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Flashcards for Syntax Lecture Review
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Syntax
the set of rules and principles that govern how words and phrases are arranged to form well‑formed sentences.
The sailors spoled the girls with binoculars.
infinite
The ability to make endless new sentences using a limited set of words and rules.
"The cat sleeps."
"The small cat sleeps on the warm blanket."
"The small cat that the dog chased sleeps on the warm blanket near the window."
Syntactic Categories
Words classified into syntactic categories
word classes
pard of speech
e.g. nouns, verbs, etc.
Syntactic Word Classes
Classification of words based on meaning, inflection, and distribution.
Distribution of word depends on
its syntactic properties, incl. position and function within a phrase
Phrases
A group of words that functions as a single unit in the syntax of a sentence.
[The yellow cat][sits [on [a dirty mat]]].
Movement (identify phrase)
Phrases move as whole units.
Little Mary-Sue picked a cute, cuddly cat
Create new sentences using the exact same words but start with...
What Little Mary-Sue ...
Who picked ...
It was a cute, cuddly cat ..
Meaning (identify phrase)
Phrases form units of meaning.
Can you figure out the meaning of these word sequences?
Little Mary-Sue
picked a
cute, cuddly
What means together is a phrase
Substitution (identify phrase)
Phrases can be substituted with other phrases.
Davina sold candy yesterday at the corner store.
Substitute another phrase for each of the underlined phrases
Heads
Determine grammatical properties of a phrase.
are semantically central
dirty mat : head = mat → NP
distributional properties
grammatical properties
i.e. where units can appear relative to one another
The cat sleeps.
The dog sleeps.
"Cat" and "dog" are both nouns because they can go in the same spot — after "the" and before the verb.
Modifiers
Non-heads.
Adjective (modifies a noun):
The red car is fast.
→ "red" is a modifier of "car"
Adverb (modifies a verb):
She sings beautifully.
→ "beautifully" modifies "sings"
Prepositional Phrase:
The book on the table is mine.
→ "on the table" modifies "book"
Noun Phrases (NPs) + consist of ..+ constituents
words centered around a noun
DET
NOM
Constituents:
adjective phrases AP
e.g. the red bicycle
Prepositional phrases PP
e.g. the man in the moon
Determiner(Det)
ART(article:a, the)
DEM(demonstrative: this, that, these, those)
Q(quantifiers: some, any, no, each)
POSS( possessive: my, your, its)
Nominal (NOM)
N( nouns: shoes, habits)
PP + modifiers 3
Prepositions as head.
I’m going
Modifiers
noun phrases, e.g. in a room
prepositional phrases, e.g. up on the plateau
degree adverbs, e.g. just inside the door
Adjective Phrases (AdjPs)
adjectives as heads
quite old; moderately expensive
constituents of AdjPs
modifiers
adverb phrases AdvP (incl. degree adverbs, e.g. very, quite= heads of adverb phrases)
e.g. moderately expensive
prepositional phrases PP
e.g. long in the arms
Adverb Phrases (AdvP)
Modify adjective phrases
VP Heads
Lexical verbs as head.
Verb group (Vgrp)
AUX and V
Clauses
Consist of at least a NP and a VP
subject-predicate structure
Sam swims.
John is fantastic.
Finite Clauses
has a subject and a verb with tense (like past or present).
She eats pizza. → ✅ Finite (has "she" + "eats")
He was tired. → ✅ Finite (has "he" + "was")
Sentence
Consists of one or several clauses.
Sam swims
Sam swimming*
Sam, swimming to the other side of the lake, called for help