Syntax - Basics Flashcards
5 Domains of Language
Phonology: sound system of a language
Semantics: encoding of meaning, includes vocabulary
Morphology: word forms and inflection
Syntax: rule system for building sentences
Pragmatics: communicating appropriately with others in various ways
Modes of syntax
Receptive: listening, reading
Expressive: Speaking, writing
Morpheme
smallest meaningful word or word part
Inflectional morphology
add grammatical information such as tense and number
Derivational Morphology
added to create a new word and can change the category of a word
Lexical/content words
open class words (except prepositions)
noun, verb, adjective, adverb, prepositon
function words
finite/closed class
pronoun, determiner, conjunction
Nouns
represent persons, places, things or abstractions
various classifications: simple and compound, common and proper, concrete and abstract
Count/Noncount/Collective Nouns
Count nouns: Can be counted, may take plural affixes like ‘s’ or ‘es’ or spelling may change. eg. letter, apple
Mass nouns: cannot usually be counted as individual units, so they don’t take plural affixes eg. mail, milk
Collective nouns: refers to a group of individuals acting as a whole unit. May be pluralized. eg. flock, team
Pronouns
Classes: personal, demonstrative, indefinite, relative, interrogative
to classify pronouns we consider number (singular or plural) and case (1st, 2nd or 3rd person)
Demonstrative Pronouns
Only acting like a pronoun if they replace the noun
this, that
these, those
Indefinite Pronouns
have general/nonspecific referents
examples: all, anyone, each, every, many, one, other, some
sometimes these words behave like other word classes
Relative Pronouns
important in syntactic analysis as they can be used to embed clauses
examples: who, whoever, whom, whomever, whose, what, whatever, which, whichever, that
Interrogative Pronouns
overlap with relative pronouns but are always used to form a question
“wh” words
eg. whose, why, what, which
Verbs
signify action or state of being
required in clauses
classifications: main, auxiliary and transitive/intransitive
take on inflectional and derivational morphemes
auxiliary verbs
“helper” verbs: provide additional information
come before the main verb and do not stand alone
3 common aux: have, be, do
others: need, had, get
Copula / Copular verb
main verb that can be followed by an adjective or noun complement
eg. Be - can be a auxiliary or a copular
Modals
a subset of auxiliary verbs that clarify meaning or “mood”
include: can, shall, need, may, will, must, ought, should, could, might, would
Transitivity
transitive verb: takes one or more objects
intransitive verbs: require no object
Inflectional Morphology
signals person, number, voice, tense
subject-verb agreement: person, number
voice: active vs passive
Verbals
infinitives, gerunds, participles
Infinitives
to + verb
can be used as nouns, verbs, adjectives or adverbs
can be used to embed one sentence into another
Gerunds
present participle acting as a noun
eg. running is her favorite sport but she sometimes thinks about swimming
Participles
present participle: verb + -ing
past participle: verb + -ed
can be used in many constructions, especially in adjectival forms
Descriptive Adjectives
modify a noun
often comes before the noun but can come after (eg. the tall girl, she wants the coffee hot)
can come after intransitive verb or copular (eg. the girl is tall)
Limiting adjectives
specify how much, how many, whose etc.
include:
- proper (indicate distinctness) - eg. Canadian provinces
-Possessive (indicate ownership) eg. the dog’s bone
-Demonstrative (are also determiners) eg. that one is tricky
cardinal and ordinal: used to indicate number and order
Pronouns as adjectives
Indefinite pronouns (eg. some bananas, many people)
interrogative pronouns (eg. which topic do you like best?)
Modify a verb (adjective / adverb)
inform about: manner, place, time, degree, number, reason, and to affirm/negate
may end in “-ly”, other adverb endings are “-wise” and “-ward”
Determiners
add info about the noun
demonstratives / interrogatives
possessives
articles: a, an, the
Prepositional Phrase
prepositions connect two content words and provide information about the relationship
preposition is usually the first word in the phrase
in a conversation the phrase might be reduced
Prepositional / Phrasal Verbs
verb + preposition to create idiomatic form: in this case the preposition is called a (verb) particle
Conjunctions
can be used to link words, phrases and clauses
major categories: coordinating (join words or ideas of equal weight), correlative (come in pairs), subordinating (join ideas of unequal weight)
