Syntax Flashcards
syntax
the structure of sentences,
grammar
the complete system of phonological, morphological, syntactic and semantic information and rules that speakers of a given languages possess.
pronominalisation
the substitution of a constituent by a pronoun
movement
if a string of words can be moved to other sentential positions
coordination test
only constituents that can be coordinated by the coordinating conjunction, and (such as black and white, twist and shout, up and down)
gapping
leaving a gap in a phrase, in which you could insert the “missing string”
sentence fragment test
only certain types of strings can form possible sentence fragments which speakers an use to, for example, answer questions
structural ambiguity
when different interpretations arise through different sentence structures assigned to the same strings of words
head
the most important element of a phrase
noun phrases
phrases headed by a noun
prepositional phrase
group of words that lack either a verb or a subject, and that functons as a unified part of speech
adjective phrase
a group of words that describe a noun or pronoun in a sentence
verb phrase
can be a phrase that functions as an adverd or adjective that has a verb and its complements, objects, or modifiers
adverb phrase
modifies a verb
projections
when the head projects it’s properties onto th phrase as a whole
word classes
sets of words that display the same formal properties, especially their syntactic and/or morphological behavior
lexical category
grouping of words by their syntactic and/or morphological behaviour
determiner
a word or afix that belongs to a class of noun modifiers hat expresses the reference, including quantity, of a noun
phrase structure rules
used to describe a given language’s syntax and are closely associated with the early stages of transformational grammar.
subordinate clauses
sentences inside other sentences
clause
a syntactic unit that consists of a subject and a predicate
sentences
defined as the largest syntactic units and made up of one or more clauses
main clause
clauses that can stand on their own
predicate
that part of a sentence that says something about the subject
subject verb agreement
a syntactic process which requires subject and verb to share the same person and number features
case forms
forms that mark the grammatical function of noun phrases in a sentence or phrase
transitive verbs
verbs that need an object
ditransitive
verbs that can take two objects
instransitive verbs
verbs that cannot take an object
direct object
an object that denotes an entity that undergoes the action or pocess denoted by the verb
indirect object
object that denotes the goal, the recipient or the beneficiary of the event denoted the verb
adverbial
constituents that provide information about the circumstances of the action denoted by the verb and its subject and objects
complement
term used in linguistics for such semantically and structurally highly dependent sister constituents of the head
predicate complements
do not behave like bjects also, they cannot be passivised
matrix clause
a clause that contains a subordinate clause
parts of speech
term used in traditional grammar for one of the 9 main categories into whch words are classified according to their functions in sentences, such as nouns or verbs
syntactic categories
a type of syntactic unit that theories of syntax assume
pro-form
a words that is dependent for it’s meaning on reference to some other part of the context or sentenc in which it occurs
wh-pronoun
the pronoun: who, whose, which, and can be the subject or object of a verb
form
concerned with the descripion of linguistic units in terms of what they are
