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Linguistics 111 > Chapter 5 > Flashcards

Chapter 5 Flashcards

1
Q

Syntax

A
  • grammar

- the system of rules and categories that accounts for phrase, clause and sentence formation

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2
Q

Syntactic Units

A
  1. Phrase
  2. Clause
  3. Sentence
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3
Q

Phrase

A
  • a combination of words that form a syntactic unit with cohesive meaning
  • ex) “the beautiful house”, “a turkey”
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4
Q

Clause

A
  • a combination of phrases that has to include a subject (doer) and predicate (action)
  • ex) “she asked if I (subject) liked (predicate) the beautiful house”
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5
Q

Sentence

A
  • often used synonymously with clause

- “I told John that I like that house” (2 clauses)

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6
Q

Prescriptive Grammar

A
  • found in language grammars were particular grammar rules are presented as correct and their violations or deviations form them are considered wrong
  • ex) “I am not” –> “I’m not” –> “I ain’t”
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7
Q

Descriptive Grammar

A
  • attempt to describe what is actually happening in the use of language by native speakers
  • “ain’t” becomes acceptable
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8
Q

Lexical Categories

A
  • also known as word class, lexical class, part of speech
  • when a word is created it immediately acquires a lexical category
  • open and closed categories
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9
Q

Syntactic Categories Def.

A
  • words as they function in sentences
  • overlap with lexical categories, but there are some differences
  • was of defining the word’s category (meaning, inflection, distribution)
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10
Q

Traditional Lexical Categories in English

A
  1. Nouns
  2. Verbs
  3. Adjective
  4. Adverb
  5. Pronoun
  6. Preposition
  7. Conjunction
  8. Interjections
  9. Numeral
  10. Particle
  11. Article
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11
Q

Noun

A

meaning: a thing
inflection: -s, ‘s
ex) Canada, girl

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12
Q

Verb

A

meaning: action
inflection: -s, -ed, -ing
ex) repeat, study

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13
Q

Adjective

A

meaning: quality
inflection: -er, -est
ex) dark, quick

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14
Q

Adverb

A

meaning: action quality
inflection: -er, -est, -ly
ex) quickly, fast

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15
Q

Pronoun

A

meaning: substitute
inflection: n/a
ex) this, his, her

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16
Q

Preposition

A

meaning: relationships
inflection: n/a
ex) to, in, with, on

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17
Q

Conjunctions

A

meaning: relationships
inflection: n/a
ex) and, since, when

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18
Q

Interjections

A

meaning: emotions and filled in pauses
inflection: n/a
ex) oh, ouch, um, err

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19
Q

Numeral

A

meaning: numbers
inflection: n/a
ex) fifth, five

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20
Q

Particle

A

meaning: n/a
inflection: n/a
ex) yes, no

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21
Q

Article

A

meaning: specific/nonspecific
inflection: n/a
ex) a, an, the

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22
Q

Open Lexical Categories

A
  • acquire new members regularly
  • “content words” and “lexical words”
  • nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs
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23
Q

Closed Lexical Categories

A
  • don’t acquire new word regularly
  • “function words” or “grammar words”
  • articles, prepositions, conjunctions, aux verbs, pronouns
  • exception: “xe, xem, xyr” (gender neutral pronouns)
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24
Q

Meaning

A
  • what school grammars traditionally relied on
  • noun= person, place, thing
  • adjective= quality/description word
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25
Problems with Meaning
1. the same word can belong to different categories without any appreciable change in meaning 2. many nouns can be readily converted into verbs, sometimes with various meanings
26
Inflection
- different lexical categories have their own inflectional pattern (paradigms) - a modification in the word to express different grammatical categories such as tense, case, voice, aspect, person, number, gender, mood - nouns= -s - verbs = -s, -ed, -ing - adjectives, adverbs= (-er, -est)
27
Problems with Inflection
- not a sufficient criterion to distinguish adverbs from adjectives - P, Adv, Det, Dgr, Con, are not inflected - overlapping forms across inflected categories
28
Lexical
- form their own phrases | - can be head
29
Non-lexical
- can't form their own phrases | - can't be head
30
Syntactic Categories
1. Noun (N) 2. Verb (V) 3. Adjective (A) 4. Adverb (Adv) 5. Preposition (P)
31
Adjectives
- describe a noun quality - typical derivat: "-ous", "-ful" - function in a sentence: attribute or part of predicate
32
Adverbs
- verb characteristics - typical derivat: "-ly" or none - function in a sentence: modifiers
33
Non-Lexical Categories
- occur with and modify lexical categories 1. Determiners 2. Degree Words 3. Auxiliary 4. Conjunctions 5. Complementizers 6. Specifiers
34
Specifiers
- are function words that occur at the beginning of a phrase (left side) - Determiners and Degree words
35
Determiners (Det)
- occur before a noun in a noun phrase - articles ("the", "a") - particles ("no" --> "no money") - possessive determiner ("my", "his") - demonstrative determiner ("this", "these") - wh-determiner ("which house", "whose book") - there can only be one determiner for each phrase
36
Degree words (Deg)
- describe the degree of an adverb or adjective - only found at the beginning - "too, so, very, more, quite, highly, strongly" - do not modify verbs
37
Auxilaries (Aux)
- traditional grammar call them helper or helping verbs or grammar verbs - they can't be the only verb in the sentence - always followed by a lexical verb - can be modal or non-modal
38
Non-Modal Aux
- HAVE: used to form tense forms - BE: used to form progressive (I am..) and passives (I was..) - DO: used to form negative sentences and some questions (don't, do?)
39
Modal Aux
- I MUST, SHOULD, CAN, WOULD, COULD, WILL, MAY, MIGHT | - if you have a modal and non-modal Aux in a clause, the modal Aux comes first
40
Conjunctions (Conj)
- conjoin phrases of identical nature (AND, OR, BUT)
41
Complementizers (C)
- occur at the beginning of an embedded clause (THAT, WHILE, IF) - embedded clause (dependent) - if-clause can't appear on its own
42
Constituency Tests
1. Movement Test 2. Replacement Test 3. Question Test 4. Coordination Test
43
Movement Test
- every group of words that forms a constituent should be moveable together - doesn't always work that well for English because English has a strict word order
44
Replacement Test
- every group of words that forms a constituent can be replaced by a pro-form ("it")
45
Question Test
- every group of words that form a constituent can be an answer to a question
46
Coordination Test
- every group of words that forms a constituent (a phrase) can be conjoined with a similar one with the help of coordinate conjunction
47
Phrase Structure
- heads, specifiers, complements - PS rules: NP, VP, AP, PP - each phrase has a word called it's head (N, V, A, P) ex) his interesting books - there could be phrases that have only the head ex) Martha cooks
48
head
links it to the rest of the sentence
49
Noun Phrase
- nouns = heads - can replace the constituent with any noun or "it" but not an adj. or det. - can only be replaced by a noun-like object NP --> (Det) (Adj) N
50
Phrase Structure Rule (PSR)
- the rules used to generate the structure of our sentences in the grammar
51
Adjectival Phrase
AdjP --> (Deg)(AdvP) Adj - can consist of just one adjective - can have an AdjP with only one word (Adj. Head) that is embedded within a noun phrase
52
Verb Phrases
``` VP --> V (NP) - transitive: requires an object - intransitive: verbs that can occur by themselves - adverbs modify verbs VP --> (AdvP) V (NP) (AdvP) ```
53
Adverb Phrase
- adverbs can be modified by a deg. or another verb | AdvP --> (Deg) Adv
54
Prepositional Phrase
PP --> P NP - distributional criterion = followed by a NP - similar to VP, the head is first
55
Phrasal Verbs
- words that look like prepositions but are called particles | - do not form a phrase with a following NP
56
Objects
1. no verb complement (no object (complement)) 2. direct object verb has a NP complement - ex) "boys love hockey" 3. indirect and direct object NP complements - ex) "she wrote [(me) (a letter)]" 4. predicate with adjective verb complement - with verbs: BE, SEEM, SMELL, LOOK, TASTE, BECOME - ex) "the game became difficult"
57
Complementary Distribution
- tense is expressed on V only when there is no aux - Aux doesn't belong to VP it has separate slot [+past] and [-past]
58
Position Aux
- always there since the tense feature needs to originate somewhere
59
Word Aux
- not always there - since [+past] needs to be expressed somewhere it will move to the next available host, which is V - -> V: "-ed" or "-s"
60
More than One Aux
- "He HAS BEEN playing soccer" - only the first aux bears tense - could treat non-tense bearing Aux as another V - can add another aux to tree
61
Complex Phrases: Conjunctions
- conjoined phrases of the same kind - NP+NP: "Peter and Mary" - PP+PP: "on the house but for the guests" - VP+VP: "eat a cake and sing" - AdjP+AdjP: silent but deadly" - AdvP+AdvP: "slowly and carefully" - S+S: "Jane cooked a wonderful turkey and Peter made dessert" XP --> XP conj. XP
62
Complex Phrases: Complementizers
- connect two clauses where one is in same way dependent on the other - can be NP: "Peter kissed many girls" - can be PP: "Peter wonder about girls" - can be clauses: "Peter wondered where he should kiss the girl" CP --> C S
63
Interrogatives
- sentences we used when we ask questions 1. Closed Interrogatives (yes-no) 2. Open Interrogatives (wh-questions)
64
Closed Interrogatives
- Yes-No: "did Peter kiss the girl?" - do-insertion - -> these questions are formed by inserting an Aux "do" in front of the subject position
65
Subject-Auxillary Inversion
- the moment to derive the order for yes/no questions
66
Transformations
- derive language-specific word orders to non-default sentences
67
Open Interrogatives
- wh-questions - formed by using a question pronoun (who, what, etc) - ex) "what has Peter written?" "who has written a book?"

Linguistics 111 (3 decks)

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