Syntax Flashcards
Syntax
structure of sentences
Grammar
complete system of phonological, morphological, syntactic, and semantic information and rules that speakers of a given language possess
Structure
organized combination of mutually connected and dependent parts or elements
Constituents
syntactic units
Phrases
a group of words (or possibly a single word) that functions as a constituent in the syntax of a sentence, a single unit within a grammatical hierarchy
Pronominalisation
substitution of a constituent by a pronoun
Movement
if a string of words can be moved to other sentential positions,
Mother Node
node immediately above a given node
Sister Node
nodes that share the same mother node
Structural Ambiguity
presence of two or more possible meanings within a single sentence or sequence of words
Head
most important element of a phrase, phrases named after their head; ex: prepositional phrase, adjective phrase, etc.
Demonstratives
occur in slot 1 of a noun phrase, but also as words replacing a whole phrase
Subordinate Clauses
a group of words that has both a subject and a verb but cannot stand alone as a sentence
Clause
Syntactic unit that consists minimally of a verb phrase and its subject
Sentences
largest syntactic unit and made up of one or more clause
Matrix Clause
main clause; clauses that can stand on their own