auxiliaries, clauses, argument/predicates Flashcards
multiple possible meanings
structural ambiguity
an example:
‘the seagull attacked the man with the chip’
PP prepositional phrase could be a modifier of the N:
It was [the man [with a chip]] that the seagull attacked
or
PP could be a modifier of the V:
it was [the man] that the seagull [attacked [with a chip]]
Auxiliaries are:
a helping verb
modifies something about the verb
- English aux verbs –> show tense and agreement:
- be, do, have
—> am, was, were, being, be, is, are
- (had, could have been)
eg. they were going, they were being eaten
if followed by another verb, its an auxiliary
- structure is highly predictable
- influence verb
- well-formed constituent
0-3 Auxes, then 1 verb in English
i ate, i was eating, i had been eating
substitution constituent test - i did/doing so
in a tree, auxiliaries are..??
VP (as their complement)
- head their own phrase
- such as had, was, been
- can, will, might
amount of clauses in a sentence = how many verbs
Embedded clauses are
sentences within sentences
eg. he told me that he thought the party was at 8
in embedded sentences:
Complementisers
that, whether, if, for
- as heads = CP
- S as their complement
eg. ‘the train was leaving soon’ = S
that the train was leaving soon = C’ CP
prepositional phrases
on the tree
P head + NP complement
eg. in the pool
PP
P’
/ NP
is P DET N
Adjective phrases
can only contain adverb phrase modifiers
- really bright
- surprisingly boring
these are AdvP Adj, to become AdjP in tree
Adverb phrases
only contain adverb phrase modifiers
- really quickly
- is AdvP, below is AdvP to Adv’
Noun phrases
possibilities:
- sometimes start with determiner
- can have adjective phrase modifiers
- noun phrase modifier after noun, eg train station
- prepositional phrase complement or modifier (on, in. of)
Verb phrases
- can contain up to 2 NP complements (hugged me, gave me a fright)
- PP complement or modifier
- CP complement
- AdvP modifiers
Clause
minimal sentence
- linguistic realisation of a proposition
proposition
minimal linguistic unit that can be given a truth value
eg. ‘my big hairy dog’ = needs context, no truth value. NOT P, C
‘my big hairy dog eats spaghetti’ = can give truth value. THUS IS A PROPOSITION AND A CLAUSE
Sentence vs clause
sentence = like an utterance, contain 1 or more clauses
clause = minimal sentence, encodes a single proposition
Clause ?
- realisation of a single proposition
= puts into words a statement that can be given a truth value
= expressing predicate and its arguments (relationship)
