Chapter 3: Words, Words Classes And Phrases

Question 1

lexeme

Answer 1

dictionary entry

Question 2

orthographic words

Answer 2

When two or more words belong to the same lexeme but are different words because of their verb form or are sing/plu
Eg. Dog/s
Eat/s

Question 3

morphology

Answer 3

The study of the internal structure of words

Question 4

Notional def.

Answer 4

A def. That offers a characterisation in terms of word class, a concept of meaning.

Question 5

aspect

Answer 5

‘A concept that refers to the way the meaning expressed by the main verb is viewed through time’ (36) see Chap 10

Question 6

perfect aspect

Answer 6

Where the action took place in the past and has current relevance. see Chap 10

Question 7

progressive aspect

Answer 7

Where the action is presented as an ongoing process in the present. see Chap 10

Question 8

attributive position

Answer 8

When an adjective precedes a noun in an NP. (32)

Question 9

auxiliary verbs

Answer 9

Verbs that cannot occur independently but function as ‘helping’ verbs. It specifies the meaning of the main verb. (35)

Question 10

aspectual auxiliary

Answer 10

Auxiliaries that specify how we view the main verbs action in time.

Question 11

dummy auxiliary do

Answer 11

• do-support - inster a do when negating a verb.
• Used to form interrogative sentences that do not contain an auxiliary.
• code - can take on the meaning of the main verb by itself. eg. Does Eleanor work all day? She does.
• emphatic contexts e.g. Eleanor DOES work all day!

Question 12

modal auxiliary

Answer 12

Auxiliaries which are concerned with expressing situations that do not obtain at the present moment, but will, could, must or should obtain in the future. Modals are always finite and do not take typical verb endings. (36) See Chap 10.

Question 13

complementiser

Answer 13

Words that introduce Complement cluases such as that, if, whether and for.

Question 14

conjoins

Answer 14

The units in a sentence that are being coordinated. (45)

Question 15

conjunction

Answer 15

A word that has a linking function. (45)

Question 16

coordinating conjunction

Answer 16

They link units of equal syntactical status. Two coordinated phrases form a new phrase of the same type as the two constituent conjoins. (45)
e.g. and, or, but

Question 17

subordinating conjunction

Answer 17

Elements that introduce subordinate clauses. They link conjoins of unequal syntactical status. (46)
e.g. that, if, whether, so, because, although, when.

Question 18

coordination

Answer 18

A syntactic configuration in which elements or string of elements (conjoins) are juxtaposed by means of a coordinating conjunction. (317)

Question 19

determinative

Answer 19

A class of words that occur before nouns and function as Specifier in a NP structure; e.g. the, this, that, those. (317)

Question 20

do-support

Answer 20

Refers to the insertion of the dummy auxiliary ‘do’ to add emphasis, to form ‘interrogative sentences’ etc. in sentences which do not already contain an auxiliary. (318)

Question 21

finite/nonfinite

Answer 21

A verb that carries tense is called a finite verb, a verb that does not carry tense is called a nonfinite verb.

Question 22

form

Answer 22

A grammatical notion that refers to the syntactic categories that we can assign an element or group of elements to. E.g ‘those flowers’ is a NP.

Question 23

genitive case

Answer 23

The form that pronouns occur in when they indicate possession e.g. My flowers.

Question 24

gradability

Answer 24

This refers to a property of adjectives, and some adverbs, to express degrees of application to some notion. e.g. The property of being warm can be graded into warmer (comparative) and warmest (superlative). The adjective can also be preceded by an intensifier e.g. very warm. (319)

Question 25

Head

Answer 25

A functional label that refers to the principal element in a phrase whose category determines the category of that phrase. (319)

Question 26

interjection

Answer 26

A minor word class consisting of words such as ah, oh, yuck.

Question 27

linking verb/copula

Answer 27

Verbs like seem, appear and be which link a Subject to an expression which is predicated of it. e.g. She seems angry.

Question 28

main verb

Answer 28

A verb that can stand on its own in a sentence without the need for an accompanying auxiliary verb.

Question 29

NICE properties

Answer 29

1. Negation
2. Inversion
3. Code
4. Emphasis
   ^auxiliary verbs carry NICE properties

Question 30

noun/noun phrase

Answer 30

Nouns are traditionally denoted as people, places or things. This is a notional definition. Distributional criteria is a much more accurate definition. All nouns can be preceded by a determinative, nouns can be preceded by adjectives,

Question 31

past participle

Answer 31

A nonfinite verb form ending in -ed or -en. Used in the perfect aspect.

Question 32

person

Answer 32

A three level grammatical system, applied to pronons and referring expressions, both in the singular and plural: 1st) I, we 2) you, 3rd) he/she/it, they.

Question 33

predicative position

Answer 33

The syntactic position that immediately follows a copula. e.g. He is upset, the adj ‘upset’ is in the predicative position.

Question 34

phrase

Answer 34

A string of words that behaves as a constituent and has a Head as its principal element.

Question 35

pronouns

Answer 35

A subclass of noun.

Question 36

referring expressions

Answer 36

A linguistic expression that denotes a person or entity in the real world.

Question 37

scope

Answer 37

A semantic notion that has to do with the range or extent of application of a particular element.

Question 38

tense

Answer 38

The grammatical encoding of the semantic notion of time.

Question 39

verb

Answer 39

One of the major word classes. A verb typically denotes an activity, but it can denote a state (statives).

Question 40

verb phrase

Answer 40

A phrase headed by a verb.

Question 41

word

Answer 41

The smallest unit in syntax.

Question 42

word class

Answer 42

A group of words, the members of which can be syntactically shown to behave the same way. For example, nouns occur as the Head of NPs, they can occur after determinatives etc.

Question 43

Types of pronoun

Answer 43

General personal pronoun - he
Possessive personal pronoun - mine
Reflexive personal pronoun - myself
Reciprocal personal pronoun - one another
Demonstrative pronoun - this, that
Relative pronouns - that, who, which
Interrogative or -wh pronouns - what, which
Indefinite pronouns