Syntax Flashcards
grammar
the grammar of a natural language is its set of structural constraints on speakers’ or writers’ composition of clauses, phrases, and words
syntax
the study of how words and morphemes combine to form larger units such as phrases and sentences
constituents
a word or a group of words that function as a single unit within a hierarchical structure
phrases
any group of words, or sometimes a single word, which plays a particular role within the syntactic structure of a sentence.
pronominalisation
a rule replacing lexical items with a pronoun
pro-form
a type of function word or expression that stands in for another word, phrase, clause or sentence where the meaning is recoverable from the context
wh-pronoun
Wh- words can appear in both direct questions and indirect questions, and they are used to begin wh-clauses
movement
the means by which some theories of syntax address discontinuities
coordination test
one of the traditional diagnostic tests for constituent structure
gapping
a type of ellipsis that occurs in the non-initial conjuncts of coordinate structures
sentence-fragment test
If the sentence is missing a subject or a verb/predicate
structural ambiguity
occurs when a phrase or sentence has more than one underlying structure
head
the word that determines the syntactic category of that phrase
noun phrases
a group of words, usually a noun in addition to a modifier—such as an adjective, adverb, or article—that functions just as a noun would
prepositional phrases
a group of words that consists of a preposition and the object of the preposition
adjective phrases
a phrase whose head is an adjective
adverb phrases
a multi-word expression operating adverbially
verb phrases
a syntactic unit composed of a verb and its arguments except the subject of an independent clause or coordinate clause
projects
based on linguistic data and consists of an in depth description of the material or same aspects of the material using standard linguistic terminology.
projections
a stipulation proposed by Noam Chomsky as part of the phrase structure component of generative-transformational grammar
word-classes
a group of words that have the same basic behavior such as nouns, adjectives, or verbs.
syntactic categories
the groups of words that let us state rules and constraints about the form of sentences
parts-of-speech
indicates how the word functions in meaning as well as grammatically within the sentence
lexical categories
classes of words (e.g., noun, verb, preposition), which differ in how other words can be constructed out of them
determiners
a nominal syntactic category distinct both from adjectives and nouns, despite the close affinity among them
phrase structure rules
a formal hypothesis for representing constituency using rules
subordinate clauses
a clause that cannot stand alone as a complete sentence; it merely complements a sentence’s main clause, thereby adding to the whole unit of meaning
clause
like a phrase, is a group of words. But unlike a phrase, a clause is pretty complete. A clause is a group of words that contains both a subject and a predicate.
Sentences
a linguistic expression, such as the English example “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.” In traditional grammar it is typically defined as a string of words that expresses a complete thought, or as a unit consisting of a subject and predicate
matrix clause
a clause that contains a subordinate clause
main clause
a group of words that contains a subject and a verb and can form a complete sentence on its own.
predicate
the part of a sentence or clause that is not the subject but asserts a property, action, or condition of the subject
transitive verbs
a verb that requires an object to receive the action
intransitive verbs
a verb that doesn’t require a direct object (i.e., a noun, pronoun or noun phrase) to indicate the person or thing acted upon
di-transitive
a transitive verb whose contextual use corresponds to a subject and two objects which refer to a theme and a recipient
direct object
a word or phrase that receives the action of the verb
indirect object
the word or phrase that receives the direct object
adverbial
words that we use to give more information about a verb
complement
a word, phrase, or clause that is necessary to complete the meaning of a given expression
predicative complements
completes the meaning of a sentence by giving information about a noun
