syntax

Question 1

syntax definition

Answer 1

Syntax is the linguistic subsystem related to sentence structure.

Question 2

Clause

Answer 2

A group of words that contains a subject and a predicate

Question 3

sentence

Answer 3

A group of words that contains at least one main clause. It can contain any number of clauses.

Question 4

subject

Answer 4

the person/ thing the sentence is about

Question 5

Subject Complement

Answer 5

Adds an attribute, quality or another name of the subject.

Question 6

Adverbial

Answer 6

Gives additional information about place, time, etc…
Falls outside of the predicate
Can be removed completely from a sentence without affecting the syntactic integrity

Question 7

Main or Independent Clause

Answer 7

A clause that can stand alone as a sentence

Question 8

Subordinate or Dependent clause

Answer 8

A clause that cannot stand alone as a sentence. It is dependent on a main clause to make sense.

Question 9

A noun phrase

Answer 9

A noun phrase is a group of one or more words, and contains a noun as the head
of the phrase as well as modifiers to that noun.
The happy mouse <—-ate the cheese,

Question 10

verb phrase

Answer 10

A verb phrase consists of a main verb and any modifiers.
I –>ate a potato cake

Question 11

adjective phrase

Answer 11

An adjective phrase consists of an adjective as its head and may include
modifiers to that adjective.
The –very happy–cat drank the warm milk.

Question 12

adverb phrase

Answer 12

An adverb phrase consists of an adverb as its head and may include modifiers
to that adverb.
Adverb phrases help to describe elements such as time, place, manner,
frequency and degree in the same way adverbs do.

I ate the potato cake –very quickly.–

Question 13

direct and indirect objects

Answer 13

I gave Mary the book.

The direct object is the
noun phrase that is directly affected by the verb. In the example above, this is
‘the book’, because it’s the book that is moving from one person to the other. The
indirect object is the noun phrase that is indirectly affected by the verb. In the
example above, it’s the recipient ‘Mary’.

Question 14

predictor

Answer 14

So in David plays the piano, the Predicate is plays the piano. This Predicate consists of a verb phrase, and we can divide this into two further elements: [plays] [the piano] In formal terms, we refer to the verb as the PREDICATOR, because its function is to predicate or state something about the subject

Question 15

simple sentence

Answer 15

Sentences that contain one clause (and therefore one predicate).
Eg: They danced all day long.
Often used to make important points or to make information very clear.

Question 16

Compound Sentences

Answer 16

Sentences that contain two or more main clauses.
Clauses are joined with a coordinating conjunction
Eg: The horse is black and it runs very quickly.
Used to connect pieces of information that are equivalent.

Question 17

Complex Sentences

Answer 17

Contains one independent/main clause and one or more dependent/subordinate clauses.
Clauses are typically connected by a subordinating conjunction.
Eg: When Johnny goes shopping, he buys lots of corn.
Subordinate clauses provide extra info about the main clause - this is why they are dependent on the main clause to make grammatical sense.

Question 18

Compound-Complex Sentences

Answer 18

Contains two or more independent/main clauses and one or more dependent/subordinate clauses
That means at least three clauses.

Should contain at least one coordinating conjunction and at least one subordinating conjunction.

E.g. When(subordinating conjunction.
) Johnny goes shopping, he buys(coordinating conjunction) a lot of corn but he doesn’t buy meat because(subordinating conjunction.
) he’s vegetarian.

Question 19

fragment sentences

Answer 19

Sentence fragments are incomplete sentences - missing either the subject or the
predicate. However, the fragment still makes sense within the text as a whole.
Speaker A: How did you sleep last night?
Speaker B: Not well.

Question 20

declarative sentence

Answer 20

A declarative sentence is framed as a statement of fact; it declares something.
While the statement may not be true, the framing of the sentence implies that
it is.

Question 21

Interrogative sentences

Answer 21

Interrogative sentences are framed in the form of questions, ending with a
question mark. Whether it is rhetorical or not, if it has a question mark it’s
considered to be an interrogative sentence.

Question 22

Imperative sentences

Answer 22

Imperative sentences act as commands, instructions or requests.

Question 23

Exclamative sentences

Answer 23

Exclamative sentences express emotions such as fear, excitement or surprise. The
purpose of these sentences is to add emphasis in some way.

Question 24

content and Function words

Answer 24

That’s because content words (e.g., words that carry the most meaning when we speak, such as nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs) typically receive stress in phrases, while function words (e.g., words that have very little meaning, such as prepositions, articles, pronouns, and auxiliary verbs) do not.