syntax Flashcards
phrases
a group of related words without an agreeing subject and verb eg. ‘through the tunnel’, ‘had been caught’
clauses
group of words with a subject (that can be ellipted) and verb
sentences
grammatical structure made up of one or more clauses
types of sentence structures
sentence fragments; simple, compound, complex, compound-complex sentences
sentence fragments
missing some structural parts of a sentence and doesn’t not make sense on its own
simple, compound, complex, compound-complex sentences
simple - one clause
compound - two or more independent clauses joined by a coordinating conjunction
complex - subordinate clause(s) joined to a principal (independent) clause
compound-complex - sentence contains both two or more independent clauses and one or more subordinate clauses
ellipses
the omission of a grammatical element from a sentence where the meaning is still understood eg. ‘__ you like coffee?’
nominalisation
affects the structure of a clause as it involves a verb or adjective (mainly) being used as or transformed into a noun (nominal group) eg ‘the DECISION by the government…’ instead of ‘the government decided…’
coordination and subordination
coordination - the joining of clauses using coordinating conjunctions (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so, FANBOYS)
subordination - the joining of clauses through the use of subordinating conjunctions to create dependent clauses eg. ‘if I told you, it wouldn’t work, ALTHOUGH I’m not sure’
sentence types
declaratives, imperatives, interrogatives, exclamatives
declarative
sentence type that expresses a statement
imperative
sentence type that expresses a directive or a command
interrogative
sentence type that expresses a question, usually the subject and verb are inverted
exclamative
sentence type that starts with an interrogative pronoun but is an emotive statement eg ‘why that’s fantastic!’
subject
noun phrase or pronoun that is the actor of a verb in a clause (if passive structure then subject is the noun phrase or pronoun that starts the sentence)
object
noun phrase or pronoun that receives the action of the verb
complement
noun phrase or pronoun or adjective following a form of the verb ‘to be’ that modifies or refers to the subject eg. ‘you are beautiful’
adverbial
lexeme or phrase that modifies a verb phrase. it relates to time, manner or place eg ‘ IN THE MORNING I will study’
active voice
grammatical construction in which the subject is the actor of the verb in a clause eg. ‘she was lying to me’
syntactic patterning
PAL
parallelism
antithesis
listing
parallelism
Parallel sentence structures layering & packaging of nps mirrored structures build semantic thread memorable creates cohesion
antithesis
Antonyms in a parallel structure
listing
commas divide noun phrases
layering & packaging
creates semantic thread
function of nominalisation
makes something a concept
more authoritative objective & professional
created using derivational morpheme
information flow (a discourse ft) and how it relates to syntax
contribute to texts cohesion
clefting, front focus & end focus
sentence organisation (highlight important ft)
it clefts
DumS + V + S + relative pronoun + clause
eg. Meg kicked the winning goal > it was meg who kicked the winning goal
what clefts
What + subj noun clause (SNCL) + V + NP
eg. I really want answers > what I really want are answers
end focus
moves grammatically complicated & heavily modified structures to end
existential sentences
related to end focus & end weight
create empty subject using p.noun ‘there’
eg. there are many endangered species in Aus
front focus
highlights beginning of sentence
greater prominence for elements that would usually come later
places something other than subj NP at start
can be created by fronting, inversion, passive voice
information flow (factors)
clefting
end focus
front focus
fronting
DC or phrase moved to the start of a sentence (before the IC) to qualify or set the scene
inversion
S and V are swapped. Creates dramatic style & tone
eg ‘numerous are those who…’
more literary
planned and drafted
