Syntax Flashcards
What were some previous names for Sytnax?
Transformational Grammar, Generative Grammar or just Grammar.
What is Syntax?
The scientific study of sentence structure.
What is a sentence?
A hierarchically organised structure of words that maps sounds to meaning and vice versa.
Why do we use sentences?
In order to convey meaning, sounds have to be constructed into hierarchical structures to avoid ambiguity.
How do children acquire language and why is it relevant to syntax?
Children acquire language intuitively. This is relevant, because it means that syntax theories can’t be overly complicated or wild otherwise children would not be able to acquire them.
What is ‘Universal Grammar’?
It is the idea that language ability is innate and inborn to all human beings. This idea was introduced by Chomsky. Universal grammar has not been indisputably proven yet.
Is language acquired from experience?
No - children often have very different linguistic experiences growing up. Chomsky argued that if don’t know language from experience then you have to know it from somewhere else - Universal Grammar was his name for this.
What did Chomsky mean when he referred to ‘the ideal speaker-listener, in a completely homogenous speech community’?
Chomsky was arguing that, for the purposes of studying syntax, we need to idealize away the complexity and attempt to define a standard version by which to measure language. Without this, there would be too much complexity to be able to adequately describe the syntax of a language.
What is ‘descriptive adequacy’?
When a grammar is able to correctly describe the intrinsic competence of an ‘idealised native speaker’. No such grammar exists today.
What is speaker’s performance?
It refers to what the speaker actually produces when they speak / write.
What is competence?
It refers to what speakers consciously or unconsciously know about a language.
What is ‘Morphological Distribution’?
It refers to what forms a word can have in syntactic context i.e. how can that word by changed and what shape does it take.
What is ‘Syntactic Distribution’?
It refers to where a specific word can occur in a phrase or sentence and what words can modify it.
What is ‘Function’?
It refers to the grammatical role a word performs in a sentence or phrase.
What is ‘Morphology’?
It is the study of the principles that govern the internal form of words i.e. how are words put together.
What are syntactic categories?
They are the different types of words that exist in a language i.e. verbs, nouns, adjectives, prepositions, adverbs, conjunctions etc.
Why are lists and broad definitions bad tools for classifying certain syntactic categories?
For open classes of words like nouns, verbs, and adjectives, the number of words that fit into this category is always expanding and potentially infinite. If you try to create a definition based on such a broad spectrum of terms, you will end up with a vague definition that is not particularly useful.
What is the best approach for classifying syntactic categories?
Using syntactic and morphological criteria i.e. looking at the way the word is constructed, where it occurs in a sentence and how it behaves in a sentence.
In Morphology, what is an affix?
An affix is a morphological form that can be added to a word that will vary the specific meaning of that word in a consistent fashion. Affixes added at the end of a word are called ‘suffixes’. Affixes added at the beginning are called ‘prefixes’. An example is ‘ness’ in the words ‘darkness’, ‘kindness’ etc.
What are the morphological tests for nouns?
1) The addition of a plural -s on the end.
2) The addition of a possessive -‘s on the end.
Why can’t you only use one test to determine a word’s syntactic category?
In English, many words are exceptions to rules. Words like ‘sheep’ do not have a plural and cannot take a plural -s on the end. Therefore, you need to use more than one test to identify the syntactic category of a word.
What are the syntactic tests for nouns?
1) a determiner can be included in front of the word.
2) an adjective can be included in front of the word.
What are the morphological tests for adjectives?
1) the word can be used in a comparative / superlative by adding -er/-est i.e. tall -> taller / tallest.
What are the syntactic tests for adjectives?
1) the word can be used in a comparative / superlative by adding ‘more’ or ‘most’ in front of it i.e. the most intelligent.
2) the word can be positioned between a determiner and a noun i.e. ‘the SHORT book’.
3) the word can be preceded by ‘very’ (but watch out for adverbs).
4) the word can be preceded by ‘seems’ or ‘appears’ i.e. John seems ANGRY.
What are the morphological tests for verbs?
1) the present tense suffix -s can be added to the end of the word.
2) the past tense suffix -ed can be added to the end of the word.
What are the syntactic tests for verbs?
1) the word can be combined with a modal verb i.e. can or should.
2) the word can be combined with an adverb i.e. eats QUICKLY or eats OFTEN.
3) the word can be combined with the non-finite marker TO i.e. to go, to fly.
What are the morphological tests for adverbs?
1) the suffix -ly can be added to the end of the word i.e. slow -> slowly. However, beware of some adjectives i.e. ‘friendly’.
What are the syntactic tests for adverbs?
1) the word can be preceded by ‘very’ i.e. very slowly.
2) the word is ungrammatical when placed between a determiner and a noun i.e. the slowly car.
What are the morphological tests for prepositions?
There are none.
What are the syntactic tests for prepositions?
1) the word can be followed by a noun phrase (i.e. a determiner + noun combination) i.e. from the mother, under the couch.
2) the word can be preceded by straight / right / just i.e. just under the car, straight behind the door.
What is the difference between open and closed classes of words?
Open classes of words, such as nouns and verbs (and adjectives and adverbs in English) readily admit new words.
Closed classes of words do not readily admit new words i.e. prepositions, conjunctions and determiners.
What is the difference between lexical and functional words?
Lexical words contain semantic content and include nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs. They are the ‘bricks’ of a sentence. Function words provide grammatical information and hold the sentence together. They are the ‘mortar’ of a sentence. They include conjunctions, complementizers and negation.
What can be included in the tense category (T) in a phrase structure tree?
1) Auxiliaries i.e. have, is , did etc.
2) Modals i.e. will, would, shall, should, can, could, may, might, must.
3) non-finite tense marker - to.
What are constituents?
Although it seems circular, constituents are groups of words that behave like constituents. Linguists have developed specific tests for determining whether something is a constituent.
In terms of phrase structure trees, a constituent is a set of nodes exhaustively dominated by a single node.
What is the conjunction test for constituency?
If a string of words can be conjoined, then it is evidence that it is a constituent. If a conjunction is in a sentence, then both sides of the conjunction must be constituents.
This test can also be used to test non-conjoined phrases. If the phrase can be combined with a conjunction and a similar string of words, then it will be a constituent.
An example Iain talked to Isla. ‘talked to Isla’ is a constituent, because you can add ‘Iain talked to Isla and yelled at James’.
What is the pro-form test for constituency?
If a string of words can be replaced by a pro-form, then that is evidence that it is a constituent. A pro-form is a word that can replace another word (it can be a pronoun or another word).
An example - The cat licked Iain -> IT licked Iain.
The cat licked Iain and the dog DID SO too.
What is the elision test for constituency?
If a string of words can be elided, then that is evidence that it is a constituent. Elision refers to erasure here.
An example - Iain left a tip on the table but Isla didn’t. [leave a tip on the table] is therefore a constituent.
What is the clefting test for constituency?
If you can the change the position of a phrase, the phrase will be a constituent.
i.e. the customer in the corner will order the drinks before the meal -> it is before the meal that the customer in the corner will order the drinks. Therefore [before the meal] is a constituent.
What is the preposing test for constituency?
If you can change the structure of the sentence to highlight a specific phrase, then that phrase will be a constituent.
An example - Q: do you like small bowls of peanuts?
A: No, big bowls of peanuts are what I like!
What is the ‘fragment answers’ test for constituency?
If you can review a sentence and ask specific question of it, the answers to those questions will often be constituents.
An example - Colourless green ideas sleep furiously.
Q: What slept furiously? A: colourless green ideas.
Q: What did the colourless green ideas do? A: sleep furiously
The answers are constituents.
What is the passivization test for constituency?
Changing the sentence to the passive tense can also help indicate constituents.
An example - The toddler chatted to the annoying clown.
The annoying clown was chatted to by the toddler.
What is the pseudoclefting test for constituency?
This is related to clefting and is the opposite of the preposing test for constituency. If you can split a sentence in two and add the complementizer ‘that’, then everything that follows ‘that’ will be a constituent. This is called ‘pseudoclefting’ a phrase.
An example - John knows that Mary is intelligent.
What John knows is that Mary is intelligent.
What is the topicalization test for constituency?
A phrase will be a constituent if a new sentence can be added to the old one using a conjunction and the new phrase (or a similar phrase) starting that sentence. This is called ‘topicalizing’ a phrase.
An example - Iain gave a book to Isla but to Aidan he gave a violin. This is evidence that both ‘to Isla’ and ‘to Aidan’ are both constituents.
I told John to get an umbrella and get an umbrella he will. This is evidence that ‘get an umbrella’ is a constituent.
When drawing phrase structure trees, what does ‘TP’ stand for?
Tense phrase.
When drawing phrase structure trees, what does ‘CP’ stand for?
Complementizer phrase.
When drawing phrase structure trees, what does ‘NP’ stand for?
Noun phrase.
