File 5 Syntax vocab

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 sub field of linguistics that studies how expressions can combine to form larger expressions

Question 2

syntactic properties

Answer 2

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

Question 3

linguistic expression

Answer 3

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

Question 4

word order

Answer 4

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 5

co-occurance

Answer 5

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

Question 6

argument

Answer 6

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 that occurrence of an expression Y in that sentence, we say that Y is an argument of X

Question 7

adjunct

Answer 7

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

Question 8

verb phrase adjunct

Answer 8

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

Question 9

verb phrase

Answer 9

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

Question 10

complement

Answer 10

a non subject argument of some expression

Question 11

noun adjunct

Answer 11

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

Question 12

noun phrase

Answer 12

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

Question 13

syntactic distribution

Answer 13

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 14

syntactic category

Answer 14

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 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

linguistic expression

Answer 16

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

Question 17

phrasal expression

Answer 17

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

Question 18

phrase structure tree

Answer 18

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

Question 19

prepositional phrase

Answer 19

the name of a syntactic category that consists of those expressions that contain a preposition and a noun phrase

Question 20

lexical entry

Answer 20

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

Question 21

lexical expression

Answer 21

a linguistic expression that has to be listed in the mental lexicon, e.g. single word expressions as idioms

Question 22

noun

Answer 22

the name of a lexical category and a syntactic category. Morphologically, consists of words in 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 23

noun adjunct

Answer 23

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

Question 24

noun phrase

Answer 24

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

Question 25

object

Answer 25

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

Question 26

ditransitive verb

Answer 26

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 27

determiners

Answer 27

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 28

count noun

Answer 28

in simple terms, a noun that can be counted and pluralized

Question 29

mass noun

Answer 29

in simple terms, a noun that cannot be counted and cannot normally be pluralized

Question 30

morphosyntax

Answer 30

the name for syntax and morphology considered jointly as a single component of grammar

Question 31

complement

Answer 31

a non-subject argument of some expression

Question 32

argument

Answer 32

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 say that Y is an argument of X

Question 33

agreement

Answer 33

the phenomenon by which certain expressions in a must be inflectionally marked for the same person, number, gender, etc.

Question 34

cleft

Answer 34

a type of sentence that has the general form, it is was that why.. It was sally that I wanted to meet. Can be used as a constituency test

Question 35

co-occurence

Answer 35

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

Question 36

grammaticality judgment

Answer 36

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 37

intransitive verb

Answer 37

the name for the set of lexical expressions whose syntatic category is verb phrase

Question 38

lexical ambiguity

Answer 38

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

Question 39

homophony

Answer 39

the phenomenon by which two or more distinct morphemes or nonphrasal linguistic expressions happen to have the same form or sound the same

Question 40

pro-form

Answer 40

a word (ex: pronoun) that can replace a syntactic constituent