Syntax Flashcards
What is syntax?
Subdiscipline of linguistics concerning sentence structure
The syntactic component of the grammar has 2 subcomponents:
- Lexicon
2. Computational System
Lexicon
Mental dictionary where individual words are stored
Computational System
Where words are combined and arranged to create sentences
Syntactic Categories
Small number of classes words of all languages can be assigned to
2 Types of Syntactic Categories
- Lexical
2. Functional (Non-Lexical)
Lexical Categories
Words that are easier to provide definition or paraphrases for
(N) (V) (A) (P) (Adv)
Noun (N)
Person, place, thing, or idea
Verb (V)
Action word
Adjective (A) (Adj)
Descriptive words for nouns
Adverb (Adv)
Descriptive words for verbs
Preposition
Indicate relationships
Functional (Non-lexical) Categories
Words that are harder to provide definitions or paraphrases for
(det) (deg) (aux) (con)
Determiner (det)
the / a
those / that / these / this
many / some
Auxiliary (aux)
[modal / non-modal]
can / could / shall / should / will / would / may / might / must
be / have / do
Closed Class
They have fewer members
Criteria for Lexical Categories
3 answers
- Meaning
- Inflection
- Distribution
Phrases
Larger structural units
Where can (nouns, verbs, and adjectives) occur and not occur?
Noun - occur with determiners - not with degree words Verb - occur with auxiliaries - not with determiners Adjectives - occur with degree words - not with auxiliaries
X’ Schema
Consists of a head: X, complement and specifier
Head
One obligatory component of a phrase
Noun / Verb / Adjective / Preposition
Specifier
Serve to mark a phrase boundary
Occur at left edge of phrase
Complements
Provide information about entities and locations whose existence is implied by the meaning of the head
Always a phrase
Merge
Combine words in a manner compatible with X’ - schema
Sentence
Largest unit of syntactic analysis
Infl
VP - complement
NP - specifier
AP
PP - complement
NP
PP - complement
PP
NP - complement
*obligatory
VP
NP - complement
Intransitive Verbs
There is no complement
Transitive Verbs
Require that there be a direct object
Ditransitive Verbs
Require both a direct and indirect object
Matrix Clause / Main Clause
Larger clause inside which the complement clause is contained
Complementizer
Head of CP
(C) = that / whether / if
Move
Move elements around transform statement built by merge into questions
I-to-C Movement
The content of Infl (I) and moves it up to C
Deep Structure / D-Structure
First level of structure created by merge
Surface Structure / S-Structure
Second level of structure created by move
Trace (t)
Phonetically invisible placeholder in moved element’s original position
WH - Movement
WH words are at the beginning of the statement
