definitions Flashcards
WHAT IS THE GRAMMAR/SYNTAX¿
Grammar (syntax) refers to the set of rules which allow us to create well-formed sentences. It concentrates on the structure and ordering of components within a sentence.
AGREEMENT DEFINITION AND ITS CATEGORIES
Agreement is traditional grammatical analysis including some categories which describe language structure:
1) NUMBER that is, whether the noun is singular or plural
2) PERSON which covers the distinctions of first, second and third person
3) TENSE which describe the form of the verb
4) GENDER which helps us to describe the agreement between pronouns
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN PRESCRIPTIVE AND DESCRIPTIVE APPROACH¿
Descriptive approach describes how language functions in reality (used naturally by speakers), while prescriptive approach prescribes rules for how language should be ideally used.
WHAT IS GENERATIVE GRAMMAR¿
Generative grammar is finite set of rules that will be capable of producing an infinite number of well-formed structures
RECURSIVE RULES
Recursive rules (repeatable any number of times) have the capacity to be applied more than once in a generating a structure. We can repeat the same type of phrases (using different words) for as long as the sentence still makes sense or put sentences inside the other sentences e.g. [Cathy knew that(Mary helped George)]
WHAT THIS SIGN MEANS *
UNGRAMMATICAL SENTENCE
WHAT THIS SIGN MEANS ———>
CONSISTS OF/REWRITES AS
WHAT THIS SIGN MEANS ( )
OPTIONAL CONSTITUENT
WHAT THIS SIGN MEANS { }
ONE AND ONLY ONE OF THESE CONSTITUENTS MUST BE SELECTED
AUXILIARY VERBS (Aux)
HELPING VERBS {can, could, should, will, would}
DEFINITION OF MOVEMENT RULES
Movement rules describe the process of moving one part of the structure to a different position
DEFINITION OF PHRASE STRUCTURE RULES
Phrase structure rules (generate structures) state that the structure of a phrase of a specific type will consist of one or more constituents in a particular order
LEXICAL RULES
Lexical rules specify which words can be used when we rewrite constituents such as N——> {girl,boy,dog}
WHAT IS SEMANTICS
Semantics is the study of the meaning of words, phrases and sentences. In linguistic semantics we’re more concerned with trying to analyze conceptual meaning than associative meaning.
AGENT
the entity that performs the action
THEME
the entity that is involved or affected by the action
INSTRUMENT
if an agent uses another entity in order to perform an action e.g. The boy cut the rope WITH AN OLD RAZOR
EXPERIENCER
person who has a feeling, perception or state e.g. feel, see, know, enjoy
LOCATION
where an entity is
SOURCE
where the entity moves from
GOAL
where the entity moves to
SYNONYMY
two or more words with very closely related meanings
ANTONYMY
two forms with opposite meanings (gradable, non-gradable and reversives)
HYPONYMY (superordinate + co-hyponyms)
when the meaning of one form is included in the meaning of another e.g. animal/dog, flower/rose
SUPERORDINATE are higher-level terms e.g. animal, insect
CO-HYPONYMS are two or more words that share the same superordinate
PROTOTYPES
characteristic instance of a category
HOMOPHONES
two or more forms that have the same pronunciation e.g. right/write
HOMONYMS
when one form has two or more unrelated meanings e.g. bank (of a river)/bank (financial institution)
POLYSEMY
two or more words with the same form and related meanings e.g. head (object on top of ur body/person at the top of a company)
METONYMY
using one word to refer the other e.g. bottle/water or when we talk about answering the door/giving someone a hand
