The Study of Language Chapter 8 - Syntax

Tree Diagrams

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What are the components of a complement phrase?

A complementizer and a sentence.

Structural Ambiguity

A lack of understanding resulting from a single surface structure appearing to contain multiple possible deep structures.

What is the purpose of a tree diagram?

A tree diagram shows explicitly the different levels of structures in a sentence.

auxiliary verb

A verb that provides assistances

Complementizer (C)

A word enabling the subordination of a clause.

What does a tree diagram represent at the most basic and broad level?

At the most basic level, a tree diagram is a statistic representation of the structure of a single sentence. At the broadest level, a tree diagram represents a dynamic format in which an infinite number of sentences of similar structure can be made.

How does grammar relate to surface and deep structure?

Grammar must provide the conventions in which a single deep structure can assume a variety of surface structures.

What is the meaning of curly brackets?

Curly brackets around a syntactic category indicate that only one of the elements enclosed by the brackets must be selected.

What does the 'all or nothing' criterion mean for analysing syntax of a langauge?

It means that the analysis must account for all the correct combinations of structures and rule out all the incorrect.

What is the meaning conveyed by a pair of round brackets?

Round brackets around a syntactic category convey that the constituent is optional in a grammatically-correct context.

Lexical Rules

Rules stating which words can be used for constituents generated by phrase structure rules.

Movement Rule

Rules that stipulate how phrase structures can be moved to different rules.

Deep Structure

The abstract level of organization in which the most basic elements of a phrase reside.

What does a double-sided arrow convey when between two syntactic sentences?

The arrow communicates that the first group of syntactic units be used to derive the second.

What is the meaning conveyed by an arrow (-->) in syntactic analysis?

The arrow points from a syntactic category to another (or group of others) and indicates that the second category is contained in the first.

Recursivity

The property of grammatical rules to be applied an infinite number of times in generating a structure. In layman's talk, grammar must allow sentences to appear within sentences an infinite number of times and for phrases to be repeated as often as required.

Phrase Structure Rules

The rules that govern how a phrase is formed.

Generative Grammar

The small set of rules that create an infinite number of well-formed sets of linguistic structures.

Surface Structure

The superficial structure which is the sum of different syntactic forms.

What is the goal of syntactic analysis?

To have the smallest possible set of rules that produce an infinite number of well-formed set of structure.

Complement Phrase

lasdjkf;asdjf;kasd;fjasdf