Chapter 5

Question 1

Syntax

Answer 1

A component of mental grammar that deals with constructing phrasal expressions out of smaller expressions. Also a name for the subfield of linguistics which studies how expressions can combine to form larger expressions.

Question 2

Linguistic expressions

Answer 2

A piece of language with a form, a meaning, and syntactic properties.

Question 3

Grammaticality judgement

Answer 3

An instance of a native speaker of some language deciding whether some string of words corresponds to a syntactically well-formed or grammatical phrasal expression in their native language.

Question 4

Principle of compositionality

Answer 4

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

Question 5

Lexical expressions

Answer 5

A linguistic expression that has to be listed in the mental lexicon, e.g. single-word expressions and idioms.

Question 6

Phrasal expressions

Answer 6

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

Question 7

Syntactic properties

Answer 7

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

Question 8

Co-occurence

Answer 8

The set of syntactic properties that determines which expressions may or have to co-occur with some other expressions in a sentence.

Question 9

Word order

Answer 9

The linear order in which words can occur in some phrasal expression. Also, the set of syntactic properties of expressions that dictates how they can be ordered with respect to other expressions.

Question 10

Argument

Answer 10

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 X in a sentence requires the occurrence of an expression Y in that sentence, we can say that Y is an argument of X.

Question 11

Complement

Answer 11

A non-subject argument of some expression.

Question 12

Adjunct

Answer 12

A linguistic expression whose occurrence in a sentence is optional; also called modifier.

Question 13

Modifier

Answer 13

A linguist expression whose occurrence in a sentence is optional; also called adjunct.

Question 14

Agreement

Answer 14

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

Question 15

Syntactic constituent

Answer 15

A group of linguistic expressions that function as 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 16

Cleft

Answer 16

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 17

Coordination

Answer 17

Involves the use of a coordinating conjunction such as and or or, and can also be sued as a constituency test.

Question 18

Conjunct

Answer 18

An argument of a coordinating conjunction such as and, or or.

Question 19

Syntactic categories

Answer 19

A group of expressions that have very similar 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

Sentence

Answer 21

A syntactic category that consists of all phrasal expressions that can grammatically occur in Sally thinks that _____.

Question 22

Noun phrases

Answer 22

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

Question 23

Determiner

Answer 23

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

Question 24

Intransitive verbs

Answer 24

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

Question 25

Noun

Answer 25

The name of a lexical category and syntactic category. Syntactically, consists of expressions that combine with determiners to their left, the resulting expression being of category noun phrase.

Question 26

Subject

Answer 26

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

Question 27

Transitive verbs

Answer 27

The name of a syntactic category that consists of those expressions that is 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 28

Ditransitive verbs

Answer 28

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 verb phrase. A verb that needs two noun phrase complements.

Question 29

Sentential complement verbs

Answer 29

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 30

Adverb

Answer 30

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

Question 31

VP adjuncts

Answer 31

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

Question 32

N adjuncts

Answer 32

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

Question 33

Prepositional phrase

Answer 33

The name of a lexical category and a syntactic category that consists of those expressions such as if, 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

Preposition

Answer 34

The name of a syntactic category that consists of those expressions that contain a preposition and a noun phrase. Can be verb phrase adjuncts or noun adjuncts.

Question 35

Lexical entries

Answer 35

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

Question 36

Phrase structure rules

Answer 36

A recipe for syntactically combining expressions of certain syntactic categories. Along with the lexicon, phrase structure rules are a part of a descriptive grammar of some language.

Question 37

Phrase structure tree

Answer 37

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

Question 38

Ambiguity

Answer 38

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.

Question 39

Lexical Ambiguity

Answer 39

The phenomenon where a single word is the form of two or more distinct linguistic expressions that differ in meaning or syntactic properties.

Question 40

Structural Ambiguity

Answer 40

The phenomenon where a single string of words (or morphemes) is the form of more than one distinct phrasal expression (or word). Arises because the same expressions can combine differently syntactically, resulting in distinct phrases that happen to the same form.