Syntax Flashcards
(40 cards)
Syntax
the set of rules, principles, and processes that govern the structure of sentence in a given language, usually including word order
Grammar
is the set of structural rules governing the composition of clauses, phrases, and or words in a natural language
Constituents
a word or a group of words that functions as a single unit within a hierarchical structure
Phrases
a group of words(or possibly a single word) that functions as a constituent in the syntax of a sentence
Pronunciation
the way in which a word or a language is spoken
Pro-form
a word substituting for other words, phrases, clauses, or sentences, whose meaning is recoverable from the linguistic or extra linguistic context
Wh-pronoun
one of the function word used to begin a wh- question: what, who, whom, when, where, why, and how… in most varieties of English, the wh- words are used as relative pronouns
Movement
the means by which some theories of syntax address discontinuities or displacement
Coordination Test
a complex syntactic structure that links together two or more elements; these elements are called conjuncts or conjoins… it’s one of the many constituency tests in Linguistics
Gapping (behavior)
a type of ellipsis that occurs in the non-initial conjunctions of coordinate structures. Gapping usually elides minimally a finite verb and further any non-finite verbs that are present
Sentence Fragment Test
fails to be a sentence in the sense that it cannot stand by itself. It does not contain even one independent clause
Head (of phrase)
The head or the nucleus of a phrase is the word that determines the syntactic category if that phrase
Noun Phrases
Also known as Nominal phrases, are a phrase that has a noun(or indefinitive pronoun) as its head performs the same grammatical function as a noun.
Prepositional Phrases
it is adpostional phrase in which a preposition is the head. The preposition precedes its complement
Verb Phrases
a it syntactic unit composed of at least one verb and its dependents–objects, complements, and other modifiers–but not always including the subject
Adverb Phrases
a group of two or more words that function as an adverb in a sentence… typically answer the questions how, where and when something is done
Ex: I parked the car.
Adjective Phrases
a group of words that functions as an adjective in a sentence. An adjective headword may be accompanied by modifiers, determiners, and or qualifiers (all of which are called independents)
[Head] Projects
based on linguistic data and consists of an in depth description of the material or same aspects of material using standard English
Projections
principle simply states that when noting the syntactic structure of a sentence such as “John runs fast.” we must specify at every level what lexical category each piece of the sentence belongs to
Word Classes
a set of words that display the same formal properties, especially their inflections and distribution.
Syntactic Categories
word classes, largely corresponding to traditional parts of speech, are syntactic categories.
Parts of Speech
category of words that have similar grammatical properties
Common speech parts (9): noun, verb, adjective, adverb, pronoun, preposition, conjunction and innterjection
Lexical Categories
classes of words , which differ in how other words can be constructed out of them.
-ing &-able
Determines
a word or affix that belongs to a class of noun modifiers that expresses the reference, including quantity, of a noun
