LIN MIDTERM Flashcards
vocabulary and practice exam
Is vocabulary implicit or explicit?
explicit:
(easy to explain what ‘pumpkin’ refers to)
is morphology implicit or explicit?
explicit:
(easy to explain what -s in “pumpkins” does)
Are articulatory phonetics implicit or explicit?
implicit:
(know we use, but can’t explain, not straightforward how you make the sound [l] or [k])
what is syntax?
how to combine words with each other
how is syntactics knowledge both implicit and explicit?
- Explicit is “The chases cat dog the” grammatical?
- Implicit: Why can you say: “Who came” but not “What you ate?”
what is semantics?
How the meaning of a structure is calculated. Semantics calculate means.
what is productivity?
languages have a finite set of words which they can combine to form infinitely many sentences.
what is language change?
languages are in constant change. Some words disappear, new words must appear. Structures can change.
What is empirical observations?
linguists make observations about how people use language
Similar to biologists, but linguistics observe phenomena and try to come up with generalisations
what is prescriptivism?
(how language should be used); i.e.; coaches
what is descriptivism?
(how language is actually used); i.e.; linguists
Colourless green ideas sleep furiously– Noam Chomsky
Grammaticality is not a black and white matter
Who decides what is grammatical and what is not? (language users themselves)
what are the two types of categories of words?
- lexical categories
- non-lexical categories
what are lexical categories?
- 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
what are non-lexical (functional) categories?
words that do not refer to things in the world, but have grammatical factors
what are examples of lexical categories? (5)
- Noun (N)- person/place/thing
- Verb (V)- action word
- Adjective (A)- description
- Preposition (P)- [to, in, on, near, at, by]
- Adverb (Adv)- describing a verb
what are examples of non-lexical categories? (5)
- Determiner (det)-
the, a, this, these, no - Degree word (deg)- too, so, very, more, quite
- Modal auxiliary- will, could, would, may, can, should
- Non-modal auxiliary- be, have, do
- Conjunction- and, or, but
How do we determine the category of a word? MEANING
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
How do we determine the category of a word? INFLECTION
Noun- plural/possessiive
Verb- past tense (ed), progressive (ing), third person singular (s)
Adjective comparative (er) superlative (est)
How do we determine the category of a word? DISTRIBUTION
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
what is the HEAD of a phrase?
The head of a phrase is its most important element. The category of the head determines the category of the phrase
where do specifiers occur?
at the edge of a phrase (preceding the head)
where do complements do?
provide information about the entities/locations implied by the head (following the head)
what are the different constituency tests>
- the substitution test
- the movement test
- the coordination test
what is the substitution test?
Certain expressions can be replaced by pronouns (she, they, it), and others, by ‘do so’
what is the movement test?
Constituents can typically be moved to different positions in a sentence.
what is the coordination test?
Constituents can typically be coordinated with other constituents (of the same structure).
what are intransitive verbs?
Verbs that do not take complements
what are transitive verbs?
Verbs that take a complement that involves an NP
what are direct objects?
The NP complement of a verb
what complement can adjectives take?
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]
what complements can prepositions take?
Near, away, down – (he got) down Ø
In, on, by, near – in [NP the house]
Down, up, out – down [PP into the cellar]
what is the matrix clause
The clause that embeds another
what is the complement clause?
The embedded clause, which is also the complementizer phrase (CP)
how is the complement clause introduced?
by the complementizer
what are preverbal adverbs?
- adverbs are a lexical category, so when there’s an Adv, there should be an AdvP (but treated as heads only)
+pst means what?
past tense
-pst means what?
non past
in sentences that are past tense:
the subject NP is the specifier and the VP is its complement
what are CPs?
- 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]]]
T-to-C movement
Inversion
in wh-interrogatives, when would you say ‘who’ and ‘what’
who, what (when it occurs by itself)
in wh-interrogatives, when would you use a det for ‘what’?
when it occurs with a noun (what movie do you want to see?)
in wh-interrogatives, when would you use ‘which’?
N, when it occurs by itself
Det, when it occurs with a noun
in wh-interrogatives, when would you use ‘where’?
Adv: where are you going
in wh-interrogatives, when would you use ‘when’?
adv: when did you move to Canada
in wh-interrogatives, when would you use ‘why’?
adv: why did you leave the room?
in wh-interrogatives, when would you use ‘how’?
Adv when it asks about a verb
Deg, when it occurs with an adjective
ex: How did they escape?
How rich are they?
interrogatives: (5)
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)
Who will walk the dog?
deep structure
Virgilio will walk the dog.
surface structure
what are parameters?
syntactic features that can be set to + or - in a given language
when does verb raising occurs (in English)
only non-modal auxiliary verbs (have, be)
modal auxiliaries:
can, will, may, might, could, should, would (TP)
non-modal auxiliaries:
have, be (VP)
modal auxiliaries sit…
in the T
non-modal auxiliaries sit…
in their own VP
N questions, non-modal auxiliaries move from..
V to T so the can then undergo T-to-C movement. but only if there is no modal auxiliary in the T head
what are modifiers?
adjectival phrases that can modify a noun
ex; a GOOD friend of the family
where is the modifier position?
between the specifier and the head
modifiers: Summary (4)
- 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!
what are relative clauses?
Relative clauses are complementizer phrases (CPs) that modify a lexical word
The relative clause provides more information about the word it modifies
relative clauses (summary) (4):
- Relative clauses modify NPs
- The relative CP attaches as the complement of the NP
- +Rel feature in the C head of the embedded clause
- +Rel triggers movement, too
