Syntax

Question 1

syntax

Answer 1

the core of a language’s grammar

Question 2

grammar

Answer 2

complete system of phonological, morphological, syntactic and semantic information and rules that speakers of a given language possess.

Question 3

constituents

Answer 3

syntactic units; one word, for example a pronoun or a proper noun

Question 4

phrases

Answer 4

constituents, but in more syntax-specific terminology

Question 5

pronominalisation

Answer 5

substitution of a constituent by a pronoun

Question 6

pro-form

Answer 6

‘replacing a noun’

Question 7

wh-pronoun

Answer 7

The pronouns who, whose, which, and what can be the subject or object of a verb

Question 8

movement

Answer 8

a string of words can be

moved to other sentential positions

Question 9

coordination test

Answer 9

it is only constituents that can be coordinated by the coordinating conjunction and. This conjunction has the wonderful property of combining only constituents
of the same kind

Question 10

gapping

Answer 10

works with certain types of phrases. Surprisingly, the coordination test can also be applied to [will go to the station every morning

Question 11

sentence-fragment test

Answer 11

we could, for example, answer the questions with

the respective sentence fragments given. This provides good evidence for their being constituents.

Question 12

structural ambiguity

Answer 12

how we can find constituents in a sentence

Question 13

head

Answer 13

word that determines the syntactic category of that phrase

Question 14

noun phrases

Answer 14

is a phrase that has a noun (or indefinite pronoun) as its head or performs the same grammatical function as such a phrase

Question 15

prepositional phrases

Answer 15

ncludes a preposition, its object, and any modifiers of the object.

Question 16

adjective phrases

Answer 16

more than a group of words with an adjective in it. It’s actually a group of words that describe a noun or pronoun in a sentence, thus functioning as an adjective

Question 17

verb phrases

Answer 17

syntactic unit consisting of an auxiliary (helping) verb preceding the main verb. It often contains a head verb, complements, objects, and modifiers as its dependents

Question 18

adverb phrases

Answer 18

a multi-word expression operating adverbially: its syntactic function is to modify other expressions, including verbs, adjectives, adverbs, adverbials, and sentences

Question 19

projects

Answer 19

properties onto the phrase as a whole (which is also the reason why phrases are often called projections of their head)

Question 20

noun

Answer 20

refer to feelings, actions and properties, respectively, not only to things

Question 21

word-classes

Answer 21

a set of words that display the same formal properties, especially their inflections and distribution

Question 22

determiners

Answer 22

nominal syntactic category distinct both from adjectives and nouns, despite the close affinity among them.

Question 23

phrase structure rules

Answer 23

a type of rewrite rule used to describe a given language’s syntax and are closely associated with the early stages of transformational grammar

Question 24

subordinate clauses

Answer 24

a clause that cannot stand alone as a complete sentence

Question 25

clause

Answer 25

syntactic unit that consists minimally of a verb phrase and its subject

Question 26

Sentences

Answer 26

largest syntactic units and they are made up of one or more clauses

Question 27

main clause

Answer 27

clauses that can stand on their own

Question 28

predicate

Answer 28

everything in a sentence apart from the subject

Question 29

subject-verb agreement

Answer 29

a syntactic process which requires

subject and verb to share the same person and number features

Question 30

case forms

Answer 30

forms that mark the grammatical function of noun phrases in a sentence or phrase

Question 31

transitive verbs

Answer 31

a strong tendency for objects to be obligatorily present.

Verbs that need an object

Question 32

intransitive verbs

Answer 32

verbs that cannot take an object

Question 33

ditransitive

Answer 33

a verb which takes a subject and two objects which refer to a theme and a recipient

Question 34

direct object

Answer 34

noun or pronoun that receives the action of the sentence

Question 35

indirect object

Answer 35

is a noun or pronoun to whom/what or for whom/what an action is completed

Question 36

adverbial (or adjunct)

Answer 36

s a multi-word expression operating adverbially: its syntactic function is to modify other expressions, including verbs, adjectives, adverbs, adverbials, and sentences

Question 37

complement

Answer 37

word, phrase, or clause that is necessary to complete the meaning of a given expression

Question 38

predicative complements

Answer 38

a predicative expression that follows a linking verb (copula) and that complements the subject of the sentence by either (1) renaming it or (2) describing it

Question 39

verb

Answer 39

a word (part of speech) that in syntax conveys an action (bring, read, walk, run, learn), an occurrence (happen, become), or a state of being (be, exist, stand)

Question 40

matrix clause

Answer 40

a clause that contains a subordinate clause