Chapter 3: Syntax: The Sentence Patterns of Language

Declarative Sentences

A sentence that asserts that a particular situation exists.

Transitive Verb

A verb that C-selects an obligatory noun-phrase complement (ex: find)

Structure Dependent

(1) A principle of Universal Grammar that states that the application of transformational rules is determined by phrase structure properties, as opposed to structureless sequences of words or specific sentences; (2) the way children construct rules using their knowledge of syntactic structure irrespective of the specific words in the structure of their meaning.

Lexical Categories

A general term for the word-level syntactic categories of noun, verb, adjective, and adverb. These are the categories of content words, as opposed to functional category words such as "the."

Tree Diagrams

A graphical representation of the linear and hierarchical structure of a phrase or sentence.

Node

A labeled branch point in a phrase structure tree; part of the graphical depiction of a transition network represented as a circle, pairs of which are connected by arcs.

Recursive Rule

A phrase structure rule that repeats its own category on its right side, hence permitting phrase structures of potentially unlimited length, corresponding to that aspect of speakers' linguistic competence.

Active Sentence

A sentence in which the noun phrase subject in d-structure is also the noun phrase subject in s-structure.

Constituents

A speech sound in which the air stream flows continually through the mouth; all speech sounds except stops and affricates.

Aux

A syntactic category containing auxiliary verbs and abstract tense morphemes that functions as the heads of sentences.

Transformational Rule

A syntactic rule that applies to an underlying phrase structure tree of a sentence (either d-structure or an intermediate structure already affected by a transformation) and derives a new structure by moving, deleting, or inserting elements.

Phrase Structure Tree/Constituent Structure Tree

A tree diagram with syntactic categories at each node that reveals both the linear and hierarchical structure of phrases and sentences.

X-bar Schema

A universal schema specifying that the internal organization of all phrasal categories can be broken down into three levels.

Intransitive Verb

A verb that must not have a direct object NP complement.

Yes-No Questions

An interrogative sentence that inquires as to whether a certain situation is true or not.

Grammatical Relations

Any of several structural positions that a noun phrase may assume in a sentences

Deep Structures (D-structures)

Any phrase structure tree generated by the phrase structure rules of a transformational grammar; the basic syntactic structures of the grammar.

Immediately Dominate

If a node labeled A is directly above a node labeled B in a phrase structure tree, then A immediately dominates B.

Dominate

In a phrase structure tree, when a continuous downward path can be traced from a node labeled A to a node labeled B, then A dominates B.

Functional Categories

One of the categories of function words, including determiner, aux, complementizer, and preposition. These categories are not lexical or phrasal categories.

Rules of Syntax

Principles of grammar that account for the grammatically of sentences, their hierarchical structure, their word order, whether there is structural ambiguity.

Spell-Out Rules

Rules that convert abstract inflectional morphemes such as tense, agreement, and possessive into phonetically realized affixes.

Move

Sometimes called "Move X" or "Move alpha"; relocates elements placed by the X-bar schema (the phrase structure rules) to different parts of the structure to help account for sentence relatedness such as a declarative sentence and the corresponding yes-no question.

Specifiers

The category of the left sister of X-bar schema. It is a modifier of the head and is often optional.

Head (of a phrase)

The central word of a phrase whose lexical category defines the type of phrase.

Phrasal Categories

The class of syntactic categories that comprise the root of an X-bar structure including: NP, VP, AP, PP< and AdvP.

C-selection (Subcategories)

The classifying of verbs and other lexical items in terms of the syntactic category of the complements that they accept, sometimes called subcategorization.

Complement

The constituent(s) in a phrase other than the head that complete(s) the meaning of the phrase and which is C-selected by the verb. The right sister to the head in the X-bar schema. In the verb phrase "found a puppy," the noun phrase "a puppy" is a complement of the verb "found."

Subject

The grammatical relation of a noun phrase to a (s)entence when it appears immediately below that a sentence in a phrase structure tree.

Direct Object

The grammatical relation of a noun phrase when it appears immediately below the verb phrase (VP) and next to the verb in deep structure; the noun phrase complement of a transitive verb.

Constituent Structure

The hierarchically arranged syntactic units such as noun phrase and verb phrase that underlie every sentence.

Structural Ambiguity

The phenomenon in which the same sequence of words has two or more meanings accounted for by different phrase structure analyses.

Head (of a compound)

The rightmost word (ex: house in doghouse). It generally indicates the category and general meaning of the compound.

Syntax

The rules of sentence formation; the component of the mental grammar that represents speakers' knowledge of the structure of phrases and sentences.

Parameter

The small set of alternatives for a particular phenomenon made available by Universal Grammar. For example, UG specifies that a phrase must have a head and possibly complements; a parameter states whether the complement(s) precedes or follows the head.

Surface Structures (S-Structures)

The structure that results from applying transformational rules to a d-structure. It is syntactically closest to actual utterances.

Verb Phrase (VP)

The syntactic category of expressions that contain a verb as its head along with its complements such as noun phrases and prepositional phrases.

Determiner (Det)

The syntactic category, also functional category, of words and expressions, which when combined with a noun form a noun phrase. Includes the articles "the" and "a," demonstratives such as "this" and "that," qualifiers such as "each" and "every."

Verb (V)

The syntactic category, also lexical category, or words that can be the head of a verb phrase. Verbs denote actions, sensations, and states.

Prepositional Phrase (PP)

The syntactic category, also phrasal category, consisting of a prepositional head and a noun phrase complement.

Noun Phrase (NP)

The syntactic category, also phrasal category, of expressions containing some form of a noun or pronoun as its head, and which functions as the subject or as various objects in a sentence.

Demonstratives

Words such as "this," "that," "those," and "these" that function syntactically as articles but are semantically deictic because context is needed to determine the references of the noun phrases in which they occur.

Mode

A labeled branch point in a phrase structure tree; part of the graphical depiction of a transition network represented as circle, pairs of which are connected by arcs.