Chapter 3: Words, Words Classes And Phrases Flashcards
lexeme
dictionary entry
orthographic words
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
morphology
The study of the internal structure of words
Notional def.
A def. That offers a characterisation in terms of word class, a concept of meaning.
aspect
‘A concept that refers to the way the meaning expressed by the main verb is viewed through time’ (36) see Chap 10
perfect aspect
Where the action took place in the past and has current relevance. see Chap 10
progressive aspect
Where the action is presented as an ongoing process in the present. see Chap 10
attributive position
When an adjective precedes a noun in an NP. (32)
auxiliary verbs
Verbs that cannot occur independently but function as ‘helping’ verbs. It specifies the meaning of the main verb. (35)
aspectual auxiliary
Auxiliaries that specify how we view the main verbs action in time.
dummy auxiliary do
- 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!
modal auxiliary
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.
complementiser
Words that introduce Complement cluases such as that, if, whether and for.
conjoins
The units in a sentence that are being coordinated. (45)
conjunction
A word that has a linking function. (45)
coordinating conjunction
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
subordinating conjunction
Elements that introduce subordinate clauses. They link conjoins of unequal syntactical status. (46)
e.g. that, if, whether, so, because, although, when.
coordination
A syntactic configuration in which elements or string of elements (conjoins) are juxtaposed by means of a coordinating conjunction. (317)
determinative
A class of words that occur before nouns and function as Specifier in a NP structure; e.g. the, this, that, those. (317)
do-support
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)
finite/nonfinite
A verb that carries tense is called a finite verb, a verb that does not carry tense is called a nonfinite verb.
form
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.
genitive case
The form that pronouns occur in when they indicate possession e.g. My flowers.
gradability
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)
Head
A functional label that refers to the principal element in a phrase whose category determines the category of that phrase. (319)
interjection
A minor word class consisting of words such as ah, oh, yuck.
linking verb/copula
Verbs like seem, appear and be which link a Subject to an expression which is predicated of it. e.g. She seems angry.
main verb
A verb that can stand on its own in a sentence without the need for an accompanying auxiliary verb.
NICE properties
- Negation
- Inversion
- Code
- Emphasis
^auxiliary verbs carry NICE properties
noun/noun phrase
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,
past participle
A nonfinite verb form ending in -ed or -en. Used in the perfect aspect.
person
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.
predicative position
The syntactic position that immediately follows a copula. e.g. He is upset, the adj ‘upset’ is in the predicative position.
phrase
A string of words that behaves as a constituent and has a Head as its principal element.
pronouns
A subclass of noun.
referring expressions
A linguistic expression that denotes a person or entity in the real world.
scope
A semantic notion that has to do with the range or extent of application of a particular element.
tense
The grammatical encoding of the semantic notion of time.
verb
One of the major word classes. A verb typically denotes an activity, but it can denote a state (statives).
verb phrase
A phrase headed by a verb.
word
The smallest unit in syntax.
word class
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.
Types of pronoun
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
