morpho suntax Flashcards
LEXICAL CATEGORIES
Open Classes
Noun (N)
* Verb (V)
* Adjective (A)
* Adverb (Adv)
PRONOUNS (DP)
GRAMMATICAL CATEGORIES
Closed classes
Determiner (D)
* Auxiliary (Aux > T)
* Preposition (P)
* Complementizer (C)
* Conjunction (Conj)
* Negation (Neg)
CONJUNCTION (Conj) or COORDINATOR
These elements connect two or more phrases together on an equal level
and, or, nor, neither … nor, either … or
COMPLEMENTIZER (C)
Also connect structures together but they embed one clause into the other (subordination)
that, because, whether, if, since
TENSE (T)
This category contains the finiteness, tense, and agreement information:
* Auxiliaries: have/has/had, am/is/are/was/were, do/does/did
* Modals: will, would, shall, should, can, could, may, might, must
* Non-finite tense marker: infinitival to
Infinitival to
has un unspecified tense value that must be determined from the context
1) We believe John to have been arrested (now)
2) We believe the police to have (already) arrested John
PREPOSITIONAL «TO»
Descriptive content
* Can be intensified by modifiers
e.g., He stayed right to the end of the film
* Takes Ns as complements
e.g., to the cinema
* Does not allow ellipsis of its complement
e.g., Do you want to go to the cinema?
*Yes, I want to go to ___.
INFINITIVAL «TO»
Grammatical content (non-finite T marker)
* Cannot be intensified by modifiers
e.g., I want *right to go
* Takes Vs as complements
e.g., to go
* Allows ellipsis of its complement
e.g., Do you want to go to the cinema?
Yes, I want to ___
PREPOSITIONAL «FOR»
Can be intensified
e.g., He headed straight for the pub
* Its complement cannot be subject of a sentence
e.g., It would be great for you to join them for dinner
e.g., *For dinner for you to join them would be great.
* Prepositions do not take infinitival sentences as
complement, but for…:
e.g., She is not sure *about you to come for dinner
e.g., They decided *against you to come for dinner
INFINITIVAL «FOR»
Dummy, it cannot be intensified
e.g., *I’m anxious straight for him to come
* Its complement can be the subject of another
sentence:
e.g., It would be great for you to join them for dinner
e.g., For you to join them for dinner would be great
* Take infinitival sentences as complement:
e.g., It is great for you to come for dinner
DETERMINER «THAT»
- Can be substituted by another D
e.g., That girl said that you are a liar
e.g., This / a / the girl said… - Can be used pronominally:
e.g., Nobody can blame you for that mistake/for that.
COMPLEMENTIZER «THAT»
Cannot be substituted by another D:
e.g., That girl said that you are a liar
e.g., That girl said this /a / the you are a liar.
* Cannot be used pronominally:
e.g., I’m sure that you are right /I’m sure that.
Constituency tests
- Prominalization (or replacement)
- Stand-alone
- Movement (clefting, preposing)
- Coordination
PROMINALIZATION: (or replacement)
a group of words can be replaced with a single word in a sentence, with
no change in acceptability, and only a minimal change in meaning.
STAND-ALONE:
A constituent can stand alone, typically as a response to a question.
MOVEMENT:
A sequence of words can be moved to another position of the sentence.
Clefting:
It is X that (rest of the sentence)
It is [that girl with the green dress] that might have hit your daughter
It is [your daughter] that the girl with the green dress might have hit
Preposing or pseudoclefting:
is/are X what/who
[That girl with the green dress] is who might have hit your daughter
Argument:
an argument is an expression or syntactic element in a sentence that serves to
complete the meaning of the verb
Adjunct:
Word or set of words that provides additional information to a sentence. It provides information about when, where, how and why the event took place
The notion of c-command plays a central role in defining and constraining operations such
as:
- Syntactic movement (e.g., T to C movement)
- Morphological operations (Affix Hopping-feature checking)
- Binding Theory
- Scope (e.g., NPI – more on this later…)
- Case and theta-role assignment
Violation of the Head Movement Constraint (HMC):
movement from one head position to another is only possible between a given head and the closest head which asymmetrically c-commands it
Affix hopping:
If the closest head c-commanded by T is an overt verb (V) the affix material is
lowered and attached to V (e.g., ENG declarative sentences)
Agent:
an animate entity that deliberately brings about the event
Causer:
entity responsible for (initiating) an event
Experiencer:
an animate entity that experiences the event
Theme:
person or object undergoing the action or prompting a sensory or
emotional state
Goal:
animate entity that the event is done to or for
Result:
resulting state
N-pronouns:
refer back to a noun (and take plural suffix)
D-pronouns:
serve as a pronominal determiner
I will buy this/that book → used prenominally (have a N following)
I will buy this/that → used pronominally
Q-pronouns:
serve as a pronominal quantifier
All children ate pizza vs. All ate pizza
I have met many students vs. I have met many
