Module 6 Flashcards
syntax
a component of mental grammar that deals with constructing phrasal expressions out of smaller expressions
syntactician
someone who studies syntax
phrase
a linguistic expression that results from the syntactic combination of smaller expressions. A multi-word linguistic expression
linguistic expression
a piece of language with a form, meaning, and syntactic properties
syntactic properties
properties of linguistic expressions that dictate how they can syntactically combine with other expressions; namely, word order and co-occurence properties
grammaticality judgment
an instance of a 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 meanings of the expressions 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.
co-occurence
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 at the beginning of a sentence in order to highlight the topic under discussion
adposition
the set of propositions, postpositions, circumpositions, and perhaps a few other items
postposition
a class of words similar to prepositions, but which come after their complement
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 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
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 phrase structure rules
clefting
The technique by which a cleft is formed in order to test for constituency
cleft
a type of sentence that has the general form “It is/was X that Y.” Can be used as a constituency test
coordination
a technique which involves the use of a coordinating conjunction such as “and” or “or” to test for constituency
conjunct
an 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 same 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 they have the same syntactic distribution, and therefore belong to the same syntactic category
noun phrase
the name of a syntactic category that consists of proper names, pronouns, and all other expressions with the same syntactic distribution
