Pedagogical Grammar Chapter 6

Questions within a sentence, nested inside a main clause. Typically introduced with words like 'I wonder'.

Statements, expressing a fact or an opinion; not questions.

The process by which a grammatical element in a sentence is assigned its role/function.

Changes in the position of a phrase/word that maintain its syntactic role. Example: pronoun and verb motion within the sentence.

A clause that appears inside another clause.

The subject and auxiliary verb swap positions in English wh-questions.

Moving the wh-phrase (e.g., "which chair") to the front of the sentence in a question.

A clause within another clause; introduced by a complementizer like "that" or "if".

A word (like "that" or "if") that introduces an embedded clause.

An embedded clause which reports or states something (like a declarative sentence).

An embedded clause expressing a question.

Concept that movement of phrases can be viewed as re-merging these phrases at other positions in the tree.

The auxiliary verb (has, will, must, etc.) moves to the front of the verb phrase when forming a question with a wh-word.

A grammatical structure where a noun phrase (NP) moves from an embedded clause to the matrix clause, becoming the subject of the main verb. This movement preserves the NP's original θ-role (thematic role) in the embedded clause.

A grammatical construction where the subject of the main verb (matrix clause) controls the subject of the embedded verb. This means the subject of the matrix clause determines the referent of the embedded clause's subject.

A type of construction where the subject of the embedded clause is raised to become the subject of the matrix clause, creating a subject-to-subject relation.

A grammatical structure where the subject of the main verb (matrix clause) controls the referent of the embedded verb's subject, but the embedded subject's position remains unchanged.

A grammatical feature that doesn't have a semantic meaning but is essential for syntactic operations. It is removed during the derivation of a sentence.

A grammatical feature that contributes to the meaning of a sentence. It remains in the sentence after the syntactic derivation is complete.

The process in which a syntactic element with an uninterpretable feature seeks out a matching interpretable feature in the same clause. This interaction ensures the sentence is correctly built.

A grammatical relationship where a constituent (phrase) can 'see' another constituent (phrase) in the sentence. This is necessary for certain syntactic operations.

This hypothesis proposes that the subject of a sentence is initially generated within the verb phrase (VP), before moving to its final position in the sentence.

A grammatical subject that does not refer to any real-world entity and is used to fill a syntactic position. For example, 'there' in 'There is a man walking in the street.'

The true semantic subject of a sentence, the one that carries the action or state described by the verb.

A quantifier (like 'all', 'both') that appears outside of the noun phrase it modifies, usually attached to the verb phrase.

Floating quantifiers provide evidence supporting VISH. Because they modify the VP, it suggests the subject was originally inside the VP.

The first sentence places the quantifier 'all' within the VP, while the second moves it outside the VP. This shows that the subject 'the teachers' started inside the VP.

VISH argues that expletive subjects are placeholders inserted to satisfy syntactic requirements while the real subject originates within the VP and moves.

The VP-Internal Subject Hypothesis suggests that the subject of a sentence begins its journey within the VP and then moves to its final position, often due to syntactic constraints.

A fixed phrase where the entire clause (not just a single word or phrase) has a special, idiomatic meaning.

The part of a sentence that contains the verb and its tense or mood (e.g. 'has left', 'will break').

Moving a word or phrase to a different position in a sentence, but not changing its underlying role.

The process of ensuring words like nouns and pronouns have the correct grammatical form (e.g. 'he' vs. 'him').

The specific role of a word or phrase in a sentence, based on meaning (e.g., 'agent' who performs the action, 'patient' who receives the action).

A process where the subject of an embedded clause (a clause inside another clause) moves to the subject position of the main clause.

A theory that explains how sentences are structured, focusing on how subjects are raised and how quantifiers can move around.

A fixed phrase with a meaning that is not the literal meaning of the words combined.

A group of words that are not usually separated or changed, forming a fixed unit with its own specific meaning.

The idea that certain subjects may have been originally part of the verb phrase before moving up to the subject position.

Understanding a phrase based on its idiomatic meaning, not the literal combination of words.

The idea that a fixed group of words can carry a special meaning, making it an idiom.