syntax + Flashcards
alternative form to passive in english
to get plus pp
some dialects use needs + present participle
cross linguistically what is the scenario with passives?
they don’t involve auxiliary verbs like be, become or get (analytic or periphrastic)
instead a synthetic passive is used
Only a verb that
has an object can be passivised
With impersonal passives what happens?
a dummy subject is used because the verb is intransitive
what happens in passives like ‘this bed has been slept in’
the subject does not correspond to the object of the verb in the active. It corresponds instead to the complement
They are called prepositional passives
what does a clause usually consist of?
a subject and a predicate
prepositions are usually expressed by which type of clause?
root or main clauses
Can imperatives be imbedded?
Nooo
how is a subordinate clause usually introduced?
by a conjunction
what type of verb is the only one to be able to head a root clause?
a finite verb
A VP with a PP modifier attached just makes
another VP and therefore we get recursive structures
What is a reason adjunct?
“because…”
modal verbs require what type of complement?
a bare infinitive
perfect auxiliary “have” requires what type of complement?
a past participle as a head
three conditions for determining a sentence structure
the selectional requirements of the words
language specific ordering constraints
Universal principles on syntactic structures
