syntax Flashcards

1
Q

phrase

A

a collection of words that have a grammatical relationship with each other.

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2
Q

clauses

A

units of grammar that contain a subject and a verb. smallest grammatical unit that contains a subject and a predicate (contains a verb and something about the subject, eg. John went home)

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3
Q

sentence

A

a group of words that contains at least one main clause. it may also contain one or more other clauses. it makes sense as a whole and can stand on its own to create meaning.

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4
Q

sentence structures

A
  • simple: contain a single independent clause
  • compound: contain two or more independent clauses joined either with a comma and conjunction or a semicolon
  • complex: contain a single independent clause and one or more dependent clauses.
  • compound-complex: two independent clauses and at least one dependent clause. adding a compound sentence to a complex sentence
  • sentence fragments: groups of words that look like sentences but aren’t. missing either a subject or main verb
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4
Q

ellipses

A

removing words from an utterance, clause or sentence. leaves out implied or unnecessary info

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4
Q

coordination & subordination

A

coordination- uses coordinating conjunctions to combine clauses into sentences (FANBOYS)
subordination- uses subordinating conjunctions to change main clauses into subordinating clauses (because, while, after, although, than, which, that, whether)

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4
Q

nominalisation

A

a noun is created from another word class

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4
Q

active and passive voice

A

active voice: the agent is the subject of the sentence. mentioned first. eg. “the dog bit the girl”
passive voice: the agent moves out of the subject position and is replaced by the patient. eg. “the girl was bitten by the dog”

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4
Q

sentence types and their functions

A
  • declarative: provide info, observations or statements
  • interrogative: designed to elicit responses, can be used rhetorically; rhetorical interrogatives can be used to persuade the audience to agree
  • imperative: can reduce level of politeness, create a sense of urgency or intensity
  • exclamative: indicate high levels of emotion, emphasis, excitement. frequently use interjections, discourse particles, swearwords to provide extra intensity
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4
Q

basic functions in clause structure

A
  • subject: noun or noun phrase that takes the action indicated by the predicate (verb)
  • object: noun that has not taken the action indicated by the verb. the thing that has been acted upon
  • complement: provides extra info about an element
  • adverbial: provide additional info about an element in relation to time, place or manner
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4
Q

agentless passive

A
  • used when the speaker/writer doesn’t want to include reference to an agent
  • used in double-speak and political rhetoric to obfuscate, mislead and confuse
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5
Q
A
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5
Q
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6
Q

agent & patient

A

agent- causes the change of state described by the verb
patient- what has been changed or affected by the agent

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7
Q

syntactic patterning

A
  • Parallelism: 2 or more phrases, clauses or sentences that are structurally similar and appear near each other. can be used to persuade
  • Antithesis: the elements in parallel are in direct contrast with each other
  • Listing: 3 or more related elements placed together separated by commas or bullet points
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