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LING 322: Syntax > Midterm #1 > Flashcards

Midterm #1 Flashcards

1
Q

Are all NPs R-expressions?

A

No, not NPs that refer to an entity INSIDE the phrase such as herself in Heidi hit herself on the head (anaphor)

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2
Q

Anaphor

A

An NP that gets its meaning from another NP in the sentence

“Needy” ! (Must be bound within binding domain)

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3
Q

Two types of anaphors

A 
Reflexive pronouns (herself, himself etc) 
Reciprocals (each other)
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4
Q

Pronoun

A

An NP that may or may not get its meaning from another word in the sentence
“Need their space” (can be bound but not in binding domain, principle B)

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5
Q

Antecedent

A

NP that gives its meaning to another noun in the sentence

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6
Q

To be coindexed

A

Two NPs that get the same index are said to be coindexed (this they corefer to each other, aka refer to the same entity in the world)

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7
Q

Binding

A

Bound if:
-A C-commands B
AND
-A and B are coindexed

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8
Q

Binding Principle A

A

An anaphor must be bound in its binding domain (it’s own clause)

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9
Q

Locality constraint

A

Has to do with anaphors; anaphors need to find their antecedent in the same clause (must be near it or local in some way)

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10
Q

Binding domain

A

Clause containing the NP (anaphors, pronoun, R-expressions)

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11
Q

R-expression

A

NP that gets its meaning by referring to an entity in the world (ex: Felicia, a fine paper on Zapotec, etc)
“Lone wolves” (never bound)

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12
Q

When can a pronoun NOT be bound by its antecedent?

A

When the antecedent is its clause mate aka in the same immediate clause

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13
Q

Principle B

A

A pronoun MUST be free in its binding domain

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14
Q

Principle C

A

An R-expression must be free

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15
Q

Domination

A

Node A dominates Node B if A is higher up in the tree than B and if you can trace a branch from A to B only going downwards

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16
Q

Immediate domination

A

No nodes that are dominated by A, but dominate B (aka A is the first node that dominates B)

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17
Q

Root node vs terminal node vs non-terminal node

A

Root node: node that dominates everything but is dominated by nothing
(No node’s daughter)

Terminal node: a node that dominates nothing (not a mother)

Non-terminal node: node that dominates something (node that is a mother)

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18
Q

Exhaustive domination

A

Node A dominates all members of a set of terminal nodes and nothing else

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19
Q

Constituent

A

Set of terminal nodes exhaustively dominated by a particular node

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20
Q

Sister precedence

A

Node A sister-proceeds node B if and only if both are immediately dominated by the some node, and if A appears to the left of B

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21
Q

Precedence

A

Node A precedes node B if and only neither A dominates B nor vice versa, and A or some node dominating A sister-proceeds B or some node dominating B

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22
Q

What is the name of the constraint that stops nodes from crossing

A

No crossing branches constraint

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23
Q

C-command formal definition

A

Node A c-commands node B if every node dominating A also dominates B AND neither A nor B dominate each other

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24
Q

Symmetric vs asymmetric c-command

A 
Symmetric= A and B both c-command each other
asymmetric= A c-commands B but not the other way around
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25
Q

Government and its two kinds

A

Government= node A governs node B is A c-commands B without a node G that is c-commands by A and G asymmetrically c-commands B

Phrase government= if the governor is a phrase, only other phrases can intervene (not heads like N, V, etc)

Head government= same as phrase gov but phrase interveners don’t count

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26
Q

Subject

A

NP or CP daughter of TP

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27
Q

Two types of direct object

A

1) NP or CP daughter of VP
2) NP or CP daughter of VP that is proceeded by an NP daughter of VP

Ex: Susan kissed THE CLOWNS NOSE

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28
Q

Two types of indirect object

A

1) the PP daughter of VP immediately proceeded by an NP daughter of VP
2) the NP daughter of VP immediately preceded by V

Ex: he cut the steak with A KNIFE

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29
Q

Oblique

A

Any NP or PP is a sentence that is not a subject, direct object of a preposition, direct object or indirect object

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30
Q

Basic definition of direct object

A

NP or CP daughter of a VP

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31
Q

Object of preposition

A

NP daughter of PP

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32
Q

CP ->

A

(C) TP

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33
Q

TP ->

A

{NP/CP} (T) VP

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34
Q

VP ->

A

(AdvP+) V (NP) ({NP/CP}) (AdvP) (PP+) (AdvP+)

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35
Q

NP ->

A

(D) (adjP+) N (PP+) (CP)

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36
Q

PP ->

A

P (NP)

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37
Q

AdjP ->

A

(AdvP) Adj

38
Q

AdvP ->

A

(AdvP) Adv

39
Q

XP ->

A

XP conj XP

40
Q

X ->

A

X conj X

41
Q

The word that gives the phrase its category

A

Head

42
Q

Recursion

A

Possibility of loops in the phrase structure rules that allow infinitely long sentences and explain the creativity of language

43
Q

The principle of modification

A

If an XP modified some head Y, then XP must be a sister to Y (aka daughter of YP)

44
Q

The four major constituency tests

A 
Movement 
Coordination
Stand-alone 
Replacement 
(My constituent seems right)
45
Q

Replacement test

A

Replacing the word with a pronoun, etc
Ex: the man flew the plane
He flew the plane

46
Q

Stand-alone test (aka sentence fragment test)

A

If the words can stand alone in a response to a question, then they probably make up a constituent
Ex: testing “Paul ate at a really fancy restaurant”
What did Paul do yesterday afternoon?
Ate at a really fancy restaurant

47
Q

Movement test and its three types

A

If you can move a group of words around in a sentence, then they form a constituent because you can move them as a unit
1- clefting= he brought a brand new car -> it was [a brand new car] that he bought
2- proposing= I like big bowls of cereal -> [big bowls of cereal] are what I like
3- passive= the little student kissed the teacher -> [the teacher] was hugged by [the little student]

48
Q

Coordination (or conjunction) test

A

Coordinate structures are constituents linked by the word AND or OR
Only constituents of the same syntactic category can be conjoined
Ex: [rachel] and [paola] went to the store
*rachel and the very blue went to the store

49
Q

How many constituency tests should be applied?

A

Two or more if the first two answers are contradictory

50
Q

Three types of distribution

A

Morphological distribution: what affixes are found on the word

Syntactic distribution: what other words are nearby

Complementary distribution: when you have two categories and they never appear in the same environment (context) / usually means that two categories are part of the same class

51
Q

Open class categories

A

Noun (including pronouns)
Verb
Adjective
Adverb

52
Q

Closed class words

A 
Determiners
Prepositions 
Conjunctions
c
Tense
Negatives 
Pronouns
Anaphors
53
Q

Two types of categories

A

Lexical categories: express content of the sentence (N, V, adv, adj)

Functional categories: contain grammatical info of the sentence (D, P, conj, T, neg, C)

54
Q

Count vs mass nouns

A

Count nouns can appear with determiners and the quantifier ‘many’

Mass nouns can appear with ‘much’ and usually don’t have articles

55
Q

Predicate

A

Defines the relation between the individuals being talked about and some fact about them, as well as relations among the arguments

56
Q

Argument structure

A

The number of arguments that a predicate takes

57
Q

Argument

A

Entities that are involved in the predicate relation

58
Q

Intransitive vs transitive vs ditransitive

A

Intransitive: predicate that takes only ONE argument (valency of 1, no arguments after the verb)

Transitive: predicate that takes TWO arguments (valency of 2, have a single argument after the verb)

Ditransitive: predicate that takes THREE arguments (valency of 3, have two arguments after the verb)

59
Q

Divide “rachel hit the baseball” into arguments and predicates

A

Rachel / baseball (arguments)

Hit (predicate as it shows a relationship between the two arguments)

60
Q

Valency

A

Another name for argument structure

Ex: a predicate that takes only one argument has a valency of 1 (no Argument follows the verb)

61
Q

Three tense categories of English

A

Auxiliaries: have, is, do (and all their forms)
Modals: will, would, shall, can, could, might, etc
Non-finite tense marker: to

62
Q

Six categories of determiners in English

A

Articles: the, a, an
Deictic articles: this, that, these, etc
Quantifiers: every, some, many, most, etc
(Cardinal) numerals: one two three four etc
Possessive pronouns: my, your, his, her, etc
Some wh-question words: which and whose

63
Q

Complementizers of English (4)

A

That
For
If
Whether

64
Q

Prescriptive vs descriptive grammar

A

Prescriptive grammar: grammar rules that are taught by so called “grammar experts” which describe how people SHOULD talk/write, rather than describing what they actually do

Descriptive grammar: scientific grammar that describes, rather than prescribes, how people talk/write

65
Q

Generative grammar

A

A theory of linguistics where grammar is viewed as a cognitive faculty
Language is generated by a set of rules and procedures
Includes Principles and Parameters approach (w/ minimalism)

66
Q

Asterisk

A

Used to mark syntactically ungrammatical sentences *

67
Q

Hash mark

A

Used to mark sentences with issues in meaning (but not grammar) #

68
Q

Nominative vs accusative

A

Nominative: form of noun in subject position (I you he she it we they)

Accusative: form of noun in object position (me you him her her it us them)

69
Q

Two types of judgment (intuitions)

A

Semantic judgment: about meaning, relies on knowledge of context of the sentence

Syntactic judgment: about the form or structure of a sentence

70
Q

Garden path sentence

A

Sentence with strong ambiguity in structure that makes it hard to understand

71
Q

Center embedding

A

A sentence that has a relative clause (with subject + verb) placed between its main clause subject and verb
Ex: the house [bill built] leans to the left

72
Q

Parsing

A

The mental tools that a listener uses to process and understand a sentence

73
Q

Competence vs performance

A

Competence: what you know about your language

Performance: real-world behaviour that are a consequence of what you know about your language

74
Q

What allows us to produce sentences we’ve never heard before?

A

Recursion (ability to embed structures inside one another)

75
Q

The logical problem for language acquisition

A

The proof that an infinite system like human language cannot be learned by just observing data (an argument for UG)

76
Q

Under determination of the data

A

The idea that we know things about our language that we could not have possibly learned (an argument for UG)

77
Q

What are the two arguments for UG?

A

The logical problem of language acquisition

Under determination of the data

78
Q

Bio program hypothesis

A

The idea that creole languages share similar features because of an innate basic setting for language

79
Q

The three levels of grammar adequacy

A

Observationally accurate: a grammar that accounts for observed real-world data (ex: corpora)

Descriptively adequate grammar: a grammar that accounts for observed real-world data AND native speaker judgements

Explanatorily adequate grammar: accounts for observed real-world data AND native speaker judgments AND offers an explanation for the facts of language acquisition

(ODE to grammar adequacy- to remember)

80
Q

Who created the levels of adequacy and why?

A

Chomsky; three stages that a grammar can attain in terms of adequacy (how good it is)

81
Q

Supposed proof of UG

A

Premise 1: syntax=productive/recursive/infinite
Premise 2: rule-governed infinite systems are unlearnable
Conclusion: syntax is an unlearnable system therefore innate

82
Q

Three categorization criteria for words

A

Meaning
Morphology (ecosystem of word)
Place in a sentence

83
Q

Nouns

A

Morphology:
Take case/number/gender endings
Affixes (derivational): -ness, -ment, etc

Syntactic context:
Appear after [the ____]
Can be subject or object
Modified by adjectives

84
Q

Verbs

A

Morphology:
Derivational affixes: -ify, -ing, etc
Inflectional affixes: -s, -ed, etc

Syntax:
Appear after auxiliaries 
[please \_\_\_\_!]
Follows subject, comes before object 
Can be negated
85
Q

Adjectives

A

Morphology:
Take -er, -est, -ate, etc

Syntax:
Appear between ‘the’ and noun
Can follow ‘very’
Can appear in [john is ____]

86
Q

Adverbs

A

Take -ly affix
Appear before adjectives and verbs
[very ____]
Can appear at beginning or end of sentence

87
Q

Ellipsis

A

Ex: John [bought a pair of pants], but I don’t think Jim will.

88
Q

Can you say that two lexical items co-index each other?

A

No, they refer to each other! (Co-referential)

89
Q

How to answer a Principle question in 3 steps

A

Step 1: identify elements (R-expression, pronoun, antecedent, etc)
Step 2: is it bound? And explain (c-command + coindex)
Step 3: what does the theory predict? (Ex: since principle B is violated, the theory predicts that sentence will be ungrammatical…

90
Q

How to answer a constituency question

A

Write the sentence
Write the ungrammatical or grammatical test and say which test it is
Say whether it’s a constituent or not

LING 322: Syntax (1 decks)

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