Lesson 6: Syntax Flashcards
syntax
the study of how phrases and sentences are structured
constituent
natural grouping of words within a sentence
pronoun replacement test
a group of words can be replaced by a pronoun (her, him, it, there)
* noun phrase
* prepositional phrase
do so/do too replacement test
a string can be replaced by “do so”/”did so” or “do too”/”did too”
* verb phrase
stand alone test
a chunk of words that can stand on its own as an answer
fronting test
movement test
moving a group of words to the beginning of a sentence
ex: “The girl ran in the rain.”
“In the rain, the girl ran.”
clefting test
movement test
breaking up a sentence and feeding it into the formula:
“It is/was ____ that ____”
ex: “The girl ran in the rain.”
“It was the girl that ran in the rain.”
S –> ____, ____
S –> NP, VP
NP –> ____, ____
NP –> DET, N
VP –> ____, ____
VP –> ____, ____
VP –> V, NP
VP –> VP, PP
PP –> ____, ____
PP –> P, NP
node
a labeled branch point with a syntactic category
domination
every higher node dominates all nodes below it
sisterhood
two categories that are directly under the same node are sisters
head
of a phrase – determines its syntactic category