Module 5 Chapter 5 Vocab Terms Flashcards
syntax
a component of mental grammar that deals with constructing phrasal expressions out of linguistics which studies how expressions can combine to form larger expressions
linguistic expression
a piece of language with a form, meaning and syntactic properties
grammatical
a term used to describe a sentence that is in accordance with the descriptive grammatical rules of some language, especially syntactic rules.
ungrammatical
not in accordance with the descriptive grammatical rules of some language, especially syntactic rules
grammaticality judgement
an instance of 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
principle of compositionality
the notion that the meaning of a phrasal expression is predictable from the meaning of the expression it contains and how they were syntactically combined
lexical expression
a linguistic expression that has to be listed in the mental lexicon, e.g. single-word expressions and idioms
phrasal expression
a linguistic expression that results from the syntactic combination of smaller expressions. A multi-word linguistic expression
syntactic properties
properties of linguistic expressions that dictate how they can syntactically combine with other expressions, namely word order and co-occurrence properties
word order
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.
co-occurrence
the set of syntactic properties that determines which expressions may or have to co-occur with some other expressions in a sentence.
topicalization
a syntactic process by which (in English) a syntactic constituent occurs the beginning of a sentence in order to highlight the topic under discussion
argument
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.
complement
a non-subject argument of some expression
adjunct
a linguistic expression whose occurrence in a sentence is optional: also called a modifier.
agreement
the phenomenon by which certain expressions in a sentence (e.g. a verb and its subject must be inflectionally marked for the same person, number and gender
morphosyntax
the name for syntax and morphology considered jointly as a single component of grammar
syntactic constituent
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 phase structure rules.
cleft
a type of sentence that has the general form It is/was X that Y, e.g. It was Sally that I wanted to meet. Can be used as a constituency test.
conjuncts
and argument of a coordinating conjunction such as and or or
syntactic category
a group of expressions that have very similar syntactic properties. All expressions that belong to the same syntactic category have more or less the syntactic distribution.
syntactic distribution
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.
sentence
a syntactic category that consists of all phrasal expressions that can grammatically occur in Sally thinks that _____.
noun
N-the name of a lexical category and syntactic category. Syntactically, consists of expressions that can combine with determiners to their left, the resulting expression is a noun phrase.
determiner
Det-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 noun phrase
noun phrase
NP- the name of the syntactic category that consists of proper names, pronouns, and all other expressions with the same syntactic distribution
adjective
Adj. the name of a lexical and syntactic category. Syntactically, the category consists of those expressions that can be noun adjuncts or occur in between a determiner and a noun
verb phrase
VP-the name of the syntactic category that consists of all expressions which if combined with a noun phrase to their left result in a sentence
intransitive verb
the name for the set of lexical expressions whose syntactic category is verb phrase
transitive verb
TV- the name of a syntactic category that consists of those expressions that if combined with an expression of category noun phrase to their right result in a verb phrase: a verb that needs a noun phrase complement
distransitive verb
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.
sentential complement verb
the name of a syntactic category that consists of those expressions that if combined with a sentence to their right result in a verb phrase; a verb that needs a sentence as its complement
adverb
Adv-the name of lexical and syntactic category that consists of expressions such as quickly, well, furiously, etc. Syntactically, adverbs can be verb phrase adjuncts
VP adjuncts
a kind of adjunct that combines with an expression of syntactic category verb phrase with the resulting expression also being of category verb phrase
noun adjunct
a kind of adjunct that combines with an expression of syntactic category noun with the resulting expression also being of category noun
prepositional
P- The name of a lexical category and a syntactic category that consists of expressions such as of, in, for, with, etc.. Syntactically, this category consists of those expressions that when combined with an expression of category noun phrase to their right result in an expression of category perpositonsal phrase
prepositional phrase
PP- the name of the syntactic category that consists of those expressions that contain a preposition and a noun phrase. Can be verb phrase adjuncts or noun adjuncts.
phrase structure rules
a recipe for syntactically combining expressions of certain syntactic categories. Along with the lexicon, phrase structure rules are a part of a descriptive grammar of some language.
phrase structure tree
A visual representation of how phrases are constructed within a descriptive grammar, given the lexicon and the phrase structure rules.
lexical ambiguity
the phenomenon where a single word is the form of two or more distinct linguistic expressions that differ in meaning or syntactic properties.
structural ambiguity
the phenomenon where a single string of words (or morphemes) is the form of more than one distinct phrasal expression (or word). Arises because the same expressions can combine differently syntactically, resulting in distinct phrases that happen to have the same form.
