Syntax Application Flashcards
tree diagram
structure used to show which words are grouped together into natural units within other natural units in a hierarchical arrangement/speakers mentally represent sentences as a complex structure with internal organization
constituents
subunits/subtrees of the sentence
node
a place where the branches of the tree/subtree meets
“stand alone” test
if a group of words can stand alone, they are a constituent
“replacement by a pronoun” test
if a group of words can be replaced by a pronoun/word like “do,” it forms a constituent
“move-as-a-unit” test
if a group of words can be moved together & remain grammatical, they form a constituent
constituent structure
all constituents in the sentence
ambiguous
used to describe sentences where it has two or more meanings
lexical ambiguity
when a word has more than one meaning
structural ambiguity
when a sentence has more than one tree structure associated with it
generate
technical term for describe/specify
phrase/constituent structure tree
a tree diagram with syntactic category information
what do phrase/constituent structure tree represent?
the linear order of the words in the sentence, identification of syntactic categories of words & groups of words, hierarchical structure of syntactic categories
dominate
what every higher node does to all the categories beneath it
immediately dominate
what a node does to the category right below it
sisters
categories that are immediately dominated by the same node
phrase structure (PS) rules
capture knowledge that speakers have about the possible structures of a language/template that a tree must match to be grammatical
embedded sentence
a sentence within a sentence/often dependent phrases that were once independent
head
a lexical category that is the core of the phrase
complements
sister categories that occurs next to the head/elaborates the meaning of the head
what is necessary in the phrase?
head/complements are optional
intransitive verb
verb that does not require a direct object to indicate the person/thing acted upon
C-selection/subcategorization
information about the complement types selected by particular verbs & other lexical items/included in lexical entries in our mental lexicon
S-selection
a specification that imposes certain semantic requirements on its subjects & complements
specifiers
an element preceding the head
X-bar (x̄) schema
template/blueprint that specifies how the phrases of a language are organized/how PS rules are formed
subject-verb agreement
where the verb must agree with the subject
linear agreement rule
the verb must agree with the head of the subject regardless of the number of words between the head noun and the verb
structure dependent agreement rule
the verb agrees in person & number with the subject of the sentence where subject is NP immediately dominated by S
declarative sentences
the sentence must assert some information
yes-no questions
sentence is asking for a confirmation of the information
Aux inversion
an example of the transformational rule/when an auxiliary verb switches places with its subject
transformational rule
converting one phrase marker into another
deep structures/d-structures
basic structures of sentences
surface structures/s-structures
variants of the basic sentence structures/the ones that follow the application of transformational rules
wh- questions
who, what, when, where, which questions
spell-out rules
rules that convert inflectional features (like past tense/third-person present tense) into their proper phonological forms
