Syntax Flashcards
Grammar
represents a speakers linguistic knowledge of phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax and semantics
knowing a language means…
putting together words to form phrases and sentences to express thoughts
phrases and sentences
strings of morphemes arranged in a specific order to express meaning
rules of grammar
tell what order of word combinations or strings can be arranged
grammatical sentence/s
strings of morphemes conforming to the syntactic rules of a language
ungrammatical
do not conform
what do we use to make grammatical judgements
intuitive syntactic knowledge
correct grammar does not
imply meaningfulness or truth
depend on discussion of “reality” or whether something is possible
syntax
analysis of phrase and sentence structure
definition of sytnax
study of system of rules and categories that underlies sentence formation
lexical
words that have meaning and can be inflected
nouns verbs adjectives adverbs and prepositions
non lexical
words that are harder to define
words with grammatical function
determiners, auxiliary verbs, degree words
traditional methods of sentence analysis
subject, verb, object
subject, predicate
logical subjects
doer of action
structural subjects
first NP under S node
logical objects
receiver of the action
structural objects
direct object
first NP under the VP node
diversity
order of SVO
fundamental commonalities
all languages have:
Verbs
Noun phrases that function as subjects and objects
rules that linearize
SVO
English and french
VSO
hebrew
classical gaelic
SOV
Japanese
eskimo
OVS
Brazil
colombia
venezuela
OSV
Guatemala
Mexico
Coeur d’ Alene in Idaho
Phrases
unit of sentence structure between a word and sentence
3 components of phrase
head
specifiers
complements
head
core of phrase (lexical)
n, adj, v, p
specifiers
make meaning more precise (non lexical, adverbs)
determiner
adverbs
degree
determiners
specify a noun
the
a
these
that
adverbs
specify a verb
always
often
never
degrees
specify adj or p
very, quite, really
complements
provide more information about items implied by head of phrase
noun phrase
presidents
adjective phrase
happy
prepositional phrase
in the car
substitution test
the phrase substituted with single expression
pronoun, do so, there
movement test
the phrase moved to another position in the sentence
coordination test
the phrase joined to another phrase with “and”
I +pst
past tense
I-pst
future or present tense
modal auxillary verbs
attached to inflection
may might must can could shall should will would
non modal auxillaries
labeled as verb with hanging inflection
be am are is was were been do did does has have had
complement cause
sentence contained within a phrase
4 most common that indicate CP
that if whether because
move
transform existing sentence into different type of structure
3 consequences of Move
CP
Trace
levels of representation
CP
every sentence resulting from move must contain a CP
Trace
move leaves behind a trace which records that a move occurred and notes where the structure originated
levels of representation
deep structure
surface structure
Yes-no inversion
move auxiliary verb
Mary will leave - will Mary leave
Wh questions
put in deep structure first then tree and move
George should buy what - what should George buy
Do insertion and move
formation of questions by inserting and moving do, did, does
he wants to eat a hotdog - he does want to eat a hotdog - does he want to eat a hotdog
coordination
combining structures of same type together with conjunctions such as and, but, or.
relative clauses
modify preceding noun, begin with wh word and involve wh move
the girl, who lives next door, is going to the mall
passives/active
the chef prepared the meal
the meal was prepared by the chef
