SLHS 227 CH 3 Syntax

What are the three things to test for constituency?

1) Does it have the ability to stand alone? Ask questions and see if it is able to stand alone and make sense 2.) Can you substitute it by a pro-form? 3.) Can you provide movement and have it make sense? This task will not always work

How to determine the syntactic category or word class or a word?

1) Look at the morphological and syntactic categories and try to test - sometimes words in different categories will look the same and you need to see in in the context a cook (noun) to cook (verb)

What is an adverb?

An adverb modifies a verb, adjective, or another adverb. And it almost always answers the questions how?, when?, where?, how often?, and in what way?. Words like slowly, loudly, carefully, quickly, quietly or sadly are all adverbs. Adverbs usually, but not always, end in -ly. Fast, slowly, quietly, above, below, towards, soon, too, sometimes, well, rarely ect

Phrasal categories - Each constituent usually represents a phrasal category - The main word in a constituent is the ____ which is the word that carries the main meaning of the entire phrase and generally speaking is what the whole phrase is about.

Head -When looking at the head you need to see what word class or lexical category it belongs to to decide the phrasal category Ex The teachers Teachers = the head and is a noun so it is a noun phrase A phrase can also consist of just one word in some situations

_______ is caused when two words have the same form or when a word has more than one meaning and can confuse the reader.

Lexical ambiguity Lexical ambiguity is a writing error that occurs when a sentence contains a word that has more than one meaning. This problem, which is also called semantic ambiguity, obscures the writer's intent and confuses the reader. Wrong word inserted can also make it "funny" or "inappropriate" Example -Child's stool great for use in garden -Stiff opposition expected to casketless funeral plan -I went to the bank.

_____ the ability to place a component inside another component of the same type.

Recursion

______ when a phrase or sentence has more than one underlying structure. The phrase can be disambiguated by putting it in a sentence with some sort of formal signals which help the reader or hearer to recognize the sentence structure.

Structural Ambiguity Examples -Two cars were reported stolen by the Groveton police yesterday -Yoko Ono will talk about her husband John Lennon who was killed in an interview with Barbara Walkers -The license fee for altered dogs with a certificate will be $3 and for pets owned by senior citizens who have not been altered the fee will be $1.50

Traditionally, parts of speech/lexical categories were defined based on their meaning. For example, nouns were described as words referring to objects, persons, and/or places. If we use this approach, the word "a cough" cannot be classified as a noun. Question 1 options: True or False

True

In the sentence " Rex gives sloppy kisses" the word "kisses" is a noun because Pick one: - it refers to a object -it has a plural suffix -es and is preceded by and ADJ

it has a plural suffix -es and is preceded by and ADJ

Open class words Typical open classes found in English and many other languages are ______?

nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs

______ are categories that are immediately dominated by the same node?

Sisters

Word class = parts of speech -word classes are called _______? -What are some examples of word classes or syntactic categories?

Syntactic categories noun, pronoun, verb, adjective, adverb, preposition, conjunction, and interjection -languages have a large number of words, but a small number of word classes -a set or category of things having some property or attribute in common and differentiated from others by kind, type, or quality.

What is a verb?

a word used to describe an action, state, or occurrence, and forming the main part of the predicate of a sentence Action verbs- shows action Swim, dance, run, walk, tiptoe, jump, laugh ect Linking verb- links or connects a subject(noun) with a word that identifies or describes it may, might, must, am, are, is, where, was Helping verb- helps other verbs convey additional information be, is, am, are, being

What is an adjective?

a word or phrase naming an attribute, added to or grammatically related to a noun to modify or describe it. a word the modifies or describes a noun Big, angry, loud, smooth, active, careless, tired, spoiled ect

What is a noun?

A noun is a word that functions as the name of a specific object or set of objects, such as living creatures, places, actions, qualities, states of existence, or ideas

What is a pro-word?

A pro-form is a word, substituting for other words, phrases, clauses, or sentences, whose meaning is recoverable from the linguistic or extralinguistic context.

What is an embedded clause?

A subordinate clause, dependent clause or embedded clause is a clause that is embedded within a complex sentence A sentence within a sentence basically! Also though of as the CP!

What is a complementizer?

Complementizers are words that, in traditional terms, introduce a sentence subordinate conjunctions. The function of complementizers is to mark the status of mood of a sentence.

An alternative to using meaning for classifying words into parts of speech is to use words' morphological and syntactic properties. On page 185 of the reading material, the author discusses how this approach can be applied to words like "former," "asleep," and "apple pie." Based on his discussion, which of the following statements is most accurate? Question options: A.) Using morphological and syntactic properties of words for lexical categorization is an improvement over the use of meaning for the same purpose. However, some words may still pose a problem - they may fit morphological and syntactic patterns of more than one class. For example, a word may behave like a noun in some constructions and like an adjective in other constructions. B.) Using morphological and syntactic properties of words allows one to group words into lexical categories without any problems. It's a huge improvement over the use of meaning for lexical categorization.

Using morphological and syntactic properties of words for lexical categorization is an improvement over the use of meaning for the same purpose. However, some words may still pose a problem - they may fit morphological and syntactic patterns of more than one class. For example, a word may behave like a noun in some constructions and like an adjective in other constructions.