Syntax, Part 2

Question 1

Noun phrase

Answer 1

Takes the place of a noun

Can be composed of a determiner, an adjective, a noun, and a prepositional phrase (optionally)

He, she, and it are all NPs. If you can replace a constituent with a pronoun, that constituent is a NP

E.g. “John” and “the cat”

Question 2

Verb phrase

Answer 2

Takes the pace of a verb

A VP may optionally contain a noun phrase, a prepositional phrase, or an adjective

E.g. “slept” and “slept on the mat”

Question 3

What MUST a sentence contain?

Answer 3

A noun phrase and a verb phrase

Question 4

Prepositional phrases

Answer 4

Composed of a preposition and optionally a noun phrase

E.g. “to the store”, “from Abby”

Question 5

What two steps must we do when building syntax trees?

Answer 5

1. Accurately represent word order
2. Identify constituents

Question 6

Node

Answer 6

a labeled branch point where the syntactic category is labeled

Question 7

Domination

Answer 7

every higher node dominates all the categories beneath it

Question 8

Sisters

Answer 8

two categories that are directly under the same node

Question 9

Head of a phrase

Answer 9

the lexical item which determines its syntactic category

The head of a noun phrase is always going to be a noun and the head of a verb phrase is going to be be a verb, same for a prepositional phrase

All phrases must have a head but not all heads have a complement

E.g. NP: an extinct bird species of South America
Species is the head

Question 10

Complement

Answer 10

gives additional information about the head

E.g. in the phrase “ate a bagel”
Ate is the head phrase, and “a bagel” is the complement