Syntax Ch. 5 Flashcards
Argument
A linguistic expression that must occur in a sentence if some other expression occurs in that sentence as well. If the occurrence of an expression X in a sentence requires the occurrence of an expression Y in that sentence, we say that Y is an argument of X.
Adjunct
A linguistic expression whose occurrence in a sentence is optional
Agreement
The phenomenon by which certain expressions in a sentence must be inflectionally marked for the same person, number, gender, etc.
Ambiguity
The phenomenon by which a single linguistic form can be the form of more than one distinct linguistic expression. The form that is shared by more than one expression is said to be ambiguous.
Co-occurrence
The set of syntactic properties that determines which expressions may or have to co-occur with some other expressions in a sentence.
Cleft
A type of sentence that has the general form It is/was X that Y, e.g. It was Sally that I wanted to meet. Can be used as a constituency test.
Count Nouns
In simple terms, a noun that can be counted and pluralized.
Determiner
The name of a lexical category and a syntactic category that consists of expressions such as the, a, this, all, etc. Syntactically, consists of those expressions that when combined with an expression of category noun to their right result in an expression of category noun phrase.
Ditransitive Verb
The name of a syntactic category that consists of those expressions that if combined with two expressions of category noun phrase to their right result in a verb phrase. A verb that needs two noun phrase complements.
Grammaticality judgement
An instance of a native speaker of some language deciding whether some sting of words corresponds to a syntactically well-formed of grammatical phrasal expression in their native language.
Homophony
The phenomenon by which two or more distinct morphemes of nonphrasal linguistic expressions happen to have the same form, i.e. sound the same.
Intransitive verb
The name for the set of lexical expressions whose syntactic category is verb phrase.
Linguistic Expression
A piece of language with a form, a meaning, and syntactic properties.
Lexical Expression
A linguistic expression that has to be listed in the mental lexicon, e.g. single-word expressions and idioms.
Lexical Ambiguity
The phenomenon where a single word is the form of two or more distinct linguistic expressions that differ in meaning or syntactic properties.
Modifier
A linguistic expression whose occurrence in a sentence is optional (also known as an adjunct)
Morphosyntax
The name of syntax and morphology considered jointly as a single component of grammar
Mass nouns
In simple terms, a noun that cannot be counted and cannot (normally) be pluralized
Noun phrase (NP)
The name of syntactic category that consists of proper names, pronouns, and all other expressions with the same syntactic distribution
Noun Adjunct
A kind of adjunct that combines with an expression of syntactic category noun with the resulting expression also being of category noun
Principle of compositionality
The notion that the meaning of a phrasal expression is predictable from the meanings of the expressions it contains and how they were syntactically combined.
phrasal expressions
A linguistic expression that results from the syntactic combination of smaller expressions. A multi-word linguistic expression. A sentence is a special kind of phrasal expression.
Pro-form
A word that can replace a syntactic constituent
Prepositional phrase
The name of a syntactic category that consists of those expressions that contain a preposition and a noun phrase. Can be verb phrase adjuncts or noun adjuncts.
Preposition
The name of a lexical category and a syntactic category that consists of expressions such as of, in, for, with, etc. Syntactically, this category consists of those expressions that when combined with an expression of category noun phrase to their right result in an expression of category prepositional phrase
Phrase structure rules
A recipe for syntactically combining expressions of certain syntactic categories. Along with the lexicon, phrase structure rules are a part of a descriptive grammar of some language. Phrase structure rules have the general form X-Y…Y where X is a syntactic category and Y…Y is a sequence of syntactic categories. The categories to the right of the arrow Y…Y correspond to the immediate syntactic constituents of the expression whose category is X
Phrase structure tree
A visual representation of how phrases are constructed within a descriptive grammar, given the lexicon and the phrase structure rules.
Syntax
A component of mental grammar that deals with construction phrasal expressions out of smaller expressions. Also a name for the subfield of linguistics hat studies how expressions can combine to form larger expressions
Syntactic properties
Properties of linguistic expressions that dictate how they can syntactically combine with other expressions, namely, word order and co-occurrence properties.
Syntactic consituent
A group of linguistic expressions that function as a syntactic unit within some larger expression; the smaller expressions out of which some larger phrasal expression was constructed in accordance with the phrase structure rules
Substitution
In syntax, a constituency test that involves replacing a constituent with a single word (or simple phrase) such as a pro-form.
Syntactic Categories
A group of expressions that have very similar syntactic properties. All expressions that belong to the same syntactic category have more or less the same syntactic distribution
Syntactic distribution
Refers to the set of syntactic environments in which an expression can occur. If two expressions are interchangeable in all syntactic environments, we say that they have the same syntactic distribution and therefore belong to the same syntactic category
Sentential complement verb
The name of a syntactic category that consists of those expressions that if combined with a sentence to their right result in a verb phrase; a verb that needs a sentence as its complement
structural ambiguity
The phenomenon where a single string of words is the form of more than one distinct phrasal expression. Arises because the same expressions can combine differently syntactically, resulting inn distinct phrases that happen to have the same form.
transitive verb
The name of a syntactic category that consists of those expressions that if combined with an expressions of category noun phrase to their right result in a verb phrase; a verb that needs a noun phrase complement
topicalization
A syntactic process by which a syntactic constituent occurs at the beginning of a sentence in order to highlight the topic under discussion
Verb phrase
The name of a syntactic category that consists of all expressions that, if combined with a noun phrase to their left, result in a sentence
Verb Phrase Adjunct
A kind of adjunct that combines with an expression of syntactic category verb phrase with the resulting expression also being of category verb phrase.
Word order
The linear order in which words can occur in some phrasal expressions. Also, the set of syntactic properties of expression that dictates how they can be ordered with respect to other expressions
