syntax

Question 1

phrase

Answer 1

a collection of words that have a grammatical relationship with each other.

Question 2

clauses

Answer 2

units of grammar that contain a subject and a verb. smallest grammatical unit that contains a subject and a predicate (contains a verb and something about the subject, eg. John went home)

Question 3

sentence

Answer 3

a group of words that contains at least one main clause. it may also contain one or more other clauses. it makes sense as a whole and can stand on its own to create meaning.

Question 4

sentence structures

Answer 4

• simple: contain a single independent clause
• compound: contain two or more independent clauses joined either with a comma and conjunction or a semicolon
• complex: contain a single independent clause and one or more dependent clauses.
• compound-complex: two independent clauses and at least one dependent clause. adding a compound sentence to a complex sentence
• sentence fragments: groups of words that look like sentences but aren’t. missing either a subject or main verb

Question 4

ellipses

Answer 4

removing words from an utterance, clause or sentence. leaves out implied or unnecessary info

Question 4

coordination & subordination

Answer 4

coordination- uses coordinating conjunctions to combine clauses into sentences (FANBOYS)
subordination- uses subordinating conjunctions to change main clauses into subordinating clauses (because, while, after, although, than, which, that, whether)

Question 4

nominalisation

Answer 4

a noun is created from another word class

Question 4

active and passive voice

Answer 4

active voice: the agent is the subject of the sentence. mentioned first. eg. “the dog bit the girl”
passive voice: the agent moves out of the subject position and is replaced by the patient. eg. “the girl was bitten by the dog”

Question 4

sentence types and their functions

Answer 4

• declarative: provide info, observations or statements
• interrogative: designed to elicit responses, can be used rhetorically; rhetorical interrogatives can be used to persuade the audience to agree
• imperative: can reduce level of politeness, create a sense of urgency or intensity
• exclamative: indicate high levels of emotion, emphasis, excitement. frequently use interjections, discourse particles, swearwords to provide extra intensity

Question 4

basic functions in clause structure

Answer 4

• subject: noun or noun phrase that takes the action indicated by the predicate (verb)
• object: noun that has not taken the action indicated by the verb. the thing that has been acted upon
• complement: provides extra info about an element
• adverbial: provide additional info about an element in relation to time, place or manner

Question 4

agentless passive

Answer 4

• used when the speaker/writer doesn’t want to include reference to an agent
• used in double-speak and political rhetoric to obfuscate, mislead and confuse

Question 6

agent & patient

Answer 6

agent- causes the change of state described by the verb
patient- what has been changed or affected by the agent

Question 7

syntactic patterning

Answer 7

• Parallelism: 2 or more phrases, clauses or sentences that are structurally similar and appear near each other. can be used to persuade
• Antithesis: the elements in parallel are in direct contrast with each other
• Listing: 3 or more related elements placed together separated by commas or bullet points