Syntax

Question 1

Constituents

Answer 1

is a word or a group of words that function as a single unit within a hierarchical structure. The constituent structure of sentences is identified using tests for constituents.

Question 2

Phrases

Answer 2

is a group of words (or possibly a single word) that functions as a constituent in the syntax of a sentence, a single unit within a grammatical hierarchy. A phrase typically appears within a clause, but it is possible also for a phrase to be a clause or to contain a clause within it.

Question 3

Pronominalisation

Answer 3

the substitution of a constituent by a pronoun

Question 4

Pro-form

Answer 4

A pro-form is a word, substituting for other words, phrases, clauses, or sentences, whose meaning is recoverable from the linguistic or extralinguistic context.

Question 5

Move

Answer 5

A move is a stretch of talk that forms a unit. It has a functional relation to the conversation of which it is a part.

Question 6

Structural ambiguity

Answer 6

in cases in which different interpretations arise through different sentence structures assigned to the same strings of words

Question 7

Head

Answer 7

A head is a constituent of an endocentric construction that, if standing alone, could perform the syntactic function of the whole construction.

Question 8

Noun Phrase

Answer 8

A noun phrase, or nominal, is a phrase that has a noun as its head or performs the same grammatical function as a noun. Noun phrases are very common cross-linguistically, and they may be the most frequently occurring phrase type

Question 9

Grammar

Answer 9

is the set of structural rules governing the composition of clauses, phrases and words in a natural language

Question 10

Syntax

Answer 10

is the set of rules, principles, and processes that govern the structure of sentences (sentence structure) in a given language, usually including word order. The term syntax is also used to refer to the study of such principles and processes.

Question 11

Prepositional phrase

Answer 11

A prepositional phrase is a group of words containing a preposition, a noun or pronoun object of the preposition, and any modifiers of the object. A preposition sits in front of (is “pre-positioned” before) its object.

Question 12

Adjective Phrase

Answer 12

An adjective phrase is a phrase the head of which is an adjective, e.g. fond of steak, very happy, quite upset about it, etc. The adjective can initiate the phrase, conclude the phrase, or appear in a medial position.

Question 13

Verb phrase

Answer 13

is a syntactic unit composed of at least one verb and its dependents—objects, complements and other modifiers—but not always including the subject.

A verb phrase is similar to what is considered a predicate in more traditional grammars.

Question 14

Adverb phrase

Answer 14

is a multi-word expression operating adverbially: its syntactic function is to modify other expressions, including verbs, adjectives, adverbs, adverbials, and sentences. Adverbial phrases can be divided into two types: complement adverbs and modifier adverbs.

Question 15

Determiner

Answer 15

A determiner is a word or affix that belongs to a class of noun modifiers that expresses the reference, including quantity, of a noun. Kinds: Article. Demonstrative.

Question 16

Phrase structure rules

Answer 16

Phrase structure rules are a type of rewrite rule used to describe a given language’s syntax and are closely associated with the early stages of transformational grammar, proposed by Noam Chomsky in 1957.

Question 17

Subordinate clause

Answer 17

The dependent clause is called a subordinate clause; sentences inside other sentences

Question 18

Clause

Answer 18

A clause is a grammatical unit that:

includes, at minimum, a predicate and an explicit or implied subject

expresses a proposition.

Question 19

Sentence

Answer 19

are defined as the largest syntactic units and they are made up of one or more clauses.

Question 20

Independant clause

Answer 20

An independent clause is a clause that can stand by itself as a simple sentence. An independent clause contains a subject and a predicate and makes sense by itself. Independent clauses can be joined by using a semicolon or by using a comma followed by a coordinating conjunction.

Question 21

Matrix clause

Answer 21

In linguistics (and in generative grammar in particular), a matrix clause is a clause that contains a subordinate clause. Plural: matrices. Also called a matrix or a higher clause. In terms of function, a matrix clause determines the central situation of a sentence.

Question 22

Subject-verb agreement

Answer 22

Subjects and verbs must AGREE with one another in number (singular or plural). Thus, if a subject is singular, its verb must also be singular; if a subject is plural, its verb must also be plural.

Question 23

Transitive verbs

Answer 23

verbs that need an object

however, there are sometimes sentences, in which even transitive verbs can do without an overtly expressed object

Question 24

Intransitive verbs

Answer 24

verbs that cannot take an object

Question 25

Di-transitive verbs

Answer 25

In grammar, a ditransitive verb is a verb which takes a subject and two objects which refer to a theme and a recipient. According to certain linguistics considerations, these objects may be called direct and indirect, or primary and secondary

Question 26

Direct object

Answer 26

The direct object is the thing that the subject acts upon, so in that last sentence, “cereal” is the direct object; it’s the thing Jake ate.

In a sentence, the direct object is the noun or noun phrase that’s receiving the action of the verb.

Question 27

Indirect object

Answer 27

a noun phrase referring to someone or something that is affected by the action of a transitive verb (typically as a recipient), but is not the primary object (e.g. him in give him the book ).

Question 28

Adverbial (Adjunct)

Answer 28

An adjunct, broadly defined, is an optional constituent of a construction.

Question 29

Complement

Answer 29

Traditionally, a complement is a constituent of a clause, such as a noun phrase or adjective phrase, that is used to predicate a description of the subject or object of the clause.

In generative syntax, a complement is a phrasal or clausal category which is selected (subcategorized) by the head of a phrase.

Question 30

Predicative complement

Answer 30

A predicative complement completes the meaning of a sentence by giving information about a noun. Predicative complements follow linking verbs (i.e., verbs which do not denote an action but rather connect a noun to information about the noun). Other linking verbs include appear, feel, look, and seem

Question 31

Word-class

Answer 31

All words belong to categories called word classes (or parts of speech) according to the part they play in a sentence. The main word classes in English are listed below.

Noun
Verb
Adjective
Adverb
Pronoun
Preposition
Conjunction
Determiner
Exclamation

Question 32

Coordination

Answer 32

coordination is a complex syntactic structure that links together two or more elements; these elements are called conjuncts or conjoins. It is also one of the many constituency tests in Linguistics.

Question 33

Gapping

Answer 33

gapping is a type of ellipsis that occurs in the non-initial conjuncts of coordinate structures. Gapping usually elides minimally a finite verb and further any non-finite verbs that are present. This material is “gapped” from the non-initial conjuncts of a coordinate structure.

Question 34

Sentence Fragments

Answer 34

Fragments are incomplete sentences. Usually, fragments are pieces of sentences that have become disconnected from the main clause. One of the easiest ways to correct them is to remove the period between the fragment and the main clause. Other kinds of punctuation may be needed for the newly combined sentence.

Question 35

Syntactic categories

Answer 35

A syntactic category is a type of syntactic unit that theories of syntax assume. Word classes, largely corresponding to traditional parts of speech (e.g. noun, verb, preposition, etc.), are syntactic categories.

Question 36

Parts-of-speech

Answer 36

In traditional grammar, a part of speech or Part-of-speech, is a category of words that have similar grammatical properties.

Commonly listed English parts of speech are noun, verb, adjective, adverb, pronoun, preposition, conjunction, interjection, numeral, article, or determiner.

Question 37

Lexical category

Answer 37

A lexical category is a syntactic category for elements that are part of the lexicon of a language. These elements are at the word level.

Question 38

Projection principle

Answer 38

The Projection Principle simply states that when notating 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[2] Two common ways of notating the syntactic structure of a sentence under X-Bar Theory include bracketing and tree drawing.

Question 39

Predicate

Answer 39

A predicate is the portion of a clause, excluding the subject, that expresses something about the subject.

Question 40

Case forms

Answer 40

such forms that mark the grammatical function of noun phrases in a sentence or phrase