Syntax Vocab

Question 1

Syntax

Answer 1

rules that govern the ways in which words combine to form phrases, clauses, and sentences.

Question 2

Grammar

Answer 2

the whole system and structure of a language or of languages in general, usually taken as consisting of syntax and morphology

Question 3

constituents

Answer 3

a word or a group of words that functions as a single unit within a hierarchical structure

Question 4

phrase

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

pronominalisation

Answer 5

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

Question 6

movement

Answer 6

If a string of words can be moved to other sentential positions, it is proof of the string’s being a constituent.

Question 7

coordination test

Answer 7

constituents that can be coordinated by the coordinating conjunction and. This conjunction has the wonderful property of combining only constituents of the same kind.

Question 8

Gapping

Answer 8

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

Question 9

sentence-fragment test

Answer 9

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 10

structural ambiguity

Answer 10

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

Question 11

prepositional phrases

Answer 11

an adpositional phrase in which a preposition is the head. The preposition precedes its complement.

Question 12

adjective phrases

Answer 12

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

Question 13

verb phrases

Answer 13

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

Question 14

adverb phrases

Answer 14

a group of two or more words that function as an adverb in a sentence

Question 15

Projections

Answer 15

Syntacticians say that the head projects its properties onto the phrase as a whole (which is also the reason why phrases are often called projections of their head).

Question 16

Word-classes

Answer 16

a set of words that display the same formal properties, especially their inflections and distribution.

Question 17

syntactic categories

Answer 17

a type of syntactic unit that theories of syntax assume. Word classes, largely corresponding to traditional parts of speech (e.g. noun, verb, preposition, etc.),

Question 18

Parts-of-speech

Answer 18

a class of words based on the word’s function, the way it works in a sentence. The parts of speech are noun, verb, adjective, adverb, pronoun, preposition, conjunction, and interjection

Question 19

lexical categories

Answer 19

A linguistic category of words (or more precisely lexical items), generally defined by the syntactic or morphological behavior of the lexical item in question, such as noun or verb.

Question 20

Determiners

Answer 20

a word or affix that belongs to a class of noun modifiers that expresses the reference, including quantity, of a noun.

Question 21

phrase-structure rules

Answer 21

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

Question 22

subordinate clauses

Answer 22

a group of words that has both a subject and a verb but (unlike an independent clause) cannot stand alone as a sentence

Question 23

Clause

Answer 23

a part of the sentence that contains a verb.

Question 24

Sentence

Answer 24

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

Question 25

Matrix clause

Answer 25

a clause that contains a subordinate clause

Question 26

Main clause

Answer 26

a group of words made up of a subject and a predicate that together express a complete concept.

Question 27

Predicate

Answer 27

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

Question 28

subject-verb agreement

Answer 28

It is an instance of inflection, and usually involves making the value of some grammatical category (such as gender or person) “agree” between varied words or parts of the sentence.

Question 29

transitive verbs

Answer 29

Verbs that need an object

Question 30

Intransitive verbs

Answer 30

verbs that cannot take an object (e.g. sleep, laugh)

Question 31

Ditransitive

Answer 31

verbs that can take two objects, like give, or show.

Question 32

Direct object

Answer 32

a grammatical relation that exhibits a combination of certain independent syntactic properties, such as the usual grammatical characteristics of the patient of typically transitive verbs

Question 33

Indirect object

Answer 33

precedes the direct object and tells to whom or for whom the action of the verb is done and who is receiving the direct object. Always a noun or a pronoun

Question 34

adverbial (or adjunct)

Answer 34

constituents that provide information about the circumstances of the action denoted by the verb and its subject and object(s). Adverbials are thus modifiers of the clause or the verb phrase.

Question 35

Complement

Answer 35

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

Question 36

predicative complements

Answer 36

an expression that follows a linking verb and that complements the subject of the sentence by either (1) renaming it or (2) describing it. It completes the meaning of the subject.

Question 37

Time

Answer 37

when an action or event occurs, or when a state or process holds.

Question 38

Place

Answer 38

a particular location or space or the particular area normally occupied by something.

Question 39

Manner

Answer 39

a semantic role that notes how the action, experience, or process of an event is carried out

Question 40

Pro-form

Answer 40

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