Syntax Flashcards
syntax
how sentences and phrases can be constructed out of smaller phrases and words
linguistic expression
words and phrases (ex. cake, out) (phrases ex. out the window, my cake)
grammatical
when a string of words really does form a sentence of some language
ungrammatical
if a string o words doesn’t forms a sentence
grammaticality judgement
reflection of speaker’s mental grammar and not a test of their conscious knowledge of the prescriptive rules
principle of compositionality
the fact that the meaning of a sentence depends on the meanings of he expressions it contains and on the way they are syntactically combined
syntactic properties
properties of linguistic expressions that dictate how they can syntactically combine with other expressions, namely word order and co-occurance properties
word order
the linear order in which words can occur in some phrasal expression. also the set of syntactic properties of expressions that dictates how they can be ordered with respect to other expressions
co-occurance
the set of syntactic properties that determines which expressions may or have to co-occur with some other expressions in a sentence.
complements
non-subject arguments
argument
a linguistic expression that must occur in a sentence if some other expression occurs in that sentence as well. if the occurrence of x in a sentence requires the occurrence of an expression Y in that sentence, we say that y is an argument of x
adjunct
a linguistic expression whose occurrence in a sentence is optional; also called modifier
agreement
the phenomenon by which certain expressions in a sentence (ex. a verb and its subject) must be inflectionally marked for the same person, number, gender, etc.
morphosyntax
the name for syntax and morphology considered jointly as a single component of grammar
syntactic properties
properties of linguistic expressions that dictate how they can syntactically combine with other expressions, namely, word order and co-occurence properties
cleft
type of sentence that has the general form it is/was x that y. it was Sally that I wanted to meet. Can be used as a constituency test.
conjuncts
the arguments of coordinating conjunctions
syntactic category
a group of expressions that have very similar syntactic properties. all expressions that belong to the same syntactic category have more or less the same syntactic distribution
syntactic distribution
refers to the set of syntactic environments in which an expression can occur. if two expressions are interchangeable in all syntactic environments, we say that they have the same syntactic distribution, and therefore belong to the same syntactic category
sentence
a syntactic category that consists of all phrasal expressions that can grammatically occur
noun phrase
the name of a syntactic category that consists of proper names, pronouns, and all other expressions with the same syntactic distribution
noun
the name of a lexical category and a syntactic category. morphologically consists of words to which the plural suffix -s or the suffix -like can be added. syntactically consists of expressions that can combine with determiners to their left, the resulting expression being of category noun phrase
adjective
the name of a lexical category and a syntactic category. morphologically consists of words to which the comparative suffix -er or the suffix -ness can be added. syntactically the category consists of those expressions that can be noun adjuncts or occur in between a determiner an a noun
verb phrase
he name of a syntactic category that consists of all expressions which if combined with a noun phrase to their left result in a sentence
intransitive verb
the name for the set of lexical expression whose syntactic category is verb phrase
distransitive verb
the name of a syntactic category that consists of those expressions that if combined with two expressions of category noun phrase to their right result in a verb phrase. a verb that needs two noun phrase complements
sentential complement verb
the name of syntactic category that consists of those expressions that if combined with a sentence to their right result in a very phrase. a verb that needs a sentence as its complement
adverb
the name of a lexical category and a syntactic category that consists of expressions such as quickly, well, furiously, etc. syntactically adverbs can be verb phrase adjuncts
verb phrase adjuncts
a kind of adjunct that combines with an expression of syntactic category verb phrase with the resulting expression also being of category verb phrase
preposition
name of a lexical category and a syntactic category that consists of expressions such as of, in, for, with, etc. syntactically, this category consists of those expressions that when combined with an expression of category noun phrase to their right result in an expression of category prepositional phrase
prepositional phrase
the name of a syntactic category that consists of those expressions that contain a preposition and a noun phrase. can be verb phrase adjuncts or noun adjuncts.
lexical entry
a representation of a lexical expression and its linguistic properties within a decriptive grammar of some language a collection of lexical enteries constitutues the lexicon. a lexical entry has the form f -> x, where f is the form of some particular lexical expression and x is its syntactic category
phrase structure rule
a recipe for syntactically combining expressions of certain syntactic categories. along with the lexicon structure rules are a part of a descriptive grammar of some language.
phrase structure tree
a visual representation of how phrases are constructed within a descriptive grammar, given the lexicon and the phrase structure rules
ambiguity
the phenomenon by which a single linguistic form can be the form of more than one distinct linguistic expression. the form that is shared by more than one expression is said to be ambiguous.
lexical ambiguity
the phenomenon where a single word is the form of two or more distinct linguistic expressions that differ in meaning or syntactic properties.
homophony
phenomenon by which two or more distinct morphemes or non phrasal linguistic expressions happen to have the same form
structural ambiguity
the phenomenon where a single string of words is the from of more than one distinct phrasal expression
determiner
the name of a lexical category and a syntactic category that consists of expression such as the , a this, all, etc.
transitive verb
the name of a syntactic category that consists of those expressions that it combined with an expression of category noun phrase to their right result in a ern phrase
