Fallacies and Syntax Issues in Writing,What are fallacies,Fallacies are defects that weaken arguments.,1 Hasty generalization,Example: “My roommate said her philosophy class was hard, and the one Im in is hard, too. All philosophy classes must be hard!“ Two peoples experiences are, in this case, not enough on which to base a conclusion.,2 Missing the point,Example: “The seriousness of a punishment should match the seriousness of the crime. Right now, the punishment for drunk driving may simply be a fine. But drunk driving is a very serious crime that can kill innocent people. So the death penalty should be the punishment for drunk driving.“ The argument actually supports several conclusions“The punishment for drunk driving should be very serious,“ in particularbut it doesnt support the claim that the death penalty, specifically, is warranted.,3 Post hoc (also called false cause),Examples: “President Jones raised taxes, and then the rate of violent crime went up. Jones is responsible for the rise in crime.“ The increase in taxes might or might not be one factor in the rising crime rates, but the argument hasnt shown us that one caused the other.,4 Slippery slope,Example: “Animal experimentation reduces our respect for life. If we dont respect life, we are likely to be more and more tolerant of violent acts like war and murder. Soon our society will become a battlefield in which everyone constantly fears for their lives. It will be the end of civilization. To prevent this terrible consequence, we should make animal experimentation illegal right now.“,Since animal experimentation has been legal for some time and civilization has not yet ended, it seems particularly clear that this chain of events wont necessarily take place. Even if we believe that experimenting on animals reduces respect for life, and loss of respect for life makes us more tolerant of violence, that may be the spot on the hillside at which things stopwe may not slide all the way down to the end of civilization. And so we have not yet been given sufficient reason to accept the arguers conclusion that we must make animal experimentation illegal right now.,5 Weak analogy,Example: “Guns are like hammerstheyre both tools with metal parts that could be used to kill someone. And yet it would be ridiculous to restrict the purchase of hammersso restrictions on purchasing guns are equally ridiculous.“ While guns and hammers do share certain features, these features (having metal parts, being tools, and being potentially useful for violence) are not the ones at stake in deciding whether to restrict guns. Rather, we restrict guns because they can easily be used to kill large numbers of people at a distance. This is a feature hammers do not shareitd be hard to kill a crowd with a hammer. Thus, the analogy is weak, and so is the argument based on it.,6 Appeal to authority,Example: “We should abolish the death penalty. Many respected people, such as actor Guy Handsome, have publicly stated their opposition to it.“ While Guy Handsome may be an authority on matters having to do with acting, theres no particular reason why anyone should be moved by his political opinionshe is probably no more of an authority on the death penalty than the person writing the paper.,7 Ad populum,Example: “Gay marriages are just immoral. 70% of Americans think so!“ While the opinion of most Americans might be relevant in determining what laws we should have, it certainly doesnt determine what is moral or immoral: There was a time where a substantial number of Americans were in favor of segregation, but their opinion was not evidence that segregation was moral. The arguer is trying to get us to agree with the conclusion by appealing to our desire to fit in with other Americans.,8 Ad hominem and tu quoque,Examples: “Andrea Dworkin has written several books arguing that pornography harms women. But Dworkin is an ugly, bitter person, so you shouldnt listen to her.“ Dworkins appearance and character, which the arguer has characterized so ungenerously, have nothing to do with the strength of her argument, so using them as evidence is fallacious.,句法学（Syntax）,1.What is syntax?,A branch of linguistics that studies how words are combined to form sentences and the rules that govern the formation of sentences.,2.Categories（范畴）,Category refers to a group of linguistic items which fulfill the same or similar functions in a particular language such as a sentence, a noun phrase or a verb.,2.1 Lexical categories,English major lexical categories实义语类 Noun (N student, lecture, John Verb (V): like, read, go Adjective (Adj): tall, lovely, red Adverb (adv): loudly, constantly, hard,English minor lexical categories功能语类 (Det): the, a, this, his Auxiliary (Aux): can, will, do, do, be, have Prepositio (pron): he, she, us, mine Conjunction (Conj): and, or, but, while Interjection (Int): Oh, ah, eh,2.2 grammatical categories:,number, gender, tense,