Module 5 Syntax Vocabulary Practice Flashcards
(40 cards)
Syntax
The arrangement of words and phrases to create well-formed sentences in a language.
constituents and phrases
syntactic units
Grammer
in a language, a system of rules that enables us to communicate with and understand others
Pronominalisation
the substitution of a constituent by a pronoun
Movement
If a string of words can be moved to other sentential positions, it is proof of the string’s being a constituent
Coordination Test
Only constituents that can be coordinated by the coordinating conjunction and
Gapping
A fourth kind of test, which works with certain types of phrases
Structural ambiguity
In cases in which different interpretations arise through different sentence structures assigned to the same strings of words
Head
The most important element of a phrase
Noun Phrases
Phrases headed by a noun
Determiners
In front of nouns to indicate if referring to something specific or something or a particular type. 3 types: definite articles (a, an, the); demonstratives (this, that, these, those); possessives (my, your, his, her, its, our, their)
Phrase structure rules
Whole grammars on the basis of rules that build syntactic structures
Subordinate Clauses
This does not express a complete thought and cannot stand by itself as a complete sentence
Clause
A grammatical unit that contains both a subject and a verb.
Sentences
Defined as the largest syntactic units and they are made up of one or more clauses
Matrix Clause
The clause within which an embedded clause is embedded.
Main Clause
Refers to clauses that can stand on their own
Predicate
Tells what the subject is or does
Subject-Verb Agreement
A syntactic process which requires subject and verb to share the same person and number features
Case Forms
Forms that mark the grammatical function of noun phrases in a sentence or phrase
Transitive Verbs
Verbs that need an object
Intransitive Verbs
Verbs that cannot take an object
Distransitive
Verbs that can take two objects, like give, or show
Direct Object
One of the objects denotes an entity that undergoes the action or process denoted by the verb.