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LING 322: Syntax > Midterm #1 > Flashcards

Midterm #1 Flashcards

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1
Q

Are all NPs R-expressions?

A

No, not NPs that refer to an entity INSIDE the phrase such as herself in Heidi hit herself on the head (anaphor)

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2
Q

Anaphor

A

An NP that gets its meaning from another NP in the sentence

“Needy” ! (Must be bound within binding domain)

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3
Q

Two types of anaphors

A 
Reflexive pronouns (herself, himself etc) 
Reciprocals (each other)
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4
Q

Pronoun

A

An NP that may or may not get its meaning from another word in the sentence
“Need their space” (can be bound but not in binding domain, principle B)

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5
Q

Antecedent

A

NP that gives its meaning to another noun in the sentence

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6
Q

To be coindexed

A

Two NPs that get the same index are said to be coindexed (this they corefer to each other, aka refer to the same entity in the world)

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7
Q

Binding

A

Bound if:
-A C-commands B
AND
-A and B are coindexed

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8
Q

Binding Principle A

A

An anaphor must be bound in its binding domain (it’s own clause)

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9
Q

Locality constraint

A

Has to do with anaphors; anaphors need to find their antecedent in the same clause (must be near it or local in some way)

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10
Q

Binding domain

A

Clause containing the NP (anaphors, pronoun, R-expressions)

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11
Q

R-expression

A

NP that gets its meaning by referring to an entity in the world (ex: Felicia, a fine paper on Zapotec, etc)
“Lone wolves” (never bound)

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12
Q

When can a pronoun NOT be bound by its antecedent?

A

When the antecedent is its clause mate aka in the same immediate clause

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13
Q

Principle B

A

A pronoun MUST be free in its binding domain

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14
Q

Principle C

A

An R-expression must be free

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15
Q

Domination

A

Node A dominates Node B if A is higher up in the tree than B and if you can trace a branch from A to B only going downwards

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16
Q

Immediate domination

A

No nodes that are dominated by A, but dominate B (aka A is the first node that dominates B)

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17
Q

Root node vs terminal node vs non-terminal node

A

Root node: node that dominates everything but is dominated by nothing
(No node’s daughter)

Terminal node: a node that dominates nothing (not a mother)

Non-terminal node: node that dominates something (node that is a mother)

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18
Q

Exhaustive domination

A

Node A dominates all members of a set of terminal nodes and nothing else

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19
Q

Constituent

A

Set of terminal nodes exhaustively dominated by a particular node

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20
Q

Sister precedence

A

Node A sister-proceeds node B if and only if both are immediately dominated by the some node, and if A appears to the left of B

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21
Q

Precedence

A

Node A precedes node B if and only neither A dominates B nor vice versa, and A or some node dominating A sister-proceeds B or some node dominating B

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22
Q

What is the name of the constraint that stops nodes from crossing

A

No crossing branches constraint

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23
Q

C-command formal definition

A

Node A c-commands node B if every node dominating A also dominates B AND neither A nor B dominate each other

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24
Q

Symmetric vs asymmetric c-command

A 
Symmetric= A and B both c-command each other
asymmetric= A c-commands B but not the other way around
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25
Government and its two kinds
Government= node A governs node B is A c-commands B without a node G that is c-commands by A and G asymmetrically c-commands B Phrase government= if the governor is a phrase, only other phrases can intervene (not heads like N, V, etc) Head government= same as phrase gov but phrase interveners don't count
26
Subject
NP or CP daughter of TP
27
Two types of direct object
1) NP or CP daughter of VP 2) NP or CP daughter of VP that is proceeded by an NP daughter of VP Ex: Susan kissed THE CLOWNS NOSE
28
Two types of indirect object
1) the PP daughter of VP immediately proceeded by an NP daughter of VP 2) the NP daughter of VP immediately preceded by V Ex: he cut the steak with A KNIFE
29
Oblique
Any NP or PP is a sentence that is not a subject, direct object of a preposition, direct object or indirect object
30
Basic definition of direct object
NP or CP daughter of a VP
31
Object of preposition
NP daughter of PP
32
CP ->
(C) TP
33
TP ->
{NP/CP} (T) VP
34
VP ->
(AdvP+) V (NP) ({NP/CP}) (AdvP) (PP+) (AdvP+)
35
NP ->
(D) (adjP+) N (PP+) (CP)
36
PP ->
P (NP)
37
AdjP ->
(AdvP) Adj
38
AdvP ->
(AdvP) Adv
39
XP ->
XP conj XP
40
X ->
X conj X
41
The word that gives the phrase its category
Head
42
Recursion
Possibility of loops in the phrase structure rules that allow infinitely long sentences and explain the creativity of language
43
The principle of modification
If an XP modified some head Y, then XP must be a sister to Y (aka daughter of YP)
44
The four major constituency tests
``` Movement Coordination Stand-alone Replacement (My constituent seems right) ```
45
Replacement test
Replacing the word with a pronoun, etc Ex: the man flew the plane He flew the plane
46
Stand-alone test (aka sentence fragment test)
If the words can stand alone in a response to a question, then they probably make up a constituent Ex: testing "Paul ate at a really fancy restaurant" What did Paul do yesterday afternoon? Ate at a really fancy restaurant
47
Movement test and its three types
If you can move a group of words around in a sentence, then they form a constituent because you can move them as a unit 1- clefting= he brought a brand new car -> it was [a brand new car] that he bought 2- proposing= I like big bowls of cereal -> [big bowls of cereal] are what I like 3- passive= the little student kissed the teacher -> [the teacher] was hugged by [the little student]
48
Coordination (or conjunction) test
Coordinate structures are constituents linked by the word AND or OR Only constituents of the same syntactic category can be conjoined Ex: [rachel] and [paola] went to the store *rachel and the very blue went to the store
49
How many constituency tests should be applied?
Two or more if the first two answers are contradictory
50
Three types of distribution
Morphological distribution: what affixes are found on the word Syntactic distribution: what other words are nearby Complementary distribution: when you have two categories and they never appear in the same environment (context) / usually means that two categories are part of the same class
51
Open class categories
Noun (including pronouns) Verb Adjective Adverb
52
Closed class words
``` Determiners Prepositions Conjunctions c Tense Negatives Pronouns Anaphors ```
53
Two types of categories
Lexical categories: express content of the sentence (N, V, adv, adj) Functional categories: contain grammatical info of the sentence (D, P, conj, T, neg, C)
54
Count vs mass nouns
Count nouns can appear with determiners and the quantifier 'many' Mass nouns can appear with 'much' and usually don't have articles
55
Predicate
Defines the relation between the individuals being talked about and some fact about them, as well as relations among the arguments
56
Argument structure
The number of arguments that a predicate takes
57
Argument
Entities that are involved in the predicate relation
58
Intransitive vs transitive vs ditransitive
Intransitive: predicate that takes only ONE argument (valency of 1, no arguments after the verb) Transitive: predicate that takes TWO arguments (valency of 2, have a single argument after the verb) Ditransitive: predicate that takes THREE arguments (valency of 3, have two arguments after the verb)
59
Divide "rachel hit the baseball" into arguments and predicates
Rachel / baseball (arguments) | Hit (predicate as it shows a relationship between the two arguments)
60
Valency
Another name for argument structure | Ex: a predicate that takes only one argument has a valency of 1 (no Argument follows the verb)
61
Three tense categories of English
Auxiliaries: have, is, do (and all their forms) Modals: will, would, shall, can, could, might, etc Non-finite tense marker: to
62
Six categories of determiners in English
Articles: the, a, an Deictic articles: this, that, these, etc Quantifiers: every, some, many, most, etc (Cardinal) numerals: one two three four etc Possessive pronouns: my, your, his, her, etc Some wh-question words: which and whose
63
Complementizers of English (4)
That For If Whether
64
Prescriptive vs descriptive grammar
Prescriptive grammar: grammar rules that are taught by so called "grammar experts" which describe how people SHOULD talk/write, rather than describing what they actually do Descriptive grammar: scientific grammar that describes, rather than prescribes, how people talk/write
65
Generative grammar
A theory of linguistics where grammar is viewed as a cognitive faculty Language is generated by a set of rules and procedures Includes Principles and Parameters approach (w/ minimalism)
66
Asterisk
Used to mark syntactically ungrammatical sentences *
67
Hash mark
Used to mark sentences with issues in meaning (but not grammar) #
68
Nominative vs accusative
Nominative: form of noun in subject position (I you he she it we they) Accusative: form of noun in object position (me you him her her it us them)
69
Two types of judgment (intuitions)
Semantic judgment: about meaning, relies on knowledge of context of the sentence Syntactic judgment: about the form or structure of a sentence
70
Garden path sentence
Sentence with strong ambiguity in structure that makes it hard to understand
71
Center embedding
A sentence that has a relative clause (with subject + verb) placed between its main clause subject and verb Ex: the house [bill built] leans to the left
72
Parsing
The mental tools that a listener uses to process and understand a sentence
73
Competence vs performance
Competence: what you know about your language Performance: real-world behaviour that are a consequence of what you know about your language
74
What allows us to produce sentences we've never heard before?
Recursion (ability to embed structures inside one another)
75
The logical problem for language acquisition
The proof that an infinite system like human language cannot be learned by just observing data (an argument for UG)
76
Under determination of the data
The idea that we know things about our language that we could not have possibly learned (an argument for UG)
77
What are the two arguments for UG?
The logical problem of language acquisition | Under determination of the data
78
Bio program hypothesis
The idea that creole languages share similar features because of an innate basic setting for language
79
The three levels of grammar adequacy
Observationally accurate: a grammar that accounts for observed real-world data (ex: corpora) Descriptively adequate grammar: a grammar that accounts for observed real-world data AND native speaker judgements Explanatorily adequate grammar: accounts for observed real-world data AND native speaker judgments AND offers an explanation for the facts of language acquisition (ODE to grammar adequacy- to remember)
80
Who created the levels of adequacy and why?
Chomsky; three stages that a grammar can attain in terms of adequacy (how good it is)
81
Supposed proof of UG
Premise 1: syntax=productive/recursive/infinite Premise 2: rule-governed infinite systems are unlearnable Conclusion: syntax is an unlearnable system therefore innate
82
Three categorization criteria for words
Meaning Morphology (ecosystem of word) Place in a sentence
83
Nouns
Morphology: Take case/number/gender endings Affixes (derivational): -ness, -ment, etc Syntactic context: Appear after [the ____] Can be subject or object Modified by adjectives
84
Verbs
Morphology: Derivational affixes: -ify, -ing, etc Inflectional affixes: -s, -ed, etc ``` Syntax: Appear after auxiliaries [please ____!] Follows subject, comes before object Can be negated ```
85
Adjectives
Morphology: Take -er, -est, -ate, etc Syntax: Appear between 'the' and noun Can follow 'very' Can appear in [john is ____]
86
Adverbs
Take -ly affix Appear before adjectives and verbs [very ____] Can appear at beginning or end of sentence
87
Ellipsis
Ex: John [bought a pair of pants], but I don't think Jim will.
88
Can you say that two lexical items co-index each other?
No, they refer to each other! (Co-referential)
89
How to answer a Principle question in 3 steps
Step 1: identify elements (R-expression, pronoun, antecedent, etc) Step 2: is it bound? And explain (c-command + coindex) Step 3: what does the theory predict? (Ex: since principle B is violated, the theory predicts that sentence will be ungrammatical...
90
How to answer a constituency question
Write the sentence Write the ungrammatical or grammatical test and say which test it is Say whether it's a constituent or not

LING 322: Syntax (1 decks)

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