LIN MIDTERM

Question 1

Is vocabulary implicit or explicit?

Answer 1

explicit:
(easy to explain what ‘pumpkin’ refers to)

Question 2

is morphology implicit or explicit?

Answer 2

explicit:
(easy to explain what -s in “pumpkins” does)

Question 3

Are articulatory phonetics implicit or explicit?

Answer 3

implicit:
(know we use, but can’t explain, not straightforward how you make the sound [l] or [k])

Question 4

what is syntax?

Answer 4

how to combine words with each other

Question 5

how is syntactics knowledge both implicit and explicit?

Answer 5

• Explicit is “The chases cat dog the” grammatical?
• Implicit: Why can you say: “Who came” but not “What you ate?”

Question 6

what is semantics?

Answer 6

How the meaning of a structure is calculated. Semantics calculate means.

Question 7

what is productivity?

Answer 7

languages have a finite set of words which they can combine to form infinitely many sentences.

Question 8

what is language change?

Answer 8

languages are in constant change. Some words disappear, new words must appear. Structures can change.

Question 9

What is empirical observations?

Answer 9

linguists make observations about how people use language
Similar to biologists, but linguistics observe phenomena and try to come up with generalisations

Question 10

what is prescriptivism?

Answer 10

(how language should be used); i.e.; coaches

Question 11

what is descriptivism?

Answer 11

(how language is actually used); i.e.; linguists

Question 12

Colourless green ideas sleep furiously– Noam Chomsky

Answer 12

Grammaticality is not a black and white matter
Who decides what is grammatical and what is not? (language users themselves)

Question 13

what are the two types of categories of words?

Answer 13

1. lexical categories
2. non-lexical categories

Question 14

what are lexical categories?

Answer 14

• content words, words that refer to things in the world (individuals, actions, events, properties, etc)
• It is generally possible to point to something in the real world that a certain lexical word describes

Question 14

what are non-lexical (functional) categories?

Answer 14

words that do not refer to things in the world, but have grammatical factors

Question 15

what are examples of lexical categories? (5)

Answer 15

1. Noun (N)- person/place/thing
2. Verb (V)- action word
3. Adjective (A)- description
4. Preposition (P)- [to, in, on, near, at, by]
5. Adverb (Adv)- describing a verb

Question 16

what are examples of non-lexical categories? (5)

Answer 16

1. Determiner (det)-
   the, a, this, these, no
2. Degree word (deg)- too, so, very, more, quite
3. Modal auxiliary- will, could, would, may, can, should
4. Non-modal auxiliary- be, have, do
5. Conjunction- and, or, but

Question 17

How do we determine the category of a word? MEANING

Answer 17

nouns: designate people and things

verbs: designate actions, sensations, and states

adjectives: designate properties of the entities designated by nouns

adverbs: designate properties of actions, sensations, and states designated by verbs

Question 18

How do we determine the category of a word? INFLECTION

Answer 18

Noun- plural/possessiive

Verb- past tense (ed), progressive (ing), third person singular (s)

Adjective comparative (er) superlative (est)

Question 19

How do we determine the category of a word? DISTRIBUTION

Answer 19

Noun: occurrence with a determiner | a car, the wheat

Verb: occurrence with an auxiliary | has gone, will stay

Adjective: occurrence with a degree word | very rich, too big

Question 20

what is the HEAD of a phrase?

Answer 20

The head of a phrase is its most important element. The category of the head determines the category of the phrase

Question 21

where do specifiers occur?

Answer 21

at the edge of a phrase (preceding the head)

Question 22

where do complements do?

Answer 22

provide information about the entities/locations implied by the head (following the head)

Question 23

what are the different constituency tests>

Answer 23

• the substitution test
• the movement test
• the coordination test

Question 24

what is the substitution test?

Answer 24

Certain expressions can be replaced by pronouns (she, they, it), and others, by ‘do so’

Question 25

what is the movement test?

Answer 25

Constituents can typically be moved to different positions in a sentence.

Question 26

what is the coordination test?

Answer 26

Constituents can typically be coordinated with other constituents (of the same structure).

Question 27

what are intransitive verbs?

Answer 27

Verbs that do not take complements

Question 28

what are transitive verbs?

Answer 28

Verbs that take a complement that involves an NP

Question 29

what are direct objects?

Answer 29

The NP complement of a verb

Question 30

what complement can adjectives take?

Answer 30

Tall, green, smart – very tall Ø Curious, glad, angry – curious [PP about china] Apparent, obvious – obvious [PP to the student] Fond, full, sick – fond [PP of chocolate]

Question 31

what complements can prepositions take?

Answer 31

Near, away, down – (he got) down Ø In, on, by, near – in [NP the house] Down, up, out – down [PP into the cellar]

Question 32

what is the matrix clause

Answer 32

The clause that embeds another

Question 33

what is the complement clause?

Answer 33

The embedded clause, which is also the complementizer phrase (CP)

Question 34

how is the complement clause introduced?

Answer 34

by the complementizer

Question 35

what are preverbal adverbs?

Answer 35

- adverbs are a lexical category, so when there's an Adv, there should be an AdvP (but treated as heads only)

Question 36

+pst means what?

Answer 36

past tense

Question 37

-pst means what?

Answer 37

non past

Question 38

in sentences that are past tense:

Answer 38

the subject NP is the specifier and the VP is its complement

Question 39

what are CPs?

Answer 39

- Complementizers are words that introduce a sentence - Certain verbs take entire clauses as complements, for example: [TP Jack HOPED [CP that [TP the team would win]]]

Question 40

T-to-C movement

Answer 40

Inversion

Question 41

in wh-interrogatives, when would you say 'who' and 'what'

Answer 41

who, what (when it occurs by itself)

Question 42

in wh-interrogatives, when would you use a det for 'what'?

Answer 42

when it occurs with a noun (what movie do you want to see?)

Question 43

in wh-interrogatives, when would you use 'which'?

Answer 43

N, when it occurs by itself Det, when it occurs with a noun

Question 44

in wh-interrogatives, when would you use 'where'?

Answer 44

Adv: where are you going

Question 45

in wh-interrogatives, when would you use 'when'?

Answer 45

adv: when did you move to Canada

Question 46

in wh-interrogatives, when would you use 'why'?

Answer 46

adv: why did you leave the room?

Question 47

in wh-interrogatives, when would you use 'how'?

Answer 47

Adv when it asks about a verb Deg, when it occurs with an adjective ex: How did they escape? How rich are they?

Question 48

interrogatives: (5)

Answer 48

Interrogatives have a silent question feature Q+ in the CP head Polar (Y/N) interrogatives involve T-to-C movement (inversion) Evidence to T-to-C movement comes from the embedded interrogatives in English: whether + no inversion Wh-interrogatives involve both T-to-C movement and wh-movement The deep structure has the wh-phrase in the place of the answer, and then it gets fronted (in English! But not in Mandarin)

Question 49

Who will walk the dog?

Answer 49

deep structure

Question 50

Virgilio will walk the dog.

Answer 50

surface structure

Question 51

what are parameters?

Answer 51

syntactic features that can be set to + or - in a given language

Question 52

when does verb raising occurs (in English)

Answer 52

only non-modal auxiliary verbs (have, be)

Question 53

modal auxiliaries:

Answer 53

can, will, may, might, could, should, would (TP)

Question 54

non-modal auxiliaries:

Answer 54

have, be (VP)

Question 55

modal auxiliaries sit...

Answer 55

in the T

Question 56

non-modal auxiliaries sit...

Answer 56

in their own VP

Question 57

N questions, non-modal auxiliaries move from..

Answer 57

V to T so the can then undergo T-to-C movement. but only if there is no modal auxiliary in the T head

Question 58

what are modifiers?

Answer 58

adjectival phrases that can modify a noun ex; a GOOD friend of the family

Question 58

where is the modifier position?

Answer 58

between the specifier and the head

Question 59

modifiers: Summary (4)

Answer 59

- Adjectives and postverbal adverbs are treated either as specifiers nor as complements: they are modifiers - Adjectives modify NPs, they branch out from N’ - Adverbs modify VPs, they branch out from V’ - When there is a complement or another modifier, there is more than one bar-level node!

Question 60

what are relative clauses?

Answer 60

Relative clauses are complementizer phrases (CPs) that modify a lexical word The relative clause provides more information about the word it modifies

Question 61

relative clauses (summary) (4):

Answer 61

1. Relative clauses modify NPs 2. The relative CP attaches as the complement of the NP 3. +Rel feature in the C head of the embedded clause 4. +Rel triggers movement, too