Syntax, Morphology and Parts of Speech

Flashcards on Syntax, Morphosyntax, and Parts of Speech.

Morphosyntax

Combines morphology and syntax.

Inflectional Morphology

Refers to the formation of word forms rather than new lexemes

Produces forms of lexemes to make them fit into certain grammatical contexts

Close connection between inflectional morphology and word-classes/ parts of speech

Morphosyntactic categories

Categories such as tense, number, and case.

morphosyntactic properties

a present tense or past tense

Stem

The form of a lexeme to which inflections are attached.

players

When a word class inflects…

the inflection tells you what word class the word is

word classes make up…

the skeletal, telegraphic structure of sentences

Irregular Plural Marking

 foot/feet

 mouse/mice

 louse/lice

 child/children

 ox/oxen

three kinds of nouns exist

common noun

count-noun

mass noun

proper nouns

Common noun

a general name for a person, place, or thing, as opposed to a specific one.

e.g. teacher, car….

Count noun

A noun that can be counted and has singular/plural forms.

For example, "apple/apples" or "car/cars."

Mass noun

A noun that cannot be counted and doesn't have plural.

It represents a collection or substance, such as "water" or "sand."

Proper noun

Name of a specific person, place, or thing.

such as "John," "Paris," or "Eiffel Tower."

If a word can take a plural

it is a noun but not all nouns inflect for number.

Morphosyntactic category of COMPARISON

• meaning

• distribution

• inflection

meaning (Morphosyntactic category of COMPARISON)

ascribe property or quality to an object

Distribution (розподіл)(Morphosyntactic category of COMPARISON)

 modify nouns

 can occur before a noun, may be preceded by determiner

Inflection(Morphosyntactic category of COMPARISON)

a morphological change to indicate comparison, number, gender, or tense.

Three forms of Adjectives

Positive : bid,tall

comparative : bigger, taller

superlative: biggest, tallest

comparison is a positive test for

Adjectives

types of verbs

• auxiliary verbs

• lexical verbs

Auxiliary Verbs

Auxiliary verbs such as has, is, can, will, etc.

Lexical Verbs

Verbs that denote acts, events, emotions or states

Verbal Morphosyntactic Categories

 TENSE  past  present(English has no future tense inflection)

 NUMBER

 PERSON

 ASPECT  Progressive {-ing}  Perfect {-ed/-en}

 VOICE  Active (I broke the vase)  Passive (the vase broke)

 (MOOD)  Indicative (You have a garden)  Subjunctive (Were you to have a garden…)

Nominative Case

Case marking the subject of a verb.

Possessive Case

Case marking possession.

 synthetic marking: the dog’s bone

 analytic marking: the bone of the dog

Prepositions

Indicates relationships, often in time or space.

Determiners

Words like the, a, any, etc.

Tense

Refers to a point in time of an event in relation to another point in time (often: moment of speaking)

Aspect

Refers to the grammatical category that expresses the way in which the action of a verb is experienced in time, such as being completed or ongoing.

• non-progressive vs. progressive

• non-perfective vs. perfective

VOICE

 Active: Without any sign of hesitation, it devoured the cat.  Passive: The cat was devoured by it.  passive voice expressed by a periphrastic construction “be + V {-ed}”

MOOD

 expresses a speaker’s view on a certain piece of information, e.g. highlighting that sth. is questionable, possible, certain, …  indicative: God saves the queen. subjunctive: God save_ the queen.

COMPARISON

 absolute –comparative –superlative marked on adjectives + adverbs  adjectives {-er} {more} {-est} {most}  Adverbs {more} {most}

Conjunctions

a word that connects words, phrases, or clauses within a sentence.

I wanted to go for a walk, but it started raining.

Forms of conjunction:

1. coordinators

2. adverbs

3. prepositional phrases

Formulaic Expressions(minor word classes)

Expressions such as hello, thanks, etc.

Interjections(minor word classes)

Words expressing emotion.

shit, og , fuck

existential there(minor word classes)

(there is/are); There is a parking space there.

dummy it(minor word classes)

What time is it? It’s snowing

Adverbs

Words like slowly, very, quite, etc.