Syntax: Forming Phrases and Sentences
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Questions and Answers

What is the meaning of the Greek word, "syntaxis"?

Arrangement

According to Noam Chomsky, what is syntax?

The study of the principles and processes by which sentences are constructed in a particular language

What is the goal of syntactic investigation of a given language?

To construct a grammar that can be viewed as a device of some sort for producing the sentences of the language under analysis

What is the smallest form of a sentence in English?

<p>A noun phrase and a verb phrase</p> Signup and view all the answers

Why is word order important in syntax?

<p>Words cannot be put together in just any order.</p> Signup and view all the answers

What is the subject of the sentence, "Man, who is the only rational being in earth, naturally seeks to know the reasons, causes, principles and explanations of visible phenomena, and delves into the ultimate whys and wherefores of all things, particularly those concerning his own life and destiny."?

<p>Man</p> Signup and view all the answers

How many predicates are there in the sentence, "Man, who is the only rational being in earth, naturally seeks to know the reasons, causes, principles and explanations of visible phenomena, and delves into the ultimate whys and wherefores of all things, particularly those concerning his own life and destiny."?

<p>Two</p> Signup and view all the answers

What are the phrases in the sentence, "Man, who is the only rational being in earth, naturally seeks to know the reasons, causes, principles and explanations of visible phenomena, and delves into the ultimate whys and wherefores of all things, particularly those concerning his own life and destiny."?

<p>Man, who is the only rational being in earth, naturally seeks to know the reasons, causes, principles and explanations of visible phenomena, and delves into the ultimate whys and wherefores of all things, particularly those concerning his own life and destiny</p> Signup and view all the answers

What kind of clause is, "who is the only rational being in earth"?

<p>A relative clause</p> Signup and view all the answers

Does the sentence, "Man, who is the only rational being in earth, naturally seeks to know the reasons, causes, principles and explanations of visible phenomena, and delves into the ultimate whys and wherefores of all things, particularly those concerning his own life and destiny." express a complete thought?

<p>True</p> Signup and view all the answers

What are the two properties that dictate how linguistic expressions can syntactically combine with other expressions?

<p>Word order and co-occurrence properties</p> Signup and view all the answers

What are the three main types of co-occurrence?

<p>Arguments, adjuncts, and agreement</p> Signup and view all the answers

Arguments are optional.

<p>False</p> Signup and view all the answers

Adjuncts are obligatory

<p>False</p> Signup and view all the answers

Adjuncts can be ordered freely within a sentence

<p>True</p> Signup and view all the answers

Arguments are the same as modifiers

<p>False</p> Signup and view all the answers

What does "agreement" refer to in the context of co-occurrence?

<p>Grammatical agreement between two words in a sentence</p> Signup and view all the answers

What is another term for grammatical agreement between two words?

<p>Concord</p> Signup and view all the answers

What does "government" refer to in the context of grammatical agreement?

<p>One word's influence on another word's form</p> Signup and view all the answers

What is word order?

<p>The linear order of words in a sentence or phrase</p> Signup and view all the answers

Changes in word order always result in ungrammaticality.

<p>False</p> Signup and view all the answers

What does the S-V-O pattern refer to?

<p>Subject-Verb-Object pattern</p> Signup and view all the answers

English is an S-V-O language.

<p>True</p> Signup and view all the answers

What is the main difference between content words and function words?

<p>Content words have meaning while function words have grammatical functions</p> Signup and view all the answers

Content words form a closed class

<p>False</p> Signup and view all the answers

Function words have a more limited dictionary definition than content words

<p>True</p> Signup and view all the answers

What is substitution in terms of grammar?

<p>Replacing a word or phrase with a filler word to avoid repetition</p> Signup and view all the answers

There are three types of substitution

<p>True</p> Signup and view all the answers

What are the two main ways to avoid repetition in a sentence?

<p>Substitution and ellipsis</p> Signup and view all the answers

Ellipsis is the omission of a word or phrase

<p>True</p> Signup and view all the answers

In what way does ellipsis and substitution differ?

<p>Ellipsis is a grammatical device while substitution is a rhetorical device</p> Signup and view all the answers

What are the two types of negation in the context of negative concord?

<p>Sentential negation and neg-words</p> Signup and view all the answers

Sentential negation negates the entire sentence

<p>True</p> Signup and view all the answers

Neg-words only occur after the negated auxiliary of modal

<p>False</p> Signup and view all the answers

What is notional agreement in English grammar?

<p>Agreement between words based on meaning</p> Signup and view all the answers

Notional agreement only applies to verbs

<p>False</p> Signup and view all the answers

What is the main difference between pronoun agreement and proximity agreement?

<p>Pronoun agreement focuses on number, person, and gender, while proximity agreement focuses on proximity to the verb</p> Signup and view all the answers

What does a quantifier do?

<p>Expresses relative or indefinite indication of quantity</p> Signup and view all the answers

Quantifiers can be used in place of a determiner

<p>True</p> Signup and view all the answers

What is subject-verb agreement?

<p>The correspondence of a verb with its subject in person and number</p> Signup and view all the answers

Subject-verb agreement applies only to finite verbs in the present tense

<p>False</p> Signup and view all the answers

What is synesis in grammatical terms?

<p>Agreement based on meaning rather than strict syntax</p> Signup and view all the answers

Synesis only applies to notional agreement

<p>False</p> Signup and view all the answers

A constituent is a word or group of words that forms a unit within a hierarchical structure

<p>True</p> Signup and view all the answers

Constituents can contain other constituents

<p>True</p> Signup and view all the answers

What is the head of a constituent?

<p>The word around which the constituent is built</p> Signup and view all the answers

An exocentric compound is headless

<p>True</p> Signup and view all the answers

What does 'dependency grammar' focus on in sentence structure?

<p>The root verb and its valance</p> Signup and view all the answers

What are the main tests used to identify constituents?

<p>The question test, movement test, substitution test, ellipsis test, passivization test, and coordination test</p> Signup and view all the answers

What is a syntactic category?

<p>A set of words or phrases that share a common grammatical function and distribution</p> Signup and view all the answers

Lexical categories are the same as phrasal categories

<p>False</p> Signup and view all the answers

Functional categories typically form open classes

<p>False</p> Signup and view all the answers

What are the three criteria used to define syntactic categories?

<p>Type of meaning, type of affixes, and structure within a sentence</p> Signup and view all the answers

A sentence is a set of word that is a complete thought.

<p>True</p> Signup and view all the answers

There are only two main sentence types in English, full sentences and minor sentences

<p>True</p> Signup and view all the answers

What are the two major sentence types in terms of their structure?

<p>Actor-action and command</p> Signup and view all the answers

Minor sentences cannot occur as complete sentences

<p>False</p> Signup and view all the answers

A sentence is a word, clause, or phrase that forms a syntactic unit

<p>True</p> Signup and view all the answers

What is the main difference between loose sentences, cumulative sentences, periodic sentences, and balanced sentences?

<p>How the emphasis is placed, and where the main idea is presented</p> Signup and view all the answers

A balanced sentence creates equal emphasis on two parts

<p>True</p> Signup and view all the answers

In the context of selection classes, what are the two major types of words?

<p>Content words and function words</p> Signup and view all the answers

Function words typically appear in medial positions within a sentence

<p>False</p> Signup and view all the answers

What is the main way to expand a simple sentence?

<p>Adding modifiers and coordinating clauses</p> Signup and view all the answers

An adverb clause can only modify an adverb

<p>False</p> Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary goal of a tree diagram?

<p>Visually illustrating the hierarchical structure of a sentence</p> Signup and view all the answers

Study Notes

Syntax: Forming Phrases, Clauses, and Sentences

  • Syntax is the study of sentence construction principles
  • Sentences are constructed from words and phrases following grammar rules
  • Syntax aims to produce grammatical sentences
  • The smallest syntactic unit in English is a noun phrase (NP), which can be a single noun or pronoun, and a verb phrase (VP) which can be a single verb.

Syntactic Properties & Devices

  • Word order and co-occurrence of properties dictate how expressions combine
  • Arguments are obligatory expressions whose occurrence is tied to another
  • Adjuncts (modifiers) are optional parts of expression
  • Agreement is grammatical matching between words in a sentence

Co-occurrence

  • Arguments: Obligatory components
    • Occur a fixed number of times
    • Cannot be ordered freely (with exceptions)
  • Adjuncts: Optional elements
    • Can occur multiple times
    • Can be ordered freely
  • Agreement: Grammatical correspondence between words

Word Order

  • Word order in a language dictates the arrangement of words, subject, verb, and object.
  • Word order changes in a sentence can change meaning
  • English follows Subject-Verb-Object (SVO) order

Agreement

  • Concord; the grammatical agreement between words in a sentence
  • Government: One word's influence on another's form

Function Words and Content Words

  • Content words: Words with meanings found in dictionaries (nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs). constantly added and removed
  • Function words: Words with little meaning on their own, used to structure relationships between content words (prepositions, conjunctions, pronouns, articles)

Substitution

  • Replacing words or phrases to avoid repetition

Three Types of Substitution

  • One/Ones (nominal substitution)
  • Verbal substitution (using auxiliary verbs like 'do, be, have')
  • Clausal substitution (using 'so' or 'not' to replace clauses)

Coordination or Conjoining

  • Joining two or more elements (conjuncts or clauses) with coordinating conjunctions.
  • Provides equal emphasis to elements joined

Subordination or Embedding

  • Making one idea dependent on another
  • Uses subordinating conjunctions to relate clauses.

Endocentric and Exocentric Compounds

  • Endocentric compounds: Have a head (core meaning). semantic header inside
  • Exocentric compounds: Have no head, meaning cannot be determined by constituent parts

Syntactic Constituency

  • Constituents: Words or groups of words that form a unit
  • Tests for determining constituents: Question test, Movement test, Substitution test, Ellipsis test, Passivization test, Coordination test

Syntactic Categories

  • Set of words or phrases with similar characteristics (noun, verb, adjective)
  • Classified by meaning, inflection, and structure

Three Criteria for Syntactic Categories

  • Type of meaning expressed
  • Type of affixes used
  • Structure used in sentence.

Sentences

  • Structures of words, forming a complete thought or statement
  • Composed of clauses and phrases

Minor Sentence Types

  • Fragment, elliptical, or incomplete
  • Convey complete meaning.
  • Types include exclamations, aphorisms, answers to questions, and vocatives.

Tree Diagrams

  • Visual representation of sentence structure using nodes.
  • Important visual elements for constituent relationships.

Subject-Verb Agreement

  • Correspondence between subject (singular/plural) and verb (singular/plural)
  • Applies to finite verbs in the present and past forms of "to be".

Synesis

  • Grammatical construction based on meaning not form
  • Syntax is altered to agree with the meaning(rhetorical device)

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Related Documents

Handout Syntax - Introduction to Linguistics PDF

Description

This quiz explores the fundamentals of syntax, focusing on how phrases, clauses, and sentences are constructed according to grammatical rules. It covers key concepts such as noun phrases, verb phrases, word order, and the distinctions between arguments and adjuncts. Test your understanding of these essential syntactic properties!

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