Sentence Structure

Question 1

Syntax

Answer 1

Sentence structure.

Independent of meaning (semantics)

Question 2

Do sentences have structure?

Answer 2

They do because sentences with the same words can have different meanings.

Question 3

Semantics

Answer 3

Refers to meaning

Dependent on structure

Question 4

Passive sentence

Answer 4

The subject of the sentence has an action done to it by someone or something

Question 5

What is the difference between competence and performance?

Answer 5

Competence

• Studied by theoretical linguistics
• Linguistic knowledge that native speakers have and how they use it.
• Shown by an individual knowing which sentences are grammatical and which are not

Performance

• Studied by psychologists
• How we produce and understand actual language
• Can be limited in certain situations due to human processing limitations
• As a sentence gets more complex, it needs a larger working memory to be held in. Can have the competence to understand, but performance can be impacted

Question 6

Grammar

Answer 6

Set of synaptic principles/rules

Question 7

What does Chomsky argue about linguistics overall?

Answer 7

• Language is innate, species-specific and biologically pre-programmed.
• Language is independent of other cognitive structures.

Question 8

Nouns

Answer 8

Used to identify any of a class of people, places, or things

E.g. boy, idea, tree, cat

Question 9

Verbs

Answer 9

Used to describe an action, state, or occurrence

E.g. pushed, sleep, throws, ate

Question 10

Adjectives

Answer 10

Used to describe or add information about an object

E.g. lazy, beautiful, best

Question 11

Adverbs

Answer 11

Modifies or qualifies an adjective, verb, and so on, expressing a relation of place, time, degree

E.g. happily, very

Question 12

Open class (lexical) words

Answer 12

Infinite number of these. New open class words appear all the time.

Nouns
Verbs
Adjectives
Adverbs

Question 13

Closed class words

Answer 13

Pronouns
Auxiliary verbs
Copula verbs
Determiners 
Prepositions 
Connectives 

Only a few of these and no new closed class words appear.

Question 14

Determiner

Answer 14

A modifying word that determines the kind of reference a noun or noun group has.

Closed class

E.g. that, a, this

Question 15

Prepositions

Answer 15

Usually preceding, a noun or pronoun and expressing a relation to another word or element in a clause

Closed class

To far, besides, within, across, over

Question 16

Connectives

Answer 16

Word or phrase whose function is to link other linguistic units

Whereas, or, but, after, because

Question 17

Word Class Ambiguity

Answer 17

Some words can appear as a verb or a noun, depending on their context

Question 18

Phrase

Answer 18

A group of words which behave as one entity and can be moved around in a sentence. Can be replaced by a single word which changes the meaning.

E.g. The very old man saw the policeman IN THE MORNING.
IN THE MORNING the very old man saw the policeman

Question 19

What are the different types of phrases?

Answer 19

Noun Phrase
Verb phrase
Prepositional Phrase
Sentence or Claus

Question 20

Noun Phrase

Answer 20

• Headed by a noun
• Can be replaced by a single noun
• e.g. The man [keeps [three beautiful cats] [at home]]

Question 21

Verb Phrase

Answer 21

• Headed by a verb

- Can be replaced by a single verb

Question 22

Prepositional Phrase

Answer 22

• Headed by a preposition. Usually the first word.

Question 23

Sentence or Clause

Answer 23

• A whole sentence or clause

- Contains a verb carrying tense

Question 24

Subject

Answer 24

The subject of a sentence which is doing or being the verb e.g. the girl loves the cat.

Question 25

Finite Verb

Answer 25

A verb that has a subject and can function as the root of an independent clause

E.g. One man LEAVES the building

Doesn’t visibly change in the past tense.

Question 26

Interrogative Sentence

Answer 26

Sentence that asks a question

Question 27

Direct object

Answer 27

The thing being acted upon. Usually follows the main verb of the sentence

E.g. The man left THE BUILDING. The man saw THE THIEF.

Question 28

Describe the main phrase structure rules

Answer 28

1. A sentence (S) always consists of a subject (NP) and a predicate (VP)
2. A verb phrase (VP) always contains a verb (V), and sometimes contains other phrases such as a direct object (NP) and a prepositional phrase (PP)
3. A prepositional phrase (PP) always consists of a preposition (P) and a noun phrase (NP)
4. A noun phrase (NP) often consists of a determiner (Det) and a noun (N)

Question 29

Generative Grammar

Answer 29

A limited set of rules that should be able to generate all possible sentences in a language, and not generate any ungrammatical structures

Question 30

Recursion

Answer 30

When a rule uses a version of itself in the definition.

Keeps on continuing as you add more information. Explains why we can create infinite sentences.

Question 31

Iteration

Answer 31

When multiple verb phrases are conjoined.

Not embedded like recursion, but still similar. Can create an infinite number of sentences.

Question 32

Deep structure

Answer 32

Output for the base rules. Input to the semantic component.

Useful as a way of describing sentences as some surface structures are ambiguous and have different deep structures.

Question 33

Surface Structure

Answer 33

Output of the transformational rules. Input to the phonological rules.

Question 34

Phonology

Answer 34

Describes the sound categories each language uses to divide up the space of possible sounds.

Question 35

Phoneme

Answer 35

Basic unit of sound