What is Syntax?

Question 1

Grammatical

Answer 1

A term used to describe a sentence that is in accordance with the descriptive grammatical rules of some language, especially syntactic rules.

Question 2

Ungrammatical

Answer 2

Not in accordance with the descriptive grammatical rules of some language, especially syntactic rules

Question 3

Grammaticality judgement

Answer 3

An instance of a native speaker of some language deciding whether some string of words corresponds ti a syntactically well-formed or grammatical phrasal expression in their native language.

Question 4

Subject

Answer 4

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

Question 5

Object

Answer 5

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

Question 6

Principle of compositionality

Answer 6

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

Question 7

Lexical expressions

Answer 7

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

Question 8

Phrasal expressions

Answer 8

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

Question 9

Syntactic properties

Answer 9

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

Question 10

Word order

Answer 10

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 11

Co-occurence

Answer 11

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

Question 12

Argument

Answer 12

A linguistic expression that must occur in a sentence if some other expression occurs in that sentence as well

Question 13

Complements

Answer 13

A non-subject argument of some expression

Question 14

Adjuncts

Answer 14

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

Question 15

Modifier

Answer 15

Also called adjunct

Question 16

Agreement

Answer 16

The phenomenon by which certain expressions in a sentence must be inflectionally marked for the same person, number, gender, etc

Question 17

Morphosyntax

Answer 17

The name for syntax and morphology considered jointly as a single component of gramma

Question 18

Syntactic constituent

Answer 18

A group of linguistic expressions that function as a syntactic unit within some larger expressions

Question 19

Cleft

Answer 19

A type of sentence that has the general form

Example: It is/was X that Y; It was Sally that I wanted to meet

Question 20

Conjunct

Answer 20

An argument of a coordinating conjunction such as [and] or [or]

Question 21

Syntactic category

Answer 21

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

Question 22

Syntactic distribution

Answer 22

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

Question 23

Noun phrases

Answer 23

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

Question 24

Determiners

Answer 24

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.

Question 25

Verb Phrase

Answer 25

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

Question 26

Intransitive verbs

Answer 26

The name for the set of lexical expressions whose syntactic category is a verb phrase

Question 27

Transitive verbs

Answer 27

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 28

Ditransitive verbs

Answer 28

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.

Question 29

Sentential complement verb

Answer 29

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

Question 30

Adverb

Answer 30

The name of a lexical category and a syntactic category that consists of expressions such as quickly, well, furiously, etc

Question 31

Verb Phrase adjuncts

Answer 31

A kind of adjunct that combines with an expression of syntactic category verb phrase with the resulting expression also being of category verb phrase

Question 32

Noun adjuncts

Answer 32

A kind of adjunct that combines with an expression of syntactic category that consists of proper names, pronouns, and all other expressions with the same syntactic distribution

Question 33

Prepositional phrase

Answer 33

The name of a syntactic category that consists of those expressions that contain a prepositions and a noun phrase

Question 34

Preposition

Answer 34

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

Question 35

Lexical entry

Answer 35

A representation of a lexical expression and its linguistic properties within a descriptive grammar of some language

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 a part of a descriptive grammar of some language

Question 37

Phrase structure tree

Answer 37

A visual representation of how phrases are constructed within a descriptive grammar, given the lexicon and the phrase structure rules

Question 38

Ambiguity

Answer 38

The phenomenon by which a single linguistic form can be the form of more than one distinct linguistic expression

Question 39

Lexical ambinguity

Answer 39

The phenomenon where a single word is the form of two or more distinct linguistic expressions that differ in meaning or syntactic properties

Question 40

Homophony

Answer 40

The phenomenon by which two or more distinct morphemes or nonphrasal linguistic expressions happen to have the same form (sound the same)

Question 41

Structural ambiguity

Answer 41

A phenomenon where a single string of words is the form of more than one distinct phrasal expression