Core Linguistics

Syntax and Phrases

Syntax

The study of how words (and morphemes) are combined to form phrases, clauses and sentences  

Predicate

The part of a sentence or clause that tells us something about the subject  

Predicate Example

Transposition

can you move the group of words around as a unit? Transposition refers to the ability to rearrange groups of words in a sentence while maintaining grammaticality.

Substitution

Substitution involves replacing a word or phrase in a sentence with another that fulfills the same grammatical function, often to avoid repetition.

Questions

e.g. That is my brother

• Who’s that? My brother

Head of a phrase

most important word that determines the type and meaning of the entire phrase  

Complements

Essential elements required to complete the meaning of the phrase

Adjuncts

Modifiers that provide extra, optional information

Adjectival modifiers

Modify nouns by describing or specifying qualities like size, colour, or quantity  

Adverbial modifiers

Modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs, providing information about time, manner, place, or degree 

Prepositional Modifiers

Often function as adjective or adverb phrases, providing additional information about the head noun or verb  

Noun Phrases

• Head is a noun

• Can be just a single noun

• Head noun modified by different types of words/phrases

• Pre-modified by adjectives and determiners

• Post modified by prepositional phrases, particles and relative clauses

Verb Phrases

• The head is a verb

• Can be a single verb

• Can be modified by NPs, APs and AdvPs

• Pre and post modification with AdvPs

• Contain all other verbla elements

Adjectival Phrases

• Adjective is the head

• Can consist of a single adjective

• Can be modified by adverbs or other adjectives

• They describe or modify nouns

• Can appear before or after the noun they modify

Intransitive Phrases

Takes 1 argument (subject)

Transitive

Takes 2 arguments (subject + direct object)

Ditransitive

Takes 3 arguments (subject + direct object + indirect object)

Negation

The grammatical process used to make a sentence negative, usually indicating the absence of an action or state

Aux negation

‘not’ directly follows the Aux verb 

Modal negation

‘not’ follows the modal verb 

Do-support negation

when there is no primary Aux verb. English uses ‘do’ as a helper verb for negation 

Contractions

Informal language, contractions like don’t, won’t, can’t are used for negation  

Negation with Infinitives

Negation can apply to non-finite verb forms as well, like ‘not to go’ or ‘not wanting to leave’

Aspect

Refers to how events unfold over time

Voice

Refers to the relationship between the action of a verb and its subject and object, specifically indicating whether the subject performs the action or is acted upon

Phrase trees

MLU

Mean Length of Utterance

Mean Length of Utterance

A linguistic measure used to assess the complexity of a child’s speech

Calculating MLU

Total no of Morphemes  

Total number of utterances