English Syntax Vocabulary Flashcards

Vocabulary flashcards defining key syntactic terminology, word classes, sentence elements, and structural rules from the English Syntax lecture.

Major Classes

Open word classes in English (nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs) that are receptive to new members and tend to have referential meaning.

Minor Classes

Closed word classes (pronouns, numerals, determiners, prepositions, conjunctions) that have few members, are unreceptive to new members, and tend not to have referential meaning.

Positional Classes

The four structural position classes identified by Stageberg & Oaks (2000): nominals, verbals, adjectivals, and adverbials.

N-bar (N')

An intermediate syntactic category positioned between the phrasal (NP) level and the lexical (N) level.

Attributive Adjective

An adjective that comes before a noun to pre-modify it within a noun phrase.

Predicative Adjective

An adjective that comes after a copula or linking verb to function as a subject complement (e.g., 'asleep', 'quiet').

Nominal

Any word or word group, regardless of its form class, that occupies the syntactic position of a subject, object, or complement.

Verbal

Any word or word group that occupies a verb position in a sentence, with the main verb in the kingpin position.

Adjectival

Any word or word group that occupies the noun-modifier position or functions as a subject or object complement.

Adverbial

Single words or word groups that perform adverb functions and occupy adverb positions in a sentence.

Intensive Verb

A copular or linking verb (such as 'remained', 'proved', 'became', or 'stayed') that requires a subject complement.

Monotransitive Verb

A transitive verb that requires a single direct object noun phrase as its sister constituent.

Ditransitive Verb

A transitive verb that takes two object constituents, such as an indirect object and a direct object, or a direct object and a prepositional object.

Complex Transitive Verb

A transitive verb that takes two elements: a direct object and an object complement (or an obligatory adverbial adjunct).

Intransitive Verb

A verb that does not require any object or complement constituent after it.

Subject Complement

A nominal or adjectival constituent following an intensive verb that describes or completes the meaning of the subject.

Object Complement

A constituent following a direct object that describes or completes the meaning of that direct object (e.g., 'competent' in 'considered him competent').

Retained Object

An object that remains in object position in a passive clause construction (e.g., 'the thinnest' in 'We were given the thinnest').

Compound Noun

A nominal structure formed by the combination of a pre-modifying (modifier) noun and a head noun (e.g., 'sports center').

Quantifying Adjectives

Adjectival expressions that express indefinite quantity.

Numerals

Expressions of quantity or sequence in English, divided into cardinal (e.g., one, two) and ordinal (e.g., first, second) categories.

Complementizer

A subordinator word (such as 'that') used to introduce a subordinate complement clause.

Covert Subject

An unexpressed or implicit subject within a non-finite clause (e.g., in 'what time to be in school').

Mutually Exclusive Determiners

The syntactic property in English where articles, demonstratives, and possessives cannot co-occur; only one can occupy the determiner position in a noun phrase.

Pre-determiner

A modifier (such as 'all' in 'all the men') that precedes central determiners in a noun phrase.

Predicator Complement

A required syntactic complement following certain non-action verbs (e.g., 'his dad' in 'He resembles his dad').

Embedded Clause

A clause that is contained inside another syntactic constituent or sentence.

Finite Dependent Clause

A subordinate clause containing a finite verb, including nominal clauses, relative clauses, and adverbial clauses.

Non-finite Clause

A clause whose verb phrase is non-finite, such as an infinitive phrase, gerund clause, or participial clause.

Compound-Complex Sentence

A sentence containing two or more coordinated independent clauses and at least one dependent clause.