Syntactic Categories PDF

Introduction: Words have an order in which they are in, this order gives people the sense of the syntactic category of the words within it Syntactic Categories: Lexical/ open categories are ones that express content and allow new words to be added to them. Exam...

Introduction: Words have an order in which they are in, this order gives people the sense of the syntactic category of the words within it Syntactic Categories: Lexical/ open categories are ones that express content and allow new words to be added to them. Examples of them are: You can identify this if the word has its own identifiable meaning to it ○ Nouns ○ Verbs ○ Adjectives ○ Prepositions ○ Adverbs Functional/ closed categories are ones that express function and don't typically allow new words to be added. Examples of them are: Can identify this is the word does NOT. Have its own identifiable meaning to it ○ Auxiliary verbs ○ Degree words ○ Negation ○ Determiners (the, a, these, this, all, some, etc.). Productivity: the ability to come up with new words or utterances Identifying Lexical Categories Nouns: Used to define a place, person, or thing THIS DEFINATION IS NOT ALWAYS TRUE Can find clues to a noun by the suffixes ○ Tion ○ Ity ○ Ness Morphological Nouns use certain suffixes ○ -ity ○ -tion ○ -ly And can be used plurally ○ -s Syntactic Distribution of Nouns Nouns are usually preceded with a determiner Usually are the subject of the sentence Sometimes modified by an adjective Can be preceded with a preposition (by, from, in, to, during, after, and before) Verbs Action verbs: indicate action State verbs: express perception, mental states, or connection functions Main verbs: express actions, may occur independently Examples: ○ Caleb GOES to the gym ○ Caleb EATS food ○ Caleb HOPES he wins Auxiliary verbs: support the main verb, can't occur independently Regular auxiliaries: to have, to be, to do, etc ○ Caleb HAS eaten ○ Caleb IS running Modal Auxiliaries: can, could, will, would, shall, should, may, might, must, etc ○ Caleb CAN eat ○ Caleb MIGHT run If the regular auxiliary is the only verb in the sentence it is considered the main verb Modal auxiliaries are helping verbs that convey some meaning For examples: You MUST stop at the red light ○ Conveys obligation There are 3 forms in english: be, have, do (the tenses don't matter) Morphological Distribution of Verbs -ize attached to the end of the word -ed attaches to verbs to make them past tense Syntactic Distribution of Verbs Syntactic evidence 1. The verb comes after the auxiliary 2. Verb comes after the subject of the sentence 3. Comes after a negation (eg. Not) Adjectives Modify of describle nouns Suffixes that attach to them ○ -er ○ -est ○ -ish  ○ -able ○ -ful Can be modified by degree words: rather, more, quite, too, so, etc Usually comes after verbs Adverbs: Modify verbs Some end with –ly Contribute information about manner, time, or place Can appear at a number of different positions in the sentence Preposition: Closed/functional class Typically appear before nouns ○ On, under, over, in, above the chair