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Understanding Syntax in Linguistics

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Questions and Answers

What is syntax in linguistics?

The study of how words and morphemes combine to form larger units such as phrases and sentences (correct)
The study of phonetics and phonology
The study of the history and evolution of languages
The study of language acquisition in children

What are some central concerns of syntax?

Language change, historical linguistics, and language families
Vocabulary acquisition, language development, and dialectal differences
Word order, grammatical relations, hierarchical sentence structure, agreement, and crosslinguistic variation (correct)
Pronunciation, intonation, and language register

What is the etymology of the word 'syntax'?

From Ancient Greek roots: σύνταξις 'coordination', which consists of σύν syn, 'together', and τάξις táxis, 'ordering' (correct)
From Latin origin meaning 'arrangement'
From Old English roots meaning 'word formation'
From Sanskrit origin meaning 'language structure'

What is one basic description of a language's syntax?

The sequence in which the subject (S), verb (V), and object (O) usually appear in sentences (B) Signup and view all the answers

What does over 85% of languages usually do in terms of subject placement?

Place the subject first, either in the sequence SVO or the sequence SOV (C) Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following is an example of a grammatical function in traditional grammar?

Subject (C) Signup and view all the answers

In dependency grammars, what bears a grammatical function?

Every head-dependent dependency (B) Signup and view all the answers

What are some examples of modern theories likely to acknowledge as grammatical relations?

Complement, specifier, predicative (A) Signup and view all the answers

What do grammatical categories include?

Traditional parts of speech like nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc., and features like number and tense (D) Signup and view all the answers

What is the role of grammatical relations in linguistic theorizing?

Assuming an important role in linguistic theorizing within a variety of approaches (C) Signup and view all the answers

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