Syntax Module

Question 1

Syntax

Answer 1

The way in which linguistic elements (such as words) are put together to form constituents (such as phrases or clauses).

Question 2

Grammar

Answer 2

Simply the collection of principles defining how to put together a sentence.

Question 3

Constituents

Answer 3

Is a word or a group of words that function as a single unit within a hierarchical structure.

Question 4

Phrases

Answer 4

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.

Question 5

Pronominalization

Answer 5

The process or fact of using a pronoun instead of another sentence constituent (such as a noun or noun phrase)

Question 6

Pro-form

Answer 6

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.

Question 7

Movement

Answer 7

Syntactic movement is the means by which some theories of syntax address discontinuities.

Question 8

Coordination

Answer 8

A complex syntactic structure that links together two or more elements; these elements are called conjuncts or conjoins.

Question 9

Gapping

Answer 9

gapping is a type of ellipsis that occurs in the non-initial conjuncts of coordinate structures.

Question 10

Sentence-fragment

Answer 10

Sentence fragments are groups of words that look like sentences, but aren’t. To be a sentence, groups of words need to have at least one independent clause

Question 11

Structural ambiguity

Answer 11

The potential of multiple interpretations for a piece of written or spoken language because of the way words or phrases are organized.

Question 12

Head

Answer 12

The head or nucleus of a phrase is the word that determines the syntactic category of that phrase.

Question 13

Noun phrases

Answer 13

A phrase that has a noun (or indefinite pronoun) as its head or performs the same grammatical function as a noun.

Question 14

Prepositional phrase

Answer 14

A group of words made up of a preposition (such as to, with, or across), its object (a noun or pronoun), and any of the object’s modifiers (an article and/or an adjective).

Question 15

Adjective phrases

Answer 15

A group of words that describe a noun or pronoun in a sentence

Question 16

Verb phrases

Answer 16

A syntactic unit composed of at least one verb and its dependents—objects, complements and other modifiers—but not always including the subject.

Question 17

Adverb phrases

Answer 17

A multi-word expression operating adverbially: its syntactic function is to modify other expressions, including verbs, adjectives, adverbs, adverbials, and sentences.

Question 18

Projection

Answer 18

The projection principle states that “ “lexical structure must be represented categorically at every syntactic level” (Chomsky 1986: 84).

Question 19

Word class

Answer 19

A word class is a group of words that have the same basic behavior, for example nouns, adjectives, or verbs.

Question 20

Syntactic category

Answer 20

A syntactic category is a type of syntactic unit that theories of syntax assume.

Question 21

Parts of speech

Answer 21

In traditional grammar, a part of speech or part-of-speech (abbreviated as POS or PoS) is a category of words (or, more generally, of lexical items) that have similar grammatical properties.

Question 22

Lexical category

Answer 22

Classes of words (e.g., noun, verb, preposition), which differ in how other words can be constructed out of them.

Question 23

Determiners

Answer 23

A determiner is a word or affix that belongs to a class of noun modifiers that expresses the reference, including quantity, of a noun. Kinds: Article. Demonstrative.

Question 24

Phrase structure rules

Answer 24

Phrase structure rules are a type of rewrite rule used to describe a given language’s syntax and are closely associated with the early stages of transformational grammar, proposed by Noam Chomsky in 1957

Question 25

Subordinate clauses

Answer 25

A clause that is embedded as a constituent of a matrix sentence and that functions like a noun, adjective, or adverb in the resultant complex sentence.

Question 26

Sentences

Answer 26

A textual unit consisting of one or more words that are grammatically linked.

Question 27

Matrix clause

Answer 27

A clause that contains a subordinate clause. Plural: matrices. Also called a matrix or a higher clause. In terms of function, a matrix clause determines the central situation of a sentence.

Question 28

Main clause

Answer 28

A clause that may stand alone as a complete sentence, and. expresses the focal predication when occurring in a complex sentence.

Question 29

Predicate

Answer 29

A predicate is the portion of a clause, excluding the subject, that expresses something about the subject.

Question 30

Subject-verb agreement

Answer 30

All the parts of your sentence should match (or agree). Verbs need to agree with their subjects in number (singular or plural) and in person (first, second, or third).

Question 31

Case

Answer 31

Case is a grammatical category determined by the syntactic or semantic function of a noun or pronoun.

Question 32

Transitive verbs

Answer 32

A transitive verb is a verb that takes a direct object

Question 33

Intransitive verbs

Answer 33

An intransitive verb is defined as a verb that does not take a direct object.

Question 34

Ditransitive verb

Answer 34

A verb which takes a subject and two objects which refer to a theme and a recipient

Question 35

Direct object

Answer 35

A grammatical relation that exhibits a combination of certain independent syntactic properties

Question 36

Indirect object

Answer 36

An indirect object is a grammatical relation that is one means of expressing the semantic role of goal and other similar roles.

Question 37

Adverbial

Answer 37

In grammar, an adverbial (abbreviated adv) is a word (an adverb) or a group of words (an adverbial clause or adverbial phrase) that modifies or more closely defines the sentence or the verb.

Question 38

Complement

Answer 38

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

Question 39

Wh-pronoun

Answer 39

“Wh- word” is one of the function words used to begin a wh- question: what, who, whom, whose, which, when, where, why, and how.

Question 40

clause

Answer 40

A clause is a part of the sentence that constitutes or comprises a predicate. A typical clause consists of a subject and a predicate, the latter typically a verb phrase, a verb with any objects and other modifiers.