Syntax Flashcards

1
Q

syntax

A

the arrangement of words and phrases to create well-formed sentences in a language

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2
Q

grammar

A

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

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3
Q

pronominalisation

A

the substitution of a constituent by a

pronoun

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4
Q

structural ambiguity

A

cases in which different interpretations arise through

different sentence structures assigned to the same strings of words

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5
Q

head

A

the most important element of a phrase

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6
Q

noun phrases

A

phrases headed by a noun

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7
Q

clause

A

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

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8
Q

Sentences

A

the

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

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9
Q

main clause

A

clauses that can stand on their own

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10
Q

subject-verb agreement

A

a syntactic process which requires

subject and verb to share the same person and number features

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11
Q

case forms

A

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

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12
Q

transitive verbs

A

Verbs that need an object

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13
Q

intransitive verbs

A

verbs that cannot take an object

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14
Q

ditransitive

A

verbs that can take two objects

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15
Q

direct object

A

an entity that

undergoes the action or process denoted by the verb

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16
Q

indirect object

A

the recipient

or the benificiary of the event denoted by the verb

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17
Q

adverbial

A

constituents that provide information about the circumstances of the
action denoted by the verb and its subject and object(s)

18
Q

predicative complements

A

completes the meaning of a sentence by giving information about a noun

19
Q

complement

A

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

20
Q

predicate

A

the part of a sentence (or clause) that tells us what the subject does or is

21
Q

matrix clause

A

a clause that contains a subordinate clause

22
Q

subordinate clauses

A

a clause that cannot stand alone as a complete sentence; it merely complements a sentence’s main clause

23
Q

phrase structure rules

A

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

24
Q

determiners

A

a word placed in front of a noun to specify quantity (e.g., “one dog,” “many dogs”) or to clarify what the noun refers to (e.g., “my dog,” “that dog,” “the dog”)

25
word-classes
the categories all words belong to that tell the speaker what part of speech they belong to
26
syntactic categories
a type of syntactic unit that theories of syntax assume
27
lexical categories
a syntactic category for elements that are part of the lexicon of a language. These elements are at the word level.
28
projection
when notating the syntactic structure of a sentence such as “John runs fast.”, we must specify at every level what lexical category each piece of the sentence belongs to
29
prepositional phrase
a group of words containing a preposition, a noun or pronoun object of the preposition, and any modifiers of the object
30
adjective phrases
a group of words that describe a noun or pronoun in a sentence
31
verb phrases
the portion of a sentence that contains both the verb and either a direct or indirect object (the verb's dependents)
32
adverb phrases
a group of words that refines the meaning of a verb, adjective, or adverb
33
gapping
the omission of a verb in the second of two coordinate clauses, as in I went by bus and Mary by car
34
movement
the means by which some theories of syntax address discontinuities
35
constituency tests
the testing of words that function as a single unit within a hierarchical structure
36
coordination test
only constituents that can be coordinated by the coordinating conjunction "and"
37
pro-form
a type of function word or expression that stands in for (expresses the same content as) another word, phrase, clause or sentence where the meaning is recoverable from the context.
38
wh-pronoun
The pronouns who, whose, which, and what
39
constituents
a word or a group of words that function as a single unit within a hierarchical structure
40
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