Syntax, Part 1 Flashcards
(24 cards)
Syntax
the study of how word phrases and sentenes are constructed
Two approaches to sentence structure
- Words thought of as beads on a string; you add words until you have a sentence (this notion is incorrect)
- Words in a sentence have internal structure; some words are more closely connected than others
What do we know when we know the syntax of our native language?
The permissible words orders
English basic word order
sebject-verb-object (SVO)
the order varies across languages
Sign lanuage basic word order
verb-subject-object
Does word order matter with sentences that don’t have real meaning?
Yes, it does
E.g. colorless green ideas sleep furiously vs green furiously sleep ideas color
Both of these sentences are meaningless but the first is considered grammatically correct
What do all lanugages have?
nouns and verbs
May or may not have adjectives, adverbs, conjunctions, articles, prepositions, etc
How is a noun defined linguistically?
A word that can follow a definite article, indefinite article, numeral, which phrase, or a possessor
the book = definite determiner
A book = indefinite determiner
Six books = numbers
Which book = which phrase
Mary’s book = possessor/genitive
How is a verb defined linguistically?
A word that can combine with the tense suffixes (-s, -ed, -ing, etc)
E.g, wipe, wiped, wipes, wiping
How is an adjective defined linguistically?
A item that can appear in the position following seem/seems is an adjective
____ seems ___
If -er or -est can be added to the words or if the word can follow more or most, then its an adjective
E.g. happier, happiest, more promising, the most promising
Auxiliary verbs
have, had, be, was, there
Modals
can, may, will, might, could
Determiners
a, an, the, those
Constituents
natural groupings of words within a sentence
What happens to the subject and auxiliary verb when you form a sentence?
the subject and auxiliary verbs invert positions
When there’s more than one auxiliary (e.g. has been), the first auxiliary inverts with the subject
Original sentence: the little rabbit that has hopped will eat a rutabaga
Will the little rabbit that has hopped eat a rutabaga
“The little rabbit that has hopped” acts as a single unit
Do you have to perform all constituency tests?
Yes, one test failure does not mean it’s not a constituent, it must fail all tests
Two types of replacement tests
- Pronoun replacement
- Do so/do too replacement
Pronoun replacement
When a group of words can be replaced by a pronoun and the sentence remains grammatical and has the same meaning, the group of words is a constituent
pronouns include I, he, she, you, we, there, it
E.g. I found the puppy at the park — I found him at the park
“The puppy” is a constituent
targets noun phrases
Do so/Do too replacement
Can a string of words be replaced by “do so” or do too”
E.g. original: the old man found a dollar – yes, the old man did so
“Found a dollar” is a constituent
targets verb phrases
Stand alone tests
Chunk of words that can stand on its own as an answer to a question is a constituent
Test sentence: the girl ran in the rain
Who ran in the rain? = the girl
Where did the girl run? == in the rain
The movement test
When a group of words can be moved around within a sentence, it indicates the the group of words is a constituent
Two types of movement tests
- Fronting
- Clefting
Fronting
Moving a group of words to the beginning of the sentence
E.g. In the rain, the girl ran
Clefting
Breaking up a sentence and feeding it into the following formula:
It is/was ____ that ____
E.g. The girl ran in the rain
It was in the rain that the girl ran
It was the girl that ran in the rain
