is the first sentence, and the sentence is a complex sentence with compound parts. The second sentence is the third verse, and the sentence is a complex sentence with compound predicates.

The first sentence of the surah can be analyzed into four levels. At level 1, there is an analysis of clause. At level 2, there are analyses of AdvC functioning as A of a clause, NP functioning as DO of the first independent clause, and preposition phrase functioning as A of the second independent clause. At level 3, there are analyses of NP functioning as S of the first dependent clause, FC functioning as DO of the second dependent clause, PP functioning as post-modifier of NP, and NP functioning as complement of PP. At level four, there are analyses of PP functioning as post-modifier of NP, NP functioning as DO of FC, PP functioning as A of FC, and NP functioning as complement of PP.

The second sentence of the surah can be analyzed into three levels. At level 1, there is an analysis of clause. At level 2, there is an analysis of NP functioning as SA of a clause. At level 3, there is an analysis of NP functioning as DO of post-modifier: FC.

Beside the sentence structure analysis above, the English translation of the surah also has two improprieties of its sentence structure. It happens in the first sentence. The first is the addition of the connector so, and the second is the wrong subject-verb agreement.