chapter 5

Question 1

co-occurance

Answer 1

The set of syntactic properties that determines which expressions may or have to co-occur with some other expressions in a sentence. (See also argument, adjunct, and word order)

Question 2

ambiguity

Answer 2

The phenomenon by which a single linguistic form (e.g. a word or a string of words) can be the form of more than one distinct linguistic expression. The form that is shared by more than one expression is said to be ambiguous. (See also lexical ambiguity and structural ambiguity)

Question 3

Lexicon

Answer 3

A mental repository of linguistic information about words and other lexical expressions, including their form, meaning, morphological, syntactic properties. As a part of a descriptive, not mental, grammar, the lexicon is the representation of the mental lexicon, consisting of lexical entries that capture the relevant properties of lexical expressions (e.g. their form and syntactic category).

Question 4

Phrase structure tree

Answer 4

A visual representation of how phrases are contracted within a descriptive grammar, given the lexicon and the phrase structure rules.

Question 5

grammar

Answer 5

A system of linguistic elements and rules. (see also descriptive grammar, prescriptive grammar, and mental grammar.)

Question 6

adjunct

Answer 6

A linguistic expression whose occurrence in a sentence is optional; also called modifier. (see also verb phrase adjunct and noun adjunct).

Question 7

intransitive verb

Answer 7

The name for the set of lexical expressions whose syntactic category is verb phrase.

Question 8

Transitive verb

Answer 8

The name of a syntactic category that consists of those expressions that if combined with an expression of category noun phrase to their right result in a verb phrase; a web that needs a noun phrase complement.

Question 9

complement

Answer 9

A non-subject argument of some expression.

Question 10

ditransitive verb

Answer 10

The name of a syntactic category that consists of those expressions that if combined with two expressions of category noun phrase to their right result in a web phrase. A verb that needs two noun phrase complements.

Question 11

sense

Answer 11

A mental representation of an expression’s meaning. ( See also Reference.)

Question 12

Reference

Answer 12

A component of linguistic meaning that relates the sense of some expression to entities in the outside world. The collection of all the referents of an expression.

Question 13

Referent

Answer 13

An actual entity or an individual in the world to which some expression refers.

Question 14

Lexical Entry

Answer 14

A representation of a lexical expression and its linguistic properties within a descriptive grammar of some language. A collection of lexical entries continues the lexicon. A lexical entry has the form →X, where f is the form of some particular lexical expression, and X is its syntactic category.

Question 15

Compositional Meaning

Answer 15

The meaning of a phrasal expression that is predictable from the meanings of smaller expressions it contains and how they syntactically combined. (See also Principle of compositionally and Idiom.)

Question 16

Principle of Compositionality

Answer 16

The notion that the meaning of a phrasal expression is predictable from the meanings of the expressions is contains and how they were syntactically combined.

Question 17

Cleft

Answer 17

A type of sentence that has the general form It is/was X that Y, e.g. It was Sally that I wanted to meet. Can be used as a constituency test.

Question 18

syntactic Category

Answer 18

A group of expressions that have very similar syntactic properties. All expression that belong to the same syntactic category have more or less the same syntactic distribution.

Question 19

Syntactic Constituent

Answer 19

A group of linguistic expressions that function as a syntactic properties. All expressions that belong to the same syntactic category have more or less the same syntactic distribution.

Question 20

Syntactic Distribution

Answer 20

Refers to the set of syntactic environments in which an expression can occur. If two expressions are interchangeable in all syntactic environments, we say that they have the same syntactic distribution, and therefore belong to the same syntactic category.

Question 21

Subject

Answer 21

An expression, typically a noun phrase, that occurs to the left of the verb phrase in an English sentence.

Question 22

Agreement

Answer 22

The phenomenon by which certain expressions in a sentence (e.g. a verb and its subject) must be inflectionally marked for the same person, number, gender, etc.

Question 23

Argument

Answer 23

A linguistic expression that must occur in a sentence if some other expression occurs in that sentence as well. If the occurrence of an expression Y in that sentence, we say that Y is an argument of X. (See also adjunct and complement.)

Question 24

adverb

Answer 24

The name of a lexical category and a syntactic category that consists of expressions such as quickly, well, furiously etc. Syntactically, adverbs can be verb phrase adjuncts.

Question 25

adjective

Answer 25

The name of a lexical category and a syntactic category. Morphologically, consists of words to which the comparative suffix -er or the suffix-ness can be added syntactically, the category sunsets of those expressions that can noun adjuncts or occur in between a determiner and a noun.

Question 26

Complement

Answer 26

A non-subject argument of some expression.argument.

Question 27

syntactic constituent

Answer 27

a group of linguistic expressions that functions a syntactic unit within some larger expression; the smaller expressions out of which some larger phrasal expression was constructed in accordance with the phrase structure rules.

Question 28

syntactic properties

Answer 28

properties of linguistic expressions that dictate how they can syntactically combine with other expressions, namely, word order and co-occurence properties.

Question 29

word order

Answer 29

The linear order in which words can occur in some phrasal expression. Also, the set of syntactic properties of expressions that dictate how they can be ordered with respect to other expressions. (see also co-occurence)

Question 30

verb phrase

Answer 30

The name of a syntactic category that consists of all expressions which if combined with a noun phrase to their left result in a sentence.

Question 31

verb phrase adjunct

Answer 31

a kind of adjunct that combines wth an expression of syntactic category verb phrase with the resulting expression also being of category verb phrase.

Question 32

sentence

Answer 32

a syntactic category that consists of all phrasal expressions that can grammatically occur in Sally thinks that______.

Question 33

preposition

Answer 33

the name of a lexical category and a syntactic category that consists of expressions such as of, in, for, with, etc. syntactically, this category consists of those expressions that when combined with an expression of category noun phrase to their right result in an expression of category prepositional phrase.

Question 34

phrasal expression

Answer 34

a linguistic expression that results from syntactic combination of smaller expressions. a multi-word linguistic expression. a sentence is a special kind of phrasal expression.

Question 35

noun phrase

Answer 35

The name of a syntactic category that consists of proper names pronouns, and all other expressions with the same syntactic distributions.

Question 36

sentential complement verb

Answer 36

the name of a syntactic category that consists of those expressions that if combined with a sentence to their right result in a verb phrase; a verb that needs a sentence as its complement.

Question 37

transition verb

Answer 37

the name of a syntactic category that consists of those expressions that if combined with an expression of category noun phrase to their right result in a verb phrase; a verb that needs a noun phrase complement.

Question 38

object

Answer 38

a noun phrase that usually occurs immediately to the right of the verb in English. A noun phrase complement.

Question 39

noun

Answer 39

The name of a lexical category and a syntactic category. Morphologically, consists of words to which the plural suffix -s or the suffix -like can be added. Syntactically, consists of expressions that can combine with determiners to their left, the resulting expression being of category noun phrase.

Question 40

noun adjunct

Answer 40

a kind of adjunct that combines with an expression of syntactic category noun with the resulting expression also being of category noun.

Question 41

noun phrase

Answer 41

the name of a syntactic category that consists of proper names, pronouns, and all other expressions with the same syntactic distribution.

Question 42

linguistic expression

Answer 42

a piece of language with a form, a meaning, and syntactic properties. (see also lexical expression and phrasal expression.)