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English 211 > Chapter 5 Syntax > Flashcards

Chapter 5 Syntax Flashcards

1
Q

Syntax

A

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.

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2
Q

Linguistic Expressions

A

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

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3
Q

Grammatical

A

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

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4
Q

Ungrammatical

A

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

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5
Q

Grammaticality judgement

A

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

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6
Q

Subject

A

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

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7
Q

Object

A

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

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8
Q

Principle of compositionality

A

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.

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9
Q

Lexical Expressions

A

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

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10
Q

Phrasal Expression

A

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

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11
Q

Syntactic Properties

A

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

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12
Q

Word Order

A

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.

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13
Q

Co-Occurrence

A

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

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14
Q

What is the primary word order of languages?

A

44% SOV- More common. ex. Korean & Turkish.
35% SVO
19% VSO- ex. Arabic and Irish
2% VOS, OVS, OSV - ex. Malagasy

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15
Q

topicalized

A

A syntactic process by which (in English) a syntactic constituent occurs at the beginning of a sentence in order to high-light the topic under discussion.

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16
Q

Arguement

A

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

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17
Q

Complements

A

A non-subject argument of some expression.

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18
Q

Adjuncts

A

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

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19
Q

Agreements

A

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

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20
Q

Morphosyntax

A

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

21
Q

Syntactic constituent

A

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.

22
Q

Cleft

A

A type of sentence that has 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.

23
Q

Conjuncts

A

An argument of a coordinating conjunction such as ‘and’ or ‘or’.

24
Q

Syntactic Categories

A

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

25
Q

Syntactic Distribution

A

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

26
Q

Noun Phrases

A

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

27
Q

Determiners

A

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.

28
Q

Sentence

A

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

29
Q

Distransitive verb

A

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.

30
Q

Sentential complement verb

A

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.

31
Q

Verb Phrase

A

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

32
Q

Intransitive verb

A

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

33
Q

Transitive verbs

A

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.

34
Q

VP adjunct

A

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

35
Q

N adjunct

A

A kind of adjunct that combines with an expression of syntactic category noun with the resulting expression also being of category noun.

36
Q

Prepositional phrase

A

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.

37
Q

Lexical entry

A

A representation of a lexical expression and its linguistic properties within a descriptive grammar of some language. A collection of these constitutes the lexicon.

38
Q

Phrase structure rules

A

A recipe for syntactically combining expressions of certain syntactic categories. Along with the lexicon, it is a part of the descriptive grammar of a language.

39
Q

Phrase structure tree

A

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

40
Q

Lexical ambiguity

A

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

41
Q

Structural ambiguity

A

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

42
Q

Ambiguity

A

The phenomenon by which a single linguistic form (e.g. a word or a string of words) can be the form of more than one distinct linguistic expression.

43
Q

Homophony

A

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

44
Q

Noun

A

The name of a lexical category and a syntactic category. Syntactically, consists of expressions that can combine with determiners to their left, the resulting expression being of the category noun phrase.

45
Q

Adjective

A

The name of a lexical and a syntactic category. Syntactically, the category consists of those expressions that can be noun adjuncts or occur in between a determiner and a noun.

46
Q

Adverb

A

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.

47
Q

Preposition

A

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.

48
Q

Lexicon

A

A mental repository of linguistic information about words and other lexical expressions, including their form, meaning, and morphological and syntactic properties.

English 211 (7 decks)

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