Syntax Lecture Notes

Flashcards for Syntax Lecture Review

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