Vocabulary Ch5

Question 1

Syntax

Answer 1

A component of mental grammar that deals with constructing phrasal expressions out of smaller expressions. Also a name for the subfield of linguistics, which studies how expressions can combine to form larger expressions.

Question 2

Linguistic expression

Answer 2

A piece of language with a form, a meaning, and syntactic properties.

Question 3

Grammatical

Answer 3

A term used to describe a sentence that is in accordance with the descriptive grammatical rules of some language, especially syntactic rules. When some phrasal expression is constructed in accordance with the syntactic rules of a language, we say it is grammatical or syntactically well formed.

Question 4

Ungrammatical

Answer 4

Not in accordance with the descriptive grammatical rules of some language, especially syntactic rules. When some phrasal expression is not constructed in accordance with the syntactic rules of a language, we say it is ungrammatical or syntactically ill formed.

Question 5

Grammaticality judgment

Answer 5

An insistence of a native speaker of some language’s deciding whether some string of words corresponds to a syntactically well-formed or grammatical phrasal expression in their native language.

Question 6

Subject

Answer 6

An expression, typically a noun phrase, that occurs to the left of the verb phrase in the English sentence.

Question 7

Object

Answer 7

A noun phrase that usually occurs immediately to the right of the verb in English. A noun phrase complement.

Question 8

Principle of compositionality

Answer 8

The notion that the meaning of a phrasal expression is predictable from the meanings of expressions it contains and how they were syntactically combined.

Question 9

Lexical expression

Answer 9

A linguistic expression that has to be listed in the mental lexicon, e.g. single word expressions and idioms.

Question 10

Phrasal expression

Answer 10

A linguistic expression that results from the syntactic combination of smaller expressions. A multi-linguistic expression. A sentence is a special kind of phrasal expression.

Question 11

Syntactic properties

Answer 11

Properties of linguistic expressions that dictate how they can syntactically combined with other expressions, namely, word order and co-occurrence properties.

Question 12

Word order

Answer 12

The linear order in which words can occur in some phrasal expression. Also, the set of syntactic properties of expressions that dictates how they can be ordered with respect to other expressions.

Question 13

Co-occurrence

Answer 13

The set of syntactic properties. It determines which expressions may or have to co-occur with some other expressions in a sentence.

Question 14

Argument

Answer 14

A linguistic expression that must occur in a sentence. If some other expression occurs in that sentence, as well. If the occurrence of the expression X in a sentence requires the occurrence of expression Y in that sentence, we say that Y is an argument of X.

Question 15

Complement

Answer 15

A non-subject argument of some expression.

Question 16

Adjunct

Answer 16

A linguistic expression whose occurrence in a sentence is optional; also called modifier.

Question 17

Agreement

Answer 17

The phenomenon by which certain expressions in the sentence (e.g., a verb and its subject) must be inflectionally marked for the same person, number, gender, etc.

Question 18

Morphosyntax

Answer 18

The name for syntax and morphology. Consider jointly as a single component of grammar.

Question 19

Syntactic constituent

Answer 19

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.

Question 20

Cleft

Answer 20

A type of sentence, that have 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.

Question 21

Syntactic category

Answer 21

A group of expressions that have very similar syntactic properties. All expressions of belong to the same syntactic category have more or less the same syntactic distribution.

Question 22

Syntactic distribution

Answer 22

Refers to the set of syntactic environments in which an expression can occur. These 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.

Question 23

Sentence

Answer 23

A syntactic category that consists of all phrasal expressions that can grammatically occur in Sally thinks that ___.

Question 24

Noun phrase

Answer 24

The name of a syntactic category that consists of proper names, pronouns, and all other expressions with the same syntactic distribution.

Question 25

Noun

Answer 25

The name of a lexical category and he syntactic category. Morphologically, consists of words to which the plural suffix -s or the suffix -like can be added. Syntactically, consists of expressions that can combine with determiners to their left, the resulting expression being of category noun phrase.

Question 26

Determiner

Answer 26

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 expression that, when combined with an expression of category noun to their right result an expression of category noun phrase.

Question 27

Adjective

Answer 27

The name of a lexical category and a syntactic category. Morphologically, consists of words to which the comparative suffix -er or the suffix -ness can be added. Syntactically, the category consists of those expressions that can be noun adjuncts or occur in between a determiner and a noun.

Question 28

Verb phrase

Answer 28

The name of the syntactic category that consists of all expressions, which if combined with a noun phrase to their left result in a sentence.

Question 29

Intransitive verb

Answer 29

The name for the set of lexical expressions who syntactic category is verb phrase.

Question 30

Transitive verb

Answer 30

The name of a syntactic category that consists of those expressions that if combined with an expression of category noun phrase to their right result in a verb phrase; a verb that needs a noun phrase complement.

Question 31

Ditransitive verb

Answer 31

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 to noun phrase complements.

Question 32

Sentential complement verb

Answer 32

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 is a complement.

Question 33

Adverb

Answer 33

The name of a lexical category and a syntactic category that consists of expressions such as quickly, well, furiously, etc. Syntactically, adverbs can be verb phrase adjuncts.

Question 34

Prepositional phrase

Answer 34

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.

Question 35

Preposition

Answer 35

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 an expression of category prepositional phrase.

Question 36

Phrase structure rule

Answer 36

A recipe for syntactically combining expressions of certain syntactic categories. Along with the lexicon, phrase structure rules are part of a descriptive grammar of some language. Phrase structure rules have the general form X→ Y1… Yn, where X is a syntactic category and Y1… Yn is a sequence of syntactic categories. The categories to the right of the arrow Y1… Yn correspond to the immediate syntactic constituents of the expression whose category is X.

Question 37

Ambiguity

Answer 37

The phenomenon by which a single linguistic form (e.g., a word or a string of words) can be used. The form of more than one distinct linguistic expression. The form that is shared by more than one expression is said to be ambiguous.

Question 38

Lexical ambiguity

Answer 38

The phenomenon where a single word is the form of two or more distinct linguistic expressions a different meaning or syntactic properties.

Question 39

Homophony

Answer 39

The phenomenon by which two or more distinct morphemes or nonphrasal linguistic expressions happen to have the same form, i.e., sound the same.

Question 40

Structural ambiguity

Answer 40

The phenomenon where a single string of words (or morphemes) is a form of more than one distinct phrasal expression (or word). Arises because the same expressions can combine differently syntactically, resulting in distinct phrases that happened to have the same form.