Syntax

Question 1

What is syntax?

Answer 1

Subdiscipline of linguistics concerning sentence structure

Question 2

The syntactic component of the grammar has 2 subcomponents:

Answer 2

1. Lexicon

2. Computational System

Question 3

Lexicon

Answer 3

Mental dictionary where individual words are stored

Question 4

Computational System

Answer 4

Where words are combined and arranged to create sentences

Question 5

Syntactic Categories

Answer 5

Small number of classes words of all languages can be assigned to

Question 6

2 Types of Syntactic Categories

Answer 6

1. Lexical

2. Functional (Non-Lexical)

Question 7

Lexical Categories

Answer 7

Words that are easier to provide definition or paraphrases for
(N) (V) (A) (P) (Adv)

Question 8

Noun (N)

Answer 8

Person, place, thing, or idea

Question 9

Verb (V)

Answer 9

Action word

Question 10

Adjective (A) (Adj)

Answer 10

Descriptive words for nouns

Question 11

Adverb (Adv)

Answer 11

Descriptive words for verbs

Question 12

Preposition

Answer 12

Indicate relationships

Question 13

Functional (Non-lexical) Categories

Answer 13

Words that are harder to provide definitions or paraphrases for
(det) (deg) (aux) (con)

Question 14

Determiner (det)

Answer 14

the / a
those / that / these / this
many / some

Question 15

Auxiliary (aux)

[modal / non-modal]

Answer 15

can / could / shall / should / will / would / may / might / must
be / have / do

Question 16

Closed Class

Answer 16

They have fewer members

Question 17

Criteria for Lexical Categories

3 answers

Answer 17

1. Meaning
2. Inflection
3. Distribution

Question 18

Phrases

Answer 18

Larger structural units

Question 19

Where can (nouns, verbs, and adjectives) occur and not occur?

Answer 19

Noun 
- occur with determiners
- not with degree words
Verb
- occur with auxiliaries 
- not with determiners 
Adjectives 
- occur with degree words
- not with auxiliaries

Question 20

X’ Schema

Answer 20

Consists of a head: X, complement and specifier

Question 21

Head

Answer 21

One obligatory component of a phrase

Noun / Verb / Adjective / Preposition

Question 22

Specifier

Answer 22

Serve to mark a phrase boundary

Occur at left edge of phrase

Question 23

Complements

Answer 23

Provide information about entities and locations whose existence is implied by the meaning of the head
Always a phrase

Question 24

Merge

Answer 24

Combine words in a manner compatible with X’ - schema

Question 25

Sentence

Answer 25

Largest unit of syntactic analysis

Question 26

Infl

Answer 26

VP - complement

NP - specifier

Question 27

AP

Answer 27

PP - complement

Question 28

NP

Answer 28

PP - complement

Question 29

PP

Answer 29

NP - complement

*obligatory

Question 30

VP

Answer 30

NP - complement

Question 31

Intransitive Verbs

Answer 31

There is no complement

Question 32

Transitive Verbs

Answer 32

Require that there be a direct object

Question 33

Ditransitive Verbs

Answer 33

Require both a direct and indirect object

Question 34

Matrix Clause / Main Clause

Answer 34

Larger clause inside which the complement clause is contained

Question 35

Complementizer

Answer 35

Head of CP

(C) = that / whether / if

Question 36

Move

Answer 36

Move elements around transform statement built by merge into questions

Question 37

I-to-C Movement

Answer 37

The content of Infl (I) and moves it up to C

Question 38

Deep Structure / D-Structure

Answer 38

First level of structure created by merge

Question 39

Surface Structure / S-Structure

Answer 39

Second level of structure created by move

Question 40

Trace (t)

Answer 40

Phonetically invisible placeholder in moved element’s original position

Question 41

WH - Movement

Answer 41

WH words are at the beginning of the statement